“Why, are you hiding something?” I teased and he flinched. I knew he was hiding something—the tall man crawling out of the grave was a pretty good indication that Damien had skeletons in his closet, no pun intended.

“Aren’t we all hiding something?” he teased back. “I mean, can we ever really know another person?”

“Oh, don’t be cute.” I sighed.

“It’s an honest question,” he said. “How are things going with Emily?”

“Fine.” I sniffed, taking a sip of my coffee, which was now completely cold.

“Have you told her yet?”

“That’s none of your business,” I said, even though Damien had been the only person I had talked to lately about my desire to tell Emily. But we’d mostly talked about it over text—any time I tried to talk about it out loud, the mere thought of telling her about my dreamdiving gave me a stomachache.

“So that’s a no then,” he said smugly. “Kinda proves my point.”

“I don’t know why I even told you about her in the first place.”

“Because I’m the only Atypical you spend time with that you’re not related to?” He grinned at me, a mockery of a true smile.

“God, yeah, that’s true.” I groaned. “But you said you know others. When are you going to introduce me?”

“I’m not exactly on speaking terms with them at the moment,” he said darkly.

“Oh really?” I said, grabbing onto this clue. “Does that have something to do with the things you may or may not be trying to hide? Or your ex something?”

“I said leave it alone, all right?” he snapped, the comfortable teasing camaraderie gone in an instant. “What about this person who’s gonna help me? They must know other Atypicals.”

“Yeah, but there’s a whole confidentiality thing.” I shrugged.

“Wait, why are we meeting here?” Damien turned to me, his entire body language changing as he questioned me urgently. “Why this park? Who is this person?”

“She works just over there,” I said, waving my hand toward Dr. Bright’s building. “She used to work for the AM and I think she already knows the AM is not on the up-and-up and just needs some more concrete proof. You’re the proof to really do something about it. So please stay, I hate to disappoint.”

“Oh, I’m most definitely going to disappoint.”

The way he said it, in that dry, affected way, made it sound like it could have been another self-deprecating joke, but his expression told me there was nothing funny about this. The moment Dr. Bright arrived, I understood why.

“Hey Dr. B.,” Damien said before I could even introduce them.

“Damien.” I had never heard that kind of tone from Dr. Bright before. She had stopped about ten feet away from us, her eyes wide with surprise as they darted back and forth between us.