“Now,” I reiterated to Trey. “You have to get in touch with them now. Don’t go to class.” It was probably the first and only time I’d say those words.

“I swear,” said Trey. “I’ll call them now.”

The bell rang, ending our meeting. Although, if we’d had the chance to save Sonya at that moment, I knew each of my friends would have walked off campus then and there. We let Trey go, and he headed back toward his dorm, not toward our classes. Angeline—newly free from suspension—departed with Jill while Eddie and I walked to history.

“That was a mistake,” he said, face grim as he stared at where Trey had gone. “For all we know, he’s going to disappear, and we’ll have lost any chance we had at getting Sonya back.”

“I don’t think he will,” I said. “I know Trey. He’s a good person, and I could tell that even if he thinks Strigoi need to be exterminated, he’s not 100 percent sure of Sonya. He’ll do what he can. I think he’s feeling torn right now, caught between what they’ve told him his whole life and what he’s starting to see with his own eyes.”

Sound like anyone else you know? an inner voice asked.

I’d sort of hoped that Trey would give me an answer right away—say, by chemistry. But he wasn’t there either or anywhere else at school the day. I supposed these things took time, and my patience and faith were rewarded at the end of the day with a text from him: Still checking. Some are willing to talk. Others need convincing.

Eddie didn’t take Trey’s message as concrete proof when I showed it to him, but I didn’t think Trey would’ve said anything if he’d skipped town. Eddie wanted to get together with Dimitri and discuss strategy on this new development. So, we decided to take a group trip downtown. I sent the summons to our family to meet outside the East dorm in a half hour. Jill was the first one to arrive, and she came to a halt when she saw me.

“Wow, Sydney… your hair.”

I glanced up from where I’d been answering a text from Brayden, telling him I couldn’t hang out this weekend. “What about it?”

“The way those layers are styled. They perfectly complement your face.”

She was looking at me in that weird way again. “Well, yeah,” I said, hoping to change the subject. “It’s a, um, good haircut. Sorry we had to get rid of Micah earlier.”

It took her a few seconds, but my distraction snapped her out of the hair-induced trance. “Oh, no. It’s okay. I mean, things are getting weirder between us anyway.”

“Oh?” Micah had seemed as chipper as ever, the last time I saw him. “You guys are still having problems?”

“Well… I guess I am. I really like him. I love hanging out with him and his friends. But I just keep getting reminded of how nothing can happen with us. Like, this morning. There’s a whole other world we have going that he can’t be a part of. And I can’t stand the thought of lying to him or keeping him out of my life. I might have to do it… for real. End things. I know I’ve kind of said that before, but now I mean it.”