Giselle scowled, releasing Hailey’s shirt as they approached the Trinity Center.
“Why would anybody want to kill me?”
“You’re annoying.”
Hailey waited for the rest, which didn’t come. “…and?”
“There’s a price on your head, Hailey,” she said, rolling her eyes as if Hailey should already know all of this. “A lot of non-humans hate Asher for various reasons, but mostly because they’re afraid of him. They think they can wound him through you, and they’ll risk his wrath, though I don’t know why—Asher knows immediately when someone here does something evil, and he never forgives.”
Hailey opened her mouth to ask about Asher, but Giselle cut her off.
“Oh, and humans just hate you because they’re lemmings, and they see the non-humans avoiding you like the plague, so they avoid you too. Humans are idiots—why are you glazed?”
“I jumped into an in-between.”
“That was stupid. Where do you think you’re going now?” Giselle sounded like an irked mother.
“To the bookstore,” Hailey said, for the first time realizing that Giselle was following her. “I need clothes and…” she sighed and kicked the ground. “…everything. Jaycen—the orientation leader—said she’d drive me into town later for some shopping, but…” Hailey sighed. “I have nothing here, and I want to get settled in, but I can’t even get my books, because Fin never finished my schedule.”
“I wouldn’t count on Jaycen,” Giselle said with a dark grunt. “And you don’t need your schedule,” she went on like a snob. “All ParaSci freshmen have the same classes. They’ll have your list of materials at the bookstore, dumbass.”
“Are you a ParaScience student too?”
“No.”
“Are you a freshman?”
“No.”
Conversations with Giselle just didn’t flow, so Hailey tried another topic. “Do you know if Fi—if Pádraig is human?”
Giselle scoffed. “Barely.”
“Do you know what LOED is?”
“It’s a club for those who are stuck here.”
“Where?”
“Earth!” Giselle barked, and Hailey could tell she was approaching her chat limit for the day…maybe the week.
Wait. Fin was stuck here…on Earth?She bit her lip, weighing whether she should ask Giselle about Fin again.
“Are you stuck here?” What Hailey really wanted to ask was, “What the hell are you?” but she didn’t want to be rude. Giselle shot her a dagger anyway.
“Stop asking me stupid questions.”
“Okay,” said Hailey, biting her lip, but she still had one more important one she just had to spit out. “What did you mean when you said I belong to Asher?”
Giselle stopped and grabbed Hailey’s shoulder.
“You’re joking, right? Don’t you know anything about anything?”
Haileyblinked. She liked to think she did, but Giselle made her feel terribly…naïve.
“Youarenaïve,” Giselle said, and Hailey gasped.
“Can you read my mind?”
