She hesitates. Keeps stress-organizing. The screwdrivers are all perfectly lined up now.
“The fact you’re even thinking about this is a little concerning, Hazel.”
“You don’t know the other side of her.” Her voice is soft. Too soft. “She’s really hurting since—”
“Why are you talking about her like she’s a human being?” I snap.
She faces me, folding her arms tightly. “Sheisa human being!”
“She tried to kill both of us!” I cry. I pace in a circle, shaking out my hands.
Then, a critical question zips through my mind like an angry wasp: does Oaklyn know who Hazel is, and is she using Hazel to get to me?
My blood turns to ice as I imagine her becoming another hostage like Troy, locked away in some dark basement. The Madsens have already proven there’s no limit to what they’ll do—and now they have their claws in my best friend.
I fumble for my phone.
“What are you doing?” Hazel asks.
“Calling Natalie.” I tap her name and put the call on speaker.
Hazel covers her face. “Pleasedon’t give her the full details. This is mortifying.”
I nod.
“Everything okay?” Natalie answers after half a ring.
The fact that this is her greeting says a lot about the state of our lives.
“Hazel’s new girlfriend is Oaklyn Madsen,” I say, pinching the bridge of my nose to ward off the headache threatening to come on. “She’s here with me. We just realized it.”
There is a long pause. So long that I check to make sure the call didn’t disconnect.
“Do you think Oaklyn planned this?” she asks at last.
I meet Hazel’s eye—and read the flash of pain in her expression. Sympathy hits me like a punch. A minute ago, she was head-over-heels, gushing to me with that dreamy smile. If she was being used all this time…
“It’s possible. But it’s also possible that Oaklyn has no idea who she ended up on a date with.” I assumed they met via a dating app, but Hazel never actually said this. I lower the phone to address her. “Where’d you two meet?”
“In the cafe in White Rock, after you arrived to deal with the pig.”
I squint at her. “So you saw someone just hanging out near a chimera, sipping a coffee, and didn’t think she might be somehow connected to it all?”
“Well—I did, kind of.” Hazel twists her fingers together, looking everywhere but at me. “I thought she might be a witch, and I intended to ask her about it. But we’ve been…too busy to talk about that…”
I try not to picture my best friend going down on Oaklyn fucking Madsen, focusing on the more important problem. “Did you mention that you were with me and Natalie that day?”
“No,” Hazel says quickly. “I told her nothing.”
“Okay. Natalie, there’s a chance Oaklyn doesn’t know Hazel is connected to us.”
Natalie is quiet, probably unconvinced.
“You think she should cut contact?” I ask.
The gym door whips open, and Hazel and I both spin with startled gasps. I reach for the nearest object to use as a weapon and come up with a Sharpie.
But it’s just Natalie, who ends our call as she uses magic to shut the door behind her. She glances around at the mess before storming over and stopping in front of us with her arms crossed. Her expression is grim.
