He yanked the headphones down when he saw me watching him, but his expression didn’t soften at all.
Zane stepped out last. Dark hair, sharp cheekbones, easy confidence. He immediately moved to help Sophie with her bags, murmuring something that made her smile. Natural leadership. The kind of kid who made everything look effortless—but who might also have an ego to match. You just never knew. The only concrete thing I knew was that he’d fought a mugger about six months ago, survived, and ended up on Forza’s radar. The mugger—according to his file—had been a demon that a Hunter had been tracking.
“Welcome to Forza West,” I said, shaking each of their hands in turn. Sophie’s grip was tentative, Trevor’s was clammyand brief, Zane’s was warm and firm. “I’m Kate Connor, the headmistress. Eric and Cutter will show you to your rooms. Orientation begins in one hour.”
The front door banged open behind me.
I spun, my hand going instinctively toward a weapon I wasn’t wearing, and saw a small blur rocketing across the pavement—my five-year-old on his bike, training wheels wobbling, pedaling furiously toward the van with the determination of a kid who’d spotted something interesting.
“Timmy, NO!” Fran appeared a second later, breathless and apologetic, Elena on her hip. “Sorry, Kate,” she said with a grimace. “He heard the van and just took off before I could stop him.”
“No worries,” I called, already moving, then scooping my son off the bike just before he crashed into Zane’s luggage. Timmy clung to my leg, indignant at having his adventure interrupted.
“I wanna see! New friends!”
“Not now, I said, but Zane had already crouched down to Timmy’s level, that easy smile on his face.
“Hey there, little man. That’s a cool bike.”
Timmy stopped squirming, distracted by this attention from a stranger. “It goes really fast.”
“I bet it does. You’re pretty speedy.” Zane glanced up at me, his crooked smile remarkably charming. “Cute kid.”
“Thanks.” I bent down, then picked up Timmy and deposited him into Fran’s waiting arms.
“Come on, buddy,” she said, her arms around my reluctant little boy.
“Bye!” he called over Fran’s shoulder. “I’m almost five!”
“Bye, kiddo.” Zane waved, still smiling.
Sophie waved too, her expression nervous as she giggled. Even Trevor gave a grudging nod.
As Fran carried my son back toward the house, I caught Zane’s eye. “He’s a cute kid,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said, feeling more than a little proud. “He really is.”
Eric herded them toward the door, and I was impressed when Zane held it open for Sophie, while Trevor slouched through, letting it fall back on Eric and Cutter.
Allie was waiting for them in the foyer in her role as their student liaison, though they’d also come to know her as one of the combat instructors. Ana and Ren were there as well, introducing themselves as they moved in a group toward the dorms.
I leaned against the doorjamb, taking some sort of weird pride in how well this was going. This was only my second group of kids—and last term had definitely gone off the rails—but I had a good feeling that we were due to settle in.
I had, however, seen too much to rely on good feelings alone. But the easy conversation between Allie and Zane gave me hope—and balanced out Trevor’s hopefully temporary—but very teenage—moodiness.
On the whole, they were being typical teens, and it felt like they were all going to fit in. That made it a good day for the school, but as I turned my attention to Marcus, I had to shift gears. Because it wouldn’t be a good day for everyone.
“Kate?” he said. “What’s wrong?”
I waited until the door closed behind the last of them, leaving us alone. Then I readied myself to rip his world apart.
“There’s no easy way to say this.” I kept my voice steady, even though my heart was breaking all over again. “Antonio is dead. We found his body in the cemetery last night.”
Marcus went completely still. “That’s not—he’s not even supposed to get here until later.”
“I know,” I said softly. “I’m so sorry.”
He swallowed hard. “How? Demon?”
