* * *
“Our core mission here on Earth is to protect the humans,” Mrs. Taylor said as she walked past my desk and gave me a pitiful smile before tending to the thirteen-year-olds in her class. “We do that by keeping the demon population down and—”
Her desk phone rang, and she stopped talking. “Excuse me a moment.” She walked over and picked it up, holding it to her ear.
One of the young teen girls sitting in front of me spun when the teacher was occupied and stared me down. “Is it true you fought a level ten yesterday?” She eyed me like a hawk sizing up its prey. Multiple heads swiveled in my direction, and I gulped.
Nothing was scarier than a bunch of middle school girls.
“Kind of.” I mean we didn’t fight her, so much as she killed one of my friends and said some very creepy things to me.
“What did it look like?” a young boy with reddish hair asked.
“Did smoke come out of its mouth?” a girl blurted.
“Did it really kill Skye?”
Holy overwhelming questions.
I swallowed hard, unsure what to tell them, then the teacher pulled the phone from her ear: “Uh, Tatum, you’re needed at the healing center.”
The healing center? Oh man. What if someone else was hurt? Iknewthis would happen. The level ten demon probably came back and hurt Dash for his nasty comment to her.
I shoved my things into my bag and threw the strap over my shoulder. I was halfway out of my seat when Skye popped into existence before me, and I jumped.
“Don’t do that!” I hissed as everyone looked at me with frowns and furrowed brows.
Right. I was talking to myself.
“Spoiler alert: no one actually needs you in the healing center. Drea and the others staged a prison break,” Skye told me, and then poof, she was gone.
She’d only been a spirit for a day and her popping in and out of existence was already getting old. I’m sure she knew that which is why she kept doing it.
Even though Skye had said nothing was wrong, I bolted out of the classroom anyway, nearly colliding with a teacher in the hall. Muttering my apologies, I rushed past her and jogged down the stairs rather than wait for the ancient elevator to come.
Reaching out, I pushed through the back doors of the academy which let out into the courtyard to find Drea, Marlow, Dash, and Jacob bunched near the wall, waiting for me.
Drea spotted me first. “Freedom,” she shouted with her hands in the air.
I chuckled at her antics as the others joined us.
“What’s the deal?” I asked.
“We felt bad for you having to sit in a class with the younglings,” Jacob said.
“We thought we could celebrate your junior hunter advancement and ditch class,” Drea added with a grin.
I shot Drea a look. “I’m sure this isn’t something your mom would approve of.”
“Which is why we should all keep this to ourselves,” she said with a wink.
I couldn’t argue with that. I was glad to be out of that class.
“Tatum,” Marlow said, stepping forward. There was a vulnerability in her voice I wasn’t used to from her. “Drea and Dash said you can see Skye. Is it true?”
Poor Marlow. She and Skye were super close.
“Yeah, I can,” I said, offering her an encouraging smile.
