The next days fell into a pattern that felt… almost normal. Well, as normal as normal gets around here, I guess.

  Nell would meet me at the front steps. She would walk me from class to class. She would sit by my side at lunch, talking very little, her eyes constantly sweeping the room.

  Ethan… hovered. Like a cloud above our heads. He never stayed long enough in one place for me to say he was following me. He always had somewhere else to be.

  But whenever the equilibrium he'd created threatened to tilt, he'd appear.

  Not in any grand way. Sometimes it was just him entering the room. Sometimes it was one word. "Move."

  And they listened.

  A week rolled by, and fear loosened its chokehold on me. I could walk down the hallway without feeling my skin crawl. I started to trust the routine.

  That was the mistake.

  It happened exactly twelve days after the courtyard incident, during history class.

  The room was too warm. The heater hummed. The teacher droned on about early Cold Creek. "…logging camp… Greystone… Blackwell…"

  A slow ache had been building low in my abdomen. It sharpened until black spots nudged at the edges of my vision. I cursed inwardly. With everything happening since we moved to Cold Creek, I'd forgotten to keep track of certain things. Thankfully, I never went anywhere unprepared. I knew I still had enough time, but I wouldn't leave something like this to chance.

  I raised my hand. "I need the bathroom," I said.

  Every head turned. Again.

  All I could do was stare at the floor, embarrassed yet quietly grateful this hadn't happened during math class.

  "Go," the teacher said.

  I walked out, and Nell wasn't there. She was in her own class, but the hallway seemed empty without her. Empty and quiet.

  I passed the stairwell and turned the corner.

  Then I saw her.

  The redhead from the first day, leaning against the trophy case. Arms folded. Eyes fixed on me the second I appeared.

  I kept walking.

  Halfway down, the blonde from the cafeteria stepped out of an empty classroom, closing the door soundlessly. She held a textbook she wasn't really reading. The moment I passed her, I heard her fall into step a few paces behind me.

  Near the bathroom, a brunette I also recognized from the cafeteria leaned by the noticeboard, pretending to read flyers.

  This was not coincidence. If I turned back, I would walk straight into the blonde and the redhead.

  So I kept going.

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  The brunette smiled as I approached. "Hey. You okay? You look a bit pale."

  "I'm fine. Just need the bathroom."

  "Yeah, of course." She pushed the door open. "After you."

  Every instinct screamed no, Kelsey, run away.

  But there was nowhere to run. And for the first time in days, neither Nell nor Ethan were in sight. So, with my stomach in my throat, I walked in anyway.

  Cold fluorescent lights illuminated a small room with four stalls on the left, two sinks on the right. One soap dispenser stood tragically empty.

  The brunette waited by the door, letting the blonde in, followed by the redhead, before she went in last, letting the door click shut behind her. She remained there, blocking the exit.

  "I need to use the bathroom," I said quietly.

  The brunette's smile widened. "Sure. Lara, Irene, and I just wanted to talk first."

  "I'm not interested. Move." I tried to mimic Ethan and Nell, but it came out weak.

  The blonde laughed softly. "Oh, look at her. Isn't she adorable?" Her smile went crooked. "As much as strychnine-laced steak can be adorable, anyway."

  I struggled not to flinch at the weird and disgusting insult.

  The brunette pushed off the door, stopping just out of reach. "Relax. We just want to talk."

  "About what?"

  "About what happened in the courtyard the other day. When you made him state claim." The blonde spat the word like acid. It was the same one Nell had used before.

  I paused, genuinely dumbfounded. Claim? Claim what? Me? Space around me? Who even talked like that?

  "I made who do what?" I asked, aware she was probably talking about Ethan. He obviously did something that day simply by standing there and walking up to me. I saw it in the way others reacted to him, how he owned the space around him. How, after the courtyard incident, this space now included me. Apparently, this also came with a cost.

  "Don't play naive, you know what we're talking about!" the brunette suddenly hissed. "You walk in here, stomping around like a blind elephant in a glass shop, not caring who you hurt in the process!"

  Before my brain could catch up to all the nonsense, the redhead cut in. "For the time being, you're walking under his protection," she said. "But it won't last forever. Especially once he realizes what you're doing to him. To all of them."

  I snapped, having had enough. "I'm not doing anything to anyone! So take your insecurities and your bullshit and go bother someone else!"

  The blonde suddenly stepped into my personal space, her face inches from mine. The redhead and brunette angled toward me, like the blonde was pulling them by invisible strings. Her pupils were so dilated they almost swallowed her irises, turning icy blue into black, rimmed with cerulean.

  "Ethan is mine. Everyone knows it." Her voice cracked, dropping low. "He's been mine since fourth grade. Our families agreed. That position is mine!" Her nostrils flared. "I'm not letting a freak like you screw that up!"

  I scoffed. "Your families? What is this, the eighteenth century?"

  She lunged. The brunette pulled her back. "Lara. Lara. Calm down. You're going to make it worse."

  Something thrummed, low, deep, resonant. Not a normal sound. It reached deep inside me and coiled around my spine. Every hair on my body stood up. The brunette's hand squeezed around Lara's shoulder. Her impossibly large pupils flashed in the fluorescent light.

  I took a step back. The thrum stopped. Lara blinked, straightened. "You're right, Tess. She's not worth it."

  The anger in me was gone, giving way to apprehension. "Look. I've said it before, I have no idea what you're talking about." I raised my palms. "I'm just trying to get through each day. I'm not bothering anyone."

  The redhead, Irene, cracked a laugh. Too high. Too long.

  "Not bothering? You hear that, girls?" She turned her gaze on me, piercing, hungry. "You say you're not bothering, but that's all you do. Like a persistent knocking on the skull." She tapped her head. "All. Day. Long."

  "How? I'm not doing anything."

  "You exist!" the brunette hissed, throwing her arms up. "It's bad enough for us to have to put up with you. But at least our heads stay clear. But the boys… you're screwing with their heads, you damn bloodkin!"

  My mouth fell open. I had no idea what to say.

  The blonde, Lara, leaned forward again. "And you've messed up Ethan so badly you made him state claim. That is unacceptable." Her eyes narrowed into slits. "So here's how it's going to be. You're not going to encourage him any further. You're going to keep your mouth shut and your eyes down."

  The muscle in my jaw twitched. "And if I don't?"

  Lara's voice dropped low, lower than any human had a right to speak. "You won't like the answer."

  She leaned back, then looked at the brunette and stuck out her chin. "Tess."

  Tess nodded, then opened the door. "You can use the stall now."

  Lara walked out first, head held high.

  Irene lingered a moment longer, eyes soft now, almost pitying. "Last chance, doe," she whispered, shoulders rolling in a move too smooth. "Take it."

  Then she was gone.

  Silence fell over the tiles.

  I realized I'd been holding my breath.

  I went into a stall and locked the door. Sat down on the lid and pressed my shaking hands to my knees. I checked myself. Everything was still fine, thank God. I let out a sigh that went beyond normal relief. I wasn't sure why I felt its importance surpassed shame, only that I knew in my gut that it did.

  The words still floated in my head.

  Last chance. Freak. Claim. Bloodkin.

  I didn't understand half the things they said.

  I hadn't even touched Ethan. I had barely spoken to him. And yet whatever he'd done for me that day had pulled me into a game of poker with rules I didn't know, and losing was paid in blood.