Silver was baiting her. Kate knew it.
It was almost working.
“My mother knew what she was doing. She used to say, no matter how good you are, there’s always someone better.”
“And clearly she learned that lesson the hard way.”
“I think it’s time to stop talking about my mother.”
He smiled. “Can you get close to these Merrick boys?”
“Yes.”
“Without them knowing what you are?”
“Yes.”
“And if they display the traits of a full Elemental, what will you do?”
She licked her lips. “Kill them.”
His hands went still. “Wrong answer.”
She flung herself back in her chair and rolled her eyes. “Report back to you.”
“Good girl.” He snapped the magazine into the gun and slid it across the table to her. “Now get dressed. We have work to do.”
C
HAPTER
2
T
he gun clicked empty, and Hunter swore.
A laugh in the darkness, somewhere ahead of him. “You thought I’d take a chance with it loaded?”
Then his bedroom door slammed and footsteps were pounding up the steps to the main level.
His mother was upstairs. His grandparents.
Kerosene. Match. Whoosh
.
Hunter didn’t have the power to stop a fire by himself—and he’d done a pretty good job killing any sort of friendship with the one guy he knew who
could
.
He flung the door wide and sprinted up the stairs.
And there was Casper, his German shepherd, flopped out in the front hall, snoring loudly.
Hunter couldn’t really blame him. He’d been fooled by Calla once, too.
Glass was breaking in the kitchen, then something heavy crashed to the floor. Hunter darted through the foyer as more glass broke. What were they
doing
? Flinging dishes at the floor?
Yes, that’s exactly what they were doing. Calla was sweeping her hand along the counter as she headed for the door, sending ceramic canisters and the glass cutting board onto the floor. A guy Hunter didn’t recognize shoved the baker’s rack away from the wall, sending pots crashing to the ground. The table was overturned already, and shattered glasses and plates littered the floor.
Hunter wasn’t sure what to do. The gun was still downstairs—not like it mattered. It was empty, and besides, he couldn’t exactly shoot them for breaking dishes.
At least she wasn’t starting a fire.
Calla pulled a knife from the wooden block on the counter—then flung the block at the floor. Half the steak knives skittered free and landed among the rest of the mess. She dragged the blade along the wallpaper by the door. “Need more convincing?”
God, his head hurt, and the whack to his skull downstairs was only part of it. “Get out of here, Calla.”
“Or what? You can’t do anything to me, Hunter. I’m not working alone, you know. I’m not the only one who can start fires.”
Hunter glanced at her friend by the door. Dark hair, pale skin, a little on the skinny side. Close to their age, if not a little younger. Totally not familiar, but Hunter had only been in school here for a few weeks, so that didn’t mean anything.
The guy noticed Hunter’s scrutiny and grinned, though it looked a little crazed. He flipped hair out of his eyes. “Maybe we should start a little one, let you know we’re serious.” Then he shoved the microwave off the counter. It hung from its cord for a long moment, then jerked free and crashed to the floor.
Hunter heard a muffled curse from upstairs, then the floorboards creaked.
His grandfather.
Hunter felt pretty sure an adult wouldn’t help this situation.
He so didn’t want to deal with this. He sighed and picked up the cordless phone from the holder on the wall.
“Who you calling?” said Calla. “You think the Merricks can help you?”
The Merricks were probably the last people who would offer to help him, but Calla didn’t need to know that. “No,” Hunter said. “I’m doing what you’re supposed to do when people break into your house.” When she raised her eyebrows, he added, “I’m calling nine-one-one.”
Her smile wilted around the edges. “Liar.”
He spoke into the phone. “I’d like to report a break-in at one-eleven North Shore Road—”
“Calla!” said the guy by the door.
“Hang up that phone!” she hissed.
“They’re still here,” Hunter said into the receiver. “They’re armed.”
Calla dropped the knife. “I’ll kill you, Hunter,” she seethed. “You know I can—”
“Please hurry,” said Hunter. “They’re threatening to kill me.”
A siren started wailing somewhere in the distance. The dark-haired guy grabbed Calla’s wrist and yanked. They bolted through the door.
Hunter set the phone back on the receiver. He’d never dialed at all.
That siren had been sheer luck.
What a mess.
Hunter ran his hands through his hair. The length of it still shocked him every time. He hadn’t cut it in months.
The floorboards in the hallway creaked, and Hunter swore under his breath. He had no idea how to explain this. If he said someone had broken in, his grandfather really
would
call the cops.
After he’d been arrested for his involvement in the fire in the school library last week—a fire
Calla
had started—Hunter didn’t need any more interaction with cops.
Thank god the gun was still downstairs.
His grandfather stopped short when he saw the mess. It was too dark to make out his expression—not that Hunter wanted to try. The man was tall but lean and muscled from years of farm labor, with short gray hair and a permanent look of displeasure. He hit the switch on the wall, and the light made things look a hundred times worse. His eyes narrowed at his grandson. “You’d better have a good explanation.”
Like Hunter had woken up in the middle of the night and started trashing the kitchen.
But really, this was exactly how every conversation with his grandfather went.
“I didn’t do this,” he said. His father had never had much tolerance for attitude, so Hunter was well practiced in keeping it out of his tone. It had just never been this much of a challenge with his dad.
“Who did?”
“Kids from school. A prank.” He paused. “I’ll clean it up.”
“And you’ll pay for it.”
Hunter set his jaw, but didn’t say anything.
When he and his mother had first pulled up the driveway six weeks ago, his grandfather had watched Hunter climb out of the car, then said, “We’re not going to have any of your nonsense
here
, you understand me, boy?”
Hunter had turned to his mother, looking for . . . something. Direction, maybe. A cue for how to respond.
But his mother had already been crying on his grandmother’s shoulder. If she’d heard the comment, she didn’t acknowledge it. And then she’d allowed herself to be hustled into the house, to be comforted over tea.
While Hunter had been left to unload the car under his grandfather’s glaring eyes.
He’d learned pretty quickly to make himself scarce.
Even now, he probably had about three minutes before he’d hear a lecture about his piercings, about how he needed a haircut, about how if he was his
grandfather’s
son, he’d clean up his act or he’d be sleeping on the porch.
At first, Hunter had tried being perfect. He’d done chores without being asked. Taking out the trash, mowing the lawn, doing all his own laundry. He’d fixed the two loose boards on the porch, then repaired a shutter that was hanging crooked on the front of the house—things his father would have expected him to do. No backtalk, just respect for his elders.
His mom was no help. She was so lost in her own sorrow that even
talking
to her about his grandfather seemed petty and insignificant.
So he’d tried to get along. He’d tried hard.
“It’s drugs, isn’t it?” said his grandfather.
Hunter sighed and carefully stepped around broken glass to right the baker’s rack. “No. I don’t do drugs.” He barely ate processed food, and this guy thought he’d put
drugs
in his body?
Sometimes this whole arrangement just felt like a big cosmic joke. Where was the grandfather who’d take him fishing and put an arm around his shoulders and ask if he was sweet on anyone at school? Why did he get saddled with the guy who didn’t seem to give a shit that Hunter had lost the two people he felt closest to, less than six months ago? That he was starting at a new high school in his junior year? That he’d spent his life training for something he’d never get to do, because his father’s and uncle’s deaths had left him with no path to follow?
Hunter began stacking pots on the shelves of the baker’s rack. For an instant, he envied Calla.
He wished he could throw a few things himself. But he was a Fifth—his father had drilled endless lessons of self-control into Hunter’s head. He’d been trained well, and he wouldn’t let that training fail him now. Not over this.
His grandfather was still standing there, watching him.
Hunter wanted to punch him. Instead, he gently eased the Crock-Pot back onto the lowest shelf.
“Let me know how much everything costs,” he said. “I’ll figure out a way to pay you back.” He wasn’t entirely sure how. He didn’t have a job here, and while he had some money in an envelope in his dresser, it was slowly creeping toward zero each time he had to fill his jeep with gas.
Definitely not enough to replace everything that was lying in a shattered mess on the floor.
Maybe in between trying to stop a psychotic pyromaniac, he could find a job flipping burgers at McDonald’s.
It would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad.
Sometimes he wished he could just tell his grandfather about what he was, what he could do. How his military training would put Navy SEALs to shame. How he could sense the electricity in the walls, or the humidity in the air, or the anger in his grandfather’s head.
Then again, that talk would probably lend credence to this new drug theory.
“I’m done with this attitude, boy.”
Hunter looked up. “I’m not giving you any attitude. I said I would pay for everything.”
“It’s no wonder your mother can’t get it together, with all the trouble you give her.”
Hunter stiffened, but he didn’t say anything. He had no idea why his mother couldn’t get it together. He didn’t
think
it had anything to do with him, but maybe it did. The last time he’d gone up to her bedroom, her eyes had filled with tears. She’d put a hand against his cheek and said, “I wish you’d cut your hair again, Hunter. You used to look just like your father.”
He’d pushed her hand away.
What are you so sad for?
he’d wanted to ask.
Dad was just
using
you.
His grandmother was no help, either. She didn’t rag on him like his grandfather did, but she’d watch him with pursed lips, and he could feel disapproval radiate through the room until he wanted to grab her by the shoulders and rattle her body and shout in her face.
“What?” he’d yell in this imaginary scenario. “Not
good enough
for you?”
And then he’d shake her so hard that her dentures would fall out, and she wouldn’t be able to make that expression with her mouth anymore.
Hunter almost smiled, but he only let himself enjoy it for half a second.
His grandmother didn’t even
wear
dentures.
A hand closed on Hunter’s arm, hauling him to his feet. “You think this is funny?” his grandfather demanded, his voice rising in pitch as well as volume. “Your friends destroy hundreds of dollars’ worth of our property, and you think this is
funny
?”
It took every ounce of self-control not to jerk free and drop his grandfather on his ass.
But Hunter met the man’s eyes. “Let me go.”
His grandfather’s grip tightened, his thumb pressing into the muscle behind Hunter’s elbow. It hurt, but Hunter wouldn’t let it show.
He knew some of this was his ability. His talents drew people to him—and that usually meant pulling their attention in whatever way they were wired to give it. Sometimes it was nice—like with Becca, his almost-could’ve-been girlfriend.
Sometimes it was not.
Like now.
“I should have left you in jail last Monday,” his grandfather said. “Let the justice system scare some sense into you.”
Like his grandfather had done anything more than pick him up at the police station. The cops hadn’t even pressed charges. No evidence—because he hadn’t started that fire. “Let me go.”
“You’re going to straighten up, or you’re going to be sleeping on the porch. You understand me?”
Hunter wouldn’t even consider that a punishment. He loved being outside.
Then again, it was getting into the thirties some nights, and all his camping gear was still in storage from the move.
“I understand,” he said. God, his head hurt. “Let me go.”
His grandfather let him go, adding a little shove. “Get this cleaned up before school. And I expect you back here right after, too.”
“Yes, sir,” said Hunter.
“And cut the sarcasm.”
Fuck you
.
But Hunter didn’t say it. He wouldn’t give his grandfather the satisfaction.
Instead, he held on to his temper and cleaned up the mess on the floor.
If only the mess in his life would be so easy.
C
HAPTER
3
S
chool had been closed for a week, but that didn’t mean Hunter felt any eagerness about returning. He sat in his jeep in the parking lot and watched students stream through the doors.
He didn’t want to go inside.
He shared American Lit with Calla. How was he supposed to sit there in class with her and pretend nothing was going on?
Calla had been using Ryan Stacey to start fires in an effort to bring the Guides to town. She’d been drawing pentagrams in lighter fluid inside each of the houses they burned—a mocking call to the Guides, who painted pentagrams on houses where they suspected pure Elementals lived.
Now Ryan Stacey was in jail, and Calla had renewed her threat. She and that mystery boy would start burning down houses until he brought Guides here. How the hell was he supposed to do that?
And even if he could, was that any better? Luring people into a death trap?
He pulled out his cell phone, scrolling through his contacts until he found
Bill Chandler
.
They hadn’t spoken in days, but Becca’s father answered almost immediately. No preamble, just: “Hunter?”
“Calla Dean broke into my house this morning.”
“What did she want?”
Hunter couldn’t get a read off his voice. No curiosity, no anger, no boredom or exasperation. Hunter never had any idea where he stood with Becca’s father—which was reassuring in a way because he’d never had any idea where he stood with his own, either.
“She wants me to bring the Guides here.”
A pause. “This isn’t news.”
“She said she’s going to keep burning down houses until they come.”
“If these arson attacks continue, she’ll bring the Guides here on her own, eventually. She doesn’t need you.”
That wasn’t the answer Hunter was looking for. “Do you have any idea who she could be working with?”
“No, and I don’t care.”
Hunter blinked. “You don’t . . . care?”
“No. The Guides will come and eradicate the problem. If I get involved, it puts Becca at risk.”
“Calla will kill people. She’s not making little fires. She—”
“She’s alive because you missed an opportunity, Hunter.”
Shock trapped the words right in Hunter’s throat, lodging there until he could barely breathe around it.
“I told you to make sure Gabriel Merrick didn’t cause trouble. Instead, you helped him find it.
You shouldn’t be involved
.”
Hunter gritted his teeth. Yeah, Bill had asked him to keep an eye on Gabriel Merrick, a Fire Elemental with a temper to match. But Gabriel had been using his abilities to rescue people from the mysterious fires popping up all over town.
Hunter had helped him.
But when Ryan Stacey had set the library on fire, Calla had revealed herself to be the Elemental behind the arson attacks.
She’d also taunted him, claiming to be responsible for his father’s death. Hunter had drawn his gun.
And then he’d been unable to pull the trigger.
Hunter squeezed his eyes shut. “People would have died—”
“They didn’t. You saved them. But you allowed Calla Dean to get away, and now she has leverage.” He paused, a weighted silence full of judgment. “You made your bed, kid. Now you lie in it.”
The phone clicked off.
The shock settled into something like fury—at himself. Twice before, he’d had the opportunity to fix a problem, and he’d hesitated before employing lethal force.
And then he’d stood in the library, surrounded by fire, listening as Calla recounted her crimes.
All that training, and he couldn’t pull a trigger.
Now he’d have to confront her. Here, at school, where she couldn’t cause a scene.
The school hallways were crowded: the main corridors that led past the library were blocked with yellow caution tape, forcing people to go through the basement locker areas just to cross from one side of the school to the other. Hunter was bumped at least three times while he was trying to get his books together for morning classes.
Then a hand came out of nowhere and shoved the books straight out of his arms, sending them skidding across the tiled floor. “Welcome back, jackass.”
Gabriel Merrick.
The gesture had been casual. The venom in his voice had not.
Hunter stared after him, wondering if he should retaliate—or if he should swallow his pride and take it.
Because he kind of deserved it.
“Hey,” he called.
Gabriel flipped him off and disappeared around the corner.
Hunter figured he was lucky Gabriel hadn’t set his books on fire.
In homeroom, he ignored the morning announcements and tried to think of a plan. He shared fourth period with Chris and Becca. Maybe he could start there. If they knew what Calla was up to, they’d want to help.
Or they’d tell him to screw off.
He needed a backup plan. He couldn’t stop Calla by himself.
Someone cleared her throat, and Hunter blinked, realizing that the room had gone silent. Everyone in class was staring at him, including the elderly teacher who only monitored homeroom and study hall.
He’d missed something important.
“Hunter?” Mrs. Goodchild said. “Did you hear the intercom, dear? You’re wanted in the guidance office.”
Hunter sighed and grabbed his things. This would be the third time he’d been called to the office since school started. It seemed like every week they needed a new form signed by his mother. Maybe they needed another backup-backup emergency form filled out in triplicate. The headache from this morning was back, like a ball-peen hammer at the back of his eyeballs.
The main office was crowded: kids clamoring for late slips, a guy on crutches with medical forms in one hand, two men in suits who looked like salesmen but were probably college recruiters, and the hottest girl Hunter had ever seen.
For half a second, he could barely think to put one foot in front of the other.
She was standing by the main secretary’s desk, a messenger bag slung over one shoulder. Her hair was thick and blond and chin length, and a few strands fell across her face, framing green eyes. Striking eyes, full of intelligence instead of boredom. Her lips were pink and full and almost pouting. Her clothes were fitted and current and expensive-looking: a short brown leather jacket that flared from her waist, jeans that clung to the slight curve of her hips, and knee-high boots with just enough buckles and zippers to be intriguing.
But it wasn’t just her looks that held him spellbound. It was the energy in the air around her, as if the light and the air flared with tiny sparks.
Her eyes flicked sideways and she caught him looking.
Now his pulse tripped, but at least she couldn’t see that. He needed to shut this down. Girls were a complication he didn’t need right now. He shifted his bag higher on his shoulder and didn’t flinch from her look.
Her eyes narrowed and she tossed the hair off her face. Her lips parted, as if she were about to speak—but the secretary hung up the phone and held out a packet of papers to the girl. “Miss Sullivan, here’s your locker combination and some emergency forms for your parents to fill out. First period is about to start, so . . .”
She was a new student. Maybe fate was repaying him for that crap with Calla this morning. Maybe he’d been called down here to escort her around school. Maybe—
“Alice?” A voice called from the guidance counselor’s office. “When Hunter Garrity gets here, can you please send him in?”
Damn it.
He sighed and headed toward Ms. Vickers’s door.
As he moved past the new girl, he caught her scent, something sweet with a spicy kick to it, cinnamon over apples.
She was still watching him. “Like what you see?”
She said it boldly, but not cattily. Like a genuine question—without any doubt of the answer.
It embarrassed him anyway. He shouldn’t have been staring.
He opened his mouth to answer, not even knowing what to say. An apology? Something cocky, like
Yeah, I do
?
But one of the guys in the late line said, “I like what I see, baby!” And the guy next to him gave him a high five and said, “Why don’t you show us a little more—”
“Leave her alone,” Hunter snapped. He took a step toward them, and they mocked him, pretending to be afraid.
“Boys!” said the secretary.
The girl rolled her eyes, shoved the papers in her messenger bag, and turned for the door.
So that was that.
Like it mattered. He turned back for Vickers’s office. The door was half open, and he pushed it wide, wondering why on earth he’d been called down here.
And then he saw the student in the chair, the girl with a tear-streaked face who was cradling her wrist, and his heart just about stopped.
Calla Dean.
Kate stood in the empty hallway and checked her phone. Already, a message from Silver.
Honestly. She’d been here fifteen minutes.
Surveillance only. Do not engage.
As if he hadn’t told her that enough times this morning. Like she was stupid enough to engage with a bunch of rogue Elementals right here in the middle of school. The caution tape lining some of the hallways was proof enough of their propensity for destruction.
What did Silver think she was going to do? Start a fight in the cafeteria?
Her phone buzzed, the silent feature loud in the empty hallway.
Meet anyone interesting yet?
She snorted at the phone. The secretary had been interesting because she’d misspelled Kate’s name twice—and how hard was it to spell Kate Sullivan? The boys in the office had been interesting because they lived up to every promise about high school, leering at her like she was a pinup poster instead of a real live girl.
Except that boy with the piercings and the white streak in his hair.
He’d been interesting because of the way the air hung quiet around him, as if he walked in a sphere of his own control.
The phone buzzed again.
Status?
God! She was tempted to take a picture of her middle finger and send it back. Her fingers flew across the screen.
Heading to first period. Maybe you can do something more useful than texting me.
As soon as she pressed SEND, she regretted it. Silver stood between her and more missions like this. She started to type a new message that would take the sarcasm out of the first, when one of the classroom doors flew open.
A middle-aged teacher in a tweed sport coat and wire-rimmed glasses stood there. Students in his classroom, seated by twos at lab tables, peered out curiously.
The teacher didn’t look so curious. He gave her a knowing look. “Don’t you have somewhere to be, Miss?”
Kate slid the phone into her bag and flipped blond hair out of her eyes. She could charm anyone. She had a bedroom answer ready, but the way this guy was looking at her told her it wouldn’t be appreciated. She slapped a distressed look on her face and yanked at one of the sheets the secretary had given her.
“It’s my first day,” she said, making her voice plaintive. “The secretary said she’d have someone escort me to my first class, but then she got busy . . .”
The teacher nodded and snapped his fingers at a student in the front row of the classroom. “Nick. Show her where she needs to go, and come right back.”
Kate slid the map back into her bag and laced her words with sugar, touching the teacher on the arm. “Thank you so much. I’ve been so lost.”
He hmphed and stepped back into the room, ignoring her.
Wow. So much for charm.
“Hey. I’m Nick. Where do you need to go?”
She blinked up at the boy who’d appeared in the doorway—and almost dropped her bag.
Not just because he was a looker—though that was part of it. Dark hair, blue eyes, a few freckles across his cheekbones. Taller than she’d expected.
Because she’d seen his picture before. It was in a file on her phone, right now, in fact. She almost wanted to yank it out of her bag to double-check. Nick. Nick Merrick.
Kate locked down any trace of her abilities, though it was a challenge. She wanted to touch him, to see if she could sense his power right here in the hallway.
He sure didn’t look like part of a band of marauding killers.
She’d expected to hate him on sight. She knew what these full Elementals could do—those lessons had been drilled into her head since day one. Hell, she had firsthand evidence: her mother had lost her life trying to destroy one of them.
Right in front of Kate.
But this guy standing in front of her seemed so . . .
normal
that she was having a hard time dredging up a powerful emotion like hate. He had an easy, engaging smile that made her want to smile back.
But she’d seen the news footage of the recent tornado damage in town. She’d seen photos of the bridge that had been destroyed in an earthquake and the resulting flood.
She’d seen newspaper articles showing the victims of the recent arson attacks—all caused by these Elementals.
She had to stop staring at this guy. She dug through her bag for the blue sheet of paper that had her class schedule.
The teacher cleared his throat. “Is there a problem?”
Kate shook herself. She was better than this. “No. Sorry.” She found the paper and yanked it free triumphantly.
Nick pulled the classroom door shut and took a glance. “This is on the other side of the school. We have to go under the library. I’ll show you.”
She should thank him. Flirt. Try to get close.
She just couldn’t get past the fact that she’d pretty much walked in here and he’d fallen into her lap.
Kate just nodded and walked alongside him. Her nerves were screaming at her.