It was with Watcher Priti. She had the looks of a Bollywood star and the ferocity of a ninja—I loved Priti. I should’ve been looking forward to it.…I tried to look forward to it. “What do you have today?” I forced myself to recall Mei-Ling’s schedule. It was mostly independents—not much dirt for her, I bet.

“I’m supposed to have my independent study in Combat this morning, but…”

“But Watcher Angel is dead.” I pulled on my fleece—my teeth were chattering now. “Don’t know what to tell you.” I almost left it at that, but remembered I was supposed to be helping her. Besides, I was aching and feverish. There’d be no investigating anything without food in my belly. “Come with me to the dining hall—we’ll figure it out. I need to eat.”

I needed more than food—I needed Carden’s blood. I had to touch him. I was going to crawl out of my skin if I didn’t. But I couldn’t. So instead I’d get a shooter of refrigerated blood. Maybe sneak a second one. Anything to take the edge off.

I steeled myself, waiting with gritted teeth while Mei-Ling pulled on her uniform.

This wasn’t real. This was the bond ruling my body. He wasn’t my boyfriend. This wasn’t real attraction. It was a chemical reaction. I’d gotten hooked on a drug and was detoxing. My drug was Carden.

I almost knocked on Emma’s door as we passed it, but the silence on the other side told me to leave her alone. Maybe she was showering. Maybe she’d been up late and was sleeping in. Maybe she’d already left. I had no clue. I was psyched for her and her relationship with Yasuo, but it had also inserted the smallest, vaguest bit of distance between us.

It was just as well—Emma would see that something was wrong with me, and I didn’t have the energy to lie.

Mei-Ling and I were walking down the path toward the dining hall when I saw her. Masha. And she had two of her Guidon pals with her.

“Oh shhhh-sugar.” I didn’t even get the pleasure of a real curse—I dared not while I was outside and vampire ears could be listening.

I panted a few quick breaths. Focus. I needed focus.

“What is it?” Mei asked, her eyes uncharacteristically bright. The girl might’ve been quiet, but at least she had good instincts when it came to danger.

I didn’t have time to answer. We’d been spotted. “Acari Drew,” Masha purred. “Who’s your little friend?”

I sensed Mei standing tall next to me. Good.

“Mei-Ling Ho,” she announced in a clear voice.

Speaking openly to a Guidon. Bad.

Masha’s face lit as she glommed on to the name instantly. “Hohhh.” She walked a circle around her. “Ho, ho, ho. You having fun…ho?” Her friends snorted and snickered.

Oh crap…Here we go.

But Mei didn’t respond. It struck me that she must’ve heard that joke a million times growing up. Did she even register the taunts? Did she care? Either way, her nonresponse riled the older girls.

Masha stalked up from behind, one hand stroking the bullwhip she kept looped at her hip. She leaned close to Mei’s ear and said in a menacing whisper, “Would you like to play, little ho?”

A dump of adrenaline cleared my mind, and I reveled in it. I pushed away my hunger, but I could almost sense it in the back of my mind, like a Pandora’s box, waiting for me.

I shifted my weight, parting my legs into a more solid stance. It was a subtle move, not so much that the Guidons would notice, but just enough to brace myself. At five two, I didn’t have as much weight behind me as the other girls and I liked to take extra precautions.

I flexed my calf, feeling the leather boot pull. My stars were strapped in there. Finally, I’d found focus. Like a battle calm.

But wait. I glanced at Mei. Where was her weapon? This damned headache—I hadn’t been thinking properly. I’d been so preoccupied, I’d forgotten to ask what her weapon even was.

“She’s a ho,” one of the Guidons said with a snorty little laugh. She was rewarded by a bunch of snorty little laughs from her friends and so she added in a lower tone of voice, “Ho, ho, ho.”

What was this, sixth grade?

But then my roommate shocked me—shocked me more than I think I’ve ever been shocked.

Mei-Ling turned to me and in a cold, clinical voice asked, “Does she have a tic? She keeps repeating my name.”

I momentarily forgot my chattering teeth and felt my eyes bug out of my head instead.

The Guidon stepped forward. Her cheeks were blotchy with outrage. “What did she say?”

I’d been wondering the same thing. I opened my mouth to speak, but had no clue how to de-escalate.

But then Mei piped up again, in a tone so flat she might’ve been discussing a specimen in a lab. “There are disorders that result in repetitive speech. You kept repeating, Ho, ho, ho, ho. I was wondering if maybe you had that problem.”

I almost laughed. I was dying to let loose a hysterical half giggle. But this fire was lit and burning, and the slightest smile from me would only throw gas on it.

The Guidon stepped into Mei’s face. I tried desperately to remember her name so I could talk her down. Pamela, Paula, Patty…it was a P. “You’re my problem,” she snarled at us.

A thin switchblade appeared in P-whatever-her-name-was’s hand. As amusing as Mei was, I needed to bring this down a notch. I took a step toward Guidon P (Penny?) and put my hand on her arm. “Easy, cowgirl.”

She flinched away.

It struck me that it was overly quiet, and I glanced at the other Guidons. “Let’s all stand down, ladies.”

Masha’s expressionless face was completely unreadable. Weird. Usually she was the one front and center in the brawling, but something had her just as wary as me.

Mei said, “I can handle this, Acari Drew.”

Was she totally clueless? Or would she turn out to be the gutsiest girl on the island? Either way, she took a notch up in my opinion. Though I did get the sense that this “look out for Mei” gig was going to be a whole lot more challenging than I’d originally thought.

Masha broke her silence and took a step forward. “I think I would like to see how you handle it.”

Crap. This was going to escalate after all.

But then I noticed how Masha’s bullwhip was still holstered on her hip. Something had her feeling cautious. She usually took every chance she could to sling that strip of leather around.

I decided to take a gamble. Mei-Ling was about to get herself all kinds of messed up. I was supposed to protect her—even Alcántara had said so—and at the moment, I wanted to protect her. I didn’t have the stomach to watch these girls have at her.

“Hey, Masha,” I called. “I know you’ve got a big old girl crush on me, but there’s no need to take your fixation out on my roommate.”

It’d come out more brightly than I’d intended, my grin wilder. What was wrong with me? I had a bad habit of being reckless, sure. But had the bond added volatile to my list of flaws?

Masha’s eyes zoomed in on me like two little lasers. “You wish.”

“Here’s what I wish,” I said calmly. “I wish you’d go away.” I regretted the words immediately. They somehow invoked Trinity and how she’d conveniently gone away.

I was tired of dancing around the subject. The ghost of Trinity was out there now—I could see it in their eyes—so I faced it head-on. “You’re just pissed because you think I had something to do with Trinity. News flash, girls. I don’t give a crap about you, and I certainly wouldn’t bother to sneak around killing any of you.”

The Guidons arranged themselves before us, forming a half circle. Damn, damn, damn. My little head-on plan wasn’t working at all. Weapons were in hands, and they were all pointed at me. I guess I did succeed with one thing: I’d called their attention away from Mei-Ling.

I had one last shot. “That’s cool,” I said, keeping my poker face. “You can have at us, right here in the middle of the quad. But first you should figure out which one of you is going to explain it to Master Alcántara. He seems very interested in Mei-Ling here.”

Masha got the hint. She hooked the bullwhip back on her hip with one hand and held the other out to stop Guidon—Paige! Paige was her name—to stop Guidon Paige’s approach.

“Another time, then,” Masha said. “But be warned, Acari Drew. If the vampires are interested in Ho, then maybe you’re losing your status as their little pet. I wonder how concerned they still are about your well-being.”

They walked on. Thankfully, it was away from the dining hall, because I was still starving, dammit.

Mei was silent beside me. I guessed she’d want to talk about what’d happened.

“Are you okay?” I tried to sound sympathetic, and really, I guess I kind of was, even though she’d escalated that scene herself.

“Yeah,” she said, sounding more annoyed than scared. “Fine.”

“Didn’t that upset you? The ho, ho thing?”

She just shrugged. “Those girls are simple. Probably jealous.”

“Wow. Okay. Maybe. Wait, do you mean uncomplicated simple, or simple as in dumb?”

Her mouth flinched. A nascent smile? “Right,” she said, not really answering my question.

“Well, either way, you were pretty funny. I mean, you were trying to be funny, right?”

“I guess.”

I realized I’d seen no signs of tears since that first day. If she had a problem, would I know it? “You can totally let me know if you ever need to talk. You’re always so quiet.”

“If I’m quiet, it’s because I listen. Unlike you.”

Whoa. Get back. I actually laughed. Was that an insult or an observation? It didn’t piss me off, though. On an island of secrets, I liked her candor. “What do you mean, unlike me? I’m just trying to help. I wasn’t sure if you understood what was going on back there.”