Some freshman carrying a huge pink Lillian Vernon shoulder bag walks by and stares. “He okay? You want me to get the nurse?”
Issie reassures the sweet freshman that all is okay and sort of steers her away while Devyn and I try to get Nick calm.
“That just doesn’t happen,” Devyn says. “There’s got to be a reason.”
“He changes when people are in danger,” I state the obvious. “Someone was in danger. That’s the reason.”
“Right, but what’s the danger?” Devyn asks.
Nick swallows hard and moves his lips. It looks hard. It looks like he’s dying of thirst, but he says, “That blond pixie. He was here. He was in the cafeteria. I know it.”
“But you didn’t see him,” Issie insists.
Nick’s hands reach up to touch mine. He looks at me, not Issie, and says, “I don’t have to see him. I just know.”
Pixie Tip
Pixies are like cats. They are not named Muffin or Mr. Cocoa Puffs, but they like to scare their prey before they kill. They think it’s fun.
We decide that we need to leave school and regroup, plan what to do next. Things aren’t right. We know that. There haven’t been any new pixies scouting out the area after a steady stream for weeks. Plus, if the blond pixie was in the cafeteria, that’s upped the stakes a bit.
I stare at the inside of my locker for a second and announce, “Patrolling isn’t good enough anymore. We’ve got to figure out what’s going on with the Valkyrie thing, and maybe hunt down the pixie king before he hunts us down.”
“None of it makes sense.” Devyn pulls out his coat from his locker.
“Hey. Where you guys going?” Cassidy asks. She appears out of thin air, I swear. Cassidy half smiles and then she eyes me. Her pupils get a little bigger. Her skirt hem touches my jeans because she’s so close. “Zara? Are you okay?”
I nod vigorously, the way I always do when I lie. “Yeah. Why?”
My fingers yank up the zipper of my coat. I realize they are shaking. The bell rings, but still Cassidy stands there. “Because it almost looks like you’re turning blue.”
“What?” My question echoes in the hall. Nick, Is, and Dev all stare at me. Their faces are paler than normal. Nick’s mouth is a hard, straight line. He yanks me away from Cassidy and starts pulling me down the hall in a hardcore power walk.
“What? What?” I keep saying it, but nobody’s answering.
Devyn goes, “Yeah, Nick’s taking her to the nurse. No fears, Cassidy. No fears. Yep. Call you later.”
Nick’s hauling me down the hall and I say, “Hold on. What’s going on?”
He chews on his lip. Then he reaches out and pulls up my coat sleeve and my shirt sleeve underneath it, exposing my naked arm.
“Don’t let her faint!” Issie yells.
“I’m not going to faint.” My voice is flat as I stare at my skin. It’s like all my veins are suddenly visible just beneath the surface layer of skin. And all those veins carry a blood that’s light, light blue, tinting all of my skin shades of sky.
“It’s beautiful,” Issie, who has caught up to us, whispers.
“It’s weird.” I yank my shirt down. “Is it happening to my face, too?”
Nick nods. His eyes are shaded. I can’t read them.
“Oh wow, I look—I look—” I can’t get the words out. My body slumps to the ground, my back pressing against the too-hot monster radiators that line the wall beneath the windows.
“You look fine,” Issie soothes. She squats down next to me and rubs my shoulder that’s not touching the radiator. “You’re still pretty. Really.”
“Pretty isn’t what I’m worried about: I don’t look human.” I shake my head as her hand moves in tiny circles, like a mother’s hand. “I look like a pixie.”
We all stay there for a minute.
“Is it getting worse?” I ask.
Issie shakes her head, but Devyn is all about honesty over feelings and he says, “It was. The progression seems to have stopped. And it’s only your skin, not your eyes and teeth.”
“Progression?” I hide my head in my hands. Somebody gentles against me, lifts me up, but I won’t look.
“Come on,” says Nick’s gruff voice. “Let’s get to the office, get a pass, and get out of here.”
Our school secretary, Mrs. Nix, is one of my grandmother’s friends. She is roundish with thinning hair and this massive, happy smile. She is the old-fashioned kind of school secretary who bakes cookies and brings them in on a big printed plate and leaves them on the counter for kids to take. She has thick ankles and wears embossed sweatshirts with pictures of white puffy kittens. She wears sensible flats and puts rubber things over them for when she walks across the parking lot to her Chevy sedan.
She is also a shifter, specifically a bear. There is nothing bear-like about her now, though. She squeals and steps backward when she sees my face. Nick’s arm moves protectively around my shoulder and she steps forward. One step. Another. She makes it around the big counter and reaches out her hand. Her fingertips gently touch my arm.
“Oh, Zara, honey,” she whispers. “What’s happened to you?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
I sort of slump forward and Nick lets go of me so Mrs. Nix can gather me into a big hug. She smells like roses.
“You come sit down over here.” She hustles me into a plastic yellow chair. “Nick, get the cookies.”
Nick half smiles as he gets the cookie plate. He passes them around.
I chew. “It’s really good. Um, am I still blue?”
“Not quite so bad,” Mrs. Nix says. “Nick, be a love and go get my pocketbook.”
Nick goes into a back room and comes out with Mrs. Nix’s purse. The phone rings. She tells Dev to answer it and put whoever it is on hold while she paws through the contents of her big fabric bag.
“There!” She snatches out a compact. “Foundation. Issie, help me put this on her face.”
“It’s too dark,” Nick says.
“Well, it’ll have to do until you get to a pharmacy, won’t it? Unless you have some makeup hiding in that leather jacket of yours, Mr. Colt,” she says.
“Whoa. Snappy,” Dev whispers.