The Burning Shadow (Origin 2)

* * *“Is it true?” Zoe demanded the moment she appeared by my locker, her tight, honey-colored curls pulled back in an impeccably neat bun I could never master.

Opening the door, I looked over at her. I had no idea what she was talking about. “Is what true?”

“What?” She stared at me. Cocking her arm back, she punched me on the arm. “Are you serious?”

“Ouch.” I rubbed at the spot. That wasn’t a light punch, but I was grateful for it, because things had been a little weird between Zoe and me this morning. Not bad or anything like that, but just like we both were walking on eggshells around each other. Not exactly a huge surprise there. I was still processing the fact that we hadn’t organically become friends or that not only was Zoe an Origin—like Luc—but that she had also known me when I’d been Nadia.

Zoe was obviously worried that I was holding things against her, but I really wasn’t. Things were weird, but she was still my friend—one of my best friends, and I wasn’t going to let how our friendship started destroy what we made of it.

Plus, almost dying made me realize how pointless grudges were while driving home the whole you-never-know-if-you’ll-have-a-tomorrow kind of thing. Unless holding a grudge involved April. With her, I was going to cuddle and feed and water that grudge.

Zoe cocked her head. “You got into it with April this morning?”

“Oh. Yeah. That.” Shaking out my arm, I pulled my English textbook out and shoved it onto the shelf.

Zoe looked like she was going to hit me again, so I leaned away. “You had all morning to mention you got into it with April. I just heard some girl I’m not even convinced goes to school here talking about it while I was in the bathroom.”

I grinned. “It wasn’t a big deal. She tried to talk to me, and I wasn’t having it.”

Zoe caught my locker door as it started to close on its own. The orange and tan bangles around her slim wrist clattered softly. “Not a big deal? I need to know exactly what you said to her that apparently caused her to throw her poster at Brandon.”

My brows shot up. “She did that?”

She nodded. “Yep.”

An evil little giggle rose in the back of my throat. I told her what I’d said to April as I grabbed my history textbook and shut the door. “I guess I got under her skin.”

“Sounds like it. God, she’s the worst.”

I nodded as we edged around a slow-moving younger student. “So, what did you do yesterday?”

“Nothing much. Just watched this really sad documentary about coma patients.”

Zoe watched the weirdest things.

“What about you?” she asked.

“Luc came over,” I said in a low voice. “Mom made him grilled cheese and tomato soup.”

“Wow.” She nudged my side. “That’s awesome.”

“Well…”

“It wasn’t?”

“At first it was. He and I sort of hung out for a while first and talked.” I could feel my stupid cheeks warming. “But things went south between them pretty fast. They argued and it got ugly. Both ended up apologizing.”

“Even Luc?” She sounded surprised.

“Yep. I guess things are okay now, but they’re never going to be fans of each other.”

“Really can’t blame them,” Zoe said. “They have a…”

“Messed-up history? Yeah.” We entered the cafeteria. It smelled like burned pizza. “But I think it’s big that they both apologized. I think they’re going to try the best they can.”

“I would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall when you yelled at both of them,” Zoe said as we went through the line. “You’re scary when you get mad.”

I laughed at that, because when I got mad, all I could do was yell. If Zoe or Luc got mad, they could burn down entire houses with a flick of their wrists. The idea of Zoe thinking I was scary was laughable.

After I loaded my plate up with what I thought might be roast beef but sort of looked like stew, Zoe grabbed a pizza, and I tried not to puke over her poor life choice.

James was already at the table, munching from a bag of chips. His size was super-intimidating to most, but he was a big cuddly teddy bear who hated confrontation … and Foretoken. Couldn’t quite blame him considering the one and only time he’d been there, he’d met the meanest Luxen ever.

Grayson.

Ugh.

The Luxen had basically told James he’d reminded him of one of the victims in the old movie Hostel, and how creepy was that?

As soon as we sat down, James demanded, “So, what is the best Taken movie? One. Two. Or three?”

I stared at him.

“There are three of them?” Zoe asked.

His mouth gaped, and a chip fell out, causing me to giggle. “How do you not know there are three of them?”