“Hey,” Chris said.
“S’up,” Tanner offered.
I nodded at them. My hair fell onto my forehead, and I pushed it back.
“I could cut that for you,” Tanner said. He scratched the back of his neck. “If you want.”
“Don’t let him,” Chris warned. “I let him do it to me when we were thirteen because he said he could give me lightning bolts and make me look cool for this girl with really big… eyes. Instead I looked like I had a bad case of mange and got grounded for a week. The girl moved to Canada.” He frowned. “But not because of my haircut. I don’t know why I made it sound like those two things were related.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Tanner said. “He never had a chance with that girl to begin with.”
I said, “You’re scared of me.”
They took a step back in unison.
“Why?”
“We’re not scared,” Tanner said.
“Why would we be scared of you?” Chris asked.
“People lie. Scents don’t.”
Chris said, “Look, Robbie, it’s—”
“Chris? Tanner?”
“Uh-oh,” Tanner said.
“He’s so high-strung,” Chris muttered.
Rico appeared in the doorway. He was frowning, and when he saw Chris and Tanner standing in front of me, he narrowed his eyes. “What the hell are you doing down here?” He glanced at me coolly. “Lobito. You’re looking… alive. How wonderful for you.”
Lobito. Little wolf in Spanish. Like he knew. Like someone had told him. Joe had known about my tether, and here was Rico saying things like he had a right to. I didn’t like it. Or him.
But he had already dismissed me. He was glaring at Chris and Tanner. “Lunch is ready. You know we only have an hour. Get upstairs.”
Chris said, “We were just—” as Tanner said, “We only wanted to—”
“I will shoot you both in the goddamn assholes if you don’t move,” Rico said.
They moved. Chris waved at me as Tanner nodded.
They were up the stairs a moment later, leaving Rico and me alone.
He turned to me.
It hadn’t been a mistake before, what I’d seen. There was real hatred in his eyes.
He said, “I never wanted to find you.”
He said, “I never wanted you to come back.”
He said, “I don’t know what that makes me. But I don’t know how to forgive you, and I don’t think I ever will. Magic. It was magic, but it was still you.” He looked stricken. His hands tightened into fists at his sides. “I have a gun. It’s loaded with silver bullets. And I know how to use it very well. The others think they can fix you. That they can get back all that was taken from you. Maybe they can. Or maybe they can’t. And you have to ask yourself if that’s even something you want. Because of all it would bring back. The truth of it all. Either way, the second I think something is off or that you’re going to hurt someone I care about, I will put a bullet in your head, consequences be damned.”
He spat on the floor between us.
And then he left too, slamming the door behind him.