you tell anyone …” I balled my fist, resisting the urge to shake him. “If you tell any of Them, I swear—”
“I won’t!” Todd cried, and I realized then how I must have looked, teeth bared, eyes wild and crazy. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to calm down. Todd relaxed, shaking his head. “Jeez, take it easy, man. So They know who you are—it’s not the end of the world.”
I sneered and shoved him backward. “You must be very sheltered, then.”
“I was adopted,” Todd shot back, catching himself. “How easy do you think it’s been, pretending to be human when my own parents don’t know what I am? No one here gets me, no one has any idea what I can do. They keep stepping on me, and I keep pushing back.”
“So you did put a snake in Kingston’s car.” I shook my head in disgust. “I should’ve let him stick your head down a toilet this afternoon.”
Todd sniffed and straightened the front of his shirt. “Kingston’s a dick,” he said, as if that justified everything. “He thinks he owns the school and has the teachers and the principal in his pocket. He believes he’s untouchable.” He smirked, orange eyes glittering. “Sometimes I like to remind him that he’s not.”
I sighed. Well, it serves you right, Ethan. This is what happens when you get involved with Them. Even the half-fey can’t keep themselves from pranking humans every chance they get.
“The Invisible Folk are the only ones who understand me,” Todd went on, as if trying to convince me. “They know what I’m going through. They’re only too happy to help.” His smirk grew wider, more threatening. “In fact, Thistle and her friends are making that jock’s life very unpleasant right now.”
A chill slid up my back. “What did you promise them?”
He blinked. “What?”
“They never do anything for free.” I took a step forward, and he shrank back. “What did you promise them? What did they take?”
“What does it matter?” The half-breed shrugged. “The jerk had it coming. Besides, how much harm can two piskies and a boggart do?”
I closed my eyes. Oh, man, you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into. “Listen,” I said, opening my eyes, “whatever bargains you’ve made, whatever contracts you’ve agreed to, stop. You can’t trust them. They’ll use you, because it’s their nature. It’s what they do.” Todd raised a disbelieving eyebrow, and I scrubbed my scalp at his ignorance. How had he survived this long and not learned anything? “Never make a contract with Them. That’s the first and most important rule. It doesn’t ever go how you imagine, and once you’ve agreed to something, you’re stuck. You can’t ever get out of it, no matter what they ask for in return.”
Todd still looked unconvinced. “Who made you the expert on all things faery?” he challenged, and I winced as he finally said the word. “You’re human—you don’t understand what it’s like. So I made a few deals, promised a few things. What’s that to you?”
“Nothing.” I stepped back. “Just don’t drag me into whatever mess you’re creating. I want nothing to do with Them, or you, got it? I’d be happy if I never saw them again.” And without waiting for an answer, I turned, opened my car door, and slammed it shut behind me. Gunning the engine, I squealed out of the parking lot, ignoring the half-breed’s desolate figure as he grew smaller and smaller in my rearview mirror.
“How was school?” Mom asked as I banged through the screen door and tossed my backpack on the table.
“Fine,” I mumbled, making a beeline for the fridge. She stepped out of the way with a sigh, knowing it was useless to talk to me when I was starving. I found the leftover pizza from last night and shoved two slices in the microwave while chewing on a cold third. Thirty seconds later, I was about to take my plate up to my room when Mom stepped in front of me.
“I got a call from the principal’s office this afternoon.”
My shoulders sank. “Yeah?”
Mom gestured firmly to the table, and I slumped into one of the chairs, my appetite gone. She sat down across from me, her eyes hooded and troubled. “Anything you want to tell me?”
I rubbed my eyes. No use trying to hide it, she probably already knew—or at least she knew what Hill told her. “I got into a fight.”
“Oh, Ethan.” The disappointment in her voice stabbed me like tiny needles. “On your first day?”
It wasn’t my fault, I wanted to say. But I’d used that excuse so many times before, it seemed empty. Any excuse seemed empty now. I just shrugged and slouched farther in my seat, not meeting her eyes.
“Was it … was it Them?”
That shocked me. Mom almost never spoke of the fey, for probably the same reasons as me; she thought it might attract their attention. She would rather close her eyes and pretend they didn’t exist, that they weren’t still out there, watching us. It was one of the reasons I never talked openly to her about my problems. It just made her too frightened.
I hesitated, wondering if I should tell her about the half-breed and his invisible friends, lurking in the halls. But if Mom found out about them, she might pull me out of school. And as much as I hated going to class, I did not want to go through the whole “starting over” thing one more time.
“No,” I said, fiddling with the edge of my plate. “Just these two dicks that needed a lesson in manners.”
Mom gave one of her frustrated, disapproving groans. “Ethan,” she said in a sharper voice. “It’s not your place. We’ve gone over this.”
“I know.”
“If you keep this up, you’ll be kicked out again. And I don’t know where we can send you after that. I don’t know …” Mom took a shaky breath, and covered her eyes with her hand.
Now I felt like a complete ass. “I’m sorry,” I offered in a quiet voice. “I’ll … try harder.”
She nodded without looking up. “I won’t tell your father, not this time,” she murmured in a weary voice. “Don’t eat too much pizza or you’ll spoil your appetite for dinner.”
Standing, I hooked my backpack over one shoulder and took it and the plate into my room, kicking the door shut behind me.
Slumping to my desk, I ate my pizza while halfheartedly jiggling my laptop to life. The episode with Kingston, not to mention the talk with the half-breed, had made me edgy. I went to YouTube and watched videos of students practicing kali, trying to pick out the weaknesses in their attacks, poking holes in their defenses. Then, to keep myself occupied, I grabbed my rattan sticks from the wall and practiced a few patterns in the middle of my room, smacking imaginary targets with Brian Kingston’s face, being careful not to hit the walls or ceiling. I’d put a couple of holes in the drywall already, by accident of course, before Dad made the rule that all practice must be done outside or in the dojo. But I was much better now, and what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
As I was finishing a pattern, I caught a flash of movement from the corner of my eye and turned. Something black and spindly, like a giant spider with huge ears, crouched
