Page 26

Sure, Belle is stronger than she looks, but I don’t get the feeling she’dactuallydrown me.

Right?

Larch jerks his chin upward. Above the bleachers there’s a viewing room I hadn’t noticed before. Silhouetted against the window is a dark, faceless figure in a hood.

Dramatic much?

“Watcher from the Monster Protection Agency. Nosy bastards. You don’t want to cross them — they have some nasty magic.”

I don’t get it, but Larch is already lumbering off to join the rest. I take one last look at the dark figure, frowning at the strange shiver of apprehension that goes through me.

Showered and dressed, I head back to the main hall of the rec center. It’s jarring to suddenly see a bunch of humans milling around, and it takes me a moment to realize they’re wearing their amulets again. The big windows face the outside, so it makes sense, but I feel naked without mine. Everyone is gathered around Plato and I hang at the back, not sure I want to hear my results.

“Are you alright?”

Lysander’s breathy voice at my elbow makes my heart somersault. I turn with a grin ready, but it fades when I see the worried twist on his brow.

“Course I am,” I assure him. “I can swim just fineandI was wearing a lifejacket. I’m hardly going to fall over because I got some chlorine up my nose. Us humans are pretty sturdy.”

His big, blue eyes search mine. “You’re sure?”

I give in to the urge to sling an arm over his shoulders, and he tenses just like before.Freeze — then melt.“Promise,” I tell him, squeezing his shoulders.

Sure enough, he fucking melts.

Right into me.

Jesus.My ears must be full of pool water, because suddenly I can’t hear a thing except his voice.

“I don’t know what Syril was thinking,” he huffs.

“The way I hear it, he was thinking it’d be a good idea to show everyone how harmless I am. If that’s true he’s definitely succeeded.”

Lysander scowls. He’s so close I can make out the wrinkle between his eyebrows. “Plato shouldn’t have put you in the same group as her. Everyone knows what riiga are like.”

“It’s done now.” I pat his shoulder, noting how he shifts almost microscopically closer.

Reluctantly, when Antoinette clears her throat, I let him go. A tiny frown tugs at his mouth, but he doesn’t say anything, and I wonder if he even notices his own reactions.

I’d be the worst kind of guy if I took advantage of it to get him to relax without him even catching on.

Antoinette rattles off everyone’s score tallies while Plato records them on the whiteboard behind her. When she gets to Belle, she frowns at the clipboard.

“One minute, thirty two seconds. Plus five minutes for time spent in the water. Final score: six minutes, thirty two seconds.” She pauses. “Disqualified for foul play.”

The riiga hiss, but several other monsters stomp their feet and hooves until they’re drowned out.

Belle shrugs. “I represented my sisters well.”

She joins them in the crowd, and they hug her and pat her head. I’m weirdly tickled by their obvious affection for their sister, even if she did knock me off the board. Hers remains the best time on the board, even with the penalties. She would’ve won if she hadn’t got back in the water.

I hear my name and I grimace.

“Ezra the human. Five minutes, eighteen seconds. Plus one minute ten for time spent in the water. Final score: Six minutes, twenty eight seconds.”

A surprising round of cheers follows her announcement. That puts me at the third highest spot, behind Belle and a slender harpy who’d managed to avoid tipping their board at all.

“You shouldn’t be penalized for the attack,” Lysander mutters.