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And I almost didn’t want to. I didn’t want to know where I was or face a room full of silent, potentially hostile, people.

Coop altered his grip on my arm until it was nothing more than a supportive one.

I removed the shades and looked around the room? “A cafeteria?” I’d never mumbled out of one side of my mouth before, but I did then.

“Sure.” Coop nodded. “Can’t expect one breakfast sandwich to be enough sustenance for a day.”

As I looked at the people looking at me, grumbles of discontent began to fill the room.

A guy at the back stood and swaggered forward, heading toward Coop. Coop shifted his stance, angling me away from the guy. His eyebrows drew down as he walked nearer, and he paraded like he knew he was about to solve a problem… or create one.

“Adrian.” Coop sounded civil as he greeted the man, but I didn’t miss the movement of his right hand as he rested it on his taser. “You enjoying your meal?”

I glanced back at the guy again. He looked pretty aggressive. But was he really so aggressive that Coop was wary of him? He was out here in a public area, after all.

“Agent Cooper.” Adrian spat Coop’s name. “Unusual to see you joining us. Slumming it today?”

Coop shrugged, everything about the movement fluid, loose, and casual, but his jaw remained tight.

Adrian switched his attention to me, snapping his head so fast in my direction that I stepped back. Who was this guy? His eyes flickered red briefly.

Damn.Whatwas he?

“You.” He spoke directly to me. He jabbed his finger in my direction, and Coop swung his arm across me, pushing me back a step, but he didn’t say anything.

Adrian sneered. “You’re the one everyone is whispering about? The one everyone thinks isspecial?”

I almost rolled my eyes in reply. This guy was sneering at me like a high schooler, and I was standing in a cafeteria. It was a trip back in time. I crossed my arms and donned a disinterested expression.

Adrian sauntered around me, taking a wide circle until he got close enough to flip my hair away from my neck.

“You think you got everyone fooled, don’t you? But rainbow mages don’t exist. You know that.Weall know that.” He gestured around the room as though he owned the place. But he wasn’t the oldest guy in here. He was younger than me, probably, but he seemed to have elected himself as some kind of leader or spokesperson on behalf of every person in here.

I tried not to look at any of them too closely. I didn’t want to know if they all felt the same way as Adrian about me, even though I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to have done.

“I don’t know why you’re here, lady, or why the hell we all have to eat in the dark now.”

I shrugged. “Guess I’m more important than you, huh?” Maybe I was.

Coop’s eyes widened a tick. Then he caught my elbow and steered me away from Adrian, even as Adrian continued to grumble.

A familiar figure stood up and waved me over to her table.Lexi.The only friendly face in here, it seemed. Before I could slide into the seat next to her, she cleared her throat.

“Everyone,” she announced, her tone like that of a stern teacher who wouldn’t take any whispering or distractedness from her class.

As one, all of the people turned their attention from Adrian and focused on Lexi. I glanced between the two people who both seemed to want to address everyone else. Lexi still seemed to almost glow, and Adrian seemed dark, like he seethed anger.

“Everyone,” Lexi repeated as she rested her hand on my shoulder. “This is Meira. What she’s feeling right now is confusion—not dishonesty. She genuinely doesn’t know why she’s here, and she doesn’t understand what she is.”

Several of the people nearby nodded, and the grumbles gradually returned to chatter as they returned their attention to each other and to their food.

Lexi was right. I was confused, and her speech hadn’t helped me in understanding. But I sat down anyway—glad for her intervention, even though I wasn’t sure I was safe in the battleground cafeteria.

I glanced around for Coop and found him standing at ease against the wall behind me. At least he had a taser.

seventeen

Ipicked at some of the food Lexi brought to me and moved most of it from one side of the tray to the other. The quality wasn’t bad—certainly better than whatever had been brought to my room the first day, but nowhere near the quality of the foil-wrapped sandwich Coop had presented me with this morning.