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My mouth fell open, and I shot Tess a look of surprise as she nudged my leg under the table.What was he doing here?He swept his eyes around the room before finally resting on me and Tess, a menacing gleam in his eyes. He had shaved his face and gelled his hair back since I had last seen him, and he looked every part the young aspiring teacher.

“For today, we will continue to work on your senior portfolios. Tomorrow, we will jump into the new lesson plan that I have prepared,” he announced, pulling out Ms. Finch’s chair and sitting down.

“What is he doing here?” Tess turned to me, her mouth a thin line.

“You think I know?” I sighed, turning back to face her. I could tell from the smirk on Fletcher’s face that he knew he had rattled us. First, he turns out to be one of the wolves outside of my house trying toattackus and break in. Then, he shows up at the nightclub and threatens Nik and Puck in front of us. Now, he shows up at school and is pretending to be a substitute teacher. Or—was he actually a substitute teacher? There was no way this was a coincidence. What was he playing at? To what end? To keep an eye on Nik? Puck didn’t even go to this school, it couldn’t be because of him.

“This is trouble…I don’t like this one bit. Whatever it is those boys have gotten themselves into, I don’t want any part of it.” Tess bit her nail anxiously, swinging her gaze back and forth between me and Fletcher.

“Agreed. Stop looking at him,” I said as I slapped her hand away from her mouth. “Too bad Nik decided to skip school today or else he would have to handle whatever this mess is that he’s created for himself.”

“Shouldn’t we tell them?” Tess asked, pretending to work on her portfolio, but in reality, she was moving the charcoal around the paper and creating a jumble of smudges. I folded my arms across my chest and set my jaw.

“Let them deal with it. I haven’t heard from him since we went to Elixir, and I amnottexting him first.”

Tess whipped her head around in surprise. “Good for you. I love that attitude. Let him come to you.”

“Exactly,” I nodded. As Tess and I sketched in silence, I could hear Fletcher’s footsteps approaching, his fancy loafers tapping against the polished tile floor.

“Hello, ladies.” He smiled, pausing at the edge of our table. “No Nikolai today?”

I paused to glance at the empty chair across from me, then back to Fletcher, my expression neutral. “Appears not.”

Fletcher paused to scratch his stubble and leaned down, placing one hand on the table before me, the other hand on the back of my chair.

“Will you give him a message for me?” he asked, his voice uncomfortably close to my ear. I could smell the faint scent of clove cigarettes and whiskey on his breath. Was hedrunk? Who had he fooled to get a substitute position here? They were hiring just about anybody these days, it seemed.

“Why don’t you tell him yourself?” I replied. “He does go to school here…”

“Not for long,” he countered in a clipped tone. What was that supposed to mean? Tess and I exchanged a worried glance, both of us equally confused.

“Just let him know, if he doesn’t do as he’s been told, there will be collateral damage.” Fletcher leaned across me and with his other hand, he tucked a stray lock of curls behind my ear. A chill ran down my spine all the way to my toes as I scanned the classroom to see if anybody had seen. Was he talking about me? Would I be the collateral damage? I didn’t have anything to do with this, and I didn’t want to. Why was he threatening me?

“It’s their business, not ours. Leave us out of it,” Tess replied, seeing how uncomfortable I was under Fletcher’s gaze.

“On the contrary,” Fletcher replied, “youareinvolved. And tell your boyfriends that it better be done by week’s end.”

He straightened and returned to the desk, rifling through the mound of paperwork Ms. Finch had left behind. I glanced around the room, but it appeared our entire exchange had gone unnoticed by the rest of the class.

“What was that about?” Tess asked worriedly.

“I have no idea. I don’t know how we could be involved when we don’t even know what he’s talking about, for crying out loud. I guess we will have to talk to the boys after all...”

I pulled out my phone and pulled up a text message to Nik.

Need to talk, it’s important. Are you free later?

So much for standing my ground and not texting him first. Tess and I returned to pretending to work on our portfolios while I waited for my phone to chime. If I was going to get dragged into whatever business this was, I needed to learn how to use some of my magic defensively, and fast.

When a text finally sounded on my phone, I all but leaped at it, anxious to find out what Fletcher thought we were involved in.

Buttercream at 4. Bring Tess.

“He asked us to meet him after school,” I told Tess, tucking my phone back into my bag. “Do you have time before your shift?”

“Of course.” Tess nodded.

When the bell rang, Tess and I made our way to our final periods, but all I could think about was Fletcher. Was there another reason he had shown up at my house and tried to attack us? Could it be because I was a Stormshade? But I hadn’t even confirmed that with Nik yet, how would Fletcher know?