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the least bit like faeries! Aren’t faeries supposed to be small? With wings?”
    I smiled. The girl had definitely been brought up closeted from the paranormal world–apart from that witch nanny. “Faustine, there are many different kinds of faeries. You’ll learn all about them in your Initiation classes. Remember one thing, though. There is no such thing as a good faery. That’s just a myth. So make sure to remember that, especially when talking to the Holt twins. They’re a lot of fun, but both are really naughty. Make sure not to put your trust in them. But they’re great when it comes to fashion and all that stuff.”
    “So, who can I trust?” she asked, staring at me earnestly.
    “You’ll learn the school’s Golden Rules soon. There are three of them. The second, and probably most important, is Trust no one .”
    “There’s a sign in my bedroom that says that.”
    “Yeah, there’s one of those signs in practically every room in the school.”
    “But I can trust you, right?”
    The honest truth would have been a no , but I couldn’t look her in the eyes and crush her naïve hope. “Faustine, I’ll have your back.” I hoped I could live up to my words.
    As we rounded the corner, I caught a whiff of a group heading in our direction. Shifters, the most unreliable of the entire paranormal population. I had no idea how they’d react to Faustine. Ordinarily, the shifter population seemed to coexist harmoniously with humans. However, they didn’t like demons, though didn’t like wasn’t strong enough to describe their abhorrence for my kind. And the feeling was mutual. I would have had a hard enough time getting past a pack of them on my own without having to babysit. It was too late to turn back. They’d have picked up our scent, and any sign of retreat would have been taken as an invitation to attack us. I wondered how many there were and if there were any Initiates in the group. That would be a disaster. At least with the Integrates, there was a decent possibility that we would stick by the rules and pass each other to the left as we met coming in opposite directions.
    My heart began to race, which was another problem. The shifters would read that as fear, and I would be toast. Instinctively, I let my wall down slightly, just enough so Jagger could find me. I felt him immediately and let him take over. My heart immediately beat in a more relaxed rhythm. I was fairly sure that would only work to a point. Once my instincts took over and I transformed, that would be it.
    I hoped Faustine was ready to transform. “Faustine, we’re going to run into a pack of shifters any minute. You need to transform. Now would be a good time.”
    Her eyes turned panicky, and I heard her heart beating furiously. “I don’t know how! Show me!”
    “There’s no time. Just stick by me. I’ll transform. Don’t panic when I do; it’ll still be me. I’m not going to be able to fight them if there are more than two, especially if you can’t transform. So, we’re going to have to make a run for it if they show any aggression. Jump on me, and I’ll run you to safety.”
    “Oh, I’m pretty fast. I can run on my–”
    “Faustine, I haven’t time to explain everything. Just do what I say. Jump on me. Understand?”
    Her mouth moved as though she wanted to debate the point, but I shot her my death glare.
    “Why can’t we just go back the other–”
    “Because they’ve caught our scent and are anticipating us. Best to try to hold our ground.”
    “So, what are they? Wolves?”
    “Probably, but I don’t know for sure. Could be anything. We won’t know until they transform.”
    I spotted them as we turned the corner. They were coming right at us. The four males and one female moved together in a line, so they took up the entire width of the corridor. I didn’t recognize any of them, even though they were in their human forms. The Initiates weren’t allowed to arrive yet, unless they were special in some way