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I was on my own for study hall.
    Well, almost.
    I came to a pause in the back corner of the library and stared at the one who had intruded upon my sacred place. “Is this your table now?”
    Adrian was already settled in my corner nook. I hadn’t been here a week, but I’d grown attached to this table. It was out of view of the librarian. I could play solitaire on my phone and no one would ever know. The heater vent was directly under my chair.
    He glanced up at me from a very complicated trigonometry assignment. “Figured we could share.”
    “You’re like some weird welcoming committee, aren’t you?” I asked, sitting down opposite him. “Well, mission accomplished: I am sufficiently welcomed. Thanks for helping me freak out my aunt and uncle and for not asking me about my dead parents. I got it covered from here.”
    I kicked my legs up on the nearest shelf and rested my head against the back of my seat, closing my eyes. Adrian seemed intent on making a spectacle of the two of us, and I figured it was to keep up the appearance of his being straight. Maybe he sensed that I knew his secret. He’d keep me company if I was cool with making it look like we were interested in each other. I could deal with that.
    “Do you want me to ask?” he said unexpectedly.
    I was already half asleep, and didn’t bother to open my eyes. “About what?”
    There was a heavy silence. “About your parents.”
    I thought about it for a second—really thought about it, and had to swallow a couple times to get past the sudden, infuriating lump in my throat.
    “No,” I said finally. I risked a glance at him. “But thank you, for asking. No one’s done that, yet. They assume that I do or don’t want to talk about it, but they don’t ask.”
    He nodded at me, as if he understood. As he went back to his homework, I leaned my head back and thought about my mom.
    I missed her. It was simple, really.
    I missed her so much, and it hurt. It just didn’t stop hurting.

 
    4
    WEIRD WORLD
    The barn was massive, easily dwarfing the meager horse stalls we had back at the ranch. The little hoedown I’d been imagining was apparently a raging kegger, and the clearing around the barn was packed with trucks as far as I could see. It was ten thirty and pitch-black except for the pulsing, multicolored lights that seeped from the upper windows and through cracks in the massive barn doors. The road here was more dirt and gravel than pavement, and luxuries like streetlamps, sidewalks, and speed limits were not to be found for miles in any direction. I took a deep breath and Trish patted my shoulder.
    “You’ll be fine, Mystic. It’s just a party. It’ll be a hoot.”
    I snorted my disbelief and opened the passenger door. Stepping down, the slit in my knee-length dress rode halfway up my thigh. I covered it quickly with my cloak and muttered, “Shit.”
    This was going to be ridiculous.
    “Come on!”
    I’d gone straight home with Trish after school on the pretext that I was spending the night—which I suppose I was, but not until we’d made it through this party. I wobbled after her in the three-inch stilettos I’d splurged on after I’d gotten asked to prom the year before, as a sophomore. They were the only shoes that even remotely went with my admittedly half-assed costume. For now, they were extremely difficult to navigate across the pock-marked, improvised parking lot. When I finally caught up, Trish opened the barn doors and ushered me inside. I took one step and stopped dead.
    Holy Halloween.
    The place was packed. I recognized most of the juniors and seniors from my school, plus what must have been every other junior and senior in Warren County. There were hundreds of people. Someone had rigged up an intense lighting system that pierced the barn with shards of rainbow light. Three-quarters of the bottom floor had been turned into a haunted maze. Trish—who’d come as a Valkyrie—pulled on my arm.
    “I just saw Meghan go into