Hope’s eyes and she let them fall. Things weren’t supposed to change. Not like this. “I don’t understand,” she said, her voice muffled against Pax’s T-shirt. “Why do you have to leave?”
Paxton let them go, and Libby wiped off her face. “The Seven broke laws of nature or something like that. They’re super bad and the Realm and demon nations have aligned with them, I guess, and the shifters want out. My dad said something bad is going to happen because of the Seven. Do you know anything about them?”
Hope shook her head. “What do the shifters know about them?”
“Not as much as they want to,” Libby said.
Hope blew out air, her stomach hurting really bad. Her uncles were part of the Seven. A lot of people were, and she was the Lock and now she couldn’t tell Libby. Well, it wouldn’t be fair to tell Libby. She wouldn’t want to keep that kind of secret from her parents. “I don’t think the Seven are bad. What I know of them, anyway,” she whispered.
Libby looked up. “Can you tell me anything else about them?”
“No,” Hope said, biting her lip.
Paxton’s gaze narrowed, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he patted Libby on the shoulder. “Promise we’ll still talk every day. Do you think we can FaceTime still?”
Hope nodded, feeling lost. “Your parents will still let you be friends with us, right?”
Libby shrugged. “I don’t know what they’ll say, but the three of us are friends no matter what.” She grabbed them both for another hug. “Right?”
“Right.” Hope wiped her face off.
Paxton’s eyes swam, but he didn’t let any tears fall. He held them back, and his nose turned red. “I wish you didn’t have to go, Libs.”
Libby sniffed again. “Don’t forget the business we’re gonna start. Then we’ll all be together again. When we’re eighteen.”
“The ice cream store,” Paxton said.
“No, the movie theater,” Hope said, trying to sound happy and not like her heart was breaking.
Libby smiled. “No. The three spies, remember? We’re gonna be spies.” She wiped her nose. “Except now we might have to spy against each other.”
“No,” Pax said, putting an arm around each of them. “Never against each other. Not us.”
“Okay.” Libby hugged him again and then hugged Hope. “I have to go. I’ll call when I get to Montana.” She ran out of the room, still crying.
Hope ground a palm into her eye. “I can’t believe this.” The Seven weren’t bad, or Garrett and Logan wouldn’t be part of them. “What are we gonna do?” They had to figure out a way to get the shifter nations to change their minds. They were a part of the Realm.
Pax shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe if we kicked the Seven out, then we could all align again.”
Hope shook her head. She wanted to tell Pax everything she’d dreamed and figured out so far, but sometimes he made judgments without all the facts, like he had with Drake the Kurjan. She didn’t want Pax mad at her right now, especially since Libby had just left. “Why do grownups goof everything up all the time?”
Pax patted her shoulder with his bony hand. “Maybe the grownups are right. Your dad is really smart and he knows how to protect the nation, so we should trust him. Let’s ask him what he thinks about the Seven.”
It was a good plan.
Her dad walked into the room right then, a scowl on his face. Pax took a step back.
Hope picked up the present from Libby. “Dad? Do you think the Seven are bad?”
Her dad paused, his eyes greener than usual. “What do you know about the Seven?”
Her stomach rolled over. “We’ve been hearing rumors that the shifters are leaving because of the Seven, and that maybe they’re bad, but they might be good. What do you think?”
“I think they’re a disaster,” her dad growled. “I need to figure some things out before I make a decision.”
In other words, he knew that Uncle Logan was a member of the Seven and he wanted to get Logan out. But there was no getting out, as far as Hope knew. She kept quiet, though. Sometimes fate wanted secrets kept, and since the adults kept screwing things up, she wasn’t going to say a word. Right now, anyway.
Zane looked at Paxton. “You ready to go see your uncle?”
Pax’s eyebrows rose. “We’re still doing that today? With everything else going on?” He sounded kind of nervous.
Zane nodded. “Yeah. I could use some air and am planning to walk back