is elves or demons I’m worried about.”
“But—” Spirit said. It was bad enough having to seriously think about there even being demons or elves (What’s next? her inner voice demanded, Vampires?), and worse to think about having to fight them. But worst of all was having to think about the details of how to do it, because if the Wild Hunt was riding out on the Winter Solstice, it would be riding in search of its Tithe, and Spirit was almost certain that none of the five of them would be it, so how? . . .
“Time’s up,” Loch said, glancing at his wristwatch. “We’d all better go pretend we don’t know each other.”
Everyone got to his or her feet. Loch slipped out first—his Shadewalking ability would provide him with at least some ability to evade curious observers—and Burke and Muirin went together. Burke hadn’t walked more than half a dozen steps before he vanished, to be replaced by a duplicate of Muirin. Anybody who saw Muirin with “herself” would just assume she was practicing her mirror illusions again.
Having come to watch Addie practice was innocent enough, so Spirit walked out with Addie. But her final question remained both unasked and unanswered.
How were they going to make sure that the Wild Hunt came after them, instead of claiming whoever had been chosen as the latest innocent victim?
TEN
In Wednesday’s Martial Arts Class, Dylan broke Kylee’s arm while the two of them were sparring.
Spirit was paired up with Nadia for the free-form sparring because, although Mr. Wallis was a maniac, he actually did his best to match them with opponents close to their own skill level for the free-form stuff. It was a ninety-minute class, and overall they covered four different elements. There was drill and free-sparring in karate, and drill and katas (in pairs) in kendo. One of the four elements was dropped each session so that they could do half an hour each on the other three. Of the four elements, the sparring was the one in which you could get into the most trouble, because there was no set pattern to follow.
Since Thanksgiving, Dylan had been quiet in the classes he and Spirit shared—that was only Math and Martial Arts—and Spirit had been just as glad, since she’d had a lot of other things on her mind, and trying to defend herself from Dylan Williams and his brutal form of teasing would have been the last straw. She doubted he’d forgotten who’d been at the table that day. She’d just hoped he’d decided to make someone else his target.
And as it turned out, he had.
Nadia gasped in surprise just as Spirit heard the choked scream from behind her. Spirit’s immediate reaction was to step out of range, fearing some trick on Nadia’s part, before turning to look over her shoulder. Kylee was down on her knees, rocking back and forth in agony, cradling her arm against her stomach and crying.
“Not such a big mouth on you now, huh?” Dylan said in a low vicious voice.
“He punched her,” Nadia whispered in disbelief. “She tapped out, and he just . . . punched her.”
“She should have expected it,” Spirit heard herself say. “You were at our table at Thanksgiving. What did she expect?”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, she felt sick. Sick at herself. Sick at what she had just said. She should have been horrified, and instead she’d been . . . cold. What is Oakhurst turning me into? she thought wildly. And how can I stop it?
Burke showed up at Kylee’s side half a step before Mr. Wallis did. From the expression on Burke’s face, Spirit knew he’d guessed the truth of what had just happened, but when—in response to Mr. Wallis’s brusque question—Dylan said it had been “an accident,” Kylee didn’t contradict him. Neither did anyone else in the class, though at least a few of them must have seen it happen besides Nadia.
Fortunately one of the students in the class was a Healing Mage. Burke helped Kylee over to the bleachers, and Claire Grissom followed them over. The moment she placed her hands on Kylee’s arm, Kylee’s pain-filled gasping eased.
“What are you all standing around gawking for?” Mr. Wallis barked. “This isn’t a rest period! Back to work—unless you’d rather be running laps for the rest of the lesson?”
Why didn’t you say anything?” Spirit asked quietly.
They were all in the Girls’ Locker Room. Most of them didn’t shower at the end of class, since