Zoë loitered on the pavement near the tennis courts, where she and Ainsel usually met after school whenever they’d made plans. She went through the memory on her point and snap camera as she waited, since she had it with her.

Some of the pictures on the old camera dated back to the year before, when Tyler had transferred in. Zoë remembered how nervous she’d been about talking to him at first. He was so handsome and so confident, and she knew that she wasn’t the kind of girl guys like him were ever attracted to. But she had Ainsel with her, and it made perfect sense that Tyler and Ainsel would be drawn together.

Zoë had actually nobly tried her hand at matchmaking a couple of times. But while Tyler was friendly to them even after everybody else pulled away, he never seemed interested in Ainsel that way. He watched her sometimes, when he didn’t think anybody else was watching, but his expression was always hard and distant. Not like when he smiled at Zoë. Then he was warm and friendly and just flirty enough that her heart thumped in her chest. It didn’t make sense at all that he’d like her more than beautiful Ainsel, but she was going to enjoy it while she could.

After she got halfway through the pictures, up to a couple of months ago, she glanced at her watch. Usually Ainsel was here by now. But she hadn’t appeared, and neither had Tyler.

Zoë wandered out to the front of the school, where most of the students who didn’t have after school activities had already cleared away. Neither of her friends were there. Then she wandered around the other side of the main building, and behind the science building. There was a little grove of oak trees back there that Ainsel liked to dance barefoot in sometimes, especially when there were fallen leaves or spring flowers.

She wasn’t there, either, though. Zoë pulled out her phone to give her a call—thank goodness Remy had found and returned her phone—when she heard a familiar voice way.

“—are you doing out here?” It was Tyler, but his voice was cold and sharp in a way Zoë had never heard before. He was somewhere in the back of the grove, only audible because the wind shifted. She couldn’t resist the temptation of creeping through the trees to overhear more.

“School’s out, man,” said a second familiar voice. It was Remy. Zoë pressed her back against a broad trunk, listening breathlessly. Did they already know each other?

“You’re supposed to be with her. You have a job to do,” said Tyler. Twigs crunched and cloth rustled.

“And I’ll do it. Eventually.”

“Do you have a death wish?” Tyler demanded. “You don’t do this, you’re going to lose what control you have left and then we’ll have to put you down like the beast you’ll be.”

“Hey!” said a third voice, an unfamiliar light tenor. “We’re going to sort this out. But you can’t expect us to jump just because you said so. We can’t force it and we need to know. We’re not murderers.”

Remy said, “Besides, we tried to force it last time and it didn’t work.” He sounded bored and irritated by the entire conversation. “I can deal with her any time, but if you want her to—”

“Hush!” said the tenor sharply. “Someone’s here.”

Zoë froze, suddenly terrified. Then she pressed some buttons on her phone. At the back edge of the grove, Tyler’s phone rang. After a couple of rings he answered, his voice echoing in both ears. “Hey, Zoë. I got busy with something, sorry.”

“Hi, Tyler,” said Zoë, as quietly as she could, covering her mouth and the phone with her other hand. His voice was so warm again. It was like he was a different person. “Are you out here behind the science building somewhere? I thought I heard you…”

“Yeah, I’m here. You want to come hang out while I get this thing done?”

“Actually, I think I’m going to head home. I’m not feeling too well.”

“Sure, take care of yourself. Hey, is Ainsel with you?”

“Nope. I was looking for her when I ended up out here.” Zoë stomped her feet hopelessly on the ground, hoping it sounded like she was just tromping up. “Oh, here you are. Well, I don’t want to interrupt, so I’ll see you later.” She stomped her feet again.

“Later,” said Tyler, and hung up. “Where were we?”

Zoë leaned against the tree, trying to calm her pounding heart. Tyler and Remy definitely knew each other. What was going on?

“She’s part of the problem,” said Remy. “The way she smells…”

“It makes things complicated,” said the tenor. His voice was too close, just on the other side of Zoë’s tree.

“Not for me,” said Tyler.

Then a brown-haired, brown-eyed boy looked around the tree, directly into Zoë’s eyes. She covered her mouth to stop a squeak from escaping.

Go, he mouthed, and made a shooing gesture. “What if she overheard?”

“It won’t matter, in the end. It might even help in the short term.” Tyler’s voice moved away.

The brown-haired boy turned away, as if he didn’t care what Zoë did. “You’re a cold one, aren’t you?”

“All for the good of our people,” said Tyler, and his voice was cold. It was, Zoë decided, a good time to leave. As quietly as she could, she made her way out of the grove and back to a world suddenly less normal.