The freaking air I really didn’t need got stuck in my throat. I knew what she was talking about. The ghost shows Dawson used to watch with me every Saturday morning. There wasn’t an immediate response from him, and I started forward again, but then he spoke.

“Yeah, that would be kind of cool. I…I can do that.”

“Really?” Kat asked, sounding completely surprised, and shit, I was shocked.

“Yeah.”

Holy crap. I blinked and shook my head before entering the room. My gaze immediately met Kat’s, and I smiled at her, really smiled. Her lips responded in kind, and unlike this afternoon, her smile did change everything.

Kat was changing everything.

Thursday morning, I sat in my car, watching people hurry across the parking lot, toward the gray PHS building. The scent of cinnamon filled the interior, steaming out of the cup I’d picked up for Kat from the coffee and bakery shop down the road.

“You ready?” I asked.

In the passenger seat, my brother laughed drily. “Not really.”

I looked over at him. Dee had managed to get an inch of his hair cut off. It was still longer than mine. People would definitely be able to tell us apart now. “You don’t have to do this today. It can wait.”

He sat there frozen for a moment. “No.” Reaching between his knees, he picked up his backpack and then opened the door. Cold air rushed in. “It’s better than sitting at home. That’s going to drive me crazy.”

“Understandable,” I murmured, grabbing the coffee cup.

Sliding out of the car, my boots crunched on the snow-dusted gravel as I joined Dawson on the other side. His chin was down, and wavy strands of dark hair shielded the sides of his face. We didn’t speak as we walked into the school, and it wasn’t until then that anyone noticed Dawson.

It started with double takes.

People would look at me, look at Dawson, and then their heads would swing back toward us sharply, their eyes wide and full of shock.

Then the low murmur of chatter started. As I walked Dawson to the locker he’d been assigned, some just openly stared. He’d seemed oblivious to it, completely detached from everything around him.

I quickly scanned his schedule, seeing he had bio with Kat. That was good. I handed the thin slip piece of paper over to him. “You good from here?”

Dawson nodded as he closed his locker door and faced me. “I’m not going to run off.”

I arched a brow. “I hope not.”

His lips twitched into a semblance of a smile. “I’ll see you later.”

We parted ways at that point, and I swung by my locker, grabbed my books, and then made my way to trig. Kat was already in class. She glanced up with a soft smile as I placed the cup on her desk.

“Thanks.” She folded her hands around the cup as I sat down and fished the pen out of the spiral along the side of my notebook. “Where’s yours?”

“Not thirsty this morning,” I said, twirling my pen. Glancing over my shoulder, I grinned at the girl behind me. “Hi, Lesa.”

She sighed. “I need a Daemon.”

“You have a Chad,” Kat pointed out, referencing Lesa’s boyfriend.

Lesa rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t bring me lattes.”

I chuckled. “Not everyone can be as great as me.”

“Ego check,” Kat muttered. “Daemon, ego check.”

From across the aisle, Carissa, the quieter one, fiddled with her glasses, her eyes serious and somber as she peeked up at me. “I just wanted to say I’m glad Dawson’s okay and back.” Two red spots bloomed on her cheeks. “It must be a huge relief.”

I nodded. “It is.”

Carissa whirled around in her seat as I sat back, stretching out my legs. Class started, and I scribbled in the margin of my notebook throughout the lecture. When the bell rang, I stood and waited for Kat to gather up her stuff. We headed out into the hall, and in a second, I knew that half if not all of the school had seen Dawson.

People were standing completely still along the lockers, staring at me. Some appeared struck stupid. Others couldn’t keep their mouths shut. Kat stiffened beside me as she wrapped her hand around my arm.

“Did you see?”

“Two of them again…”

“So weird that he’d come back without Beth…”

“Where is Beth…?”

“Maybe he came back because of Adam…”

My jaw flexed as I cut the voices out. All of this was expected. Still annoying, but expected.

Kat took a sip of her mocha. “Uh, maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”

I placed my hand on the small of her back as I held the door open to the stairwell. “Now what makes you think that?”

“But if he didn’t come back, what was he supposed to do?” she reasoned.

There really wasn’t a response to that. We knew what Dawson would do if we left him alone.

The stairwell was cramped, and even though my next class was on the first floor, I walked Kat to hers. Once we were outside of her English class, I leaned down. Her gray eyes met mine. “It was a bad and good idea. He needs to get back into the world. There’s going to be fallout, but it’s worth it.”

She nodded, obviously relieved

Cupping her cheek, I kissed her quickly. “See you at lunch.”

The rest of the morning was pretty much of a repeat of what had happened in the hallway. No one really came up to me. The rumor that Dawson was back had started on Monday, but I guessed seeing us again was another thing. I was used to the stares, though, so whatever.

After my fourth class, I headed to my locker to dump my books. My heart rate had jumped in the middle of the class, making me think of Kat. It had to be from her, but since she was in bio with Matt teaching and Dawson sitting alongside her, it made no sense.

I closed the door and pivoted around, frowning when I saw Matthew speed walking toward me, his jaw hard and lips a tense, fierce line. I stiffened and then stepped toward him. “What’s going on?”

He looked around quickly, at the others milling around us, and then said in a low voice, “Blake is back.”

Chapter 7

The words stopped the entire damn world. I stared at Matt for a good five seconds before I could even react.

“You’re shitting me?” I demanded.

Matthew shook his head. “No. He showed up in bio class and acted like nothing had happened.”

Raw fury pounded through me. “Where is he now?”

“Upstairs. I think he followed Kat,” he said, and my stomach clenched. “I had to stop Dawson. He was putting two and two together based on how Kat was reacting in class and I couldn’t—”

Dawson appeared behind Matt, looking confused as his gaze bounced back and forth.

“Shit.” I spun around and headed for the cafeteria first. She wasn’t in there. Then I went to her locker. Nothing. I checked out the whole first floor, and then I found the nearest stairwell. The jump in my heart rate was now explained. It had been Kat, and now that bastard was most likely with her.

I think I saw Blake.

Kat had said that on Monday, and I’d chalked it up to paranoia. Shit.

I bounded up the stairs; Matthew and Dawson were behind me, but I was focused on murdering Blake with my bare hands. In this moment, nothing would give me more pleasure. We’d given that bastard a chance, and he threw it back in our faces.

Blake was a dead man.

I burst out of the stairwell and turned, spotting Kat immediately. Relief punched through me. In four steps, I was in front of her. I grasped her shoulders.

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you,” I said.

Matthew stepped to my left. “Did you see where he went? Blake?”

She swallowed. “Yeah, he…wanted to talk.”