Selene tossed her braid back behind her shoulder. “Accidents happen. Besides, that capture the flag game was intense. I saw loads of people come out of it beat up.”

“Sure. Only how many of them were injured by their own teammates?”

Selene shrugged as if this didn’t matter. Then a grin spread across her face. Even without makeup she was stunningly beautiful. “It’s not always so bad when your magic goes awry. I think we can count the Katarina snake incident as a total win.”

I couldn’t help it. I grinned, too.

“See, your day’s getting brighter already,” said Selene.

“Yep. Somebody get me some shades.” I shoved a forkful of eggs into my mouth, still nervous but trying to put a good face on it for my friend’s sake.

Selene took a dainty sip of her hot chocolate, the action so at odds with her tough-girl, tomboy appearance. She sported the combat-boot-and-army-pants ensemble today. She looked tired and her violet eyes were thoughtful. It seemed she was now falling victim to her own bad mood. I knew she hadn’t slept well, either. Some of it was no doubt my restlessness in the bed opposite hers, but I suspected most of it had to do with Rosemary. Selene used to hang with the same “in” crowd as the consul’s daughter before she launched her sirens-are-more-than-sex-objects social protest. I didn’t think they’d been close friends or anything, but friendly enough.

“You know,” whispered Selene, “you should ask Melanie about Rosemary’s ring.”

“Who?”

“Melanie Remillard. She and Rose were best friends.” Selene dropped her voice even lower. “I bet if Rose told anybody about this Keeper business, it was her.”

“Sure, okay. Do you see her anywhere?” I scanned the crowd, which was kind of pointless since I had no idea what Melanie looked like, and she was most likely an upperclassman and wouldn’t be eating in this cafeteria in the first place.

“She hasn’t been in school since it happened.”

“Oh,” I said, unsurprised. If someone killed my best friend, I’d probably go into social hibernation as well. I’d be devastated to lose Selene.

“But how did they do it?” Selene rapped her knuckles on the table. “How’d they get around The Will?”

I prodded an apple slice on my plate with the tines of my fork. “Maybe it’s not as hard as they say.”

“I dunno. I’ve tried before and never had any luck. Only, hasn’t your Mom done it?”

“All the time,” I said. This, more than any other reason, was why my mother had such a bad reputation. She made a regular—and miraculous—habit of breaking The Will.

“Any idea how she does it?” asked Selene.

I opened my mouth to respond but the cafeteria suddenly went silent. I peered around, wondering what had gotten into everybody. Didn’t take long to figure out.

Eli stood just inside the main entrance, surveying the crowd. He looked as hot as ever with his short black hair and eyes so bright a blue you could almost see the color from a distance. His dark gray T-shirt with some band logo on the front fit snug across his chest, and his frayed jeans hung low on his hips. Things would’ve been a lot less uncomfortable if I didn’t find him quite so appealing. Stupid male magnetism.

He wore his usual tough-guy expression, but I detected shock and a little fear in the rigid way he stood there. I sympathized. The students had reacted with the same judgmental silence when I made my first appearance. I was sure it didn’t help that Eli was so new to the whole concept of magickind. The faces staring back at him weren’t all that weird, not with Arkwell’s ninety percent Humanoid Resemblance Requirement for admission, but plenty were weird enough.

That remaining ten percent could be a doozy if the kids weren’t wearing their glamour charms that day: some had pointed ears or oddly colored skin, even horns and tails. Selene and the other sirens had wings. Not that I’d ever seen them. Sirens were like birds in that way; their wings were visible only when they were using them. But The Will prevented people from flying, which meant sirens rarely had a reason to unfurl them.

Still, Eli was the true weirdo here. He was one hundred percent ordinary. Talk about being a disadvantaged student.

Eli gazed at me, his eyes narrowing into something like a glare. A spark of fear went through me, and my nerve endings tingled. I wanted to look away, but couldn’t. Silly as it sounded, we were connected now. For better or for worse.

It was definitely going to be worse.

For one terrible, nauseating moment I thought he was going to come over to me right then and give me a telling-off for getting him involved in this mess, but he marched down the main aisle through the row of tables until he reached the one farthest from the cafeteria monitor’s station. Not just any table, of course, but the table. The popular kids’ table. Mr. Popularity himself, Lance Rathbone, immediately started introducing him to the other cool kids. Lance was a wizard whose father was a big-shot senator.

Eli’s easy acceptance surprised me. The amount of magic a person could wield—at least in theory—mattered a lot when it came to the social ladder around here, and Eli had none. Katarina bestowed one of her dazzling smiles on Eli and gestured for him to sit beside her. Eli’s eyes widened, and he practically fell into the chair. Apparently, I’d underestimated the importance of good looks even among magickind.

“Geez,” I said, looking back at Selene. “Is being at the top of the social food chain like a universal birthright or something?”