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Lee’s arms turned to stone around me. His body was like cement.

A cold smirk came over Noah’s face. It sent chills down my spine and his gaze narrowed on Cassian, with intent. “I’ve only tried fires on things.” He held his hand up, his palm stretched toward us. Toward Cassian. “I wonder if I could start a fire inside of someone⁠—”

Woosh! He was slammed back against the wall.

I advanced on him. “You won’t touch Cassian. Do you hear me?”

He was pinned against the wall, but it didn’t seem to matter to him. That cold smirk was still there, turning cruel. Turning evil. “You can’t guard him all the time. Your little boyfriend won’t be able to hold me back forever.” His eyes slid over my shoulder before a hard wall came over his face. He went blank before he disappeared again.

I glanced around for where Benji might be but didn’t see him.

“Uh…” Cassian held up a hand. “What the fuck just happened? Because the room dropped twenty degrees in two minutes.”

Lee was staring straight ahead, his jaw clenching like last night. I moved to him, touching his hand. I was sure they both heard enough to know the gist of that conversation. “I don’t know how to stop him, but I won’t let him hurt Cass. Okay?”

“What? I’m in danger?”

“No,” Lee ground out, stepping away from me. He turned around to dish up the sausage, putting them on a platter. “Let’s eat and get to school. Dealing with spirits can be done another time.”

His back was to me.

A chill entered my body. I tried to will that away, along with the dread that was now firmly rooted in my gut.

Cassian snorted. “You’re telling me. A super powerful girlfriend comes with drawbacks apparently. Like ghosts who threaten me.” He sent me a flirty wink before popping a sausage in his mouth. “Don’t worry, Cole. I’ve been reading up on supernatural things, and apparently sage and salt can do a lot of things. We should stock up after school.”

Cassian didn’t seem concerned.

Lee was furious.

And me, my head was spinning because they asked me to become their girlfriend and then Cassian called me his girlfriend.

What did this mean?

What did all of this mean?

Well, if anything, I guess I had two boyfriends.

My mom wasn’t the only overachiever in the family.

24

“Ineed to talk to you.” Sabine found me the second I stepped foot into school. This morning, Cassian drove me in and we parked in the back. The popular group wasn’t waiting like yesterday, thankfully. I informed Cass that I didn’t want to proclaim our dating status. And I had a feeling I might be busy with ghost stuff because the day before was insane with Beatrice’s drama.

He agreed, but it was only after I negotiated that if we found ourselves in a closet, just the two of us, that he could feel me up. I was more than happy to agree with that stipulation. And my ‘feeling’ proved correct because Shelton wasn’t far behind Sabine. She sped to me and he was currently racing to me, a look on his face that we had another apocalypse on our hands.

“Cole.” Shelton braked suddenly behind me, his hand pounding on his chest. I wasn’t sure why he was doing that, and I wasn’t sure he was even aware he was doing that. His mouth twisted and his eyes were panicked. “We have to talk about Beatrice.”

Sabine cried out, “Hey! No. Me first. I got here before you.”

He glared at her. “You’re part of the problem. If you hadn’t⁠—”

She cleared her throat. Loudly.

He stopped in whatever he’d been about to stay.

Cassian was getting his things from his locker, but he caught my look going between the two ghosts and pretended to be talking to me. His arm started to move in the air.

I shot him a look.