"Morning," I greeted Ember at the breakfast table the next day, after an extremely uncomfortable night's sleep in my armchair whilst she was in my bed.

God, how I wish I could sleep next to her.

Ember grunted back, going to the fridge for a carton of milk. She poured some into a glass, still ignoring me.

"How did you sleep?" I tried, chewing on a piece of Nutella on toast.

She wrinkled her nose at me, finally looking at me. "You shouldn't talk while you've got food in your mouth."

"Sorry, Mom," I teased.

"Besides." She shrugged, after taking a sip of milk. "Nutella's gross."

My mouth dropped open almost comically. "How can you even say that?"

"Like this." She leaned across the table, bringing her face closer to mine. "Nutella. Is. Gross."

"Ember Hestia Milburn, are you even human?" I shook my head incredulously.

"Just as much as you are." She rolled her eyes and moved away from me, "I don't even understand the love for Nutella. It's just chocolate with nuts in — which is something that should never be allowed to happen." She stated, very matter-of-factly, "Chocolate should be left as chocolate."

"Freaky girl," I smirked, jokingly.

"Freaky boy," she threw back at me.

"So, about last night..." I began, before letting my voice trail off.

"What part about last night?" Ember instantly turned cold. "The part where you decided to send me into the crosshairs of the hunters by making me get Chris Woodman, a hunter's son, to trust me?"

"Well, no." I rubbed the nape of my neck awkwardly. "The part before Jason interrupted us?"

"Oh, yeah..." she said as if she had forgotten all about it. "What about it?"

I sighed. "We have to talk about it."

"No. We don't, actually," Ember responded bluntly.

"Why not?" I frowned. "Of course we have to talk about it."

"Nope." She popped the 'p'. "I was just showing you how to relax and take some pressure off yourself."

I found this weird; usually, Ember was the one that wanted to talk about everything that happened between us. And now — now she was acting like she just didn't care.

Maybe she doesn't care anymore. Maybe it was just comfort kissing.

"So, we just continue as normal?" I glanced at her.

"Yep. Which includes going back to school," she said pointedly, causing me to groan. "How else am I going to get close to Chris?"

"True," I huffed.

"Although it might be a little difficult to start with after what happened at that party..." She mused, before washing her empty glass out.

"What happened?" I snapped my head up.

Finding Ember with that guy touching her up the way he was made me feel sick to my stomach. I was so glad that she'd yelled my name when she could; there was nothing on Earth that would've been able to stop me from getting to her.

She needed me, and I got there just in time.

"Well, I bumped into him before I went upstairs, and before all of... Yeah. He said two words, and then I ran off like he'd pulled a gun on me." She faltered when she saw me wince at her words. "Sorry, probably not the best simile."

"Probably not." I shook my head, finishing my toast.

"It's weird." Ember started putting her shoes on. "Because if I hadn't run off from Chris the way I had, that guy probably wouldn't have... Well, I wouldn't've been in that situation."

I felt awful; I had been the one that told Ember to stay away from Chris, and for good reason. But hearing that if she hadn't stayed away from him, that creep wouldn't have tried to take advantage of her. It was tearing me up inside.

Half an hour later, Ember had managed to convince Jason that she needed to go back to school to befriend Chris. He'd agreed; on the condition that I also had to go with her and keep an eye on her, though not too obviously.

Meaning I couldn't overly protect her.

Jason and Ryder stayed looking after Jade. Jason told Ember and me before we left that he'd found a lead and he was going to run it down. What the lead was, he didn't tell us exactly, but it was obviously something to do with Jade.

The bruising and swelling on Ember's neck were faded enough to be unnoticeable, but she wore a scarf anyway.

Ember and I sat in the truck as I struggled to get the engine to start. She was trying not to smirk as I finally got it going on the third or fourth try.

"It's an old car," I insisted, pulling onto the main road.

"No, Theo," she corrected. "It's ancient; you have to roll down the windows."

"It's a classic," I persisted. "I bet you don't even know what model this truck is."

"It's a 1988 GMC Sierra, four-wheel drive, standard cab pickup truck," she said proudly after assessing it.

Dumbstruck, I said nothing; she was right. Since when does Ember know so much about cars?

"What?" She questioned, "You think that just because I'm a girl, I don't know anything about cars?"

"No, it's not that..." I faltered, "It's just that, I—"

"Uncle Rob taught me some basics mechanic skills on Svalbard." She waved her hand and looked out the window. "I always wanted to learn mechanics, but my dad was either too uninterested or too busy to teach me. My uncle also taught me how to recognise models."

You've changed so much. I barely recognise you anymore.

"So," I cleared my throat, "What elective have you signed up for?"

Ember frowned at me. "I haven't chosen one yet. What about you?"

"Well, because we've... missed a few years of high school, we only got to pick one elective, whereas normally you can select two, or three." I explained, "So, I went for Computer Science — like I.T."

"Ugh, I always hated I.T." She shook her head.

"What are you gonna pick?" I asked again, ignoring her comment.

"What could I pick?" She answered my question with another question.

"Foreign Languages, Public Speaking," I listed them with my fingers on one hand, keeping the other hand firmly on the steering wheel, "Writing, Personal Finance...and, obviously, Computer Science."

"I'll probably go for Foreign Languages, and continue with learning French." She decided. "They'll teach Parisian French, not Quebec French, right?"

"It's Parisian, don't worry," I reassured, glancing across at her. "You nervous?"

"About going back to school?"

"About talking to Chris." I kept my eyes firmly on the road ahead, gripping the steering wheel tighter until my knuckles turned white.

"Oh yeah." She replied sarcastically enthusiastic, "I'm really looking forward to explaining why I ignored him before."

I nodded but didn't say anything. I was only trying to protect her.

We saw Chris as soon as I parked the truck in the Hellgate High parking lot.

"Go on," I told Ember, and she nodded at me, before hurrying off to Chris, unknowingly sending a pang through my heart.

I still hated this plan. Sending Ember to fraternise with the enemy didn't exactly seem like the best strategy; it felt like we were playing right into the hunters' hands, doing exactly what they wanted us to do.

Whatever they stuck in Jade must've had a purpose, other than to turn her into a psychotic killing machine.

I listened in to their conversation as I locked the truck up.

"Hey, Brit," Chris greeted her, causing irritation to prickle through me.

"Hey, Chris." She smiled back, tucking her tied-up hair behind her ears.

"So, you've been sick?" They started walking into school, and I could no longer see them.

"Something like that," Ember replied, and I could almost tell that her hand flew self-consciously to her scarf to pull it up around her neck some more.

"But, you're better now, right?" Chris asked, voice full of concern.

He cares about her.

Too bad, man; she'll rip your heart out if you tell her how much you care.

"Obviously." She laughed easily, "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't—"

"Theo!" A voice shrilled in front of me, preventing me from listening to their conversation.

I focused on who the voice had come from.

Oh, God.

"What do you want, Brooklyn?" I asked bitterly to the bubbly brunette in front of me.

"Actually, it's just Brooke now," Brooke corrected pointedly. "But, it's nice to see you too, Theo. How was... being missing?"

"Just swell, Brooke," I retorted sarcastically and began to push past her.

"Wait up, Theo!" She caught up with me, and asked (intentionally) breathlessly, "So, are you planning on joining the basketball team again?"

Brooklyn was captain of the cheerleading squad at Hellgate, and she would do anything to ensure that the Hellgate Knights, the basketball team, won. And part of that, apparently, included re-recruiting me to play again.

"I don't know, Brooklyn. I need to focus on my school work."

"It's Brooke," she corrected again, in a false cheery, sing-song voice. "And besides, joining a sports team, like the basketball team, gets you extra credit..." She shrugged, "Oh, and by the way, Theo, you're gonna need all the extra credit you can get because you've taken the Computer Science elective — which gives you really low credit."

"I was told I could only take one elective," I protested, beginning to struggle to find reasons not to join the basketball team.

"Coach is dying to get some decent players on the team," Brooklyn persisted, continuing to walk with me to Homeroom, "Maybe you could convince Jason and Ryder to re-join as well?"

"I'll think about it." I ended up sighing, wanting her to leave me alone already.

"Great!" She squealed. "Training starts at four and ends at six tonight — I'll see you there!"

Then she left, though not after pecking me on my cheek, with awful timing, as Ember walked around the corner just after Brooklyn had kissed my cheek.

It's not what you think, Ember. I wanted to tell her.

But she just narrowed her eyes and linked her arm through Chris's.

Perfect. Just perfect.

Part of me was dying to get back on the court; it'd been a long while since I'd played basketball.

Most nights after school, the pack hung around school anyway: Abi and Storm would head to the library. Jade alternated between coming to the athletics track with me, Jason and Ryder, and going to study clubs.

I couldn't find a reason not to start playing basketball again.

By the time lunch rolled around, I'd made it through the worst morning of lessons: an extended Homeroom period for no reason whatsoever, English, Social Studies, and History — unfortunately not American History, which I was pretty good at. Why we had to do American History and normal History made no sense — why couldn't we just do one?

In the cafeteria, Ember sat at a table with Chris, talking intently. Not wanting to be anywhere near them, I headed to the indoor basketball court. Hellgate High had an inside hall for games and an outside one for training.

The lights slowly flicked on one by one, and I dropped my bag to the ground. I breathed in the musty air of the hall, felt the clean floorboards squeak beneath my trainers, and it felt right. It'd been so long since I'd even been on a basketball court.

I hadn't realised it before, but I actually missed playing basketball.

Taking a basketball off the rack, I started bouncing it against the worn, wooden floorboards, before dribbling the ball over to the main hoop on the opposite side of the court. I made a deal with myself: if I could get the shot in one go, then I'd re-join the basketball team. If not, then I wouldn't.

I still had to be good enough at basketball if I was going to take it up as a second elective.

Coach Burkes had to be pretty desperate if he wanted me, Jason and Ryder on the team — three guys who had been 'missing' for over a year and then wrongly accused of arson.

Coach Henry Burkes was a balding, slightly overweight, middle-aged ex-basketballer, who continued coaching because he had nothing better to do. Just because his dream of playing in the NBA was ruined due to a knee injury, didn't mean that he couldn't coach kids to do the same, to have the same dream as him.

Bouncing the ball in front of me, I finally decided to go for the shot. I scooped up the ball and raised it over my head, before pushing the ball up with the tips of my fingertips, forcing it towards and up into the hoop.

The orange ball circled painfully slowly around the hoop, before finally dropping down through the net. A grin glued itself to my face.

"He shoots, he scores, and the crowd goes wild!" Someone walked into the court, clapping their hands together unhurriedly.

I turned to face them as the ball bounced away.

"Theo Aquila!" It was Coach, with a smile on his rugged, unshaven face. "Back from the dead!"

"I wasn't quite dead." I shook my head, smiling back.

Despite my surname not actually being Aquila, that's how it was registered in the school. It was a miracle that no one questioned the bizarre surnames of the pack. Our actual surnames were buried deep beneath piles of data that no one had the energy or willpower to sift through. I still remembered my surname, though it didn't feel as if it were truly mine anymore.

After my parents died, I had no family and no one to turn to. I was so young, and so lost...

"You here to join the Knights again?" He slapped a hand on my shoulder, jerking me out of my thoughts.

"I'm just here tryin' to get some sort of an education," I smirked, picking the ball up and rolling it between my palms.

"Aw hell, Aquila. You don't need no education if you end up playin' for the NBA!" He chuckled. "You just need to be able to shoot some decent hoops."

"So... Can I take basketball as my second elective?" I asked hopefully. "I can try and convince Jason and Ryder to re-join the team as well."

"I'll talk to the principal 'bout it." He nodded. "I've still got your jersey. If you want it back, that is."

"I'll take it," I affirmed. "Brooklyn said that practice is tonight?"

"Aha!" He exclaimed, "So that's why you're back here, huh? Pretty lil' cheerleader Brooke shows up and suddenly you're all for playin' basketball?"

"No, it's not like that." I shook my head instantly.

"Don't worry, Theo." He winked at me. "You don't have to try and deny it. Brooke is one fine lookin' gal."

"No, it's really not like that." I protested. "I couldn't care less about Brooklyn."

Brooklyn chose that moment to walk into the hall, wearing her tiny cheerleading outfit and a frown on her face.

"Well, I couldn't care about you less, Theodore." She threw at me, and Coach laughed voluminously as she stormed out.

Why is the world so against me? I groaned, rubbing my face with my hands.

At the end of the day, I was standing at the edge of the outside basketball court — half an hour early and fidgeting nervously.

According to Ryder, Jason was still chasing down that lead, so there wasn't really much point in me and Ember returning back to the ranch if we could hang around school a little longer.

Ember was perfectly fine with seating on the bleachers and waiting for me to be done practising. She'd spent practically the entire day with Chris, and was, to say the least, drained.

"Honestly, most of the time it's hard to tell that he's the bad guy," she'd told me outside of American History.

"Trust me, he is the bad guy," I'd assured her, rolling my eyes when she wasn't looking; she was already confusing a foe with a friend.

Coach Burkes was delighted to have me back on the team. The principal had agreed almost straight away to me taking basketball as a second elective, and when the rest of the pack returned to school, they would also be able to take a second elective.

"I'm going to take Writing as my second elective." Ember stood beside me and told me decisively.

"Yeah?" I raised an eyebrow, only half-listening.

"Oh, and I was considering taking Chris out on a date. So, I'll need to borrow the pickup." She continued.

"Fine." I nodded, still half-ignoring her.

"Yeah. And then I'll bring him back to the ranch, and sleep with him in your bed, whilst you're sat there in your armchair."

"What?" I snapped to attention, turning my head to her rapidly.

"I'm kidding!" She laughed loudly. "Besides, if I was gonna go on a date with him, I would not take that crappy pickup truck with me."

"Ember, not funny." I frowned at her.

"Really funny," she said pointedly, still laughing. But that momentary joy soon collapsed; the laughter fell off her face when she saw the cheerleading squad heading towards the court.

"I'm gonna... go up to the bleachers now." She hurried off before I could tell her she could stay.

"Hey, Theodore." Brooklyn grinned, placing a hand on her hip, pom-poms fluttering in the light wind.

"Hey, Brooklyn," I replied.

"I told you it's Brooke now." She pouted her perfectly glossed lips.

"Yeah, and it's never been Theodore. Always Theo," I corrected.

"Whatever." She laughed throwing her hair over her shoulder and placing a hand on my arm.

Subconsciously, I glanced up to where Ember was sitting to see her face coated with jealousy.

"Who's she?" Brooklyn followed my gaze.

"My... friend." I decided on, unable to say my girlfriend, unwilling to say my ex-girlfriend.

"Oh!" She grinned, "So that's why you're so uninterested in me?"

"Brooklyn, I'm not uninterested in you, I've just got a lot going on right now," I said pointedly. "She from the UK, you know?"

"When did you go to the UK?" She asked, clearly confused.

I frowned, pressing my lips together; I shouldn't have brought up the UK. I was supposed to have been missing in the US. If it got out that I'd taken a little vacation across the pond, then there would be countless questions and interrogations into what had happened in the past year.

And I just wanted to forget about all of that.

The Agency that was supposed to have been protecting me was in league with the hunters. Why they separated me from my pack and 'protected' me from the hunters by moving me to the UK confused me more than I'd like to admit.

"Aquila, you still with us?" Coach Burkes snapped his fingers in front of my face, pulling me out of my thoughts for the second time that day.

"Yes, Coach." I nodded firmly, noticing that the rest of the team was now gathered around me on the court.

I recognised a few faces from before, but there were definitely some new faces.

Across the playing field, I suddenly saw Chris Woodman doing soccer training.

At least he's not playing basketball...

"This is the team, Aquila," Coach told me and listed the names of the team, which I only partly listened to. My ears perked up at the end; "Then we have Woodman playing as well. He's takin' a week off; he alternates 'twixt basketball and soccer."

Fan-fricking-tastic. Just when I thought I'd got away from him.

"Right, let's play." Coach Burkes blew his whistle and threw a ball at me.

The next two hours seemed to fly by, I'd definitely not lost the knack I had at playing basketball; I shot hoop after hoop.

And it wasn't like I'd forgotten how to work in a team either. Being in a pack taught me how to play nice with others, even when I didn't want to — even though I'd become closed off without them.

"That's all for today, folks." Coach clapped his hands together. "We've got a game this weekend, against the Big Sky Eagles, so we'll be practising again tomorrow lunchtime. We're midway through the season, so we gotta get to the top!"

Gathering that we were finished, Ember hurried down the bleachers, books clutched to her chest, clearly in a hurry to get away from school.

"What's up?" I asked as she joined my side.

"I gotta get outta here," she told me.

"Sure, I'll just shower, then we can head back to the ranch," I told her since I was seriously sweaty.

"No, we need to go now," she urged. "You can just shower back at the ranch."

I ran a hand through my sweaty hair, "What's wrong, Ember?"

"Chris looks like he's gonna come over and talk to me again, and I've had more than enough of Chris Woodman for one day. So, please can we go home? I don't even care if you stay in your basketball kit, just grab your other clothes and bag, and then let's get out of here," she rushed, eyes darting everywhere.

"Okay, okay." I held my hands up, "Calm down, already."

"I will when we get out of here," Ember replied firmly.

I rushed into the locker room, grabbed my clothes and shoved them into my bag, before rushing out of the room again, avoiding any eye contact with the other basketballers.

Ember was already waiting for me at the truck, a stressed look on her face.

"Didn't I tell you to calm down?" I asked, unlocking the car and climbing in.

"I'm fine." She wasn't fine, "I just..." She sighed, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay." I put the key in the ignition and turned it — willing, for Ember's sake, that it would just start up straight away.

Thankfully, it did, and I was able to pull out of the parking lot before Ember completely lost it.

I don't know why she's acting so strange...

"C'mon, Ember. Spit it out," I told her, eyes on the road, hands on the wheel. "What happened?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Clearly something happened," I muttered, glancing quickly across at her, before looking away. She was sat curled up protectively, knees were drawn up to her chest, hands rubbing her arms. "You cold?" I asked.

"No, not at all. I'm just boiling," she replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. "That's why I'm sitting here trying to conserve as much heat as possible."

"You can admit that you're cold, you know." I flicked the heater on, pushing the blowers towards her.

She murmured a thanks, stretching her fingers out towards the hot air.

"How was your day, like lessons-wise?" I questioned, aiming to shatter the awkward silence hanging in the air between us.

"Chris knows that his dad was hunting you in the UK." Ember rushed out all in one breath.

Snapping my head to face her, my eyes widened. "What?"

"Chris knows." She bit her lip worriedly. "He knows everything. He knows that you found the rest of your pack. He knows that his dad burnt down Coloma."

"Son of a bitch! I knew those bastards did it!" I exclaimed, flitting my eyes back to the road again to avoid some debris.

"That's not all," she told me, turning to me and placing a hand on my arm, making me flinch involuntarily, despite the lack of electric shock.

Why am I flinching at her touch? Surely my body should be welcoming any and all contact from her?

What's wrong with me?

"What else is it?" I demanded impatiently.

"The hunters know." Her words hit me like a sledgehammer to my gut. "They know everything; they know that the pack is living in the ranch house on the side of Bonner Mountain. They know that Abi and Storm have gone off looking for Zack, leaving the rest of the pack blind and without any warning if they were to attack."

"Hold up." I raised a hand. "What about your... Sight? Wouldn't that be able to warn us?"

Tears clouded her eyes. "I don't have my Sight anymore... I lost it. As the Phoenix grew stronger, my Sight disappeared, engulfed by flames. I don't have my Sight anymore." She repeated, "It can't help any of us now that I've lost it."

"Ember, I'm so sorry," I apologised hurriedly.

She continued, "I've lost the skills that my Sight gave me as well. I used to be able to track people using the heat paths that emotions create. I lost that as well."

I rushed out another apology, continuing; "But, how did Chris tell you all of this in one day? How did you get him to trust you so quickly?"

"They know what I am, as well," she explained, "The hunters know what I am, and as soon as they knew I was coming to Hellgate High, they planned for Chris to get closer to me."

I swallowed. "We're playing right into their hands."

"But, that's not all." Ember's eyes widened. "Chris is against them. Against his dad, his mum, his entire family. He doesn't want to help the hunters."

"And that makes you think he wants to help us?" I gripped the wheel tighter.

"I think he's confused." Ember confessed, "For his entire life, he's been drip-fed stories of the supernatural... and how to kill them. He learnt how to fire a crossbow at the age of seven, for God's sake! He doesn't know who he is without the hunters... He's confused, and lost."

"Does he know how to help Jade?" I questioned, ignoring her little tale of woe about poor Chris Woodman, whose family were responsible for killing my kind and others like me literally for centuries, whose family were responsible for locking up, testing and killing members of my pack.

"He gave me this." She held up a glass vial, filled with a murky green substance.

"What the hell is that?" I took it from her, twirling it between my fingers while keeping one hand on the wheel.

"A cure," Ember told me. "They poisoned Jade with that vein of silver, and this will force it out of her system."

"How can we trust him?" I gave her the vial back.

"We just can." She assured, tucking the vial away.

"Give me one reason why we can," I persisted, looking across at her, anxiety filling me, not exactly all for the idea of trusting a hunter.

Ember let out a heavy sigh. "Because Chris saved my life back in Lake Oldoy."