“So she really dumped you? Wow.” Dylan took a big bite of his barbecue sandwich.
Aiden picked at his food. “Yeah.”
Dylan considered him for a moment. What should he say? “Um, sorry.”
Aiden sighed.
Crap, now he was going to mope. “If you really want her, you should fight for her.”
“I’m not a fighter.”
Dylan waved a hand. “Not that kind of fighting. You know, like, convince her. Tell her you were meant to be together or some other mushy stuff.”
A little twitch at the corner of Aiden’s mouth. “I don’t know. I mean if all it takes for her to stop seeing me is her parents saying no…” He shrugged. “And I don’t want her to get in trouble. She’s been through enough without having her parents mad at her too.”
Dylan sighed and rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” Maybe Aiden didn’t like her that much after all.
Hanna walked past them, hesitating for a second. She glanced at them both and gave Aiden an awkward smile before moving on.
Aiden kept his eyes on her. “I guess if she’s not supposed to talk to me, she can’t eat with us anymore.”
Part of Dylan liked that idea. Back to being just the two of them. Maybe Aiden would get over this soon.
Aiden’s eyes narrowed and Dylan followed his gaze to see Conner was also watching Hanna. Eager warmth filled Dylan’s belly. All he needed was one fight, uninterrupted by adults. Dylan would make sure Conner and his pack slunk around the place with their tails between their legs from then on. Maybe he could invite him out to the pit.
Hanna ducked down a row, moving away from Conner. The alpha kept watching her for another moment, then shifted to lock gazes with Dylan. A flicker of yellow in his eyes.
“She’s sitting all alone,” Aiden said, his tone full of pity.
“Better than sitting with him.” Dylan turned his back on Conner.
“God, I feel so bad for her.” Aiden still hadn’t touched his food.
“If she doesn’t want to defy her parents and you don’t want to try to convince her to, then let it go, man.” He took another bite, tangy-sweet sauce filling his mouth. The food here wasn’t as good as his parents’ cooking, but there were some things that came pretty close.
“Will you… keep an eye out for her? Make sure Conner doesn’t hurt her?”
“Of course,” he mumbled around his food. “Say the word and I’ll go kick his ass right now.”
Aiden paled. Shit, Dylan had forgotten how afraid he was of magic now. My fault. I did that to him.
“No,” Aiden said. “Don’t do anything unless he does.”
Dylan swallowed, although his stomach now felt like it was filled with rocks. “Okay.” He wished there was a way he could fix Aiden, make him not afraid anymore.
* * *
Weeks passed without a text or a word from Hanna. She barely glanced at him in the hall. A few times she gave him a brief, sad smile that broke his heart. It was so unfair. She hadn’t done anything wrong. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Her parents were assholes. Racists, even. Telling her she could only date her own kind, that was so bigoted.
Mr. Johnson’s black car was waiting for him when he got home from school. Was something wrong? He’d just checked on Aiden a month ago, right before Dalton disappeared. Was he here investigating? Or was he here to check up on Aiden and Dylan because of what happened with Uncle? The dark fae calling himself Uncle had escaped back in January— well, Dylan had let him out— and so far the wardens hadn’t found him.
“Hi, Mr. Johnson,” Aiden said as he walked in.
The warden was sitting at the dining room table like he usually did on his visits, Aiden’s parents next to him on one side. “Hi, Aiden. How are you doing?”
“Fine.” A lie. At least thinking about Hanna distracted him a little from worrying about magic. And Phoebe was back from her family vacation. He’d told his tutor about his fears and they worked little, gentle magic spells. Aiden was totally okay with those. He’d gotten better at Minor Magical Control too.
“That’s good.” Mr. Johnson’s tone was light, but Aiden didn’t like the studying look in the man’s eyes. “I have a favor to ask you.”
Was this it? The big favor Mr. Johnson had made him promise to do, no questions asked? Aiden swallowed. “Okay.”
“You can say no if you want.” Mr. Johnson gave him a look, but Aiden didn’t know what it meant. Was there more he wanted to say, but couldn’t because Aiden’s parents were there? “I brought a young man to town the other day, and I thought it would be good for him to have someone to show him around, help get him settled.”
“Oh.” It would have been nice to have someone show him around instead of throwing him alone into a school full of monsters.
“Tomorrow is his first day of school. I’ve arranged for him to be in your homeroom. I would be grateful if you’d help him find his classes. He’ll also need some tutoring. His education… Well, he isn’t where he should be, but I don’t believe his intelligence is the problem.”
Oh, maybe that’s why he wanted Aiden to help him. “Do you mean regular school stuff? Not like… magic?”
A slight smile. “Yes, regular subjects.”
Aiden nodded. “I can do that.”
“That’s very nice of you, Aiden,” Mom said.
“Thank you,” Mr. Johnson said to him, then he turned to Aiden’s parents. “Thank you for having me in your home.”
“You’re welcome,” Dad said.
Mr. Johnson rose. “Aiden, could you please join me outside for a moment?”
“Um, okay.” Aiden got up and followed him.
When they reached the driveway, Mr. Johnson turned and said, “I want to make it clear that this isn’t the favor that you swore to do for me. You’re free to refuse this.”
Aiden looked down at the cement. “I kind of thought it wasn’t, you know, the Big Favor.” He had a feeling that whatever it was, it wasn’t something Mr. Johnson would ask in front of his parents. A little shiver went through him. “But I’ll still do it to help him out. Is he like me, someone that didn’t know what he was?”
“No.” Mr. Johnson sighed and looked at the sky like he was wondering what to say. “He surrendered to the wardens and chose to come to Shadow Valley. I had quite a time pleading his case. Anyway, I believe he’s sincere in wanting to get certified, but he may have a rough time adjusting to life here.”
That brought up so many questions. One of the first that came to mind was, “What is he?”
“Werejaguar.”
How interesting. He’d heard them mentioned before, so he thought there might be one or two of them at school. Aiden opened his mouth to ask another question, but Mr. Johnson held up a hand.
“If you have any other questions about him, you’ll have to ask him yourself.”
That just made him more curious. “Okay.”
“Thank you again for helping him out.” Mr. Johnson turned and opened the car door.
“Actually, I do have one more question: what is his name?”
Mr. Johnson chuckled. “Ah, right. I forgot to tell you. It’s Santiago Barros. He goes by Tiago.”
“And he’ll be in my homeroom tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Good night.”
“Good night, Aiden.” Mr. Johnson got in the car and closed the door.
A new, mysterious kid that Aiden needed to tutor in nice, safe, normal subjects. It would be a nice distraction from both his fear of magic and Hanna breaking up with him.