I looked the gray wolf up and down. He was enormous and definitely threatening, but I didn't feel like moving.

"I'm sitting here. What do you need a table for, anyway? You're a wolf."

He bared his fangs. "I'm not a wolf. I'm a-"

Another wolf, this one with a darker coat, ran up. Her voice trembled as she spoke to the first wolf.

"Are you insane? She's a changeling."

The first wolf stumbled back, head lowered. "Sorry, so sorry. I didn't realize. I've never seen a changeling before. So sorry." He ran away with his tail between his legs, followed by the other wolf.

A little perplexed, I stroked Eva's head. Am I really that scary?

She looked up at me with her huge yellow-orange eyes. You tried eat me, I scared. Not scared now.

That wasn't entirely true; I could sense some fear through our mental bond. But I couldn't blame her for being afraid. Not after what I'd done. If she stayed as my familiar, she would be in danger from me and all the monsters I spent time with. It'd only been a month or so; our bond wasn't permanent. It might be best if we separated before it was too late.

Eva nipped my hand, and I jerked it back.

What was that for?

She hissed. You be mine, my Lizzy. I not leaving. Can't make me.

What if you get hurt?

I strong, fast. I be fine. She angrily fluffed up her feathers. You friends talktalk.

What? Oh- I checked my ID. Kyton and Piper were still talking to each other.

"Why'd you have to be so pushy?" she asked. "She answered me first, and you should've let me talk."

He rolled his eyes, and his antennae mimicked the movement. "Something else distracted her. It wasn't my fault."

"Of course not. Lilly would be here already if it weren't for you and that stupid comment-"

I cleared my throat, and Piper fell silent.

Her cheeks reddened. "Hey, you're back. Are you heading this way?"

"No, I'm-"

Nissa flew back to the table and sat down. She slid a glass of blood in front of me.

"Is that my brother?" she asked.

I nodded, not wanting Ky and Piper to hear me talking to her. She seemed confident enough that they couldn't hear her, though. It must've been some privacy feature of the ID.

She shrunk back in her chair. "You said you won't tell him."

"I won't."

"Won't what?" Piper asked from my ID.

"Nothing. Look, I'm not coming to lunch, ok? I've got something else to do." Something like avoiding Kyton. "Call you later." I hung up on both of them.

***

Even though one of my morning classes was canceled, I still had to make up for missing the first week of classes. I had an hour and a half until history, so I set up shop in the library to catch up. By hooking up my ID to my textpad, I could access the campus web and the virtual classrooms for my classes. Luckily, there weren't that many assignments the first week. Mostly I just studied the syllabuses and did a couple of introductory worksheets posted in the classrooms.

I had to block my comms app because Piper and Kyton kept calling me. After a while, my ID buzzed with an alert that my class was about to start, and I headed out.

When I walked into history class, I wanted to walk right back out again. The classroom was normal enough--packed lecture hall with seats rising up toward the back, centaurs standing at the sides of rows, fae and other humanoids sitting in the chairs--but there was one detail I'd forgotten about this class. Kyton was in it.

He was sitting near the back, with several empty seats near him. I couldn't pretend I hadn't seen him; he locked eyes with me and waved me over as soon as I walked in. He'd been avoiding me all weekend, but if I avoided him now, he would never let me hear the end of it on the drive home. How was that fair? I might as well get this over with.

With a huff, I started up the stairs to his row. As soon as I sat next to him, Kyton launched into a whispered interrogation.

"Why were you on a roof? How'd you fall off? Are you really okay? Wait-" He dug something out of his backpack--a thermos--and held it out to me. "Here, take this."

It was sealed enough that I couldn't quite smell its contents, but I could guess what was in the thermos. I shook my head. Eva let out a little squawk from her perch on my shoulder as my hair flew in her face.

"I can't," I said. "I'll get in trouble."

He pressed the thermos into my hand. "No one's going to notice. Come on, you just fell off a roof. You need the magic."

"No, I don't." For the first time in a long time, I actually felt full, but I wasn't supposed to tell him about the OPSA cafeteria; it was one of the guidelines in Professor Scalene's book. Though, I probably would've told him anyway if I wasn't annoyed at him and Nissa and fairies in general.

"You are mad at me. Piper said-" He pulled back a little, brows furrowed. "Look, I was just angry. I know you have feelings, even if they're not-" His cheeks turned a darker blue, and he fixated on the thermos in his hand. "-not about me. Not in that way."

What the heck was he talking about? I almost asked him, until I remembered what he'd said the last time we were in the same room. He'd said that I only cared about him as a walking buffet. At the time, I'd almost agreed with him. But it wasn't true. He was more than food, maybe even more than a friend. Not that I could let him know that.

I didn't want him to get his hopes up when there was no way we could ever be together. Just the idea of getting close enough to kiss... My heart jumped in my chest when I thought about it. It would be amazing, I was sure. I was just as sure that I would rip his throat out if I got that close.

"I'm sorry," Kyton said.

"Okay." I swallowed and tried to calm my racing heart. It was so loud that I was sure he could hear me, but that couldn't be true. He was a fairy, not a changeling. His hearing wasn't that great.

He held out the thermos. "So...?"

I shook my head. "Like I said, I'd get in trouble." I looked up as the teacher--a man with gray feathered wings--stepped onto the stage.

Eva chirped in my ear. Funny bird cousin.

"Welcome, class. How are you all today?" When he didn't get any responses, he continued, "today, we'll be covering the first interplanetary war involving Earth. It's known here as the Universe War One." He kept teaching, but Kyton seemed much more interested in me than in the lesson.

Pretending to write notes on his textpad, he spoke out of the side of his mouth. "Don't do this. Even if you're mad at me, take the thermos. You'll feel better once you're not thirsty."

"I'm not thirsty," I said under my breath as I pulled out my textpad. "I drank at lunch."

"You what?" He practically shouted, and several people glanced our way. He lowered his voice again. "Forget getting in trouble. If you've been feeding off someone at MMC, they'll give you up. You'll be locked up or executed."

"I'll be fine. I trust them."

He was quiet for a while. Most of the class, actually. I tried to take notes on the lecture, but his silence distracted me. It was more than just his silence. He kept looking over at me and frowning. As the lecture wound to a close, the looks grew more frequent.

"Is there a problem?" I whispered.

He shook his head. Nodded. Shook it again.

The teacher finished up, and everyone stood to leave. When I followed suit, Kyton grabbed my wrist. I pulled my hand out of his grip.

"Wait-" He stood, slipping his backpack over one shoulder. His lips twitched as he glanced from me down to the thermos in his hands.

After a full two minutes of watching him not say anything, I turned to leave. The classroom was empty except for the teacher, who was still packing up his things.

"Do you trust me?" he said at last.   

I sighed. Great, now I'd gone and hurt his feelings. Instead of just smelling like a walking desert tray, he would be insufferable for a whole new reason now. I turned around.

"I trust you."

His tail twitched back and forth. "Then you can tell me what you were doing at lunch? Your ID wouldn't show your location, and Nissa said she pushed you off a building because you were a changeling, but she didn't say anything else. You weren't answering your ID. I've been worried."

"Don't. I'm fine. It was only a tiny building, and Nissa said she wouldn't do it again." Shrugging, I tried to leave.

He caught my arm before I reached the end of the row. "A tiny building?" His voice sounded strangled. "My sister tried to kill you, and you're acting like nothing happened. I can't get a straight story from either of you. She won't answer my calls."

There was fear and concern in his voice. At first, I thought it was worry for me, but it wasn't. He was worried because of me. He thought I'd done something to Nissa.