Aria's POV.
“Aria? You’re back.” Jordan’s voice sounded from the living room.
I didn’t look up. “Yeah,” I muttered, dragging my bag down the hall.
Maddie was behind him, leaning against the doorway. Her lips pressed together, no smirk this time. No teasing. I paused, noticing it. It was… different. Safer, somehow. They had been different toward me since the ambush three days ago.
“You okay?” Jordan asked, his voice softer than usual, his usual teasing gone.
I forced a shrug, my fingers clutching the book inside my bag. The Cursed Wolves of Moonlight. The pages were crinkled, notes scribbled in the margins. I’d read it over and over in the library at school, trying to make sense of what we’d faced on that bus, trying to understand the creatures that had almost killed us.
“Yeah,” I re
