I didn't have the guts to attend my dad's class again. If I could, I would have skipped school completely, because I no longer found joy in studying when I knew that something much bigger and dangerous was hiding around the corner—something I couldn't uncover no matter how hard I tried. I thought that the biggest mystery in my life would be figuring out why my dad had left me or what he was. But then came Asher, and now even Silas—whom I was sure I could trust—was keeping something from me. I had no idea what to do. My dad tried reaching out to me, but he must have noticed the amount of effort I was putting into avoiding him. He stopped seeking me out a week later, and I didn't know whether that made me feel better or worse. It hurt how easy it had been for him to give up on me again, but

