Blaine's eyes narrowed as he continued to study the guy. Chances were he knew what they were because of Rita and Gina. "What happened this morning?"

While the guys went into exaggerated details, I squirmed. Lunch was too long.

As soon as I could, I escaped. But not before I indicated to Blaine to follow me. We entered the first empty room.

"We have a situation." I quickly told him what I'd overheard. "Torin gave me a long lecture yesterday about staying low and not exposing us to the Mortal world, so I don't know what we should do."

Blaine cracked a smile. "He thinks like a Valkyrie, so he's overly cautious. I've fought with Mortals without giving away my identity. We're good at it. Ask Femi." He hesitated then added, "I'll see if Ingrid wants to be involved."

I grinned. He was so nice. "She might enjoy it."

He texted her and within minutes, she entered the room. She couldn't meet my eyes. I quickly explained what I'd overheard.

"I want in," she said when I finished.

"Are you sure? We're doing this as witches," Blaine warned.

"I was a Witch first before I became Immortal, Blaine."

Blaine's topaz eyes narrowed. "Do you remember your spells?"

Ingrid grinned, her light-blue eyes twinkling. "Oh yeah. Do you?"

He grinned. "Like you, I was a Witch first."

Okay, enough with the love fest. I was feeling left out. "Can I come with?"

"No," they said at the same time. "Torin wants you out of this, so stay out," Blaine added.

"I was just kidding. See you guys later." I expected Ingrid to, I don't know, apologize for the mean things she'd said yesterday, but she didn't. If she wanted to pretend she never said them, fine. I wasn't going to force her, but I hated feeling awkward around her. I left them in the room and was halfway to my class when Blaine caught up with me.

"Ironed out the plans?" I asked.

He nodded. "I'll walk you to class."

I cocked my brow. "Why?"

"Just following orders."

"What orders?" I asked but I already knew the answer.

"Torin asked me to keep an eye on things while they're gone. You didn't respond to my text and you were gone when I stopped by your place this morning."

No wonder he'd eaten at our table. I decided to play nice and let him walk me to class.

"We should go shopping for junior prom next weekend," Cora said as we left the building. The Harley was still missing at the curb, but Blaine and Ingrid were by his car. They were watching the school entrance, but I knew I wasn't their target.

"Sure. Why not." I had to talk to Dad about adding money to my debit account. Or maybe Hawk was the person to talk to.

"We should use a portal and shop anywhere." Cora grinned and flipped her hair. "I'm so loving the perks of being a freak."

"Who said you were ever one?"

"Me. I was seeing things no one else could. It became worse at PMI."

I glanced at her and frowned. Provident Mental Institute was the place local parents sent their sociopaths, which was why I wasn't using it to explain Mom's disappearance. "You never actually talked about your stay at PMI."

She shuddered. "And I will never. Oh, there's my man." Echo just stepped out of her car. "See you tomorrow. Oh, I'm working on the next vlog entry. I'll need your input later in the week."

The way she flew into Echo's arms made me wish Torin was around. I opened my car and put my things away. My eyes met Blaine's. He walked over.

"Heading to the shop?" he asked.

"Yep. You want to follow me and make sure I'm okay?"

He cocked his eyebrows. "Do you want me to?"

I grimaced. "No."

He chuckled. "I didn't think so. You are a lot tougher than you look."

"Finally, someone that sees the real me." The real me when I wasn't screwing up and feeling like crap. I slid behind the wheel and started to close the car door, but he caught it.

He studied me with a weird expression. "You know, I've spent a couple of centuries fighting alongside women, and I don't necessarily mean in combat. I'm talking about women fighting to be seen and heard. Women fighting for survival as their world fell apart. Women sheltering children and the elderly from men mad with power."

He had my full attention. Andris and Torin tended to dominate so much that whenever we all got together Blaine often disappeared in the background. Yet as an Immortal, he must have led as interesting and colorful a life as the Valkyries.

"What I'm trying to say is Mortal women are a lot tougher than they look. Theirs is a quiet, but resilient strength. Like the bamboo. They can bend, get bruised, but they don't break. You may look like a china doll, but you're not that fragile. He'll get it. Just give him time." His eyes narrowed and I turned to follow his gaze. Sebastian and the twins just left the building. "Drive safely. If you need me, you have my number."

"Happy hunting," I said. He laughed. Blaine Chapman was full of surprises.

I gunned the engine and took off. I didn't check to see what he and Ingrid were doing. Whatever it was, they'd be fine. They were Immortals, and Blaine sounded like he'd seen it all.

I paused at the stop sign and noticed a familiar blue coupe pull up behind me. Rita and Gina. What did they want? After they broadcasted what I'd seen, they were the last people I wanted to talk to. In fact, I was so over witches.

I kept an eye on them all the way to the back parking lot of the Mirage. When they pulled up behind me, I jumped out of the car, dug inside my jean's back pocket for Rita's amulet and dangled it on its chain. Her face was red by the time they reached me. She took it.

"I want to apologize for the way I reacted on Saturday," she said.

"Yeah. Whatever." I turned and started for the shop.

"You were right," Gina said, following me. "My mother made a call and members of our coven raided Madam Bosvilles' villa. They found jars of potion made with my sister's hair, my mother's and hundreds more. She'd been stealing powers for hundreds of years. Moving from place to place, staying young."

I slowed down. Only an Immortal could live that long. I'd never heard of an evil Immortal. Not from the stories Femi shared and Blaine's accounts. I tucked that away for later.

I turned near the back entrance to the shop and to face them. Up close, Rita looked a lot better. Her eyes weren't so haunted and her cheeks had more color.

"I'm already feeling better because of you, Raine," she said. "Thank you. Madam Bosvilles killed so many witches and took power from even more, including our mother. Her powers are returning too."

"She's done this all over the world, in Europe, America, Australia, Asia, even South Africa," Gina chimed in. "Word spread fast and those whose powers she stole are slowly recovering their abilities."

I forced a shrug, faking indifference, but inside, I was dancing to Gangnam Style. Of course, Torin would say I'd exposed an Immortal to the Mortals, but damn it, it felt good. I'd fingered an evil Immortal Seeress.

Hoping my face didn't show my emotion, I said, "You shouldn't have told the others about me."

They exchanged a puzzled look. "What do you mean?" Gina asked.

"Three new boys at school followed me around calling me witch."

"Sebastian and the twins?" Rita asked.

I crossed my arms and glared without saying a thing.

"But we didn't tell them," Rita protested.

"We only told our mother who called home," Gina added.

"I swear, we never told," Rita said again.

"Yeah. Well. They know, so excuse me if I don't celebrate with you. I've gone through being ridiculed by students at school-"

"We heard about that," Rita said.

"What we don't understand is why you didn't just put a spell on the entire school or town to make them forget," Gina added.

I stared at her, blanking out. Of course, as a powerful Seeress, they expected me to know such spells. I racked my brain for an answer.

"I don't believe in messing with people's heads, so if you don't mind don't tell anyone else about me and, uh, just leave me alone." I turned and entered the store, then locked the back door. Yeah, I know. It was petty and childish, and really counterproductive, but I was making a point. I wasn't one of them.

The store wasn't busy, so I went back to the car for my backpack and even got some homework done between talking to customers. When there were no more, I went in search of Mr. Hawk.

"Could I get an advance?" I asked.

He stared at me as though I was speaking backward. "I don't understand."

Warmth crept up my neck. "Mom forgot to put more money on my debit card, so I'm kind of broke. I need to buy a prom dress. Two prom dresses, actually, but I don't have the money."

"Please, sit." He pointed at the chair across from his, then pulled out his phone and punched in letters. Within seconds, the full mirror in his office churned and dissolved into a portal. My eyes widened when I saw part of my living room. Then Femi entered the office.

"Hey, sweetie. How is it hanging, Hawk?"

I almost laughed out loud at her informal greeting. Hawk glared at her, but she didn't seem bothered by it. In his suit and a tie, Hawk had an overt air of grimness around him that was downright intimidating. Femi was opposite him in everything. She dressed in army fatigues and T-shirts when out of her nurse's uniform. Today she sported her least favorite-a floral tunic and light-blue pants. Her black hair was spiked, her ageless face makeup free.

"You're scaring the poor child with your glowering, Hawk. What's going on?"

"Ms. Raine tells me she doesn't have money for personal use. Were you not supposed to inform me when she needed allowance?" Hawk demanded, staring down at the shorter Femi.

Femi's slapped her forehead. "Oh crap! I'm so sorry, doll." She walked to where I sat and squeezed my shoulder. "With everything that's been going on, I completely forgot your mother's orders."

"I repeated it several times too," Hawk said.

"Oh, don't get your undies in a wad, big guy. Make it up to her. So sorry, sweetie." She rubbed my back.

I tried not to laugh at her colorful language. "That's okay. You've been so busy with Dad it's understandable."

Hawk shot me a disapproving stare. "No, it's not okay." He sat and tapped on the keyboard of his laptop. "I can add some money to your card right now." He glanced at me from above his computer. "You said you need two prom dresses, so we are talking about how much?"

"Four hundred-"

"To six hundred a dress," Femi cut in, hand firm on my shoulders.

Six hundred dollars a dress? Was she crazy?

"She'll also need accessories," she continued. "Shoes to go with each dress, a clutch for her cell phone and artavo, and of course, earrings, bracelets and a necklace."

Hawk studied her, then me. I bet he could see through her extortion scheme and my guilty expression. I would never pay six large ones for a dress I planned to wear only once.

"They only have one junior prom, so of course she must look her best. But the senior prom, aah. That's going to be spectacular this year. Torin is a shoo-in for the prom king after his stellar performance at the state championship and Raine as his girlfriend will be crowned the prom queen. You don't want her looking cheap in knock offs. Only the best for our girl here."

She was terrible. Hawk had that look Torin sometimes wore when he wanted to throttle me. Usually, he ended up kissing me. I didn't see Hawk kissing Femi. I had a feeling he didn't approve of her much.

"Two thousand?" Hawk said.

"Really, Hawk," Femi said. "There's no need to be so tight-fisted."

I opened my mouth to tell him I'd be happy with a quarter of that when a knock resounded on the door. We all froze. Femi wasn't supposed to be in the shop and the portal was still open. Of course, Jared wouldn't see it. Still...

"I better go," Femi said.

I jumped as she started toward the portal. Jared must have assumed someone had said, "come in" because he opened the door and peered into the room. Energy pulsed into the office like a giant tsunami. It was familiar yet different. Whoever was out there was powerful. Femi must have felt it too because she turned, a frown on her face.

"Sorry to interrupt, but there are people here to see you, Raine," he said. "Hello, Ms. Femi."

"Hey, Jared. How're things?" she said, smiling so hard I was sure her teeth would pop from her gums, and she kept craning her neck to see behind him. She moved toward the door as though drawn to whoever was out there. Hawk was also on his feet, an expression I couldn't define on his face.

Jared looked over his shoulder, then closed the door. "I don't know what's going on, but there's a crowd out there asking for Raine and I don't think they're customers."

Witches.

Panic must have shown on my face because Hawk indicated I stay behind. He waved Jared aside, opened the door, and disappeared inside the shop.

"Yes, may I help you?" We heard him ask.

"We are Raine's friends from school," Gina said.

"All of you?" Hawk asked. There was disbelief in his voice.