Shelby shook her head. “And you knew about that Ylva girl? And Professor Za–”
A finger pressed to her lips. She felt her face heat up even as Jordan shook his head.
“Don’t say his name. There are ways to find out if someone talks about oneself. I don’t know if he is doing that, but I’d rather not give any excuses to draw his attention.”
He sighed, pulling his finger away as he glanced off towards Irene. “I knew about Ylva. She wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding herself. When you’ve got a family like mine, you notice things like that.”
“A family like yours,” Shelby said with a half-suppressed yawn. She didn’t know what time she had finally fallen asleep the night before, but it was clearly too late.
As she thought over what he said, Shelby slowly put her head back down on her sister’s bed. She had to wiggle a little in her chair to avoid the damp patch of her own drool. “You’re like Eva then? All into demons or something?”
“Well,” he said. His voice had an audible smile in it. “I like to think I can keep a secret much better than she can.”
Shelby snorted into the blankets. “I’ve known you my whole life. I’ve only known Eva for a year and a half. It’s clear who the secret keeping winner is.”
That got a small laugh from Jordan. “But my family values knowledge and an open mind, I guess you could say.”
“Irene knew, didn’t she. That’s why she freaked out about Eva last year and kept her at an arm’s length since then. She asked you, or you just told her.”
Jordan took in and let out a deep breath. “She stumbled upon me in a fairly compromising position a few years ago.”
Shelby snorted again. It came out slightly pained. Her heart just wasn’t in it.
“Not like that,” he said. “She just walked in on me manipulating shadows like I did yesterday. My family Swore her to secrecy. That’s Swore with a capital ‘S’ otherwise we would have told you too.”
“That doesn’t seem like something Mr. Anderson would do.” Shelby frowned as a though occurred to her. “Are you going to do the same to me?”
“We’re older now. I’ll have to tell my parents, of course, but that was mostly so that Irene
“I actually wrote to them last night about Eva, all the demon-things, and Juliana and Shalise. I completely forgot to mention you.”
Shelby reached out and jabbed him in the stomach, eliciting a small grunt. That had to be one of the most offensive things she’d ever heard.
“Don’t worry,” he said, “you can tell my dad yourself. I got a call this morning. He said five words: ‘I am on my way.’ I don’t think he is very happy.”
“That’s not the point, Jordan Anderson. You’re not supposed to forget about your gi–” Shelby cut herself off with a barely disguised cough, “–your childhood friend.”
They weren’t officially going out. They hadn’t even been on a date. He didn’t pay extra attention to her. Their entire relationship felt entirely one-sided.
It was entirely one-sided. They were friends and nothing more.
Shelby sighed. He’d probably prefer going out with someone like Eva anyway.
“I couldn’t help it. So much went on yesterday. I decided to e-mail it instead of texting it because it was so long.”
“That’s just–”
Shelby froze as a light groan came from the sleeping patient.
“Wha–”
Irene didn’t get any further than that before Shelby wrapped her arms around her. Carefully, of course–Irene wasn’t supposed to move or be moved much until the nurse signed her off.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Shelby said when she finally pulled herself away. She had to wipe
“What happened?”
“Long story,” Jordan said. He stood up and headed towards the door. “I’ll go let Nurse East know you’re awake.”
Shelby watched Jordan’s backside as he walked out of the room. She shook her head and looked back to her sister. “What do you remember?”
“I was–” Irene’s half-lidded eyes burst wide open. Her face heated up to the point where Shelby was wondering if some of the old Irish blood wasn’t showing itself.
“Are you okay?”
“Nothing!” Irene squeaked. She shook her head and immediately winced. “I was just in the hot springs with Eva.”
Shelby frowned and quirked her head to one side. “We don’t have bathing suits.”
Irene’s already red face turned roughly the color of an overripe tomato.
“Oh,” Shelby said with a nod. “I won’t tell anyone.”
“That’s not–It wasn’t–” Irene devolved into sputtering while Shelby tried to keep her face straight. “There were monsters! I was running and then… I don’t know. What happened?”
“Nurse East said one of the security force people brought you in. You’d have to get the full story from them, but I guess Eva was fending off the monsters until the security guard got to you.”
“Oh.” Irene went silent for a moment. “Where is she?”
“The security guard–”
“Eva.”
