"Holy crap."

I nod slowly, still peeking around the little alcove Oliver and I had hidden in.

"I know."

I'd gone head first into my story of Serge giving me a break to let me get out some frustrations on a nice run that turned not nice fast when a werewolf jumped out and tried to kill us. Oliver had remained completely quiet throughout the whole story, his face a mask of detachment that made it much easier to quickly blurt out everything I wanted to say.

"How did it feel?" He asks, rubbing his chin with the backside of his hand.

It wasn't a question I'd been ready for. I was waiting for him to freak out or threaten to tell or at the least ask if I was ok, but not to ask me how it felt. I'd not even considered it.

"It felt..." I start, unsure where I'm going with it. "I guess it felt natural. The fighting him part anyway. It was the first time I really dropped back into that mindset I used to keep at home, always watching everything and everyone. I felt in control of myself again, instead of controlled." I felt my cheeks warm at my lame speech, but Oliver only looks down at me with a weird intensity in his eyes. Like he's talking, without saying a word...but then he does speak, and it's just as confusing.

"Never drop that guard." He tells me quickly. "Stay in that mindset you're talking about. Only it can save you."

I just stare at him for what feels way too long before he turns to glance up the hall himself. I use that brief moment out from under the scrutiny of his gaze to wipe away the chills his words had formed on my arms. Save me from what? The dangerous of this realm as a Custode...or something else?

When his eyes found my face again, they were light, his jaw relaxed and his posture straight and even. "You really are amazing, you know that?"

"I-uh, what?"

He chuckles lightly at my discomfort. "I mean, you do realize what you did, right?" When I just continue to stare at him, he smiles, laying his hand on my right shoulder, his thumb rubbing back and forth slowly. "You saved a very important man's life. You took on a werewolf with absolutely no training at it and you won."

My tongue felt too big in my mouth and my brain just kept thinking of the way he was touching me. It felt...more than just a friendly pat on the shoulder. And suddenly this hidden little alcove felt way too hidden and way too small.

"Well, I, uh," I stumble over my words, using the ploy that I'm checking for people again to step just out from under his hand. "I wouldn't say I won, not once he went all furry fury on me."

Oliver's light chuckle echoes in the small space and stupid me, it makes me smile. "You still tried. And as a Newb with no supernatural training, I'd take that as a win. You should be proud of yourself, Mal. It's a big deal. You faced your first battle and you haven't even completed the first week of bootcamp yet." There's a proud twinkle in his eyes, but then he looks away. "It's no wonder you were chosen for our group."

"As a peacemaker." I scoff, trying to be relaxed.

Oliver rolls his stunningly blue eyes. "Look at it this way, that werewolf wanted to make war between his gun and Serge's head. You didn't let that happen, so therefore..."

"I kept the peace." I say mockingly. "Still not the same."

"Anyway, that isn't what I meant." He brushes it off. "I meant you being a badass is why you were chosen for our team. Only the strongest teams stay in The Hub. You're one of them for a reason."

I think of all of the ways I've managed to mess up one thing or another since I've been here, and I can't really agree with being better than anyone else around me. Aside from knowing how to throw a well-timed jab to the throat, I'm not special.

"How do they know?" I ask. "Who to pick for what group? I mean...You all came for me before I knew what anything was."

Oliver reaches out, making me hold my breath as his hand dances over my necklace. We both look down at it, the embarrassingly fast rise and fall of my chest on full display while he brushes his fingers over the stone.

I gasp as the little hideaway becomes a shining beacon in the hallway, the brilliant blue of my stone glowing so brightly I nearly stop breathing at the beauty.

"Your stone knows." He whispers. "It knows you're special..."

I glance up as the stone dims out. He's staring down at me and the look on his face may just be even more amazing that the glow of my necklace had been. "It hasn't done that since..."

He smiles then, bringing his hand back. "It reacts to strong emotions, Mali."

I force myself to stop. Stop thinking what he means, stop breathing, and especially stop staring up at his big blue eyes. Instead, I think of Courtlyn. I think of her and every other girl I've heard about and what others have eluded to about Oliver. I'm here to learn, train, and kick butt, in varying orders. Nowhere on that list is the note marked "fall for wrong guy."

I take a quick step back. "I should go, I'm going to be late for class."

I take another two bigger steps back, putting a good bit of space between us before I go and do something stupid like trip and fall into his arms and catch myself with my lips on his.

"Ok." He murmurs, stepping out of the space behind me.

We stand in the hallway looking at each other for longer than is probably normal, before I turn on my heel, the entirely wrong direction for my class, and start to walk away.

Before I can though, Oliver catches my wrist, brushing his thumb back and forth across the back of my hand. "Hey Mal..."

"Hmm?"

He grins down at my hand, then trails it up to my eyes. "Your necklace isn't the only one that knows you're special." He smiles once, letting me go and then he walks away, leaving me to walk the wrong direction with a head full of fuzziness.

"You're late." Yael whispers to me as I settle down in the seat to his left, waving once at Noah on his right.

The instructor gives me a look and I pretend not to notice, even though I know full well I'm late because I walked way out of my way earlier and then wandered a little more trying to clear my head before class. This is why boys were bad. They were a distraction. They never had been before, but I was willing to admit that this one was an exception.

"Yeah, I, uh...got lost." I turn to face the front of the room, feeling Yael's ever knowing gaze boring into the side of my face.

"Uh-huh, right." He says. "Don't think we won't be talking about this later, Missy."

The instructor, who already hates Yael anyway, slaps her hand over the side of her desk. "As long as it's later, and not inside of my classroom, I really don't care." She snaps. "Now if you'd please, I'd like to begin my lesson."

"Carry on." Yael gestures an open hand to her and I'm thinking he's lucky that whatever powers she use to have are gone. If she were a werewolf or a drinker or something, I feel certain she would have ripped Yael's throat out by now. She'd probably have to get in line though with the hordes of others Yael has managed to tick off in his short time here. If he was going for a record, I know he'd win it soon.

I focused in on the board, the word "Humans" written across the center in all caps. Serge had mentioned this, but with everything else going on, I'd filed it away into the back of my mind. Today was human studies. We'd done our stuff on the other realms, now we were onto this realm. The realm that would be home if I can be successful.

Earth.

And according to the smaller print on the board, Earth just wouldn't be Earth without the humans.

"Humans," The instructor spoke my thoughts aloud. "What can someone tell me about humans?" She looks around the room, waiting for someone to speak. A hand flies up and she looks surprised someone has an answer and is pleased until she follows the hand down to the body it belongs to.

"Humans make up the largest population on Earth. They have no abilities and are for the most part pretty stupid." Yael grins from ear to ear.

"You'll fit right in then," Someone a few rows down coughs under their breath and Yael and I both glare that way.

I lean into Yael while the instructor gets everyone back on track. "Who have you been talking to?"

"Don't be jelly, but Bryn introduced me to this really nice girl named Tresh, she was telling me all about the realm to prep me for this class. I could have filled you in if you'd been here on time like I was." He says the last part in a singsong voice, rubbing it in. "Care to tell me now why you were really late? Does it start with an O, and end in liver?" He grins, but then grimaces right after. "Ew, gross. I tried the liver they served last night, it was...let's not talk about it. However, Oliver, we can talk about. Shoot. Now I can't say his name without thinking of liver..."

I snort a short laugh and then look away. "Hush."

"In the beginning," The instructor goes on, making Yael sigh.

"Here we go with this again."

"The realm was filled with all sorts, as we've discussed, in a nearly even quantities." She went on. "But in seemingly no time at all, the humans were outnumbering what we refer to here as supernatural. Can someone, other than you," she jabs Yael with a glance. "tell me just how the weakest race in the entire realm came to be the largest population?"

"Luck?" A boy in the front row shrugs.

The instructor smiles. "No, not luck." She says, turning to the board. "They were made for this realm. They were the best suited, and though weak, were able to use their weaknesses as advantages." She writes two new words onto the board and then faces the class again. "Tell me, if two drinkers have a dispute, what happens?"

"They fight each other, the winner is the one still alive." A girl to the right says.

"What about shifters?"

A boy from the other side of the room shifts in his seat. "Hardly happens, but if it can't be settled, they head off against each other and the weaker of the two species kills itself, believing it will be reborn into a less weak body next time."

"Exactly, and now what about humans?" She folds her arms, standing in the center of the room. "When just two come together, in dispute, they have less options. Because they do not have immense strength, or speed, or magic, or trickery, they have to come to agreement. They have to work together, in order to overcome. As one, they are weak and vulnerable, with numbers, they can do more. The humans banded together for so long, easily conquering the realm that they were made for while the supernatural placed here struggled to find ways to survive." She goes on about how drinkers had to adapt to a realm with a sun cycle, the shifters couldn't become anything but wolves...all things that held back supernaturals while leaving the humans to flourish. "Eventually human numbers became so large, and their masses so far spread out that disconnects began to form. Numbers, wealth, position, and ultimately pride broke apart their finely grown comradeship too. Like the supernaturals, the humans began to eat away at each other, killing each other, blaming this group or that for varies matters...giving the supernaturals a chance to regrow and become threats once again."

I listened on the edge of my seat all about their histories, hating when we had to break for a backroom/snack break before delving back in. They were fascinating, probably because I was just like them. I'd never known the powers I was apparently capable of in Utopia. Being banished to the Ring strips you of them, and so really I'd lived like a human for my whole life.

They were so interesting. They were prideful and spiteful and greedy and weak, all things that would get you banished in Utopia, but instead they were praised for it here. They had the ability to be so small and insignificant, yet they were so capable of surviving and thriving and loving under the worst of conditions.

"They are the ones who need us the most." She says. "Without us, the supernaturals would have killed them all off, and then turned on each other by now. This realm's only still here because of the Custodes."

I left class feeling invigorated. I was ready to be a part of this. Ready to stand and fight for these people I didn't know at all but I imagined were just like the family I'd known in The Ring. Mags, Mr. Mags, Tawny, Fightmaster, and all of those children in the Wallows. They didn't have a group of people to watch out for their best interest and protect them. The humans do. And I want to be on this team more than ever.

Yael loops his arm with mine as we walk through the halls, winding our way to the mess hall for lunch. "You ready to talk to me yet?"

"Unless it's about what we just learned today, then no." I grin.

He rolls his eyes and sighs. "Fine, I'll wait a little longer." He relents graciously, we are both smiling together until his violet eyes lock on someone else and his smile slips. "She may not be so ready to drop it though..." He says ominously.

I slowly turn my head to find Courtlyn in her hat standing just to the left of us, her arms crossed and her mouth set in a firm line. "Can we talk?" She asks curtly, her eyes and stance saying I don't have much choice.

"Come on, bestie, let's-." Yael goes to pull me away but I stay.

"Go on, I'll catch up." I tell him.

His eyes go wide and he leans into my ear. "You might caught up, and you might be bald when you do. You're too pretty to be bald." He frowns deeply.

"I'm literally standing right here." Courtlyn snaps.

Yael nods and tisks. "Exactly, see, she's a perfect example."

"Screw yo-."

"Yael," I warn giving him a look. "Just go, I'll be there in a second. With all of my hair intact."

He sighs grumpily, but begins to move away. "You better be." He's fussing under his breath as he walks away, leaving me with Glaring Courtlyn.

"Talk." I say, skipping the pleasantries I'm pretty sure the both of us are past by now.

She fixes me with the look of death, like if she could, she'd literally kill me with her eyes. "I just wanted you to know, that your little stunt didn't faze me at all." She whispers icily. "Oliver is mine, and nothing you do is going to change it. He's too friendly, I tell him that all the time. Sometimes sad little girls get the wrong impression. So I'm here to give you the right one." She shifts her body closer, so that she can look down her pert nose at me. "I know saying stay away from him would be too much, you're in the same group, you'll be around. But just remember, always remind yourself, that you'll never be anything to him. It doesn't matter how many secret little convos you have in secluded hallways, he'll never want you."

My brows furrow. "Wait, how do you know we-."

She rolls her big eyes exaggeratedly. "Someone is always watching around here, Newb. There are not secrets."

I know she wants to seem threatening and bad, but her last sentence just shows she's not. There are plenty of secrets. There are secrets here there and everywhere that she doesn't know about. If she did, she'd have thrown them in my face to get back at me, but she didn't.

Secrets are everywhere, but the kind she is worried about, between me and Oliver, is never going to happen. I never want to be this girl, trying to talk down another girl for looking at the boy I like, and from what I know, this happens a lot with Oliver.

It's for the best that he's with her, and I couldn't care less.

As I walk away, I wonder if the biggest secret is the one I'm hiding from myself.