Katie stood frozen a few seconds. Warlocks dying in accidents, magical or not, was not unheard of. But a warlock purposefully harming another? Killing them? Katie didn't think she'd ever heard of that, even in the old days. Because they were peaceful with Unspelled, they were among themselves, too. And when the truth about magic was revealed, they stuck together, because they were being harassed from all sides. Of course, there had been feuds among warlocks or witches, but the Council had always kept it from turning deadly.

"... So a warlock stole Victor's powers and that's what killed him?"

"That's the theory of the warlock who examined him," Kendall agreed.

"... But... why? Who would do that?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," her father said heavily.

Just then, Helaena came striding in.

"All right, now that's where I draw the line, Kendall, and that's final. Katie, dear, you'd better hurry and get ready for school," she added.

Katie nodded mutely and left the room. Soon after, she'd got her coat on and set off. She tried not to think about it too much, because the whole thing gave her goosebumps. But that was easier said than done. She did her best to keep it off her face as she made her way to class. Apparently she was more distracted than she'd thought, because when she turned a corner into the corridor leading to her classroom, she ran into someone coming the other way. She managed to catch the wall to prevent herself from falling on the floor.

"Hey, watch where you're going, will you?" said an irritated voice.

Katie looked up, an apology on her lips, when she froze. In front of her, the boy she'd bumped had stopped too.

"Well, well." he said. "If it isn't Miss hard-to-get."

She immediately brought up her defences.

"Hunter," she said coolly.

"I see you quickly replaced me," he said, a smirk on his face.

"There was never anything between us, so I didn't replace anyone," Katie shot back.

"There could have been, but you wouldn't let me show you."

"Because I wasn't interested," Katie said. "And I am still not."

"It's impossible for a girl to not be interested in this," he said, raising his arms to emphasize how irresistible he was.

Katie was about to respond, when someone did it for her.

"Well, clearly, you've just been proven wrong. And it makes sense, really. There's an exception to every rule. Of course, in this case, the exception is the smartest of the equation."

Katie didn't need to turn to know Luke was behind her, staring daggers at Hunter in the exact same way Hunter was at him.

"Who asked for your opinion, Devon?" Hunter demanded.

"No one," Luke said pleasantly. "But you seem incapable of hearing the word "no", so I thought I might be more persuasive."

Hunter glared at Luke, and Katie was growing more and more concerned that this would end in a fight. Luke seemed the type to be able to hold his own, but she had no desire to get him suspended.

"Luke, let's just go," she said quietly.

"Oh, we'll go," Luke said. "Just one thing, Hunter. If you ever bother Katie again, I will personally make sure that so-called handsome face of yours doesn't look that way any more."

With that, he took Katie's arm and they walked away. Katie didn't glance over her shoulder, but she didn't need to to know Hunter was glaring at them.

After a few moments, they stopped. Katie turned to look at Luke, and was again struck by the depth in his eyes. She cleared her throat, shoving the feeling that brought in her, and said:

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

His face was calm but his fists were balled in his pockets.

"... Are you okay?" She asked cautiously.

"Fine. I just have a hard time keeping my temper in control with him."

"... You really don't like him, do you...?"

"No. Not really. Nothing to like, is there?"

Katie couldn't say she disagreed. There was a pause.

"... You can keep it to yourself if you want," she eventually told him. "But... I was wondering... what exactly happened between you two?"

Luke looked away, and for a moment, Katie thought he wouldn't answer.

"You remember I told you my sister Selene liked to party?"

"Yes," Katie nodded.

"Well, last Christmas, we were in London visiting an uncle." Luke said, still not looking at her. "Selene being Selene, she wanted to look at one of the clubs around town."

Katie waited, not daring to interrupt. They barely noticed the other students ambling past them, hurrying to class.

"And I went along to keep an eye on her." he continued. "So we ended up in this club which would later be the one you and I met in. She was having fun... dancing, having a couple of beers..."

Luke's sister sounded remarkably like Lucy, Katie thought.

"Anyway, at one point she meets this guy. Handsome, friendly, funny... and he seemed okay, at first. Just goes to show that you should never judge a book by its cover..."

"The guy she met was Hunter..." Katie guessed.

Luke nodded.

"She fell for him almost at once. That's how she is. Always going head first and bumping her nose."

"What did he do?"

"He gave her his number, promised to call, and at first, he did. They went out on a few times. Until one day, when he stopped calling. She tried to call him, he never picked up. So after a while, she went to see him in person..."

Katie could imagine how well that had gone.

"He found her with another girl?"

"Not only that, but he said she'd just been for fun."

Katie felt sick. And rather proud that she'd not fallen for such a ghastly character.

"I'm sorry that happened to her..."

"Well... at least she's got a slightly more level head when it comes to boys, now..." Luke shrugged. "I just wanted her to grow up on her own rather than having it slammed in her face like that..."

"Yes, I can imagine..." Katie said. "Lucy's a lot like that, too."

There was a silence. Katie found herself glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes.

"... Why are you so intent of protecting me from Hunter?" she asked after a moment. "Is it just because of what he did to your sister?"

Luke sighed and finally turned to her.

"You really think that's the only reason?"

Katie looked up at him.

"... I suppose I don't," she admitted.

A part of her was very aware of the small amount of space between them. She cleared her throat and tucked her hair behind her ear, but Luke's gazed didn't waver.

"I think we both know that something's been happening between us," he said slowly.

Katie was about to reply, when all of a sudden, a flash of gold in Luke's eyes made her heart skip a beat. Her mouth fell open slightly and she took a step back.

"What?" Luke asked, noticing her expression.

"... Your eyes..." she said.

He frowned, but Katie could see a hint of nervousness in his expression too.

"What about them?" he asked carefully.

"They... turned gold for a second," Katie said.

"That was just probably just a reflection in the light," he said, shrugging a little too obviously.

"I know what I saw," Katie said, pointing at him.

As she did, her sleeve slid down her arm slightly, leaving her wrist bare. Luke's eyes darted to it then back to her. Realising what he'd seen, Katie quickly covered it again.

"It's just a tattoo," she said quickly.

There was a short silence.

"Are you a Starchild?" he asked quietly.

Katie hesitated, her heard pounding. He couldn't know that name... unless...

"Yes," she finally said. "Why d'you ask?"

Luke relaxed, but let out a sharp breath.

"Because we're going to have a problem."

Katie's anxiety became wariness. She carefully angled her hand to cast a shield if he did anything to harm her. She knew that would get her in no ends of trouble with the Council, but she wasn't about to just sit and let herself be killed if she could defend herself.

"Why?" she demanded.

Luke's gaze held hers.

"Because I'm a Silverwolf."

**************

Ta ta daaaaam! Did you see that one coming? What would you do? Let us know in the comments!

What this new revelation mean for Luke and Katie? Let's find out!