The following week, on Tuesday morning, Riley carefully maneuvered herself outside of Pearson Hall after Biology, trying not to bump into anything or make herself look any more stoned than she already did.

It was hard to see past the turtle shell.

Since the field trip, she’d neither seen nor heard from Xander. Riley was pleased that he was respecting her need for space, but she was also unnerved. Because no other strange things had taken place, she spent much of the week wondering how many of the events of that day she’d imagined. She finally decided to Unveil herself just to see what would happen.

Big mistake.

First, she and Reed were late getting to school because Riley had trouble getting the “native soil” to work. After all but coating her feet in dirt with no success, she remembered that the soil from the river had been wet, and had stopped working when she became dry. Sure enough, once she wet her feet and the dirt turned to mud, Riley saw her sky-blue shell appear again. She felt a surge of irritation with Xander as she finished getting ready. He hadn’t told her that water was necessary.

Riley spent the drive to school squinting out the window as Reed, infuriated, sped through every stop sign between home and campus in an attempt to make up the time they’d lost. Then, after stumbling to class and kicking a step so hard that she bruised her foot, she spent the first part of it squinting at the board as well. But it was no use. Her shell was too bright and her surroundings too dim. Eventually, after giving herself a headache trying to see, she gave up and closed her eyes. It was a miserable hour.

On her way out of the room after class, Riley walked into a chair. She heard a chuckle behind her and she blushed. And to her horror, her turtle shell got even brighter. It was all she could do to find the exit.

When she finally stepped outside the building, she took a few careful steps in the direction of her next class, and then stopped.

On a bench to her left was a gray glowing man.

She swallowed hard. It’s him.

Riley stared as Xander thumbed through some papers he was examining. After a few seconds, he sat up straight and looked around as if he could tell he was being watched. When he spotted Riley, Xander slammed his book shut and stuffed it in his bag. Then he stood up and walked toward her.

He looked even bigger than he had before, perhaps because he was standing in a sea of undergrads that were all a foot shorter than he was. As he came closer to her, Riley fought the temptation to take a step back.

“It’s good to see you again, Riley.” Xander said, wearing a frown again. “Will you walk with me for a minute?” He gestured toward Cook Field, which was both out in the open and fairly empty at the moment.

Safe and out of earshot. Maybe now I can get some answers. Riley nodded.

As they walked in that direction, she asked, “Do you always chase down new... warriors like this?” Even the word sounded crazy. ‘Warrior’ implied wars, and she had to be one of the least intimidating people on the planet.

“If I’m lucky enough to find them,” Xander replied in an amused tone, although he still didn’t smile. “I also do reconnaissance. I’m glad we have a big turtle in the clan now, though. You’ll be great at hiding once you’ve been trained.”

Reconnaissance? “I haven’t agreed to be in a clan. Or to be trained. This all sounds very ‘James Bond’ to me. Warriors, chasing people up and down the river, reconnaissance... it’s freaking me out.”

“I’d be a lot more worried about you if it wasn’t.”

“And training or no training, I’m not really warrior material. I mean, look at me.” Riley gestured to herself.

Xander shook his head. “Warrior powers have nothing to do with your size.” They came to an intersection, and he paused and glanced around. “I want to meet with you sometime off campus so we can discuss all this openly, and try to find out what your powers are.”

She shook her head. “I can’t bring you home. I would never be able to explain any of this to my brothers. And I’m sure as hell not going to your place.”

Xander’s lips twitched. “How many brothers do you have?”

“Two.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Did you say anything to them about what happened at the river?”

“No. How do you tell someone something like that? I figured I could maybe show them, if possible... you know... but between home and school,” and being scared to death, “I haven’t yet.”

“Good. With any luck they can both lift the Veil. And if they can, we’ll keep it a secret.”

“From whom?”

“The rest of the clan.”

“What for?” she demanded.

“It’s complicated.”

Riley frowned at him. “I’m already sick of how complicated this is.”

“I understand. We only met last week, and this is a lot to take in, and you don’t have any reason to trust me. I get it. But it’s best that if your brothers turn out to Unveiled, we don’t say anything about that to anyone. Best for the clan, and best for them.”

“Well, on the surface that sounds like a great idea. If I talked about this in public, someone would put me in a padded cell. But it also sounds shady. I’m sorry, Xander. I need an explanation — a good one — or I won’t agree to keep anything from anybody. I hate secrets.”

Xander looked up at the sky for a minute as if he were praying for patience. When he looked down at her again, his frown was a kind one.

“There are some dangerous people who are… out to get us. Out to get the Greenwood clan, I mean. And one of those people knows immediately when we claim someone new. Because I claimed you by the river, you are now in danger like the rest of us. And if your brothers become Unveiled, the clan will want to claim them too, and they will be in danger.”

Riley started trembling. She wanted to ask him what kind of danger, but she was afraid he’d say it was the knife-wielding kind. “Why did you claim me if it put me in danger?”

“So those other men couldn’t do the same.” He sat down on a bench, and gestured to an empty spot beside him. “Please.”

Riley slowly sat down. She wasn’t sure how much of what he said she was willing to believe, but she was now certain that he did not want to hurt her.

He rubbed his hand over his bearded jaw. “Unattached Miyala can be claimed against their will. If the wrong clan did that to your brothers, it would be dangerous to all of us... to Greenwood and to them. So ignoring them is not an option. But I think it’s possible for me to claim your brothers without specifying a clan. That should protect them from seizure. There have been clanless warriors before. If I can do that, and if you and I keep the fact that they’re Unveiled a secret from our clan too, they may be safe from our enemies. They may even be able to help us protect the rest of Greenwood without anyone else identifying them.”

Riley nodded slowly. If Xander was telling the truth, his logic was sound. 

IF.

He lowered his voice. “These people, the Greenwood clan… they’re my family, Riley. Help me keep them safe, and I swear to you that I will do the same for you and your brothers.”

The voice inside her whispered again.

—Trust him—

Riley stared down at the grass. Xander’s right that I have no reason to trust him. But my gut says do it, so… “Okay. You’ve convinced me. For the time being I won’t mention my brothers’ abilities, if they have any, to the Greenwood clan, if I ever meet them.”

“Sooner or later you’ll meet them. You won’t be able to help it.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Look around at this campus,” Xander instructed her. As Riley glanced at the red brick and stone buildings, he said, “There are thousands of Veiled people here in Oxford. Billions in the world. Our best guess is that there are less than thirty thousand Miyala. And less than four thousand of those ever lift the Veil in their lifetimes. Most spend their entire lives Veiled... never knowing who they are, never seeing what you see, and never becoming who you now have the chance to become.”

Riley stared. “Am I supposed to be feeling a magic sense of destiny right now? Because I don’t. I know who I am, Xander. Being a so-called ‘Miyala’ doesn’t change that.”

Xander somehow managed to look pleased without smiling. “Who are you, then?”

“Riley Thornton. And maybe I’m one of these ‘Unveiled.’ But if that’s a part of me, it isn’t all of me. And it’s never going to define me.”

“We’ll see.”

They stared at each other for a moment. His glow hurt Riley’s already strained eyes. Irritated with her lack of clear vision, she bent down and dug a pair of flip-flops out of her bag. The second she removed her damp socks, her eyesight returned to normal.

Xander nodded. “I stay Veiled a lot, too,” he informed her. “It gets too easy to rely on your animal senses and miss things that only Veiled people would pick up on. I’ve been Unveiled on campus since last week though, hoping you’d spot me and talk to me about it.”

“It worked.” Riley glanced around and saw Reed walking toward them. “Speaking of spotting people, here comes my brother.”

I kind of like Xander, she admitted to herself. Let’s see what Reed thinks of him.

Her brother had an apple in his mouth, and was dripping papers behind him as he crossed the field. “Reed, you’re losing your notes!” Frustrated, Riley went after the lost papers as she made the introduction over her shoulder. “Xander, this is my twin brother, Reed. Reed, this is Xander Rainey.”

“Damn, you’re tall,” Reed observed as Xander stood up. He pulled his apple out of his mouth and smiled as the two men shook hands. “Are you a professor?”

“Nope. I’m working on my Masters in Zoology.” Xander turned back to Riley. “You didn’t say anything at all about last week?”

“Nothing.”

Reed frowned. “What about last week?”

“Catch,” Xander said to Reed, tossing him what looked like a pebble.

Reed caught it and examined it. “What’s this?”

Xander scowled. “It’s noth— wait. Wait a minute. Riley, walk a few feet away from us.”

Confused, she turned and walked back in the direction that she’d just gone to retrieve Reed’s papers.

After a few seconds, she heard Reed gasp. She turned, and saw him staring at Xander with his mouth hanging open.

“Whoa! You’re... you’re, like...” he sputtered.

Xander reached over and took the pebble — clay, Riley surmised — back from a panicked-looking Reed who had clearly just seen Xander glowing.

“That’s very interesting. Reed had to be outside your shell to see me, even though you’re Veiled right now.” Xander turned his scowl back to Riley. “Don’t worry about your brother. I’ll tell him everything myself. And I’ll make sure that I’m the one assigned to train you, Riley, since we’re both in school at Miami. That will enable me to secretly train Reed as well.”

“Training? Training for what? What are you talking about? And what the hell happened to my eyes?”

Riley shrugged and grabbed her backpack. “I still haven’t agreed to be trained. And my brother will be even harder to persuade than I am. Good luck with that.”

“What the fuck is going on?!” Reed snapped.

Riley shook her head. “Calm down. Everything is fine. I have to go to class now, but… talk to Xander. He will ‘tell you everything.’”

And then, we’ll see.