Maya Marlowe had read enough romance novels to know what getting out of someone else's car at eight in the morning usually meant. Unfortunately, Raine Graves was currently getting out of Noah Santiago's.

Maya stopped halfway across the school parking lot. Her coffee remained suspended near her mouth.

No. Fucking. Way.

Noah's car had barely finished settling into the parking space when the passenger door opened. Raine climbed out. Maya slowly lowered her cup.

Oh. Oh, this was excellent.

His black hair was considerably messier than usual. One of the white pieces framing his face was sticking out at an angle that suggested either sleep deprivation or violence. Knowing Raine, possibly both.

His red leather jacket was wrinkled. His cropped band tee was the same one he'd worn yesterday. Same jeans too. Maya's eyes narrowed. Interesting. Very.

The driver's door opened. Noah stepped out. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Sun-kissed skin. Cream-colored shirt. Shell necklace. Looking offensively well put together for someone arriving at school with Maya's best friend after what appeared to be an overnight stay.

Maya took a slow sip of coffee. She had been joking yesterday. Mostly.

The whole you are going to marry him thing had been approximately seventy percent harassment and thirty percent genuine observation. But this?

This was evidence. Maya loved evidence. Especially when it supported conclusions she had already reached with absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

Noah said something she couldn't hear. Raine looked at him. Noah smiled. Raine shoved him. Noah shoved him back. Raine smiled. Maya's eyes widened.

Oh, they were fucked.

Raine turned toward the school. Saw her. Stopped. His face immediately changed. Maya smiled. Raine pointed at her from thirty feet away.

"Don't."

She hadn't even said anything. That made it better. Maya lifted both hands innocently. Raine's eyes narrowed. Noah glanced between them.

"What?"

"Nothing," Maya called.

Raine started walking toward her.

"She's lying."

"I am standing silently in a parking lot."

"You're thinking."

"Generally."

"Stop."

Maya fell into step beside him. She gave him three whole seconds. Three. A personal record.

"So."

"No."

"I didn't ask anything."

"You're about to."

"I was going to ask whether you slept well."

Raine nearly missed a step. Maya bit the inside of her cheek. Behind them, Noah coughed. Suspiciously. Raine turned.

"Don't."

Noah lifted his hands.

"I didn't say anything."

"You're both terrible people."

Maya looked Raine over again.

"You're wearing yesterday's clothes."

Raine looked down. Then back at her.

"I know how clothing works."

"Do you?"

"Yes."

"Interesting."

"Maya."

"No judgment."

"There is an enormous amount of judgment happening on your face."

"That's just how my face looks."

"You look delighted."

"I'm happy to see you."

"You saw me yesterday."

"And now I'm seeing you leave Noah's car wearing yesterday's outfit. Growth."

Raine closed his eyes. Noah laughed. Maya's attention snapped to him. Excellent. She liked him more already. Raine started walking faster. Maya matched him easily.

Being five-foot-seven had several benefits. One of them was that Raine's five-foot-two legs could not escape her without putting in significantly more effort.

"Did you stay at his apartment?"

"No."

Noah, still behind them, said:

"Yes."

Raine stopped. Slowly. Maya stopped too. Noah stopped. Raine turned around. Noah's expression immediately changed.

"Oh."

Raine stared at him.

"Why?"

Noah blinked.

"What?"

"Why would you do that?"

"You literally stayed at my apartment."

"I KNOW."

Maya gasped.

"You did?"

Raine turned toward her.

"You didn't know?"

"No!"

"You fucking—"

"I made an educated guess!"

"You accused me of—"

"I didn't accuse you of anything!"

"You were about to!"

"I was gathering evidence!"

"You read too much."

Maya placed a hand against her chest.

"That is deeply offensive."

Noah tried—and failed—not to smile. Maya looked between them. Then noticed something. Not a mark. Not anything dramatic. Just the way Noah looked away when Raine looked at him. And the way Raine immediately did the same.

Oh. Something happened. Maybe not what she'd initially assumed. But something. Maya's smile returned. Raine noticed.

"Don't."

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

Noah looked at the pavement. Maya stared at him. Then Raine.

"Oh my God."

"Nothing happened."

"That was the worst lie you have ever told me."

"I lie to you constantly."

"Yes, and usually you're good at it."

Raine shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.

"Maya."

She leaned closer.

"What?"

He lowered his voice.

"We kissed."

Maya froze. Noah froze. Raine immediately looked like he regretted being alive. Maya stared. Once. Twice. Then:

"You WHAT?"

Raine grabbed her arm.

"Jesus fucking Christ."

"You KISSED HIM?"

"Could you say it louder? I don't think the freshmen heard."

"I CAN TRY."

"Maya."

Noah was red. Actually red. That was adorable. Maya pointed at him.

"You kissed my best friend."

Noah opened his mouth. Closed it. Raine groaned.

"Technically, neither of us knows who kissed who first."

Maya's mouth fell open.

"That is somehow worse."

"Why?"

"Because that's disgusting."

Raine blinked.

"You literally read romance novels."

"Exactly. I recognize the symptoms."

Noah laughed. Raine glared.

"It wasn't romantic."

Maya looked at Noah. Noah looked at Raine. Raine noticed.

"What?"

Neither answered. Raine's eyes narrowed.

"Fuck both of you."

He started walking again. Maya hurried after him.

"How many times?"

Raine's entire body went rigid.

"No."

"That wasn't a number."

"No."

"Twice?"

"No."

"Three?"

Raine said nothing. Maya gasped.

"THREE?"

"I DIDN'T SAY THAT."

"You didn't have to!"

"You are a plague."

Noah covered his mouth. Maya looked at him.

"Sunshine, help me out here."

Noah stopped walking. Raine stopped too. Slowly. Maya's eyebrows rose.

"Sunshine?"

Noah groaned. Raine stared at Maya as if calculating whether witnesses were worth the inconvenience. Maya smiled.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"You call him Sunshine?"

"No."

Noah said, "Yes."

Raine spun around.

"Why are you like this?"

Noah smiled.

"I call you Dracula."

Maya's entire soul left her body. She looked between them. Sunshine. Dracula. After two days. She pressed both hands over her mouth. Raine pointed at her.

"Whatever you're about to say, don't."

Maya dropped her hands.

"This is better than books."

"I hate you."

"No, you don't."

Unfortunately, Maya knew he didn't. Raine rolled his eyes and headed toward the school. Noah followed. Maya watched them for a moment. The amusement stayed. Mostly. But something else settled beneath it.

Raine looked exhausted. Not normal exhausted. Raine was always tired. This was different. His shoulders were tight despite all the joking. He kept glancing over his shoulder. And Noah kept checking the parking lot. Windows. Doors. People. Not nervously. Deliberately.

Like he expected something to be there. Maya's smile faded. Something was wrong. She knew Raine. She knew the difference between I slept four hours and something happened and I don't want you to ask.

Today was definitely the second. And whatever Noah Santiago was hiding— Maya intended to find out.

⸻

Maya Marlowe looked very human. That was intentional. Mostly.

Humans saw a tall girl with warm brown skin, dark eyes, and an unreasonable amount of hair.

The hair did most of the work. Her curls were dark brown, almost black, tightly coiled and thick enough to qualify as structural engineering. They fell to just above her butt in their natural state.

If she ever straightened them, which she refused to do on principle, they would probably reach somewhere around her knees.

Maya considered this information irrelevant because straightening her hair would take six hours and several acts of divine intervention.

More importantly, the curls hid her horns. Two small dark horns grew close to her scalp and curved gently backward. She had never bothered glamouring them. Why would she? Nobody could see the fucking things.

Finding Maya's scalp required commitment. Her legs were another matter. Those needed magic.

Beneath the glamour that made her look completely human from the knees down, her legs were covered in dark brown fur and ended in cloven hooves.

Satyr. That was the word humans would've used. Maya rarely thought about it. She thought about it roughly as often as Raine thought about having green eyes. It was just there. She had been born that way.

Technically, Maya had been born nineteen years ago. She was not nineteen. Not really.

Satyrs had a Still Year. The first year of their existence barely counted as development at all. Their bodies lived. Breathing. Sleeping. Growing just enough to remain alive. But development itself waited. No real physical progression. No meaningful mental growth. No memories. A year of stillness. Then life began properly.

So Maya had existed for nineteen years. But she had lived eighteen. Physically, mentally, socially— eighteen.

Explaining this to humans was exhausting, so she generally didn't. Her mortal paperwork said eighteen. Close enough.

Her father called it "translating." Maya called it "avoiding stupid questions." Raine, who knew none of this, would absolutely call it lying.

She planned to enjoy that argument eventually. Not soon. Eventually.

Today Maya wore a chocolate-brown cable-knit sweater tucked loosely into a long plaid skirt that fell nearly to her ankles. A worn leather belt sat around her waist. Dark loafers covered the illusion of human feet. Several thin gold rings decorated her fingers. A little gold pendant in the shape of an oak leaf rested against her chest.

Brown academia, according to the internet. "Dressing like a haunted librarian," according to Raine. Maya preferred her description.

Her leather satchel contained: three notebooks, two pens that worked, six pens that did not, a calculator, a paperback romance novel, another paperback romance novel in case the first one became boring, and approximately fourteen receipts she needed to throw away.

She was prepared for anything. Except calculus. Nobody was prepared for calculus.

⸻

"Why are you smiling at your history book?"

Maya looked up. Raine sat beside her in study hall with his head resting against one fist.

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I enjoy education."

"No, you don't."

"I enjoy history."

"You're holding the textbook upside down."

Maya looked down. Fuck. Raine's eyes narrowed.

"Are you reading porn again?"

She immediately closed the book hidden inside her textbook.

"It is romance."

"There's a shirtless man on the cover."

"He's a duke."

"That makes it worse."

"He's emotionally unavailable."

"Shocking."

"And she hates him."

"Sounds healthy."

"They're forced to marry."

Raine stared. Maya smiled.

"You wouldn't understand."

"I understand that apparently every book you read is about people who should get restraining orders."

"You kissed Noah after knowing him for two days."

Raine's mouth closed. Maya leaned back. Victory.

"That has nothing to do with anything."

"It has everything to do with everything."

"No."

"You're literally living one of my books."

"Please stop saying that."

"Hot mysterious transfer student?"

Raine sighed.

"Shared passion?"

"Maya."

"Immediate hostility disguising attraction?"

"I was actually hostile."

"Sure."

"Mutual nicknames?"

"Fuck off."

"Secret sleepover?"

"It wasn't a sleepover."

"Then what was it?"

Raine opened his mouth. Stopped. Maya smiled. He flipped her off. She blew him a kiss.

For a second, everything felt normal. Then Maya noticed his hand. His fingers were scratching at the side of his thumb. Slowly. Repeatedly. Anxiety. Her smile faded.

"How's your mom?"

Raine stopped. There. Gone. Everything playful disappeared behind his eyes.

"Fine."

Lie. Maya knew that lie. She knew all his lies. Not the details behind them. Raine guarded those carefully. But she'd known him long enough to understand his tells. Too fast? Lie. Too sarcastic? Probably lie. "Fine" with no insult attached? Definitely lie. Maya looked back at her book.

"Okay."

Raine frowned.

"You're not going to ask?"

"No."

"Why?"

Maya shrugged.

"You'll tell me if you want to."

Silence. She could feel him looking at her. Then:

"That's creepy."

Maya smiled faintly.

"You love me."

"Debatable."

"I've seen you cry."

"You're blackmailing me now?"

"Always."

He snorted. Better. Maya glanced sideways. His shoulders had relaxed. Not much. Enough. She reopened her book. A shirtless duke stared dramatically across a cliff. Much better.