“I don’t understand.”

“You will.” His father looked back at Jay. “The file for this weekend is upstairs if you want to take a look.”

His uncle straightened. “Sure. I have time.”

“File?” Hunter’s ears perked up. If Uncle Jay was involved, that meant it was Elemental business. His father worked private security jobs on his own. “You have a job this weekend?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” said his father.

“Let him listen,” said Jay. “You said it’s just surveillance for now, right? He’ll be doing it himself soon enough.”

Hunter’s dad smiled and smacked his brother on the back of the head good-naturedly—but his eyes were serious. “I said, it’s nothing he needs to worry about.”

“You know I can keep a secret,” said Hunter.

Hunter’s dad lost the smile. “It’s not about keeping secrets. I don’t want you in on this stuff any sooner than you need to be.”

“But why? You tell me about your private-duty stuff all the time. But this is the stuff I should be learning—”

“No,” said his dad, and his eyes were fierce. “It’s not a game, Hunter. You’re not ready.”

Hunter gritted his teeth. He took every lesson seriously. He followed every rule his father laid out. His skills with a rifle could rival real sharpshooters. Any challenge his father set, he could do it. He had done it.

“I know it’s not a game,” he said.

“Good. Then forget we mentioned it.”

“Is this because I brought a girl home?” Hunter wanted to punch the wall, but he was well practiced in maintaining control, especially when his father was around. He kept his voice even. “You said you weren’t mad.”

“I’m not. And this isn’t a punishment.”

“What good is all this training if you’re never going to let me use it?”

“Hunter.”

“Maybe if you would let me have the chance—”

“Hunter. I said no.”

That tone was final, like throwing up a wall. A point of no return. For a bare instant, Hunter wanted to knock it down, to rebel and throw a fit.

But that would just make his father throw up a new wall, a stronger one.

His father wasn’t waiting around for him to make a choice, anyway. He turned and started through the door, saying, “Lock up when you’re done in here.”

Like Hunter would sit down here and sulk.

Actually, he would have if his dad hadn’t said something.

Now he stood back and waited for his uncle to go through the doorway, then flipped the light switch and locked the door.

But he stopped Jay at the bottom of the stairs.

“Hey,” he said, his voice low, “what did Dad tell you about girls?”

His uncle laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, and Hunter thought he was going to brush off the question.

But Jay leaned in and lost the smile. “Use them before they use you.”

Hunter thought about his father’s and uncle’s warnings all night.

He couldn’t line it all up in his head.

If Clare was using him, it was just for information, and that seemed kind of weak. She could learn practically anything about guns from Wikipedia. It didn’t seem worthwhile to follow him home from school for something she could find in zero-point-six seconds on Google.

And regardless of whether she was using him, he sure didn’t want to use her.

Clare’s apprehension about guns was real—his abilities were strong enough to sense that. Her concern for her brother felt real, too. Maybe she just craved some kind of experience, some way to understand what her brother would be handling.

And she’d hung close to him in the gun locker. She hadn’t minded when his arms went around her, when he’d placed his hands over hers and showed her how to grip the weapon.

But still, his father’s lessons were never something to be treated lightly. Hunter could feel the seeds of future disappointment taking root already.

I’ll be mad if you don’t learn it the first time around.

What did that mean? Did his father expect him to cut Clare off now, before anything else happened?

He could do that. It would be easy enough. They hardly knew each other, and this was the last week of school.

But it felt . . . wrong. He was sixteen years old, not six. He didn’t have to brush off some girl just because his daddy didn’t think they should play together.

Maybe he didn’t have to worry about it at all. The way they’d been caught had been plenty embarrassing. Today was his alternate schedule, too, so he didn’t have Government. Maybe he’d walk into school and find her giggling about him with her girlfriends. Even better, maybe he’d make it through the whole day without seeing her at all.

No. He found her waiting at his locker after last period.

Sleeveless sundress, brown hair shining, a splash of freckles across her shoulders.

He tried not to think of what it would be like to show her how to hold a weapon while she was wearing that.

She smiled at him. “I’ve been worried about you all day. Did you get in trouble because of me?”

He shrugged a little and worked the combination lock. She smelled like mangoes again, and it took effort to keep his eyes on the spinning numbers. “Nah. My dad was actually cool with it.”

“Really? So I can come back?”