My muddle of thoughts was interrupted by the penetrating way Silas was staring at me. He cocked his head back and forth, as if trying to get the right angle on a strange new specimen that showed up on his lab table. “You’re the alpha, huh? Pretty. That’s interesting. I thought you’d be all haggish or something. We mostly hear horror stories about Guardians. You know, sin against nature all that.”

Sin against nature? What the hell is he talking about? I blinked at him, utterly unable to respond.

Silas’s eyes rolled to the side and looked Shay up and down. “Hmmm. And you must be the Scion.”

He walked in a slow circle around Shay, pausing to eye the back of his neck, and smiled. “And there’s the mark. Hey, hey. Things are looking up after all. Man, I’ve been waiting a long time hoping to meet you. I had my doubts that we’d get there. Grant says you like Hobbes. That’s fantastic. Too bad about the curse; sounded like your classmates were just about to embark on an interesting discussion when he got hexed. Oh, well.”

“Grant?” Shay sputtered. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Grant Selby,” Silas said. “He’s one of our agents.”

“Wait,” I said, blinking at him. “Our teacher? Our philosophy teacher is one of your spies?”

“He is.” Silas smiled. “Good cover, huh?”

Anika crossed the room, sorting through the mess of papers Silas had dropped onto the table. “We obviously can’t get near the Keepers without being detected. So we’ve taken to recruiting humans to be our eyes among them. Not many, obviously; we don’t want to risk any more lives than we have to. Mostly they are people who stumbled across our world by accident, caught in the crossfire, that sort of thing. The ones who have a genuine interest in the war’s outcome usually offer to help. The most able are sent right into it. Spies.”

“And you have them teach us?” I asked. It seemed crazy. Dangerous and crazy. Who would sign up for a mission like that? Mr. Selby was either very brave or had a serious death wish.

“That school is the easiest place to track Keeper investments because it offers the juncture of human, Guardian, and Keeper lives,” Silas said. “And they employ only human teachers. We’ve been able to keep at least one and sometimes two agents on its staff for the past few years. They’ve significantly improved our intelligence operations.”

“He always has to bring that up,” Connor whispered to Adne in a voice loud enough for all of us to hear. “It’s not like he’s the only person who’s had an original idea in this outfit.”

I nodded, ignoring Connor’s snide remark, but then frowned. “If Mr. Selby knows about our world, why did he talk about Hobbes in class? Do you know whathappened to him?”

Our teacher had discussed The War of All Against All—a topic raised by Shay but strictly forbidden by the school’s proprietors, the Keepers—and he’d paid for it. I remembered the way he’d flailed at the front of the classroom, spittle running down his face. Magical torture disguised as a seizure.

Anika grimaced, but Connor started laughing. “Yes, and it happened because he’s a sentimental fool. Nearly got himself caught there.”

He batted his eyelashes at Shay. “He was just so taken with the fact that the Scion wanted to talk about Hobbes. Thought it was a sign from on high or something.”

Shay scowled.

“It probably is,” Silas said. “If you’d crack a book, you’d appreciate the connection. But then again, you’d have to learn to read first . . .”

“You knew something like that was bound to happen when we let him recruit an agent.” Connor ignored the Scribe, speaking to Anika. “Silas has all the wrong priorities.”

“Grant has done exceptional work,” Silas sneered.

“That slipup almost blew his cover,” Connor said. “It was stupid, and he should have known better.”

“Better than that troglodyte you brought on board,” Silas said, shuffling through a mound of papers. “I wouldn’t set foot in that dunghill he operates. Then again, you probably already have all the diseases you could catch in the Rundown.”

“It’s Burnout, moron,” Connor said. “And it’s as good a cover as the school. The wolves are there all the time.”

“Burnout?” I gaped. “Tom Shaw is an operative?” I thought of the gruff manager of our favorite dive bar. A place we found refuge from the Keepers’ scrutiny—and were never carded. Tom was Nev’s friend, the drummer in their band. Was all of that just for show so he could glean information from us when we hung out at the bar?

“He is.” Monroe glanced wearily between Connor and Silas.

“Hardly the keen observer that Grant has been for us,” Silas sniffed.

“Tom’s got better connections.” Connor had pulled out his dagger and thumbed the edge of the blade while throwing menacing looks at Silas. “He’ll be a linchpin in this alliance. Grant hasn’t gotten his hands dirty the way Tom has. That school is a cushy place to cool your heels.”

If you aren’t being tailed by a succubus. Grant wasn’t the only one who’d been punished at the Mountain School. I squirmed at the memory of Nurse Flynn’s fingernails digging into my cheeks when she walked in on Ren and me. Then I blushed when I remembered what we’d been doing. I glanced guiltily at Shay, but he wasn’t looking at me.