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"You went looking for the girl and found a pack of olves," I said

"And the pack’s alpha had just taken in a little girl, a huirl, and he told me that she’d need somebody to take care of her, because the rest of the pack would always be bigger, and they’d always be stronger, and she’d be alone"

To sorown up as the only normal kid in a coven of psychics, Callum’s words must have really hit home My whole life--or at least Ali’s part in it--suddenly made so ht me to be my own person because no one had ever done that for her

"The coven in town Is it the same one you--"

"No" Ali didn’t even wait for ht be That’s part of the reason I ith you today, but I didn’t recognize any of the people we just saw, and if I had to guess, I’d say this coven is much smaller than ours was Their knacks are ones I’ve seen before, but that’s to be expected For every million people who have a ith animals, there’s one who can influence the lullabies that put babies to sleep, there are a handful who can put nor drea inside other people’s heads, and I’d lay ten-to-one odds on this coven having an empath, because the hatred the three in town felt when they talked about olves wasn’t just theirs Their pupils were the size ofattention to pupil size, but I’d seen an alien depth to the eerous On soet had spoken about Caroline If so the psychics’ emotions to make them hate olves, it seeing the scared of Caroline

Or at least iven the whole "I was born to hunt" thing

"You said that most powers are just extensions of natural abilities--like the way Keely is really easy to talk to, and the way that people like me are … scrappy" I paused "But you heard how quiet Caroline hen she was tracking us She got within an inch of us withoutAt school yesterday, none of the Weres could catch her scent, and she says she has a eapons, that once she takes aim, she neveraround the bush "She feels like a predator, Ali That’s not just a knack, and it really doesn’t seem that mental Even the other psychics are scared of her So is she one of the else?"

I really was not ready to deal with a soah for me, thank you very much

"She’s a psychic," Ali replied, "but knacks with physicala set of skills, instead of just one, isn’t what I would call coood that did us

"In most covens, the person with the most power is usually the leader"

I heard the stress Ali put on the word usually, and responded, "And when they’re not?"

"Then they’re the odd one out"

The same way a norht of the way she’d introduced herself to Caroline, the way she’d accused the adults of using a child to do their dirty work The rest of the coven had approached us as a group, but twice now, they’d sent Caroline after s she could do like she wasn’t quite huet inforh the peripherals That e kept the Wayfarer restaurant open to people passing through from other packs, and that hy step two of et the coven outsider alone

Again

A plan began to form in my mind, and it occurred tooff my human education forever

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE BEST THING ABOUT HAVING FRIENDS WHO KNEW nized fro to talkabout being alpha was that on some level, all three of us knew that even if they hadn’t been inclined to go along with the plan, I could have forced it