The Shadow Prince

chapter thirty-six DAPHNE

After Haden is gone, I pick up the list of things I know about him and add sometimes talks like Thor.

This day definitely can’t get more surreal.

A light flashes in my eyes and I jump, hitting my back on the base of the statue behind me. Tobin lowers his camera and laughs. “That was a good one. I’ll give it a ‘dazed and confused in the daytime’ caption.”

“What the crap are you doing?”

Tobin raises his camera to take another picture of me. I push him away. “Go away. You know they don’t allow paparazzi past the gate, dork face.”

“Come on, it’s for the yearbook!” Tobin seems way too happy, considering our earlier conversation.

“Since when were you on yearbook?”

“Since I found out from the librarian that the yearbook staff has commandeered the school collection of yearbooks dating all the way back to the founding year. They’re working on a project to scan and digitize all of them and put them online for OHH’s fiftieth anniversary. I guess it’s supposed to ‘nostalgialize’ the alumni into sending big, fat donation checks.”

“Which means you’ll have access to class lists for the last fifty years.”

“Exactly. I am going to find every Lord who has ever gone to this school and cross-reference them with the girls who went missing. The investigative avenues will be endless after that.”

“That’s going to take a while,” I say, but it’s far preferable to the thought of Tobin getting arrested for hacking government files.

“How’s your end going?” he asks.

I show him my meager list about Haden. “But I think the perfect opportunity to study Haden more closely just fell into my lap. He just came over and requested that I help him prepare for singing at the ‘festivities of lighting up Olympus.’ ” I move my arms while I’m speaking, acting like I’m doing an impersonation of a robot.

Tobin laughs. “That’s perfect.”

I stick out my tongue as he snaps a picture of me.

He puts the camera down and gets real quiet for a few minutes, absentmindedly picking blades of grass.

I fish my phone out of my tote bag and check to see if I have any messages or texts from CeCe, explaining why she quit and left town. I expect to find at least a good-bye text, but there’s nothing. I try to send her my own text, but it doesn’t go through. Like her number has been disconnected. I blink back tears, wondering why CeCe would just cut me out of her life like this.

Tobin brushes my arm, drawing my attention. I give him a small smile, happy to still have a friend like him.

“Just promise me you’ll be careful around Haden, okay?” he says. “Don’t get too close.”

I nod, remembering that Haden might be dangerous.