During a mental self-defense lesson, Julian tried to instruct me on the best way to evade answering Terry’s invasive questions. “He’ll goad you,” Julian said. “You just have to keep your head. If all else fails, just don’t say a word. He can’t twist your words if you don’t give him any to twist.

“Didn’t Julian mention the pendant to you?” I asked. “No,” Nicholas said curtly. “He gave me this.” I lifted the pendant higher, for Nicholas to see. “He said that all I have to do is press down on the moon, and my location would be sent to him. I asked him to include you in on it…” “Convenien

Where could I hide? Behind the desk? But wouldn’t that be the first place someone would go to if they came to this room? There weren’t many other spots to hide. A couple of high-back chairs were dotted around, but they wouldn’t provide much cover. “Piper?” My thoughts came to a screeching halt.

Together, Julian, Nicholas, and I walked out into the hallway. We made it down to the main hallway before Terry himself saw us and stepped into our path. Julian, Nicholas, and I stopped in our tracks. “There you are, Piper. And I see you’ve run into my errant nephews.” “Don’t worry, uncle,” Ju

Terry slowly trailed his hand up the length of my thigh. He stopped at the meatiest point, just beneath my hip and squeezed. I wanted to bolt from the table. I wanted to elbow him in the ribs or kick at his shins. All I could actually do was sit very still and try not to draw attention from the