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don’t make me go.”
    “You know we wouldn’t make you go if we didn’t have to,” my mom says, tearing up. “But we have to follow the rules. It’s the same if a daughter or son of a Guardian received the Keepers’ mark. We’d make them train with us. If no one ever trained, then there’d be no warriors, no Foreseers, no Guardians, no one to protect the world.”
    “I won’t be protecting the world.” I scoot away from the table and stand up. “I’ll just be waiting around until something bad happens and then cleaning up the mess.”
    My mom quickly gets to her feet. “But you get to help track down the killer.”
    “Yeah, I guess.” I don’t agree with her, though. I could always run away until this all blows over, but since my grandpa Lucas can pretty much see everything, it’d be a pointless effort.
    I head out of the kitchen, needing to get some fresh air.
    “Where are you going?” My mom rounds the table after me.
    I hold up my hand, signaling for her to give me some room. “To say good-bye to Jayse.” Saying it aloud causes tears to flood my eyes, and it takes all of my energy not to let them pour out.
    She seems reluctant to let me go. “Text me when you get there, okay?”
    I nod then rush out of the room. Once I make it outside, I let the tears flow as I sprint across the field that stretches between my family’s house and Jayse’s family’s.
    By the time I reach the front door, I’m sobbing so hard I can barely breathe. I knock on the door before barging inside, something I’ve done almost every day for years now. The downstairs lights are off, which means his parents are probably out on a mission for the Keepers.
    I race upstairs, crossing my fingers Jayse didn’t go with them. Before his mark, he hardly ever went, but lately, he’s been gone more than he’s home.
    When I burst into his bedroom and find it empty, a weight crashes down on my chest as I realize how much stuff has changed.
    And it’s only going to change more.
    I sink into a recliner near the window, text my mom that I made it to Jayse’s, and then hug my legs to my chest.
    I want to be strong. Hell, I come from a family of Keepers, Foreseers, and even a witch, so I should be stronger than this. I should be able to face what’s ahead of me with my chin held high. But as I sit in Jayse’s room, I feel overwhelmingly alone and terrified, like a part of my life is slipping away from me forever.

Chapter 6
     
    I end up falling asleep in the recliner until Jayse eventually wakes me up by giving me a gentle shake.
    “Hey,” he says when I open my eyes.
    I sit up in the chair, stretching my arms above my head as I glance out the window at the sun rising above the mountains. “What time is it?”
    He glances at the clock on the nightstand. “A little after six.”
    I eye over the dirt on his clothes, the traces of blood on his knuckles, and the scratches on his arms, all typical wounds for a Keeper who just went on an outing. “Did you just get back from a mission?”
    He nods, exhaustedly sinking onto the edge of his bed. “It was a long, crazy night.” He rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands. “We actually had to go into a lair.”
    My eyes widen. “Since when do you guys raid lairs at night? And why are you guys doing so many raids? My parents went on one earlier yesterday too. Usually, you guys only do, like, four or five a year.”
    “We’ve been finding more of them. And going there at night … That was accidental. Something trapped us down there and we couldn’t get out.”
    “Do you know what did it?”
    He shakes his head, tracing his finger up and down a scratch on his arm. “We were lucky we got out.” He drags his hand through his hair, making the strands go askew. “I love my job and everything, but sometimes it’s hard.”
    “It’s good that you get to save people, though. Slaying all those vampires … Think about how many people you saved.”
    He glances up at me. “You sound