The morose mood in Beacon Hills didn't change over the next two weeks. Everything around me seemed tinged with grey, as though the world was just as tired of all the shit going on as rest of us were.

The town should have been relieved that the police had caught the person responsible for all the recent murders, but the news was tainted with horror at the idea that the murderer had been someone from the community, someone who was just a kid. The shock was doubled when the story of Matt's motives had gotten out. Scott had told the sheriff all about Matt's story, drowning in the pool and the cover up led by Mr. Lahey. It was horrible, but it made the pill go down easier, in a way. Everyone had already found out that Isaac's dad had abused him. What was one more ruined childhood to tack on?

It was a weird position to be in, knowing the whole truth. I wasn't sure if Matt deserved the sympathy some people were giving him. I didn't want to hear anyone justifying his actions, but at the same time, it was Kate all over again. Matt had been a human, no matter how profoundly fucked up he was. What did anyone truly deserve after hurting people like that?

Whenever I got caught thinking about that, I tried to focus on what Stiles had told me on our first day back at school. The police had searched the Daehler home to look for any other evidence pertaining to the case. What they'd found on Matt's computer was enough to make me glad he was dead and buried.

I'd thought Matt was delusional for thinking I was out to sabotage his relationship with Allison. As it turned out, I wasn't far off the mark. His laptop had been something straight out of Criminal Minds, filled with photoshopped pictures of him and Allison and their sweet, happy life together. Some of the pictures I assume he took, but he also had pictures that were older, childhood pictures of Allison that no one knew how he'd acquired. They all showed the two of them smiling, holding hands, kissing, the works. Thankfully, that tidbit of information hadn't been released to the public.

I wanted to talk to Allison about it. The police had to have told her family, and as far as I knew, Allison had never told them what was going on. I wanted to ask if she was alright, but I knew she wasn't. She hadn't come back to school, and I hadn't seen Gerard walking around the halls either. Whether that was because they were out hunting Derek or he was biding his time in his office, I wasn't sure, but it did send a clear message: the Argents hadn't changed their stance on Derek. The war was not over.

Allison wasn't the only person missing from school. Isaac, Erica, and Boyd had all disappeared again, no doubt in hiding with Derek. I'd tried calling to check in on them, but everyone was ignoring my calls. People whispered in the hallways and stared at the empty desks they'd once occupied. It was strange, the amount of attention they were getting. A few months ago, no one would have noticed their absence. The bite had given them a sort of notoriety, and now their disappearance seemed to draw even more attention than the murders. All anyone could guess was that they'd run away. I heard more than one person suggest they had the right idea.

More concerning than anything else was Jackson. He was also conspicuously missing from his classes. I'd tried talking to Danny about it, but he was still a little salty about the fact that I'd coerced him into coming to a birthday party that got crashed by the cops. He'd just managed to escape, but it was his second brush with the law in a month, and he was not pleased.

"Do you know how dead I would be if my parents found out I went out drinking again? My mom would not hesitate to pull a Daehler."

"Can you not say that?" I begged, leaning on the locker next to him. "Everything's bad enough without turning it into a joke."

"Hey, we all cope differently. If you want to be deadly serious, that's fine, but joking is the only thing that keeps me sane."

"Right, because you were a regular comedian that night you get drugged at the club."

"See, now you're kinda being rude again? And I really don't need that negativity right now."

I groaned as he slammed his locker shut, tailing him to his history class. "Fine, if you don't want to talk to me, you don't have to, but can you at least let someone know if you see Jackson around?"

"And by someone I'm assuming you mean report him to you, Stilinski, or McCall?"

"Not report…exactly…"

"Care to share why you guys are suddenly keeping tabs on him?"

"Just because of…reasons…"

Danny shot me an unimpressed look.

"Well, what do you want me to say?" I demanded. "He hasn't exactly been acting normal the past few months."

"You know what? Neither have you." He stopped short outside his classroom, rounding on me with a glare. "Jackson's my friend. We're supposed to be friends, Sadie. And I get that whatever you guys are wrapped up in is super weird and dangerous or whatever, but friends warn each other. Friends protect each other and tell the truth. The least you could do is be honest with me. Jackson is."

He stormed away from me before I could say anything else, and a moment later, the bell rang. I hesitated, wanting to go after him, but knowing it was pointless. I sighed and hurried off to my class on the other side of the building.

Wherever Jackson was, he didn't seem to be killing people. That, with the combined absence of the Argents, made me uneasy. I'd told Stiles and Scott about what Deaton had suggested—that Gerard was only interested in the kanima to use it as a weapon—and they agreed that it was just horrifying enough to be true. The problem was, without Jackson or Gerard, there was no way to tell for sure if we were right. We talked about drawing them out, but every scenario we could think of ended with more death. In the end, there was nothing we could do but wait until we were slaughtered in our sleep.

Scott was the only supernatural teen left standing, but even he wasn't the same. He didn't talk much. From what I could gather from Stiles, Mrs. McCall had taken to avoiding her son at all costs. She still took care of him to an extent, but dinner was always left in the fridge, her bedroom door closed. It might not have been so bad if Scott didn't know she was there. But he did. He came home at the end of each day to his mother's terrified heartbeat and baited breath as she heard the front door close. His whole house must smell like fear, and he couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't think of anything worse.

As Stiles pointed out to me, between Scott's family problems, Jackson's double life, Allison's new vendetta, and his own strained relationship with his father after being held hostage, Lydia and I were the new standard for normal. That was pretty messed up, considering I was still having nightmares every night and Lydia had just resurrected a murderer.

But all things considered, Lydia was doing better than she had in a while. Maybe even since the attack at the video store. She'd been up and ready for school on Monday morning with a smile firmly in place, coffee in each hand by the time I got downstairs. She'd gone over all her notes and all the chapters we'd covered in our textbooks so she could get back to participating in class, and she'd handled the stares and snide comments from our peers with a grace I was amazed even existed on this planet.

"Oh hey, guys," Christine Ashwood said, stopping by Lydia's locker as we grabbed her things. "How did your party turn out? I was like, super shocked to hear about the cops. I didn't know anyone was going."

Lydia had a hand on my arm before I could take more than two steps forward. She looked at Christine, scanning her up and down with a withering eye before smiling.

"Oh yeah, it was killer. We got off scot free, anyway. It's such a shame you couldn't make it, but I totally get it. Since you're failing chemistry and English, it's probably safer to stay home and study."

Christine glowered, turning on her heel and stomping down the hallway without another word.

"Honestly," Lydia snorted, turning back to her locker. "Did she think she was going to be the new Queen Bee? Beacon Hills might be full of psychopaths, but it's not that crazy."

"Have I ever told you that you're my hero?" I asked with a grin.

Lydia beamed, and tilted her head to the side in thought. "Maybe? But I wouldn't mind hearing it again."

"Lydia Martin, you are my hero."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Sadie. Walk me to class."

In a weird way, her disaster of a birthday party did end up being Lydia's rebirth. She still wasn't one hundred percent filled in on what had happened, but she knew enough to understand that everything that had happened to her over the last few months was out of her hands. There wasn't anything wrong with her. She hadn't done anything wrong. That knowledge seemed to support her through the week. Lydia took the stares in stride as she'd always done, because she knew a lot more about the world than anyone else in school did, even if she didn't know everything. Yet.

The two of us had made a pact about everything going on in Beacon Hills: if we could make it through a whole week of school without an incident, I would sit her down and tell her everything on Friday. If we couldn't make it through a whole week of school without an incident, we would stop everything so I could tell her as much as I could as fast as possible. It was probably a really stupid idea, but spring break hadn't been kind to either of us. We wanted to appreciate the peace in the eye of the storm as long as we could, knowing we still had to prepare for the opposite wall to hit.

Thankfully, Friday arrived without trouble. Stiles kissed me goodbye before running off with Scott, the promise of a boys' night too good to pass up. I waited for Lydia by her car, watching as the rest of the students flooded the parking lot. More out of habit than hope, I dialed Derek's cellphone number and leaned against the car as it rang.

"You are, without a doubt, the most annoyingly persistent person I have ever had the misfortune of knowing."

It took a moment for his greeting to process. I blinked at my reflection in the car window.

"You're alive."

"Yeah. I'm alive. Is that all? Because I'd really prefer to not be the on the phone right now."

"Wha—no! No, asshole, that is not all! Where are you? What the hell happened?"

"I'm in hiding. I don't know if you noticed, but the Argents put a pretty big price on my head."

I pursed my lips, glaring at the ground. "Did you know? When you bit her, did…did you know what would happen?"

"Victoria made a choice."

"Derek! Did you know what was going to happen if you bit her?"

"It was her or Scott. Not the hardest decision I've ever made."

"Goddamnit, Derek. I can't believe you didn't tell me."

"What, so you could be sad about it longer? The less you knew, the safer you were."

"That's not how it works, Derek! If you pulled your head out of your ass for a second and picked up your phone, maybe you'd remember that you're not the only one on the Argents' hit list!"

"That's exactly why I didn't pick up the phone," he growled. "You're in enough trouble as it is. If they thought you knew about Victoria—"

"They do think I knew about Victoria!"

There was a moment of silence. When Derek spoke again, his voice was almost shaking.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Allison and I knows that you and I are…she doesn't believe that you wouldn't tell me. She thinks that I knew about the bite, and I didn't tell her because I was trying to protect you."

"That's insane."

"Yeah, well, everyone around here is a little insane these days."

"Stay where you are. I'm coming to get you."

"Like hell you are."

"Damnit, Sadie, do you not get what's happening here? The Argents want me dead, and they will cut down anyone that gets in their way. If they think you helped me, if Gerard finds out what you did to Kate, you're even more dead than I am. There is no code anymore! Only vengeance and survival."

"Derek, I'm not going into hiding," I said, as evenly as I could. The fear and fury fighting each other in my throat made the words come out vibrating. "I've got other things I need to worry about."

"Be—I'm s—besides your life?!"

"Yes. Like my mom's life, and my friends' lives. Helping Scott get through a week where he can't talk to his mom because she's too afraid to look at him. Explaining to my best friend how she was manipulated by a dead man to raise him from the grave. Also, I wouldn't mind passing some of my classes."

"…You know what, I change my mind. You're also insane."

I smirked at his resigned tone. It was all too easy to imagine the furious way his face was working to fight off any hint of a smile.

"Have you heard from Peter?"

"No."

"Would you tell me if you had?"

"No."

"Are you planning on letting Isaac, Erica, and Boyd come back to school?"

"No."

"So what, you're gonna homeschool them now?"

"Sadie."

"I'm just saying, they're also kids," I reminded him. "Just like me. You want to protect them, and I get that, but while you're preaching vengeance and survival, there's a lot of other stuff they're missing. Like geometry."

"I don't think anyone misses geometry too much."

"Well, if they start getting antsy, they can pick up copies of their schoolwork at my house."

"Fantastic. Thank you, really."

"Can you drop the act for a second? I know this is hard for you. And I know you care about them more than you want to let on." I waited, but Derek didn't offer any sort of answer. After a few seconds, I sighed. "Okay. I'm hanging up now."

"Sadie, wait. Just…please be careful, okay? You…you always want to see the best in people. But not everyone out there has your best interests at heart. You can't trust everyone."

"You can't trust no one either, Derek. That's what Deaton was trying to tell you."

"I trust you."

If there was a way to feel like you were suffocating, but in the best way possible, I did. It felt like everything inside of me had stopped. And before I could break out of my stupor, Derek spoke again.

"Take care of yourself, Sadie. I'll talk to you soon."

The call ended, and I was still standing frozen in the half-empty parking lot.

Lydia flounced up to the car, already talking. I heard her say something about which teacher had agreed to extra credit and how she wasn't actually doing as bad on one class as she'd thought, but I was still staring down at my phone.

"Sadie? You okay?"

I shook my head, a small smile finally worming its way onto my face. "Uh…yeah. Yeah, I'm good."

"You want to get in the car?"

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

"Good," she said as I climbed into the passenger seat. "Because we have plans, and I don't want any of this weird shit messing things up."

"Lydia, our plans literally are weird shit."

"No, our plans include talking about weird shit. They also include listening to music and eating popcorn. So long as I don't have to go through anything traumatic today, I'm willing to mark it down as a win."

I laughed as she pulled out of her parking spot, joining the line of cars making their way to the exit.

The trip home was as normal as it ever had been. Lydia put on her music, pushed the limit on a few stop signs, and we made it home in just a few minutes. We kicked off our shoes, dropped our bags oat the door, and then peeked into my mom's office to let her know we were back. Lydia took responsibility of making the popcorn so I wouldn't burn it, and I poured drinks. Then we walked back up to Lydia's room and made ourselves comfortable on her bed.

And then we sat like that. For nearly thirty minutes.

We'd glance at each other from time to time, playing on our phones under the premise of checking one last email, one last text, but the silence stretched on, the awkwardness seeping in. In reality, we both knew it wasn't about an email or a text. It was about having one more moment to be normal. For Lydia, stepping forward meant there was no stepping back. She couldn't pretend anymore. For me, it meant finding where the first step even was. I had seven months of supernatural nonsense I had to explain to Lydia. Where was I even supposed to begin.

"Are we gonna do this?" Lydia asked finally, throwing her phone to the side.

"Yes," I answered without hesitation. "If you still want to do this."

"Of course I want to do this. I asked you to do this. Why wouldn't I want to do this?"

"I don't know. I mean, I do know. It's a lot, so I understand if you're not exactly looking forward to it."

"Sadie, I'm not looking forward to any of this, but we both know it's only a matter of time until something weird happens, and I don't care to be left alone while the rest of you go running off to save the day because I'm the only one who doesn't know what the hell is going on. So can you just get to the point?"

"Lydia…I don't think you really know how many different points there are…"

"Fine. Then start at the beginning."

She rolled her eyes, moving back so she could lean on her headboard and stare at me expectantly. I wrung my hands in front of me and took a deep breath.

Inside my head, my memories played in reverse like a video tape. The beginning was the attack on the video store. Well, really, the beginning was the night Scott got bitten. But if I didn't explain about Peter being the Alpha, then how did I explain about Scott? So, I probably needed to start with the Hales. But if I started with Peter and Derek, both of whom had tried to kill her, she might get the wrong idea about werewolves and not want to listen and—

"You can't start at the beginning," Lydia guessed, clicking her tongue.

"Uh…no…"

I carded my fingers through my hair, reviewing the information again while she glared at me. It didn't matter where I started, so long as I started. Any which way, I was bound to be backtracking and talking over myself anyway.

"Wait, okay," I said, my head snapping up. "Okay! The flash drive. I gave you the flash drive."

"The one full of archaic Latin?"

"Yes, that one! You translated some for us, and then a few days ago you said that you had translated a bit more on your own. Do…do you remember that?"

"Yes, Sadie," she said rolling her eyes. "I remember the Latin."

"Okay, well…that…all of that is uh…real."

Lydia stared at me blankly. I suddenly had a newfound appreciation for Stiles, and the way he'd patiently explained werewolves to me in the beginning. I'd have to remember to kiss him after this.

"You expect me to believe that the kanima is real?" she asked flatly.

"You knew it was gonna be weird," I reminded her. "And you know that nothing that's happened this year has been normal. So…yeah. The kanima, werewolves, they're…all real…"

"Right. And…you think I'm the kanima?"

"No," I said resolutely. "Well, we thought you were for a while. I didn't, but some people did, but it doesn't matter anymore because you're not."

"Then what the hell happened to me on my birthday?"

"On your birthday, you…drugged all of us and brought a man back from the dead."

Lydia's blank look got blanker. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah. You—well, you know how you've been having those nightmares ever since formal? About the guy who attacked you on the lacrosse field? Well, he was actually a really powerful werewolf, and he bit you, and then we killed him, but somehow he got in your head and started controlling you, I guess? Anyway, he was dead, and now…he is not…"

She stared at me in complete silence, her lips tight and her hands folded in her lap.

"Yeah, this is why I didn't tell you."

"Sadie, I swear to God, if you are joking right now—"

"No, I'm not. Lydia, people have died because of this. Okay? You have been through hell, and I am not joking at all. I'm trying to explain."

Lydia pinched the bridge of her nose, hard. "I cannot believe I'm actually about to sit here and listen to this. This is insane."

"I know, and I—here! Look, hold on." She watched me warily as I fumbled with my phone, still rambling. "Okay, so the guy's name is Peter Hale. I know that somewhere in your head, you know that. Peter was an Alpha werewolf, which means he was more powerful than your average werewolf, a beta. An Alpha can heal faster and turn other people into werewolves, because they're pack leaders and—"

"Sadie, I understand the fundamentals of being an Alpha. That's not a werewolf-exclusive word."

"Right, but Peter could actually turn into a werewolf. He had a full-body morph, and that's not something that's common, even among werewolves. And Lydia, you saw it. That night at the video store, Peter was there to kill the clerk, and he attacked us because we got in his way—you, me, and Jackson. You were taking selfies, remember? Lydia, you took a video. Here, you can see—"

I tried to scoot closer to her, but Lydia flinched back. She was staring unblinkingly at the phone in my hands. Just a second ago, she'd been solid and calm, the unreasonable skeptic everyone in the pack had expected her to be. But as she stared down at the phone, I realized that Lydia was nothing short of terrified. I could see her struggling to breathe, trying to remain calm while she teetered on the verge of confronting everything that had been traumatizing her for the past few months.

I pulled the phone away. "Lydia, I—I'm sorry. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. I don't—"

"No!" She grabbed my wrist, still staring at my hands. She swallowed, closed her eyes for a moment, then looked at me imploringly. "Sadie, I need to see it. Please."

There was nothing I wanted more than to wipe the fear from Lydia's face, to run down the hall and smash my phone so she never had to face anything as awful as Peter Hale ever again. But at her request, I stayed. I swiped through the pictures on my phone, finally finding the video she'd taken the night of the attack. I turned the phone toward her and pressed play.

Breaking glass. A blur of black. A flash of bright, red eyes.

Lydia and I flinched at the same time, staring at the frozen screen as the clip abruptly ended. After I a moment, I realized my hand was shaking.

"Play it again," Lydia told me.

I pressed replay. We watched the video another nine times. Lydia took the phone out of my hands and watched it a few more times. After the initial shock, she didn't seem to mind being close to the image. She held the phone up to her face, squinting so she could inspect the tiniest, blurred details.

"I took this?" she asked, one finger hovering over the play button again. "I don't remember…"

"Yeah, your mom had you on some pretty strong medication." I winced, not eager to admit the rest of the story. "I brought Stiles over to see you and he found the video on your phone. Do not ask me how, 'cause I don't know, but…that was the day he told me everything. And there had been so much going on, and you were still freaking out, so we decided to make a copy of the video but delete it from your phone, just in case. This way, you wouldn't know what you saw. I know that's really messed up, and I'm so sorry. I really do have this problem with deciding what I think is best for other people, which is exactly what Allison was saying to me last week—"

Lydia wasn't listening to me. She replayed the video again, watching it with baited breath.

"I think…I have seen this…"

"I know, Lydia. It was a long time ago, but—"

"No, I've seen this recently. I think…I think he showed it to me…"

"He as in…Peter?"

I watched apprehensively as Lydia nodded. She replayed the video again, becoming glassy-eyed as she watched it without seeing.

"I think so. There was…a dream I had a few weeks ago. When he told me that he wanted me to throw the party. He knew none of you had told me, so…he said he would show me…"

The video looped again, and Lydia looked down at it with icy eyes. I knew she had to be battling a couple different emotions. She was still terrified, but there was conviction there too. She'd faced her fear, and so far, she was still breathing. She was sad, and also resigned. However crazy everything sounded, she wasn't going to run anymore. She wasn't going to be the last one out of the loop.

"So he was real," Lydia said softly. "This is Peter?"

"Not anymore," I said firmly. I took the phone from her, locking the screen and dropping it back into my purse with a very final thud. "That part of Peter died the night of formal. We…well, it was this whole big thing, but we cornered him. And Derek killed him."

"Derek? As in, the person that was chasing us when we were locked in the school?"

"Uh, sort of. Peter was actually the one who was chasing us, but we did tell you it was Derek. Peter's actually his uncle."

"And…he killed him?"

"To stop him, yeah. Also because Peter killed Derek's sister, Laura. Hers was the body the hikers found in the woods. So Derek killed his uncle for revenge, and he became the new Alpha."

Lydia nodded, clearly overwhelmed. "And you're…?"

"Still human," I promised with the ghost of a smile. "So are Stiles and Allison."

"But not Scott? Is he…is he also a…werewolf, or whatever?"

"Yes. As of September."

"And Jackson…Jackson's one too?"

I hesitated. Lydia's voice was almost hopeful. Hearing that your boyfriend was a werewolf was a big adjustment, but Lydia already seemed to know that what I had to say would be much, much worse.

"No," I said, gently as I could. "He was supposed to be, but…it turns out Jackson's got a lot of issues he hasn't dealt with."

"That I know," she scoffed. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, the bite affects people different ways. Different people turn into different kinds of shifters, depending on who they are. So, because Jackson's struggling so much with um…"

"That in its past that manifests it," Lydia recited, perfectly from memory. The color drained from her face. "Oh…oh my God…"

I bit my lip. "Lydia, I'm so sorry—"

"That's what he is? That's what he turns into? A murder lizard? Oh my God, a murder—has he hurt anyone? Is he okay?"

"Not really, considering he's…currently being controlled by Allison's crazy grandfather…"

I'd carefully sidestepped her question about murder. Lydia looked sick enough already without hearing that out loud. She deflated, covering her face with her hands and slouching back into the pillows.

"Are you okay?" I asked nervously.

"Am I supposed to be?" She looked up at me with teary eyes and shook her head. "How am I supposed to be okay with all of this? This is—this is all crazy!"

"I know. And it's gonna sound crazier and worse the more I talk, but Lyd…you've already lived through everything I could tell you. I know it's horrifying, but you've already survived it. So if you don't want me to tell you anymore, I won't. But I know I felt a lot better knowing what crazy things I was facing than I did when I didn't know what was going on."

For a few minutes, Lydia stared down at the pattern on her bedspread. She counted her breaths and wiped the tears from her eyes. Finally, she sat up again, face full of determination, and grabbed her bowl of popcorn.

"Okay, maybe just…start from the beginning this time."

It took a fair bit of time to explain everything Lydia had missed since the start of the school year. Obviously, there was a lot we had to cover, from the Hale fire to what really happened that night at the school, from formal to the entirety of the Argent family history. To make matters worse, Lydia was not a particularly good audience. The academic in her kept kicking in to ask me questions, or connect something from last year to a part of the story I hadn't gotten to yet. I was glad she was following along, but it was driving me nuts.

"You left Stiles in the room with me while I was heavy medication, even though you knew he had a crush on me? Sadie, what kind of best friend are you supposed to be?"

"You learned how to shoot from a murderer?"

"You shot a murderer?"

"Derek dated that murderer? That's…that is screwy. I know my life is pretty messed up, but wow."

"So Stiles successfully distracted you from telling me anything about the supernatural world by putting on a movie and touching your boobs? Sadie, you are so much better than that."

"Can we go back to the vet? I'm still confused about the vet."

More than once, I had to not-so-calmly ask her to stop talking. I had waited a really long time to tell Lydia everything—too long—and I wanted to do it correctly, and in order. But Lydia didn't seem to have any appreciation for my dramatic storytelling. Only the facts.

She did comfort me when I needed it. I'd been terrified to tell her about how I'd shot Kate, but Lydia had taken the same hard stance as Stiles by telling me Kate deserved what she'd gotten. Reliving the night at the mechanic shop hadn't been easy, and I tried to skim over any too painful details about the wolfsbane-induced hallucinations we'd had last week. Lydia still looked mortified.

Two or three hours into the story, I was distracted by my phone vibrating. When I glanced at the screen, I did a double take; it was a message from Erica.

"Knock knock."

"Sadie?" Lydia asked apprehensively. "Please tell me that's not what I think it is."

"Uh, no. No, everything's fine. I think. Gimme a second."

I unlocked my phone, typing out a reply in confusion.

"Um, who's there?"

"We're at your front door, dumbass."

I frowned even deeper. "Okay, so uh…Erica's here."

"What?" Lydia's nose scrunched up in distaste. "Why?"

"I don't know. Guess I'll go down and see what she wants. I'll be right back."

"Whatever. We need refills anyway."

Lydia collected our glasses and bowls, but stayed a few steps behind me as we walked downstairs. I could tell she was nervous. She hadn't expected her first encounter with werewolves to come again so soon. She stayed planted at the foot of the stairs as I walked to the door, and I checked for her approval before I opened it.

"Erica…and Boyd. Hi."

Boyd gave a small smile an lifted a hand, but Erica's arms stayed firmly crossed over her chest. "Mind inviting us in? We've got people who are trying to kill us."

"Maybe I should leave you on the porch then," I suggested, even as I stepped aside to let them inside.

Erica flipped me off, letting Boyd precede her into the house. He stopped short a few steps in.

"Um, Lydia…hey…"

Lydia smiled tersely, waving her fingers at both of them. "Hello."

"Sorry, Lydia," said Erica, glaring at me even harder than before. "We didn't know you were home."

"Well, shouldn't that be obvious? I mean, can't you guys hear heartbeats or something?"

Even though the last few hours had been trying, every single second was worth it for the shocked look on Erica and Boyd's faces. I beamed.

"Yeah, well, some of the newbies aren't great at tapping into their powers, yet," I explained. "Information overload, you know?"

"So she knows?" Boyd asked, still a little shocked.

At almost the same time, Erica rounded on me with golden eyes. "You told her?"

"Of course I told her. I should have told her ages ago, but since so many of you were having a hissy fit about it, I agreed to put it off. Lydia's got every right to know what's going on."

"And what gives you the right to out the rest of us?!"

Erica snarled, but Boyd quickly caught her arm. I couldn't tell if he was strong enough to stop her with one hand, or if his mere touch was zapping her momentum. Either way, the gold in her eyes flickered with hesitation.

"Lydia needs to know who's on what side," I explained with finality. "Since you're part of Derek's pack, you're not the ones she needs to worry about."

"Anymore," Lydia added, with a click of her tongue.

Boyd, at least, had the decency to look sheepish. "Lydia, we're really sorry about—"

"Trying to kill me?"

"Yeah. About everything."

"If it helps, we thought you were your boyfriend," Erica added with a shrug.

Lydia stared at both of them for several seconds before turning on her heel. "I'm going to get more lemonade."

She marched out of the room, hair whipping behind her, and it took everything in my not to giggle. After months and months of hiding half my life from my best friend, it was so freeing to know that I could tell her anything. Even better, Lydia had only known the truth for a few hours, and she was already sassing werewolves back into their place. If nothing else, she seemed to be coping so far.

"So what brings you by?" I asked, resting my hands on my hips. "I thought Derek had you guys on house arrest."

"Can't call it house arrest if you don't have a house," Erica said bitterly.

Boyd gave her a look, but it was clear he agreed with her. "Derek sent us. Said you had homework for us."

"…and you actually came?" I asked him in surprise. "I figured you guys would be happy to be on permanent academic leave."

"Actually, I sort of miss school."

"Boyd," said Erica, narrowing her eyes at him. "You hated school."

"I used to, but after the bite…I don't know. Things didn't seem so bad. At least I had people to talk to, you know? I had you."

Erica softened immediately, and I struggled to hide my smile. I not-so-subtly turned my back on their conversation, heading for my backpack so I could grab their schoolwork. At least something was going their way.

"Fair enough," Erica replied to him with a smirk. "I'd rather sit in chemistry all day with Harris than keep this up."

"Keep what up?" I asked as I separated their paperwork. "Derek got you guys doing military drills around the railcar again?"

"Oh no, we evacuated the railcar after your little showdown at the station. He's been shuffling us from cave to cave in the preserve all week."

"What?"

A few of the pages slipped out of my hands as I froze in surprise, and Boyd nodded solemnly.

"He said it's better for us to keep on the move. It was only a matter of time before the Argents found us."

"But you guys have been living there for weeks! What happened?"

"All he said was that we'd been compromised."

I frowned, staring down at the papers in front of me. Unless someone had tailed Derek from the station, I couldn't see a way the Argents would know about the railcar. The only people who knew outside of the pack were me, Stiles, and Scott. Technically, Lydia also knew, since she'd shown up to kidnap Derek on her birthday, but she hadn't been anywhere near the Argents lately. I wasn't sure how Lydia had even found them in the first place.

Another terrible thought occurred to me, but I dismissed it just as quickly. Even if Peter did share Lydia's memories from the last few months, he wasn't likely to stroll up to Gerard for a chat about how to kill his nephew. He was a psychopath, but one who wouldn't take a chance on his own life.

That left two options in my mind: Allison or Jackson. Scott easily could have mentioned it to Allison after Erica had been attacked at the library. Derek's pack had dragged Jackson there to test him with kanima venom. Either Allison had finally sold us all out, or this was our proof that Jackson was under the Argents' control. I wasn't sure which would be worse.

"It's bad, isn't it?"

I looked up at Erica, who looked uncharacteristically vulnerable. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her torso, her brows furrowed, lip between her teeth. It was like looking back on the nervous girl from my biology class.

"Is it true that Gerard's got Jackson now? He's controlling him?"

I pursed my lips, but nodded.

Erica sagged as I ripped away the last shred of hope. "How are we supposed to beat that? We could barely escape the Argents before, and now they've got the kanima? We don't even know how to slow him down. Sadie…what are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know, but…we'll think of something." I busied myself sorting the rest of their papers so I didn't have to see their skeptical faces. "Right, so uh…I've got all your stuff sorted out. Boyd, this stack is for you, and Erica. This one's for Isaac, if you can actually get him to sit down and do any of it. Obviously you guys don't have to turn anything in, but I thought it might be nice to have something normal to do. This way, when you guys come back, you're not that far behind."

This time, there was no avoiding their dismal looks.

"Sadie," Boyd said carefully. "I don't know if we are coming back."

"You have to."

I phrased it as a command. There would be no arguing. I couldn't handle that right now.

"Look, I…I know things seem hopeless right now, but we'll figure something out. And even if we don't, you guys can't just not go to school. I don't care how badass Derek pretends to be. He graduated before he went off the grid."

"Well, it's not like we can go to school here anymore," Erica reminded me. "We've got a hunter as the principal and a hunter in almost all of our classes. All it would take is one detention, one call down to the office, and we'd be dead."

I looked between them at a complete loss. It was strange. I hadn't known Boyd or Erica for more than a few months, and I couldn't say we'd even been friends, but I wasn't ready for either of them to leave. It didn't seem right.

"They're already calling us the runaways," Boyd said with a shrug. "Thought we might actually give it a shot."

"You guys know it's not gonna be that easy, right? Getting jobs with fake identities, without papers. And you're gonna have to find a pack."

"Yeah," Erica scoffed, "because that worked out so well for us here."

"I'm serious, Erica. I know that being werewolves hasn't been a dream for you guys, but you'd be a lot worse off if you didn't have an Alpha. You're stronger with him, and if you're leaving to go someplace else, you'll need someone who knows the lay of the land. Treaties, other creatures in the area, all of it."

"We know there's a lot to think about," Boyd placated, taking Erica's hand. "But it's a start."

"Do you guys know when you're leaving?"

"Not really," Erica answered. "Obviously sooner's better, but if we try to leave while the Argents are on high alert, I don't think it's gonna end too well."

"And we still have to talk to Derek."

"Yeah, well good luck with that…"

I immediately regretted the bitter tone. Erica and Boyd both looked down at the ground, as if I was scolding them. I sighed, willing false positivity into my voice.

"No, really. I mean it. If this is what you guys want to do…good luck. People have pulled off shitter plans than yours. We certainly have, anyway. I…I hope everything works out for you guys."

"We just weren't sure when we were gonna see you again," Erica said quietly. "With everything going on."

"So you came to say goodbye?" I allowed myself to smirk. "That's kind of adorable. Who knew you were such a sweetheart, Erica?"

"Shut up, bitch." She rolled her eyes, tossing her hair before grabbing the stacks of paperwork from my hands. "Thanks for all the work. I'll be sure to think of you when I'm stuck doing history homework in a ditch next week. Have a nice life!"

I grinned as she stormed out of the house, and Boyd walked up to my side. "She doesn't mean it like that."

"I know. Anything else would have been weird." I leaned on the door, looking him over carefully. "Just…don't feel like you guys have to cut yourselves off completely. I know things are weird here, but for all we know, they're a lot weirder someplace else."

"Sure. If we find someplace more messed up than Beacon Hills, we'll give you a call."

"Good. And…just try to stay safe."

Boyd nodded and stepped out onto the porch. He paused for a moment before looking back at me, contemplative.

"I know none of us were really friends through all this, but thanks for all your help, Sadie. Good luck."

He walked away, meeting up with Erica at the curb so they could head down the street together. I watched as Boyd took the papers from her, carrying them in one arm while his free hand held one of hers. Her laugh carried back up the street to me. They could have been any normal couple, any two teens that had just started dating, who were the annoyingly enviable couple to all their friends. Maybe they could be those people away from Beacon Hills, in a new town where there were no bloody targets painted on their backs.

"That was like, weirdly depressing," Lydia mused, reemerging from the kitchen with her lemonade. "Like, I know I just got filled in on all of this, but I actually sort of feel bad."

"Even though they tried to kill you?"

She shrugged. "I have a feeling I can't rule people out for things like that anymore."

Allison's face popped up in my mind, angry and heartbroken, with her arrow digging into my throat. I wasn't entirely sure how to move on from something like that. I'd been in Allison's place. I knew what it was like to blame someone for your family's death, to want to hurt those responsible. I'd shot Kate, hadn't I? Even now, I had to wonder, how far could you go before your actions became inexcusable?

"You ready to go?" Lydia asked, drumming her fingers on the banister. "I still need you to fill in the blanks about this Matt kid."

"Yeah. Be right up."

I watched Lydia go up the stairs. Then I took a deep breath and closed the front door. One problem at a time.