“Walking through London with a guy that isn’t Liam or Mike? Mom and Dad wouldn’t believe it. But honestly, Ryder’s just a great guy. Helping him out with shopping for his friends is maybe the best way to prove that I just might be able to add him to my squad someday. You don’t really know someone until you go shopping with them, and I really liked what I saw that day.”

Lydia had a fever.

It wasn’t any little plain fever that you sweat out in a day either. If only she were that lucky. No, Lydia Chang was having a full-on-too-hot-fever flash and it was driving her insane.

She locked herself away in her room with magically enhanced liquids, medicine, tissue, and whatever else a sick girl needed. She knew she’d be missing a party tonight, but she didn’t particularly care. It wasn’t like she was much of a party girl anyway. She took her stuff and fell back onto her bed, letting the meds do their magic on her wavering subconscious.

A million years later, her phone rang and woke her up.

Groggily, she opened her eyes only to discover her fever was mostly gone. All her blankets were kicked off her in her sleep, and she grabbed at them now, finally feeling the night chill.

She brought the phone to her ear, answering it with as alert a voice as she could manage.

Ryder’s drunken gargles on the other end were the last thing she expected to hear.

He was saying something about Lily, or was it about Lauren? Or was it about her? All she could tell was that he was talking about some girl that started with an L, and he didn’t sound too good.