Liv Bennett had discovered early that Ravenfall was a town where people noticed everything.
Not everything important.
Everything.
If somebody painted their front door a different color, someone would mention it.
If the diner changed the pie of the week, people would have an opinion.
If a teenager stopped sitting with one group at lunch and started sitting with another, half the school would know by the end of the day.
Liv had learned how to live inside that kind of attention.
She could talk to almost anyone without feeling like she had to become a different person for them. Teachers liked her because she paid attention when it mattered. Other students liked her because she didn't act as though being popular made her better than anyone else. She could move between groups easily, whether she was sitting with the athletes, helping with a school event, taking photographs for a project, or standing beside Soren while he explained something about an animal nobody else wanted to hear about.
She liked that about herself.
She also liked that she could make Soren uncomfortable with almost no effort.
Which was why she was standing beside his locker on Thursday morning holding one of his notebooks upside down.
"You dropped this," she said.
Soren stopped in front of her.
"That's mine."
"I know."
"Then why are you holding it?"
Liv turned the notebook around and looked at the cover as though she had only just noticed.
"I wanted to make sure."
"Make sure of what?"
"That you're still you."
Soren narrowed his eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
She smiled innocently.
"Nothing."
He reached for the notebook.
Liv pulled it away.
"You've been distracted all week."
"I haven't."
"You have."
"I've been busy."
"Doing what?"
"School."
She stared at him.
"You're terrible at lying."
"I'm not lying."
"You're also terrible at lying."
Soren sighed.
"Can I have my notebook?"
"Maybe."
"Liv."
She finally handed it over.
He tucked it into his backpack.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
She watched him for a moment.
"Was Valhalla okay this morning?"
Soren looked at her.
"Yeah."
"Really?"
"Why?"
"Because yesterday you said he was acting weird."
"He was."
"And?"
"And then he stopped."
Liv nodded.
"Okay."
Soren studied her expression.
"Why do you care?"
She shrugged.
"Because he's your favorite thing in the world."
"That's not true."
"Name something you like more."
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Liv smiled.
"Exactly."
She turned and walked away.
Soren watched her go.
Cole appeared beside him.
"You know she does that on purpose."
Soren looked at him.
"Does what?"
"Leaves you standing there looking stupid."
"I don't look stupid."
Cole gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
"You really do."
Soren pushed his hand away.
"Go to class."
"I'm already going."
"You aren't moving."
Cole grinned.
"Neither are you."
Soren laughed despite himself.
By lunch, the school had settled into its usual rhythm.
Liv sat at one end of a table with several girls from her classes. She was telling a story about a teacher who had accidentally sent an entire assignment to the wrong class when a boy named Mason leaned against the table.
Mason was easy to like.
That was the problem.
He was athletic, funny, and confident without being arrogant. He played basketball and seemed to know everyone in school. He had been talking to Liv more often lately.
Soren noticed.
He told himself he hadn't.
Then he noticed again.
Cole followed his gaze.
"Oh."
Soren looked at him.
"What?"
Cole smiled.
"Nothing."
"Say it."
"No."
"Cole."
"You don't want me to."
Soren looked back toward Liv.
Mason said something.
Liv laughed.
Soren's jaw tightened before he could stop it.
Cole's grin widened.
"Definitely nothing."
"Shut up."
"I'm not saying anything."
"You don't have to."
Cole laughed.
Across the cafeteria, Liv looked over.
She caught Soren watching.
Their eyes met.
Soren immediately looked away.
Liv smiled.
She returned to the conversation.
Soren hated that she had noticed.
He hated even more that he cared.
After lunch, Liv caught up with him in the hallway.
She walked beside him for several seconds without saying anything.
Soren knew that meant something was coming.
"What?"
"You tell me."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
She glanced sideways at him.
"Mason."
Soren nearly walked into a locker.
"What about him?"
"You tell me."
"Nothing."
"You're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"Acting like you don't care."
"I don't care."
Liv stopped walking.
Soren took two more steps before realizing she wasn't beside him anymore.
He turned.
She stood in the middle of the hallway with her arms folded, watching him.
"What?" he asked.
Her expression softened, but the amusement remained in her eyes.
"You really don't know, do you?"
"Know what?"
"Never mind."
She started walking again.
Soren followed.
"Liv."
She didn't answer.
"Liv."
She finally looked back.
"What?"
"What am I supposed to know?"
She smiled.
"Figure it out."
Then she walked away.
Soren stood there for a moment.
He hated when she did that.
He also knew exactly why she did it.
Because she knew he'd keep thinking about it.
And she was right.
That afternoon, Liv took her camera into town.
She wasn't looking for anything mysterious.
She was working on the school project she had mentioned earlier: documenting the older parts of Ravenfall before more of them disappeared.
She photographed the old theater.
The pharmacy.
The mill property.
The retaining wall.
The old road signs.
She liked the process because photographs forced her to look at things she might otherwise ignore.
At the retaining wall, she stopped.
The ivy had been pulled back farther than it had been the previous day.
Liv raised the camera.
She took a picture.
Then another from a different angle.
When she looked at the screen, something caught her attention.
Not the scratches.
Something behind them.
A narrow section of stone looked newer than the rest.
She zoomed in.
The image became grainy.
She lowered the camera.
"Okay."
She took another picture.
This one came out clearer.
The stone wasn't new.
It was simply different.
Liv stared at it for several seconds.
Then she wrote the location in her notebook.
She didn't know why she felt the need to document it.
She simply did.
That evening, she sat at her desk and sorted through the day's photographs.
Most were ordinary.
The theater.
The pharmacy.
The school.
The wall.
She moved to the next photograph.
Stopped.
Moved backward.
The retaining wall filled the screen.
Liv zoomed in.
There was the odd stone.
There was the old marker.
And beside it, barely visible beneath dirt and weather, was a shallow arrangement of lines.
She couldn't tell what they meant.
She could only tell that someone had made them deliberately.
Liv saved the photograph.
Then she saved another copy.
She didn't tell Soren.
Not yet.
Not because she didn't trust him.
Because she wanted to understand what she had found before she did.
That was something she and Soren had in common.
They simply approached questions differently.
Soren wanted answers.
Liv wanted evidence.
Neither of them yet understood how much they were going to need both.