Scott McCall's Arc

Chapter 10 of 30

After the bell, Scott waited by the bank of lockers. Malik's was three rows down. Scott had seen him open it once. Lacrosse pads on the hook, helmet on the shelf. And tucked behind the mesh of a stick head, a glint of gold on a thin chain. A pearl. An ankh. Scott had pocketed it that morning when Malik turned his back. Proof, warm in his fist. Stiles caught up, breathing hard. "You can't do this here. Cameras. Witnesses. If he shifts, kids get hurt." Scott's jaw locked. "Then I make him come outside." They found him in the locker room, tightening his cleats. Malik looked up with that smirk. "What? You two always interrogate the new guy?" Stiles crossed his arms. "Only when weird things start happening the same week he shows up." Malik laughed. "Beacon Hills really is as strange as people say." Scott watched him. "Where were you last night?" "Homework." "And the night before?" Malik sighed. "You think I have something to do with all this?" His eyes lingered on Scott. "You're looking in the wrong direction." Scott set the necklace on the bench between them. The pearl caught the fluorescent light. Malik went still. Not surprised. Just measured. He picked it up, weighed it in his palm, and slid it into his pocket like it had always belonged there. "You went through my locker." "You're hunting my friends." "No." Malik stood. "I'm hunting what's already inside them. There's a difference." He pulled his sleeve down over the bandage. "Sometimes the thing chasing you isn't the thing you should be afraid of." He walked past them and out the door. Scott didn't stop him. He couldn't, not here, not with voices echoing from the gym. Stiles exhaled. "So now he knows you know." Scott stared at the empty doorway. The confrontation was done. The witnesses were safe. But Malik had taken the proof with him, and somewhere in the building, Kira was still marked. Whatever Malik came to do next, he'd come faster now.