Hardboiled: Not Your Average Detective Story (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 5) by J.A. Cipriano Page A

Evidently, he had gotten over the cyclops really quickly. That was a little odd, right? Shouldn’t he still be terrified? Instead, he seemed calm, and as I stared at him, I realized that there was no more screaming. I looked up, staring past him at the spot that had been blown to smithereens… only… only it was totally normal.
    There wasn’t a single trace that something had happened, and for a moment, I thought I must be going crazy. There had been a cyclops there a second ago, right? He had just blown apart the school… so how could there be no damage?
    “What do we do about her?” he asked, pointing at the girl like she couldn’t hear exactly what he’d said. It was something I always hated when people did because I was usually the person being talked about like I wasn’t standing right, freaking there. “She hit her head and still needs medical attention.”
    I looked at the girl, she was rubbing her head, but it looked like the wound had stopped bleeding, which seemed a little odd. Hadn’t it been worse?
    “Are you okay?” I asked before shaking my head. “Sorry, you already said you weren’t okay, my bad. I didn’t see Mal there… too many people…” My cheeks heated up as the words left my lips. Yup, I was that girl. The one who instead of helping, ran away.
    Connor gave me a sidelong glance as the girl nodded, a bit too stunned from everything to say much. “I’ll take her to the nurse,” he said, glancing at me. “You get to class. Dr. Matthers won’t like it if you’re late.”
    “You really think we should be going to class right now?” I asked, my jaw dropping. “Are you being serious? And why do you think they would even have class after what happened?”
    “After a girl tripped in the hallway and bumped her head? Yes, I think that they will still have classes. So yes, I think you should go to class. You’re new, you probably can’t afford to miss any more of your second day. If you come with me to the nurse’s office, you’ll be stuck there all day. Just go to class and meet me after.” He smirked at me. “I’ll take this one for the team.”
    I was about to say something about the cyclops, but as I stared around it looked like nothing had happened, which was impossible, right? I was about to press the issue, but instead, I just shrugged. I’d get to the bottom of this after class and thank my lucky stars that I didn’t have to figure out damage control.
    “Okay, I’ll go to class this one time, but I still don’t understand why the physics teacher also teaches economics. Those are totally different fields of study,” I said.
    “Budget cuts?” Connor offered over his shoulder as he dragged the long-haired Asian girl away, her steps wooden with shock.
    “Budget cuts,” I repeated, walking toward the classroom as my own mind-fog settled over me. Whatever had brought a goddamned cyclops here was not good, and while it didn’t seem like it was the same guy who had summoned the shambler, I almost hoped it was. If we had two warlocks trying to one-up each other, I was going to be screwed, especially since my dad had decided to skip out of town. Maybe Caleb could… I swallowed as I opened the door to my Economics class. I’d forgotten all about Caleb. What kind of girlfriend did that make me? Not a very good one, I suspect.
    “Lillim, are you planning on staying?” Matthers asked as I turned, intending to head back out of the room and find my now stuck in a magic hat boyfriend.
    “Um… pass?” I asked, giving him my best hopeful grin.
    He glared at me, and pointed at my seat with his laser pointer. My heart sank as I debated ditching right in front of a teacher. Somehow, I figured that would end up bad, especially considering I’d already missed the first few classes. Besides, the chances someone would pin the new explosion downstairs on the mysterious new girl was, well, probably not very high, but I really didn’t want to increase the possibility. All I had to