Page 22

“What about you, Jessie?”

The thought of being alone in a car with Burton— “I’ll call my mom. Thanks, though.”

“You’re welcome.” Burton nodded cheerfully at getting the civility he expected from both of us at last. He carefully handed the jumper cables over to me, hopped into his own car, and drove off.

I looked down at the clamps in my hand. They were red and black, and looked like tiny dragon heads, with metal teeth, handle-horns, each with a screw for an eye.

And for a second, holding them, it felt like they were alive. Like they were going to writhe away—and I knew I needed to catch them.

As if I couldn’t help it, I grabbed them harder, touching the skin of my palm to where the metal teeth were. Both hands. On both sides.

Everything went white.

“Jessica? Jessica!”

I woke to Darius. Shaking me. Because I was laying on the ground. “What happened?” I was breathing in sharp short bursts and sat up almost into him he was so close. “What happened to me?”

He looked at me, stunned and relieved fighting to be on his face at the same time. “I don’t know—I was dialing my uncle when I saw you go down.”

“Down?”

“Dropped. Like a bag of hammers. Heard it, too.” He reached out slowly, like I was something feral. I made a face but sat stillas he patted the back of my head roughly, and he let out a held breath when he retrieved his hand. “No blood. Thank God.”

My head hurt again and I was dizzy. What’d happened to me? Why was this keeping happening to me? I tried to stand.

“Are you sure?” he asked, getting up by my side.

“Yeah.” I reached for the side of his car and held on. We were still in the Shax’s parking lot, his car’s hood still open. Not much time could’ve passed. I took a step and things spun.

“Whoa,” he said, catching me as I tripped over the end of the jumper cables. He set me straight as I stared down.

I’d been looking at them.

They’d…been calling to me. Hadn’t they?

They were glinting now. Like winks.

Darius tracked between me and the ground. “You didn’t touch them, did you?”

I opened my mouth to deny it, but it was too late.

“Don’t you know better than that? You could’ve died!” he shouted, blocking my view of the cables.

“Not all of us took shop, okay!” I shouted back, taking a step away, solidly on my own. I crossed my arms, aware of my hands finding the spots where he’d been holding me mere seconds ago.

“You’re freezing. Put this on, and get in the car.” He had his coat off, handing it over to me.

I was about to say something else when lightning cracked overhead with thunder close behind.

We jumped into his car as the skies opened up, me still holding his coat as he fished his phone out of the Corolla’s center console.

“Don’t argue,” he said, staring pointedly at the coat. “And be quiet,” he said, swiping his phone on. I put his coat on sullenly, watching the skies outside.

“No, I know the weather sucks Jimmy, I’m sorry—” He explained the situation, as lightning blossomed across the sky,one fat stem zig-ing and zag-ing out into a million smaller points. I’d seen that design before—I recognized it.

“I know, I know,” Darius repeated for his uncle.

“It’s just like my back,” I whispered. Darius twisted to give me a look, then returned to his call.