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“Jessica—go!” Darius shouted at me, breaking my spell, and I turned and ran without thinking.

CHAPTER 17

Oh God. I hadn’t meant to—oh God!I stood outside for a moment, watching things be on fire because ofme, and then ran back inside and got my bag from my locker, and Darius’s too, then ran back out as the firetruck arrived.

The rest of everyone evacuated as firemen replaced them. We huddled together, and I handed Darius his things. He took them with a nod. The sirens the truck had rolled in with were nothing compared to the blaring inside of my head. I wanted to kneel, my headache was so bad it made it hard to stand.

“How the hell did that happen? Someone could’ve gotten hurt!” Burton was shouting, like that was the only volume he had. He walked up and down our line. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head.

“Where are you hurt?” he yelled.

“I’m fine,” I said, lyinglyinglying.

He inhaled deeply. “Okay then. We’re all accounted for? No one injured?”

We all looked at one another. Three boys and one girl who accidentally blew things up. We’re all here.

“Okay then. There’s no point in everyone gawking—go home—I’ll call you all when we’re ready to get back to work.” He swept us back with both arms.

The boys gave a series of affirmative grunts, whereas I just stood watching the firemen run in and smoke rise up. It’d gone from grey to black, like dirtier things were burning.

Darius took my arm. “Come on, Jessie.”

I shrugged my arm back from him out of habit, but followed him anyhow.

The Corolla barely fit around the firetruck. I was quiet as Darius did a twelve point turn, and then we hit the highway.

“You okay?” he asked, looking over at me at a stop sign.

I’d almost hurt people. I could’ve killed people. I –

“Look, I know that was scary and all,” he went on, us idling.

I closed my eyes and I could see the blossoming of light of his battery and engine and feel them call to me, almost asking to be petted. I snapped my eyes open again and tried to concentrate on this world, the real and normal one. “You don’t understand.”

“What’s there to understand? Sometimes things catch on fire.”

“You just don’t—” I closed my eyes again, and put my hands to my face and rested the heels of my palms in my eyes, trying to overwhelm the strange shapes and forms there with the ones that pressure caused. I leaned down, like my hands were holding tears in, because they were.

“Jessica, it’s okay—it wasn’t even that bad—it’ll just be a week or two—probably more water damage than fire now.”

I swallowed everything back. I had to get calm, to be calm, before I did something else bad. I opened up my eyes, with my head between my knees, and from down here, I could see thecorner of a forgotten comic book, wedged underneath Darius’s seat.

Lacey might not believe me,but–

“I did it.” I sat bolt upright and looked at him. “Darius, it was me.”

His face was the epitome of disbelief. “You couldn’t have. You weren’t even nearby—unless you hit the dial—did you hit the dial?”

“No, it’s—” A car arrived behind us at last and honked. “Look—is there somewhere we can go to talk?” My mom wouldn’t be expecting me home until our shift ended—which gave me a few hours to unburden my soul.

He still didn’t believe me, it was clear. “Yeah. Sure,” he said, turning back to the road, driving off with a purpose.

I didn’t even ask where we were going. Was I really going to tell him? I couldn’t not—not now. I had to tell someone or I’d burst.

How was Lacey not going to tell anyone, ever, again?