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“What?” Nick asked, looking behind him to see if something was on fire. It wasn’t. He turned back to Seth. “What is it?”

Seth took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You want to break into a nuclear power plant and expose yourself to radiation?”

“Yeah. Genius, right? Since the whole cricket-in-the-microwave debacle—which, again, was itreallyso hard to find a spider, Jazz?—Igot to thinking more about it. After Chernobyl and Fukushima, the plant and animal life there genetically mutated. Yeah, it was because of a nuclear meltdown, but I figure if I can get just aminuscule fractionof what they got hit with, I can probably mutate a little.” He frowned. “Granted, I’d want to avoid any loss of life because getting what I want shouldn’t mean hurting someone else, so it can’t beexactlylike Chernobyl and Fukushima, but keep in mind, this is a work in progress.”

There was a moment of silence. Then, “Sometimes, I don’t know if you’re really smart or completely insane.”

“It’s a fine line,” Nick agreed. “There are a couple of nuclear power plants within a few hundred miles, but not a single one of them puts their blueprints online.”

“Wow,” Seth said faintly. “It’s almost like they don’t want someone getting inside.”

Nick scowled at his laptop screen. “I’ll figure it out. We just have to have faith that someone made a mistake and put clear, detailed instructions online on how to break into a power plant and get a safe blast of radiation that will give me superpowers and not make my testicles explode. Should be—”

Seth’s phone beeped in his hands.

Nick looked up again.

Seth’s expression tightened. His brow was furrowed, his mouth in a thin line. He looked tougher than Nick had ever seen him before. It was… shocking. For a moment, Nick almost thought Seth lookeddangerous,but that was ridiculous.

“Is everything okay?” Nick asked slowly.

Seth stood abruptly. His chair scraped against the floor, bumping into a shelf of books behind him. One of the librarians glared at them. “I have to go,” Seth said, shoving his books back into his backpack.

“What? What do you mean, you have to go? We’re busy! You’re supposed to be helping me—”

“I’m sorry, Nicky. It’s—there’s been a break—an emergency at the animal shelter. They put out a call to all volunteers. Apparently it’s a pretty big deal.”

Nick squinted at him. “An… animal shelter emergency?”

Seth nodded. “Flooding, because of the rain. They have to move all the animals, and they need all the help they can get.”

“I thought you stopped working there after school started.”

“I did,” Seth said, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “But they need me. I have to go help them. Can’t let the animals drown, right?”

Well, no, because that would be evil. “Need help?”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it. Keep doing what you’re doing.”

That sounded fake, but okay. “I… guess?”

“I’m sorry,” Seth said, but he was distracted, like he was already somewhere else in his head. “I know this is important to you, but I’ve got to do this. It’s not—just stay away from midtown, okay?”

Nick didn’t understand. “What the hell does that have to do—”

“Promise me,” Seth snapped, that hardened expression back on his face. He reached down and put his hand on top of Nick’s, squeezing tightly. “Stay away. Because of the flooding.”

“I promise,” Nick said. “Because of the flooding.”

“Thanks. I’ll text you later, okay? Just… don’t go to any nuclear power plants. That idea is ridiculous, and you’ll most likely end up dead. Think of something else.”

“Well, maybe if you’d found some freakingmeteors,I wouldn’t have to—”

And then the most extraordinary thing happened, something that caused all Nick’s thoughts to come to a screeching halt.

Seth leaned down and kissed his cheek.

Nick felt the quick, hot pulse of breath against his skin, the scrape of lips and then—