Page 44

I groan as traffic stalls to practically a standstill. I mean, of all the days. I wanted to show Kat some of the Westside before she has to go back, but unfortunately traffic is not agreeing with us.

“It says forty-seven minutes now,” Jenn says from the front seat, frowning at her phone.

Erica taps her hands impatiently on the wheel. “Sorry, guys.”

It should have taken only thirty minutes to get from the trailhead to Century City, where the next portal is this evening.

But after the hike Ryan was in the mood for hot pot and got us excited, so we went and got a long dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, with an endless array of vegetables, dumplings, noodles, and more ready for dunking into spicy broth.

It was so much fun I forgot about the time, laughing and learning more about Kat’s epic pranks and her teaching us about magic over steaming hot bowls of soup.

After a not-so-subtle hint from Ryan that he and Adib had a plan to play video games, we dropped them off at Adib’s house, and the four of us headed for the Westside to hang out before Kat had to catch the next portal.

I figured we could make enough time to walk around the mall and get cream puffs or maybe mochi donuts.

We’ve had such an incredible day, but now we’re practically parked on the freeway. I never really expect to be able to go much faster than thirty miles per hour on a Saturday afternoon, but really, a full stop? We haven’t moved for at least twenty minutes.

Jenn fiddles with the radio, looking for traffic information and pauses on a news segment.

“The San Andreas has been long overdue for a major event for decades, but we haven’t had any significant events in over a hundred years, not since 1919.”

“Thank you, Dr. Howe. What about the 5.2 that rocked East LA last week? Wasn’t that a significant event?”

“The fault may be releasing much-needed tension, but I’m afraid this is just a precursor of what is to come.”

“I don’t think they’re going to talk about the traffic anytime soon,” Jenn says. “Sounds like it’s going to be an intensive earthquake analysis.”

Erica switches the radio to another station playing soft rock. “Every year they’re like ‘the Big One is coming’ and it’s just a bunch of small ones.”

I nod; earthquake talk is constant. I try to peer forward and see what is past the stopped cars, focused on getting to our destination. “There must be an accident. You guys see anything?”

Erica shakes her head.

“No worries, this is great.” Kat has her head practically out of the open window, watching in open fascination.

I reach for her hand, intertwining our fingers together.

Kat squeezes my hand back, and a rush of warm affection flows down my spine.

I think about the heated kisses we shared in the shade today off the trail, the excitement of discovering what it felt like—to want someone and have them want you back.

I think about asking Kat to go with me to prom, slow dancing with her, presenting her with flowers.

I imagine long summer days filled with her smile and going to the beach together with our friends.

I realize the Plan might have been missing a lot: those things you don’t plan for, the feelings and wonder that life brings, and the unknown.

I want to have Kat by my side, I want to know all about her.

It doesn’t matter that she’s from another world—we can figure this out.

She looks back at me and gives me a slight inclination of her head. “What?”

I just feel happy, content in a way I haven’t let myself be in a long time. I’ve always been go go go , and it feels strange and good to just be in the moment. “Nothing. I’m glad we met, that’s all.”

“Me too,” Kat says.

“It’s not that weird, the parallel universe thing.”

Kat laughs, clapping her hand to her mouth. “I guess if anyone asks, I can say you’re a long-distance girlfriend.”

My heart leaps in giddy surprise.

Kat glances at me quickly, a blush forming on her warm brown cheeks. “I mean—I know it’s early and I don’t know if you want to be, but I’d like—”

I squeeze her hand back. “I would love that. I wouldn’t spend all this time on someone who I didn’t want to be my girlfriend, and I want to be with you.”

Kat beams at me, her smile transforming her whole face, and she leans over to give me a quick kiss.

In front of us, Erica and Jenn hoot and whistle at us.

We laugh, breaking apart. I never knew I could have this, something like this silly moment where I can feel so pleased just seeing her smile.

Kat leans back, blushing as she looks out the window again. “These are all engines?”

“Yeah.” I can’t help but grin at her fascination. For all her I-don’t-care attitude, she seems so curious and open to learn. “Combustion, gas, good ol’ fossil fuels, the works. Not that we don’t have the technology already for electric and solar, but you know. Business.”

I wonder how those magic-powered cars work in Kat’s world. “So do you just cast a spell on your cars and they go?”

I loved seeing Kat do magic, making the water dance in that fountain, the joy effusively lighting up her face, her smile. I wonder if that bright expression graces Kat’s face every time she starts her car.

Kat laughs. “Automatic carriages are all prespelled, like most things. You just have to charge it.” She settles back in her seat.

“Magetechs work forever programming the spell matrices for it, like most other stuff, like preservation spells for your icebox or levitation for construction work or whatever. Working in spell factories is solid work, if you want to spend the rest of your life doing one spell day in and day out.”

“So that means mages are in high demand in your world?” Jenn asks, turning around curiously from the front seat.

“You could say that,” Kat says. “Mages are paid well but overworked. The techs who come by the coffeeshop are always working long hours.”

“Oh, come on!” Erica makes a rude gesture at a driver who just cut in front of her.

“What time is the portal again?” I ask.

“At 7:08.” Kat shrugs. “But if we miss it, it’s okay. There’s another one at 3:00 A.M. tomorrow.” She glances at me hopefully. “If you want to keep hanging out with me, that is.”

There’s no way I could hide Kat in my room overnight—Stacey would never keep her mouth shut, and I cringe at the idea of my cousin giggling all night and asking Kat questions. I glance at Erica, about to ask—

Erica gives me a knowing mischievous smile. “Your sleeping bags are still at my place from the last time you and Jenn slept over,” she says. “Well, you technically didn’t, because you were in Kat’s world.” She waggles her eyebrows at me. “How was that?”

I shush her, my face turning bright red.

“Yeah, so if you want to stay, we can all crash at Erica’s…

” I trail off. What if she doesn’t want to spend the night, and she meant something exciting and rebellious instead, like sneak into a club or something?

“But if you’d rather do something else, it’s okay—”

“Sounds like a plan.” Kat grins at me. “What if we don’t try to make it?” Kat gestures at the no-win scenario in front of us.

It looks like everyone around us has settled in for the long haul. The man next to us actually has his phone out, absolutely engrossed playing a fighting game, tapping furiously at his screen.

“I guess I could try to take surface streets, but that might take longer,” Erica says. “Wanna call it on Century City?”

Jenn nods. “Let’s go back and have a good rest of our evening.”

Erica starts to weave toward the right to exit, and makes it over one lane, then two, but it takes a while.

Everyone is determined to use every bit of space to pull forward.

I can see the exit sign with clear relief, even though the lane is filled with cars.

At least it looks like it’s actually moving.

Kat’s head is out the window again, and she frowns. “There is something up ahead. There’s a huge gap and the cars are just… stopped. It’s like an animal is on the road.”

“Oh no!” I’m imagining a small puppy frightened and darting between cars. “I hope someone is trying to get it out of the way.”

As we move forward in our exit lane, we get a somewhat better view of what’s caused the roadblock ahead. It looks like a few cars probably crashed into one another, but they’re on the shoulder—why is everyone else just parked and not going around them?

“A lot of people out of their cars,” Kat says. “Mostly using their runebook—phone things. Not sure what they’re doing. If we were in my world, I’d say they were casting a spell, but…”

I poke my head out of the window to see. Ahead of us, multiple car doors are left open, people taking advantage of the traffic to walk ahead to see what’s going on.

There’s a cluster of folks up ahead at the accident or animal that Kat spotted. I don’t see a dog or a cat or anything, just a bunch of people holding their phones out walking back and forth on the freeway, filming the—sky?

“What in the world are they doing?” I ask.

“It’s gonna come back, I know it!” a bearded man says excitedly as he walks back to his car, waving his phone around.

The people in his car are shouting in excitement, and then I look up.

Something startling violet and iridescent is in the sky, a dark shadow against the afternoon sun, flapping its wings. Too big to be a crow, flying in close circles, and completely out of behavior for a hawk. It dives suddenly toward the man, who screams in terror.

I stare. “Are you seeing this?”

Erica gasps. “What in the—”

Now the complete standstill makes sense. What else would people do in the face of the complete unknown but try to understand it, document it?

Kat freezes. “We have to get out of here. Now. That is a dragon .”