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G EMMA’S MOM WAS A SHORT , middle-aged lady with graying hair, deep laugh lines, and wrinkles that I imagined came from raising two very different children. She took one look at me and immediately went into care mode, wanting to dab every cut with peroxide, ice every bruise, and wrap me in a blanket and feed me soup. Gemma stepped between us before I could flinch and cause offense.

“He’s a touch telepath, Mom,” she said, hands raised. “You can’t just poke and prod him. But we’ll take the first aid kit and some snacks.”

Gemma convinced her mom to allow Al and me to stay the night, for which I was grateful. I didn’t want to show back up at home covered in scratches and try to explain to my parents how badly my date with a werewolf had gone. I revived my phone with a borrowed charger and sent my mom a text that I was staying at Al’s—something she was used to seeing. She only responded with a short “okay,” and that was that.

After a shower and some first aid, I sat in Gemma’s family room in a T-shirt and pajama bottoms I’d borrowed from Val (pink with skulls).

Al and Gemma blew up an air mattress on the floor while I sprawled on the couch, my ankle propped with an ice pack and a blanket covering me.

“Hey, want to hear something hilarious?” Al said as they poked at the mattress they were filling with air.

“Sure. I wouldn’t mind a moment of lightheartedness.”

They snorted. “It involves your parents.”

“I’m intrigued. Do continue.”

“They went to the coven house again tonight.”

I perked up from my drowsy state. When I’d left, my mom had been in her wine-mom attire. She wasn’t dressed to go out.

“What? When?”

“Tonight. And I don’t know how, but they ticked off the coven elders. And were asked to leave .”

I sat up and gasped. “Get out!”

Al giggled and pointed. “Yes! Exactly like that.”

“What did they do? Did they offend the coven or something?”

Al shook their head. “I have no idea. My moms didn’t tell me—just that your parents had said something that led to the coven kicking them out.”

I groaned, smacking my hand over my face. “They’re so embarrassing. I don’t even want to know what they said or did.”

Gemma spread out a sheet on the air mattress, then tossed a pillow and two fluffy blankets onto it. She disappeared into her room and came back with two more pillows.

“Unicorn?” she asked, holding them up. “Or regular?”

“Regular is fine.”

She shrugged. “Your loss.” She tossed me the regular pillow, and I shoved it behind my back.

Al settled cross-legged into a large recliner and stared at me. They too had changed into a pair of borrowed pajamas from Val. They were decorated with cartoon bats with candy-corn fangs.

“All right, tell us what happened with Mateo.”

I sighed, scrunched down onto the couch cushion, and pulled the blanket up to my neck. I recounted the whole date, from the conversation with my mom, to Juana taking us to the wrong park, to Mateo kissing me on the cheek, which had led to the glimpse of Juana’s attack. Then my running into the forest instead of confronting the problem.

Gemma’s frown deepened with each detail. “Does that mean Reese is exonerated?”

“I don’t know.” I twisted my hands into the blanket. “The swamp smell was there, and what I thought was mud from rain could’ve been Reese’s doing, but Mateo was definitely the person holding the knife.”

Al and Gemma exchanged a glance. “We should get some rest,” Al said, “and approach it in the morning.”

I agreed.

Gemma and Al shared the inflatable mattress, and I took up the couch. I didn’t think I would be able to fall asleep, not with my tumultuous thoughts bouncing around in my brain, but after a few minutes of listening to Gemma and Al murmur to each other quietly, I drifted off.

My cheek was buzzing.

Wait. No. That wasn’t right. Something under my cheek was buzzing.

I pried my eyes open, wiped away the sleep, and gingerly sat up from Gemma’s surprisingly comfy couch. I reached beneath my pillow and pulled out my phone.

The screen read two thirty a.m. and buzzed again and again as several texts came through. I had a dozen missed calls from Kaci and Mateo. And I had a ton of texts. It appeared as if my phone, now fully charged and with full bars, was catching up from the night. And a flood of messages from everyone was now coming through. I sighed heavily and pushed my hair away from my face.

I swiped my thumb over my screen and opened my messenger app. Other than the older messages from my forest ordeal, there was a newer cluster of messages from around midnight. All from Mateo.

I can’t sleep until I know you’re okay.

Are you okay?

Cam, are you there?

Can you answer?

I didn’t mean to make you glimpse.

I should’ve asked before kissing you.

I just really wanted to. I know that’s not an excuse.

I would like to talk to you.

I understand if you would rather text Kaci just to let us know you’re okay.

I squinted at the text. My brain was foggy with sleep, and I didn’t know how to deal with this. But I couldn’t help but feel bad that Mateo was upset, despite the fact that he could be the attacker.

And then there were the more recent texts.

Still can’t sleep.

I’m really sorry.

I’m heading to your house.

What the fuck?

I quickly texted back, my fingers fumbling over the screen. I’m not there. The last thing I wanted was for Mateo to wake my parents. That would surely end in a shit show. And I don’t know why I did it, but I added, I’m at Gemma’s.

Okay, that was probably stupid.

I’ll be there in a few minutes.

Oops. That was not quite what I had wanted to happen. But I couldn’t take it back now. How did he even know Gemma’s address? Did Kaci tell him? Wait, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that he was on his way, and I was half-asleep, kind of gross, and my hair was standing on end. Ugh. I’d just add all of those to my growing list of embarrassing things that had happened the last few days.

I leaned over the edge of the couch. On the other side of the ottoman, Al and Gemma were fast asleep. Gemma was propped on her unicorn pillow and curled into an impossibly small ball, and Al was splayed out as they usually did in sleep, half on the mattress and half off. As quietly as possible, I untangled from the blanket and stood. I bit back a gasp of pain when I put my weight on my ankle, and hobbled toward the front door. I twisted the lock, wincing at the sound, and did my best to open the door slowly, hoping the creaks wouldn’t wake the others. I squeezed through the small opening I’d made and gently shut the door behind me.

Gemma’s house had a screened-in front porch with wicker furniture. So I took a seat on a springy cushion and waited.

I didn’t have to wait long. I had no idea if Mateo had run the entire way to Gemma’s, but that was the only explanation for how he arrived a rumpled, panting mess with no car.

“Cam,” he whispered.

I heaved myself up from the chair and faced him through the screen door. He stood on the path that led from the driveway to the front stoop.

He took a step toward the house. “Stay there,” I said, my voice trembling with fear and fatigue.

Mateo paused. The moon was waxing, the harvest moon only a few days away, and the light illuminated Mateo enough for me to make out his features. He was tired, his posture wilted, his hair a sweat-soaked tangle.

“Are you okay?” he asked. He bit his lower lip, and his body vibrated in place, like he was holding back from ripping the door off the hinges to ensure I was all right.

“Not my best day,” I said. “But I’m okay.”

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve asked before I kissed you. I didn’t mean to make you glimpse. I never wanted to make you uncomfortable.”

I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest, hiding the big pink skull that was printed there. “Yeah, well, Juana taking us to a different location than we planned made me really uneasy.”

He turned his head, staring at the grass, the sharp line of his clenched jaw apparent in the moonlight. “I didn’t know she would do that. I’m sorry.”

I rolled my shoulders, trying to ease the tension that had gathered in my body. “Why did you lie to me?” I blurted out. That wasn’t quite the question I’d meant to ask, but it was the one in the forefront of my mind. “You lied about Juana breaking up with Mia.”

“Because that was what Juana told me!” he said, pushing his finger into his chest. “And that’s what I told Kaci, so don’t be mad at her.”

“I’m not mad at Kaci.”

He nodded. “Good,” he said softly.

“Okay. If I accept that you didn’t lie about Juana, you still lied about touching me during the fight in the hallway.”

He snapped his head up. “What? I touched you in the hallway?”

“Yes!” I snapped. “ You triggered my first glimpse!”

Mateo’s mouth flapped open. “I did?”

Annoyance swept over me. “What the fuck? You didn’t know?”

“No, I didn’t know. I was in the hallway, and I was trying to stop Javi from making things worse, and I grabbed you once off the floor, but that was by the shirt. And then we all fell down, and Danny lifted you and took you to the nurse, and I picked up your phone from where it fell.” He ran a hand through his hair, causing it to stick up wildly. “I didn’t know.” His shoulders hunched. “Is… is that what you saw when I kissed you?”

“Yeah,” I croaked. “I saw it all over again.”

“No wonder you ran,” he said with a huff. “But I promise you, I didn’t know that it was me.”

I dropped my arms. Mateo didn’t know? I licked my dry lips. “Were you thinking about Juana during the fight?”

Mateo wrinkled his nose. “Probably. It was a conflict with the sprites, and she was returning the next day.”

Exhaustion built behind my eyes. I was tired, emotionally fatigued, and so confused. “Mateo, why would you have a silver knife and be standing over your favorite cousin who had just been attacked? Is there any explanation for why she would be pleading for help, and you would just not move?” I shuffled forward and pressed one hand to the screen over the door, resting my head on the wooden frame. “Any explanation at all?”

He swallowed. “No.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I have no idea.”

“How can I trust you?”

Mateo sighed. “Do you honestly think I could hurt Juana? That I could hurt you? That I could hurt anyone?”

And that was the question, wasn’t it. Was Mateo capable? Was Reese capable? The stereotype was that werewolves were aggressive. But the other stereotypes were that sprites were mean-spirited, and psychics were detached, and witches were immoral, and humans were afraid of them all. And hadn’t my friends proved all those were wrong?

I took a shuddering breath. “No. I don’t.”

Mateo tipped his head back, his features bathed in the moonlight. “Good.”

“I still don’t understand, though.”

“Because we’re missing something.”

I was startled at the sound of Gemma’s voice and turned quickly to find her and Al standing in the doorway. Al had their phone, and from the screen I saw that Kaci was connected via video chat.

Kaci’s arms were crossed. Her hair was a bird’s nest, and she glared at me with sleep-heavy eyes. “I’m really annoyed with all of you right now,” she said, then yawned widely.

“I’m annoyed with myself,” I replied.

She huffed.

“Cam, think,” Al said, slumping against the door. “Did you see anyone use the knife? Or hurt Juana?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Then it’s possible that Mateo was just there,” Gemma said.

“If I was there, I would’ve intervened and stopped whatever was happening,” Mateo said from the pathway. “I wouldn’t have held the knife, for sure.”

“Cam?” Kaci asked, eyes closed, head propped up on her palm. “Did Edith or Alma say anything about your glimpses that could help?”

“We talked about psychic blocks and their powers and—” I froze. Edith had said that my visions might not always be what they seemed. That I only saw a piece of the whole pie. “I’ve missed the forest for the trees,” I whispered.

“What?” Al said, voice flat.

I sank back into the wicker chair. “Mateo would never hurt Juana.”

“I agree,” Kaci said from the phone.

“I think the vision is Mateo arriving after the fact. My guess is that he finds the knife and picks it up and approaches Juana.” I rubbed my breastbone. “And all the fear I felt wasn’t just mine. It was Mateo’s too. Like how I felt Dennis’s excitement at the basketball game and Reese’s anxiety about the pop quiz.”

A tear slid from the corner of my eye and rolled down my cheek.

“Cam?” Al asked softly. “Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry,” I breathed. Mateo had moved closer to the house and now stood right outside the screen door. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Mateo. I shouldn’t have run. I should’ve thought it through.”

“I wish you had,” Mateo said. “But you were frightened. And already off balance. I understand why you did.”

Al moved behind me and rubbed my back, their touch comforting. Gemma put her hands on her hips, frown on her face.

“I hate to say this,” she said, “but I do think it’s time we told an adult. We still don’t know who the culprit is, and we’re running out of time.”

Mateo snorted at that, and I realized he was still firm in his belief that it was Reese. But if that night had taught me anything, it was that I had glimpsed only a small piece of the puzzle, and a little knowledge could be a lot dangerous.

Gemma twisted her hands in the mane of her unicorn pillow. “We know for sure that it happens, and we have a potential when , if not the where.”

“I’ll tell Mateo’s parents tomorrow,” I said. At Mateo’s wide-eyed glance, I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s what I should do. Probably what I should’ve done as soon as I realized it was Juana in the field. And if they need more convincing, I can show them the drawing.” I winced, then groaned. “Which I’ll have to go home to retrieve.”

“Hey, losers.” Val appeared in the doorway, opening the door wider and bodily shoving Gemma to the side. “You’re loud.”

Gemma paled. “Um… we’ll be quieter. Sorry, my big sister, whom I love.”

Val crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to snitch to Mom, because I don’t care. But go to sleep. You and your weird friends can plan shit in the morning.”

“But—”

“Now!” She tugged Gemma’s unicorn pillow from her arms and tossed it into the house.

“Hey!”

“Also,” Val said as Gemma trudged past, grumbling, “consider us even. No more pie.”

Val was right. “We need to rest,” I said. Al agreed with a nod and followed Gemma into the house. I turned to Mateo. “I’ll come over to yours as soon as I can get home and deal with my parents. Will you be okay to get home?”

Mateo nodded. “Yeah. Javi is at a party nearby. I’m meeting him there.”

“Okay.” My fingertips curled on the porch screen. “See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” Mateo cleared his throat and bounced in place. “Um… for the record, I was having a nice time until… you know.”

Despite my exhaustion and guilt and fear, my cheeks heated. “Yeah, me too.”

“Good night.”

I went back inside and flopped on the couch, burying my head in the soft pillow and tugging the blanket over my body. Al opted for the recliner, and Gemma curled onto the air mattress.

I was not looking forward to the next day and the awkward conversation I’d be having with Mateo’s parents, but at least we’d have the help of mature adults, and maybe that would finally release us all from the burden we’d been carrying. I wouldn’t mind passing off the responsibility of the whole situation to someone else, and I hoped there would be an accompanying bit of relief that might come with it. With that hopeful thought, I fell asleep.