Maria was still sitting on the floor, but she released her grip on Lily’s leg and stared up into her face. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking.

“You . . .” Maria swallowed. “You didn’t tell me.”

“I didn’t think it mattered, and there wasn’t time anyway.” Lily sighed. “I didn’t think it would make her go crazy.”

Maria shook her head slowly. “I didn’t know. It’s—I didn’t mean for this to happen. We didn’t mean to—”

“It doesn’t matter what we meant to do.” Lily put her wet hand on Maria’s cheek and turned her to face Lily, just as she’d done three nights before. “If anyone finds out what we did tonight, that’s the end of it. Of everything. We have to play this right. Go get in bed and stay there until I come and get you. You have to trust me now.”

Maria stared at Lily. Their eyes locked.

Then Maria nodded. And she did as she was told.

9

A THING MOST STRANGE AND CERTAIN

A whirring sound woke him up. The power was back on.

Thank Christ. Mateo could barely breathe. The heat on the fourth floor was nearly unbearable without electricity.

He tried to roll over and go back to sleep, but his roommate, Sean, chose that moment to let out an enormous snore. Mateo groaned and grabbed his phone off the desk. It was after midnight. He had a new text from Brandon.

Sorry. I’m waiting up for Maria.

Of course. God forbid his boyfriend take priority.

Mateo couldn’t work up the nerve to be annoyed, though. He thought back to the kiss they’d shared that night and smiled. Lately, every kiss with Brandon was better than the one before it. Maybe they were getting to be more like Romeo and Romeo than he’d thought.

Mateo reached down to pull his blankets back up, but they weren’t there. He must’ve kicked them off while he’d slept. He stood up and stumbled toward the end of the bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

A flash of white caught his eye out the window. There was something on the grass, past the front steps. Probably trash one of the rich kids had left on their way in for lights-out.

Mateo was still rubbing his eye as he stepped closer to the window and saw that it wasn’t trash. It was a person.

He knew because he could see their head cocked at a scary, scary-ass angle.

“Hey!” he shouted.

Sean rolled over, blinking at him. “What, man?”

“Hey!” Mateo shouted again. He unlocked the window and shoved it up, the ancient wood squeaking in protest as the glass slid in the frame. “Somebody!”

“Jesus, what’s going on?” Sean was sitting up.

“Hey!” Mateo leaned out the window. “Get up! Get up!”