He coughed. “Sure, Rex. That’s not something a normal person would celebrate.”

“No. But one Samhain a long time ago, everything changed. The darklings never showed up again, even after the bonfires burned down. They had retreated into midnight. So those bonfires changed in meaning. Instead of a last-ditch survival maneuver, they were now an act of celebration. Halloween is the anniversary of the beginning of the secret hour, the day humanity finally reached the top of the food chain.”

Dess sat up straighter. “Huh. So maybe this whole history thing does actually make sense. I mean, if the darklings really did disappear on October 31, that’s why it was such a good day in the old system. It was the day when everyone was finally safe from them forever.”

“Not forever,” Rex said.

“Oh, right.” Dess’s voice softened. “November 1 is going to be a darkling holiday from now on, isn’t it?”

He nodded. “They’re going to turn the food chain around again. But the good news is this long midnight won’t last forever—just for twenty-five hours, a single day by the old reckoning.”

Jonathan knew he should be relieved, but somewhere deep inside him, he felt a little spark of disappointment.

“Okay, Rex,” Dess said. “What’s the bad news?”

“The long midnight will happen every Halloween, the rip getting bigger and bigger every time. From now on, humans are the candy.”

Jonathan’s disappointment lifted a little. A whole day every year.

“So what do we do about this?” Jessica said. “Wasn’t that the point of you talking to the darklings? To find out some way to stop it?”

Rex didn’t respond for a while, his face strangely unmoving. Jessica looked over at Jonathan, who only shrugged. He realized that some part of him was scared that the seer already had a plan, something that would shove the secret hour back into its bottle. Which would be a good thing, of course, saving thousands of lives at least.

But it would also mean Jonathan would never fly for more than one hour a day….

Finally Rex spoke. “We’ll try to stop it, to do whatever we can. When it comes, we’ll gather people together and teach them how to fight for themselves.”

“Um, Rex?” Jessica said. “What about keeping the secret hour a secret?”

“We don’t anymore. After the long midnight we won’t be able to.” He looked down at the table. “And after what we saw in Madeleine’s mind last night, I’m pretty sure I don’t want us midnighters to stay in shadows anymore.”

Everyone was silent for a moment as the idea that the blue time wouldn’t be secret any longer slowly sank in.

Jonathan wondered again why the old mindcaster wasn’t down here with them. But there were more important questions right now, he supposed. “So how do we organize a whole town in one night?”

Rex shook his head. “I don’t know yet.” He turned to Jessica. “But you remember how Angie said Samhain had something to do with the flame-bringer?”