Dess’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

“It was easy. I snuck out while she was in the bathroom and pulled out the starter cable.” Rex gave his new evil smile. “She was in a hurry to get somewhere else, like always, so I called her a cab. She’s already rented another Caddy, so this one’s mine until I tell her it’s fixed.”

Dess and Jonathan exchanged a glance, and she saw that even Jessica had woken up enough to be impressed.

“Rex,” Dess said. “That is so cold-blooded.”

“True.” He nodded. “But I needed a car. We have important things to take care of.”

“Like getting us all out of bed at six-thirty on a Saturday morning?” Flyboy asked.

“Exactly.” Rex looked at his watch. “Come with me.”

He led them across the field toward the rip, and Dess found herself glad that she’d worn a skirt that didn’t fall below her knees. At this time of morning the long grass was heavy with dew, and her sneakers got soaked as fast as if she’d been strolling through a car wash.

As they marched, the sun began to crest over the distant tree line, its glaring eye finally putting a dent in the fierce pre-dawn chill.

“This better be good, Rex.”

“Don’t worry, Dess,” he said. “I think you’ll find it interesting.”

“At six-thirty in the morning I was hoping for better than ‘interesting,’ Rex.”

“I’m sure Jessica won’t disappoint us.”

Dess looked at Jessica, who just shrugged back at her.

Suddenly Dess noticed that Melissa hadn’t walked with them. “Hey, where’s the bitch goddess? She’s not back at your Caddy sleeping, is she?”

Rex shook his head. “She’ll be along in…two minutes.”

“Great. More split-second timing.” Dess sighed. “Hope this goes better than your last little scheme.”

“There’s just one thing, guys,” Jessica said nervously. “Cassie Flinders lives right over there. What if she sees us?”

“She won’t remember us.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Rex raised an eyebrow. “Why would she?”

Jessica looked over at the Flinderses’ double-wide with an unhappy expression on her face. “Well, I wasn’t going to mention this, but she and my sister have been…hanging out. I was afraid to tell you guys in case…” She didn’t finish.

In case the bitch goddess decided to rip your little sister’s brain in half, Dess thought.

She looked at Rex, wondering if he was about to do one of his psycho transformations. But after a pause he only shrugged. “Everyone will know about the blue time soon enough, Jessica. It doesn’t matter.”

“Wow,” Jessica said, looking stunned. “That’s actually kind of a relief.”

Flyboy put his arm around her, smiling, but the idea of Rex not caring about secrecy sent a minor shudder through Dess. As she turned away to study the rip, the realness of how Samhain would change everything sank in yet another notch.

The rip wasn’t glowing red here in normal time, but Dess could see its current shape in the color of the grass, as if the contortion were a giant piece of lawn furniture. Maybe the dark moon was mutating the chlorophyll or something. She noted the rip’s geometry: a long, thin oval pointing almost due east and west.