“So, Rex, should I leave her out in the sun?” Melissa asked from the edge of the clearing.

“No reason to,” he said. “Jessica already gave us both a blinding dose of white light. It worked for me when I was half-darkling; it should work for her. Meet you at the car?”

“Sure thing, Spider-Man,” Melissa called, waving goodbye.

Jessica watched the two of them disappear into the trees, wondering at how pliant and sleepy Cassie had become after Melissa had taken her hand. Maybe it was only shock, the poor girl overwhelmed after everything that happened. But Madeleine had suppressed Dess’s memories with only a touch too.

Melissa was growing in power every day. Jessica wondered what she could do if she got really pissed off at someone.

“So, Jessica, you ready to fly home?” Jonathan asked.

She looked at Rex. He still seemed shaky, as if it had been a close thing tonight.

“Will you guys be safe, Rex?”

He nodded. “Sure. I’ll stick around and see if there’s any lore sites around here. Or any other clues about this place. I think you ruined the darklings’ party, for the rest of the hour at least. And Dess here has…”

“Magisterially Supernumerary Mathematician,” she said, hefting the spear proudly.

“But what about your car, Jonathan?” Jessica said.

He shrugged. “I’ll get it tomorrow.”

“I can drive it into town!” Dess offered.

“I don’t think so,” Jonathan said.

Dess snorted and prodded his ribs with the point of Supernumerary.

Jessica stood there, rubbing her wounded hand and thinking glum thoughts. They had saved a young girl tonight, but in payment for the rescue the memory of the most amazing experience in Cassie’s life would be erased forever. And Cassie Flinders was only the beginning. If the blue time was tearing, more unlucky people were likely to step into the secret hour, where hungry monsters waited for them. And possibly normal time itself was coming to an end.

Worst of all, Beth was probably waiting in Jessica’s room right now, ready to unleash holy fury when she got home.

“You know what?” Jessica said. “You can drive me back after the secret hour’s over.”

Jonathan frowned at her, rubbing at the middle of his back. “What about curfew?”

“I’ll risk it. You guys do all the time.”

“What about Beth? I told her eighteen minutes.”

“I’ll risk her too.”

“But what—?”

“Jonathan, you don’t have to take me home yet, okay?” She took his hands, felt weightlessness flow into her. “This whole night has sucked so far. Maybe we could just do some flying? Real flying, out in the open. We can take our time getting me home.”

His frown faded, and a smile spread slowly across his face.

“Take our time getting home?” Dess said with a smirk. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”

Rex chuckled softly.

Jessica ignored them. The heart-pounding panic of the slither attack had erased the mutual irritation between them on the subject of little sisters. And although what he’d said about liking Beth had been maddening at the time, right now it seemed kind of sweet.