Rika wanted to argue, to tell them that she was a part of their world now, but she’d held herself apart for so long she wasn’t even sure she could be a part of the solitaries.

A word rang out, loud in the still of the desert. “Oopsy.”

Suddenly, Jayce was pushed off the rocky ledge where he’d stood. He shifted with surprisingly quick reflexes for a mortal, angling himself to take the impact with his hip and side.

Rika didn’t think, couldn’t think; she simply reacted. In a breath, she was a blur across the remaining distance. The world felt like it sped and slowed all at the same time. The mortal—the person—who had finally made her feel like life was worth more than enduring, like living again could be possible, was falling.

And then she was under Jayce, catching him, and becoming visible in the process. She knew she looked far too frail to catch a mortal in her arms, so after a brief hesitation, she let her legs give out from under her and collapsed to the sand with a mortal atop her.

With Jayce touching me.

Limbs tangled, they were still on the desert floor. Neither spoke or moved for an awkward moment. Rika tried to soak in every feeling, to notice as much as she could since he was finally touching her.

Then he rolled to the side so he wasn’t. “I’m so sorry. Did I . . . Are you . . .” He looked from her to the cliff and back at her. “Don’t move. I’ll get help and—”

“I’m fine.” Rika scuttled backward. A rush of panic washed over her. Despite the usual comfort she found in the vast openness of the desert, she felt suddenly cornered and stood, poised to flee. As calmly as she could, she repeated, “I’m fine.”

Even in her panic, her gaze slid over him. Jayce’s sleeve was torn, and his jeans were sand-caked. He had scratches on his face, and she knew that he must be in pain from the impact. Yet, despite his injuries, he was completely fixated on her. “You’re in shock or something,” he said. “Just sit down and—”

“You’re bleeding.” She pointed to the blood seeping through the sleeve of his badly ripped shirt. His clothes were often tattered and worn, and he’d been injured from climbs and skateboarding, but she’d never seen him bleed so much. She didn’t like how it made her stomach feel.

One of the other mortals, Jayce’s friend Del, came into view atop the cliff. Like Jayce, he looked pretty grungy, unlike his skater girlfriend, Kayley, who now joined him. Rika had watched them enough to know that Kayley might look like she didn’t belong with a boy whose electric-blue hair stuck out from the edges of his bandana, but she was every bit the adrenaline seeker he was, often more so.