All it took was half an hour away from Allie!

It was that thought that brought his euphoria to a sudden end, because as illuminating as the moment was, it also cast a chilling shadow.

Does this mean I’ll turn back into a monster if I’m not with her?

Through the space still left between his fingers, he saw Allie, hurrying across the street toward him. The second he saw her, he reflexively hid his hand behind his back. He could have cursed himself for not being more subtle about it.

“We’re done here,” she said.

“You took way too long!”

She shrugged. “Lots of articles to read.” Mikey thought he had gotten off easy, until she asked, “Why are you hiding your hand?”

“I’m not.” Still he held it behind his back.

Then she got a troubled look in her eye, perhaps thinking about something she had seen or read during her little skinjacking expedition.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said. “I don’t like this place.”

Mikey glanced at the horse—and that’s when she grabbed his wrist, pulling his right hand into full view. He grimaced, realizing he had been caught red-handed—or web-handed, as it were … But to his surprise the flaps of skin linking his knuckles were gone.

“Hmmm,” said Allie. “Nothing. I guess you were telling the truth.”

He folded his fingers over hers, interlocking them. “What reason would I have to lie to you?”

Allie squeezed his fingers tighter and smiled. “You’re human now; lying is a favorite human pastime.”

As they climbed onto the horse, Mikey decided he must be more human than he thought—because not only had he lied, but he had gotten away with it.

The town soon gave way to countryside, and they came across an old rural route that was no longer a part of the living world. Here, Mikey dug his heels into the horse and the horse took off in a cantor that was so much more efficient, something it couldn’t do while plodding through that soft stuff that made up the living world. With Allie so close to him on the horse, Mikey wished he could read her mind, for even with her so close behind him, she felt miles away. He was still frustrated by the time she spent skinjacking, but he knew better than to make an argument of it. Allie was the sharpest, most argument-winning girl he had ever met. He knew she would make a convincing case for why she had every right to skinjack whenever she felt like it, and leave him waiting. After all, it wasn’t her fault he couldn’t do it.

“If I understood how it worked,” she had once told him, “don’t you think I would teach you?”