“You’re hurting my hand,” Jim said, annoyed. “I might need it later.”

I released him from my death grip. “Sorry.”

“You all right, Captain? Did that Mazikin get to you this afternoon? Certainly seemed to have Malachi on edge. And he wasn’t even related to it.”

“I wasn’t related to it, either,” I said through gritted teeth.

“You know what I mean.” He pulled his ringing phone from his pocket. “Hold up. It’s Tegan.”

He stepped over by a storefront and answered, and I watched the grim expression on his face transform, softening with … I didn’t even know what it was. Hope? Happiness? His eyes met mine, and then his smile evaporated. He was on duty. “I’ll call you later, okay? No, definitely. Definitely.”

He hung up and turned toward me. “What’s a prom like?”

I laughed as we started to walk again. “Do I look like a girl who’s been to a prom?”

He shrugged. “Can I go?”

“Tegan asked you?” This was an interesting development.

“I want to look out for her. But I’m afraid I’m going to mess it up, not understanding these local customs.”

We crossed a busy street, with neon lights from the clubs streaking our faces, turning our skin purple and pink. I kept my eyes open for that dark-blue van or any other suspicious, slow-moving vehicle.

“I guess a lot of this stuff must seem weird.” I waved my hand at the HOT GIRLZ marquee above our heads.

“No, the Blinding City looks a little like this. Only much brighter. Much more … extreme.”

“So kind of like Las Vegas?”

He gave me a blank look.

“How did you end up in the Blinding City, anyway? I thought the Countryside was heaven. Like, a final resting place.”

“Only if you want it to be,” he said, pulling his own hood up so that I couldn’t see his face.

“I’ve been there. I’ve felt it. Why wouldn’t you want that?”

“How would you know to want it if you’d never felt anything else?” His voice was hard. “I spent my whole existence there. There were always people around to take care of me, to teach me. I had everything I needed. But like I told you … when I reached a certain age, I stopped getting older. Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“My body stopped changing when it reached maturity. But people keep changing, even if their bodies don’t. I started to want things. I didn’t even know what, but it was this ache inside me. A hunger. And slowly, the Countryside became a prison to me.”

“A prison? Are you serious? I don’t get that at all. Every person I met in the afterlife would have given anything to end up there.”