Chapters (42)
- TITLE PAGE
- COPYRIGHT PAGE
- DEDICATION PAGE
- CONTENTS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My mouth dropped open as she shoved the phone at me. Her voice was painfully high-pitched as she said, “He said he wants to talk to you, and if I don’t give you the phone, he’s jumping.”
I grabbed the phone, too stunned to do anything else. From all around me came the voices, laughing first and then more frantic as all eyes fixed on Aden Matthews, who stood on the edge of the roof, four stories up, right over the front entrance, one arm spread wide, one hand holding his phone to his ear.
“Hello?” I said into the phone as my world tilted dangerously, sliding my morning straight into crazyland. “Aden?”
“Lela,” he said. “Lela.” His voice was shaky with energy. Maybe he was high?
“Hey, Aden. What—what are you doing up there? School’s about to start.” I sounded like such an idiot, but what was I supposed to say? I’d never talked someone off a roof before.
He chuckled. “Lela. Lela and Malachi.”
I stared at his distant figure, at the toes of his shoes protruding over the edge of the roof. Surely somebody had called school security by now? I glanced over to see Ian staring up at his friend, his own phone pressed against his ear.
“Um. Yeah,” I said. “If you come down, I’m sure Malachi would go out with you and your—”
“Captain Malachi. Tell him Ibram sends his regards.”
Cold fingers of dread snaked out of the cracks in the blacktop beneath my feet and slid up my legs, anchoring me in place. “What did you say?”
“We know you’re here.” His low, hooting laughter made me pull the phone away from my ear.
I heard the shout through the phone. Aden spun around to look at someone who had joined him on the roof. For a moment, he held both his arms out for balance, but then he pressed the phone to his ear again. “Sil knows you’re here. He knows who your friends are. And he’ll see you soon.”
And then, the body that had once belonged to Aden Matthews stepped off the roof of Warwick High School and plummeted to the cement below.
TWELVE
TWELVE
EVERYONE WAS SCREAMING. MOUTHS wide, tongues vibrating with the terror and shock, the whites of their eyes shining in the morning sun.
But in my head, it was silent. Like I was wearing a helmet of soundproof glass.
I was in motion before he landed, running toward the spot I knew he would hit.
Not because I wanted to save him. It was far too late for that.
Because I wanted to interrogate the Mazikin inside him.
But after the crack-split-thunk, I knew the creature inhabiting his body would never be able to answer my questions. Air whooshed from my lungs. My heart jacked up tight and painful, beating itself into a giant bruise.