Then I thought about all those times I’d shrugged off Nadia’s casual, caring touches. I thought about how I craved Malachi’s touch, how comforting I found it and how much I missed it now that I couldn’t have it. Was this really so different?

I reached out and touched her shoulder. Tegan put her hand over mine and took a snuffling, shuddery breath. When she let it out, it was as a wet, hoarse sort of … laugh. “Thanks for trying, Lela. I really appreciate it.”

She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and got out of the car. I followed her. “Hey,” I called as she trudged toward her house. “Are your parents home?”

She nodded. “My mom’s here.”

I fingered my keys. “All right. I’m going to call you later. Just to see how you are.”

“Since when do you care, Lela? Are we friends now?”

My fist closed over my keys, the teeth biting my palm. She wasn’t Nadia. She could never be Nadia. But I didn’t want anything to happen to her, and it wasn’t just because Nadia had cared about her. Somewhere along the line, I started to care about her, too. A little. “I was wondering the same thing.”

She gave a raspy laugh.

“Hey, Tegan. Aden obviously got into something bad. If anyone shows up here acting the same way, don’t let them in, and don’t go with them, okay?”

“I’m not an idiot.”

I handed over her phone. “Later, then.”

On the drive home, finally alone, my mind whirled through the events of the last few hours. Aden was gone. Dead. Where was his soul now? Was he trapped in the Mazikin realm, which was supposedly so terrible that the dark city looked like a paradise by comparison? Or maybe his soul had been liberated the moment Ibram had crashed his body into the slab of cement. That’s what Malachi believed. That was why he was so determined to kill the Mazikin and the bodies they inhabited. Sure, it gave the Mazikin a chance to come back, but if it freed the souls of their victims, he believed it was worth it.

Which meant that if Levi or Greg or Ian or any of the others had been possessed, Malachi would want to eliminate them immediately. We would end up murdering our classmates, one by one. Well, not really, but as I thought of Ian’s surprisingly sweet, dimpled smile, I knew it would feel that way.

As I pulled into Diane’s subdivision, I was already making plans to check in with the other Guards and scan the news to see if there had been any additional attacks. But all my plans scattered when I saw the car parked in Diane’s driveway. It belonged to Nancy, my probation officer. And parked right next to it was a police cruiser.

THIRTEEN

THIRTEEN