And with one loud crack, the hole in my fence was suddenly gone. I didn’t even have to look behind me to know that the screech of metal was David’s car repairing itself. In just a few seconds, all evidence of the insane car chase, the crash, all of it, was gone. Then the only sound in my backyard was the singing of birds and the rustling of the leaves.

“That really happened,” David said softly. “All that shit, it . . . disappeared, right? I didn’t hallucinate that?”

My adrenaline seemed to vanish as completely as the Cadillac, and it was all I could do not to collapse in a heap on the grass. It was one thing to see the aftereffects of stuff disappearing. It was another to see an entire car—with people inside—poof out of existence.

“Yeah,” I replied. “That happened.”

“Do you know why?”

When I turned to him, David was still staring at the pool, the fingers of his right hand pressed against his temple again.

“No. But . . . David, something seriously weird is going on.”

The hand at his temple moved up to tug on his hair as David made a sound that was part sob, part laugh. “You think? Jesus, Harper. You . . . you flipped Ryan Bradshaw like a pancake. You drove a car like Jason Bourne. And then this . . .” He waved his hand at the water. “I don’t . . . I mean . . .” His words trailed off and he sank down into a crouch, eyes still fixed on the pool.

Walking over to him, I pulled at the shoulder of his jacket. “Okay, I get that it’s weird, and while I totally respect the need for a PTSD moment, we really need to talk.”

His eyes moved up to my face, still kind of unfocused. “About what? Why bad guys are chasing you, and why freaking magic is apparently real?”

“I actually think the bad guys might be chasing you, but yeah.”

David staggered backward, and sat down heavily on the grass. As he did, he nearly overturned Mom’s statue of two little girls reading on a bench, but I was able to grab it before it fell.

His sleeves, too short as usual, fell back from his thin wrists as he rested his elbows on his knees, hands tugging at his hair. “Hold up, what? You think those guys were after me? Why?”

“I don’t know. Do you know why?” I towered over David, my shadow falling on his body.

Dazed, David shook his head. “I can’t—”

And then I saw it. Something flickered across his face and he flinched.

“You do know,” I said, yanking him to his feet. “David, what is it?”

He swallowed heavily. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”