Holding Mateo—

Admit it. You wanted her to be evil, because you wanted to get her away from him.

Why am I so stupid?

Nadia came to a stop just short of her own house and braced herself against a neighbor’s car, breathing hard, until the flush in her cheeks cooled and she felt like she was in control again. Dad and Cole couldn’t see that she was hurting; they didn’t need her to break down. They needed her love. They needed dinner.

For a moment she imagined how different it could be, how it ought to be. She would run inside to find Mom there, smiling and steady and smelling of her perfume, Dad’s arms around her waist as he hugged her from behind. Nobody would have to worry about Cole. She could ask Mom what it all meant—what was sick in this town, what Elizabeth might or might not be, how Mateo could be her Steadfast—and Mom would know, because she always knew. They’d figure it out together.

The longing swelled inside her until it felt like it would bend her ribs outward, crack them, swallow her heart.

But Mom wouldn’t ever be home again.

Stupid, Nadia thought again. So stupid.

Then she pulled herself together and walked inside with an almost-believable smile.

“So, like, I felt like everybody else was doing it, okay? And it’s not like I actually wanted to steal Jinnie’s phone. It’s not even that good a phone.” Kendall was the last one taking her turn around the circle in what was usually chemistry class. Today, it was a weird therapy session about not acting on inappropriate urges, and mob mentality, or something like that. “But, like, everyone else was doing something, and I figured I ought to do something, and that’s what I did.”

Nadia sighed. The overwhelming sense of unease she usually felt in the lab had been completely buried by boredom. Everyone in class, including the Piranha, had been forced to come up with some reason why they’d lost it yesterday. Since nobody knew the real reason was a magic spell, their excuses made no sense whatsoever. Some people blamed their ADD meds; one guy thought they might have accidentally made some kind of drug using the chemicals for their experiment, though the Piranha said this was impossible.

Faye Walsh crossed her arms in front of her. With her chic aquamarine wrap dress and high heels, the only sign that she wasn’t totally confident and in charge was the little worried line between her eyebrows. “Okay. I don’t know that we got at the root cause of what happened here, but this isn’t about blame or punishment. Somehow, somebody got out of control, and everybody else went along with that. What was needed here was a little more self-discipline. Maybe somebody with the courage to stand up and say, ‘What’s going on?’”

Nadia hugged herself and glanced directly across the circle—where Mateo sat. He was already looking at her. Their eyes met instantly, and the doubt she saw there pierced her through.