All the words he’d meant to say to her were gone now. Mateo knew he was powerless against this … thing that had masqueraded as his friend, as a regular human being. There was no point in shouting his hatred at her, or in begging her for explanations. Something like this didn’t explain. It took what it wanted and destroyed everything that got in the way.

Which meant she could never know Nadia was in the way.

So he went to his last dream and focused on that, only on that. “I dreamed of fire.”

Her eyes glinted as in triumph. “A terrible fire?”

“Yes.”

Elizabeth cocked her head to one side, a gesture so like the friend he remembered that his blood ran cold. “Does the fire kill Nadia Caldani?”

He remembered the sight of Nadia lying amid the fire, her dark hair curling like smoke. “Yes. It does.” Was he making Nadia sound too important in the visions? Would that make Elizabeth go after her? Desperate to protect Nadia, he improvised quickly. “Not only Nadia, though. I dream of everyone here in town—everybody dying.”

“Even me?”

Let Elizabeth be scared along with everyone else for a while. “Yeah. Even you. That’s why I haven’t called. I didn’t want to tell you.”

She flinched. “But you never dream of me any longer. You said so.”

Crap. He’d gotten it wrong.

Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed, and he knew she’d realized he was lying.

Mateo tried to find the words to correct himself, to come up with anything to cover his tracks. But he couldn’t speak.

Literally, he couldn’t. His mouth wouldn’t open; air wouldn’t move through his larynx. He felt as if Elizabeth’s fingers had curled around his throat so tightly it was impossible even to breathe—but she just stood there like before, the same blithe smile on her face.

“Tell me the truth,” she said.

“No, I didn’t dream of you in the fire. I only said that because I wanted you to be scared.” What the hell? Mateo tried to stop himself, but he couldn’t. It was as if he were a puppet in Elizabeth’s hands.

“Why would you want me to be scared? We’re friends.”

As desperately as Mateo attempted to keep his mouth shut, it was impossible. “No, we’re not. You just use me.”

Elizabeth cocked her head. “Who told you that?”

“Nadia.” Damn it!

“Still meddling.”

But the look on Elizabeth’s face was more amused than alarmed. She might as easily have found one of her cats burrowing into the clean laundry. Mateo’s heart sank as he realized that Elizabeth wasn’t afraid of them or of anything they could do. They weren’t a threat as far as she was concerned—and he figured she was probably right.

Her fingertips smoothed along his cheek, half a caress, as she whispered, “Go back to the dream about the fire.”

Wait—where was he?

Mateo stumbled and barely caught himself from falling. As his vision cleared, he saw Elizabeth standing in front of him—golden, inhuman, horrific—and just barely controlled his panic. What did I tell her? Something about the dreams. I told her that I saw her in my dream of the fire, that she died, too. Did she believe me?