There’s a lot about what Valentino has said that makes me sad, even pisses me off. A parent shouldn’t love you only through childhood, but I’m glad his life hasn’t been total hell. It could’ve been so much better if he had parents or guardians like mine. Maybe if he had grown up in New York we could’ve met sooner. It hurts to think about how much easier and harder his End Day would’ve felt if I’d known him for years.

I can’t start cracking now, I got to stay strong.

“What else do you want to do while we’re out here? Find an artist to draw a caricature of us? Nah, that’s a waste of your time.”

“Sitting next to you isn’t a waste of my time,” he says.

“If you say so . . .” I grab the cash I pocketed from his subway runway and count it out. “Sixty bucks.”

“That bad? I thought I did a better job.”

“You’re shitting me, right? Sixty bucks is amazing. I’m not surprised, look at you.”

“Shall we see how I look after the artist is done with me?”

“Hell yeah.”

I kiss him, staying in our spot just a little longer.

Then my phone rings.

I freak out for half a sec before I remember it’s not a Death-Cast ringtone and that we’re outside their calling window.

I release the deepest sigh, like someone is interrupting us. “Place your bets on who it is,” I say as I reach for my phone. “Dalma? Scarlett? New contender?”

“Hopefully it’s not Scarlett,” Valentino says.

True, because she should be on her plane by now.

“It’s Dalma,” I say. I answer her call. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Thank god you’re okay,” Dalma says.

I’m immediately thrown back into the headspace of 9/11 and everyone’s relief whenever they found out someone was alive. “Why wouldn’t I be? What’s going on?”

“O-Bro, have you not seen the news?”

“No, I haven’t. We’ve been—” I shut up, my heart going crazy. Valentino can see the panic in my eyes. “Dalma, just tell me what’s going on. I’m freaking the fuck out.”

“There’s been a Death-Cast update. Some Deckers have slipped through the cracks, and the problem won’t be sorted until tomorrow. I think that’s still a big question mark too.”

I almost drop my phone.

I’m shaking.

My eyes water.

“What’s happening?” Valentino asks. “Is everyone okay?”

This is the fucking thing: I should have an answer.

I should know if everyone is okay because Death-Cast was supposed to solve these mysteries so we could live our days peacefully if we weren’t about to die. But now I’m back to where I was yesterday and every damn day before that. My heart going wild could actually be the beginnings of an attack that kills me.