A moment later, Finn stirred. She tilted her head, then, realizing she couldn’t see, clawed at the hat over her eyes. She yanked it off, making chunks of her hair stand on end. “Did I miss something?”

Joel and Zadie both raced to answer Finn first:

“Nope.” “You were having a seizure.”

An amused smile spread across Finn’s lips as she turned to Zadie. “Let’s just tell him.”

Zadie sighed heavily. “Okay, fine.”

“Tell me what? What’s going on?” Joel hated being left out of conversations. It was why he instigated so many of them.

Finn looked him in the eye and, without any flourish, said, “I can read people’s memories.”

“You can what?” Joel practically shouted. Zadie and Finn shushed him, fielding more dirty looks from nearby tables. “You can read minds?” He sounded mildly nervous at the prospect.

“No, I don’t know what people are thinking,” Finn continued patiently. “I can just feel the memories that people leave behind.”

Joel looked relieved. “But … how?”

Finn shrugged. “Runs in the family.”

“Wait.” He turned to Zadie. “Do you have it, too?”

“Uh, sort of. I’m a”—she lowered her voice—“psychic.”

Joel’s expression was momentarily blank. Then a low chuckle escaped his lips. “You guys are screwing with me.”

“No, we’re not,” Finn insisted.

He clapped his hand on the table. “Man … you guys really had me going there for a second. Psychic!” he hooted. “Good one.”

Zadie had spent her whole life hiding who she really was, but for some reason, Joel’s laughter got under her skin. In that moment, she wanted to prove him wrong more than she wanted to keep her secret. “I am a psychic!”

“Sure you are.” Joel gave an exaggerated wink, then stood up in his seat, plate in hand. “I’m gonna hit the buffet. When I get back, you can tell me who’s going to win the Super Bowl.”

“How could he not believe us?” Zadie said, incensed, as she watched Joel make his way down the aisle of booths, dodging platter-wielding waitresses. “He believes in Bigfoot, for Christ’s sake.”

But Finn didn’t hear her sister. She saw her lips moving, but all she heard was a low, mechanical purr. Soon she could feel the vibration of the sound in her ribs and the backs of her eyes. It made her teeth chatter. Before she knew what was happening, she was on her feet and running toward the emergency exit. As her body burst through the double doors, everything went dark.