Worst of all, Beth was probably waiting in Jessica’s room right now, ready to unleash holy fury when she got home.
“You know what?” Jessica said. “You can drive me back after the secret hour’s over.”
Jonathan frowned at her, rubbing at the middle of his back. “What about curfew?”
“I’ll risk it. You guys do all the time.”
“What about Beth? I told her eighteen minutes.”
“I’ll risk her too.”
“But what—?”
“Jonathan, you don’t have to take me home yet, okay?” She took his hands, felt weightlessness flow into her. “This whole night has sucked so far. Maybe we could just do some flying? Real flying, out in the open. We can take our time getting me home.”
His frown faded, and a smile spread slowly across his face.
“Take our time getting home?” Dess said with a smirk. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”
Rex chuckled softly.
Jessica ignored them. The heart-pounding panic of the slither attack had erased the mutual irritation between them on the subject of little sisters. And although what he’d said about liking Beth had been maddening at the time, right now it seemed kind of sweet.
“Come on. Let’s fly somewhere together,” she said. She massaged her shoulder. “Now that we’re not getting pelted with slithers.”
“Well,” he said after a moment’s thought, “have you ever seen the river?”
“The Arkansas?” Jessica shrugged. “Just from the bridge on the way over here.”
“You haven’t seen the Arkansas River till you’ve seen it in the secret hour,” Jonathan said. “Motionless water, excellent for skipping rocks.”
“Oh, cool.” For a moment she tried to figure out how the laws of motion would apply, but her new physics lobe quickly gave up. “So how does that work?”
Jonathan smiled again, his brown eyes flashing in the light of the dark moon. “It’s kind of tricky to explain. But you get a lot more skips than on regular water. Swimming’s fun too.”
“Okay,” Jessica said. “I could use some fun.”
“Come on, then. I’ll show you.”
Jonathan offered her his hand, and she took it.
“You kids have fun now,” Dess called.
“Okay,” Jessica said. “See you, Rex.”
The seer only nodded, his hands still shaking. Even in the blue light she could tell his face was ashen. What had happened to him before they’d arrived? And why had the darkling run away while she was still finding her way here, if its minions were sacrificing themselves to hold her up?
She shook her head. Evidently Rex and Melissa were still keeping secrets from the rest of them.
They leapt up and over the trees, finding their way back to the railroad bed and then across Jenks, until Jessica could see the glimmer of the river in the distance. From the air it looked like a giant slither winding its way down from the black hills, glowing with the cold light of the dark moon.
“You know,” Jonathan said as they flew. “Maybe it’s better for Cassie. Forgetting about all this.”
“Maybe. Doesn’t seem fair, though.”
“Sure, but think about how much it would scare a kid like that. Knowing about all these weird creatures crawling across her while she’s frozen for an hour every night?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Jessica said. “I mean, it scares me, and I’m the all-powerful flashlight-bringer.”
“And on top of the fear factor, everyone would think she was totally crazy. Eventually, since she’ll never see the blue time again after all, she’d probably decide they were right.”
They landed on a stretch of not-quite beach, a narrow strip of dry earth dotted with patches of scrubby grass. The river stretched out before them, motionless wavelets glittering like scales made of diamond, reflecting a shattered image of the dark moon.
It was beautiful, but Jessica shivered.
“Not cold, are you?”
“No. It’s always warm here.” She shook her head. “I was just wondering if Cassie might see the blue time again. I mean, what if Dess is right? What if the secret hour swallows all of Bixby—or even the whole world—forever? And everyone gets sucked through, like Cassie was? Suddenly cars and electricity don’t work, and people can’t even make fires anymore. Only five of us on the whole planet know anything about using thirteen-letter words and stainless steel to protect ourselves. What happens then?”
He squeezed her hand. “Then I’ll come get you, wherever you are when it happens. We’ll be okay.”
“But what about everybody else?”
He stared out across the river, nodding slowly. “My guess is, everybody else is in big trouble.”
9
7:15 A.M.
MISS TRUST
At the kitchen door the next morning Jessica breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe for a few more minutes—Beth wasn’t up yet.
“Morning, Jess. Toast?”
Jessica checked for signs of imminent re-grounding in her mother’s expression but saw only sleepiness and the usual lines of stress. Apparently Beth hadn’t raised any alarms last night.
“Sure, Mom. Thanks.” Jessica sat down at the table. Maybe Jonathan was right, and the trick to dealing with Beth was to call her bluff.
Somehow, though, Jessica didn’t think it was going to be that easy.
Her mother popped two slices of bread into the toaster, then turned her attention back to the coffeemaker gurgling happily on the counter. “Any plans tonight?”
“Um, no.” Jessica frowned. “Hang on, was that question a subtle recognition of the fact that I’m not grounded anymore?”
“Not exactly subtle,” her mother said. “I don’t do subtlety before coffee.” She splashed milk into an empty mug, her eyes remaining fixed on the black brew now dribbling into the pot.
“Well, you’re tons more subtle than Dad. Yesterday afternoon he said he was keeping an eye on me.”
“He is.” Mom looked at Jessica. “But I’m just going to say that I trust you. How’s that for good parenting?”
“It’s great. But didn’t you used to be the bad cop?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Her mother gave the coffeepot a look of intense concentration. “Takes too much energy, though. At least your father’s taking up the slack somewhere.”
“Well, thanks anyway. I won’t let you down.” The words came out automatically, but Jessica felt a twinge of guilt as they left her lips. She had crossed a new line just the night before. It was one thing sneaking out during the secret hour, which hardly counted as breaking curfew; when every clock in the world was frozen, surely time was a meaningless concept. Plus there were darklings to slay and lost kids to rescue.
But last night she hadn’t gotten home till about 2 a.m., cutting solidly into school-night real time. Crusty sleep still caked her eyes, and red Oklahoma dust had spun around the drain for a solid minute while she’d showered.
Not that she regretted it. Their visit to the motionless river had been worth any amount of lost sleep. Just like air during the blue time, the water had been as warm as a summer day. Jonathan said that you could go swimming in the middle of winter. With the current arrested, the broad river was like one big heated swimming pool. The water had seemed to wash away the pain in her slither-bitten hand, not to mention all the tension between her and Jonathan.
“That’s Jessica, all right: Miss Trustworthy,” Beth said from the kitchen door.
Jess wondered how long she’d been standing there. Maybe she had been waiting for the sounds of Jessica getting up and had followed her down the hall.