Jessica gulped. The thought of making her way to the infamous snake pit, all alone at midnight, didn’t make her very happy. “We’ll really be safe there?”
Dess nodded. “Absolutely. I’ve been working on protection all week. I’ve got a ton of metal ready to go. Rex and I can set it up after school tomorrow. The darklings won’t be able to get within a hundred yards of the snake pit.”
“Really?”
“We’ll be perfectly safe. Of course, remember to watch out before midnight.”
“For what?”
“The snakes.”
Jessica blinked.
“You know,” Dess said patiently, “in the snake pit.”
“Oh. I thought maybe ‘snake pit’ was just a colorful nickname, not to be taken literally.”
“Well, don’t let the name fool you,” Dess said. “It’s more of a sinkhole than a pit. A sinkhole full of snakes.”
“Great, I’ll keep that in mind.” Jessica shivered, remembering the slithers that second night. The idea of real snakes didn’t make her much happier. “But maybe this party thing isn’t going to happen. I don’t even know if I’m still invited.”
Dess looked across the library at the older girls’ table. “There’s only one way to find out.”
A couple of Constanza’s friends looked up when Jessica came over. She still drew some stares, especially in the lunchroom with Jonathan. Jessica ignored them and knelt next to Constanza.
“About the party this Friday?” she whispered.
Constanza looked down at her. “Yeah?”
“I kind of got, um, ungrounded.”
“Really?” Constanza smiled broadly. “Wow. The police bring you home and you’re partying a week later. Not too bad, Jess Shady.”
“I guess not. So how about that party at Rustle’s Bottom? I mean, I know you’re probably—”
“Great.”
“I mean, if there’s already too many—”
“Sure. Come along.”
Jessica swallowed. “I don’t really know how to get there. And it’s probably too far—”
“I’ll drive you. You can sleep over. That way your parents won’t be freaking when we get home super-late.”
“Oh,” Jessica said, “good idea.” Excuses and bailout lines were still rolling around in her head, but Constanza’s beaming smile silenced them all.
“Come home with me tomorrow from school? We’ll have a great time.”
“Cool,” Jessica managed.
“I can’t wait for you to meet some of the guys at this party. I know you like that Jonathan guy, but trust me, Broken Arrow men are much more fun than the boys from Bixby. Much more mature. You’re going to have the night of your life, Jess.”
21
12:00 A.M.
PEGASUS
Jessica was scared. Jonathan could feel it.
They had made it up to Pegasus in record time, shooting down Division like a stone skipping on water, then gaining altitude from rooftop to rooftop, making a giant obstacle course out of the Bixby skyline. The Mobil Building was the tallest in town, and now they were high atop the winged horse with the darkened city spread out below them.
But Jess had seemed anxious the whole way. She kept looking over her shoulder, not trusting in their speed to keep them safe. Even up here, her green eyes still scanned the horizon. The muscles in her hand were tight, and the connection that Jonathan usually felt when they flew together was missing.
“Are you okay?”
“What?”
“You seem nervous.”
She shrugged.
He smiled. “Like maybe you’re worried about being seen with me.”
Jess laughed, looking out over the dark, empty city. “Yeah, if any slithers tell my mom about us, I’m dead.” She paused, then blurted, “Anyway, you’re the one who’s all antitouching during daylight.”
Jonathan blinked. “Really?”
“Yeah.” Jessica looked away. “I mean, it’s no big deal, but it’s not like you ever put your arm around me or grab my hand.”
“We hold hands all the time!”
“At midnight we do. In school you get all anxious about it.”
He frowned, annoyed and wondering if it was true. “Well, we’ve got to rest sometime. Or we’ll wind up with Nintendo wrist.”
Jess pulled away her flying hand and flexed it. “I guess so.”
Jonathan gently took it back and started to massage the tendons. He felt her muscles begin to relax. “So what are you really nervous about?”
Her gaze swept the skyline. “How safe do you think we are up here?”
“We’re in the middle of town, sitting on ten tons of clean steel. Mobil Building has thirteen letters in it. And we can fly if we need to. Pretty safe, I’d say.”
Jess ran a finger along the rusty strut they were perched on. “How do you know this steel’s clean? It’s been here a long time, looks like.”
“I asked Dess if Rex could take a look with his glasses off. When Pegasus is lit, you can see it from all over Bixby, you know. He said the horse doesn’t show a bit of Focus. It’s clean.”
She smiled at him. “Thanks for doing that.”
He shrugged. “Rex can be a pain, but the guy’s good for some things.” He concentrated on rubbing her hand.
Jonathan hadn’t told Jess, but over the last week he had spotted a few slithers at the edges of downtown, daring to come closer to the tall steel buildings than he’d ever seen before. They were tentative, slithering across the low warehouses on the fringes, blurring them into the midnight world, laying claim to them. Since Jess had come to town, the midnight creatures were pushing their way in, a little closer every night. It might take months, but Jonathan had grown certain that eventually there wouldn’t be any clean places left in Bixby. The slithers and their darkling masters would be able to claim even Pegasus.
Where would he and Jess go then?
“But we can’t sit on top of this sign forever, Jonathan.”
He looked up at her, wondering how she knew what he was thinking. He dreaded that Jess’s mysterious talent might have something to do with mind casting. He hoped not. Jonathan had no idea how Rex could stand to hang out with Melissa. He shivered. No privacy, not even in your brain.
“We’re safe for now, Jess. And maybe once you get ungrounded—”
“I got ungrounded today,” she said.
“That’s great! Why didn’t you tell me?” he said. Then he saw her expression. “Jess, why isn’t that great?”
“Well, because now I’m allowed to go to that party tomorrow night, out at Rustle’s Bottom.”
“Oh, the snake pit.” Jess had told him about Rex’s master plan a few days ago. The idea had sounded dangerous enough when it was way off in the future. Now that it was twenty-four hours away…
“You know that’s out in the badlands.”
“They kind of mentioned that. But Rex says it’s the only way to find out what I am,” Jessica said. “Dess can make it safe out there, and Rex says my talent could be important or maybe something I can protect myself with. In the museum he told me there’s lots of kick-ass talents.”
“If Rex told you to jump off a cliff—,” he started.
“Jonathan,” she said, laughing, “that would be you telling me to jump off a cliff.”
Jonathan smiled. “Probably. But I’d jump with you.”
She pulled him closer. “I’ve got to do something, Jonathan. I can’t spend the rest of my life sitting up here.”
“I know.” He sighed. “So you’ve got to do what Rex says. He’s the only one of us who’s got the manual for midnight, after all.”