“Wrong. He does.” No reason to play games here. “I read his mind. I saw that he’s confused—just as confused as you are—but there are real emotions at stake here...for both of you. Nothing simple, nothing neat, but it is real.”

This confirmation didn’t seem to make her happier; if anything, her expression became only more miserable. “That’s even worse than I thought.”

My chest grew tight and I hugged her. “Don’t worry. Nobody has to know you’re breaking the balance rules with him. I swear I won’t tell anyone. You’re safe.”

“It’s not that.”

I leaned back. “Then what is it?”

She wiped her eyes. Then her gaze rose to meet mine again. “Wait. You can read minds, too? Is that like what you did with Bishop—how you saw his memories? How can you do that?”

I thought she already knew this. Letting more of my secrets out of the bag—even though I hadn’t considered this one a secret—made my heart start racing. “It’s just more of that supernatural intuition,” I said evenly. “I think Jordan’s got the same thing going on.”

She studied me a little too closely and I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. Her eyes widened with shock. “Samantha...are you a nexus?”

I stopped breathing. “What?”

“It would explain everything, actually. I’m not sure why I didn’t consider it before. But...if that’s true...how could you be a gray, too?”

I fought to stay calm and look confused instead of panicked over this hypothesis. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m nothing special. Just a messed-up kid who has a minor bit of sixth sense going on.”

Her strained expression didn’t ease off. “Sure you are. Or maybe, just maybe, we’re both in way more trouble than we’d like to admit.”

I swallowed hard. “Maybe.”

She didn’t keep grilling me on the subject. She left, closing the door softly behind her. I sat down heavily and stared at myself in my vanity mirror, trying to harness my racing thoughts. Even up here I still felt Bishop’s presence downstairs. My hunger swirled, making it difficult to catch my breath.

Now Cassandra knew my secret, too.

I jumped in the shower and tried to let the scorching hot water—a relief after being locked in that basement for so long—wash my cares away. Didn’t work in the slightest. I got out in record time.

It wasn’t until I turned on my blow-dryer that I had the vision.

I didn’t have many of these. But when I did have them, they flattened me with their intensity. This one wasn’t an exception to the rule.

Like a waking dream with the intensity of a hurricane. The images shifted, sliding, turning so I could barely see anything properly.

It was a house—a big house with tons of kids there wearing masks and costumes. They milled about, drinks in hand; making out, talking, having fun. Music blared all around.

I also sensed the mind of the angel—the bodiless one. Somewhere else. Somewhere close. She wasn’t like the others—the team of angels and demons I’d come to know. She was different. The essence of what she once was distorted like a reflection in a funhouse mirror, turned monstrous, feeding on joy and hope to keep her own misery at bay. She knew doing this was draining her victims of the will to live. It filled her with despair, but she couldn’t stop. Survival and hunger were this angel’s only remaining motivations.

She was as wretched as she was terrifying.

She felt drawn to this house. It was like a bright beacon lighting her way through the dark city.

And when she arrived she would find so many kids who were filled with life and joy...

It would be an incredible feast for her.

The vision shifted, like metal twisting after a car wreck. It was after—bodies strewn around the house, lifeless, blood everywhere, it smeared the walls and oozed out onto the carpet and hardwood floors.

Noah’s Halloween party had turned into a mass suicide.

The vision ended and I staggered back, my head splitting in pain. It knocked me right to the floor. Immediately, I scrambled to get up, finished getting dressed and raced downstairs as fast as I could.

Bishop looked at me with alarm from where he stood, still in the foyer, this wild girl who’d practically flown down the stairs with still-damp hair.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded.

I explained as quickly as I could what I’d seen. Cassandra appeared, her arms crossed. She’d heard me. Neither of them told me not to worry, that it was only my imagination.

“Has it already happened?” Cassandra asked shakily.

I shook my head. “No, but it’s going to.”

“A vision of the future.” She eyed me warily. “Do you have these often?”

“Thankfully, no.” My last one had been a vision of the city being destroyed and sucked into what I now knew to be the Hollow. I didn’t remember it with perfect clarity—I think it was a way of my mind rejecting the sight of such an apocalyptic disaster.

But the future could be changed. Neither of my horrible visions had to come true.

“We’re leaving,” Bishop said firmly. “Right now.”

“I’m coming, too,” I said just as firmly.

He met my gaze. “Yes, you’re coming, too.”

Looked like I was going to Noah’s Halloween party after all.

Chapter 25