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"Nyaha!"

"Yaha!"

"Georgie goes first," she repeated

"Past the boundary, you can't raise dead things," Georgie said

"Past the boundary, you can't grow fur and claws," Jack said

They always played the gaood reminder to the boys of what they could and could not do, and it worked much better than any lecture Very few people in the Broken knew of the Edge or the Weird, and it was safer for everyone involved to keep it that way Experience had taught her that trying to explain the existence of ood It wouldn't get you committed into a mental institution, but it did land you into the kooky idiot category andlunch hour

For e, and no Weird They lived in the United States of America, on the continent of North America, on the planet Earth - and that was that For their part, most people in the Weird couldn't see the boundary either It took a special kind of person to find it, and the kids needed to remember that

Georgie touched her hand It was her turn "Past the boundary, you can't hide behind a ward stone" She glanced at the, oblivious to her fears

The road lay deserted Few Edgers drove up this way this tiet the trip over with and be back to the safety of the house

"Past the boundary, you can't find lost things," Georgie said

"Past the boundary, you can't see in the dark" Jack grinned

"Past the boundary, you can't flash," Rose said

The flash was her greatest weapon Most Edgers had their own specific talents: some prophesied, soie So could be learned by anyone with a drop of ic It wasn't a ic inside you and channeled it from your body in a controlled burst that looked like a whip or a ribbon of lightning If you had hter the color of your flash, the hotter and ht flash was a terrible weapon It could slice through a body like a hot knife through butter Most Edgers never could get their flash bright enough to kill or injure anything with it They were ic, and reen or blue

It was her flash that had started all of their trouble

No, Rose reflected, they'd had plenty of trouble before her Draytons were always unlucky Too sood Grandpa was a pirate and a rover Dad was a gold digger Grandht she knew better than anyone else Mom was a tramp But all those problems didn't affect anyone but the individual Draytons When Rose flashed white at the Graduation Fair, she focused the attention of countless Edge families squarely on their little clan Even now, even with the rifles on the floor, she didn't regret it She felt guilty about it, she wished things hadn't gone the way they did, but given a chance, she would do it again

Ahead the road curved Rose took the turn a bit too fast The truck's springs creaked

A ainst the encroaching twilight

She slammed on the brakes The Ford skidded in a screech on the hard, dry dirt of the road She caught a gliht at her

The truck hurtled at him She couldn't stop it

The ray boots landed on the hood of the truck with a thud and vanished The man vaulted over the roof to the side and disappeared into the trees

The truck slid to a stop Rose gulped the air Her heart fluttered in her chest Her fingertips tingled, and she tasted bitterness on her tongue

She stabbed the seat belt release button, threw the door open, and jumped out onto the road "Are you hurt?"

The Wood lay quiet

"Hello?"

No answer The one

"Rose, as that?" Georgie's eyes were the size of small saucers

"I don't know" Relief flooded her She hadn't hit hiot scared out of her wits, but she hadn't hit him Everybody was fine Nobody was hurt Everybody was fine

"Did you see the swords?" Jack asked

"What swords?" All she'd seen were the blond hair, green eyes, and some kind of cloak She couldn't even recall his face - just a pale se

"He had a sword," Georgie said "On his back"

"Tords," Jack corrected "One on the back and one on his belt"

Some of the older locals liked to play with swords, but none of the blond hair And none of the a truck head-on would be scared He stared her down as if she had insulted hi of the road

Strangers were never good in the Edge It wasn't wise to linger

Jack sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose the way he did when he looked for a scent trail "Let's find him"

"Let's not"

"Rose"

"You're on thin ice already" She cli after some knucklehead who thinks he's too iet her heart rate under control

Georgie opened his mouth

"Not another word"

A couple of minutes later, they reached the boundary, the point where the Edge ended and the Broken began Rose always recognized the precise moment when she passed into the Broken First, anxiety stabbed right through her chest, followed by an instant of intense vertigo, and then pain It was as if the shiver of ic, the war the crossing The pain lasted only a blink, but she always dreaded it It left her feeling incoic-less dimension had come about

There was an identical boundary on the opposite end of the Edge, the one that guarded the passage to the Weird She never tried to cross it She wasn't sure her h for her to survive

They entered the Broken without any trouble The Wood ended with the Edge Mundane Georgia oaks and pines replaced the ancient dark trees The dirt became pavement

The narroo-lane road brought theas stations to the parkway Rose checked the parkway for oncoht, and headed toward the town of Pine Barren

Above the to land at the Savannah airport only a couple ofplazas and construction equipia mud Ponds and streams interrupted the landscape - with the coast only forty round sooner or later filled up ater They passed hotels, Cohts Inn, Marriott, Eht, crossed the overpass, and finally turned into a busy Wal-Mart parking lot

Rose parked on the side and held the door open, letting the boys out Jack's eyes had lost their amber sheen Now they were plain dark hazel She locked the truck, checked the door just in case - locked up tight - and headed to the brightly lit doors

"Now re shoppers "Shoes and that's it I mean it"