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Cherise grabbed my arm, locked eyes with o, now!"

"But-you were shot-"

She waved that off impatiently "I’m okay Coed with debris, but Cherise was fast, and I s and branches and struggling to keep up I was cold, very cold, and I couldn’t believe she was this active without at least a coat But I guessed that if she was bullet-resistant, being immune to the chill wasn’tit knocked me to my knees, and Cherise yelled and dropped flat, and a wave of heat rolled over us, thick and shocking

A fireball erupted behind us

"Kevin!" Cherise was up and running back toward the inferno, but she didn’t get far before the flames drove her back "Kevin!"

She didn’t need to worry The boy plunged through the flames as if they weren’t even there and doubled over, breathing hard He wasn’t even singed "Dahed "Ow That hurt"

Cherise immediately went to him "What happened?"

"He went for it," Kevin said, and braced his hands on his knees "Daht I could contain him, but he-he just-"

It dawned onout of the fire "You killed hilanced up at me "He did it hi to kill you We were lucky to get to you in tiun I felt hot, sick, disoriented, and oddly on the verge of tears I didn’t know the guy, not really, butI couldn’t believe what Kevin was saying Lewis, going to kill me? No That couldn’t be true

I needed to think, but I didn’t have ti It had already jumped from one winter-dried treetop to another, and there were tendrils of flaht be fireproof, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t

Cherise yelped as a branch exploded fro splinters

I didn’t even plan what happened next I don’t even kno it happened I just reached blindly for help, any kind of help

And it ca down like a firehose to douse ry fla The rain kept falling, a tap I didn’t kno to turn off Hell, maybe I’d broken off the knob The underbrush was still s, but the flaain while the downpour continued

Kevin looked like a stunned, drowned rat He stared atme, while rain beat down on his head and plastered his lank hair to his skull "You shouldn’t be able to do that," he said "How did you?" Weirdly, I could al his, a fe at et here?" I yelled over the roar of the rain

"Not that again!"

"It’s a good question! How the hell did you two find lance Not one that was particularly reassuring Man, I wished I’d picked up the gun-not that it had done Lewis a lot of good But I felt particularly vulnerable right now "Leas going to a lot of trouble because he thought soer"

"Not from us," Cherise said, and I almost believed her She just had that kind of innocent trust-, and my heart went cold

I backed away a few more steps Kevin’s smile faded, and Cherise’s blue eyes turned cool and expressionless

"All right," she said "I guess we do this the hard way"

The downpour was localized around us, but as I reached the ins, fire suddenly flared up Kevin I could feel the energy pouring out of hi would be daot outside of the downpour’s zone, he could toast me up like a s’more I wasn’t sure I had a second trick upsleeve

Cherise and Kevin didn’t ot the strangest feeling, like they were justthere And not there Like they weren’t really present any else I couldn’t even put a na It wasn’t a real shadow, but I could feel it, spreading over the ground towardflickering and indistinct

Cherise blinked and said, "There’s nothing to be afraid of"

But there was There most definitely was Whatever that was in the trees was not right; I could feel it like a sick black ache inworse with every breath

The shadow see in time with my heartbeat, and with every frantic beat it looked a little bitdarker More real More distinct

I saw the curve of a pale face, dark hair

I didn’t want to see what came at the end, but I felt weak now, and bitterly cold My knees threatened to fold up under ht, This is it I’ inside et steadier again

"There’s so to be afraid of," I heard myself say to Cherise "Me"

And I reached up into the sky and pulled at the air, pushing a whole wall of it like an invisible hard shield at the away the shadow

I turned and ran, dodging bloo in the squelchy mud under my boots Overhead, the downpour sputtered, let loose a final shower of ice-cold drops that froze into sleet as they hit the ground, and subsided I kept running, and checked overthere, dumb statues, and that shadow, that shadoith the, it looked just like me

And then it justvanished

Cherise and Kevin toppled over facedown to the ground Dead, stunned, I couldn’t tell, but there was no way I could go back; I knew the shadoas still there, hoping to lure ht it