The fire crackled. It was almost enough to put Teri to sleep, but the bark on the log she was leaning against was itchy and uncomfortable, and she couldn’t get warm.

  Xeke draped his jacket over her. “Is that better?”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  Xeke looked around and frowned. “Ruddy took our only blanket to dry off with.”

  Xeke’s exasperation with Ruddy was more of an irritant than the itchy log. “It’s okay,” she said. “The fire is enough.”

  Corey and Ruddy talked in low voices as they returned from the stream. She forced herself not to focus on what they were saying. It’s only background noise, she thought.

  She drifted off.

  Teri felt warm and safe with Sean’s arm around her. “Show me the Big Dipper,” he whispered.

  She tried to find it, but the stars were faint. “The fire’s too bright,” she murmured.

  But that wasn’t right. There hadn’t been a fire the night they watched the stars.

  “Teri. Show me the Big Dipper.”

  “Too sleepy.” She leaned into him. His arm was cold and wiry. She blinked her eyes open.

  There was no sign of Sean. No sunset over the lake, no Penatuka … just a campfire, an old tent and some cheap plastic chairs. Her mom was there … and Tip.

  It was Tip’s arm around her.

  “I said, show me the Big Dipper.” He glared at her. “You got wax in your ears, girl?”

  Now she remembered. Tip had been talking about the stars earlier—drinking and showing off.

  “Our smart girl doesn’t know everything, eh, Eva?” he said. “Well let me teach you a thing or two. Y’see, every star out there is a whole different galaxy.”

  Teri kept her mouth shut.

  He pointed. “And there’s the Big Dipper.”

  “That’s Orion.” The words came out before Teri could stop herself. “The Big Dipper is … over …”

  He glared at her and gripped the bottle he was holding. She flinched.

  “Little smart ass, eh? Think you know more about the world than your daddy? Well, if you’re so smart, I guess you can find your own food.”

  He picked up one of the cans of vienna sausages he’d brought for the trip and held it up. Her stomach growled as he pried the top off.

  “One more chance. Tell me again where the Big Dipper is.”

  Teri looked at her mom. Eva stared back, her bottom lip between her teeth.

  All she had to do was point at Orion, and everything would be all right. Tip would be happy. Her mom would be happy. And Teri could eat.

  Tip put three of the sausages in his mouth at once. Juice dripped from his tobacco-stained fingers.

  Her hands shook as she pointed at the Big Dipper. The real one. “It’s the most obvious constellation in the sky. I can’t believe you have so much trouble finding it ... Tip.”

  He threw the can at her face and lunged for her. Eva let out a high-pitched yelp as Tip’s hands closed around Teri’s neck.

  Ruddy was fidgeting with his new “clothes.” It was bad enough that all he had to wear was a makeshift toga—but why in God’s name did it have to be a pink My Little Pony blanket?

  Corey pointed at a plant. “Leaves of three, leave it be. Anything else you don’t have to worry about.”

  “Leaves of three …” Ruddy examined the vine. “That’s more than three leaves.”

  Corey smiled. “You have to look at the groupings.”

  “I see,” Ruddy said, but he didn’t. I won’t touch any plants at all from here on out. God! I can’t even outsmart a plant.

  Ruddy had never realized how spoiled and sheltered his life had been. I’m so useless. If it wasn’t for Teri and Xeke I’d be dead by now.

  He glanced over at Teri. She was twitching like a sleeping kitten. He reached out and shook her shoulder. “Teri. Wake up, you’re having a …”

  Teri’s eyelids popped open. She stared at Ruddy, wide-eyed.

  Spoiled little bitch, Ruddy thought. He lunged for her.

  He worked hard all week to put food on the table. Had plans for the racetrack this weekend, too ... but Eva had insisted on a camping trip. And now this little bitch is going to try to tell him what star is what? Fuck that.

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  “You little cunt,” Tip said. His hands closed around her neck.

  Teri choked and tried to scoot away, but he tightened his grip. Whiny little brat. He wasn’t hurting her that bad. Bitch needed to learn some respect.

  His breathing was raspy and hard now. “Bitch thinks she’s smarter than me. Well, we’ll see, won’t we?”

  He pulled back his fist and narrowed his eyes. The tears rolling down her face made him want to punch her even more.

  “I’m gonna teach you a lesson, little girl.”

  Xeke lept to his feet. “Ruddy! What are you doing?”

  Tip turned to the intruder. “Stay out of this, boy, unless you want to be next.”

  Tip tried to punch Teri in her smarmy face, but his arm wouldn’t work. Pain shot through him as the fingers around Teri’s neck bent backwards. He heard several pops as the bones broke and his arm pulled away from her. He couldn’t move a muscle.

  It was the boy. He was one of those afflicted. “You fucking freak!” Tip yelled. “I’ll kill you …” His vocal cords seized up.

  Xeke was saying something to Teri now, but Tip couldn’t hear the words. His ears were roaring with rage.

  Kill the bitch. I’m going to kill them all.

  Xeke tightened his grip on Ruddy. The hatred pouring through the link almost overpowered him. He focused harder. If he let Ruddy’s emotions get to him, things could only get worse.

  Corey raised his rifle and pointed it at Ruddy.

  “Corey, don’t! I’ve got this ...”

  The rifle cracked.

  Xeke caught the bullet inches away from Ruddy’s head. He reached out with his mind and held the trigger to prevent a second shot.

  “What are you doing?” he yelled at Corey. Ruddy slipped away for a second before Xeke caught him again.

  Corey panted. “That guy, he’s killing Teri! Where did he come from?” He lifted the rifle like a club and advanced toward Ruddy.

  “Corey, stop!” Xeke said. “That’s Ruddy! I’ve got him!”

  Teri’s mental scream was deafening. Corey staggered another step, then fell to his knees. Teri crawled backwards and burned one of her hands in the fire as she tried to get away from Ruddy. Xeke felt the searing pain of her burns through the link.

  Fear and madness swirled around them. Xeke barely managed to maintain his hold on Ruddy. Thuds came from around the campground as bats, squirrels, and birds fell to the ground.

  The other Terry screamed in Xeke’s mind. I’m losing her! You have to calm her down or we’re all dead!

  “Teri!” Xeke forced himself to walk toward her. “You have to stop.”

  She scrambled farther away. An even bigger wave of fear rolled over him, and a high-pitched roar came from the woods, as if every animal in the forest was shrieking.

  “Don’t be afraid. It’s me. It’s Xeke.” He focused on soothing thoughts. “Remember what we talked about, back in Penatuka?”

  He knelt next to her. She covered her face with blistered hands.

  “Remember? You and me, we’re alike. We can never lose control. You have to get yourself under control.”

  She shivered and Xeke felt it in his own spine, but the fear ebbed.

  “You’re safe. No one here is going to hurt you. It was just a bad dream.”

  She dropped her hands and looked around. Her eyes came to rest on Ruddy straining to get to her.

  “It’s Tip,” she whispered. “He’s back.”

  “No, that’s Ruddy,” Xeke said. “You had a bad dream and pulled him in somehow. But it’s over.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. “I … I did this?”

  “It was an accident.”

  “But what if I killed him?” Her eyes swept over the animals littering the campground. “What if I killed you all?”

  “You wouldn’t. You have too much control to let it go that far.”

  She sobbed. “You don’t know that!”

  “Yes, I do. I know because you’ve let me see through your eyes. You do have control. You’ll never cross that line, even in a dream. I trust you. Completely.”

  Xeke let out his breath. It was true. He did trust her. He wasn’t afraid of Teri’s powers, not like he was afraid of his own. He smiled at her. “Besides, did you ever hear of there being two Antichrists? That position is filled.”

  She let out a little bark, halfway between a laugh and a sob. The tide of emotion vanished, and the hate emanating from Ruddy snapped off like someone had flipped a light switch.

  Corey’s hands shook as he put the rifle down.

  I almost killed Ruddy, he thought. He hadn’t been in control of himself at all. Years of training with Eliza had amounted to nothing against Teri. He couldn’t even begin to fathom how Xeke had kept it together.

  He stared with newfound respect at Xeke, who sat on the ground cradling Teri as she sobbed.

  Corey turned to Ruddy. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I thought you were someone else. Everything was different … and … you weren’t you.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Ruddy said. “I hurt Teri. Help her.”

  Corey nodded and went to her. “You’re going to be fine,” he said. “You have some bruises and a couple of minor burns. I’m going to heal you now, all right?”

  Teri buried her head in Xeke’s chest.

  “Go ahead,” Xeke said.

  Corey pushed away the memory of almost killing Ruddy and went to work. Something like this had happened a few times with Alexi …

  Teri peeked up at him from behind Xeke’s shoulder. “Who’s Alexi?”

  Corey hesitated. “She was a friend. A mentalist. She lost control and … this isn’t the best thing to be talking about right now. I’ll tell you all about it one day, I promise.”

  Teri stared at him. Her lip quivered.

  Corey tried to reign the thought in, but it popped up anyway. I won’t let you end up like her.

  She blinked. “Thank you,” she whispered. She gripped Xeke’s arm. “I think it’s safer if I sleep now. No dreams. Can you do that, Corey?”

  He nodded.

  As soon as Teri was out, Corey turned to Ruddy. “This wasn’t your fault.”

  “Whatever,” Ruddy said. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It does matter. Look, Ruddy, I’ve seen this situation before. I know what you’re going through. She’s a mentalist, the strongest one I’ve ever seen. You had no free will at all. It wasn’t you.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “We need to talk about it.” Corey noticed that Ruddy’s fingers were bent and broken. “Jesus. Why don’t you heal that? Do you want me to do it for you?”

  “It’s fine,” Ruddy said. He pulled his hand away. “I’ll take care of it later.”

  Corey sighed. “If you want to suffer pointlessly, I can’t stop you. But we need to talk about this. Teri lost control and she almost killed us all. We can’t brush this off.”

  “Teri is fine,” Xeke said.

  Corey’s mouth dropped open. “How can you say that? She’s not fine. Nothing about this is fine.”

  “You’re going to upset her again,” Xeke said.

  “She’s asleep,” Corey said. “You’re using that as an excuse.”

  “We can’t be sure she won’t wake up.”

  “I can,” Corey said.

  “Well, I can’t,” Xeke said.

  Corey stared at him. “What’s gotten into you?”

  “Trust me,” Xeke said. “I have some experience in what she’s going through. Everything is fine. If we start making a big deal out of this, it’s going to get worse.”

  “We keep pretending everything is fine and things keep getting worse.” Corey’s voice rose. He took a deep breath. “And no offense, Xeke, but Teri’s a hundred times more dangerous than you.”

  “Just drop it, Corey,” Ruddy said. “Xeke’s right. This is our problem, not yours.”

  “I’m not the enemy here,” Corey said.

  “I never said you were,” Xeke said.

  Corey sighed again. “I can see neither of you wants to be reasonable right now. But when we get someplace safe, we are going to talk about this.”

  “OK,” Xeke said. “But right now we need to get away from here. It’s going to snow soon from the look of those clouds. We still have people chasing us and I bet they heard Teri’s outburst clear across the country.”

  Corey shuddered. “You’re right. Let’s get on the road. But I’m not letting this go.”