Blue Noon

“So she’ll tell people about it?” Jonathan asked. “And then just forget the next day? Won’t that seem fu

Rex shrugged. “She’s a kid, she’s sick, she wandered off. So what if she talks crazy for a day? And after we pay her a visit tomorrow at midnight—” He raised his fingers and snapped.

The sound sent a shiver through Jessica. Maybe they were right, and mindcasting was the only way to keep the secret. In the old days, when Bixby had practically been ruled by midnighters, they’d probably done it all the time. But still, the idea didn’t make her very happy.

“So, Rex, should I leave her out in the sun?” Melissa asked from the edge of the clearing.

“No reason to,” he said. “Jessica already gave us both a blinding dose of white light. It worked for me when I was half-darkling; it should work for her. Meet you at the car?”

“Sure thing, Spider-Man,” Melissa called, waving goodbye.

Jessica watched the two of them disappear into the trees, wondering at how pliant and sleepy Cassie had become after Melissa had taken her hand. Maybe it was only shock, the poor girl overwhelmed after everything that happened. But Madeleine had suppressed Dess’s memories with only a touch too.

Melissa was growing in power every day. Jessica wondered what she could do if she got really pissed off at someone.

“So, Jessica, you ready to fly home?” Jonathan asked.

She looked at Rex. He still seemed shaky, as if it had been a close thing tonight.

“Will you guys be safe, Rex?”

He nodded. “Sure. I’ll stick around and see if there’s any lore sites around here. Or any other clues about this place. I think you ruined the darklings’ party, for the rest of the hour at least. And Dess here has…”

“Magisterially Supernumerary Mathematician,” she said, hefting the spear proudly.

“But what about your car, Jonathan?” Jessica said.

He shrugged. “I’ll get it tomorrow.”

“I can drive it into town!” Dess offered.

“I don’t think so,” Jonathan said.

Dess snorted and prodded his ribs with the point of Supernumerary.

Jessica stood there, rubbing her wounded hand and thinking glum thoughts. They had saved a young girl tonight, but in payment for the rescue the memory of the most amazing experience in Cassie’s life would be erased forever. And Cassie Flinders was only the begi

Worst of all, Beth was probably waiting in Jessica’s room right now, ready to unleash holy fury when she got home.

“You know what?” Jessica said. “You can drive me back after the secret hour’s over.”

Jonathan frowned at her, rubbing at the middle of his back. “What about curfew?”

“I’ll risk it. You guys do all the time.”

“What about Beth? I told her eighteen minutes.”

“I’ll risk her too.”

“But what—?”

“Jonathan, you don’t have to take me home yet, okay?” She took his hands, felt weightlessness flow into her. “This whole night has sucked so far. Maybe we could just do some flying? Real flying, out in the open. We can take our time getting me home.”

His frown faded, and a smile spread slowly across his face.

“Take our time getting home?” Dess said with a smirk. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”

Rex chuckled softly.

Jessica ignored them. The heart-pounding panic of the slither attack had erased the mutual irritation between them on the subject of little sisters. And although what he’d said about liking Beth had been maddening at the time, right now it seemed kind of sweet.

“Come on. Let’s fly somewhere together,” she said. She massaged her shoulder. “Now that we’re not getting pelted with slithers.”

“Well,” he said after a moment’s thought, “have you ever seen the river?”

“The Arkansas?” Jessica shrugged. “Just from the bridge on the way over here.”

“You haven’t seen the Arkansas River till you’ve seen it in the secret hour,” Jonathan said. “Motionless water, excellent for skipping rocks.”

“Oh, cool.” For a moment she tried to figure out how the laws of motion would apply, but her new physics lobe quickly gave up. “So how does that work?”

Jonathan smiled again, his brown eyes flashing in the light of the dark moon. “It’s kind of tricky to explain. But you get a lot more skips than on regular water. Swimming’s fun too.”

“Okay,” Jessica said. “I could use some fun.”

“Come on, then. I’ll show you.”

Jonathan offered her his hand, and she took it.

“You kids have fun now,” Dess called.

“Okay,” Jessica said. “See you, Rex.”

The seer only nodded, his hands still shaking. Even in the blue light she could tell his face was ashen. What had happened to him before they’d arrived? And why had the darkling run away while she was still finding her way here, if its minions were sacrificing themselves to hold her up?

She shook her head. Evidently Rex and Melissa were still keeping secrets from the rest of them.

They leapt up and over the trees, finding their way back to the railroad bed and then across Jenks, until Jessica could see the glimmer of the river in the distance. From the air it looked like a giant slither winding its way down from the black hills, glowing with the cold light of the dark moon.

“You know,” Jonathan said as they flew. “Maybe it’s better for Cassie. Forgetting about all this.”

“Maybe. Doesn’t seem fair, though.”

“Sure, but think about how much it would scare a kid like that. Knowing about all these weird creatures crawling across her while she’s frozen for an hour every night?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Jessica said. “I mean, it scares me, and I’m the all-powerful flashlight-bringer.”

“And on top of the fear factor, everyone would think she was totally crazy. Eventually, since she’ll never see the blue time again after all, she’d probably decide they were right.”

They landed on a stretch of not-quite beach, a narrow strip of dry earth dotted with patches of scrubby grass. The river stretched out before them, motionless wavelets glittering like scales made of diamond, reflecting a shattered image of the dark moon.

It was beautiful, but Jessica shivered.

“Not cold, are you?”

“No. It’s always warm here.” She shook her head. “I was just wondering if Cassie might see the blue time again. I mean, what if Dess is right? What if the secret hour swallows all of Bixby—or even the whole world—forever? And everyone gets sucked through, like Cassie was? Suddenly cars and electricity don’t work, and people can’t even make fires anymore. Only five of us on the whole planet know anything about using thirteen-letter words and stainless steel to protect ourselves. What happens then?”

He squeezed her hand. “Then I’ll come get you, wherever you are when it happens. We’ll be okay.”

“But what about everybody else?”

He stared out across the river, nodding slowly. “My guess is, everybody else is in big trouble.”