 
 TWISTED

### Book One of the Deathwind Trilogy

By

Holly A. Hook

SMASHWORDS EDITION

PUBLISHED BY:

Holly A. Hook

Cover design by Robin Ludwig Design Inc., http://www.gobookcoverdesign.com

Twisted

Copyright 2013 Holly A. Hook

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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Also by Holly Hook

*Destroyers Series*

Tempest (Destroyers, Book One), Inferno (Destroyers, Book Two), Outbreak (Destroyers, Book Three), Frostbite (Destroyers, Book Four) and

Ancient (Destroyers, Book Five)

2:20 (#1 Timeless Trilogy)

### Chapter One

My very first tornado shreds the grass of the plains.

I stand next to the van, mouth dropping open, heart pounding. It's the moment I've been waiting for. I've saved the money for years and begged my uncle to book us for the Wild Weather Storm Chasing Tours.

Uncle Cassius gasps next to me, equally in awe. It barely cuts over the wind rushing towards the distant funnel. Waves of grass bow down to the twister, whipped down by the surrounding air flying in to feed it. The perfect white cone stands out against the coal sky, slim and graceful. A skirt of dust spins around its base, signaling its dance through a field a few miles away. The wind snaps against my jeans, pulling at my new Wild Weather Tours T-shirt.

"Beautiful!" Kyle, our storm chaser guide, snaps a photo for his website. He steals a glance at me and smiles. The wind ruffles his ash-blond hair. Wrinkles form around his eyes. He's all enthusiasm, joy that we've found our prey. "Don't worry. We're safe. It's heading to the east. It'll pass no closer than a couple of miles to our north."

I want his job someday.

"I'm not scared," I said, but my shaky voice betrays me. Who am I kidding? Kyle's an experienced chaser--twenty years--but this is a real tornado. In person. Live. I never realized it would be this intense, this breathtaking. A hollow feeling fills my stomach like I'm plunging down the first hill of a roller coaster. It _is_ scary...but _fun._

My parents would murder me and Uncle Cassius both for sneaking away on this trip. If they find out we're not really in Disney World being bored to death by Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, well, it'll be way scarier than this storm.

The tornado curves, almost like it's leaning to the side for a better look at something. At us? It's a weird thought, one that makes me laugh. The thunderstorm spins slowly above it, low and menacing. Thunder claps. It's enough to remind me that the storm in front of me isn't just beautiful. It's a predator, entrancing like a cobra and ready to strike.

Good thing there's no houses or buildings in its way. Only farmland stretches from horizon to horizon.

"Allie. Forget your camera?" Uncle Cassius points to my pocket and smiles. It's a tense smile. So I'm not the only one with some nerves going.

Camera.

Yes. Duh.

I pull it out of my pocket and fumble with the slim case, fingers hunting for the button. The camera zings to life. Behind it, the tornado looms a bit larger, gaining strength and racing across the ground. More dust kicks up around the perfect white of the twister.

"Now I can _really_ prove to everyone at school how crazy I am." I give Uncle Cassius a nervous chuckle. The camera trembles in my hands as I catch the tornado in my view, click, and seal it in my memory forever.

I'm having the most insane summer vacation of my entire high school. I can't wait to share this with Tommy and Bethany. Bethany's going to beg for all the details. Tommy will tell me that I'm the bravest, most awesome girl he knows.

I've got to get me and the tornado in the same picture and send it to them tonight. I dig in my other pocket and hand my phone to Uncle Cassius. "Photo."

He takes my phone. "Stand back."

I do. Now the wind blows my hair back like it's trying to pull me away, but I stand there, moving to the side so Uncle Cassius can get the whole picture. I force myself to look at my phone in his hand. It's not easy when there's a twister just a mile or two behind me, ripping up the earth.

"Got it!" Uncle Cassius waves me back.

I join him and glance at the phone for just a second. I'm on the screen, dark hair wild and flying. The tornado looms large behind me like it's looking over my shoulder. It's the most awesome picture ever. Tommy's going to love it.

I lift my camera for another shot, backing up to squeeze the tornado into the viewport. I click another picture and lower the camera again for another look.

My heart jumps.

The tornado looms larger, taller. Kyle holds his hand up to his face, squinting for a better view. Even Uncle Cassius goes quiet, stiffening and taking a step back towards the tour van.

All at once I understand.

The tornado has changed course.

Kyle turns. Real fear widens his features.

"Get in the van," he shouts.

I turn and grab the door, yanking it open. Uncle Cassius pushes me from behind, making me vault into the van. "Get in, Allie!"

The roar behind me builds, like boulders rushing down a mountain towards me. The wind whips my hair back, trying to pull me back out of the van. It feels like the twister's right behind me already, coming down for the kill.

I slam the door on it. Uncle Cassius moves out of my view, running around the van to the other door. The funnel's much bigger behind the window, so close that I can't see the top of it anymore.

Uncle Cassius jumps in through the opposite door and snaps on his seat belt next to me. Kyle starts the van up, punches the gas, and gets us back on the road to nowhere.

I put my camera on the seat. My hands fumble with the seat belt. The van speeds up and the inertia makes me sink into my seat. Uncle Cassius says something else, but it's lost on me. The specter of the tornado closes in, whipping across the field towards us. I've heard of tornadoes making sudden turns like this but I never realized it could happen this fast.

It rips across the field. My heart beats on a runaway course. My mind locks into overdrive. I feel like that news crew they always have on tornado shows, that one that survived by hiding under that overpass. Will Kyle make us get out and climb under one? They're actually bad places to hide. That news crew got off lucky. Kyle knows better. He's been chasing storms longer than I've been alive.

Only green and yellow fields spread out ahead. There's no shelter for miles. The storm radar on Kyle's laptop is covered in ugly red and orange blotches like Nebraska has sores.

A hole of panic opens up inside me and for the first time, I regret coming on this vacation.

"Can't you go faster?" Uncle Cassius leans forward in his seat, gaze hard, arms trembling. His glasses are coming down his nose, ready to fall off. His normally neat Yoda T-shirt is sweaty and sticking to him so much I can see his ribs.

Uncle Cassius never loses his cool.

Ever.

Not even when I crawled into the dinosaur display at the museum when I was six and climbed up the back of the Stegosaurus. Not even when I tried to stand on his porch when I was eleven and watch hail the size of tennis balls rain from the sky.

Outside, the tornado grows so close that I can only see the bottom half of the funnel. The van bounces along every speed bump on the highway, every uneven spot. My stomach heaves. I'm going to be sick right here. It's my stupid fault we're in this mess.

"I don't understand." Kyle punches the gas harder, making the van jump. He turns his head like a guy possessed by a demon, eyes widening. "The tornado should not be moving this way."

He's right. It shouldn't. For the tornado to turn and come right at us, it would have to drag the whole storm with it. But it's still coming. It makes no sense.

The funnel reaches the road behind us, twisting harder, kicking up earth higher and higher. We've gotten out in front of it. I breathe a sigh of relief. Kyle and Uncle Cassius do the same. It'll cross the road and forget all about us.

Kyle lets off the gas a little and the whine of the engine calms some. "We're safe now. That was highly unusual. I've never seen a tornado turn like that in my career." There's a hint of an apology in his voice.

"Well, that was a close one, wasn't it, Allie?" Uncle Cassius hugs me from the side.

"Yeah," I say, willing my heart to slow down. At least I can think straight now. Can I even do another two days of this?

Wow, what a dumb idea this was.

But I still can't resist another look at the storm. I turn as far as my seat belt allows.

My guts fall out of me all over again.

The tornado's still on the road, bigger than ever. It can't be.

The twister has turned again. It's coming right up behind us. Rolling earth eats the entire highway. There's tornado taking up the whole view of the back window. Dust rips to the sides. The bottom of its funnel spins with fury, big enough to swallow a house whole. Its roar screams against the outside of the vehicle, shaking the seat, pushing the whole van to the side.

It's no longer beautiful.

"Ohmigod," I say, sucking in a breath. "Um...Kyle? Um..."

"I know!" he snaps. His knuckles turn white on the steering wheel. The van lurches again but he maintains control.

"Allie, get down!" Uncle Cassius pulls me towards him. The seat belt cuts into my shoulder.

What good is it going to do? If the tornado lifts the car--

I'm going to die.

I begged to go on this trip and now Uncle Cassius is going to die too.

The windows shatter with a deafening boom and the wind screams in my ears. _AllieAllieAllieAllie..._

I can't breathe.

We're floating.

Uncle Cassius shouts something. Kyle yells. If I'm screaming, I can't tell. The storm's sucking it right out of me. Windy hands seize my arms, my legs.

They pull.

My safety belt snaps open, whipping against my leg. I scream with the sting. The seat disappears under me and the van door rips open.

I'm flying.

The tornado's ripping me right out of the van.

The world turns to a white and brown roar. The van's gone. I have no time to cry out to Uncle Cassius before the world snaps to black and silence swallows me.

### Chapter Two

"Kind of unusual to get a teen girl in."

It's a man speaking with a faint Southern drawl. He's close but distant in the darkness. I can't tell where, exactly. There's not much of me left to think right now.

I'm on my back. Floating.

"It doesn't matter." This speaker's a woman, with a voice so smooth it might be made of silk. There's something about it that seems familiar and not in a good way. "It's another one closer to our goal."

"Well, not too many girls go out and chase. Just saying."

Go out and chase. What does that mean?

I groan and climb a couple of steps into consciousness. I'm still lying face-up, but there's nothing under me. No, two people are carrying me. Hands grasp my ankles. Someone else has their hands under my armpits. Grass tickles my back. I'm facing the sky.

I manage to open my eyes. They're sore, stinging as the sunlight stabs into them.

A man with a gray beard and overalls has my ankles. He's walking backwards, carrying me along. If I was lying in bed, he'd be at the foot of it. I can't see the woman, but she keeps her arms locked under my armpits, supporting me, keeping me above the ground. They're carrying me the way two people would carry a heavy table.

My limbs ache. Invisible needles poke at every muscle in my neck. I turn my head. Groan. The sky's clear, with only a few steamy white clouds moving out. The sun beats down on me, forcing me to squint. I breathe in. The air's muggy like it's just finished raining.

Or storming.

Oh, god.

The tornado.

I survived and these people must have found me.

I crane my neck back and look up at the woman who has my arms. It's no easy task.

She's upside down to me, swaying back and forth and making me motion sick. She's way too thin to be carrying me without breaking a sweat. I can only make out her chin. Long brown hair hangs over the top of her white summer dress. Something about her makes my insides crawl. A gremlin way back in the confines of my mind waves its arms and screams at me, but I can't make out what it's saying.

The rest of me wakes up, and with thoughts of Uncle Cassius.

A fist of terror squeezes my heart so tight that I cry out. I squirm in their grasps. "My uncle," I manage. "Have you seen him?"

The woman's chin faces forward. She's ignoring me. She shoots the man a look, but he shakes his head. "No need," he says.

"Tornado," I say. "My uncle. It got the van. He was in there. Have you seen him?"

Panic takes over and I thrash, not caring if these people just saved my life. "Where is my uncle? Did you see him? He might have got thrown out of the van. We just got hit by a tornado. A _tornado,_ for crap's sake!" Nothing. I kick, trying to loosen my legs from the farmer's grip. "Let _go._ I can walk on my own!"

"I didn't expect her to wake up so soon," the woman says. "I was hoping she wouldn't."

I twist my arm. It doesn't budge from her grip. "Let me down! _Where's my uncle?"_

Again, no answer. They walk faster and tall grass slaps at my back, poking in through the gap between my shirt and my jeans. The sun beats down on my eyes. The last of the clouds drift away, leaving no cover from its spotlight. A building bounces into the bottom of my vision, covered in crumbling red paint. Its roof sags on one side. An old barn. I've seen dozens back home in Wisconsin. This one looks ready to blow down the next time a grasshopper sneezes.

"Are you taking me to the hospital? And my uncle too?"

"Faster," the woman says.

The barn draws closer. An open door looms dark and empty ahead of me. The musty smell of hay and dirt assaults my nostrils. They're taking me in there.

God.

These people aren't saving me after all.

They're kidnappers.

There's no other reason for this. They must be psychos like those mutant hillbillies from that one movie. The barn's going to be full of jars of eyes and noses and all sorts of sharp, scary farm tools.

"What are you doing?" I yell, hoping that someone, anyone can hear me way out here. My throat burns with the force of my screaming. "Did you see anyone else where you found me?"

The barn blocks out the sun and I'm in darkness.

"Uncle Cassius!"

There's no light except for pinpricks that shine through the old walls and a circle of blue sky at the peak of the barn's roof. I blink and my eyes adjust. The floor's clean, perfect concrete. All the hay's been swept up against the walls. No bloodstains. It doesn't reassure me as much as I want, though.

"Lay her down," the woman orders. It's clear she's in charge here.

They lift me higher. The roof gets closer for a second. They move me to the side and set me back down. My back meets a table with a cloth on it. Or a slab. I'm not sure. I'm still looking up. The woman keeps her grip on my arms, pushing down tight enough to keep me from breaking away. The man does the same with my ankles. They're holding me down to some kind of altar or something. The hole in the ceiling lets a beam of light down. It lands on my chest, forming a ring of light on my new Wild Weather Chase Tours T-shirt. Or is it a target?

I bite my lip, keeping the screams in. I can't let them know I'm scared. It's what psychotic people want when they do this stuff. I have to keep my cool and find a way out of here.

"Okay," I say, trying to collect myself. "Why are you holding me here? In case you haven't noticed, I just survived a tornado and my uncle's missing. I want some answers."

The woman looks down at me, keeping her elbows locked and holding down my arms. She's strong, way stronger than she should be, and her face is smooth and sharp in a way that's borderline creepy. It almost looks like a mask. "You're about to join the family that you've always wanted."

The words stun me into silence. They make no sense. These people are nuts. Insane. I have the family I want.

And if I don't get out of here, my parents will remember me as a liar. I'll leave them with nothing but pain and betrayal. And Uncle Cassius--

"I need to find my uncle. Now!" I glare up at the woman, making my neck cry out in pain. She stares down at me with eyes that match her hair color. Her face is unreadable, blank. Something's very familiar about her. "I need to call my mom and dad. Why are you holding me here?"

The woman blinks. "Because you're drawn to the fury of nature."

"So what?" I thrash against their grips. "Why do you even care? Let me out of this disgusting barn."

A million awful possibilities race through my mind, all of them the stuff of nightmares. I stare at the circle of light above me, praying for the barn to come down on my captors' heads, praying for anything to happen.

"Be quiet," the woman orders. She closes her eyes. Mutters something. Bows her head down in reverence.

Wind snaps through the barn. The hole in the roof darkens from robin's egg to gray-blue, then to black. It grows in size, taking up more and more of the roof. The shingles vaporize before my eyes, flying away and breaking into millions of pieces until nothing's left above me but a ceiling of thunderstorm. Clouds roll and push against each other, aimless, so close that if my arms were free, I might be able to stand on the table and brush them. The air roars and trembles.

"What--" I start.

A paralysis steals over my body, freezing me, turning me to stone. The clouds above begin to twist. They're in the barn with us, blocking out the world above. My heart races, and for a moment I'm back in that van, floating, flying.

The dam holding back my terror breaks and I let it all out.

"Uncle Cassius!" I look side to side in the vain hope that he'll be there, running in to get me out of this, but only darkness closes in. The old man grits his teeth, holding down my legs. The woman does likewise, eyes closed so tight her face wrinkles.

"Somebody!" My screams echo off the walls.

The clouds above spin faster, tightening, forming a cone that points at my heart. A roar fills the barn, threatening to tear it apart. It's the same roar I heard on the other side of my blackout.

It's a miniature tornado, but it's somehow more terrifying than the one that chased the van. It descends, hungry, spinning faster and faster. The strength of the sky drains straight towards me.

The funnel of rage lingers inches above my heart as if making a decision.

I scream.

And scream.

The cone slams into my chest.

My body lurches. The storm drives its way in, building the pressure inside me and sucking the breath from my lungs. My captors release my arms, but it's too late. The clouds grow lower, the tornado shorter, as it all forces its way into me, down my arms to my fingertips, my legs to my toes. The storm rages inside, pushing against the borders of my body. I close my eyes, willing it to stop, wanting to scream but unable--

Silence.

My body trembles. I lift my arm and it flops to my chest. They've let go of me. I can move now. Run for it. I open my eyes, catching a glimpse of the hole in the roof once again, and try to stand.

Instead, I fall. Concrete meets me. All the strength's gone from my body. I gag. Heave. My stomach rolls. The world fades, turning gray and darkening to black.

"What did you do to me?" I manage, slipping away.

A hand grabs the back of my shirt. "Very soon," the woman says. "You'll know."

### Chapter Three

"Allie."

It's Uncle Cassius, calling me from outside the darkness.

I float up through layers of tired grays and blacks, up into a level of orange and yellow, and open my eyes.

He leans over me, gray-brown hair wild and glasses cracked. He sports a bandage on his forehead, a square one with a tiny spot of red in the middle. Despite that, he manages a smile. "You're okay, Allie. We all are. That was a close shave."

"Huh?"

I sit up. Canvas whispers and I realize I'm sitting on a stretcher. Tall grass towers around me, forming two walls of green and yellow. A pair of paramedics lean over another stretcher near the side of the highway. On it, Kyle sits up and stares at the horizon, his Wild Weather Storm Chase Tours shirt wrinkled and wet on the back. He looks lost, in shock. The blood has all drained from his face, but no bandages cover him. Behind him, police lights twirl and flash with the reds and yellows of a nearby ambulance. There's no sign of the storm that left us here. It's long moved out. The sun's low and the shadows of the paramedics long. We've probably been lying here for hours.

It all rushes back. The barn. Those freaky people. The second tornado slamming into my chest. It must have just been a long, horrible nightmare. Or a near-death experience. A hallucination, maybe.

I'm really hoping for the nightmare. But it was so real, just like waking life. Just like now.

Uncle Cassius hugs me so tight that I can't breathe. I hug him back.

We survived the tornado. Both of us.

I can't cry. I can't even breathe a sigh of relief. All I can do is sag in my uncle's hug. "We've got to call my parents." I don't even care if I get in trouble now. I'm alive. We both are, and that's all that matters.

Uncle Cassius releases me. "I already did. I told them you're OK and that we're going home tomorrow."

"Thank you." They're going to murder me, but right now, I don't care. Maybe I deserve it. I lied to them, after all, and put myself in danger. Uncle Cassius, too. "This was my fault."

"Don't say that," he orders, hugging me tighter. "It was just a freak occurrence. That's all. It was not your fault, Allie."

"But it was my stupid idea to do this whole storm chasing thing."

"I didn't have to tell you yes. Or help you save for the trip. Or sign your release form so your parents wouldn't find out."

I manage a laugh. He's right. "I was the one who lied to them, remember? Disney World was _my_ story. I got you off the hook on that one."

Disney World. We should have done that. Mickey Mouse. The Dumbo ride. That stupid one with the teacups. No getting ripped out of vans by tornadoes, waking up kidnapped, or being held down to a table while...

_No._ A hallucination.

Just NO.

We break apart and I stand, stretching to get the stiffness out of my limbs. Sweat lingers on my back. I've been lying in the sun for some time. How long did it take for the paramedics to find us? And where's the--

"Don't look," Uncle Cassius says next to me in a tone that says yes, I should definitely check it out.

I turn to where he's pointing and gulp.

There's a line of trees separating a couple of farm fields nearby. A mass of metal's wrapped around the first one, embracing it like a mutated boa constrictor. Green paint sticks out here and there like some abstract piece of art. Tattered rubber hangs down, the remnants of tires.

It's the tour van.

My stomach drops out of me.

We should all be dead.

Mutilated.

Missing limbs. And heads.

I run my hands down my arms to make sure they're there. "How?" I ask. I'm a bit lost for words.

Uncle Cassius stares ahead, past the van-turned-twisted-metal. He looks somewhere far away, disappearing inside himself. I've never seen him like this before.

"Uncle Cassius? You feeling okay?"

He starts, jarred out of his trance. "Yes. I am. Don't worry about me. I'm just a little shaken."

"You sure?"

He hesitates. "Sure."

"Positive?"

"Yes, Allie." His voice sounds stretched, tired. "I'm just worried about what you're going to have to deal with when we get home tomorrow."

* * * * *

I don't remember much of the trip home.

Uncle Cassius doesn't say much as we drive past fields and through forests towards Williams Town, to where my confrontation with my parents waits.

But Tommy and Bethany are waiting there, too. I can't wait to see Tommy again. Heck, I want to see Mom and Dad, too, even through I'm going to get in major trouble. I'm going to give them all huge hugs when I'm home.

It's weird. I have no nightmares about tornadoes when we stay overnight at a crappy hotel. Nor do I even feel any fear every time I bring that white funnel back to mind. I should get _something._ Post traumatic stress. Tears. Terror at every dark cloud base I see on the drive. Anything normal that other tornado survivors go through. I'd been terrified when it was chasing us, but that whole feeling's gone now, like someone's reached in and ripped it out of me.

Maybe it's just shock. Or denial. I'll start feeling the normal symptoms soon.

Dread returns in full force when Uncle Cassius drops me off in front of my house. Now I've got to face it. The fact that I lied and my parents are going to finish what the tornado started.

My house towers over me, looking down at me with its windows. The bushes are perfect, trimmed squares. The lawn, decapitated of all dandelions and daisies. The tree in front, molded into a perfect oval. Mom's always trying her best to impress the neighbors.

The front door opens and she stands there, hands on each side of the door frame. She's wearing her lavender blouse today, the one that matches the flowers in front of the city hall where she manages all the water bills of Williams Town. Even from the end of the driveway, I can see the lines around her eyes that weren't there before.

I can't help it. Even though I know what's coming, I run up the sidewalk and give her a bear hug.

"Allie," she breathes, returning it. "I'm glad you're okay. That must have been terrifying for you."

I mean to say something like _thank you_. Or _sorry I worried you._ But I screw up, get overexcited and blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.

"Not really. It was kind of cool, actually. I got to see a tornado!"

Mom's hug stiffens. Footsteps approach and I know that Dad's standing there, too.

They're not going to appreciate my story like Tommy and Bethany will.

Mom releases me. All the relief in her eyes hardens. "Allie!"

"I can't believe this. We _were_ going to cut you some slack if you'd just shown some remorse over what you did." Dad tucks his phone into the pocket of his work slacks and shakes his head. Now I've done it. Any chance I had of not getting yelled at has just suffered the same fate as Kyle's chase van.

To say that my parents are furious at me now is like saying that the Grand Canyon is a big hole.

My mother's the first one to blow, of course.

She marches into the kitchen, leaving footprints in the fresh vacuum tracks on the floor. Waters her vase of flowers, then slams it down on the marble counter so hard that a hairline crack appears and snakes its way up towards the trembling lilies. I feel like those flowers. Shaking. Trapped. Cut with no support. This is going to get ugly. I wish I had Uncle Cassius with me. Tommy or Bethany, even.

But no. This is mine to face.

"I can't believe you, Allie. You almost die, and you still don't have any regret about this daredevil stuff you like to do. When is anything we say going to get through? This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't _lied_ about where you were going." Mom stretches the word _lied_ long as she can. "You gave your father and I a bold-faced crock story about where you were going."

"Yes." I force myself to walk into the stifling kitchen, bracing for the worst.

"You know, I'm not surprised," my father says. He shakes his head and pours himself some coffee. It's going to be a long night. He faces my mother, though he speaks for me, too. "I told you we should have gotten her interested in something else years ago."

Mom sits, letting her face fall to her hand. "You think I didn't try?"

Great. This again.

Something growls inside of me, something I've never heard before. A sound like a roar explodes inside my head. I seize the corners of the glass table and watch my fingers splay out.

"I hate it when you guys talk over me like that," I say, unable to hold in the growing anger inside. "I'm sorry I have weird interests, okay? Normal stuff just bores me."

Now it's Dad's turn. "Even something like mountain climbing or drag racing is better than going out to gawk at tornadoes and nearly getting yourself killed. Why, Allie? Do you like the destruction they cause? Or the fact that they kill people? That's morbid and disturbing to me."

"Most tornadoes don't kill people," I say. "It's not morbid. Just fascinating. The one I saw was just in a field. It didn't even destroy anything. It would be morbid if I was into medieval torture or something." I suck in a breath, rehearsing the speech I mentally prepared on the car ride back. "This was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me. I wanted to go on this trip before I have to use all my money on college tuition and bills. I paid for it all myself. I worked my butt off for two years mowing lawns and stocking shelves so I could do this."

Mom rises from the table so fast that the chair slides across the floor. It hits the window, rattling the glass a bit. For some strange reason, I wish it would break. Shatter.

She points her finger at me, trembling. "You will not be going on any more trips without our say-so from now on. I...I just can't stand the thought of something happening to you, Allie." She turns away, deflated. "And by the way, I'll be having a _long_ talk with my brother today. You're not to even _talk_ to him for a while." She faces me again. Her face is an infuriating calm. "In the meantime, start thinking about what new, _healthy_ after-school activities you'll be doing for your junior year. Because believe me, I'll make sure you're signed up for two or three. We have a duty to keep you safe, Allie."

A hole seems to open up under me. I'm falling. Plummeting. "Uncle Cassius is the only one in this family who even likes the same stuff I do! I hate sports. I don't want to work on the school paper or wave pom poms. I just want to be around people who don't think I'm a freak." They'll want to take away Tommy and Bethany next. I can't stand school without them.

"Four after school activities next year," Mom says. Her voice drops to a dangerous level. "I'll make sure one of them is Fashion Design."

Fashion Design. Yuck. I can't imagine myself hemming dresses and suits for the school fashion show or the Madrigals. "Can I at least stay in the Science Club? Can that count as one?"

"Allie, you're pushing it." Dad sets down his coffee. It sloshes, trying to escape the hot, steaming mug. "When you were out there with that tornado bearing down on you, did you ever think about what it would do to us if something happened to you? Do you realize how selfish of a thing that was for you to do?"

I had. Oh yes, I had. But even though my terror from the memory's vanished, it still brings a sick feeling to my stomach, that same guilt that's haunted me since yesterday. I don't have an answer for that one, not one that won't make me lose it.

I turn and run to my room.

My father mutters something not meant for my ears and I slam the door.

Selfish.

The word grows bigger and bigger inside me, ready to explode.

No. This is all because of a freak occurrence. I wasn't supposed to almost die. Not even close. Kyle has a perfect safety record. He's never endangered people during a chase. It was only a strange, bizarre thing that happened.

A _very_ bizarre thing.

The tornado chased us, hunted us down--

Even came down the highway after us--

We shouldn't have survived.

I shake my head. Outside, I hear Mom's cell phone play its tune--something by Beethoven. It's the signal that she's turning it on. It's Uncle Cassius's turn to face the music.

Selfish.

My limbs turn to lead, weighing me down. I crash onto my bed, the weight of the word pulling me down to the center of the earth.

I drift down through darkness, tuning out the sounds of my mother's voice rising and falling on the other side of the house. I'm glad she's trying to stay out of my earshot. The lump in my throat ebbs away after a while, turning from stone to rubber. My stomach calms from a raging sea to a placid lake.

Strange images float behind my eyelids. A green field, open and waving under a gray sky. And then, my window the afternoon I saw my first big storm six years ago.

Low, dark clouds trudge past outside and I press my ten-year-old face to the glass, fascinated by the strange shapes they make and how low they come to the ground. The forest around our house quivers. The television drones out in the living room, where Uncle Cassius keeps it on for the weather. Mom and Dad are out to dinner and they've asked him to come over and sit with me so I don't get scared in the storm.

It rains.

Pours.

Beats against the glass, blurring the world outside.

The storm moves quickly, the rain clears, and the wind starts.

Streams of rain flow off the roof of our storage barn across the yard and scream into the air. Everything whips to the side, not down. My heart races, but I'm frozen. A roar races over the house, shaking the floor under my feet. I can't stop watching the microburst.

"Allie!" Uncle Cassius's footfalls thud down the hall towards me.

Something hits the glass of my window, making it shake. I jump back. The wind roars louder.

The roof of the barn flaps, peels back, and flies into the storm.

He reaches me, pulling me away from the glass.

We turn.

The house disappears, and we're standing in a grassy field with no sign of civilization anywhere.

The white funnel approaches, looming larger by the second. We stand, rooted like a pair of trees about to meet our makers. The tornado grows so close that I have to crane my neck to look up at it. It spins with fury, then slows, then breaks apart almost right over my head.

I get my bearings, sucking in a breath.

Then I see her.

The woman with the creepy face.

She stands where the tornado spun seconds before. She smiles at us both.

"Welcome home."

### Chapter Four

I wake and reality slaps me in the face.

My mother's yelling somewhere in the house. The phone call with my uncle has gotten uglier. I can't make out her words, but one sounds like _casserole._ Only, I know, she doesn't say _casserole._

I imagine my uncle struggling to come up with a counter-argument on the other side of the phone. I should have accepted his offer to come here and face this with me.

Maybe, just maybe, I should have gone to Disney World after all.

My stomach coils again, tighter and tighter like a snake suffocating its prey. I turn in bed, counting my collection of books. Crystals of the world, an illustrated guide. Tornadoes of the twentieth century. The solar system. Hurricane Andrina: A Warning Unheeded. I run my finger along the spine of each book, taking in every curve and corner of each title, until my mother stops yelling and silence falls.

I'm not sure if I like it.

Then, footsteps.

I shovel my books down into the space between the wall and my bed in case Mom gets any more ideas and orders me to toss them out. I finish a second before the door opens.

My mother stands in the doorway, hands on the frame as if to hold herself up. She speaks in a low, tired voice, like she's used all of her strength yelling already.

"Allie," she says. "Your father and I have made a decision. Your obsession with disasters could get you in trouble someday. You need to explore some new interests. You're going to start by helping my friend Nicole with her daughter's graduation party next week. I'm sure she'll love the help."

My insides about die. If there's one social event I hate as much as weddings, it's open houses. "Nicole's daughter doesn't even _like_ me. And how is an open house exploring new interests?"

Mom smiles. It's an I-don't-care-what-you-think smile. "By meeting new people. You don't have enough friends."

"The friends I have are fine!"

If my words bother her, Mom doesn't show it. "Next Saturday," she says, turning and closing the door with a gentle click that's the most infuriating noise I've ever heard.

* * * * *

Helping to set up the open house is as boring as I feared.

It starts with Nicole directing me to run several dishes from her van to the pavilion in the middle of the park. Nicole has made every dish on the face of the planet. Crackers with dip. Deviled eggs. Cookies in the shape of little hamburgers, which actually aren't too bad. Some things rolled in ham that I forget the name of. And then there's the specially ordered M&M's in the colors of the university that Dianna's headed to next semester.

Dianna sits at a picnic table, texting someone and not lifting a finger to help either of us. If she's watching me do all the grunt work, I can't tell. Her sunglasses take up half her face.

That's the kind of friend my mom wants me to make.

No thanks.

I'd rather haul out these folding chairs than do that. The last thing I want is to hear Dianna bragging out getting accepted into some sorority whose name is a bunch of Greek letters and how she's going to drink until she throws up.

"Thank you so much for this, Allie," Nicole says. She sounds genuine. I feel kind of bad for her, putting all this effort in to watch her daughter ignore her.

"No problem," I lift a few chairs and head back to the middle pavilion.

"Oh, let me help you with that." Nicole rushes up to my side, all red-faced while Dianna continues to text away halfway across the park. "Those are heavy. Let me at least take this one."

I let her take one of the chairs. "Really. It's not a problem. They're not bad."

"You must have been working out since the start of the school year." Nicole grabs the chair with both hands and walks it along the ground.

I let my chairs drop to the floor of the pavilion and they make a loud crash that makes even Dianna look up. Maybe they _are_ a little heavy. But how did I lift them without--

The strange growl blows up in my head again like it's answering my thoughts. It spreads down through my limbs. I tremble. It's like something big approaching from miles away. I lean over and grasp the table, catching my breath. It's the post-traumatic stress setting in. It's about time my emotions do something normal since the tornado. The roar inside grows louder, consuming everything inside of me--

"Allie? Are you okay? You didn't hurt your back, did you?"

I snap out of it. "No." I shake my head. Silence rules. Good. Normal or not, I'm glad the roar's gone. "I'm just remembering some stuff is all."

"Oh." Nicole nods in understanding.

She can't say a thing. My mom made it clear that we're not to talk about my storm chase vacation today. The thing is, I want to talk to someone about it, _anyone._ I haven't spoken to any of my real friends since I got home.

I want to tell Uncle Cassius about that weird dream in the barn. My parents will never understand. Even Tommy and Bethany wouldn't believe me. They weren't there. I want to hear his reassurance that the scene in the barn was just my brain spitting out some stuff under stress.

Hear _anybody's_ reassurance that was the case.

We finish setting up and I make my way to the swing set and settle there with a plate of potato chips and cake. Dianna's relatives show up first, some with envelopes. Dianna actually gets up and hugs those people. Everyone else gets a wave and a glance back at her cell phone. When Dianna's friends show up, _that's_ when she gets up from the table and starts acting like a human being.

I see nobody I know.

People sit at tables. Eat. Pick at little mints. Drum their fingers. Kids run around the jungle gym nearby while Dianna and her friends disappear to the other side of the park.

I'm going to insist that my parents save the trouble in two years.

"We've come to save you from death by boredom."

I turn. Tommy and Bethany stand behind me. Tommy kneels like a knight. "At your service."

"How did you know I was here?" Mom confiscated my phone a week ago and I haven't seen it--or my friends--since. I've never been so glad to see them. Bethany with the crazy streaks in her hair—this week they're orange—and Tommy, with his adorable smile and that goofy hair that hangs over his glasses.

Tommy stands. "Well, we overheard Dianna saying you'd be helping here today."

"Let me guess." I face the other way on the swing. "She said something along the lines of, 'Oh, look. That little nerd girl gets to be our pack mule at my open house. I wonder what she did."

"Close." Bethany looks past me like she's debating on telling me the exact words. "She said...well, that you were...never mind." She turns away and kicks at a pebble in the dirt.

I can't help but think that Bethany was about to finish with something more harsh than _freak._

"Okay. I get it." I hold up a hand.

Bethany sits on the swing next to mine. "Okay. Tell us about it."

"About--?" I press.

She rolls her eyes. "Your trip. Did you see one or not?"

My wish has been granted. I grin. Loophole. Bethany and Tommy don't count as guests, so Nicole can't tell my mom that I was bothering them with the tornado story.

"You can say I did," I start, kicking at the dust under the swing.

"Pictures?"

I lean back to face the sky. The clouds thicken above our heads, a lot larger than the cotton balls they were an hour ago. "Sorry. The camera got smashed when the tornado rolled our van over."

_"What?"_ Bethany practically gasps it.

I sit up and look around to make sure nobody cares that I'm over here. Nicole's sitting next to a couple of women who look like her sisters and Dianna's still ignoring everyone related to her. I'm clear.

"Okay," I say. "We didn't see anything the first couple of days that Kyle took us out, but on the third day..."

My friends don't believe the part where I got ripped out of the van. It's obvious. Bethany's eyebrows lift higher with each word I say. Tommy nods a lot, humoring me until I get done. I leave out the weird dream with the barn or whatever it was. Now that I have someone to talk to, I can't open up about it. I just can't.

"And you told us this with a straight face," Bethany says when I'm done. "You know, Allie, if you almost die in something like that, you should at least show some emotion."

I sigh. "Look, I was scared when it was happening, but when I woke up, it just didn't bother me anymore. I know it doesn't make any sense."

Tommy dives onto the swing and rocks back and forth on his stomach. He points at the sky. "So that doesn't bother you?"

At first I think he's asking about my trip, but then I look up and see it. The sky darkens to the west, to a bluish-gray that's sure to deepen more. It's a storm. Heading this way.

Tingles run through me, but I can't say that they're bad. "No. It's not bothering me."

I read lots of times that people who survive tornadoes end up with a permanent, intense fear of storms. They run to the basement at the first sign of thunder. They panic. They have a reaction that any sane person would have.

My heart doesn't even speed up.

Bethany gives me a push on the back, sending me forward on the swing. "Then you're lying, Allie. You're so lying."

"Am not."

"You got your parents to believe you went to Disney World. So you're not that bad at it." She moves a little closer to Tommy, like she's trying to shield him from me. He shifts and reclaims his personal space. When is Bethany going to stop throwing herself at him? Tommy's not interested in her that way. He's complained about the whole thing to me more than once.

I rise and look closer at the storm in case there's anything interesting. It's too far away to tell.

I should be scared.

Terrified.

Something is very wrong with me.

Maybe that dream or vision of the tornado slamming into my chest wasn't a dream after all--

"Allie!" Nicole calls across the grass for me. "Can you come over and help me cover some of these dishes? It looks like there's some weather coming."

"Great. Right back." I run over to the pavilion where Boredom Central is still going on full force. Tommy and Bethany walk after me, but I hold up my hand to tell them to stay back. I don't need to get into any more trouble for letting them help me, though I know Nicole could use their hands.

By time we get plastic over all the dishes and the special M&M's away from the edges of the pavilion, the thunder's gone from a distant grumble to a cannon fight happening in the woods nearby. The sky's deepened to a dark gray.

Dianna and her friends wander back, making a show of ignoring me as they find a table on the other side of the pavilion and sit. I sense their gazes coming over to me. I can pretend they're not cracking jokes about me over there, sizing up my faded jeans and gray dinosaur T-shirt that I fought my mom for the chance to wear today.

Thunder claps and my head goes all light and swimmy.

"Do you think we'll be okay in here?" Nicole asks. She sounds like someone talking underwater.

I shake my head, trying to rid myself of the feeling. The swimmy feeling stays, like my head's going to lift off my shoulders and float away like a balloon. Nicole waits for my answer.

"If we have to, we can run into the bathrooms," I say, leaning against the table. The faint roar fills the inside of my skull and fades again.

"I suppose you have a point," Nicole says. She eyes the storm and looks back at me. "Allie, are you okay? If you want to, you know, leave, I understand."

My mother must have told her what happened. Makes sense.

"Allie?" Tommy leans into my vision. "Are you sure you don't need to go?"

"I'm fine." I straighten up and face the storm. A breeze makes its way towards the dark clouds like it's trying to suck everything in. It feels like I'm going to get swept away with it, I'm so light. "I think I sat in the sun too long. If I drink some water and lie down a bit, I should feel better."

Bethany gets me a plastic cup filled with ice from the cooler. The back of my neck prickles. Dianna and her posse will burst out in giggles if I pass out right here. I won't be able to keep my mouth shut. Nicole doesn't deserve that and besides, I have no desire to make my parents any madder at me right now.

"Let's go to the other pavilion," I manage, struggling to keep my footing. I wave Tommy and Bethany along with me, leaving Nicole to mess with the cooler.

"Are you sure you aren't having a panic attack?" Tommy asks when we get there.

"I'm not." I blink, but the light feeling stays. Another roll of thunder shakes the ground. "It's more Dianna, to tell you the truth."

Rain falls, pattering at first, then streaming, then pounding. The roof of our pavilion hisses and drips. The bathroom's blocking our view of the open house. I'm sure Dianna and her friends are screaming and running to the middle of the shelter.

I'm floating.

I stagger to the side, grabbing the table. Bethany says something. It's lost in the rain. Thunder fills the world, too loud in my ears. "Guys--"

"Lay down." Bethany's voice quivers with panic. "Are you about to pass out?"

I can't answer or care. I climb onto the table, get on my back and let my head thud down. The ceiling of the pavilion tilts and sways. My pulse quickens. Fear spreads through me like a shock wave. Something's going wrong with me. I could be dying. Having a seizure. They'll have to call the ambulance.

"Allie..." Tommy appears above me. His eyes are huge. He blinks several times. "This is going to sound way weird, but I can see through you."

I let my head fall to the side. See through me. It makes no--

I can make out the table next to me through my gray sleeve.

Lightning flashes and the fear explodes into terror. The roar replaces everything in my head.

I hold my arm up. The world tilts, out of control. "What--?"

Wind blasts into the pavilion. My hand wavers.

Blows away like a sand castle in a hurricane.

My arm. My shoulder.

All of me.

"Allie!" Tommy reaches for me, but his arms close on summer storm.

I'm particles in the air.

I whip away on Bethany's screams and the rush of the wind.

### Chapter Five

The world's a painting of gray and green. It blurs and roars.

No Tommy. No Bethany.

I try to yell something, anything. My vocal cords have vanished. I reach out to grab something, but my arms are gone, too.

I soar through the air and the world snaps into focus.

Dark clouds roll, crowning me. I drift above a carpet of trees. The ground spreads out far below, lush and green with forest. A streak of lightning snaps to the ground ahead.

What the--

This is a dream. Has to be.

I'm passed out on that table in the park and I'm--

Twisting.

I can't see myself but I can feel it. My whole being whips and turns, stretching from the clouds to the ground. I rip ahead with the storm. Tiny trees bend down and thrash in front of me. They break like toothpicks under the foot of a giant. I sense each one that goes. _Pop. Snap. Crack._

The roar intensifies. It's deafening. It shakes the world. It's all around me.

It _is_ me.

All at once I realize what this means.

I'm--

I'm a freaking tornado.

The forest trembles. A river snakes through it, shallow and brown. Water quakes around a tree that's dead and fallen already. A curtain of rain thickens ahead. It blocks my view of whatever's in front of me.

I'll count to ten.

Then I'll wake up on the table at the park with paramedics telling me that I'm going to the hospital. Or that Dianna put something in my drink. Or that I've got a brain tumor.

One...two...three...four...

More trees snap. They don't stand a chance.

Five...six...

I grow stronger, spinning harder, ripping ahead. I can't stop. I have no control.

Seven...eight...

I'll wake any second now.

Nine...

Thunder claps. I barely hear it over myself.

Ten.

I'm still here. God.

This must have started at the open house.

What if I hurt my friends?

_Killed_ them?

No!

I turn my attention from where I came. The park stretches out, a bare patch in the trees. It's miles away. I can make out every detail of the trail of death I've left through the woods. Trees lie in twisted heaps. Some have cracked in the middle. Others lie ripped from the ground with rings of earth around their roots.

I can't deny it anymore.

This is real, just like that scene in the barn.

That woman and the farmer guy did this to me. The woman in the white dress _was_ the tornado who chased us. Now I'm just like her.

The rain parts, clearing my view. The forest draws a line ahead, ending a couple miles away.

If I still had a heart, it would drop out of me.

Past the edge of the woods, rooftops form patterns around curvy streets.

It's a subdivision. I'm heading straight for it.

A new terror shoots through me. No. I'm not a killer.

Wait. If that tornado that came after the van could turn like that, then so can I. Right?

The houses creep closer. On a Saturday, everyone's going to be home.

I have to try. I'll freak out about this later. Right now I need to focus.

_Move,_ I order myself. _To the side. Anything!_

Closer.

Nothing. I can't turn.

Maybe I can lift up or something. I turn my focus to that, imagining it happening, but the trees keep snapping and breaking. I'm stuck for the ride. All I can do is pray that those people see me coming.

Closer.

I can make out TV dishes on rooftops.

I won't be able to live with myself for this.

Almost on the subdivision now.

A chill squeezes in, constricting the life from me. A fence slams down. A tree topples. Glass shatters.

Nononononono...

The cold comes in tighter. My consciousness wanes. Darkness creeps in and I grow weak, dying. I give in, letting darkness sweep me away from the nightmare of my new reality and the monster I've become.

Life snaps back into place and I stagger. The grass of a mowed lawn tilts underfoot. A brick wall of a house flashes in the side of my vision. I bump into a tree trunk and grab on, sucking in a breath and getting my bearings. My hands splay out on the rough bark, trembling and pale.

I'm back to human form.

I close my eyes. Distant thunder grumbles and somewhere not too far away, a siren wails.

The tree I lean against is fallen, jabbing into someone's back sliding door. Shattered glass lies everywhere on the deck. Another tree leans against the house, making a scary indent. The chain-link fence I stand near lies flat and dead on the ground, warped at freaky angles and open to the wilderness outside.

I did this.

My heart pounds and sweat gathers at the back of my neck. I actually snapped this tree and shoved it into someone's house.

Thunder fades and the sun peeks through the thinning clouds. My shirt warms. Grows hot.

Inside the house, someone shouts. Feet thud up stairs--the basement stairs, I hope--and dark figures stand on the other side of the tree. They're staring right at me.

"Are you okay?" a man shouts from inside.

No.

I just almost killed you.

I stumble over the downed fence and run.

And run. And run.

Tall grass and shrubs slap at my jeans. Thorns seize at the fabric, grabbing, trying to slow me down. I jump over another fallen tree and bolt, following the trail I've made back towards the park.

### Chapter Six

The trip back to the park cycles between numbness and terror. Sometimes I run, tripping on every fallen branch that I've left. Most of the time, I'm too out of breath to do more than drag myself closer to the park. I must have traveled four or five miles through the woods during my transformation. I don't know. Which subdivision was that?

I had to have dreamt that. There's no way I could have turned into—

Birds explode out of the leaves and scatter, horrified that I'm coming back through. Did I kill anybody? I only tore up one yard, so I probably didn't, but that tree and the way it jabbed into someone's back door like that—

I should go back and check.

But I can't.

I grab a stick lying on the ground and throw it. It snaps against a tree trunk, breaking in two. "I didn't want your stupid gift!"

The river flows through the woods, lazy and oblivious. The dead tree lies over it like an ancient guardian, snarling at me for my crimes. I look away and focus on the water instead, plodding across and watching it splash up to my knees.

I kick at it, watching the spray sail towards a cluster of fallen tree branches.

Those two freaks in the barn turned me into this.

Brought me into their "family."

I slog onto land and stagger through beaten underbrush. The sky's clearer now save for some wispy clouds and an airplane far overhead. The storm's floating away. It's a giant, swollen jellyfish turning pink from the sun growing low on the horizon.

Sweat beads at my temples and my eyes are full by time I break through the underbrush and step onto the lawn of the park. An hour must have passed. Maybe two. The sun's hot and unforgiving, the sky clear. My shirt sticks to my back and an army of thorns have lodged into my clothes. My ankle yells out in pain whenever I step on it wrong.

The park's a mess.

Tables lay overturned in the pavilion where it all began. A swing set sits on its side, leaving pits in the grass. Red and blue lights turn on police cars, casting the second pavilion in a sad light show. Plates lie on the ground. Food's everywhere. The cooler's wide open, its contents long melted. People stand around. The crowd's dotted with police. Nicole speaks with an officer, arms wrapped so tight around her chest that they might as well be a straitjacket. Her sisters flank her. Dianna's still with her friends, of course, holding up a phone and watching a video on it. They gather around tighter, blocking my view. A white van's parked in the dirt lot, and the logo on the side tells me that it's the local news station.

My knees wobble, threatening to give out.

I did this to them. Freaked them all out. Ruined this for Nicole. Worried my friends to death. If they're even still alive, that is...

My heart leaps into my throat. I can't see my friends anywhere in the crowd. There's police officers and a couple of firefighters milling around. I suck in a deep breath, trying not to freak out completely. "Tommy! Bethany!"

"Allie!"

I jump and whirl around. My parents rush towards me, pumping their legs with relief.

Relief that I'm not injured or dead.

Mom reaches me first, hugging me so tight that there's no escaping her perfume. I hug her back, glad she's there, glad that Dad's patting me on the back. I must have gone missing for at least a couple of hours. They probably thought I was dead. I worried them to death, too.

Mom kisses me on the forehead. Normally I'd be embarrassed, especially in front of Dianna, but right now I don't care. "Allie, where were you?" she asks. "Are you OK? You're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm fine." We hug again. People crowd around and watch our happy reunion, including, to my horror, a guy from the news van with a camera. Dad tells him he'll talk later, that he wants to get me home first. Nicole checks us often, asking if I'm okay, if my parents are OK, if we need anything.

No. I'm not OK.

I just turned into a raging tornado in front of my friends and carved a path of destruction through the woods and right into someone's back yard.

And worse, people could be hurt or even dead. It could be Tommy and Bethany. They were right there when I transformed. Tommy tried to grab me. Oh, God. Where is he? I've got to find out.

"I'm so glad you're safe," Mom says every time she takes a break from hugging. "You've had enough in the past two weeks. You're ungrounded."

"Thank you." It comes out automatic.

"We should have let you keep your phone," Dad says, stepping leg to leg on the grass. It's flat from his fidgeting. "That way you could have called us when you were--"

"Wandering through the woods," I fill in for him. My throat tightens and I swallow, determined not to break down until I reach the privacy of my room. "I still don't remember what happened. Tables fell over and I ran, then I think I got lost in the trees and--"

"It's over now," Mom says, patting me on the back. We separate again. She manages a tight smile. "You panicked, Allie. You just had a normal reaction after what happened on your...trip. Anyone would have."

"You had some rotten luck." Dad fishes in his pocket for his keys. "Two tornadoes in less than two weeks. Let's get you home, Allie. I don't think you want to hang around these reporters."

"Thanks." I look around. My heart's pounding. "I have to tell you something. Tommy and Bethany came here to see me. I don't know where they are."

Dad smiles. "I saw them not too long ago. They were near the water fountain. I'll tell you, they looked pretty scared. You might want to call them as soon as we get in the car."

I breathe out a huge sigh of relief. They're okay. Well, physically. But they saw...Tommy saw me...

The walk to the car is long. The park stretches from a lawn to a football field. Someone applauds as we go past. It's too loud in my ear, like they're clapping for something other than my safe return.

"I don't feel good." I clap my hand over my mouth and run the rest of the way to the van.

Nothing comes up, but I gag anyway, leaning over the dirt and gravel so long that I memorize the colors of the pebbles drying in the sun. Off-red. Speckled gray. Muddy blue.

"Allie, are you okay?" Dad has his hand on my back. It's probably been there a minute already.

"Yes." I straighten up to get in the car. "I'm--"

Bethany and Tommy stand on the other side of the parking lot next to Bethany's old Park Avenue. They stiffen under my gaze. Bethany makes a reach for the car door. Tommy remains still, mouth hanging open.

They know what I am.

What I can do.

An icy fist squeezes me, pushing the air from my lungs. I turn and get in the car, blinking away tears and hunching down in my seat like I'm a murderer getting taken to the courthouse.

"Let's go."

My parents climb into the car and we're off. I don't dare look up until we're miles from the park.

The world's so fragile.

The buildings of my hometown are card houses, waiting for the next strong wind to bring them down. The Williams Town Dollar Store windows are fine china, ready to shatter. The trees, toothpicks. People eat inside Robin's Ice Cream Shoppe, escaping the heat of the day. They're dollhouse people, only alive until the next angry child breaks them.

I say nothing on the way home. Mom and Dad talk about the freak storm, but they keep the radio off. I tune them out. Tears form, but they never spill. I keep my face pressed against the window, wanting to turn into the glass so no one can see me.

Gravel crunches and we pull into the driveway. Home.

I'm out of the car and in the entryway as soon as Dad unlocks the door. The drone of the television greets me. My parents never leave it on when we're not home. Not practical, Dad always says. They must have rushed out of here when they heard the news.

"Go lie down." Mom pats me on the back and nods to the hallway. "You need it."

"You have my phone?" The words come automatic. "You know...before I forget it."

"Sure." She goes to the kitchen and returns with my phone in hand. "Here you go. You're never leaving home without it again." Mom places it in my palm and closes her hand over mine. She's shaking.

"Agreed. And thanks." My legs quake and my feet turn into anvils. I can't breathe. Mom lets go and I rush into the living room to find something, anything to distract my thoughts. If I think about what--

I stop.

The TV lights the whole room up in blue and the local news guy talks in a low voice inside its frame. I can't make out what he's saying, but it doesn't matter. The screen switches to another image, a ghost of Dianna's open house. A roar sounds from the TV like a giant's blowing into the speaker. People bolt out from the pavilion and the phone camera sweeps towards the sky. The top of a pavilion trembles in the corner along with a swing set. Whoever holds the phone struggles to keep it straight.

A narrow tornado twists away from the pavilion, cutting its way through the trees. Debris shoots up and sails through the air around the gray of the funnel, a gray that's the exact same shade as my T-shirt.

I'm in my room and slamming the door a few seconds later.

I squeeze my eyes shut, back against the door, staring ahead into darkness. Somewhere Mom tells Dad to turn off the TV, that I don't want to see that. I wonder if they're relieved that my fascination has turned to horror.

I want to call Tommy. Bethany, even. But then I think of the way they stared at me back at the park. I can't call them now.

I need Uncle Cassius. He's the only one who went on that trip with me.

My phone lies dead in my hand. It's down to two bars when I power it up. I'm a klutz with the tiny buttons as I dial his number.

The phone rings on the other end. Once. Twice. Three times, and so on.

Uncle Cassius never answers.

I dial again. Nothing.

Again.

Nothing.

He never forgets his phone.

I scream and throw the phone onto my bed. It bounces like a pebble on a lake and lands smashed up against the pillow. Turning, I let my forehead drop to the wall.

Everything inside me growls.

The noise rushes up through my being, eating everything in its path. I draw back from the wall, dive onto my bed, and throw the pillow over my head until it stops.

* * * * *

I wake to a knock on my window. It slaps me out of the safe darkness and I sit up, blinded by the light of my room.

It's Tommy at my window, fist frozen in mid-tap.

I rush over and open it. We're separated by a thin screen, but he doesn't back away or put any precious space between me and him. His face remains blank, unreadable. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

"Hey," he says. He's quiet like he's scared someone's listening. "I tried to come in like normal people, but your dad said you were sleeping and didn't want to be bothered."

Tommy.

He's come to see me, not run away from me.

"Get in here." I pop out the screen and back away to let him climb in. I scan my floor to make sure I haven't left any underwear out or anything. Nope. And why am I worried about that when Tommy just discovered my worst secret right along with me?

I take a long time putting the screen back into the window.

"So," Tommy says, digging his shoe into my carpet. "Did what I see happen, you know, actually _happen?"_

He's just gotten right to it. A big part of me's relieved.

I focus on my poster of crystals on the other side of the room. "Yeah." I can barely push the word out.

Tommy sits on my bed. "Oh, man, Allie. What did you catch on that trip? Remind me never to go."

I sit--no, collapse--on the floor and I tell him.

Every last word. The chase. The barn. Everything.

The words pour out of me like a waterfall trying to escape its river. "I thought I just had some hallucination under stress or something but I guess I didn't. Those people did something to me. I don't know why."

"Because you like storms?"

I lift my gaze from the floor to Tommy. He kicks his feet back and forth, making gentle thuds on the frame of my bed. His gaze is a question, not a laugh. He believes me. How can he not after what he witnessed?

"That's what that woman pretty much said." I untangle my legs and stand. I've got to pace around the room, move, do something. "But that doesn't really tell me _why_ they did it. I mean, it would have been easier for them to leave me alone. There's got to be some better motive than that behind it."

"Maybe." Tommy stands too. "We've got to find out the whole story here. I don't think we know it all."

"I know we don't." I grab the back of my computer chair, listening to my parents walking around out in the kitchen. It's nine thirty, almost time for them to go to bed. "I mean, what good reason is there for them to make me this? I could hurt or kill somebody next time it happens, because I have a feeling that I'm going to transform every time it storms." I stare hard at him. "Did anyone die? Get hurt?"

Tommy breathes out. "A bunch of trees, but that's it. Someone's house got some damage, too. Beyond that, nothing."

I let my shoulders fall and relax. There's no sign of a lie in his face. I want to cry with the relief.

"Allie." Tommy grabs my arm. He's warm. Calm. I want him to hug me and tell me I'm not a freak. That everything will be all right.

I'm gripping the chair so hard I'm shaking.

Tommy eyes the computer screen. "We need to check and see next time there's going to be storms here. If that's what makes you transform."

I'm so focused on his touch that I barely make out his words. But he's right.

I lean over the computer pull up the weather site. We go right to the ten-day forecast for Williams Town.

Tomorrow: 40% chance of thunderstorms. Monday: Isolated thunderstorms. Tuesday: Morning T-Storms, 60% chance. Wednesday: Sunny. It's a forecast that if I hadn't become some kind of were-tornado or whatever, I would love.

"Great." I let my forehead fall to the computer desk. "Just great." I keep my voice level, trying to hide the rising flood of terror inside.

It's going to happen again. I know it.

But when?

The sound of some kids playing outside float in through the open window.

Not knowing is the worst.

Tommy breathes out slow somewhere close. I can feel his breath on my cheek. It makes tingles run down my neck. "Man, Allie. This sucks. What are we going to do?"

I don't miss the way he says _we._ Tommy's not abandoning me. He's sticking with me even though he knows what I am. It makes me want to jump up and down, squealing. "All I can think of is to find that woman and guy who did this to me. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine." I blink and the endless plains of Nebraska spread out behind my eyelids, backlit by lightning and crowned with black skies. "Where's Bethany, by the way?" That's almost as hard to say than the story I just told Tommy.

Tommy taps his fingers on the back of my chair. "She's...well, too freaked out about this right now. I'm sure she'll come around, Allie."

There's doubt in his voice. It's there, trying to crawl away and hide.

My stomach churns. "How does she think this makes me feel?"

"I'll try to talk to her about it," Tommy says. He walks over and takes the mouse. "Is there an email for that storm chaser company? It sounds like your best bet is to find out where that tornado hit the van."

"And...?" I press, hope growing inside me. It's not much, but I think we're onto something.

Tommy slides my keyboard towards him. "That barn that woman and that guy dragged you into can't be far from there. Would you know the barn if you saw it again?"

I can't remember anything except the barn. "I might. They were dragging me by my arms and legs. The place looked ready to collapse."

"Do you remember what highway you were on? Anything?"

"I remember fields. And more fields." The hope inside gets crushed like a flower trying to grow through the cracks of a busy sidewalk. There's no way I can remember the highway number, let alone the exact field where the tornado decided to ruin everything. "There's got to be a way to find out."

"You have the Wild Weather website you can contact," he says. "Ask them where the tornado caught you guys. You don't even have to say why you want the information."

"It's worth a try," I say, pulling up the site. I'm confronted by a banner that sports a mile-wide tornado ripping across the plains. Yellow text screams _Wild Weather Storm Chasing Tours. Life-Changing Vacations Since 2002._

I snort, unable to resist. "It changed my life, all right."

Then I scroll down the page and my stomach lurches.

There's a picture of the tornado in the middle of the page.

The one that ripped me out of the van and left my uncle on the side of the road.

Still perfect white on the computer screen, it's curved, making up its mind.

Choosing me.

"Allie?"

"That's her."

"Her?" Tommy's eyes widen and he takes in the image. "Oh." He screws up his face, trying to take in the whole concept.

"Yeah. That's the tornado that carried me away. Must have been to the farm or wherever." Another idea hatches, jumping up and down and screaming. "Wait. There might be a trail of damaged crops or whatever that leads to wherever she took me. All we have to do is find that road again."

Tommy lets out a breath. "It's been over a week. Wouldn't any damage be getting cleaned up by now?"

He's right. If I'm going to try that, I have little time.

But there's more. The caption under the tornado picture reads _Taken in East Nebraska during our most recent Wild Weather Tour. This tornado touched down a few miles from Highway 54 and about 4 miles north of Evansburg._

"Really?" I ask. "Kyle's using this tornado to advertise? What's wrong with him?"

"Yeah. That's pretty stupid," Tommy says.

"But that's it." I rise from the chair. "If we go there, we can easily find where the tornado went through. I think. There should be some evidence of where it went. Some flattened grass or some trees down. Even if there's not, the old barn has to be very close to that spot."

"We should write this down. So we can use these for directions when we go." Tommy lifts his eyebrows and takes in the photo.

"Good idea." I'm not so sure about that. I write down the location on a piece of scrap paper. I look at Tommy and his words sink in all the way. "We?"

"I'm going with you."

I suck in a breath. There's no lie on Tommy's face. Warm, happy bubbles spread through me. But then they pop when another thought rushes in.

"I have to leave home. I'm too dangerous to stay here. What if I hurt Mom or Dad? Or you?"

Tommy says nothing. He knows it's true.

As if backing me up, a distant roll of thunder sounds through the air. In response, the growl rips through me again, eager to escape its cage and return home.

### Chapter Seven

I busy myself gathering extra changes of clothes. Extra cash. Toothpaste and combs. I stuff it into my duffel bag, keeping busy, too busy to think about what I'm about to do. It's too dangerous for me to stay even overnight. Storms are still rolling through the area. I can't take the risk.

Can I transform when I'm inside? Sleeping?

I don't want to find out the answer.

"There," I say, taking my time zipping up the bag. I toss it over my shoulder. It weighs no more than paper but pulls me down towards the floor, begging me to stay.

Tommy waits by the window, holding my pillows. He's like a bodyguard, always there, always vigilant. If he's freaking out with the approaching storm, he's not showing it.

He pats his pockets. "If we slip out quiet, I can pull the car down to the corner. That way your parents won't see or hear us leaving."

"Okay. I'm hurrying."

"You need any more help?"

I zip up the duffel bag. "Got everything. I'm good."

Another rumble of thunder sounds, closer.

We've got to leave. Now.

My chest tightens so much that I can barely breathe.

My parents can't know why I'm gone. I have to deceive them again.

The outside lights up enough to tell me that this storm isn't going to miss. My heart leaps and my body tingles, ready for another transformation. Now I know how a werewolf must feel when the full moon rises.

Tommy pops out the screen. He's pale and he's not taking his gaze off me. "If we're going to get out of the storm's way--"

The time's now. I swallow down my own private storm, hike up the duffel bag, and follow Tommy out into the darkness.

His old Corolla's waiting down the street, complete with its million gaming stickers on the back. The storm pulses like one of those deep-sea creatures that snare their prey in the depths with their pretty lights. It looms behind my house as we drive away. The car makes metallic plinks and plays the low, soothing sound of some radio commercial. My house, now dark except for the empty light I've left on in my room, looks tiny, like a shack ready to fall over in the coming storm.

If I stay, it could.

I'm leaving to protect my parents, not hurt them.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Tommy punches the gas and shoots down the street in the direction of town.

"Are you sure you're not too nervous to drive?" I toss the duffel bag in the back seat.

He licks his lips. "Got to."

Tommy's terrified of me.

He should be.

"Have you told your uncle about this?" he asks. It's obvious he's trying to change the subject, trying to avoid the same thoughts that I am. "I think he'd be easier to talk to about it than your parents. He at least went on the trip with you."

"Tried. He wouldn't pick up." Something in my gut gnaws at me. I want Tommy to swing past his house, to let me out so I can go talk to him.

Lightning flashes.

I roar inside. The swimmy feeling bubbles up inside, faint but there.

It's too late for that.

"Faster," I urge Tommy.

A few stray raindrops splatter and die on the windshield.

"We'll go for the expressway," he says, hitting the gas harder. His words quake and crack down the middle. The traffic light ahead blinks from green, to yellow, to red. Tommy looks both ways down the empty street and blows through.

I hug myself, making sure I'm still solid. The car's not going to keep the transformation away. It's flimsy, a box of aluminum foil.

We blaze past McDonald's, all lit up in the dark. The Marathon. A sign announcing that Williams Town is home of the three-times high school football champions. A burst of wind makes the sign tremble. It looks like the end of the world is bearing down on everything I know.

"Go!" I shout, unable to hold the panic back. The storm's come up so fast, like it's sensing me here and racing to meet me.

"There it is." The on ramp to the expressway appears over the crest of the hill. "Hold on," Tommy says, turning the wheel and clicking on his turn signal.

We merge on so fast that the force slams me into my door. The swimmy feeling intensifies, then fades, then strengthens again until I'm sure I'm breaking apart. We pass a semi and the wall of its trailer falls away into the night.

Thunder rumbles, farther away, softer. I snap back to the passenger seat of Tommy's car, the lightness gone on the other side of a blink. I rub my hands down my legs, taking in the feel of my jeans. I'm solid. Tommy doesn't notice. He keeps his gaze on the racing lines of the road ahead. He's too afraid to look at me.

I breathe out.

A sob comes out with it.

"Allie!" Tommy faces me. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. We avoided it. Barely."

Lightning flashes behind us, forking orange and angry as if upset that I've missed my meeting.

* * * * *

Tommy drives for a long time.

I don't relax until the flashes of lightning grow farther apart, turning from a fireworks show to an occasional weak flare. The storms are dying, no longer fed by the heat of the day. The freeway clunks under us, normal and sane. Semi trucks grow farther apart. We're on a stretch to nowhere, rolling ahead into darkness.

Tommy's clock reads 11:38 a.m. We've been going for an hour now.

My parents must have no idea I'm gone. My phone's stayed silent. They usually go to bed at ten, and we left around ten thirty.

"Which direction are we going?" I ask. My eyelids droop and I want to give in with exhaustion. It's a giant sloth trying to drag me down into the pit of sleep.

"South. But now that the storms are gone, we can actually head the right way. I didn't want to drive through them." He punctuates his sentence with a yawn. "Once we get to Nebraska, I'll need your help. It'll probably be morning by time we get there."

"No problem," I say. "If I'd stayed home, it would have happened again." I shove away all thoughts of how another transformation would have turned out in Williams Town. I can't think about it. I need to sleep. It's the only way I can stay sane.

Tommy mutters something. It floats away somewhere in my thoughts and the space behind my closed eyelids.

Sleep comes and goes. My muddled dreams move along the highway. Once, I open my eyes to the lights of a gas station somewhere and we're parked by one of pumps. Tommy eyes the growing price on the screen as gas hisses into the tank. He's got a plastic bag tucked under his arm, bulging with energy drinks.

He's planning on driving all night. Wow.

It's the most amazing thing he's ever done for me. More amazing than the time he carried all my books for me that time my locker got jammed in the eighth grade, and the school wouldn't fix it for a week. More amazing than the time he brought me a bucket of bullfrogs he caught when we were nine, because he loved the fact that I was the only girl he knew who wouldn't scream.

I close my eyes, watching those frogs hop out of the bucket and go all over the garage floor. I smile as my mother comes in and starts freaking out, too scared to come down the stairs. We wind up having to catch all the frogs and take them to Uncle Cassius's house to let go in his pond.

When I open my eyes again we're parked at what looks like a rest area and the sky's on fire with the new day. I sit up to find Tommy leaned over the steering wheel, an empty can of Monster dangling in his hand. He lets out a low, windy snore. Even the eight tablespoons of sugar couldn't save him from sleep forever.

A semi pulls off the freeway, which clunks and hisses with life.

I have no idea where we are.

Plus I really need to use the bathroom. There should be a map in the rest area building I can look at when I'm done.

I leave Tommy sleeping in the car, go use the facility, pop a candy bar out of the vending machine, and head for the map when my phone rings.

My stomach coils like a snake ready to defend itself. I pull it out. My phone's down to two bars of battery life. Crap. I left my charger back home when I had to rush out.

But all thoughts of that fly away.

It's Uncle Cassius's number.

I answer before I can think about it. "Uncle Cassius? I tried calling you last night."

He coughs on the other end of the phone and silence drags out for seconds. "Allie, where are you? Your parents just called asking if you'd come over to my house last night."

Great. I'm not sure how to answer this question. "Um...I don't know." I really don't. I turn in a circle, trying to find the map again. There's one on the far wall, but--

"You don't know?" He laughs. It's a nervous sound. "A..Allie, what..."

The glass doors open and a family squeezes through, complete with kids with their legs crossed. On top of that, a tour bus is pulling up to the back of the building. I have to be careful.

"I'm with Tommy," I supply. "He offered to take me out on a trip. A real one. Now that I'm ungrounded and all after what happened at the open house yesterday, well, I just have to get away for a while. I'm sorry I didn't tell my parents. I'm not running away or anything. We're at a rest stop now and Tommy's just taking a power nap before we get back on the road." It's the truth. Part of it, anyway. I need to tell him the rest.

The doors open, and a crowd of kids in camp shirts pour in. I step out the opposite door and outside.

Silence again. A car passes Uncle Cassius on the other side of the line, judging from the hiss. He's standing outside. "You must have left late last night."

"Why do you sound so funny?"

He sniffs. "Allergies, I suppose. I'm a bit stuffy. I'm glad that you're okay." It's a question, not a statement.

I lift my voice from the basement. "Trust me, I'm fine. Like I said, Tommy's with me. He's an awesome friend." I emphasize _friend_. I've got to tell Uncle Cassius the whole story, and now. But now that I'm on the phone with him, I don't know how to start.

Uncle Cassius coughs. "Okay. I'll let your parents know." He sounds tired, defeated almost. "Just expect them to call you in a frenzy. I'll see you soon."

"Thanks. A lot." I swallow. "Do you remember, on the trip—"

"Cassius. Who are you talking to?"

It's Mom somewhere on his end.

I suck in a breath and end the call. I can't talk about this when my Mom's with him. My stomach curls. What's the truth going to do to her? She's already worried about me. Dad, too.

Just to make sure he doesn't call back, I turn my phone off. I've got one bar left on it. I have to conserve it, anyway.

"Allie."

I turn.

Tommy stands by the flowers, holding the door open with one hand. He steps to the side to let an older couple past him. "I didn't know where you went. I thought that, you know--"

"Well, I was in the car for who knows how long. I kind of had to go." I shrug, thinking of Uncle Cassius trying to call me back. "Well, I'm going to be dead because my parents aren't going to like the fact that I'm driving across the country with a guy friend."

Tommy nods. "My parents, too. We'll deal with that later."

"Agreed." At least we'll both be in huge trouble together. It's a thought that cheers me up a little. "Where are we?"

"Middle of Iowa. I think. We'd be in Nebraska already if we hadn't had to run from that storm and if I hadn't had to nap in the parking lot."

"No wonder you sucked down energy drinks all night."

"Had to."

We're dodging the important thing here. "I just talked to my uncle."

"What did he say?"

"Asking where I am. All that. He's with my mom. I couldn't talk to him long."

"I hear you," Tommy says. "Look, we should go. I just turned on the radio. They're saying more storms for the Midwest this afternoon."

"What is it with all this?" I whirl around, kicking at the rug on the floor. "What am I? A storm magnet, too?"

"It's early summer. That happens."

"Good point." I run back to the car. "Let's go. I want to find that barn before I have a repeat of last night."

### Chapter Eight

The farther we get into Nebraska, the clearer it gets that I'm going to get another taste of my new curse.

It's three in the afternoon now, and the nice, fluffy cotton balls drifting over the plains grow taller, turning into dragons and towering mountains. The shadows rolling over the plains deepen into lakes of darkness. Before long the first rumbles of thunder will roll through the air.

"Yep. I think I'm some kind of storm magnet now." I try to keep my tone light, but my words quiver.

A week ago I was excited to see this.

"This isn't looking good," Tommy says, hitting the gas. "How far are we from Highway 54?"

I turn my phone on and mess with the GPS, following the lines of red and blue on the little screen. "Maybe twenty minutes. Then we need to make a left and go south." I circle Evansburg with my finger, leaving a fine line of sweat on the glass. It's a tiny dot in an expanse of green and brown.

What am I going to do when I find that woman again?

"Tommy, when we get there, I want to go in alone when we find that farm."

"No _way,"_ he says, glancing at me. He's pale with smudges of gray under his glasses. "There's no way you're facing that alone."

"There's no way you're going in there. I don't think you'll like getting put on that altar or whatever and getting a tornado slammed into your chest."

"They only want people who like storms. Right? I was never real interested in them. I don't think they'll want someone who's more into Internet gaming."

"You'd never know." I look out the window at the biggest storm-in-making. It's towering towards the stratosphere, winning the race against the others. "Tommy, if it looks like it's going to get bad, I want you to drop me off on the side of the road and drive away."

He stares ahead, not meeting my gaze. "Allie, I'm not doing that."

Half an hour later, we're on Highway 54, heading south to Evansburg. That's when I make the decision to get Tommy away from me.

Thunder rumbles. The sky's turned an ugly green-gray to the west. The grass turns dark green and waves like an ocean all around us. My body tingles in anticipation, like its calling out to its element. I can't stop it. And like the others, this storm isn't going to miss. Even if Tommy steps on it, there's no outracing it.

"Stop the car."

I can't run from this forever. But the transformation--how can I deal with another one--

Tommy pulls to the side of the highway. A single car approaches from the distance, its headlights kicking on. "Come on, Allie. This storm looks dangerous. What if there's hail or high winds or--"

I snort. "I'm the most dangerous thing here, Tommy." It makes me queasy to say it. I stare down at the floor of the car as another distant rumble washes over us. "I don't think storms can hurt me. It's just a feeling I have."

Tommy looks past me to the darkening sky. "What if you, you know, destroy something?"

I grab the door handle. The land outside is flatter than flat. A single farm stands a couple of miles away, its silos shiny and its barn upright. Other than that, it's all empty. "What? The crops? There's nothing out here. That's why it's better to get this over with before we get to civilization." I harden my features, holding my terror back.

Tommy sighs. He knows I have a point.

The growl rears up inside me, low and dangerous.

I scramble out of the car.

"Allie!" Tommy turns off the ignition and the engine dies.

"Drive away!" I point down the road. "Come back here and get me when it's done."

"But--"

I slam the door. Tommy shakes his head behind the glass. We're in two different worlds now. He puts effort into making his face a disappointed mask, but just underneath it is relief.

Good. It sucks, but at least I won't kill him. That's all that matters right now.

He starts the car. With the crunch of gravel, he speeds away.

I watch him go. Red taillights grow smaller down the highway and the growing dark.

He'll come back and get me. I have to remind myself of that. I'm not really alone in this.

He will.

Once Tommy's car turns into a grain of dust on the horizon, it stops. He's sitting a couple of miles away. Thunder grumbles. It's impatient, waiting for me. I turn and take in the low clouds rolling in over my head. They push and pull against each other like ashy dough.

The tingling grows. Crackles through my body. My palms sweat. I kick at a piece of gravel, watching it skitter across the pavement, trying not to think about what I'm about to turn into.

I have never felt so alone in my life.

My body goes light like I'm floating.

It's starting.

I fold my arms and head for the side of the road. I squat down in the weeds, staring at the grass. They pick at my clothes. Tickle my hair. I count the pebbles, waiting, breathing slowly, willing my pulse to slow.

A few fat raindrops fall onto the pavement. One plops onto my head. Lightning forks to the ground.

And another car approaches from the distance. I can hear it.

My heart leaps enough to break the dizzy spell. They can't see me. If they do, they'll stop. Ask me if I need a ride. Insist I can't walk out here in the storm.

And die.

I scramble for the ditch and lay low in the tall weeds. They'll keep going. Get away from me and continue with their lives. The low whoosh of the car grows louder and another wave of the lightheaded feeling socks me.

Rain rushes down, then stops.

The car's slowing. The whoosh of its tires turns into a grumble and goes silent. The plinks of the cooling engine remind me so much of Tommy's car that I'm sure for a second that it's him.

No. It's a blue car, stopped not twenty feet away from me. I can make out the headlights through the weeds. Someone moves on the other side of the windshield wipers. Storm chasers. Nobody else would stop in front of weather like this.

I can't stay here.

If I run, they'll see me.

If I stay--

The growl fills my head.

With the crashing of grass, I dart out from the ditch, dig my feet into dirt and bolt into the field.

The car door flies open. "Hey!" a man yells.

I don't look back. Another door opens and feet thud after me.

Then I glance back. The world tilts, threatening to go out. Rain beats down again. A dark-haired teenage boy runs after me. He pumps his muscled arms, desperate, terrified.

"Get away from me!" I bolt ahead. An irrigation ditch blocks my way. If I can't jump it--I don't want to think about that.

"Come back!" The boy mutters something. "You'll be safe in the car."

No, I won't. No, _they_ won't.

The ditch is too big to jump. It's full of water, racing away from the storm.

My being roars and I skid to a stop in the mud.

He catches up with me and locks his hands around my forearms from behind.

"Come on!" he yells, pulling me. "You need to get in the car. You won't get hurt there."

We tumble back. Land. He lets go and I slide from his grasp. Lightning flashes and thunder shakes the world.

"Get away!" I crawl away and face him. "I'm about to--"

"I mean it." He stands and takes my arm, pulling me to my feet. "You want to die out here?"

Our gazes meet. He's got weird eyes. Brown, with flecks of black.

"You don't understand!" I thrash, but his strength matches my own. "Run. I'm a...I'm a--" What, exactly? "Just go!"

"I--" He closes his eyes and turns away, covering them. I'm free.

I stagger away. The world's weightless. I'm air. The boy rushes away like he senses the change.

I fall. Rain pounds down, but I'm past feeling it.

The boy falls, too. He lands in a heap. Lifts a hand like he's waving me away. It slaps back down on the mud.

Is he...is he like me?

Wind blasts. I'm breaking apart. Flying. The field tilts under me and disappears into the rain.

The rain clears. Fields stretch out below. The earth's a brown and green checkerboard. It's lined with trees. It's amazing. The view makes my transformation almost worth it.

Then the roar explodes.

I twist and turn, plowing forward. The crops bow down. The fields wave in terror.

I am destruction.

And this time I'm not alone.

### Chapter Nine

Another tornado descends from the toiling clouds, hungry.

It's close. Close enough for me to see the crops it's ripping from the ground. Its gray funnel spins harder, churning up earth. I can't make its roar out from my own.

It's him.

The boy from the field.

I've found another like me.

I tear at the ground, ripping out trees. There's no hope of controlling it. The other tornado moves ahead like it's cutting me off. I turn my attention away. I know I look the same.

Rain beats down to my side, then drifts away. The world trembles. I retract inside myself, trying to escape, trying not to think. Debris screams. Rises. Flies and churns around me. My only comfort is that there are no pieces of buildings with it.

The other tornado's getting a lot closer.

Only slivers of evil green sky show behind it. The storm's shoving us together.

I try to pull away. It's like I'm stuck in the grip of a black hole. There's no escape. If my partner in crime has any control, he's not showing it.

We collide.

Everything turns to a black maelstrom. It tears at me and me at it. If I could, I'd scream. Another consciousness pushes against mine. It growls. Roars. Rips at my thoughts, shredding words.

We merge, pull back together, and rejoin the world.

Faster. Stronger. The world's smaller. The clouds above drop lower and twist as if sensing our union.

Forward--

Violent--

Whipping, twisting, roaring--

A barn shatters into metal blades and wooden needles. Flies, swirls and explodes away.

No!--

Trees slap the ground. Break. Leap into the air around us to join the deadly dance.

We plow ahead--

Growling--

Feeding on the storm's hot air--

Tiny cars flee before us, leaving another road clear. We tear across.

Rip up a tractor and slam it back down to the earth.

Please end...please end...

The first cold closes in as if answering my prayer. Our roar softens and sputters. Gasps. We move on, dragging across the field. Weaker. Smaller.

The cold crushes me, taking away my life. The other consciousness pulls from mine, leaving my thoughts whole and tired. I wane and my consciousness drops from the sky.

* * * * *

I wake in the mud.

The weak sun peeks through the clouds, forming weird shadows through the soybean plants. They're tattered like a million fists have beaten them. Moisture seeps through my clothes. It's cold and lifeless.

I'm exhausted.

I shudder and stare into the darkness behind my eyelids. It's a black pit, welcoming me to its depths. Cars zoom past somewhere, close and distant in their own world. They thud each time they pass over a pothole in the road, wherever it is. I'm glad they can't see me lying here. I hope they can't, that they won't find me.

The barn. We completely obliterated it.

We could have smashed the farmhouse instead. Or picked up the cars going down the road instead of that tractor. I'm relieved but I'm not. Things could have turned out way different. Neither one of us had any control.

Oh, god. I don't want to think about it. But I do. I can't stop imagining the roar. The power...

The world turns to light. The sun's coming out. My clothes get hot. The darkness behind my eyelids turns brown, then red with the sun trying to invade my eyes. Thunder rolls, far away.

I curl up tighter. I'm past caring. No one's here.

Except--

I breathe deep, forcing my heart to slow.

The boy who ran after me. He should be close. We both must have turned back right here.

I lift my head from the ground, blinking away tears. It's not easy to sit up or to ignore the pain in my chest. I'm still shaking.

There's no one.

Only smashed soybean plants and stray leaves lie scattered around me, dead and stomped down into the mud. The tractor lies yards away, mangled and half-crushed. My heart sinks to the ground until I see that nobody's inside or lying near it.

There's no boy as far as I can see.

Then where--

Did he die or something when we collided?

Oh, crap.

I stand and watch as a car approaches, slows, thuds over something in the road, and keeps going. It's not Tommy's car. This isn't even the same road he dropped me off on. How far have I _gone?_

But the boy who chased me _should_ be here.

"Hello?" I call over the field. I turn in a full circle, never more alone in this flat land. The plains stretch out on all sides, an ocean of grasses and plants. Across the road, debris from the barn lies blasted everywhere. There's nothing but a concrete slab left. The farmhouse some distance from it has a lot of shingles missing.

I did that.

_We_ did that.

"Hello?" Panic rises.

Something's moving beyond the destroyed barn. Something blue. And it's coming towards me.

It's the car I ran from. The boy's parents, probably. They're driving along a bumpy track only fit for farm equipment. Their car bounces along the line between two fields. They're coming to pick up their son.

It's too late for me to move. I can see their headlights. Their shadows behind the windshield. What are they going to think when they find me standing here and their son missing?

The car rushes past the destroyed barn, speeding up as if trying to avoid the sight. With one final lurch, it pulls onto the road and races towards me.

I'm paralyzed. My brain goes blank. What will I say?

I try not to look at the barn. At the destroyed tractor. At the ruined crops. I've got to be ready to face this, whatever it is.

The car stops with the squeak of brakes. The back door flies open and someone climbs out and straightens. He holds his hand up to his face, blocking out the sun. Curly brown hair falls around his ears and his mouth falls open.

It's the boy.

My mind explodes in confusion. He should be here if he changed back along with me. Not in that car with his parents. Why--

He beats on the top of the car and faces the people inside. "It's her!" He faces me again. Even though he's tanned from a whole season in the sun, his face is paper. The side of his black shirt has mud on it from where he fell in the other field. His clothes are soaked from the rain. He cups his hands around his mouth. "Are you an Outbreaker?"

My legs move, carrying me closer to him. The word rolls around in my head, teasing me, growing bigger and bigger. _Outbreaker._ I try to wrap my mind around it, to catch it and make some sense from it.

"I...I don't know."

The boy drops his hands from his mouth. The look on his face matches the confusion I feel.

That makes two of us.

The front passenger door opens. A man steps out. His muscular build matches the boy's. His arms bulge against the sweaty flannel shirt he wears. It's his father.

And his mother. A woman with brown curly hair emerges from the drivers' side. The three of them stare at me, no answers coming over their features. I feel like some new germ under a microscope.

"Um..." I start.

"You've got to be," the boy says. Another car clunks by as if punctuating his sentence. He shakes his head. "You just had an Outbreak. But why are you all the way over here? We drove across three farms looking for you."

I step closer. We're only a few feet apart now. I can't stop staring at the boy's weird eyes. Maybe there are answers here after all. "Outbreak? What's an Outbreak?"

The woman speaks to her son. "Maybe she doesn't know what she is."

The boy turns away and faces her. He's got to be rolling his eyes or something. My face heats. His mother whispers something to him. At last he turns and looks at me, his features screwing up like he's about to rehearse some lines.

"An Outbreak," he explains, "Is when you pass out, leave your body, and turn into a tornado. It usually only happens during storms. Every Outbreaker gets them. It starts in your teens." He brushes his hand through his hair. "Your parents didn't tell you what you are? That blows more than usual. No joke intended."

I snort anyway. Wow, what a change from what I was five minutes ago. "But I didn't leave my body. All of me just transformed." I look at the boy's parents. "You two saw it. You must have. You were right there in that car. That must be why we wound up in two different places when it was done. Your body stayed behind." So these people are like me. Well, almost like me. I'm losing it.

"We did see it," the father says. He's got those eyes, too--brown with the black spots. He narrows them at me. "It's not like anything we've seen an Outbreaker do before. And I've never seen anything like when you two--"

The boy cringes. "Dad—"

"Okay, Dorian. We don't have to discuss it now."

"Please, not on the side of the road." Dorian shifts leg to leg and checks for traffic. He catches sight of the destroyed barn and turns away. His face has paled and gone tight.

We all wait for someone to speak, but only silence stretches out. A distant roll of thunder sounds through the air.

Dorian turns to me. "You waiting for someone to pick you up?" There's more in his question. He wants to hear my story as much as I want to unravel his. I'm close, as close as I'll get to figuring this out before I find that woman and the old barn again.

"I am. I still have my phone. I think." Miraculously, it's still there in my pocket. A bent sign nearby tells me I'm on Highway 32. I can tell Tommy to find the destroyed barn. Or to follow the path of destruction. God. "But once my friend gets here, can we talk a bit? Meet somewhere? You see, I've only been like this since last week and I really, really need to figure out what's going on before I kill somebody." My words quiver and spill. If anyone will understand, it's these people. They're my only key to this new world I'm trapped in. Maybe even my only hope.

Dorian drops his gaze to the dirt. Behind him, the debris from the shattered barn litters the ground. Now a couple of people have come out of the house to inspect it.

He turns and watches. He groans and his shoulders slump to match mine.

We did that.

The mother turns her gaze to look at the destruction. She walks around the car, her face sad but resigned. It's as if I'm not there. She turns to her son. "These things happen, Dorian."

"Yeah, I know." He turns away from her and climbs back into the car, slamming the door so hard I'm amazed the glass doesn't shatter. He crouches down, avoiding the scene that we've left.

The two people out by the barn hug, embracing each others' misery.

A lump in my throat grows tighter. My teeth hurt. I'm as at fault for that ruined livelihood as he is. But I keep my face steeled and force myself to look at Dorian's parents. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize for. This is what we have to live with." The woman's face is long with years of it. She shakes her head. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean not to answer your question. One of us will meet you tonight in Evansburg. There's a place called Betsy's Kitchen there. It's a safe place for us to talk. Is eight a good time?" She faces the car. "We need to get our son home."

I nod, unable to take my gaze off Dorian behind the glass. He glances at me. Our gazes meet. We share that horror in silence until his parents climb into the car and drive away.

I watch the car go. It clunks over a section of the road.

Then I see.

The concrete has been scoured right off, leaving a brownish, dead stretch in its place.

### Chapter Ten

Tommy picks me up ten minutes later.

He's quiet when I climb into the car. Very quiet. I close the door and he puts the car into drive, making a U-turn in the road. He looks away from the flattened barn and the torn-up concrete.

Tommy stares ahead at the lines on the highway. A police cruiser passes on its way to check out the damage. We drive in silence, which pushes against me harder and harder until I'm ready to scream.

"Say something."

He blinks and swallows.

"Anything. Even if it's, 'Wow, Allie, you must have made those people at that farm crap their pants.'" I try sound funny, but my words are at the corner between laughing and going hysterical.

"I took pictures," he says, fishing in his pocket for his phone. "To be honest, I don't think you want to see them."

"Now I have to." I regret saying it the second it's out.

"You don't. I don't know what happened, but well, the end result--" He doesn't finish but instead pulls out the phone and hands it to me.

My palms sweat as I sift through his pictures. Us at the open house yesterday. Me leaning back and planking on the swing.

And then, horror.

The farm fields display on the screen with low, ominous storm clouds hanging over them.

Next picture.

A pair of tornadoes, dark against sickness.

Next.

The tornadoes whip across the field now. They're so close I can barely tell them apart.

Next.

There's just one tornado now, and it's a giant wedge driving the world apart. It's massive. It's every documentary and picture I've seen of the monster tornadoes that level entire towns.

I'm shaking so much I drop the phone. "Okay. I regret that."

Tommy hits the gas. "Sorry. I'll get us to Evansburg faster."

"No need to apologize." I keep my gaze locked on the landscape. On the sunlight. I breathe in. Out. Keep my arms wrapped tight around me.

"What...what _happened?"_

I swallow, tense up, and force myself to tell him.

* * * * *

Evansburg is one of those towns that has a small park, a tiny downtown area that looks like something from the Old West, and a school that looks like it serves grades K through 12. There's not even a stop light at the corner, just a faded stop sign and a clock tower. There's a couple of neighborhoods, all of them of big, old houses that have to be over a hundred years old. One store even has a barrel sitting out front. I expect there to be a place for you to tie your horse up, but I can't find one.

"This place reminds me of Robin's Village," Tommy says, gaping at the stores that have to all be at least a hundred years old.

"Me, too." I can't help but get some warm fuzzies. Robin's Village is an old tourist town back in Wisconsin where we used to go on field trips in elementary school. It's pretty much a giant museum where the employees dress up and play parts from the eighteen hundreds. You could get Old West pictures taken of yourself and go to a magic show. There was even a train you could ride on and a one-room schoolhouse where you could sit and do a fake lesson. I must have gone there five or six times.

Tommy slows the car down. "That must be Betsy's Kitchen," he says, looking at the place with the barrel. "That's where we're supposed to meet those people in a couple of hours."

I glance at the clock tower. It's five. We've got three hours to wait. "I guess we can hang out at the park until then. I saw one a couple of streets back."

We go to the park and wander around for a bit. The place is old, so much that there's wooden walkways all around the place. A mom and a couple of kids are the only other people here. The place is actually pretty cool. "Tommy, didn't we meet at Robin's Village?"

He smiles. "I think we did. Kindergarten field trip. We were in a group together. You, me and Jeffrey Snyder. Man, I hated that kid."

"He kept making fun of your glasses. So I pushed him into the goat pen."

"He got in so much trouble," Tommy says. "Mrs. Walton wouldn't believe a girl would do something like that."

And we laugh. It's the first time I've felt free in days. I don't know what I'd do without Tommy here to cheer me up.

We get tired of walking around the park and head into town. We gawk at the bank, which looks ready for guys in cowboy hats and bandannas to come in and hold it up. It even has a wooden floor inside, like somebody can't bear to part with the past. Then we spend a little bit of time in the library, which is a lot better than I expect. Even though it has old wooden desks and tables and a grandfather clock in the corner, it's got way more new books than the library back home ever had. If you wanted a new book back in Williams Town, you had to special order it on the computer. This place _has_ the new books already. And an actual card catalog up by the front desk. With real cards.

"You're not used to this, are you?" the librarian asks as I poke through the section on Astronomy.

I look at her—her name is Margie according to her name tag—and smile. "I hate the computers at my library. People hog them and you have to wait your turn. This is way better."

"Did all libraries used to be like this?" Tommy asks, leaning forward for a better look at the catalog.

"Once upon a time, there were no computers," I joke.

We spend another hour in the library. It turns out they have a whole archive of magazines, too. I page through an issue of _Discover,_ reading about the history of sharks while Tommy finds a gaming magazine and digs in. We stay there until they close at seven and head back to the park.

Evansburg is, in a word, cool.

"Well, it's almost time," I say when we reach the picnic table. "They should be here in a little while."

"Outbreakers, huh?" Tommy sits opposite me. "So that's what you're supposed to be now?"

"I'm not sure," I say. I trace my finger along a crack in the table, following its trail to a heart with initials carved in it. I want Tommy to sit _beside_ me. Bethany's not here to go all jealous girl on me. "They're _kind_ of like me. When it storms, they leave their bodies and then turn into tornadoes. And they had these weird eyes that I don't have." I let my face fall to my free hand. "Wow, what a conversation we're having."

"Well, we need to have it. Maybe those people will know where that woman lives."

"Probably." I'm putting all my hope on that. I refuse to think of what will happen if my plan doesn't work.

Refuse to think of what the rest of my life will be like.

I spot the blue car pulling into the lot of Betsy's Kitchen. The sun's low in the sky, but sweat beads on the back of my neck.

"That's them." I stand. Tommy and I walk around the swing set. I'm glad to move. I'm glad that I'm about to unravel this.

"They won't be upset that I'm here?" Tommy asks.

"Probably not. You already know about this. I don't see why they'd care." I'm not sure, of course. But I'm not leaving Tommy to sit out here by himself.

Besides, I want him with me for this. I can't imagine going through this without him.

The restaurant's mostly empty when we step up to the door. I make out old pictures of farms through the window. A few booths that line against the wall. Maybe the Outbreaker family chose this for the emptiness.

I check the sky one more time. Clear.

I take a breath and we step in.

There are only two people here. Dorian, and a woman in pink behind the counter who I'm guessing is Betsy. They're hunched together in conversation. A clock ticks on the wall and a pop machine buzzes on the other side of the room.

They freeze and stare at us. Dorian straightens up and smoothes out his jeans. I feel the heat going back to my face. I swallow, trying to blink away the thought of us merging. I can tell by the way he shifts leg to leg that he's trying to do the same. It's like for a second, we can read each other's minds.

"That's her," he says to the woman.

"I'm here. Obviously." My mouth's dry. "Where are your parents?" I'm not sure if them being here would be less awkward. It's just something to say to avoid talking about the merger thing.

Dorian stands taller, his baggy jeans falling around his boots. "I told them I'd do this on my own." He glances at Tommy. "He's human. Well, I think. I _thought_ you were, too. Can he wait outside?"

Tommy balks next to me.

"He's my friend," I say, steeling my stance. "And he already knows what happens to me. He saw the whole thing. It's okay if he sits with us. He's cool."

Betsy narrows her eyes at Tommy. I look closer. They're also the brown with the black spots. I wonder if we're in whole a town of these Outbreakers. And why Evansburg is still standing if that's the case.

Dorian's eyes grow big. "He saw the whole thing?"

_And took pictures,_ I think. I keep that thought to myself. "Yes. There's no sense in hiding anything. Believe me."

"Okay." He waves us to a booth. "Sorry I wasn't in much of a talking mood on the side of the road. This is my aunt, by the way." He thumbs towards Betsy.

"Hi," I say, giving a small wave.

"I'll close up," she says. "Most of the town's gone to the State Fair until Friday, anyway. There's no sense in keeping the doors open this late." She flips the sign to _Closed._

"Totally understandable," I say, very aware of how silent Tommy's gone next to me.

We scoot and squeak into the booth, settling under a picture of a farm that might be the one we destroyed for all I know. Dorian looks away from the picture. I follow his lead, not that I need any convincing.

Betsy mills behind the counter and something sizzles. I glance around. It doesn't seem like an Outbreaker hangout. Cheap paintings of farm animals hang between every booth, mostly of dairy cows. One piece of art even has a cow flying through the sky with storm clouds in the background. There's also pictures of a small town all over the walls. It's not Evansburg, but a town a lot like it. One building in a picture is of a fire station. A rusty siren towers over it.

Okay, so maybe this _is_ the official Outbreaker place after all.

"You okay?" Dorian asks across from me. He follows my gaze to the flying cow and the siren pictures. "Oh...like our little inside jokes? The humans who eat here have no idea. It gives us a laugh, though."

"I'd find it funnier if we didn't have that incident earlier." I study Dorian's face. His smile's forced. Strained. "So is almost everyone in Evansburg an Outbreaker?" I ask.

Dorian shifts.

"Come on," I say. "Do you really think me of all people is going to go around spilling your secret? I'm not much different than you are."

"She has a point," Tommy says. He's squeezed into the corner of the booth like he's hoping it'll protect him.

Dorian caves. "Not everyone. Just about fifty of us. Almost all of us live out in the country. The other hundred people here in town are human. They do wonder why we all showed up a few years ago. We tell them there was a chemical spill at our old town and we had to leave in a hurry, even though that's not really the truth." He takes a drink. "It's a long story. We usually keep quiet about it all." His gaze goes back to the fire department picture. "There's a lot of us living here in the middle of the country. Lots of open space. We're less likely to hurt people out here when we have our Outbreaks." He stresses _less likely._

I wonder if these Outbreakers destroyed their old town by mistake. It's a thought that makes me think of back home. The close call.

"You could always move to the desert or something where it never rains," Tommy suggests. "You won't have to worry about it as much there."

"Actually, no," Dorian tells him. "We get health problems if we go without Outbreaks for too long. Nobody knows why, but most of us think the power in us wants out every so often. If it doesn't get a chance in a while, it starts taking a toll on our bodies. Living out here really is the best thing we can do. It sucks."

My heart sinks. "I hope that doesn't apply to me, too."

Darkness descends over Dorian's face. He fiddles with the straw in his drink, twirling it over and over so fast that the ice spins inside. The water forms a funnel and he stops, stabbing the ice to kill it.

Asking about his old town's not a good idea right now. "At least you can hide what you are. Since you leave your bodies when you transform and all."

Dorian rolls his eyes up to face me. "Yeah. I guess that's a plus. A _small_ plus." He sits up and leans back into his booth. "So," he says. "Tell me your story."

I do.

All of it.

I hold nothing back. There's no reason for anyone here to call me insane.

I tell Dorian about my vacation. Getting ripped from the van. The tornado in the barn slamming into me. The open house. I stare at the table as I do it, twirling a piece of paper around with my thumb. It's easier than looking him in the eye. For more than one reason.

I finish with Tommy dropping me off in the field and driving away. "And you know what happened after that," I tell Dorian.

"I can back it up," Tommy says. He digs into his pocket.

"No need," I tell him, holding up my hand. "Please. That's not a picture I want to see again."

"Picture?" Dorian asks.

"It's nothing," I say.

"Ok. Wow. Now I'm even more confused," Dorian says, shoving his glass of water away. "Outbreakers _always_ leave their bodies when they change. None of that sounds like anything I know about. And I've heard some pretty weird stuff." Dorian looks into space again, watching Betsy clean a coffeepot behind the counter.

"I'm sure." This isn't helping me figure anything out. "Now it's my turn. How long have you been an Outbreaker?"

"My whole life." Dorian shrugs. "My whole family's Outbreakers. You have to be born one. Well, most of the time. Outbreakers _can_ turn someone into one of them. It's nothing like that tornado hitting you in the barn, though. We have to give a person our breath. Mouth-to-mouth." He grimaces. "I'd never do that, for the record. Too creepy."

I remember him paling at the sight of the destroyed barn and I believe him. "So doing CPR is out for you guys."

Dorian grins. "Yeah. Thankfully, kissing's safe."

I force a laugh. If my face wasn't hot before, it is now.

Betsy brings us out three hamburgers, which still sizzle on our plates. "This is on the house," she says, smiling. "There's no rush. I still have a lot of dishes to do, so you have plenty of time."

"Thanks," Dorian says, taking a huge bite.

The burgers are _amazing._ Maybe it's just the fact that I'm super hungry, or maybe Betsy just has some kind of cooking super power. Tommy devours his in two minutes and Dorian's not far behind. I already feel better with some food in my stomach.

"So you've never heard of people who drag victims to an altar to make them like this?" I point at myself when I finish eating.

Dorian shakes his head. "No. Something weird is going on if you're right. If you're an Outbreaker, you're a new kind."

So now I'm a freak among freaks. Great. "I kind of figured."

Dorian runs his hand through his hair. "That's the best I can come up with. I've never met anyone like you before. There must not be too many of you yet."

"Well, there's at least two of us new ones and I'm pretty sure that woman's planning to drag more people in." I take a drink, soothing my dry throat. "I think she goes after storm chasers, mostly. So do you know where this farm might be?" I ask, leaning across the table. "Any ideas? You've got to if you live around here."

Dorian shakes his head. "Have you _seen_ Nebraska? All we look at is corn. And some occasional soybeans. There's a lot of farms around here. Some of them are miles across. But I don't think it would take too long to find the right one."

Hope. It flickers back to life, urging me to keep going. It's not much, but if I can find that woman again, she might know the cure.

If she's even willing to give it to me.

"It's supposed to be four miles north of here," Tommy says. "We found a clue online. We're going to go look in the morning."

Dorian nods at the deepening night outside. "Good idea. I wouldn't go to a place like that in the dark. Heck, I don't even want to go there in the daytime."

"Have you seen an area with a really old barn?" I press. "You know? One of those ones that looks ready to collapse?"

"Don't know. You'd have to go down some crappy dirt roads to get to a lot of the farms. I bet that's one of them."

"I'm sure she'll know it if we find it again." Tommy's regained some bravery. He sits up like he's forgotten all about the pictures on his phone.

I glance between the two of them. "You know, if that barn's ready to fall over anyway, we could always, you know, give those freaks a taste of their own misery."

"Won't work," Dorian says. "Outbreakers can't hurt each other. Or destroy each other's property. That's why I tried to force you into my parents' car back at the field when I thought you were a regular human. You would have been safe there."

"How come your parents didn't have Outbreaks?" I ask. "They were out there in the storm, too."

"They're older. They have better control," Dorian says. "They can hold back their transformations until it's a good time. I can't do that yet. That's why they drove me away from our house when the storm was coming. We have neighbors that live close to us that we can't risk hurting."

"I know the feeling," I say, thinking of my parents back home. I poke at the phone in my pocket, which I've kept off to conserve the battery. "Okay. So for the old barn and those freaks, we rush in with torches and pitchforks. Sounds good."

Dorian leans towards us. "Want help?"

I search his face for any sign of a laugh. There's none. He's serious. "Of course we would. Hey, if that woman knows some kind of cure, maybe you can have it, too. If, you know, you'd be interested." I'm not sure why I've blurted that out. "Sorry."

"For what?" Dorian asks. He checks to make sure Betsy's still back in the kitchen. "You think I like being an Outbreaker?" His face has changed. He's younger. Vulnerable. Scared. Like me. "You guys think I like the fact that I'm stuck out in the boondocks all the time so I _probably_ don't kill anybody?" He slaps his hands down on the table, splaying his fingers. "It's going to be years before I learn to control my Outbreaks like my parents can. That's the only time I'll be able to get out of here. I _do_ want to start college before I'm thirty." Dorian is fear. Anger. Pain. He looks to me with those brown and black eyes. They're pleading. Desperate.

I'm hope. A way out. And I might not be able to deliver.

"Look," I say, holding my hands up. "I don't know if there's a cure. It's a long shot. But I have to try."

Dorian stands. "Tomorrow," he says. "Meet me at the park. Then we're going to look for that altar."

### Chapter Eleven

It turns out there's a bed and breakfast in Evansburg. Dorian walks us there in the dark. It's the biggest old house in town, a white one with purple shutters. The shutters have little hearts carved in them and an old, white picket fence surrounds the yard. It's actually pretty cool. If my parents owned this place, they'd want to rip out the fence, replace the shutters and trim the messy shrubs into squares.

I miss them. They've got to be so worried about me.

"Staying here should be cheap since most people are gone to the State Fair right now," Dorian says. "You're lucky you got here now. We get a lot of old tourists here every other time of the year."

Dorian leaves, and Tommy pays for the room and heads back out to get his car. I head upstairs before the old guy behind the desk can ask any questions. The stairs creak and I haul my duffel bag past old oil lamps on the walls. They've been replaced with light bulbs, of course, but it's still pretty neat.

The room's got a couple of beds and another oil lamp on the table for decoration and no television. Tommy sets his laptop down on his bed and opens it up. "Cool place," he says. "Do we at least have wi-fi? We need to make sure there aren't any more storms on the radar. We don't want to waste our phones on that. My battery was down to one bar last time I turned it on."

Translation: Tommy had forgotten his charger, too.

"So was mine," I say. "And yeah, we'd better check."

"Bingo!" Tommy pumps his fist. "We have the Net."

"You'd explode without it," I tease.

"And we're good," he says, tapping the top of the computer. "No storms tonight. I don't see anything until Thursday. You don't have to worry about your curse until then."

"Which I'm hoping will be gone tomorrow." I flop down on the other bed and stare at the ceiling. Grooves and patterns form before my eyes. I'm so tired that I don't even care that Tommy and I are sharing the same room.

Tommy appears above me. "Hey, Allie, we'll figure out how to cure this tomorrow. If that woman's in charge of that tornado force or whatever, she'll know a way to take it out of you."

"Maybe." The tired creeps into my voice. The word's heavy, weighing me down and pushing me into the floor.

"We will." Tommy lies next to me, his hair molding with mine. "Sorry Bethany's being so crappy about this." I don't miss the way he says her name, like it's chalk.

I haven't been this comfortable in a while. I want Tommy to stay here all night.

"Not your fault." My eyelids droop. I'm willing to bet that if I turn my phone back on, there won't be a single message from her. A trillion from my parents, of course, and maybe a couple more from Uncle Cassius.

They've got to know that something major is up.

I need to call Uncle Cassius again in the morning and try again to tell him the truth.

I close my eyes and listen to my breathing. Tommy's breathing. We say nothing. I wonder if Tommy's seeing massive tornadoes behind his eyelids, shredding farms and flattening livelihoods. If he does, he doesn't show it.

I see the blue car pulling up to the side of the road.

Dorian getting out. Running after me, and taking my arm. It's so real that I'm sure I'm in that field again.

Staring at me with those desperate eyes in the restaurant booth. They're deep. They're pain.

_Help,_ they say.

Right before I lose myself among twisting images from the last two days, I nod.

I will.

* * * * *

A gentle knocking pulls me out of blackness.

I wake with a start. The room is still bright and yellow around me. The light stings my eyes. Tommy's still lying next to me. He snores. He's out. Gone. Makes sense. He only drove on no sleep last night.

The clock above the oil lamp reads two-thirty-eight. In the morning.

The knock comes again.

It's our door.

My heart leaps into my throat. My mind goes to Dorian.

I rise from the floor, leaving Tommy in his coma. The clock on the wall reads two forty-five.

Why would Dorian come here this time of night? Maybe he's found the farm and wants to strike now. Or maybe he's come to warn me about a storm coming.

They knock again.

The door has a peephole. I walk over, careful not to make any boards creak, and look through.

It's Uncle Cassius.

My heart leaps. Uncle Cassius!

He's warped through the glass. Stretched out. Tired. He stands with his hands behind his back like he's hiding something.

I open the door so fast that Tommy groans and shifts behind me.

Blinking to make sure I'm not seeing things, I sputter, "Uncle Cassius?"

"Allie." He checks up and down the hall and steps into the room.

"How did you find--"

"Later," he says. He has dark valleys under his eyes, black against his gray cheeks. His gaze rolls along the floor and meets Tommy, who sits up and blinks in the light. There's no trace of a smile on my uncle's face. No trace of his normal self. "Sit down."

He's never talked this way to me before. "What's--"

"Huh?" Tommy asks. He's not really there yet.

Uncle Cassius paces along the length of the room. He's got something behind his back. A folded paper. It's the Williams Town Tribune. It's creased, but not enough to hide the photo on the front page. Instead of the usual town meetings, little league baseball games and fundraisers for sick kids, it's annihilation.

Broken windows. Damaged roofs. Fallen trees and leaning power lines.

My guts explode and die. I sit next to Tommy and grab the sides of the bed. I watch Uncle Cassius go to the other bed and sit.

He tosses the paper to the floor. It lands face-up, shoving the horror in our faces.

Tornado Whips Through Downtown Williams Town, Damages Being Assessed.

Uncle Cassius straightens up like he's trying to escape it. "I know why you left, Allie." He breathes out. "I saw it on the late night news. The tornado at that open house. Then you hugging your parents at the park. I didn't know what had really happened until after I had my own experience."

Ohmigod.

Those people did the same thing to Uncle Cassius that they did to me.

And those storms last night that I barely escaped...he would have been at his house when they came over...

He rises from the bed and rushes me. "Allie," he says, gripping my arms. "After the tornado hit our van, did you wake up in a barn? Tell me the truth. The whole truth."

His eyes are big. Terrified.

I nod. "Did a tornado slam into your chest, too?"

"Yes."

Our secrets crash together so hard he winces with the impact.

Tommy backs against the wall, watching it all unfold. Uncle Cassius turns away and buries his face in his hands. "I thought it was a dream. I hoped it was a dream."

I gag and bunch over. The paper spreads out on the floor. That's Robin's Ice Cream Shoppe missing its windows—and part of its roof. A power line lies on the crappy little dollar store I loved as a kid, spreading its black tentacles over the door. Glass litters the sidewalks. The road's so littered with fallen trees and leaves that it looks like all the forests in Wisconsin vomited on my town.

I'm going to get sick right here.

But I can't for Uncle Cassius's sake.

He faces the door like he wants to run back through it. "It happened so fast. It was storming. I felt lightheaded and fell to the floor. Then I was flying. And then--" He turns. He's got one hand over his face.

"I know what happened next. I came here to get help," I say, standing. I swallow a bad taste down. "I didn't know this happened to you. I thought it was just me. Kyle's website led me back here. The farm where it happened is just a few miles from here. I've got someone who can take me there tomorrow and--"

"I'll take care of this." He faces the door. "I don't want you going anywhere near that farm. Not until I straighten this out with those people. Who knows what else they'll do to you?"

I've never seen my uncle like this. I shrink back and sit on the bed. Tommy remains by my side, blinking like he's trying to focus. "But--" I start.

"I mean it." My uncle's voice softens. His face sags and he looks down, slapping his hand to his forehead. "I don't understand why they did this to us. To you. We both could have killed someone when we...changed. If we don't do something about this now, eventually one of us will."

I breathe out a sigh of relief. No one died in Williams Town.

But I turn the paper over with my foot. It takes the tension in the room down.

Tommy blinks and picks up the paper. "Oh, man," he says. "Downtown is screwed up."

"Tomorrow the two of you should stay here in town," my uncle says. "I'll go and find that farm. I'll know it when I see it. From what I saw on the tour site, it's about four miles away from here. But you figured that out already, didn't you?" He eyes me with another smile. With pride.

So Uncle Cassius figured it out like Tommy and I had.

"You're going into that farm alone?" I ask.

"Yes," he says. "By myself. I'll be fine. You shouldn't have to be the one to deal with this." He smiles—a forced smile, but at least it's a shadow of the Uncle Cassius I'm used to. Then he sits again, hands on his lap. "I'll get something worked out so you don't have to worry about finishing what I started in Williams Town. Though I doubt that you're _that_ upset about the open house, considering whose it was."

"Well, I _was_ really freaked out. I had the reaction any sane person would have."

"Dianna was screaming the whole time," Tommy says. "If there's anything good that came out of this, it's that."

"That makes me feel just a little better."

Tommy nods. "Good."

### Chapter Twelve

Morning comes too soon.

We sleep for a few more hours while Uncle Cassius crashes on the floor with an extra pillow. Once I wake up again, the clock on the wall reads nine-thirty in the morning. Uncle Cassius is in the bathroom and the sound of a running shower floats out.

Once we're all awake and going, I tell Uncle Cassius about the past couple of weeks. The trouble I got in with my parents. The growling in my head. The horrible open house. Then Uncle Cassius takes his turn and tells me about the trouble he got in with my parents, the growling he's been getting in his head every so often, and his own awful transformation the night that I left.

"It must have happened right when I got on the freeway," I say. I glance at the window to see the orange of a new day creeping through the curtains.

"That's when I knew," he said. He looks up. He's getting more and more color back in his face the more he talks. "That's when I figured out that you got this, too. When your parents told me you were gone, I knew you must be headed back here. You were never the person to sit back and let things happen. I told your parents you're with Tommy and that I was going to come and check on you. Don't worry about them."

"Thanks. That takes some stress off. Well, a little stress off."

"I was lucky I checked for you here in town first," Uncle Cassius says. "When I saw Tommy's car out there, I knew I'd found you."

Tommy's car. Duh. Not many people have so many gaming stickers on their bumper. Tommy holds the state record.

"I guess great minds think alike," I say. "You know what? I'm hungry. What are we going to eat?"

Uncle Cassius gets up, leaving a bump in the mattress. "There's a little bakery down the street. I'll get us some doughnuts. Your mother wouldn't approve."

"Okay," I say. A big part of me wishes I was back in my boring house, being lazy for the rest of my summer vacation. My parents would be keeping with family tradition and making a big breakfast like they do every Sunday. I wonder if they're doing that right now. If Dad's cooking, he'll be wearing his ridiculous golf apron that Mom hates. If Mom took her turn this week, she'd be standing there in her pajamas, whipping up the same mini pancakes that she always made me when I was little.

Tommy and I sleep a bit more while Uncle Cassius goes out and brings back a dozen doughnuts. Yeah, not healthy, but they're pretty good.

We eat in silence. Now that the sun's up, we can't put this off anymore. Uncle Cassius will go looking for the people who did this to us.

"Give me a time that you're coming back," I tell him between bites.

"Give me until five this afternoon," he says. He looks up at me and the seriousness comes back to his eyes. They harden from sea blue to dark limestone. "Do not come after me. I mean it, Allie."

"But what if you're not back at five?"

Tommy wipes his face. "You could get in major trouble. And we can't exactly go back home until both of you get cured, you know?"

Uncle Cassius stands up, tossing his napkin down to the bed. "I will be back here at five, Allie. Don't worry. If I don't find the farm today, I'll try again until I do."

He's dodging the bigger question. The scary one. "What if there's no cure?" I ask, shocked at how high my voice sounds. How small. How scared. "What if we're like this for the rest of our lives?"

Uncle Cassius stretches for a long time. "Then we will need to work out how to deal with this. There's no other way." He faces the window. "I'm sorry."

It's not an apology for his words. It's an apology for everything.

"No. I'm sorry." I throw myself down on the bed. I can't look at my uncle right now. "I wanted to go on the trip. I ruined both of our lives!"

My uncle's there, rubbing his hand down my back. "The only people to blame for this are the two at the farm. I mean it, Allie. You're not at fault."

I stare at the darkness of the pillow. "That's easy for you to say. I'm the one who lied to my parents to go." I know I shouldn't blame myself for this. Uncle Cassius has a good point.

But I can't help it.

"It's true," Uncle Cassius says. "No one could have known what was going to happen. Think about that."

He leaves me with those words.

* * * * *

"So you're uncle's a new Outbreaker, too?" Dorian leans back on the swing, mouth gaping open at me. "There's at least three of you, then."

"Four, maybe." I dig my feet into the dust and stop my swing. "They might have got Kyle, too. Our storm chasing guide."

"He sure didn't look like he knows yet on his website," Tommy says. "Wait. That doesn't make sense. Since he's around storms so much, wouldn't he have been the first to find out? I'm sure his next clients got a show."

"His van got destroyed," I tell them. "So he wouldn't be chasing anymore this season, would he?"

"Maybe we should contact him. And say something like 'Hey, you might not want to go near storms for the rest of your life.'" Tommy takes the third swing. "The thing is, he wouldn't believe us."

Dread creeps into my insides. I feel for his next customers.

Dorian stops swinging and kicks the dirt. "I'm still looking for that farm even if your uncle doesn't find it. I'm serious. Even if I have to go by myself." There's so much fight in his words that I'm not going to say anything to hold him back. He's crossed a line. It's impossible for him to stop now.

And I understand one hundred percent.

"So am I." I didn't come out all this way to not face my maker. My maker. The word has a whole new meaning now.

Even though I've known Dorian for a day, there's a tense string linking us both. I look away at the trees surrounding the park, but I'm all too aware of Dorian on the swing next to me, checking me out.

He's close. As close as he was the moment before we merged...

"What time is it?" Tommy asks, cutting into the awkward silence.

I pull out my phone. Turn it on. It's going on four. Uncle Cassius needs to return in an hour. "Late enough for me to start getting worried."

"Like I said, lots of farms." Dorian's tone goes from battle ready to reassuring. "He'll want to check them all before he comes back."

I can't shake the feeling in my gut, like sewer water's rising higher and higher and I'm about to drown. "Highway 54 can't have that many."

"Especially close enough to the road for that woman to take her to the farm and back so fast," Tommy adds. He walks over and stands between me and Dorian, taking the chains of both our swings. "If he's not back in an hour, I say screw it. We go out and look for him."

I agree. More than agree. "I wish he'd taken me along. I hate waiting here."

"That's what happens when your family's overprotective," Dorian says. "Dad's got a huge lecture ready for me when I get home. He hates it when I go out for very long."

"Parents. Gotta love them," I say. "Geez, you're what? Sixteen? Seventeen?"

"Sixteen." He faces the sky and sighs. "It's got to do with something that happened a few years ago in my old town. My parents never got over it."

"You mean the one you mentioned yesterday?" I lean to see around Tommy, who lets go of our swings.

"Yeah. Long story. It's not a threat anymore, though, so I don't see what their problem is."

If there's anything that Outbreakers have to be scared of besides hurting people, I can't think of it. "So what was the--"

My phone rings.

It's Uncle Cassius's number.

"Hello?" The phone's glued to my ear so fast that I have no time to think of what he's about to tell me.

There's a long silence. Uncle Cassius breathes in. My heart races like it's trying to beat his news to the finish line.

"Allie."

"Yes? I'm here. Please say we're not hosed."

Tommy and Dorian draw close, eyes big, ears open, hope drawing out.

"I found the farm. The barn," he says. His words are plain, unreadable. "Don't come out here, Allie. I'll be with you again in a few days. Just sit tight. I left you some money to pay for the room."

"A few days?" I explode. "I need you back here now!"

"It's...complicated," he says. "Trust me, Allie. And if the sky turns dark, get out of town. We _attract_ storms now. It's one thing I've learned about our situation. Don't ever stop checking the weather."

Attract storms. That explains why I've felt like a storm magnet in the past week.

"So can we get cured or not?"

Click.

He's hung up.

I drop the phone. It lands somewhere in the grass.

Tommy's mouth falls open. "What was that about?"

Dorian retrieves the phone and brings it back, slow. He's putting off hearing the news. His mouth's curled down, tight. His free hand tightens into a fist. He keeps his gaze to the ground and hands me the phone. "Here."

"Well, we don't know anything yet," I say, not missing the hope that pulls Dorian's face back up. "He says he'll be gone for a few days. I don't know what to make of it. It's not like him to hang up on me." I take a deep breath, shifting leg to leg and debating. Stay here. Go look for him. Wait. Take action. Uncle Cassius wouldn't do anything to screw me over. Never. He might be right to tell me to wait here.

But I can't.

"Come on," I say. "We've got some daylight left. We're looking for him."

### Chapter Thirteen

Highway 54 is almost barren.

There's nothing but a car or a truck here and there. Weeds wave down in the breeze. The sky goes on forever and high, wispy clouds stretch out like thin spiderwebs. No sign of storms. Even they need some rest. It's the first break I've had in the past two days.

Tommy drives at forty, eyeing every distant barn we pass. They're all new. Metal. Modern and shiny. "Well, we've got to be close to four miles north of town. I'm bad with directions, though."

"Keep going," Dorian says from the backseat. "We'll find it soon." He taps my shoulder. "You remember the tree the van got wrapped around? I'm sure it's still got some marks."

"Good idea," I say. We pass a herd of cows grazing. "I think I remember this. This was when Kyle was pointing out where he'd thought the tornado would come down. He drove another minute or two after this. We're almost there." My heart races. I scan the horizon for crappy barns. Uncle Cassius's car. Any other sign that we're close.

Dorian leans forward so far his face is above the gearshift. His breath's warm against my neck, making my skin tingle in a way I can't describe. "Is that it?"

Tommy slams on the brakes and I look. "Yes! Stop!"

It's the tree, the first one in the line that separate fields. It's complete with gouge marks in its trunk. Kyle's van is gone, long pried away. The tree stands tall, scarred and defiant.

We're almost there.

Tommy brings the car to a stop.

I scramble out of the car. Run to the tree and run my hand down its ravaged trunk. It's smooth where the bark's been ripped away.

That woman can't be far.

I turn, taking in the landscape. "We've got to look around."

Fields ripple with crops. A flimsy fence marks the border between one farm and another. The sun beats in my eyes, orange and low to the horizon. Otherwise, nothing.

"Looks like we have a lot of walking to do," Dorian shouts from down the road.

I face him. He points down a muddy road that separates a couple of ditches. Tire tracks run down its length, going to nowhere.

"How do you know that's the road we need to take?" I ask.

"Because," Dorian says, "these tracks are fresh, and they're not tractor tracks. Believe me, I can tell the difference."

"So you're saying my uncle might've turned down that way."

He nods. I'm not sure I like the expression on his face.

"How do you know he's the one who went there?" My stomach turns.

"Yeah. We can't know for sure," Tommy adds, echoing my thoughts exactly. "Let me see those tire tracks. I might be able to tell what kind of car they came from."

Tommy knows nothing about car tires.

I let him check anyway. It's making him feel more useful, more important. Tommy's got to be the one feeling left out in all of this. That's not how I want him to feel after all he's done for me.

"While you're talking about what kind of car made those tracks, I'm going to walk this way and see if my uncle's on the other end," I say, passing them and stepping over a muddy rut. "There's got to be something this way. I don't see anything else we can check out."

"Coming," Tommy says, huffing as he catches up to me. "As soon as I hide my car. I think I'll park it behind those trees. You know, just in case."

We wait for Tommy to move the car behind the line of trees. It's so well hidden, I can't tell where it is. I keep my face calm, but inside I'm screaming. They might have my uncle tied up or something. Maybe they even forced him to make that phone call so I wouldn't go after him. Not that it worked. "Tommy, you should really go back and wait," I say when he rejoins us.

"Not happening." He walks faster to keep up. Fighting not to get left behind.

Dorian joins us. He takes a stride for every two of mine. "Being an Outbreaker sucks, you know. Bad joke. But yeah, new or old. You don't want it. You might want to go back."

Tommy shrugs. "Not worried."

"Not worried?" I explode. "You're not serious. You saw what happened to me. Twice."

Tommy mutters something and we walk, not making eye contact. The ground bounces with each step, stretching into infinity. Grass waves, green and yellow. My legs itch with the heat of the day.

And then, I spot the first sign of something behind a line of trees.

It's covered in red, peeling paint and choked by tall grass. The roof's caved in like somebody just slammed a giant fist down into it.

It's the barn.

Where they turned me into this.

I stop. Tommy and Dorian do too.

"That's it, isn't it?" Dorian asks.

I nod, feeling exposed on this track.

"I've never been back here," Dorian says. "Doesn't look like anything, to tell you the truth."

"Maybe they picked this place because it's so far back from the road," I say. "I don't even know if anyone's here. We should cut through those trees. Just in case."

"That's what I was thinking," Tommy says. He bites his lip and his gaze darts around. His tough guy act is melting away like an ice castle under a blow dryer.

I'm glad. Tommy wouldn't enjoy a trip to that altar in the barn. No one with sanity would.

We get off the road. Or path. Or whatever it's called. The trees block out the sun, making everything dark. Bugs swirl into my eyes. Branches poke at us. I watch every step I make, avoiding every twig that I can.

The trees clear and the barn stands—or droops—before us.

No one's here. Some bugs make a loud buzzing sound. The door's wide open like an ancient mouth begging for something to eat. From here I can see a sliver of the concrete floor, swept and tidy. It's ready for someone.

"I don't like this," Tommy says.

"You'd better not," I say. If there are any cars, they're parked in the back. "Maybe now's a good time to look around. Uncle Cassius might be here."

Dorian takes the first bold steps into the open. He strides right for the barn, not bothering to look around first. Then he stops and peeks in through the open door. "You're right. Empty." He nods to us. "You might want to come look at this."

I follow, letting out a breath. Tommy joins me.

I stop next to Dorian and look into the place where my life changed for the worse.

The altar's still there. I can't tell if it's a table or slab. It's covered in white cloth that teases the floor and blows in the breeze. The hole in the ceiling casts a circle of light in the middle of it even though the sun's too low in the sky to do that. Shudders run along my skin, trying to escape. This isn't natural. It doesn't feel right.

"Creepy," Tommy says. "So this must be where they worship the tornado gods."

Dorian bites his lip. Pales. "There had better not be any."

"Agreed," I say. "But what else would that force be that slammed into my chest?"

Dorian blinks and looks down. "Don't know. It's weird." He steps into the barn.

A low growl sounds through the air and the breeze rushes in like a chime announcing his presence. It dies a second later and he stiffens, turning to face me.

Dorian waves his hand through the air. "Looks like whatever's in here knows what I am. Anyone else care to come in?" He holds his hand out like a gentleman, nodding at me. "There might be something here that'll give us a clue about where your uncle went."

"Doubtful," Tommy says. Translation: I am not going in there.

But there's nothing left for me to lose. I step into the darkness. Breathe in the musty air and the dust.

The breeze snaps into the barn again, ruffles my hair, and dies. I turn my gaze up to the ceiling. The hole above remains orange in the setting sun. The circle of light stays on the altar, unreal. A swirl of panic rises in me and I look at the ceiling, terrified that force is going to appear and stab down at me again. I suck in a breath when nothing but the ceiling spreads over my head.

I can't freak out now. We have to look around.

"I wish we had more light. Other than that freaky stuff." Dorian nods at the altar and walks away. "Wait—there's something on the walls over here. You might want to check it out."

I do. I squint in the deepening darkness and peer through the dust swirling through the cracks of light.

Orange lines decorate the back wall of the barn. It's spray paint. They're tick marks, some so old that they're peeling. Above it, crude writing in pink spray paint reads TURNED.

"Looks like they've been keeping track of their victims," Dorian says. "What else could this be? I don't think it's wins from a card game."

I reach out. Run my hand down the splintering planks, counting the tick marks in groups of five. Twenty.

Plus three fresh orange lines at the bottom.

For me, Uncle Cassius, and Kyle.

"Yeah. That's what this is," I say, backing away. I feel like ants are crawling all over my skin. "Looks like I'm New Outbreaker number twenty-three."

"What do you see in there?" Tommy asks.

"We'll tell you when we come out," I say. "It's not pretty."

"There's more over here," Dorian says, waving me over. "This wall's worse."

I turn.

More orange tick marks line this wall, some crossed off with pink, but far more left untouched. There's a lot more here. A hundred. Maybe more.

And above it, two words read: TO GO.

It's their hit list.

My stomach turns.

These freaks won't stop until they've turned that many people.

"Guys," Tommy shouts in his best _we're in trouble_ voice. "Get out here. I hear a car."

I suck in a breath. Run outside. Tommy's backing away to hide behind the barn. We join him. The sound of an engine grows louder. Tires bump across dirt. Somebody's coming up the dirt road.

"Crap." I squash myself against the barn. There's nowhere to run. There's no old farmhouse. No other buildings out here. The trees are too far away to get to in time. They'll see us if we go for them.

"Can't tell who it is." Dorian peeks through a crack in the wall. He's close. He smells like spring and summer. My skin heats with something that has nothing to do with the sun on my back.

The crunching of gravel gets so loud I'm sure the car's going to roll back here. Then, it stops and the engine goes dead. Whoever's here must be parked in front of the barn, in sight of the entrance.

Doors open and close. Feet hit the ground. Someone scrapes theirs and gives a muffled shout. It's a man.

I have to look. I nudge Dorian out of the way and press my eye against the crack.

The woman walks in, dressed today in an orange summer dress. There's a bandanna tied around her face like she's some sort of bandit and she's wearing an ugly baseball cap. She and the bearded, older guy (who's also hidden behind a bandanna) clutch the arms of a blindfolded, gagged man in a plaid shirt and dusty jeans. A farmer. It looks like they've kidnapped him right out of his field.

The woman and the bearded man stop. The farmer leans over, trying to stall, perhaps trying to see through the blindfold. He's silent. Reviewing his life, maybe.

A third figure walks into the barn behind them and stops. It's another man in a ski mask and jacket who stays in the darkness. Then a fourth man enters, face bare.

I bite my lip to keep in some bad words.

It's Kyle. Our tour guide.

"Honey," he says to the woman. "I've been gone for two days, and now you're changing the whole plan? Why didn't you tell me about this? He's not even a storm chaser. It's hard enough for _them_ to take this. What's this going to do to everyone else?"

The woman turns to face him, keeping hold of her latest victim. "What choice do we have? We're running out of time. You haven't brought in enough people. Only two during your last chase."

"Three, Madeline." Kyle pounds his chest with his fist. "Do you think I'd offer to get turned myself if I didn't think we were falling behind? I don't know how I'm going to run my business now." He sighs and shakes his head. "We'd better find another chaser to bring them in. I won't be able to get near a storm now without transforming and killing my customers. It'll be years before I gain the control that you have."

I fill with ice.

Kyle's the roper for these freaks.

He put us in front of that tornado on purpose.

Madeline shakes her head. "Another chaser isn't going to keep up fast enough. I want this to be over." She looks at the captive nods to the bearded guy. "Set him down, Dad."

"No." Kyle rushes in front of the farmer and sits on the altar, blocking the way. "Let me find another chase company. A few, even. We can threaten to turn them if they don't bring us people. Sweetie, listen to me. I know you're scared, but it's better to stick with people who like severe weather. It's more humane."

"We won't be able to turn people fast enough that way!" Madeline shouts so loud it might make the barn come down. "If we fall behind even a little...I don't want to think about it. This needs to end. Evansburg has at least a hundred and twelve human people in it. They'll have to work. Whether or not they like storms isn't important anymore. We can't discriminate. If this experiment works tonight, I can send the Deathwind into town. I know where everyone lives. We won't have to kidnap anyone else. And if we have to, we can explain it all to the old Outbreakers and they might even help us. About fifty of them live in the country around here."

The Deathwind. It's a name that sends shudders through my being.

The captive tries to say something through his gag again. He pulls against Madeline and her father, but it's no use. Even the guy in the ski mask stiffens.

Kyle eyes the ceiling and glares back at Madeline. "Send it into _town?_ " He stares at the opposite wall. "I don't think the old Outbreakers will want a part of this. We should keep it quiet from them."

Madeline keeps her gaze steeled against his. "If this _works._ Maybe the Deathwind can turn people in their own homes. I grew up in Evansburg. Everybody knows everybody here. As long as I know where someone is, I think I can send the Deathwind after them. I know exactly where everyone lives and where they sleep. The middle of the night would be best. They'll all just think it was a bad dream in the morning. Most of Evansburg will be back from the state fair by Friday. That's when it'll have to strike."

I swallow. My heart's on a runaway course.

She's going to turn everyone in Evansburg. Everyone who's not already an Outbreaker. Every man. Every woman. Every child.

Kyle screws up his face. Sighs. "Okay. We might as well try. I for one can't wait for this to end." He stands up from the altar. "Set him down."

I can't move. Fear paralyzes me. I'm ice. Panic. I don't want to see the Deathwind again.

Tommy reaches around me and pulls me close. Heat fills me enough to let me breathe, even though I can feel him shaking right along with me.

Madeline and her father force the captive down on the altar. She holds his arms. He keeps his legs down. The man thrashes and screams, growing weaker in his losing battle. He sounds like a tortured animal. The sounds tear into me and burrow, where they're sure to pop back out the moment I go to sleep again.

"The blindfold." Madeline nods to the guy in the ski mask.

Ski Mask obeys, steps forward, and tears it off, leaving the farmer no shield from what's about to happen to him.

Dorian shoves his way to my peephole and we share it. Our faces touch. I'm left a sliver to look through, but it's enough.

The ceiling's gone and storm clouds spin in its place. They form a cone pointing down at the farmer's heart. He thumps up and down, trying to escape, his muffled screams from behind his gag whipping away into the roar.

The Deathwind.

"Now," Madeline orders.

She and her father let go.

I jump. The farmer rolls off the altar, scrambles to his feet, and bolts from the barn. Dorian backs up and crashes into me, but I slap my hand on the planks and stay up. Tommy leans over, getting a better look. I join him.

The farmer runs out of the barn. Past us, huffing for the weeds on the other side of the dirt path. Tommy grabs my arm and pulls me down so we're crouching in the grass. The farmer doesn't see us. He tears at his gag, tossing it to the ground and plows into the overgrowth.

Madeline shouts, "After him!"

The storm silences inside the barn.

A second later, dark clouds explode above the farmer's head, swirling and hungry. The roar rolls across the field at us, warning everyone to stay away from its prey.

"What the—" Tommy starts.

The funnel slams down. The man falls. Screams. The Deathwind spins harder, driving down into the field where he's lying. Drilling. Descending. Draining into him.

Turning him.

It happens so fast.

I blink and the storm clouds are gone. Grass waves back and forth in the fading light as if nothing's happened.

A low groan sounds from the weeds.

They've claimed another victim.

"It...it worked," Kyle says from inside the barn. "M...mark another line on the wall, will you? At the bottom there."

Someone—probably Ski Mask—shakes a spray can and goes to work. It hisses. Number Twenty-Four.

Oh, god. I exchange a look of horror with Tommy and Dorian.

The Deathwind isn't trapped in the barn after all. Evansburg is hosed.

"Let's go. We'll take him back home before he wakes up. He'll just think it was a nightmare." Madeline's voice is relief. "This is what we'll have to do. I'll give the orders tonight. I know where everyone will be on Friday night. Then it'll be all over."

Feet scrape against concrete and the four of them exit the barn.

I hold my breath. We're standing at the side of the barn, with no time to run around and hide. They're going to turn towards the farmer and walk right past us, and then--

Too late.

Kyle appears first. He freezes and his gaze lands on me. Shifts to Dorian and Tommy. He swallows and looks away like he's trying to think fast. But then the rest of them come around the side of the barn, Madeline smacking right into him. "What?"

She turns. So does her father and the guy in the ski mask. Madeline's eyes narrow behind the bandanna.

My mind goes blank. I leap in front of Tommy. Dorian does the same. The two of us have nothing to lose. We're already doomed.

But Tommy isn't...yet.

"What are you kids doing here?" Kyle asks. The horror of his discovery's right on his face. "Allie...did you drive all the way from--"

"You _ruined my life!"_ My lungs burn. I'm shaking. Out of control. I hate Kyle and Madeline both. "Why did you do this to me? To my uncle? Why?"

Kyle holds up a hand. "Whoa. If you'd just--"

"Wait," Madeline says. She peers around me. To Dorian. "This boy's an old Outbreaker, but the one behind them...he's human."

Tommy curses.

Kyle blinks. His mouth falls open. The guy in the ski mask shifts leg to leg. Madeline's father waits there like he's not sure what to do.

Madeline stares us down, expressionless. She closes her eyes. Mutters something.

Dorian and I turn to Tommy. He's the color of overcooked pasta.

I shove him back. _"Run!"_

He does, pounding his feet and pumping his arms.

I bolt after him. Dorian stays on my heels. Tommy darts for the open field, then turns for the woods. Cover. He might be safe from the--

A low whooshing sound fills the air. Darkness spreads over Tommy's head like someone's pouring smoke into the air above him. It keeps pace. Swirls. Prepares to strike. He looks up. Screams. Ducks his head and covers it with his arms.

"Crap. He won't make it," Dorian puffs.

He's right. I know what I have to do.

"Tommy!" I shout, sucking down gulps of air. "Stop! Get down!"

He skids, diving to the ground. The funnel forms and descends.

I dive for Tommy. Land on top of him. I pin him down, driving his face into the dirt, ignoring the roar all around me. "Dorian!"

He crashes into the pile and we form a shell over Tommy. Tommy shouts something into the dirt. A plea. A curse. I can't tell in the noise. I crane my neck. The funnel lingers over us, trying to find an opening to spear its victim.

"Go away!" I shout. But my words blast away. I have no control over this force. Not like Madeline. I tighten my grip on Tommy. Wrap my other arm around Dorian. The funnel drops lower, picking at my clothes, spinning harder in frustration. It won't get Tommy. I won't let it.

"Stop! Madeline, call it back! Just this once."

The voice booms across the yard, loud and commanding.

It's the man in the ski mask. Madeline runs behind him, skirt flapping. She shouts something that's lost in the wind and the funnel breaks apart.

The air's clear. Quiet.

But inside me, a cry rises up.

The man in the ski mask freezes feet away.

Madeline stops next to him. "You said your niece wasn't supposed to come out here."

The cry explodes out of me and I sit up with the shock.

The man pulls off his ski mask.

It's Uncle Cassius.

"Sorry," he says, shoulders sagging with defeat. "I should have known."

### Chapter Fourteen

The three of us scramble to our feet. My knees quake. Threaten to go out from under me.

My uncle's joined Madeline.

He's helping to turn all of Evansburg.

My mouth falls open. Words refuse to form. I gag on syllables. Choke on vowels.

"A...Allie," he manages. He pleads with his eyes, with his shaking arms.

I grab Tommy's arm, turn, and run.

"Allie!" Uncle Cassius calls after me. And then, to someone else: "Give me the van keys!"

Grass slaps at me. Tommy pants and keeps pace, glancing behind him. Dorian does the same. I pump my arms. I won't look back. I can't look back. My sides threaten to explode. My legs burn.

Behind us, a car starts. Doors slam. They're coming after us.

Dorian jabs me in the arm. "We can't run for the road. They'll wait for us there."

He's right. We stop in the tall grass. The tree line where Tommy's car is hidden is up ahead. We can't lead Madeline to it, or we're not getting out of here. And if we can't escape, she could still turn Tommy no matter what Uncle Cassius says. It's a thought I can't stand.

I suck in a breath. "We've got to lead them in the wrong direction. Tommy, hide. Madeline can't turn you if she doesn't know where you are."

"But—"

We've got seconds before they round the curve and see us. There's only one option. "Get down!"

I push him down into the tall grass, which swallows him. It'll have to work. He stays down, hugging the ground. They won't be able to see him from the road.

Dorian waves towards the trees. "This way."

We run back the way we came, then turn towards the clump of trees behind it. We're heading in the opposite direction of the car. My chest heaves. We've got to lead them as far from Tommy as we can.

Their car—a maroon van—rounds the curve and honks at us just as we reach the tree line. Doors open again. Uncle Cassius calls for me. His voice echoes over the field behind me and fades.

"Kids!" Kyle calls. "We're not going to hurt you."

"Don't believe them," Dorian says. He grabs my hand and pulls me deeper into the trees. Someone crashes through underbrush behind us. My legs burn. Branches slap at my face.

"Allie! I'm sorry!" Uncle Cassius calls. He's after us, too.

I glance back. I can see three figures struggling through the underbrush after us. They're not going anywhere near Tommy. It's working. Even if they catch us, Tommy can go for his car and escape.

"Crap," Dorian puffs.

We stop. We've reached the end of the trees. There's an enormous ditch in front of us, big enough to swallow an elephant. Beyond it lies an open field that I can't see the end of.

"Fan out!" Madeline orders behind us.

Underbrush crashes to our left. I look at Dorian and nod. We've got no choice but to head towards the road.

We run along the ditch now, closer to where Tommy's car waits. We're not going to get out of here.

The trees open up, and the trail snakes towards us. We're back where we started. And worse, the maroon van's gunning its way right at us.

Dorian and I stop. My heart sinks. We're cornered. "It was worth a try," I huff.

The van stops and the door flies open.

It's Tommy at the wheel. Tommy!

"Get in!" he yells.

Dorian and I scramble into the van just when Kyle and Uncle Cassius burst out of the trees. I slam the door. Kyle pounds his fist on it right when Tommy guns it again, leaving him behind.

I sit there, holding the door closed and sucking down lungfuls of air. "Tommy...how?"

"They all ran in the woods after you," he says, gripping the steering wheel so tight it might break. "They must have thought I was with you, because they left the keys in the ignition."

Dorian slaps him on the arm. "Nice, man! Now they can't follow us out of here. I didn't see any other cars out there."

Tommy grins. "Hey, all those hours I've logged with Grand Theft Auto came in handy."

I can't share his enthusiasm. "Keep going, Tommy. If Madeline knows you're at the wheel—"

We roll over a huge bump and I bounce in my seat. We're at the road now and Madeline and her henchmen are way behind us. So is that poor farmer guy lying unconscious in the weeds. There's nothing we can do for him.

And so is...

Tommy stops and opens the door. A lone pickup truck speeds by.

"Leave the van, but take the keys," Dorian says. "We don't want them calling the cops on us."

"Like they're going to do that after they kidnapped a guy?" Tommy argues. But he yanks the keys out of the ignition and jumps to the ground. Dorian and I follow.

Tommy's car is still hidden in the tree line. I climb into the back, curl up, and bury my face in my arms.

Let tears stream out like a baby.

Tommy fumbles with his keys and turns on the engine. Dorian climbs in next to me. I taste salt but hold in the sobs. Pain tightens in my chest. It's an agony far worse than my past two transformations.

* * * * *

"I'm sorry."

Dorian's words drag out, slow and heavy in the car. Tommy kills the engine.

I look up and blink away the blur that's my private world. The windows of Betsy's Kitchen come into focus. Tommy's driven us back to town. I hiccup and breathe out, trying to ease the pain in my chest. "I don't understand."

Dorian leans forward and rubs his knees. "I don't, either. None of it makes sense. I don't know your uncle, but I don't get why he'd do that if he's just as upset about being turned as you are. Unless they're forcing him." He digs around the messy backseat. "Need a napkin? It's the closest thing we have to tissues."

"Thanks."

Forcing him. Those two words are my life raft and I cling on. But the sea gets rough and throws me off. Uncle Cassius walked into that barn out of his own free will. He made no effort to free the man on the altar. He even watched the Deathwind claim another victim.

But he helped save Tommy.

The thought helps me grab on again, tighter this time. I swallow. "Tommy, are you—"

He turns so fast that I jump. His eyes are big. Tremors race up and down his hands. He grips the seat like the Deathwind's behind him, trying to pull him away. "I'm not an Outbreaker, am I?" He looks between the two of us. "Please say that I'm not. Because I swear if I am, I'm going to go back there and—"

"You're not," I tell him. "You'd know if it got you. For one thing, you would have blacked out."

He plops back down in his seat and searches up and down the street. "But what if they come this way? They'll still try to turn me into one. If that thing or whatever can appear anywhere—"

"It won't happen in public," I say. I have to keep talking to distract my thoughts. "They want to keep it quiet. If people see some weird tornado force flying around town, they'll leave. And it sounds like Madeline has to know where you are to send it at you."

"Good point." The relief in Tommy's voice gushes out.

"We need to tell someone." Dorian shoves open the door. "My aunt. Now."

He's right. It's Tuesday. They'll strike on Friday. Or earlier, now that they know their secret's blown.

Uncle Cassius could tell them that I won't keep my mouth shut about this. If he _is_ siding with them.

It's complicated.

I climb out of the car.

There's no time to lose.

Inside the restaurant, Betsy's pouring some water for a couple talking over finished bowls of soup. There's no one else here. She meets our gazes and starts to smile. But she must read the expressions on our faces, because it drops off.

Dorian waves her over. He leans close. "Close up early. It's an emergency."

Betsy's brown-and-black eyes widen. She rushes to the door as if rehearsing a drill and flips the sign to _Closed._ Her gaze searches us for any clues. "It's not...what happened in Mobley, is it?"

Mobley. That must be their old town.

"No." Dorian waves us all into a huddle. He speaks low. "It's not the Outbreakers in danger this time."

The couple wipes their faces on the other side of the room. The guy drops a few bills on the table. Chairs scrape and they go for the door. "Good night," he says, flashing us a smile.

He has hazel eyes. He's either human or a new Outbreaker. Probably human. In three days, these people could wake up with storm clouds swirling over their bed. I shudder.

Uncle Cassius would know what to say right now.

Uncle Cassius—

Betsy glances at me. "You're what Dorian calls the new Outbreaker, right?" Her tone drips with suspicion. "Does this have to do with you?"

"No," I snap, pulling up my chair. "I got dragged into this. I'm what's going to happen to everybody in this town who's human if we don't find a way to stop Madeline and...and her group of followers."

Uncle Cassius has joined them.

Betsy stares at me like a rabbit caught in the watch of a predator.

"Yeah," I say, taking a breath. "Tommy here would be like me, too, if we hadn't jumped on top of him. That force Dorian must have told you about can come out of that barn. Madeline—that's the woman who's in charge of it--wants to turn a hundred and twelve more people, and fast. That's all of town. It'll happen Friday night when they're back from the fair. So if we don't want everyone in town to get a crash course in Destruction 101, we had better come up with something."

Betsy grabs the back of a chair. Shakes. "You're not joking?"

"Nope."

Tommy clears his throat. "If you want, me and Dorian can, you know, confirm the whole story. Take us into different rooms, and we'll all tell you the same thing."

Betsy lets go of the chair. She turns and searches every dark corner of the restaurant. Something hums from back in the kitchen. She swallows. "I'm calling a meeting. Then you, Allie, are going to tell them everything."

* * * * *

We wait forever in a booth in Betsy's Kitchen. Betsy does let us dig into some bread sticks while we wait, which are also amazing like the burgers. Dorian's aunt vanishes into the kitchen and starts making phone calls. She apologizes a lot. Tells somebody she doesn't care if they miss _Dancing With The Stars._ Tells someone else that this can't wait until morning.

She sighs, tossing her apron somewhere behind the counter, and sits at the table beside us. "I got most of the Outbreaker families in the county coming. Of course, there are a few who don't care what happens to the human residents here." She glares out into the night. "They're the ones that should have stayed in Mobley."

"What happened in--" I start.

"Agreed," Dorian says. "The Curts are real jerks." He faces me and Tommy. "Not all Outbreakers try to avoid hurting people. You can probably tell that by the news every spring. There are some, that, well..."

I hold up a hand. "I get it." An awful taste rises up in my mouth. I picture some town leveled, with only slabs where houses once stood and trees missing their bark. "God, to think that some of that stuff was done on _purpose..."_

"Sometimes it's an accident, too," Dorian says. "Younger Outbreakers can't control things as well. Same for newly turned ones." Shadows grow long on his face. "That's worse in a way."

"Way worse." I debate whether I should stretch my legs and go outside.

"It was only a barn," Betsy tells us. "That's nothing to get too upset over."

Dorian forces a grin. "I suppose we can always blame each other. Since we, you know, merged and all."

"We could."

Tommy stands. "While you guys are talking about what it's like to be a walking disaster, I need to hit the bathroom."

He's gone from the booth pretty fast.

Too fast.

Dorian points at the empty space with his thumb. "So I have competition?"

Oh.

Dorian's joking, of course. Isn't he?

I force a laugh and stare at the closed bathroom door. Tommy sure isn't.

I'm silent for a while, poking at the ice in my glass of water. Tommy takes forever to come back. "You okay?" I ask.

"Yeah." He eyes his own glass like he's trying to find answers in the water.

I feel Dorian's gaze on me. It shifts from Tommy and back to me, over and over and over. Then another thought hits me. "I'm not looking forward to public speaking."

"We'll help you," Dorian says. He looks at Tommy. "Won't we?"

"Sure," he says.

They start arriving five minutes later.

First, an old couple stare at me and Tommy with their brown eyes. The black flecks in them deepen until Betsy tells them that we're safe. Then a woman and a couple of older kids come in. One of the boys has his shirt on backwards like his mother pulled him out of bed and made him dress in a hurry. She parks them in the corner and gives them an iPad to play with while she takes a seat near the window.

With each person that comes in, my pulse rate goes up a little more. My mouth dries, but my stomach's too upset for me to risk drinking the water.

At ten to eleven, every seat in the restaurant's filled and the curtains are pulled tight. Every pair of eyes is brown flecked with black. Tommy shrinks back in his booth. I join him in trying to hide. We're the only two in here who aren't old Outbreakers. Tommy has it worse than me. He's the only human.

Dorian's parents are the last in. They squash up against the wall. Dorian's father gives him a look that says he's going to be in trouble when the meeting's over.

Betsy calls silence. It's clear that she's the one with authority here.

"It's almost eleven," a woman in the back complains. She puffs up, trying to sound irritated, but I can hear the shaking in her voice. They know this is serious.

"I don't care how late it is," Betsy says. "Listen."

I can feel every gaze on me as I tell my story. Even the kids in the corner lean over their booth, trying to catch every word. I stutter a lot and cough. The heat that blasts across my face convinces me that it's doing a disco show of colors. The only good part is that Betsy lets me sit while I tell it. If I had to stand up, I'd die.

The only thing worse than describing my first transformation is talking about the second one. Thankfully, Dorian helps me with that part even though it must be tough for him, too. At least I'm talking to Outbreakers. It's nothing bizarre to them.

I leave out Uncle Cassius. That's one part I can't bear.

I really, really wish he had never gone out to that barn.

Tommy takes over at the end and tells about the return to the barn and the force that's going to strike on Friday.

Our story ends with an explosion of questions. The whole restaurant fills with noise. Chairs scrape. Hands slap down on tables.

"Quiet!" Betsy stands in front of us. She's Judge Judy in a dress. I half-expect her to produce a gavel and bang it on the table in front of her. "If you want someone else to confirm this story, ask my sister and her husband over here. They witnessed Allie's second transformation, and I for one believe her. Remember, we've all learned that nothing is impossible."

The place calms down into grumbles and mutters.

"Good," she says. "Now, we don't have time to argue about whether this girl has told us the truth or not. We need to discuss what to do about Madeline and her group. If I remember right, she and her father live ten miles out of town, right?"

"I think so," someone says, a man near the counter with dirt under his fingernails. "I always thought she and her family were human. They've been here for generations."

"Madeline will probably still give the orders to the Deathwind to attack on Friday night," Betsy says. "She grew up here, from what I understand, so she'll know exactly how to go after everyone. Even if we do manage to capture her and her followers, we probably won't stop it. Still, we need a party to go out to their property tonight and bring them back to town. I'll take volunteers now."

I stiffen.

Uncle Cassius. He'll be one of the ones they bring back.

And then what?

I fight the urge to stand and say something. Tommy shoots me a warning look. So does Dorian. On the other side of Betsy, several men and one woman raise their hands.

"Good," Betsy says. "Remember. The Deathwind won't go after regular Outbreakers. My nephew just tested that theory this afternoon."

"Maybe we can make Madeline call it back," Dorian says. "We can keep them in the jail or something until they do. You know, until we hear the whole story."

"We're not entirely sure what we're dealing with," Dorian's mother says. "If this is true, I don't think I want Madeline here in town. Sure, the bars at the jail might be reinforced, but that can't stop her from transforming at the next storm, breaking out, and hurting our human neighbors. These new Outbreakers _attract_ bad weather." She shoots me a quick, apologetic glance. "They're saying we could have more storms on Thursday."

Note to self: check the weather constantly on Thursday.

"It's still better we take care of her instead of let her loose out in the world," another guy says. He stands and waves the volunteers towards him. "Let's go get them. Now."

* * * * *

If I was sick before, I really am now.

The restaurant's full of quiet conversation now. Bodies shift. The kids in the corner give up and fall asleep. We wait. The minute hand crawls past midnight. Inches towards one in the morning. The volunteers must have gotten out to Madeline's property by now. Any minute, they'll bring her back.

All I can think of is Uncle Cassius.

I don't know what they're going to do to him.

If he _is_ working for Madeline now...

One-thirty. What's taking them so long? Ten miles isn't that far away. What if things turned violent?

I don't know if I can face Uncle Cassius again.

I lean against the booth. Tommy's already asleep from exhaustion. Dorian pats me on the back. I nod in gratitude, close my eyes--

\--and jar awake to the sound of the door chimes going off.

I blink away the pain of the light and sit up.

It's the search party crowding in through the door. Empty-handed.

Betsy weaves through the tables and faces them head-on. "Anything?"

The leader speaks. "Madeline and her family left their home. Their cars are all gone and the house is empty. We even broke in. There's clothes everywhere like they packed in a hurry. We searched the old barn the kids mentioned, too. We found the altar, but no one was there."

"No storm clouds? No creepy breeze when you guys walked in?" I ask, shocked that I opened my mouth.

The man faces me. "Nothing. It seems like you're right that this Deathwind has left it."

Mutters pop up through the room. My pulse races to catch up with them.

Madeline's gone.

Uncle Cassius is gone.

They've left that force lingering over town, waiting to strike, and we have no way to stop it.

Betsy returns to our booth and nods to us. "You kids should go and get some sleep," she orders. "We have a lot of deliberating to do as to how we're going to protect Evansburg from this."

"But—" Dorian starts.

Betsy shakes her head. Her skin takes on a gray, sick shade. "Let the adults make this decision. You three go back to Dorian's house and get to bed. You'll learn what the plan is in the morning." She looks at the growing chaos behind her. "If we have one by then."

### Chapter Fifteen

Dorian's mother drives the three of us to their house.

I barely remember the ride back out of town, only that we go down Highway 54 and make a couple of turns down some dirt roads. Or getting out of the car, going through the door, and crashing on the couch. Tommy collapses on an air mattress that Dorian pumps up. Dorian's mother shuffles around in the kitchen for a few minutes, turns off the light, and goes right back out the door.

I fall into a pit of oblivion seconds later.

I'm too exhausted to dream. Too tired to care. Too wiped to move.

I'm so out that when I emerge from my hibernation, I have no idea where I am.

Sunlight pours in through the window, forming a square on the wall. Tommy snores on the floor, half-off an air mattress that's deflating. He's still wearing his shoes.

Dorian's house. Of course.

I sit up and get my first real look at the inside of an Outbreaker house. It's...clean. There are vacuum tracks near the TV. Tons of movies are pretty much sorted by genre in a glass cabinet. I read the spines. I can't help but snort when I spot the _Wizard of Oz._

Then I remember.

There's nothing to laugh about right now.

I'm still a new Outbreaker, my uncle's switched sides, and I have no idea how the old Outbreakers are going to stop that force from turning everyone in Evansburg.

God.

I get up and go find the bathroom, then come back to the living room. A mantel clock ticks over a fireplace that's never been used. It's almost noon. If Dorian's still here, he's crashed and out in his room.

I really, really wish I was back at Betsy's Kitchen. The meeting might still be going on. That's bad. Really bad. If the old Outbreakers can't figure out what to do, then everyone in Evansburg—

There's a yearbook on the mantel. It's a cheap paper one sticking out from between a couple of high school hardcover ones. Dorian's.

And the only letter visible on the cover is an M.

I do a check to make sure nobody's watching me. Tommy lets out a snore. The clock keeps ticking away. I step over the corner of the crappy air mattress and pull out the yearbook.

Bingo.

_Mobley Middle School. Mobley, Oklahoma._ From three years ago.

I flip it open. Scribbles from Dorian's old friends decorate the inside cover. He's an awesome friend. Had a great year. Can't wait to go hiking this summer. If I didn't know better, I'd guess these were normal kids, not a whole school of old Outbreakers.

I do a quick flip of the pages. Photos stare out at me, of kids that look like anyone you'd see walking down the street. The pictures are all black and white, but I know what I'd see if they were in color. Brown eyes, all flecked with black spots.

Some of the pictures have seen an eraser. There's a few on each page that Dorian's taken almost off completely. A girl smiles out at me from a curtain of shiny white on one page. She's so faded that I have to look close to tell it's even a girl. And Dorian's written one word in ink across each erased photo.

Released.

I read it again, making sure I've got it right. That's not something I'd write over an enemy's picture. Usually I draw huge witch noses or zits across Dianna's face every year, but not the word _released._

"Oh. You found _that_ yearbook."

I jump. Dorian's standing there in the doorway to the living room. Thankfully, there's no trace of anger on his face. He steps into the room, bare feet slapping against the floor. "You've got questions. I can tell. So, shoot."

I glance at Tommy. He's still asleep. I should probably wake him.

Dorian sits on the couch and pats the cushion next to him. "Sit down. This is like the first time in forever my parents have left me alone in the house. They can't tell me to shut up about Mobley until they get back." He looks at the clock. "Must be a long meeting they're having."

The face heat returns. I can't sit that close to Dorian—can I? A big part of me wants to, but Tommy's lying feet away. He drove me here. Got himself in major trouble with his parents. If he wakes up and sees me and Dorian sitting inches apart on the couch, or closer—

I can't deal with this without Tommy.

He's my best friend. Maybe more. The only thing I have left of my old life.

"Sure." I take a seat but keep some distance between us. A foot of couch space will be enough to keep Tommy from deflating when he wakes up. I think. But god, why do I want to sit closer to Dorian so bad? "So, does the word 'released' have to do with what happened in Mobley?"

"Everything." Dorian leans back and stares at the ceiling. "Mobley was supposed to be an all-Outbreaker town a few years ago. It was so we could have a place to go where we wouldn't hurt people during our Outbreaks since, you know, it was out in the middle of nowhere. And I did mention how Outbreakers can't hurt each other or wreck each other's property, right?" I nod. "There was this mayor trying to bring it all together. My family moved there a year before it all went down the toilet."

"So what pulled down on the flusher?" I ask.

"The mayor's girlfriend. No, not Madeline. I can tell that's what you're thinking." Dorian faces me. "I saw the mayor's girlfriend. Some blond woman I forgot the name of. But anyway, she found some way to turn into a storm goddess."

I sit up like someone's tasered me. "A storm goddess? Oh, you're not joking."

Dorian shakes his head. He's serious. "Yeah. A real storm goddess. I don't know how she did it. Only a few people do. But the story is that she didn't like that Outbreakers were walking around in human form. She thought the humans would discover us one day and kill us. So she wanted to 'protect' us." Dorian flexes his fingers at _protect_. "Her great idea was to rip all the Outbreakers out of their bodies. When she touched them, their bodies vaporized and they flew up into the atmosphere. I didn't see it happen, but my parents told me about it later. They didn't see it either, for the record."

I try to imagine some crazy woman clamping her hand down on someone's shoulder and watching the victim fly away as particles. It reminds me of the open house. My own arm blasting away. "And then what?"

"The mayor evacuated the town. But some people didn't get out in time." He looks down at the yearbook I'm still holding.

It feels heavy in my grip, like each page has turned to a concrete slab. Dorian must have erased the unlucky ones. The ones that didn't make it away from the goddess. I drop it onto my lap. "Oh, man, Dorian. I'm so sorry."

"You don't have to be." He shrugs and leans back again, but the hurt weighs down on his shoulders. He can't hide it all. "That goddess is gone now, by the way. Someone lured her down south into some weird underworld. That's another story I don't know most of. But all the Outbreakers that got released...they never came back, either." He blinks a bunch of times and lifts his head. "Wait. Oh, man. Do you think—"

My mind jolts to life. "—that the Deathwind is those released Outbreakers? Or their energy or whatever?" I stand up, letting the yearbook fall to the floor. "How many did you guys lose? About a hundred and forty? I bet the number matches how many victims Madeline wants."

Dorian stands up to join me. "That sounds about right, actually. Allie, I think we might be on to something."

"I guessed the exact same thing when you were telling her about the goddess ripping the Outbreakers out of their bodies," Tommy says from the floor.

I turn. He rolls over, the sleep gone from his eyes.

"Hey. Morning," I say. Heat rises to my cheeks. Tommy's looking at the space between me and Dorian. "How long have you been awake?"

"A little while."

"That's good. I guess we don't have to explain what we just came up with. I'm glad we figured it all out together."

Tommy sits up. "But," he says with the lift of a finger, "we still have no clue how we're going to stop the Deathwind. If it's even what we think it is."

"You got any ideas?" Dorian asks. He picks up his yearbook. With gentle care, I notice. He slips it back between his two high school ones on the mantel. "I sure don't."

The three of us stand in silence, facing each other. The clock keeps ticking.

The crunch of gravel announces the arrival of a car in the driveway.

And then another.

Dorian's parents, plus someone else.

We stampede to the front window in the kitchen. A pair of cars, the blue one and a black SUV, roll up towards the house from the distant road.

"Who's that?" I ask, pointing.

Dorian squints. "I don't know. I mean, I've seen that vehicle in town, but I can't remember who owns it."

They both park and Dorian's parents march for the door. His mother's face has taken on a sick color I can't describe. She glances at us and away again. His father keeps his gaze on the field of corn. He's rushing for the door.

Then, the doors to the SUV open and the volunteers of last night's search party pour out. I recognize the guy who announced that Madeline had left. He wipes off his jeans and starts talking to Betsy. Neither of them look happy.

"They must be here to talk to me," I supply. A nervous rumble sounds in my stomach. "I'm the only new Outbreaker here. Maybe they're—"

The lock jiggles and Dorian's parents hurry into the house. His father locks the door behind them and tests it.

"You're all up. Good. Did you sleep OK?" his mother asks. Her voice is high. Tense. Ready to snap.

"What's up?" Dorian asks in a get-to-the-point tone. "What did you decide?"

Dorian's father stands in the doorway. "We debated all night about how to protect our neighbors. It was ugly. It took us hours and hours to reach a decision, and it's one I don't agree with. Not in the way that they want to make it happen, anyway." He breathes out slow. "I couldn't make them take it back, but I promise that your mother, your aunt and I will keep fighting it."

Dorian's mouth curls down into a frown. "Fight what? What are you talking about?"

His father swallows. "The other Outbreakers just voted to destroy Evansburg. And they want you and Allie to be the ones to do it."

### Chapter Sixteen

My guts shrivel inside me and I cough.

" _Destroy_ Evansburg?" Dorian explodes. "Me? Allie? Why us?"

The door opens so fast that the lock snaps. The lead volunteer walks in. Two other men come in behind him. Betsy storms her way in too, but they block her way, leaving her squeezed up against the door frame. Even her voice won't get her through now.

I'm frozen, a character caught in a bad horror B-movie. The three men stop, blocking the one way out of the kitchen. Even if I could move, there's nowhere to run.

Dorian looks at me. So does Tommy. Their faces are wide with horror.

"Allie, Dorian," the head volunteer says. "We want you to know that we didn't come to this decision lightly. We hate to burden the two of you with this."

"Then why don't you take it back, Jeff?" Betsy hollers from the back. "Let any of us go in their places. My nephew is not going to have this hovering over him for the rest of his life."

Jeff turns away from her. "Nobody _can_ go in their places. We went over this. It's the only way." He turns back to Dorian and me. "I'm sorry."

"Look, man," Dorian says. "I'm not doing anything to Evansburg. You can forget it. And by the way, what a great thing to do for our neighbors. What are you _thinking?"_

Jeff shakes his head. "Destroying the entire town is the only thing that will keep our human neighbors away from here long enough for Madeline to call the Deathwind back. We considered everything else before this, and I mean everything. Nothing else will keep them safe from being turned. And don't worry. We'll make sure that no one's hurt or killed. The other Outbreakers are making plans to lure our neighbors out of town for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I jump back to hit a cabinet.

"Tomorrow is Thursday," Jeff says. "There's a chance of storms. If you're here, Allie, you'll attract one so that it comes right over Evansburg. That's why we need you. No one else can guarantee that a storm will roll in when we need it."

I'm about to throw up. I gag and make a show of it. Tommy pulls me close to him. The floor tilts.

Destroy Evansburg.

I can't.

I won't.

"I'm not doing it," I say.

"Leave her alone!" Dorian shouts. "Find someone else. The Curts might be more than happy. They're into that stuff."

Jeff clears his throat. "We need a tornado that's capable of leveling the whole town. It's rare for an Outbreaker to have that amount of power. Most of us just become weak or average tornadoes when we have Outbreaks. So do you and Allie." Jeff steps a little closer. "Unless the two of you have Outbreaks at the same time and merge. We've never heard of anything like it. That's why it _must_ be you two."

An invisible fist slams into my stomach. I gasp and look up.

"We...all we did was destroy one barn," I stutter. I'm losing it. How can they just assume all this? "That's it. So you don't even know if this will even work. And we can't even control ourselves when it happens. We could totally miss Evansburg for all you know."

"She's right," Tommy says. He's got his hand in his pocket. No doubt he's clutching his phone in case they want to steal it and see the pictures. That'll seal it right there.

"You also ripped the concrete from the road, picked up a tractor and mutilated it," Jeff says. "No average tornado can do that. And for the record, we'll make sure you're both in the right place when the time comes. We'll calculate how the storm's moving. You likely won't miss."

"That...that merger was a freak thing that happened. It probably won't happen again in my life," I stammer. "There's got to be another way. It's going to ruin a bunch of peoples' lives if we do this."

"It's better than ruining them in the way that Madeline wants to," Jeff says. "We've talked about all of this. They won't come back to Evansburg for months if their homes are gone. And Madeline won't know where they all go during that time. When they do come back in, Madeline will have moved on."

"But they'll still come back to salvage what they can," Dorian argues. "The Deathwind can get them then. Then their lives will _really_ be ruined. Haven't you thought about that one?"

Jeff nods. "We'll be here with our neighbors during this difficult time. If the Deathwind shows its face, we'll protect them in the way that you two protected your friend here. What we _can't_ do is stand guard in their bedrooms at night."

Dorian opens his mouth to say something. He blanches. "But...you know what could happen!"

My knees buckle.

These guys are serious.

They really, really want us to go through with it.

"I...I don't know if I can do this," I say. "I mean, I see what you're saying, but this is a whole town of people we're talking about. It'll never be the same again."

"You can," Jeff says with a solemn nod. "We're very sorry it has to be this way. This is very hard for everyone involved." He nods to the guys behind him. "Take them to the--"

Dorian's parents move. His father leaps at Jeff and shoves him into the counter. His mother and Betsy wrestle with the other two men. The doorway's a mass of thrashing bodies.

Dorian's father pulls his arm from Jeff's grip. He faces us. "Get out of here!"

I turn. No exit.

"The window," Tommy shouts. He lifts a kitchen chair. He's going to do it.

"Go!" Dorian's father's voice booms through the kitchen.

I nod to Tommy. That's a yes.

He rams the chair into the glass. It cracks. He pulls back.

I rush up and take the chair too. "Now!"

We shove the chair forward. The dining room window explodes. Glass shards fly. Feet thud behind us.

I rush out and a hand scrapes against my shirt. I hit the ground. Dorian does the same. Tommy lands on me and we're a tangle.

"Run!" Dorian shouts.

I shoot up and run. Endless fields and grass bounce in front of me.

"Dorian! Allie!" Jeff's shouts crack the air. "If you don't do this, you're dooming everyone in Evansburg!"

* * * * *

We run through a cornfield where the stalks only come up to our shins.

Then another field that's sprouting grass.

Finally, we reach a thick clump of trees. My sides are about to burst by now. I pant, sucking in burning air.

"I have to stop," I say, leaning against a tree. We're covered enough so that I don't think Jeff and his cronies can see us.

Dorian stops also, watching as Tommy and I keel over with exhaustion. I sit down, but my heart still tries to slam its way out of my chest. My lungs are on fire. I breathe in coolness and rest. Right now, I don't care if Jeff catches up with us. I just need to sit down for a second. "If I can pick up heavy stuff now, why can't I freaking _run?"_

"Running and super strength are two different things," Dorian says. "None of us Outbreakers are natural marathon sprinters. I wish I was. We need to keep moving."

"Good to know." I stand. He's right.

Tommy looks back to the field. "That Jeff guy's got to be driving after us. And I don't think I can jack his SUV." He extends his hand to me. "Allie, come on. I really don't want you going down in history for wiping a whole town off the map. They can find someone else if they really have to." He's scared for me. _With_ me.

I stand. "I don't, either. Come on."

We walk along the edge of the trees, all three of us panting and just trying to catch our breath. We're leaving Dorian's parents and his house farther behind us. Leaving Evansburg and its people behind us...

I stop. Tommy and Dorian do, too.

Dorian coughs. "You're not actually thinking of going back to Jeff?"

"I don't know," I say. "You heard what Jeff said. If we don't go through with this, everyone in Evansburg's going to get turned. To be honest, I can't think of a better way to stop it. I can't just leave those people for the Deathwind to get."

"Allie, please," Tommy says. He grips my arm, pulling me away from Dorian. Even though I'm strong enough to resist, I let him. "Heck, lighting the whole town on fire would be better than this. Let them do that. I'll even go back and suggest it to them. Then you won't have to do this. And what might you and Dorian merging again do to you? What if you lose your mind again and it never comes back? Or if something weird happens and you can't return to human form? We're dealing with something dangerous. I don't like this. You might not be the same afterwards. What are all these transformations doing to you on the inside?"

"I'm still the same Allie," I insist. "You're not going to Jeff. They might take you captive or even hurt you to get to me. I'm not going to have that happen to you." Tommy and I stand face-to-face. We're inches apart. I take his shoulders and squeeze them. My heart's pounding. I can smell Tommy's aftershave now. Our gazes meet and we draw closer--

"Hear that?" Dorian turns in a circle.

Tommy and I separate. My heart stops.

I listen.

An engine rumbles closer and closer in the quiet.

Dorian looks around like a deer in the sights of a predator. He pales. There's no way he's going to go willingly.

"Duck," he says, running for some underbrush.

"Allie, hide!" Tommy says, pulling on my arm.

We scramble for it. Duck down. I huddle near Tommy and we exchange looks of horror. The engine gets closer.

A second engine joins the first one, higher and whinier. Two vehicles. Jeff's called in backup.

"There he is." Tommy's words are hot on my ear.

A large, black shape crawls along the outside of the trees like a bear circling its prey. It bounces up and down on the uneven ground. I could run to it and back while holding my breath, it's so close.

The SUV stops.

I swear.

We wait. The underbrush blocks out everything except for dots of blue sky and splatters of green field. And the shadow.

The second engine draws up behind us and idles. They have us blocked in.

Dorian and I are going to destroy Evansburg tomorrow.

God.

The door to the SUV opens. The vehicle makes a dinging sound that's so normal, I almost want to laugh.

"Kids," Jeff says into the air. He speaks with patience, with understanding. "We're not trying to be the bad guys here. We don't want to treat you like prisoners. You don't deserve that. If anyone deserves to feel bad about this, it's Madeline. She's the one who drove us to this. She's left us no choice."

There's real regret in Jeff's voice.

"Just know that when you do this, you'll be saving a hundred people from something the two of you know all too well," he continues. "In exchange for your services, we will help you find Madeline again. That's my promise to you. Maybe she knows a cure for being an Outbreaker if she's in charge of that force. Most of the Outbreakers in town will be helping you." Jeff talks from somewhere deep, somewhere personal. "A cure is something a lot of us will be seeking from her if it's possible."

I suck in a breath.

Stand up.

I know I'm hurting Tommy, but the only other choice is to let all of Evansburg suffer my fate.

"Allie. Come back," Tommy whispers.

"I can't. What else am I supposed to do?" Jeff won't want to burn down the whole town. The Outbreakers would never get away with it without going to jail.

Nobody's going to think a tornado is suspicious.

I walk away from Tommy and Dorian. I'm along for the ride. I try not to think about what I'm going to do tomorrow. I have to keep my mind on the people we're saving.

Jeff stands near the SUV. He's not smiling. His face doesn't change when his gaze lands on me.

Dorian appears next to me, fists clenched. "Where are my parents?"

"They're fine." He looks in the direction of Dorian's yard. "We're just making sure they don't leave the house until your job is done. They'll be okay, I promise. We can't have them interfering with this. It's too emotional for them. Too many people are depending on us."

It's done. I can tell from the silence that follows. The way that Dorian looks at the ground. The way he deflates, leaving a shell in his place.

He opens the back door of the SUV and climbs in.

"Allie." Jeff nods to me.

I breathe in and force it out, all too aware that Tommy's standing next to me, silent and waiting. "Let's go."

### Chapter Seventeen

Jeff drives us right through the middle of town.

I can't bear to look at it.

The old, cute houses are collections of matchsticks. The flag waves at the post office like it's saying goodbye. The clock tower reads three in the afternoon. A mom and her kids walk out of a dollar store and head in the direction of the park. The Evansburg Middle and High School building hunkers low to the ground, steeling itself against what's to come.

Tomorrow, this will all be gone.

The library I love. The whole Old West history of this town. Betsy's amazing burgers and the cool wooden walkways of the park.

Flattened. Obliterated. It'll be every nightmare picture I've ever seen of the very worst tornado damage. People will mill around, trying to salvage what they can. Hug. Cry.

All three of us stay silent. Dorian eyes his jeans. Tommy doesn't even argue with Jeff. He knows, like I do, that there isn't any other way.

But what if he's right that Dorian and I could get screwed up somehow by merging again? Or that awful stuff could happen to my mind?

I look at the lock on the door to avoid the sight of Betsy's Kitchen.

The people of Evansburg will lose their homes, but that's better than them all living the lives of Outbreakers.

And if Dorian and I survived merging once, we can do it again. I'm terrified, but I have to do this.

Jeff pulls up to the sidewalk. We're at the police station. So much for not getting treated like prisoners.

"We just need to make sure someone watches you for the night," Jeff says. "Come on. We'll make sure you're comfortable."

They take our phones away and put us in jail cells. Dorian must have left his at home, because they find nothing in his pockets.

I'm stuck by myself in one cell since they're not going to put me in with the guys. Dorian and Tommy get led down the hall to another one. I hear the door closing with a metallic sound right out of the TV shows.

It turns out that Evansburg's two main police officers are Outbreakers, too. The woman, who has the name _W._ _Burton_ on her name badge, stops to check on me. "Would you like anything to drink?" Her brown and black eyes are wide with sympathy.

"Can you let me out? I'm not going to run away." Tommy's not in earshot, so I can say it now. "I'm...I'm willing to help you guys keep your neighbors away from the Deathwind. Even though this scares the crap out of me."

Burton frowns. "You're in here because we're protecting you. I still can't let you out. Not all of the Outbreakers agree with this plan, and there's a chance one of them might try something if they see you. Not to mention, we have no idea where Madeline and her father are. They know Evansburg just as well as I do. I went to school with Madeline. All the way up to academy, in fact."

"Really?" Then a question pops into my head. "You had no idea Madeline was a new Outbreaker this whole time?"

Burton shakes her head. "I don't remember anything different about her. I always thought she was human. She never gave storms a second thought, not like I had to. She spent a few years away from Evansburg. Maybe something happened to her when she was living out of state. She only came back last year to live with her father. I even went shopping with her a few times a couple of months ago."

"You went—" I start.

But Officer Burton's walking away, muttering to herself and shaking her head. She disappears on the other side of the bars. She sighs and the sound fades down the hall.

I get it. Officer Burton and Madeline had been friends.

The same way Uncle Cassius and I used to be.

* * * * *

It's the longest day of my life.

Sunlight stretches long on the walls of the cell. I lie on my back, staring at the ceiling. Waiting. Waiting for Uncle Cassius to come in and say that he's sorry about siding with Madeline, to say he was wrong to ally with her, to say it was all some big misunderstanding.

He never shows. Of course, there's no way he can know where I am. And why did he join Madeline? Why on _earth_ did he decide to help her and not me?

Why?

The station's noisy, and it gets more so the closer it gets to nightfall. People go in and out. I never see them, but I catch snippets of conversation. _The Stetsons are going with us to the State Fair tomorrow. We convinced them._ _I'll have Jeff put their cats in the basement._ And then one woman says _I can't get Fran to go out tomorrow. She hasn't been feeling well._ Burton tells her that she'll take care of it. This goes on for the whole afternoon, until I'm certain that Evansburg will be a ghost town after lunch tomorrow.

Not one of them comes back to talk to me or Dorian.

They can't face us. I know it. We're the ones who get to do the dirty work.

I take a breath and set my food tray down on the floor.

I'm going to help save a hundred people from ending up like me.

But I'm going to...going to...

Tommy's going to be so upset. What will he think of me after I go through with this? Why doesn't he understand that there's no other way?

I close my eyes and drift. There's nothing else to do.

I'm in a pit of darkness where there's no one to reach out to. It deepens, closing in tighter. My breathing slows. The conversations get muffled so much that they might as well be in another universe, one that I'm fading from.

And then I'm standing in the Evansburg park near the swing set. Thunder rumbles and the sky grows darker by the second, going from gray to rolling black. The clouds make awful shapes over our heads. Laughing monster faces. Evil serpents.

Dorian stands opposite me, eyeing the sky.

I call his name. "We have to get out of here."

He faces me and smiles.

Then I notice.

His eyes are green. Not brown with black flecks.

Rain pours down. Lightning flashes. He stands, defiant. Dorian's not collapsing. He's showing no signs of an Outbreak.

And no roar explodes in me.

"We're cured," I say. The rain plasters my hair down on my head. "We're free."

He nods. "We are. Ready to get out of Evansburg?"

"Definitely." I draw closer to him...closer...until we're embracing. Dorian's warm even in the driving rain. His heart beats against mine. He breathes in and out.

I press my lips to his.

Heat explodes and the rain stops. We're standing there making out in the middle of the park. I don't care. I don't want this to end. Dorian slides his hands down my back. Pulls me closer to him until I'm sure we're merging again. I catch my breath and reach around him, feeling his curly hair and—

"Allie! No!"

We break apart. Turn.

Uncle Cassius stands feet away, mouth open in horror.

Behind him, downtown Evansburg is gone.

Mountains of bricks and debris lie where buildings once stood. Even Betsy's Kitchen is gone. It's a garbage pile now. Pieces of tattered purple awning is all there's left to say that it was once a restaurant.

Beyond downtown lies nothing. Nothing except for concrete slabs, sets of cement stairs, and snapped tree trunks.

"Allie!" Uncle Cassius is the only life in the picture in front of me. "What have you done?"

"You abandoned me." I spit the words out, turning them into flying knives.

"It's not what you think," he says. "Please, Allie."

Uncle Cassius keeps shouting, but no words reach me. He's muted. Unreachable.

"Allie."

I wake.

I'm back in the jail cell.

"Allie. Sit up. It's noon. It's Thursday."

It's Officer Burton. She stands on the other side of the cell, keys in hand.

Burton steels her stance. "We need to hurry. There's a storm coming. Most of the people in Evansburg are gone now, but if I'm going to get the last holdouts to leave in time, we need to move." She glances down the hall in the direction of the boys' cell. "We also need to get your friend Tommy to safety. This station won't be here much longer, I'm sad to say."

God.

It's already time.

I sit up so fast that I step on my food tray and send milk splashing all over the floor. My heart's pounding. "How much longer?"

Burton unlocks my cell. "Jeff says the storm will be here in an hour. It's coming right from the west. Your presence is drawing it here."

I step out into the hall and see something that makes my stomach tie in knots.

A tear in the corner of her eye. It swells and threatens to spill out.

"The human residents won't be the only ones with losses today," she says. "I love Evansburg. I know everyone here."

I can't speak. I'm part of the reason she's crying.

"But it's better to protect the people here than to protect their property," she says, closing the cell door for the last time. "They come first. I'd rather see them suffer for a few months instead of the rest of their lives. They can rebuild their homes. Humans always do. They're strong. We need to think of it that way."

I swallow. My throat constricts. "Yeah. We do."

"Let's go get the boys," she says, rushing me down the hall.

The other officer, the man, unlocks their cell. Tommy's standing on the other side of the door, pale and eager to get out. Dorian hangs back, stuffs his hands in his pockets, and finally decides to follow Tommy.

The five of us cram into the hall. I can't breathe. Dorian stares at the floor. We say nothing to each other.

We walk for the front door in silence. Dorian avoids my gaze. He blinks sleep out of his eyes. If I didn't know better, I'd think that he just came out of the same dream that I did. And why am I thinking of that now? We're about to level the whole town.

Jeff and his herd of volunteers wait in the front lobby. Every face is grave. Sad.

"All the businesses are empty," Jeff announces. "We just finished our final check. Nobody's going to open up with the power cut."

"Double check the bank," Burton orders.

"Already done. They won't run business with the computers down." Jeff clears his throat. "We're pretty sure that nobody's called the power company. I lied and said I'd take care of it." Every word carries weight. Guilt.

We step outside and stand on the edge of the apocalypse.

Evansburg's as empty as a town in a zombie movie. A lone paper blows down the street. Tommy's car and a beat-up pickup are the only two vehicles here. All the buildings are dark. Barren. _Closed_ signs hang in every door. Betsy's Kitchen looks sad across the street. I have a feeling that even it won't survive. Not if she doesn't own the place.

"Tommy, isn't it?" Jeff tosses him a pair of keys. "Take your car and anything you've left in your hotel room. I'll have my friend Carl escort you out of town." Jeff faces another guy, an older, balding one with glasses. "Make sure he stays away from his friends until we give you the say-so. I don't trust him to do that on his own."

"No!" Tommy lunges for me, but Carl grabs his arm and pulls him back. "Allie!" He kicks the air. "I won't let you do this to her!"

Carl drags him across the street. There's no one else to hear his shouts. A shadow from a cloud overhead falls over him, dimming the street.

An ice pick rams down through me. It's time.

"Tommy!" I jump forward, but Jeff's hand catches my arm. "I'll be okay. I promise!"

I don't know if he ever hears me, because they walk us around the corner to where the cruiser's waiting. Dorian shoots me a look. Even though he's walking for the car out of his own free will, his eyes have that same terrified shine that they had in the dream. For a second, I'm sure that we really were both in the same dream together.

Burton opens the back door of the cruiser.

I get in and they close the door. Dorian enters the other side. Jeff stays by my door while Burton and her partner climb into the front. He's blocking me in. One of Jeff's buddies stands on Dorian's side. They don't trust us to stay put, and I can't blame them after we ran from them at first.

Burton starts the car as if she's hitting the switch to turn on an electric chair.

We're off. The car rockets out of the alley and Jeff and his friend fly away.

I spot Jeff and his friend scrambling to his black SUV. They've rehearsed this. They'll come up behind us just in case.

I face Dorian. He meets my gaze. He bites his lip like he wants to say something, anything.

Burton drives the cruiser through Evansburg's one blinking red without slowing. There's no one here to hit. Jeff's SUV does the same behind us. She makes a right so fast that I lean over and slam into Dorian.

"Whoa," he says. He makes no effort to push me off. He's as warm as he was in the dream. When we were both human. When--

Why am I thinking about this now?

Evansburg disappears for the last time. We're right outside of town now. Only fields open up ahead of us.

Beyond the farms and flat land looms the biggest thunderhead I've ever seen.

It towers towards space, spreading gray film across the blue sky. It bulges with cloudy tumors and growths. Its deadly underside is a greenish-black.

"God," Dorian breathes.

"It's working," the male officer says. He leans forward to study the storm. "Allie, it looks like you heard right. You're drawing it right over where we need it." He turns to Burton. "Slow down. We have to drop them off close to town. Or they could miss. Jeff says we need to use that spot off Wendell here."

I can't speak. Not when this storm's in front of me, waiting. My chin wobbles. I'm going to break down.

Dorian clasps his hand over mine. Squeezes. He's shaking.

I link my fingers through his. We're one in our horror. United. Almost as close as we were when we merged.

What will it be like to merge again?

A single truck passes us, going in the opposite direction.

I pray they don't stop in Evansburg. That they survive.

The storm looms larger. Darker. More menacing. Evansburg must be a mile behind us now.

The male officer swats Burton on the arm. "Wait—here. Turn down that way. Go far from the road."

Burton slows the car and tears into a dirt drive. She strangles the steering wheel like it's Madeline herself. The car bounces along the ground. Thunder rolls over us.

And the growl explodes inside me like it's answering the storm's call.

I look at Dorian. He's paste. I wonder if old Outbreakers feel anything before it happens.

"Stop. Here." The guy officer points to a hill in the field. "We dug it up there."

"Dug what?" Dorian asks. "Dug what?"

The officer doesn't answer. Neither does Burton. She pulls the car into park. Jeff's SUV pulls up behind us and he jumps out like a soldier on a raid. His friend does the same.

Doors fly open. I climb out, but one of Jeff's buddies grabs my arms anyway. Ominous wind blows in. It ruffles my hair. Throws it in my face. My head feels like it's going to detach.

"We need to hurry," Jeff shouts to the others. "I'm starting to feel drowsy. If I have an Outbreak, they might not."

I try to look at Dorian, but he's already out of the car. Burton and Jeff's friend have his arms. He kicks. Swears. His foot hits the car door and slams it shut so hard the car shakes.

Dorian's still not on board with this. Why doesn't he understand?

"Allie. Come on." Jeff's there, stifling a yawn.

I follow him. We make it to the top of the hill. There's a hole dug, so fresh there's a pile of black dirt next to it. Burton and Jeff's friend stand before it. Dorian's gone. He's already inside, shoved in by the others.

"In!" Jeff pushes me forward. I slide to the edge of the hole. My stupid feet kick over air. Dirt flies. Dorian looks up at me from below and presses against earth.

I fall into darkness. Land. Yellow and white flare in my vision, then fade. Dorian's jeans tilt in front of me. The smell of earth invades my nostrils.

Dorian pulls me to my feet.

Footfalls dart away, leaving the sky above us toiling with the first of the storm. Car doors open and slam. Engines rev and disappear.

We're alone out here.

The first raindrops splatter down.

"Allie," Dorian says. "We have to get away from each other."

"Why are you wanting to back out now?" I ask. "You were all cooperating before. Do you want everyone in Evansburg to end up an Outbreaker? I mean, I don't want to do this either, but Madeline's going to strike tomorrow night if we don't." My heart's pounding. I'm scared, too.

Thunder cracks. Dorian wipes the sweat off his forehead.

"Look, I _never_ wanted to do this. I only got in the van with Jeff so nothing happens to my parents. Tommy's right that this could screw us up."

"Screw us up?" I stiffen and hold onto the wall of the hole. I'm dizzy. My transformation's getting closer.

"Yeah. If an Outbreaker kills or causes _huge_ destruction like this, even by accident, they can go bad. They start _wanting_ to hurt people and destroy property. It doesn't happen all the time, but I don't want to take that risk. Why doesn't Jeff care about that?" Dorian eyes the edge of the pit.

" _What?"_ Panic explodes in me. "You're saying we could turn evil after we do this?"

"We could," he says, jumping for the edge. He grabs on and dirt crumbles down. It's too high. "Not right away. It can take a couple years. My older cousin was a nice guy once. But then he had an Outbreak in the middle of his town a few years ago and killed a man by mistake." He faces me, shaking. "He slowly went bad after that. You heard about that tornado last year that killed those kids on the camp bus? That was him. Only this time he did it on _purpose._ I don't want to end up like that!"

"God." Now I understand why Dorian's parents fought so hard to make sure we escaped. Why Dorian's been acting this way. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"Didn't have the chance."

He's right, now that I think about it.

_Jeff_ should have told me about this. Why didn't he think I deserved to know?

Overhead, storm clouds march above. Lightning forks across the sky.

"But we're doing this, knowing we're saving people," I say. "Maybe that'll stop us from turning evil." I'm hoping. Praying. Oh, God. What if I've done the wrong thing?

"We can't know. No Outbreaker's ever leveled a town for good before," he says. "But I'm still not risking this. We've got to get out of this hole. This could flood." His face is a pale oval in the deepening dark. "Outbreakers can die in floods. It's happened before."

He's right. When I transform I'll be out of this pit. Dorian will leave his body behind.

"Stand on my shoulders," I order. I crouch down. "You need to get out. I'll be fine. Once you climb out, run. Get as far from me as you can."

Rain beats down. It's cold. Freezing.

My body's light. Weightless.

Dorian's shoes dig into my shoulders, snapping me back to reality. I'm solid again. Dorian grunts and hoists himself up. He lifts a foot. Dirt crumbles down.

I'm air again and he falls. We land together in the mud.

He crumples away from me and sits against the wall of the pit. Breathes hard. "Allie..."

The color in his eyes is swirling.

Twisted.

A maelstrom of brown and black.

Dorian's Outbreak is close.

"Dorian!" I leap for him.

My arm's transparent. I'm air. Storm. I wrap my arms around him, holding tight.

His eyes slide shut. _Allie! No!_

Dorian's voice explodes in my head, but his lips don't move.

We're already merging. We're one mind. One monster.

Wind snaps into the pit, the rain blasts sideways, and the ground vanishes below.

### Chapter Eighteen

The storm is so thick that I can't see.

That _we_ can't see. Walls of rain slice through us. Thrash and turn. The world is angry water. Hail beats away at everything. The storm pulls us higher towards its heart. We're in its jaws.

_Dorian!_ I think.

Resist it, Allie. Try.

The rain clears. The storm drops low to meet us.

I can't!

We've got to.

Dorian's hopelessness blends with mine. There's no stopping this. We both know it.

The plains drift below. Stretch out. Grow smaller. Turn into squares of brown and green.

And the roar builds like an oncoming avalanche.

It's started.

Louder. Angrier. Hungrier.

We spin. Descend. Everything shrieks. Tiny trees whip down, slapping the ground. They snap. Disintegrate.

_God,_ we think.

The roar grows painful. We're gaining strength. There's no holding it back. We rip up the ground itself, leaving a brown scar in the earth behind us.

Allie...

His thoughts break down. Fly away. We're losing our humanity by the second.

Allie...

Gone.

Only roaring takes the place of all.

Tiny buildings spread out far below. Trees wave around them like terrified guards. Roads stretch out, empty. Dead.

Evansburg.

It's pebbles. Gravel. Glass.

We're about to annihilate it.

The storm shoves us forward. I try to pull back. Stop. Lift up. Anything.

Dorian!

We scream ahead.

Sweep away the first buildings. They lift like leaves. Fly like cannonballs. Crash like bombs, exploding into shrapnel.

I shrink away.

Vanish somewhere in the depths of myself.

I'm numb.

None of this is happening.

It's not real.

I have to believe that. Believe that the rising debris is a nightmare. Believe that I'm not the nightmare.

* * * * * *

"Allie."

I curl up tighter. I've been lying here for ages. For minutes. I'm not sure. Vague memories of flying buildings and Dorian calling my name float around me. Now I'm lying on the ground. I can't remember how I wound up here.

"Allie. You can get up now. It's over." It's Jeff, speaking from another world.

Jeff.

I squeeze my eyelids shut, keeping out all light. I'm too tired to move.

Evansburg.

Dorian and I just annihilated it. There's no way I'm not going to turn evil after that if Dorian's right.

I open my eyes. Grass blades point fingers at me. The sun shines through film, getting hot on the black of my T-shirt.

Jeff leans down. He's pale and sick in my vision. Red lines cry blood in the whites of his eyes. They shine with misery, with guilt.

"Get up. We'll take you to see Tommy. I promise that we won't go through town. The police are going to get Dorian right now." He kneels down. Looks at me.

Tommy. I've got to see him. Hug him.

I stand and face Jeff. We're standing in a grassy field. I'm shaking. "Why didn't you tell me what this could do to us? That Dorian and I could go bad?"

Jeff stands there, screwing up his face. "You're probably okay, Allie. Dorian, too. You just _saved_ people. I don't think the two of you will go bad."

"You don't think?" I ask. "You mean you're not sure?"

Jeff sighs. "Okay. I'm not certain. It _was_ a lot of destruction. But chances are good that you'll be fine. It was definitely enough to stop Madeline's plan."

I'm too exhausted to feel rage. At least one thing's gone right. I breathe a sigh of relief for the people of Evansburg. The Deathwind won't turn them.

"Allie. We have to go." Jeff's looking back across the field, to where his black SUV waits parked by a road. "They're going to wonder where you are. You traveled about twenty miles. I had to follow you the whole way. Ten more, and you would have reached the town of Centerville." Grass rustles as he turns away. "Centerville's going to send out its police to look at the damage out here. We're close to a road. We need to move. Or the police _will_ take you to Evansburg."

I walk, following Jeff. He takes my arm, keeping me steady. We walk past a couple of snapped trees. Another that's had all its bark shredded off.

The ride in Jeff's SUV stretches into infinity. We roll away from devastation and living trees take its place. Surviving fields roll past. Green and brown blurs together. Minutes pass.

Madeline won't turn the people of Evansburg. I'm probably going to be okay.

Probably.

"I'll make a detour around town," Jeff says. "It'll take longer, but that's okay. You're going back to Dorian's house."

Time passes. Green and brown roll past. I rest my head on the glass, watching the scenery. This world is intact. Alive.

I'll be fine. So will Dorian. We have to be.

"What are the chances?" I ask.

"Of what?" Jeff looks back at me.

"Of an Outbreaker going bad after something like this."

Jeff hits his brakes. We're at Dorian's house and turning into the driveway. The police cruiser's already here. Of course. They left Dorian's body in that pit. They knew right where to get him when it was all over, so of course they beat us back here. Me, they had to track down. Jeff had to follow the trail of devastation to find where I landed.

Jeff clears his throat. "About fifty percent. You'll probably be different, though. This is a new circumstance."

He puts the SUV in park.

I punch the back of Jeff's seat. "Fifty _percent?"_

Jeff jumps. I breathe out and wait for the torrent of yells to come. He can dish it out all he wants. I'm ready to give it back.

But he sighs and rubs his back. "I deserved that."

He pushes open his door and jumps down. Jeff drags his way towards the house and doesn't look back. He's pulling an invisible anvil behind him. A sunken cruise ship full of bodies.

I open my door and walk after him. Jeff's trying to carry my weight for me. Dorian's, too. I feel like a jerk for punching the back of his seat.

Because it's Madeline's weight. She's the one responsible for all of this.

But he should have told me about possibly going bad before I agreed to this.

He _should_ have.

The front door flies open and Dorian's father storms out. He's scarlet. Gritting his teeth. Unstoppable. Betsy reaches for him. So does his wife. Even Dorian hangs in the doorway, pale and greenish.

Jeff stops. I do, too. The whole world freezes except for Dorian's father.

He growls and throws himself on Jeff.

They go down. His father batters Jeff. Spews obscenities. Thuds ring through the air. Jeff lies there, wincing, not fighting back. Blood spurts from his nose.

I'm going to be sick.

"Ethan!" Betsy rushes out. "Stop! He's had enough."

Dorian's father stops.

Silence falls. Ethan sits back on his shins, breathing heavy. Jeff blinks on the ground. Officer Burton and Dorian's mom crowd around him, saying words that make no sense.

A pair of fire trucks rush by with their sirens wailing. They're followed by a police car. They're headed to Evansburg. Or what used to be Evansburg.

We leveled it. Wiped it off the face of the Earth.

Stopped Madeline and saved everyone there.

But now me and Dorian could be murdering psychopaths in a couple of years.

"Allie. You should go in the house. I left your phone inside for you. Tommy's there, too."

It's officer Burton. She puts a hand on my shoulder. Squeezes.

I close my eyes. "Thank you."

Burton clears her throat. "You just saved over a hundred people from a horrible fate, Allie. Madeline's force won't get to them now."

"I'm just worried."

"We all are. It's an awful situation. Go on inside and rest."

I do.

"Allie."

Tommy springs up from the couch, rushes over, and envelops me in a hug.

I hug back. Tommy's my old life. He still wants to be around me. I can't let go.

"Allie...I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be. It had to be done."

"I'm just glad you're okay."

He speaks it with so much conviction that for a second, I believe it.

I have to believe it.

The front door opens and closes in another universe. We separate.

Dorian and his parents stand near the fireplace, crowned by the row of books. There are no smiles until his mother forces one. Dorian looks away, training his gaze on the fireplace door. He's avoiding me now. Trying to keep a wall up.

"Allie, Burton left you your phone," Betsy says, glancing at the kitchen. "If you want to call anyone, you might want to go outside. The police and Jeff are gone. They had to go into town. I will be, too."

Her words fall off a cliff.

Jeff and the police are going to go look at the damage.

That's something they probably can't stomach any more than I can.

"You want me to come outside with you?" Tommy asks me.

I head for the kitchen. "Yes. Please."

Dorian shrinks away as I pass. Looks at the wall.

The driveway outside is empty except for the blue car. It's no longer blocked in. The work is done. The other Outbreakers have no reason to keep Dorian's parents stuck inside the house now. I grip my phone like I'm never going to see it again. "I'm calling Uncle Cassius. I hope there's some battery left."

Tommy's eyes widen. "But he's--"

"I know. But I need to see if Madeline's plan really did get stopped. They won't do anything to me. And I need to know what she's planning next. I've got to find out if this was worth doing."

_And worth turning evil over,_ I think.

No. I'll be fine. I did this for good.

"Understandable." If he has any fear, he's not showing it. "I was wondering that too."

I dial his number. My heart's pounding. This will be my first time speaking to him since his betrayal. I don't want to talk to him, but at the same time, I need to.

"Allie!" Uncle Cassius is all emotions on the other end of the phone. "I've been trying to call you for the past two days. Where are you? You aren't in Evansburg, are you? We heard—"

"Just get here," I say. "Now." I give him the address, trying to tell myself that I'm doing this just so I can make sure Madeline can't send the Deathwind after the people of Evansburg. But I can't deny it. A big part of me still wants him here and wants answers, ones only he can give me. There's only one way to make sure I get him here. "Uncle Cassius, I've...I've done something bad."

On the other end, Uncle Cassius is silent for a long time.

Then he speaks like he's been punched in the stomach.

"Allie, stay there. I'm on my way."

### Chapter Nineteen

Tommy and I sit in the yard for a long time. The sun gets low on the horizon.

It's almost set completely when Dorian comes out and sits beside us, handing us sandwiches. He says nothing. Instead, he stares into the fields and darkness across the road, probably trying to vanish into them.

It's somehow soothing, not saying anything. Besides, there's nothing _to_ say.

The lights come on inside Dorian's house. Nobody comes out. They're leaving us alone. I'm glad for it. There's nothing Dorian's parents can do, anyway.

A single engine sounds in the dusk, growing closer. It's too light to be a fire truck. No sirens blare.

My heart leaps. "Tommy, you might want to hide in the house. Just in case."

He does.

It's Uncle Cassius's car, complete with the cracked headlight that makes it look like a pirate. He pulls to the side with the crunch of gravel.

He's here even after he betrayed me. How many others has he helped Madeline turn?

But I'm running to him as soon as he opens his driver side door.

Here he is. My uncle.

I stop a few feet away from him. He stands against the passenger door like he's afraid the car's going to roll away from him.

"Allie," he breathes. "I've been looking all over for you. I checked the hotel yesterday. I checked the park. Everything. I even went to the police station last night. They said they hadn't seen you. I'm glad that you're all right."

"The police station isn't there anymore." I need to tell him what I had to do. He has to know what he's helped cause. He's not leaving until he gives me some answers and I know that the people of Evansburg are really safe.

I barely hear my own words. They're underwater.

Uncle Cassius releases me. "I know."

He stares at me with a look that's begging, begging that the truth isn't what he thinks.

He needs to hear it. "Uncle Cassius, we had to save everyone in Evansburg from the Deathwind. Do you know what we had to do?"

I tell him right there on the side of the road. I stare at his feet as the words shoot from my mouth. I'm angry. I even think about telling him that I could turn evil, but I hold that back. This is bad enough.

"Allie. Stop. I understand what you're saying." His words quiver.

"What else were we supposed to do?" I back away, clenching my fists. "I don't get you. Why did you go off and help some crazy woman you don't even know? She's the reason we're in this mess. The reason I had to help destroy Evansburg."

Uncle Cassius flinches. "Allie..."

"So are you going to run off and tell her about me?" I ask. "Tell me it's all complicated again?"

"Cassius. We have to go. Now."

It's Madeline, leaning out of the passenger seat of my uncle's car.

I stiffen. She's poking her head out from around him. Her gaze lands on me and hardens.

He brought her here. Hid her from me. She just heard everything I said.

I suck in a breath. I'm so mad I can't speak. I want to run back into Dorian's house and never speak to him again.

But I have to get my answers. I have to make sure Evansburg is safe. From the Deathwind, at least.

"This is important," Uncle Cassius says to her.

"We have to go," she demands. "I need to see Evansburg, even if we just drive through."

"But my niece--"

"Now." She's begging, not commanding.

Uncle Cassius looks at me. "You and the Dorian kid need to come along with us. We'll explain everything on the way to town."

I suck in a breath, holding back my yells. My insults. I'm quaking with anger. Madeline just heard my confession and it's all because he hid her from me.

I wave Dorian over. Thankfully, his parents don't come out after us. They must not have heard the car pulling up since their house is so far back from the road.

We cram into the backseat of Uncle Cassius's car. Madeline looks away from us, gripping the dashboard. Dorian glances at me and comes to life, shooting me a silent question: _what the heck are we doing in the same car as her?_

"Later," I whisper, willing my pulse to stop roaring in my ears.

Uncle Cassius starts the car and we're off. I claw at my jeans and force myself to breathe normally.

But Madeline's somewhere else right now. She wrings her hands and looks ahead. She seems...scared. This isn't the same woman I saw at the old barn.

My gut screams at me that something's very, very wrong.

More wrong than I imagined.

"Explain," I say. "I really want to know why you did this to me and my uncle, Madeline. Because neither me nor Dorian enjoyed what we had to do."

She shoots up and stares at us both. "You're lying about that. They only reported one tornado. And _none_ of the new Outbreakers have that kind of power. I make sure of that." She shakes her head. "Allie, you _couldn't_ have obliterated Evansburg. Damaged some of it, yes, but not...not what they said on TV. They're talking possible EF5 damage there. I haven't made a single new Outbreaker like that. And I _won't."_

She's babbling. I have more of a level head than she does right now.

"It's the truth," Dorian says. "That's what happens when me and Allie merge. It's not something we can control. We've gone through it twice now."

"Dorian!" I glare at him. I was content to let Madeline think I was lying.

"Merge?" Madeline whirls around again. Her eyes are shock. "I've never heard of-"

"Neither has anyone else," he says. "It was an accident the first time. And the second time, they put us together right outside Evansburg so we'd destroy it. Do you know what can happen after an Outbreaker does something like that? I'm in _huge_ trouble."

"God." Madeline stares down at her jeans. "I still hope that you're lying."

Oh.

Dorian told her the truth because he's still holding out hope that Madeline has the cure. That she can make him human and he won't go bad.

I know better. It's a mistake. Now she knows we wrecked the town she grew up in. If she does have the cure, she's not going to hand it to us now.

Madeline's quiet now, staring out in to the dusk. Thinking. Maybe even plotting her revenge on us. Uncle Cassius does the same. The silence gets heavier, the air thicker.

The car rolls over a bump. The darkness gets deeper outside. Stars wink at us. Or laugh. I'm not sure.

We're headed to Evansburg.

The thought's a fist to my stomach.

We're going to see what we've done. Up close.

I grab the edges of my seat. "Someone. Say something."

Madeline sniffs. It's not allergies, either. "My town is _gone_. What do you expect me to say?"

I can't take it anymore. "Then maybe you shouldn't have put me on that altar and let the Deathwind drill its way into me and turn me into this. Then this wouldn't have happened. And isn't death and destruction what you want? I mean, hello. Your victims turn into tornadoes every time it storms. I think you're just upset that you can't have the Deathwind attack the people in town anymore." There's no point in hiding what I know anymore. It's all out in the open.

Madeline turns in her seat so fast that I jump. Her face contorts into a monster. She's anger. Frustration. Rage. "I'm trying to save lives!"

Dorian and I fall back into our seats.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Dorian says at last. "That's what me and Allie had to do."

Madeline stares us down. Her eyes shine with anger. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Let me explain. I meant to the night before last, but you ran away from us."

I sigh. "That's because you tried to turn Tommy. We weren't staying for that." I leave the rest off. I'm all too aware of Uncle Cassius tensing in the driver seat and how long he's gone silent.

"Please. Give me ten minutes. That's how long we have until we're in town."

Town. Or what's left of it.

I'm glad it's dark out now.

"Okay." I look at Dorian. I can barely make out his features in the dark.

Madeline eyes Dorian. "You know about the town of Mobley, correct?"

"Yes." He nudges me. "I used to live there. If you're talking about that thing where the goddess ripped the Outbreakers out of their bodies, we covered that yesterday. Allie knows the story now."

I glance at Dorian. So we were right about the Deathwind. It wasn't just some stupid guess. "So that force you control is those released Outbreakers. We figured it out."

"True," she says. Her voice is tense, like she wants to wring both of our necks. "Here's how it all started for me. I used to be a regular human being. An Oklahoma state trooper, actually." Her voice longs for the past. It's something I understand.

Madeline doesn't look like a former police officer. She's tiny. Delicate, almost. I can't imagine it.

She continues. "I had no idea that Outbreakers even existed. Then three years ago, we got a call that there was a robbery at a gas station in Mobley. The local police needed our assistance."

"So you went."

"Yes. We arrested the two men who were holding up the store. I thought nothing of it at the time, even though I _did_ think it was weird that everyone in Mobley had brown eyes with black flecks."

I try to imagine Outbreakers calling for help from normal people. Well, I guess if guns were involved, they'd have to just like anyone else.

"I remember hearing all the police sirens," Dorian says. He sits all the way up. "I was watching cop cars fly past my house. It was the day before they evacuated the town. And I remember my parents telling me about the Marathon getting robbed. I forgot about that until now."

"I thought that was all there was to it," Madeline says. "The robbery had nothing to do with what happened to me next, but it _was_ the reason I had to go back to Mobley the next day. I needed to interview the owner of the gas station. I got to Mobley late in the afternoon. The Marathon was closed. When I went to the police station, I found out that the whole town was empty. Everyone had left."

"They evacuated us in the morning," Dorian said. "The mayor's girlfriend must have done her goddess thing late the night before." His words drop away. He must be remembering it all. The loss of his friends. Everything that happened that awful day.

Madeline nodded. "I was returning to my car to radio my colleagues when it happened."

The air in the car gets heavy. "The Deathwind appeared," I say.

Her eyes cloud. "Right there in the street. I was an easy target. Nobody was around to see it happen." Madeline squeezes them shut. She's pain. "It struck me. Threw me to the ground. I thought I was going to die. But then I woke on the sidewalk hours later. And I had the memories of those poor released Outbreakers. I could see that goddess reaching for each and every one of them. I could feel the way they all broke apart and flew away. They no longer had their bodies, but their energy was still there, trapped in the atmosphere with nowhere to go. And when I stood up, I realized what I now was."

"A new Outbreaker," I finish for her. I swallow. It hurts.

Madeline pulls out a tissue and blows her nose.

"And then what?" Dorian asks. There's no trace of anger in his voice. He's as transfixed as I am.

Madeline collects herself. "Not only was I a new kind of Outbreaker. I had a link with the Deathwind. I know what it wants. What it needs. It couldn't leave Mobley without attaching itself to someone, and I was its ticket out of there. It wanted me to find others for it to turn, so its energy could come back into the world like it was used to."

"Why couldn't you say no?" I ask. We're getting close to Evansburg. I recognize that farm off the road, the one with the light on its silo. I've got to keep talking. I can't let myself think about it. "I would've given it the finger."

"I did, at first," she says. "It wanted me to turn my fellow officers. So I had to quit my job. I had to keep them safe. Then, I tried to run from it. I even moved back here to Evansburg to live with my father, but the Deathwind followed me. And then my transformations started. It was luck that we live out in the country. No one got hurt when I changed, but that fear never went away. I came to dread the spring. But over the next year or so, I learned to control the transformations. I could decide when they happened. I could even control what I did as a tornado. It wasn't easy."

"But _why_ are you turning people?" I lean forward in my seat. I'm shaking. I need an answer for this. An explanation. Anything. "Does misery just love company or what?"

Up ahead, red and yellow lights whirl. Everything else is darkness. We're almost there. Uncle Cassius slows the car down. Takes a breath. "Allie, look at the floor. Don't look up until I tell you."

Madeline turns again, blocking my view before I can. Perhaps she doesn't want to look at what lies ahead, either.

"Because the Deathwind is unstable. It's losing its patience. I waited too long to do what it wanted. It's not going to stay contained for much longer."

"Unstable?" Dorian asks. "Like a crazy person?"

"No," Madeline says. I don't miss the defensive tone in her voice. "It's unstable because it's _there_ in the atmosphere when it shouldn't be. The goddess in Mobley upset a balance, and I have the job of putting it back in order. Every time I turn someone, the Deathwind gets a little weaker. Eventually, it'll go away forever. But if I don't keep up fast enough to make it happy, it's going to explode. And unleash its full power."

This sounds bad. Worse than bad. "Its full power?" I ask.

Madeline takes a deep breath. "Allie, you and Dorian formed a monster tornado when you merged if you're telling the truth. That's the energy of two Outbreakers put together. The Deathwind still has the strength of over a hundred. Do you comprehend what I'm telling you?"

Uncle Cassius drives over something lying in the road. It clunks. Debris. I keep my gaze to the floor.

"You're saying," I choke out, "that this Deathwind or whatever is going to turn into a giant tornado if you don't turn over a hundred more people?"

Madeline nods. "It won't just be a tornado. It will be the greatest one in all of history. And the destruction of Evansburg may have sealed it."

### Chapter Twenty

Thud.

Thunk.

Crunch.

The remnants of Evansburg play an ominous song under the tires of Uncle Cassius's car. Red lights glare in our window, pulsing like blood, then fade as we pass a fire truck.

"How do you know?" Dorian asks. His voice shakes. "How do we know you're not making this up?"

"Do you think I would turn my own father if this wasn't true?" Madeline presses her face to the window, trying to see outside. "Or my boyfriend of two years? Or anyone? I have a link with the Deathwind that no one else has. I _know_ what's going to happen."

"You could be lying," Dorian says.

I hope she is, that she's just nuts. There's no way I can take her word. I don't want to take her word. I don't want it to be true that I've done the wrong thing.

But what if she's _not_ lying?

I look up. I can't help it.

There's nothing left here.

We're driving through an open landfill, not a town. Headlights creep over splintered boards, fallen trees, and garbage in the road. There's a figure in a yard, leaning over wreckage with a flashlight. I recognize the plaid shirt. It's Jeff. He's standing with an old woman who has some framed, cracked pictures—cracked memories--in her arms. Standing close. Keeping guard. Watching for the Deathwind in case it's coming a night early.

We pass and they disappear into darkness.

I don't miss the way Madeline stares at them both. Or the way her gaze darts around the inside of the car, searching for an answer. An answer Dorian and I have taken from her.

"Is this enough?" Uncle Cassius asks. "I'm taking Allie out of here, Madeline. And you should stay clear of here, too. They could see you." Each word gets more forceful, more urgent.

She swallows. Her eyes appear in the rearview mirror, trained on me and Dorian. They're full of hate. "You're right. If I call the Deathwind, the old Outbreakers will know I'm here. We'll have to move on and find another town. Quickly." Madeline looks up at the oblivion ahead of us. The splintered boards on the side of the road. The debris on the pavement, shredded into wood chips. A little kid's stuffed animal, crushed under wheels and rain. "How could they have thought to _do_ this?"

Someone steps in front of the car.

Uncle Cassius turns around and guns it.

I'm not sure if it's for me or for Madeline.

We pass the spinning lights of the fire trucks. Of an ambulance with open doors that is, thankfully, empty.

I curl up in a ball and disappear inside myself. Next to me, leather creaks as Dorian does the same. We're separate but united in the darkness behind my eyelids.

No one speaks for a long time.

Uncle Cassius slows. I look up. We're pulling into the driveway of Dorian's house. The lights are on inside. Someone moves in the kitchen. The door flies open and a figure stands framed in it, waiting. One of Dorian's parents.

"Allie, if you need to go to the bathroom, do so now," Uncle Cassius says. "I'm taking you home."

"Tonight?" I almost leap off my seat. "Why should I believe you? Or anything else I've heard?"

Uncle Cassius looks down at the dashboard and away from me. Madeline sits there, waiting. "Please, Allie. You need to be away from all of this. I should have taken you home the night I found you." He's clutching the steering wheel. Shaking. Fighting his inner storm. "I'll come in with you."

"Fine," I say. I almost tell him that I'm riding with Tommy the whole time, but keep that to myself. Madeline's here. If she's really this desperate to turn more people, this would be the time for her to go after him. As far as I know, she doesn't know where he is and I've got to keep it that way.

I climb out of the car and follow Dorian to the door. He waves his mother out of the doorway and we enter the house. My feet are cement blocks. My eyelids, fire. My throat, sandpaper.

Tommy's there in the hall. He grabs my hand. We face each other to the tune of hushed voices in the living room. Behind Tommy, the front door's cracked open, letting in the cool night air.

"You okay?" he asks.

"Fantastic." I have to tell him about what Madeline said. "Don't step out of the house. She's out there waiting in Uncle Cassius's car."

"Good to know." He pulls me farther away from the front door. "Allie." Tommy squeezes my hand. My heart comes back to life. Jumps through a hoop. "I want you to know...well..."

"Are you ready?" Uncle Cassius appears from around the corner.

We break apart. My uncle's face is long. Tired. Behind him, Dorian stands against the wall. I can't read his expression, but Tommy tenses and looks at the door.

I look at Tommy. "I guess. We need to get my stuff."

We head out to the living room, where my duffel bag sits. Tommy takes our pillows and takes them out to his car. I pick up my bag. Even though I have the strength to lift ten of them, it weighs down on my shoulder like the Earth itself.

"Got everything?" Uncle Cassius asks.

"Yes." I step towards the door. "I'll throw it in Tommy's car."

"Okay," he says. "What we'll do is this. I'll drive Madeline back to her motel. You guys follow way behind us—and I mean _way_ behind us--and when we get there, park at the Taco Bell on the corner. I'll meet you there and we'll drive home." If there's any hurt on my uncle's face, he's not showing it.

He's still being nice to Madeline, the one who started all of this. Nicer to her than he is to me. I clench my fists. I don't get him. This makes no sense. Has the Deathwind screwed up his brain?

I brush past Dorian and his memories on the mantelpiece. He looks at me. His brown and black eyes shine with pain.

I can't leave without saying goodbye. Dorian's my friend.

"Dorian, I—"

"Allie," he says. "We can't come near each other ever again."

I suck in a breath. "But—"

"It's too dangerous," he says, peeling away from the wall. His expression's dead. This isn't Dorian anymore. "We both saw what happened. The next town we do this to won't be evacuated. People will die. And if one or both of us goes bad, well, I don't want to think about that."

"The Outbreakers said they were going to help us find a cure. Maybe we can still work something out where you could—"

"There isn't a way out. Not right now, anyway." Dorian stares at the floor. "Madeline has to stop the apocalypse, remember? She's not going to cure anyone."

"We can't even be sure she's not lying. You know, to try to get us on her side."

"She hates our guts now," Dorian says. "We're the last people she'd cure."

He's right. We wrecked the town she grew up in. She has every good reason to hate us. "But how are you going to go to college?"

"I'll have to wait."

The pain tightens. I'm going around the real reason for it. "We can't even, you know, keep in contact?"

He breathes in. Doesn't answer.

Uncle Cassius grips my shoulder from behind. "We need to go, Allie. Wait until my car pulls away before you two get into Tommy's. I'll tell Madeline I'm coming back to pick you up later."

I turn away and head out the door. Step into darkness and wait.

Tommy and I should take off without him. We know the way home. But once Madeline's out of the picture, Uncle Cassius might talk more. I need to hear his explanation for all this. I'll have to ride with him even if it's just for a little bit.

I watch Uncle Cassius get in with Madeline down by the road, start the car, and speed away like he's too ashamed to face me any longer.

Tommy comes out slams the door to his car. I cram my stuff inside and we're off.

I lean against the car window. Tommy backs up, leaving me one last view of the kitchen window of Dorian's house, a place I'm never going to see again.

He's standing there, framed in light.

Watching me go.

He turns off the light and he's gone.

* * * * *

It turns out that Madeline's staying at a hotel a couple of towns from Evansburg. We follow Uncle Cassius's car down the expressway, so far away that at times, we're not even sure that it's his car. I spend the entire ride not taking my gaze off the taillights.

I don't know the name of the town we pull off into, but I know it's the right one because it's got the Taco Bell on the corner and a motel a few buildings down the road.

"Here," I tell Tommy. We pull into a spot by the drive-thru and watch.

Madeline gets out of Uncle Cassius's car. She closes the door and rushes up the stairs to the second floor balcony of the motel. Kyle comes out and embraces her in a hug. She returns it, taking in his comfort.

"I think we should just go," Tommy says. "Why does he want us to wait here for him, anyway?"

I realize I've been silent for the whole ride. "Maybe he's finally going to tell me why he's doing this crap. There's still a lot I don't know."

I'm not looking forward to this, but I've got to take the opportunity.

Uncle Cassius pulls out of the motel once the door's shut and Madeline's inside. He heads over, stopping at the drive-thru and finally pulling into the spot next to us. He waves me over to his car, food in hand.

Yeah. It's talk time. Real talk time.

"Wish me luck," I say, leaving Tommy in his car.

"Luck," he says.

I hate leaving Tommy. As soon as we stop again, I'm switching back to his car. I can't deal with this trip without him.

"I'm not going to eat," I tell Uncle Cassius as soon as I sit in the passenger seat of his car. Where Madeline sat just a few minutes before.

"Try," Uncle Cassius says, pulling out of the spot. "You need it."

We get on the expressway and he mows down on his food. I have to wait until he's done to start asking the real questions. I look in the side mirror. Tommy's right behind us, but past him, there's nothing but darkness and scattered headlights. Dorian's way back there.

"Why are you taking me home?" I ask. "Isn't it too dangerous?"

"Not as dangerous as you staying around that boy. I have nothing against him, Allie. I really don't. But I had to tell him the way it was. Nobody knows why the two of you merge like that, but you can't go near each other anymore."

I remember the conversation out in the living room, the one I couldn't hear.

_That's_ what it was.

I fall back into my seat.

I should yell at him. Be angry.

But he's not the one at fault for all of this.

It's Madeline. And that goddess that ripped the old Outbreakers out of their bodies to begin with.

And does Uncle Cassius know about going bad? Maybe he _is_ going bad. He did transform in the middle of Williams Town. But was it enough destruction to make that happen?

"Allie, none of this is anyone's fault, not even Madeline's. She's just doing her best to stop an event that can kill thousands of people," he says before I can ask.

"The thing Dorian calls the apocalypse," I say. "Why do you believe her? Why did you just take her word? I have to know."

Uncle Cassius stares straight ahead. "I didn't just take her word, Allie. I demanded proof out of her. She let me communicate with the Deathwind."

"What?" I ask. "As in, have a chat with it?"

"Not a chat," he says, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. "When the Deathwind communicates with you, it has to drill into you all over again. Only instead of turning you, you get visions. It showed me what would happen if it doesn't turn people fast enough. You don't want to know some of the things I saw, Allie. The destruction the Deathwind will cause if it unleashes its full power..."

He mutters the rest. I shift in my seat.

"Why didn't I see this when it turned me?" I ask.

"It can only communicate with people who are already Outbreakers," he says. "It can't show you visions while you're actually being turned. She's been trying to get it to, though. But she would have let you and Dorian talk to it if you hadn't run from us at the barn."

"Madeline saw stuff when she was being turned. Why not us?"

"That's because it was attaching itself to her," Uncle Cassius says. He speaks with patience, like he's prepared for this. "I had that question, too."

"You could have told me this on the phone," I say. Oh, god. What if Madeline's right? Maybe I've made the wrong choice by helping to destroy Evansburg.

Uncle Cassius clicks on his turn signal and goes around a semi. "I didn't want you to have to get involved with this, Allie. Or to see what I saw."

He stares straight ahead. His eyes cloud over like he's there all over again. For a second, it looks like he's just walked out of the world's bloodiest, most horrifying war.

I can't speak. I don't have an answer for that one. My anger melts...just a little.

Then he speaks again. "It's much better to have a bunch of new Outbreakers than what's coming if Madeline doesn't finish this. Much better. Neither of us killed anyone back in Wisconsin. It was bad, of course, but nobody got seriously hurt. It's the huge tornadoes that kill the most people."

"I know that. I feel bad for everyone who's going to end up like this."

"I do, too." He picks up his taco like he's going to take a bite, then sets it back down on his lap. "I hate what I helped to do to that guy."

He's talking the prisoner that got turned the night I ran away.

Uncle Cassius looks away. He's wallowing in as much guilt as I am.

"What are we going to do?" I blurt it out of nowhere.

"Allie, we're going to have to learn to manage this as best we can. Madeline says that we'll learn to control things better. It just takes some time." He looks at me. "When we get home, I'll work something out so you don't have to worry about storms as much. I owe it to you. Don't worry about it tonight."

"And you're going to help Madeline some more." A cry rises in me, but I hold it down. I breathe out, pushing away the walls of panic that close in.

I don't want to believe that I'll be this way for as long as I live.

I just can't. The thought's too terrifying.

"I have to. You know that. It's for the greater good."

"I thought what I was doing was right, too."

Uncle Cassius says nothing to that one.

Things are different now.

We're different.

* * * * *

I sleep.

Splintered boards, debris and shattered glass tilt and fade behind my eyelids all night. Dorian's there. He walks along the road with me in the dark. We step over planks. Over fallen power lines. Through shreds of wood that used to be homes, lives and memories. It's Evansburg. And it's not. All of this is unrecognizable. I can't make out a single street. A single landmark.

We walk in silence for a long time. Every time Dorian looks at me, his eyes are brown and black again. I don't know how I can tell in the darkness.

He doesn't smile.

Neither do I.

"Allie," he says. "I didn't really want you to go."

"I know." The scene snaps into reality and the fog clears. This is as clear as real life. So real that it can't be a dream. We must really be walking through what used to be Evansburg.

No one else is here. Only debris, concrete slabs, and strange shapes take place in the dark. This isn't a town. Not anymore, and I can't imagine it ever being a town again.

Dorian folds his hands behind his back. "Something happened to us when we merged, Allie. I'm not sure what it is."

I force my gaze to him, away from the destruction. "What?"

"Allie? Need to go to the bathroom? Now's the time."

I wake. I'm in Uncle Cassius's car. The sky's orange on the horizon.

I shake my head and blink, clearing away the scene. It's as if I've switched realities, hopped from one life to another with a blink. The dream. I'm sure that if I close my eyes, Dorian will be there in the dark as clear as the dashboard and the glove compartment in front of me.

I breathe out. It _was_ just a dream. That's what I need to tell myself. Dorian's gone. I'll never see him again.

"Allie? You awake?"

We're parked at the same stupid rest stop Tommy and I stopped at in Iowa. Uncle Cassius is next to me, sipping on coffee that's still steaming. Tommy's car is in the space next to us. He's awake, but with huge bags under his eyes. He catches my gaze and smiles. It's tired, but it's a real smile, and for a second I believe that everything's going to be all right.

"Good morning," Uncle Cassius says. "We'll be back in Williams Town at the end of the day. It'll be good to be home, won't it?"

"Yes." I blurt it out on autopilot. Reality crashes down on me again.

I'm still a new Outbreaker. So is Uncle Cassius. We're going home, defeated. We're the losers. The biggest tornado ever might bear down on the Midwest if Madeline doesn't find enough victims in time. "Do you think the Deathwind's going to blow up like she said?"

Uncle Cassius stares ahead. "It's not likely. Madeline's smart. She'll find enough people in time to turn. Not that I'm happy about that, of course. But she will. Don't worry, Allie. I know this."

"If she doesn't, then we're going to see something like the Tri-State tornado all over again."

"That one that killed seven hundred people back in the twenties," he says, tapping the wheel. "No, Allie. The Deathwind would be even worse than that. But that won't happen, Allie." Uncle Cassius swallows. "I promise."

"How are _you_ going to be sure of that?" I want to believe him.

"Trust me." He nods. "Why don't you go use the bathroom before we set off again? And you might want to grab a coffee for Tommy. It looks like he needs one. If you want to ride with him the rest of the way back, that might be a good idea. You can make sure he stays awake."

"What about you?"

"I'm wired." He taps his Styrofoam cup and turns on his phone.

Tommy follows me into the rest stop building. He walks in right when I finish filling up his coffee at the vending machine.

"For you," I say, holding it up. I'm glad to be away from Uncle Cassius.

"Thanks." He takes a greedy gulp and grimaces. "Hot."

"I'm going to have guard duty," I say. "To make sure you don't fall asleep at the wheel and go off the expressway. As we both know, not even Monster can save you."

We step outside into the fresh air and stop by the flowers to stretch our legs. Tommy takes a step closer. "When we get back to Williams Town, I'll be there to give you a ride out of town whenever a storm's coming," he says. "Even if it's at three in the morning, I don't care. I'll keep my phone with me at all times. We'll just both have to check the weather a lot. Any night it's supposed to storm, we can sleep in shifts. If you have to leave, I can drive you up to the state park. It won't be hard. Only the trees will have to fear you."

I breathe out and let my shoulders sag. I feel like a mountain's lifting off my shoulders. Maybe I won't destroy Williams Town after all. "Tommy, thanks."

My heart's pounding. We're standing very close to each other. The parking lot's very quiet all of a sudden and the traffic very distant.

The kiss comes from nowhere. Tommy tastes like life before Madeline, the life I left behind. I breathe in the woods of Wisconsin, the faint aroma of French fries that always fills his car. His lips caress mine, soft and forgiving. My blood flows and I'm warm, light in a way that has nothing to do with my transformations. I'm Allie again. I'm home.

### Chapter Twenty One

Tommy's more awake on the rest of the drive than I've seen him in days.

We follow Uncle Cassius through expanses of Iowa fields, through a few interchanges, and across the Wisconsin state line.

Tommy and I talk about stupid stuff all the way back. What teachers we might get for our Junior year and which ones suck. The new Queens of the Stone Age playlist loops three times in Tommy's player before we get tired of it and turn it off. The radio cuts in with dumb ads that we make fun of.

Not once does he mention tornadoes or anything that took place back in Nebraska. We don't even talk about Uncle Cassius. Tommy never asks about the conversation. It's like he's trying to give me a mini vacation from the crap and I love it.

It's awesome. It feels good to leave it all behind, even if it's only for a little while. Once I spot the sign that tells us we have thirty miles before we reach Williams Town, I realize.

I love Tommy. I couldn't have gone through this without him.

"Uh, oh," he says once we come up on the exit sign for Williams Town. "We're going to see what your uncle did. We have to go through downtown."

Oh. That.

So much for avoiding anything tornado-related for the rest of the day.

Uncle Cassius slows way down ahead of us like he's just remembered. Tommy hits the brakes to avoid hitting him. Our cars crawl up the off ramp.

And then, downtown.

Plywood shutters up half the windows on the stores. A blue tarp covers the roof of Robin's Ice Cream Shoppe, which I can no longer see inside since it's so boarded up. A couple more stores have caution tape over their open doors and people move around inside, cleaning up. A couple of trees are still down in a yard nearby, one barely missing a house that also has a tarp on its roof. Other trees have been chopped to pieces by chainsaws already. Branches and leaves wait on the side of the road in front of every house on the street.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

It's nothing compared to what happened in Evansburg.

Nothing.

The buildings here are at least still standing.

"Whoa," Tommy says, slowing down to gawk at the damage. "I've never seen--"

"This is minor," I say, rolling down the window. "Well, it isn't but it is."

"Oh." His voice drops. "I get what you mean."

This looked horrifying in the paper a few days ago. Now it doesn't even bother me. Ahead, Uncle Cassius doesn't even speed up to avoid the sights. He must be numb to it by now. I am, too.

The trail of fallen trees and damaged rooftops go almost all the way back to Uncle Cassius's house. His house has no signs of damage. No missing shingles. No fallen trees.

Dorian's right that Outbreakers' homes are immune to storm damage. I just wonder how long it's going to take people to notice.

Uncle Cassius shows no signs of distress when he gets out of the car. The look on his face is calm. Resigned. It looks too much like the one Dorian's mom had after we destroyed that barn.

He's given up. Accepted his fate.

"There's got to be a way out of this." I walk around the hood of Tommy's car, stretching my limbs, arching my back. "This isn't right."

"I know it isn't. Hand me your phone."

I do, even though I'm not sure if I can ever really trust him again. "It's probably close to dead by now." I link hands with Tommy while we watch him punch buttons on the touch screen. We exchange glances.

At last, Uncle Cassius hands me back my phone. "I've added a weather alert app. It'll go off whenever there's a storm watch or warning anywhere in the area. You can also check the radar at any time. Tommy should add the same one to his phone. I'll add it to mine, too. And charge your phone as soon as you get home."

"Thanks." I shrivel inside.

He's saying that I have to live like this.

And he's probably right.

I take the phone. I can't argue. Not in the face of what's coming if Madeline fails.

"Can you take her home?" Uncle Cassius says to Tommy.

I ignore his question. "How are you sure everything's going to turn out all right?"

His face clouds. "Go home and get some rest, Allie. Don't think about anything that's happened in the last week. It should be a few days before we have storms again. And I'll keep working on a way to keep us safe from hurting anyone here. Don't worry about it."

"That makes me feel better," I say, even though it doesn't. I can't _not_ think about Evansburg now. And what Dorian and I left there. And the fact that Uncle Cassius sided with Madeline before he sided with me and that worse, Madeline might be right.

It's all there every time I blink. Every time I close my eyes.

The drive home seems to take forever. We pass so many fallen trees on Uncle Cassius's street that I can't count them all. Chainsaws scream from somewhere else in town. A couple of guys push wheelbarrows full of branches towards the curb. Tommy keeps his hand linked with mine.

I tell him about the conversation Uncle Cassius and I had. "Do you think that sounds like he was telling the truth about the Deathwind?" I ask.

He squeezes tighter. "I don't know. It's hard to say."

"I don't know what's worse. My uncle betraying me for something that's not true or Madeline being right."

"I agree. They're both pretty sucky things. But we're not giving up, Allie. Even if everything's crap right now."

"Tommy, thanks again. Thanks for everything." I look at him. "Not _everything_ sucks."

"No problem." He smiles at me, but fatigue lines his face. I must look the same. "Remember, I don't care what time it is. Call me if you need _anything."_

"I suppose I should get my butt in gear and get my license. And a car," I say. "I blew all my cash on that trip. Now I need to get a job."

"Don't worry about that now."

"I think I have a lot to worry about."

We endure almost an hour of questions from my parents. I can tell they're not happy with my leaving, but they're not furious, either, probably because Uncle Cassius assured them that I was all right during the past week. Mom's face has a few new wrinkles that I'm shocked I don't share. Dad's got a lot of coffee mugs sitting near the sink. My leaving has stressed them out.

But I have to lie again. Just one more time. I feel awful about doing it, but there's no other choice. They'll never accept the truth.

We tell them that I left town when that storm rolled in because I'm still traumatized from what happened during the vacation. That part's true, but not for the reason that my parents think.

"Allie, do you think you need to, you know, go and see a psychologist to get over your fear?" Dad asks when Tommy goes to the bathroom. "I understand why you did what you did. I'm sorry that we were so hard on you."

"It's okay." No, it's not. I can't tell him. I can't tell either one of them. "I think I have it all figured out now. I'll manage." I pray this is the truth.

Tommy pretends to leave at nine, then comes back through my window when the lights go out. We talk until almost midnight and play with the weather app, which buzzes everything from marine warnings on Lake Michigan to high pollen alerts right to my phone. "I can sleep easier with this, at least. The noise will wake me up," I say.

"And with this." Tommy pulls me closer to the window and we embrace, our lips brushing and caressing.

* * * * *

The next few days pass in a haze.

My parents don't harass me to clean my room or to do the dishes at all over the next couple of days. Tommy comes early one morning and we go for a walk on the side of town that's not damaged. We hang out at the park for a while, keeping to the barren corner where the kids and their parents aren't hanging out. I keep my phone on all the time now that it's charged, but I hear nothing from Uncle Cassius. I'm not sure if I want to, to tell the truth.

"Still not calling you?" Tommy asks when I check my phone for the thousandth time.

"He's probably left. Gone back to Nebraska to meet back up with Madeline and Kyle. Since they seem to be his new best friends." He's got to be helping them pick out another town that's going to be filled with new Outbreakers when the Deathwind is done with it. "I'm scared to call him, to tell you the truth. I'd rather not know what he's doing right now." I feel less involved. Less guilty.

"Wouldn't you rather know if they stop the Deathwind from forming the biggest tornado in the history of the world and killing a bunch of people?" Tommy asks. "That kind of, you know, concerns me."

"It does me, too." I tuck my phone back in my pocket. I need to stay out of this. That's what Uncle Cassius would want. That's what I want. That's what I need. But I can't. "Okay. We'll walk past his house. See if he's gone." I'm not sure which will make me feel better or worse.

We make the walk. A lot more of the damage is cleaned up now and even one of the roofs has been fixed on Uncle Cassius's street.

And Uncle Cassius's car is still in the driveway.

"That's weird," Tommy says. "I thought he'd be gone."

"So did I." I'm up there, knocking on the door seconds later. He opens it after a minute, dressed in jeans and his _Don't disturb me, I'm disturbed enough already_ T-shirt. Uncle Cassius even smiles. That makes me feel better. It's as if nothing's wrong at all.

"Any updates?" I ask. "You haven't called."

He waves us in. "Sorry. I didn't know if you wanted me to contact you." He closes the door behind us. "I did talk to Madeline this morning for a minute. She seems pretty confident everything's going to be wrapped up soon."

"That's good." I look down at the floor. The sting of betrayal still burns in me. A big part of me had been hoping that he hadn't talked to her. "Do you think the Deathwind's going to blow up and kill?"

"I doubt it, Allie. Madeline and Kyle are smart. They'll figure something out before it does."

"They can't have much longer." A new terror creeps up inside me. I might be immune to getting killed by storms now, but everyone else, _everything_ else in its path...

"There's lots of small towns in the Midwest," Tommy says. "They'll pick one out in Kansas or something and it'll all be said and over with. If they haven't already."

"You're probably right," I say. Tommy and I turn towards the window. Down the street, there's another trio of fallen trees that a few guys are chopping up. Uncle Cassius has had to look at this for the past few days.

But it's far better than what I had to see in Evansburg.

I feel sick. That memory isn't something I'll outrun for a very long time, if ever. It must be even worse for Dorian. It's his town. He can't get away from it like I can.

"Allie. I can tell what you're thinking. Think about something else."

Tommy's leaning over, face all concern. He pulls me close into his comfort and the piles of debris and debarked trees fade from my mind. Uncle Cassius goes to blow his nose in the living room.

I breathe out slow.

I've got to deal with this. At least for now.

"Hey," Tommy says. "Want to go down to the parade in a bit?"

"Parade?" The word's foreign on my lips. It's too normal to belong.

Uncle Cassius returns to the kitchen and closes his curtains. "It's the Fourth of July, Allie. Did you lose track?"

"I guess I did." I turn to Tommy. "We should go. It'll distract me."

"I'll stick close by," he says. "Just in case."

* * * * *

The parade's boring, but I feel better afterwards, more like a person with a real life. Tommy walks me home, then goes to join his own family. My parents grill and afterwards, Dad announces that we're going to go to the fireworks this year.

"The fireworks?" I ask. "We never go."

Dad smiles. "It'll be good for you to get out tonight, Allie."

"It's not going to rain, is it?" I ask, pulling out my phone. I've checked my weather app about twenty times today.

Dad laughs. "No. Not until tomorrow."

It's a happy laugh that makes me wonder why I ever lied to my parents in the first place to go on that trip. Why I ever hated my home.

I send Tommy a text and ask him to meet us there just in case. I can't be too careful.

They always let off the fireworks near the high school every year. A lot of people are already there when Dad pulls into the parking lot. I scan the football field for Tommy. He said he'd be at the front gates of the field. I find him standing next to Bethany. The two of them are talking under the streetlight, although Bethany's turning away from him like she wants to be anywhere but there.

I know why.

It's not Tommy she wants to escape from.

It's me. He must have told her I'm coming.

Dad finds us a parking spot right up near the school building, right under the sign that has the cardinal flexing his bicep. I should be nervous or ticked off about facing Bethany, but I'm not. It just doesn't seem important anymore.

I know who my real friends are now.

"Go ahead," I tell my parents, eyeing the filling bleachers. "We'll find you."

"Hey," Tommy says when we walk up to the gate.

"Hey." I wave to him and Bethany. She returns my wave with a tiny one. It's cold. Subzero, in fact.

Tommy shifts leg to leg. He's uncomfortable. I don't blame him.

And Bethany's turning away and playing with her phone. The last time she did that, she was trying to avoid talking to her ex who she found out was cheating on her. Her nickname for him after that, well...

The growl rises up inside me.

Okay. I _am_ angry at Bethany.

"Why don't we go find a seat?" I ask. I wait until a family with kids passes us and goes through the gate. "I promise I won't destroy the football field. Or impale the audience with flying debris."

Bethany's gone.

She's running through the gate and towards the bleachers so fast that she almost trips over her own feet.

"Allie!" Tommy's shocked. He laughs. "That—"

"Wasn't a nice thing to say," I admit, grabbing the chain link fence. Why did I let that come out of my mouth? "Come on, Tommy. All she was going to do was stick her nose up and tune out anything else I would've said. She's already made the decision not to be my friend anymore. I'm not going to change that."

Tommy sighs. "It's just that you guys have known each other since what, the fifth grade?"

"I know." I'm shocked at how much it hurts. How much I _do_ care. "If I find a cure for this, and _then_ she wants to talk to me again, forget it."

"Don't blame you." He locks his hand with mine and we enter the football field. "I tried to tell her that you're OK. I didn't say anything about Evansburg. That wasn't your fault, anyway."

Evansburg. They're not having any celebrations right now.

It's almost full dark. Eyes are on the woods and the fields beyond were they're going to launch the fireworks. I spot Bethany sitting on the top level by herself, looking at the Williams Town water tower like she wants to fly away to it. She cranes her neck so much that it's going to hurt tomorrow morning. Her parents sit four rows under her.

I look straight ahead, pretending that I don't care.

We find a place above my parents on the very top row. People dig into snacks, fiddle with phones, and shift on the uncomfortable benches, waiting for the exact same fireworks that they let off every year. Bethany's way at the other end of the row. I know the only thing keeping her from leaving is her parents. If she could, she'd run away now.

"Almost ten," Tommy says, checking his phone. "Still nothing on the radar. I wonder if Madeline's found her victims yet."

"I don't—"

The rest dies in my throat.

There's a van pulling up to the gate, blocking it. The light reflects off the windshield, almost blinding for a second. It's a maroon van that's got a dent in the back and a taped-up taillight.

The doors open.

A woman with chestnut hair climbs out. A man jumps down to join her.

It's Madeline. And Kyle.

_And_ Uncle Cassius.

He comes out last, straightening up like he's about to face the firing squad.

They stand on the other side of the chain-link fence, staring in. Staring at everyone who's seated with their eyes on the sky. Uncle Cassius shows no signs of seeing me or my parents. He doesn't know we're here.

"Allie?" Tommy asks.

"Um..." I start, fighting for the words. "Tommy? Madeline's found her victims."

She's chosen the town for the Deathwind to turn.

Mine.

### Chapter Twenty-Two

Tommy lets out so much swearing next to me that for a second, I'm in a Jerry Springer episode.

"Quiet," I tell him. I fight the urge to stand. I don't want Madeline to see me here. I'm not sure what she'll do if she does.

My town. My neighbors. Madeline's plan is so much worse now. So much more evil. Oh, I'm going to kill Uncle Cassius. Why didn't he tell me? Why did he keep this from me? At the very least I'll never speak to him again.

"But...but the Deathwind..." Tommy's gaze shoots to the sky and back to me. "Allie, she's going to use the fireworks to mask it. Nobody's going to notice it in the noise."

"I think you're right." I scoot down to the next row, past a couple of junior high girls who are busy fiddling with bracelets. "We've got to—ohmigod. Mom and Dad!"

They're still sitting eight rows down. Dad's got his arm around Mom's shoulder. They relax in each other's arms, waiting for the show to begin, unaware of Madeline watching us all from the fence. In a few minutes, they could be new Outbreakers. So could half the audience. Madeline's planning to turn a hundred and twelve people if she's here.

That could end up being my family. Or Tommy.

"What are we going to _do?"_ Tommy asks. I can't miss the panic in his voice. He slides down next to me like we're on the slope of a volcano that's about to blow.

I have to get my parents out of here.

I've got to get Tommy away from this.

Madeline has no choice about turning people. But she _did_ have the choice to choose my town.

I scramble down the rows to where my parents are sitting.

"Mom. Dad. We've got to leave. Now."

I stand on the bleacher they're on, barely missing stepping on some woman's purse. Tommy stands on Dad's side. He glances at me. I can tell what he's thinking. We might have to drag my parents out of here. I'm ready for that.

"Allie, we just got here. Is there a problem?" Mom looks up at me, wide-eyed. "Is there an emergency?"

"Yes. There is." Madeline's still on the other side of the fence, waiting for the fireworks to start. Emergency. I need something, but I can't lie anymore. I'm done doing that. "When the show starts, this force called the Deathwind is going to appear and if it gets you, you'll turn into a tornado every time it storms and destroy everything in your path."

I shrivel. Did I _seriously_ just say that?

Tommy's eyes pop out at me.

Oh, wow. I did.

Dad laughs. It's a nervous, my-daughter's-going-insane laugh. "Creative, Allie. That sounds like a good story. Where did you come up with it?" I can see him trying to remember the psychiatrist's number.

"I didn't." I'm shaking. They'll believe me in a few minutes. I grab Mom's arm. "We're—"

An explosion shakes the air. A yellow and purple blob bursts to life in the sky.

It's ten. The show's started.

I freeze. Look over the faces in the bleachers. Light reflects off them, then fades.

Madeline's got her eyes closed behind the fence. Her lips move.

"Tommy!" I look at him and nod.

I pull Mom to her feet. She gasps.

He tugs on Dad's arm. Dad looks at him and tries to stay down, then rises in anger.

"What are you doing?" he says, trying to keep his voice down. "Go and sit somewhere else." He wrings his arm from Tommy's grip and glares at me. "We're having a talk when we get home."

"She's right!" Tommy yells, drawing stares. "I've seen it. You both need to find an exit. Now!"

"Allie," Mom says, trying to pull her arm from my grasp. "What are you doing? Calm down."

A trio of white bursts pop into the sky. The noise makes the bleachers under me vibrate. A little kid shouts something.

Then, I see it.

Dark clouds roll over each other, floating over the top row of the bleachers like dirty fog. Nobody looks back at it. They're transfixed by the fireworks. I squint, trying to see in the dark. There's a lone person sitting on the top row.

It's Bethany.

The Deathwind's right over her.

She's the first victim.

She stares ahead at the show, arms wrapped around her knees. Nobody will see her when she goes down.

Tommy follows my gaze to Bethany and his mouth falls open.

"Crap!" he shouts, taking off up the bleachers.

I follow. Tommy and I thunder up the rows. People lean to the side to avoid us. Mom shouts something angry at me. Dad does the same. They're lost in the cannon shots, fizzles and flashes all around us.

"Tommy!"

He keeps running. He's on the top row now. Of course. Bethany's still _his_ friend. He's going to go after her. People scoot out of his way. Shouts fly at me. Someone whacks me on the side of the leg. Curses.

I've got to help Tommy. That's what he'd want.

We dash along the top bleacher. The fireworks light the world again. The Deathwind's starting to spin. It glows with an eerie yellow light until the fireworks fade.

Bethany looks up at us. Her mouth falls open. Tommy reaches her. Grabs her arm and drags her to her feet.

"What—" She eyes Tommy, then me.

"Move!" I shout. "Unless you want to end up like me, _move!"_

Tommy pulls. Bethany staggers forward.

The Deathwind twists harder by the second. Bethany's hair flies. She looks up. Another flash lights the Deathwind. Its funnel drops, racing towards her. I take her other arm. We yank her away and the funnel grinds into the bleacher, angry that it's missed its prey.

Bethany trips. Gets back up. Whirls around as much as she can in our grips. Her hair flies back. She stares at the Deathwind, still spinning feet from her.

And shrieks.

Her screams cut over the fireworks. My ears ring. Heads turn. People stand. Point at the force spiraling over us. Scramble backwards down the bleachers. Mutters fill the air. Wind snaps at their clothes, at their hair, at their faces.

Bethany stops screaming and backs into me and Tommy. I scramble to stand in front of them, to put myself between them and the Deathwind. I catch my feet and barely avoid tripping. The Deathwind spins in place as if making a decision.

Tommy nods at us both. "Back."

I let go of Bethany's arm. We scramble away, the three of us a unit, as fast as we can without going down.

Another firework goes off, lighting the Deathwind enough for all to see. It widens enough to block out the sky with its storm clouds. The world above us toils. Rolls. A fresh gust blasts through the air, whistling and roaring in my ears.

Screams explode through the bleachers and everyone stampedes for the exit.

"Come on!" I shout, turning and running back to where Mom and Dad stand.

They're there. Standing right behind me. They look up at the scene above us. The red in Dad's face rushes out and his skin blanches. Mom glances up at the nightmare and back at me. Her eyes bulge. "Allie?"

I rush at them, waving my arms. "GO!"

I shove Mom. They turn and run with us. The bleachers clear. A woman trips and lands in a heap at the bottom. The Deathwind rushes for her. Even though I know it can hit people while they're running, she's the easiest target. Its funnel tightens above her. Slams down. Impales her in the back and drains into her.

I don't slow. There's nothing I can do for her.

Mom and Dad make the leap off the bleachers. Tommy and Bethany rush for the gate. People crowd in front of it, screaming. Madeline's van blocks the way out. She's inside, a ghost in the window, watching the crowd. Kyle and Uncle Cassius must be in there, too.

Uncle Cassius.

He gave her Williams Town.

I'm going to—

"We're not getting out that way," Tommy shouts, stopping in front of us. He points. "Over there. There's an opening near the track."

Behind him, the Deathwind pours down and spreads out over the heads of the crowd. More screams stab through the air. People scatter. Wind blasts everywhere. A kid younger than me leaps for the fence. Starts to climb over. The Deathwind shifts, zeroing in on him. He doesn't notice the funnel forming above him, or Madeline staring at him from the van. I pray for him to make it over, but the Deathwind slams down. He falls from the fence and a tsunami of screams rises up.

"Allie!" Dad seizes my arm. "Come on! Follow your friends."

We turn. Bolt across the football field. Under the goal post. Explosions cast light down on us. Feet thud. Others follow us.

Tommy and Bethany push Mom through the athletes' entrance. Tommy waves for me. Mom waits. I shove her through the opening and wave Dad through. I have to make sure Madeline can't tell where my family is. If she can't, they're safe.

Bodies slam into us from behind. I fall forward. People jostle and swear, running around us, fanning out towards the parking lot. Some go for the trees. Others, for school building.

I stand. Dad grabs my arm again. Bethany stands at the fence, staring in that chaos. The football field's clearing now...except for two people. The woman still lies at the foot of the bleachers. The boy's slumped by the fence. They'll wake up, not knowing what they are. Not knowing what's going to happen when the next storm arrives.

"What the _hell?"_ Dad sputters. He turns his head to look at me. He's shaking. Wide-eyed. His eyes are full of a question that he doesn't want to know the answer to. Full of the open house and the news footage, of my disappearance in the woods, of the real reason that I ran away. "A...Allie..."

Oh, god. He knows.

I look at the football field. Anywhere but my parents. The Deathwind's gone. It's a trick. It'll reappear and strike someone. It could be us. And without Dorian, I can't shield my family. "We've got to move," I say, waving them along. "It could come back any time!"

"It?" Bethany's voice is anger and fear mixed into one. "Did you bring this thing here, Allie? What is it? Your new pet? It probably just killed those people!"

I ignore her. Wave Mom and Dad along. We run towards the parking lot. People weave between cars. Shout to each other. A baby cries somewhere. Where did my parents park? All the vehicles look the same.

A truck roars past, almost running us down. My shoes slap against pavement. Mom yells something at me. Bethany screams an obscenity to join it. The fireworks go off like thunder, so much that I'm not sure if it's them or a real storm coming in anymore. The people letting them off from the junior high must not know something's wrong yet.

A pair of kids slam into me. Keep running, keeping their heads low. Dad's got his keys swinging in his hand. He runs close to the wall of the school, staying out of the open. We run single file after him. Our car waits at the end of the line, in the corner where we left it.

Dad stops. The wind's picking up. It snaps against him and he drops his keys. He cusses. Tommy says something that's lost in the revving motors and slamming doors around us.

"Dad, hurry up!" I slap the car with my palm so hard it stings. We can't stay in one spot too long.

Someone steps out from behind a truck, staring at us.

Brown hair. White summer dress.

Madeline.

She stands her ground and a blast of wind socks us so hard that I gasp. Tommy crashes into me. Bethany staggers and grabs onto the hood of the car. Mom and Dad look up like puppets caught on a string.

Above, storm clouds bubble into existence and start to swirl.

### Chapter Twenty-Three

I step in front of Mom and Dad and Tommy. The wind dies away but we stand there. There's nowhere to go.

Madeline's eyes are anger. Sadness. They shine with the pain of Evansburg.

It hits me like a fist to the stomach.

She chose Williams Town to take revenge on me.

"Allie," she orders. "Stand to the side."

I lift my arms to shield Tommy. To shield Mom and Dad. It's no use. I can't protect them from the Deathwind by myself.

Mom grabs my shoulder and pulls me back.

"Allie!" Madeline's voice is a wrecking ball. "You know this needs to be done."

"Not them," I shout against the growing roar above our heads. "Go somewhere else. Find more people like me."

Madeline looks up at the Deathwind. It's a cloudy, twisting gate to some hell, waiting for her order. We're pinned up against the school building. There's no running backwards. Nobody speaks. Bethany looks down with her eyes closed. Tommy breathes heavy next to me. Even Dad says nothing.

I'm the only one who can do anything.

Madeline looks at the emptying parking lot. Only a few cars remain.

"I have no choice but to turn all of you now," she says, snapping her gaze back to us. The roar grows stronger, punctuating her sentences. She glares at Bethany. "Your screaming ruined everything. And you!" She turns her stare to Tommy. "This would have been over already if it wasn't for you. If you hadn't panicked everyone, there's a chance you might not have had to be turned."

"Turned?" Bethany looks up at the Deathwind, then at me. "You mean--" Her eyes pop open and she screams so loud that it drowns out the wind.

"No!" I'm frantic. Madeline means it this time. There's no Uncle Cassius to stop it. He doesn't _want_ to stop this. Or does he? Maybe he came along to try to convince her to pick another town.

She takes a step forward. Her dress whips against her. "Allie, we need to choose the lesser evil."

I know we do. God, I know we have to. But I can't let Tommy or my parents get turned. Either way, people will suffer. Either way, people will die.

The Deathwind gives one final battle roar and Madeline closes her eyes.

I leap at her.

We collide and go down.

Pavement races up. Madeline opens her eyes and hits the ground. My elbow scrapes concrete and screams. Dad shouts and rushes to me.

"Run!" I land on my butt next to Madeline and point at the car. "Get out of here! The Deathwind can't hurt me."

"Allie!" Dad grabs my arm. He won't leave without me. Tommy's there. Mom's there. Above them, the Deathwind still waits, spinning at attention.

Madeline groans and turns her head to the side.

"Up!" Tommy shouts, pulling on my other arm.

We run. There's no time for Dad to find his keys on the ground.

The lot's empty now. The last taillights whip around the corner and the distant wail of an ambulance comes closer. They're coming for the people passed out in the field. Until they get here, we're the only targets for the Deathwind.

I run behind Mom and Dad. Behind Tommy. Bethany bolts ahead of everyone, darting for the gate of the school. I've got to keep myself between them and the Deathwind. That's the only thought that races through my head.

The ambulance grows louder. Wails into the parking lot, lights flashing. Tommy faces it and waves his arms, shouting something.

Someone crashes into me from the side. Wraps their arms around me in a bear hug. Covers my mouth with one hand. Mom and Dad keep running. So does Tommy. Fireworks keep exploding. The wind keeps roaring. They have no idea.

I pull against my captor. Twist to escape his grasp. I catch a glimpse of a black T-shirt. _Do not disturb..._

It's Uncle Cassius.

"Allie," he breathes, dragging me towards the fence where the van's parked. "I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd be here. We can't have you telling the police about Madeline."

I try to shout something. I manage a muffled curse. There's no way anyone will hear it in this noise. Mom and Dad vanish around the wooden fence and into a yard, Tommy in tow. In a few seconds they'll realize I'm gone. They'll come back. They—

Kyle appears in front of us. Nods to the van. Uncle Cassius forces me back.

He's kidnapping me.

My own uncle is taking me captive and for no good reason.

I try to pull away. I can't. I might be a new Outbreaker, but so is he and he's bigger than me. I squirm. Stomp, hoping to hit his feet. My shoes scrape against concrete. I can't make a sound. The Deathwind swirls after my parents on the other side of the fence, then stops and changes course. It's headed for the ambulance that's now parked near the gate. They're the next victims, and I can't shout out a warning.

That means Madeline's up. Fully conscious and guiding the Deathwind.

I look. She's standing there, looking in the direction of the ambulance. She waves at my uncle. "Get her in."

Kyle slides open the van door. Uncle Cassius pulls me in. My leg catches on the rim and I'm inside. Kyle closes the door and hops into the front.

Madeline gets in and crawls back in, forcing me to sit in the middle. The van revs to life and we're off.

Uncle Cassius lets go. "Allie, I'm sorry I had to do that."

The growl explodes in my head again. "So much for you having a good reason to side with her. What was I going to tell the cops about her, anyway?"

"My background," Madeline snaps at me. She rubs her head. "They could narrow down all the former Oklahoma State Troopers that quit two years ago pretty well. I can't have the police knowing who I am. At least, not until I'm finished with all of this. There's way too much at stake. We should have grabbed the Tommy boy, too. I'm sure Allie told him about me." She looks over me to Uncle Cassius. "You said she wouldn't be here."

"Then go to a different town," I say. "It doesn't have to be this one." I feel awful for saying it, but it's true. And there's only one explanation. I turn to Uncle Cassius. "I know you offered her our town. Why else would she come here?" I leave out Evansburg.

"I did," he says. There's no regret in his voice. No sign of the sadness he had over turning that guy that they dragged into that barn. He faces me...faces me!

I'm shaking, so angry that I can't speak.

Kyle turns and takes us through the light to downtown. His headlights shine on plywood windows. A pile of trash on the side of the road. The cleanup.

Then Uncle Cassius speaks. "I suggested Williams Town because it would make your life easier if you were surrounded by a lot of other Outbreakers. Remember when I told you I'd work something out where you wouldn't have to worry about hurting anyone here anymore?"

"I don't want Tommy to get turned into an Outbreaker. Or my parents."

Uncle Cassius shifts in his seat. "Allie, if there are enough Outbreakers in Williams Town, it'll become immune to tornadoes. That's why the old Outbreaker town, Mobley, never got hit by one." He looks out at the damage, which blurs past in the dark. "You would never have to worry about hurting anyone so long as you remained here. That's why I had Madeline come to the display. And I had no intention of seeing my sister turned. Or your father. Or Tommy. Like I said, you guys _never_ go to the displays."

I can hear the anger in his voice. It's not directed at me. It goes over me and stabs into Madeline. She flinches.

Uncle Cassius is ticked off at her. It gives me a glimmer of hope, but I'm no less angry. No less hurt. "You could have told me this on the way home."

"I didn't know this was going to happen until today."

So Madeline _did_ choose Williams Town to get back at me. At the very least, she was in the area, looking for a way to hurt me. Why didn't Uncle Cassius see this?

"Well, I'm _really_ upset right now." I look up. Kyle's parking us at the Williams Town McDonald's. It's closing, judging from the chairs that are sitting up on all the tables and the kid mopping the floor inside. "Going to turn him, too?"

Madeline leans forward. "I might have to. Finding more people this time of night will be difficult. No one will be sleeping tonight after what they saw. A lot of people may even leave this town."

A few cars rush past the McDonald's entrance, going for the freeway. She's right. If I saw some spinning force hitting people, I'd leave, too.

Great. "Look, I know you have to keep up on all of this. I understand why. But do you have to do all this right now? Tommy and I have found a way to manage my transformations without hurting anyone here. Maybe."

Madeline faces me. She's that mask of fear again. My stomach turns.

"The Deathwind is impatient," she says. "And I'm still behind. Very behind. If I don't turn enough people by sunrise, it's going to form the deadliest tornado in the history of the world. And it's going to start here."

### Chapter Twenty-Four

"Oh." I feel tiny and exposed all of a sudden.

Madeline sighs and faces the McDonald's. The kid moves a rug and mops up under it. He works, then sets the mop up against the drink machine. In a few minutes, he'll be on the ground along with the rest of the employees in there.

"How many more do you need?" I ask.

Madeline plays with the lock on the door. "I was hoping to get them all tonight and end it. I'm not sure how many it's going to want to turn tonight to avoid losing its patience. The Deathwind's so angry right now, I'm having trouble getting it to talk to me. And if the Deathwind unleashes its full power in the morning, there may not be enough survivors here to call this a town anymore. And it won't stop here. It'll go to the next town, and the next one."

God.

I think of Mom and Dad. Tommy. Even Bethany. They won't leave town without me. Well, Bethany might, but that depends on what her parents do.

If my parents die...

If Tommy dies...

I'm defeated. Hollowed out inside. "Then I'm not going to stand in the way. But only turn as many people as you need tonight. And no one I know. Please. If that's enough to stop the Deathwind in the morning, I'll live with that." I'm begging. She has no reason to want to make me happy.

Madeline ignores me. She couldn't care less what I think. She closes her eyes. Her lips move, but no sound comes out. I know what she's doing, and this time I'm not going to try stopping her.

I feel dirty. Guilty.

McDonald's darkens inside. The light flickers. Storm clouds stretch across the ceiling. They're even worse in the light. The Deathwind's darker than I remember. Stronger. More menacing. Madeline's right. It looks ready to blow up.

A chair flies off a table. Then another. The kid looks up. His shirt flaps against him. He backs against the counter, hitting the register. Opens his mouth and screams. It's silent.

I duck down. Look at the floor.

I can't watch.

Silence stretches out. At last, Uncle Cassius speaks. "It's over, Allie."

I look up. McDonald's glows inside again, but chairs are off the tables. There's a leg sticking out from behind the trash can.

Madeline shifts. "Kyle, we need to leave. I think the other employees are running. They'll be calling the authorities."

Kyle puts the van in drive and swings past the drive-thru menu. Two figures run into the trees and beyond, one with a phone open and glowing. Someone shouts. Their coworker lies on the floor of McDonald's now, where he'll wake up hours from now, life changed forever.

Eleven more to go.

Madeline cranes her neck, looking for the escapees. "I don't know where they are now," she says. "There's too many places they could have run. We need to move on."

We circle around. More cars rush past the parking lot entrance. Word's spreading. So is panic. A few hundred people saw the Deathwind. They're not going to stay quiet. A lot of people are leaving.

"Try the gas station," Uncle Cassius says. "Some of them will have to stop there before they leave."

The gas station.

More victims.

Kyle pulls out of McDonald's after waiting for a long line of cars. Nothing but taillights glow ahead of us. We're in a river of metal and lights. Kyle makes another turn and heads for the expressway. The Sunoco glows ahead of us. I've never seen so many cars here. Every pump's taken and there's a line, too, even though the price is forty cents higher than it was this morning. Nobody cares about that now. All they care about is the swirling force that's going around impaling people.

Was this what Mobley was like on the day that Dorian had to evacuate? I feel like I'm in his memory. Like we're linked in some kind of time hole together.

"This will work. Pull to the side," Madeline says. "We're not going to get in there."

Kyle does. The van lurches as he rolls over the curb. We stop on the grass. Vehicles rush past us. I lean forward to see, to make sure that no one I know is filling up. I think that might be Coach Langer who does football at the high school, but he's got his back turned. And I never really talked to him.

My parents' car isn't there. They've got to be searching for me. They're still in town somewhere. Still in the target zone for the apocalypse. I can't ask to be taken back to them. Madeline will turn them if I do. And Tommy...

Madeline closes her eyes. I wait, heart pounding. I hate this. I hate that there's nothing I can do. I hate that I'm the bad guy without even trying.

The Deathwind forms like a black fog, eating the overhang of the gas station. It blocks out the light. Darkness falls over everyone at the pumps. They're shadows, frozen, looking up. A car backs away, hunting for an exit, any exit. People scream. Make mad dashes across pavement, across grass, into the road. Some rush into the building, stampeding over each other. Coach Langer trips over someone. Falls and grabs at the sidewalk. The Deathwind goes in, spitting out the overhang and leaving it behind. The funnel forms. Drives its way down into him, shortening.

Ten to go.

I'm numb. I'm in a nightmare. It'll end soon. It has to. I'll wake up and--

Someone rear-ends a truck trying to pull out of the gas station. Another car drives over the grass. But nobody stops. Nobody cares. It's all panic now.

The Deathwind vanishes, leaving Coach Langer on the ground.

And explodes over the rear-ended truck. The driver's boxed in on all sides. There's no escape.

I've had enough.

"Let me out," I demand. "I don't want to see this anymore. I won't tell the cops anything." I want to run away. I have to. But Madeline's blocking me in, not paying attention. Uncle Cassius sits on the other side of me, watching. Neither of them move. I'm stuck.

The Deathwind drives down through the roof of the truck, going right through it like a ghostly funnel. The driver side door opens, but the hand pushing it goes limp and hangs there.

Nine more.

The Deathwind disappears again...and Madeline's staring at the gas station building itself.

Darkness spreads inside. She's sent it in.

"I mean it. Let me out. I don't want to be a part of this!" I reach over her to the door handle.

Madeline swats me away. Her face contorts and she scowls at me. "You _are_ a part of this, Allie, no matter how much you don't want to be."

"Madeline, my niece is upset. I'm not very happy with the way this turned out, either." Uncle Cassius pulls me away from her.

I turn to face him. "Then you shouldn't have suggested our town as the lucky winner. This didn't even work right." I turn to Madeline. It's got to be said. "I _know_ why you chose my town!"

It's as if she hasn't heard me. She's watching the building. "Cassius. Go hold the door shut. Don't let them out!"

Uncle Cassius starts to climb out of the van, but it's too late. People pour out of the gas station building, shrieking. The door stays open from the rushing flood of bodies like an open, screaming mouth. Inside, black and gray clouds swirl, hiding the ceiling. There's at least two more bodies on the floor.

Kyle leans forward, staring at the road ahead. He turns to face us, eyes wide. The last time he gave us that look, my vacation was taking its turn for the worse.

"Could you all stop arguing back there?" he asks. "I think we're about to have some trouble. It looks like they've connected your van with the attacks."

He lifts a finger and points at the road.

Red and blue lights flash, growing closer. Sirens blare.

Police cars.

Lots of them.

And behind them, a rolling black box that looks like it contains a bomb squad. Or a swat team. Or the military. I'm not sure.

Uncle Cassius curses. "Kyle, get us out of here."

But we're blocked in now by the traffic jam surrounding us. There's no escaping.

Kyle looks back at us, pale. "Abandon the van."

### Chapter Twenty-Five

Madeline and Uncle Cassius push open the doors. Kyle jumps out. Slams the door behind him. Uncle Cassius yanks me down to the concrete and shuts his door with his free hand. The sirens blare like they're on top of us. Red and blue flash off the windows of the gas station. Coach Langer lies on the sidewalk, still but breathing.

We're running. Past the silver ice cooler. Past the air compressor. Others run with us, feet pounding. Screams and shrieks fill the air. My only hope is that we blend in.

Police cars skid to stops outside the gas station. Tires squeal. Doors fly open and officers dash out, guns drawn. I glance behind me. I can't make out anything past the trees except for flashes of red and blue.

There's yelling. Shouting. We're too far away now to make it out.

"Allie. Don't stop," Uncle Cassius breathes. He keeps his grip on me so tight that my hand's going numb. "I'm sure the gas station cameras got us."

He's right. Oh, god. I'm a wanted criminal now, too. But I've got no choice but to keep running. He won't let me go.

Kyle darts farther into the trees. We follow. I can't do anything else. Uncle Cassius holds my arm so tight that I can't feel my hand anymore. Shirts and sneakers vanish into the woods around us. People duck down low. Even Madeline keeps her head down. She won't summon the Deathwind here. If the police catch her summoning it, they'll follow the screams. They'll think she's setting off a bomb or something and shoot.

The trees clear and we're in the subdivision. People scatter. Keep their heads down. Somewhere overhead, helicopter blades cut through the air. This is serious. They must think we're terrorists. That the Deathwind was some kind of bomb or gas attack.

Madeline runs into a yard ahead of us into the shadows and slows. She leans against the house, breathing heavily. We stop, but Uncle Cassius won't let go of my arm.

The helicopter grows louder. A spotlight darts back and forth in the distance.

Madeline closes her eyes, but she's not calling the Deathwind this time. She's sinking in the hole she's dug.

Kyle takes her arm. "Dear?" I can't miss the suppressed terror in his voice.

She opens them. "They must think we're bombers. I know I shouldn't have blocked the entrance of the football field with the van. I was reckless."

"And it didn't help that your van happened to be there every time the Deathwind appeared," I say.

She ignores me. "We have to keep moving," she says. "As soon as they realize we're not in the van, they're going to get the dogs out. They'll search all these yards."

Madeline speaks with conviction. With knowledge. She'd know. She's a former police officer.

Kyle looks around the backyard of the house. Uncle Cassius pulls me after him. Madeline follows. All the yards stretch out, dark and full of shadows. Nobody's letting off crappy fireworks. The only light comes from a house with a weak yellow bulb glowing on the back porch. It's abandoned. Only thudding feet, an occasional shout and crickets fill the air. Somewhere, a car starts up. Someone else is evacuating.

And the helicopter grows louder.

I can't see it through the trees, but it's close.

We run. Uncle Cassius keeps my arm. I've given up trying to break away. It's pointless.

Uncle Cassius coughs. Dodges someone's fire pit. "Don't send the Deathwind after the police. That could end badly."

Madeline glares at him. "I'll do what I have to do, Cassius." She stops for a second. "We need a place to take cover," she says. She faces my uncle. "We're not going to your house. The police will have leads on us in no time."

Uncle Cassius darts ahead, stops, and looks inside a dark window. "We need to get farther away," he says, pointing to a street up ahead. "We can break into a house and stay there. Everyone's leaving."

"But we have only a few hours left," Madeline says. "The Deathwind's getting worse by the minute. It wants more people tonight. I got four at the gas station. The kid at McDonalds, and then four people at the fireworks. I still have to make up for the missed time."

God. That makes nine victims here in Williams Town already.

We slow. My sides burn. I suck in valuable air.

"I know you do," Uncle Cassius says. "But you won't do that if they find us. They'll shoot the second you summon the Deathwind. If you die, Madeline, it's all over."

Madeline stops. So does Uncle Cassius and Kyle. I stand there, watching them stare at each other.

"You know he's right," Kyle says. "We're not sure what the Deathwind will do if something happens to you." He takes Madeline's hands in his. They look at each other for what feels like a long time. "I'm not going to lose you, Madeline. We'll think of some solution. We've come too far to throw it all away now."

She looks down, then back up at Kyle. "Okay. We keep moving. I won't bring the Deathwind back until we're far away from the police."

"Allie, come on." It's as if Uncle Cassius has just realized I exist for the first time in minutes.

The helicopter blades grow louder. They're leaving the gas station. Coming this way. The police have figured out that we're not in the van anymore.

Uncle Cassius curses. "We need to get inside," he says. "Here...this house. Get the door." He points to a glass sliding door on someone's deck. It's dark inside. No one's home.

Kyle rushes up and yanks it open. The lock breaks with a sound like a small gunshot. He pulls the screen open and we pour inside.

My heart's pounding. Now I'm breaking and entering. I'm getting a record. Running from the cops. Assault. Major property damage...

Madeline closes the glass door behind us. A second later, the helicopter grows deafening overhead and light sweeps over the backyard of the house. I hold my breath. Then, after forever, it sweeps away, leaving safe darkness in its place.

Kyle lets out a sigh of relief. "We're in a war zone right now. Make sure no one's home."

Uncle Cassius releases my arm and walks down the hall. He's a silhouette vanishing around the corner in the dark. I could run. I probably should, but what's the use? If the spotlight lands on me, the police will be on this house in no time. Madeline can't get caught—or worse. If she does...

I don't want to think about it.

"No one," Uncle Cassius says, returning. "I found a lot of clothes on the floor. They packed up and left."

"Turn on the TV. Keep the lights off," Madeline orders.

Uncle Cassius rushes over and turns it on. A blue glow fills the room and she scrolls through the satellite channels until we pass a national news station.

"Wait. Back. That one," Uncle Cassius says.

Madeline scrolls back.

My stomach drops and I sink to sit next to the couch.

It's the gas station we left minutes ago, from the air. It's surrounded by a sea of police cars. Ambulances. Fire trucks. Nobody's left in the parking lot. Coach Langer's gone from the sidewalk. They've taken him. Madeline's maroon van waits there, doors still closed. No one dares go near it.

She turns up the volume.

"...again, we are unclear on what the threat actually is in this situation. The pumps to the station have been shut down in case there are explosives involved. We're getting unconfirmed reports of several explosions or possibly even a tornado at Williams Town's fireworks display, and police are investigating whether something may have gone wrong with the display itself. However, that does not explain the situation here at the gas station, in which several witnesses have reported seeing smoke and more possible explosions. We have incoming reports that several people have been taken to local area hospitals..."

"They've got no idea," Kyle says. I can't miss the nerves in his voice. The way his words crack down the middle.

"Now what?" I ask. I sound the same.

Madeline's shaking in the blue light. "They'll have my description by now. If we get out of here, I'll have to go into hiding."

Her words hang in the air. That means Uncle Cassius could have to go with her and that they might make me go with them. Madeline doesn't trust me to keep my mouth shut and she never will.

I can't leave Tommy, or leave my parents to worry about me.

I turn away from them both and face the wall. There's a framed picture of a family, a happy couple with two kids in baseball uniforms. I stare at it, avoiding my uncle as much as I can even though he's sitting a foot away from me.

I want my parents. I want Tommy here. Now.

"...there are also unconfirmed reports that the suspects may have a young hostage with them. Police will be conducting door to door searches in the area and advise anyone who has not left town already to remain indoors with their doors and windows locked. However, as we can see, many residents are taking to the freeway in an effort to evacuate."

A hostage. They know I'm kidnapped. Mom and Dad must have called the police. Hope rises in me. I might not have to leave Tommy and my family after all.

Madeline paces across the room. She's not even paying attention to the TV anymore. I watch her. Her eyes are wide. Scared and shiny in the shifting light. "We're running out of time. The Deathwind's getting more unstable by the minute. We need to keep looking for people. And we have to find them before they find us."

"But they're all leaving," Kyle says. He shrugs. "Or they're hiding. We can't start breaking into more houses to look for them. All it'll take is one nine one one call, and we're done."

She stands. Listens. The helicopter's faint now, far away. Madeline goes for the back door and yanks it back open. She stands framed in the door like a ghost.

Then I know what I have to do. I have to save Tommy's life. My parents' lives and the lives of everyone else left in town. There are still people around here, and if the Deathwind isn't happy in a few hours, they're going to die.

I have to help Madeline find more victims.

"Look," I say. "I can go out and find people. They're not after me. I'll put on some different clothes just to be extra safe. They won't arrest me. The worst that will happen is that they'll take me back to my parents."

Madeline thinks for a second. "How do I know you aren't going to go to the police and tell them about me?"

"If I do that, my town gets wiped off the map. Fair enough, isn't it?"

Madeline's expression darkens. The helicopter grows louder again, then fades. My stomach heaves, but I know this is the only way. A clock on the wall reads past midnight. If I don't do this, Williams Town will get blasted into wood grains and death.

I close my eyes. Before I can open them again, Evansburg spreads out in front of me, flattened and unrecognizable in the dark. Only shattered trees point towards the stars. They guard the graveyard of homes, the burial site of memories and safety. It's so real that I'm sure I've warped back there and left Williams Town behind to its fate. The night breeze whips over me, whistling the end of the world.

Dorian's there with me, hanging his head. We stand in the road together. Main Street? Some other road? I can't tell. It all looks the same now. At last, he looks up at me, face sickness and fear. But there's something else there, too.

"Allie, don't let this happen again. I know you can stop it."

I tremble. "There's no good answer to this."

"I know there isn't. At least not right now."

"Allie."

It's Madeline.

"Allie!"

I open my eyes. Dorian's gone. I'm back in some strangers' house. Back in Williams Town with the TV droning in the background and my betrayer uncle standing next to it like he's proud of his handiwork.

"I think we'll have you go," Madeline says. "You walk in the road and look for people. Pretend that you're walking around, looking for help. The three of us will follow you in the shadows, a block behind you. You send your uncle a text when you find someone. Make sure it's nothing that can incriminate us in court. We need a code phrase."

I need something good, something that won't get me in trouble if they decide to investigate. "How about, 'I never want to speak to you again?'"

Uncle Cassius flinches. "Allie, you have to understand—"

"It'll work. They won't think I'm working with you guys if they pick me up and look at my phone," I say. When I see the doubt washing over Madeline's face, I quickly supply, "And don't worry. I'll lead them off your trail if that happens."

In a way, I'm glad that they're going to follow me. I can't think of a way to lure someone back here and not go to court with Madeline later.

My throat's dry. Weight collapses down on my shoulders. I have to ruin the lives of more people. But it's better than letting hundreds or even thousands die. And if I fail...

I need out of this house, out of this thick air, away from my uncle. I push past Madeline and out into the night.

### Chapter Twenty-Six

It's much quieter out now.

The helicopter's moving farther away, so faint now that I have to strain my ears to hear it. Nobody's running down the street anymore. Anyone who's smart or knows what's going on has left this part of town. All of the houses are dark.

Mom and Dad. Tommy.

They've got to be so worried.

I pull out my phone. The three of them have tried to call at least thirty times. Each. I never heard the ring from my pocket. They're probably at home or at the police station, waiting for any news, waiting to see what happens next. My hand trembles and I nearly drop the phone.

I want to call them. Tell them I'm all right. But I can't risk that now. The police could track my calls—couldn't they? Or worse, Mom and Dad could come out here looking for me. Tommy would, too. He'd risk facing the Deathwind to find me. Madeline's desperate enough to turn them by now no matter what I say. She has to be, with only a few hours before—

"Allie. Go on," Kyle whispers from the front door behind me. "We'll be right behind you."

I shove the phone back in my pocket just as it rings again. My heart rips out of my chest and I break into a run.

The street's quiet. Dark. No stray bottle rockets or explosions go off this year. I run, breathing hard, searching the yards for any sign of life. There's none. The police aren't even coming down the road yet with their dogs. They might be in another part of town. I can't tell.

I turn the corner. Elm and Driftwood, according to the signs. A cruiser goes through a pair of intersections ahead, but it doesn't slow. They haven't seen me. I should still be careful. If they do, they'll stop and wonder why I'm running so fast. Offer me a ride somewhere. They might even have my description as the hostage. Mom and Dad have sure given it to them already.

There's still no one.

I dash around another corner.

Town's empty. Or hunkered down. There _have_ to be people still here.

Then, shouting.

There's an open garage down the street, near the end of a cul-de-sac. Light pours out. Shadows move. Someone's still here. They're rushing. Packing. Getting out before the Deathwind finds them. If anyone else is still around, they're hiding with the lights off. I've got no way of knowing.

A man yells something and a teenage boy hollers something back. A woman joins in. Car doors open and close. I draw closer, feeling like a snake in the shadows. It's a scared family. Like mine.

I stop two yards away from the house. I catch a glimpse of flopping sandals and white shorts. Of tennis shoes and a duffel bag. Of a car door that's been left open to eat their belongings. Nothing but darkness stretches out at the end of the cul-de-sac. Open fields. Woods. This is the end of the subdivision.

I've got no other choice.

I pull out my phone and send a text to Uncle Cassius.

I never want to talk to you again.

I must have come half a mile. Madeline and the others have to be close behind me, stalking through dark yards. This family will have to work. They're too rushed and worried about themselves for me to ask them for help or to lure them out of the garage. Madeline's going to have to risk it and stand in the street. She has to know exactly where these people are to send the Deathwind at them.

My phone's silent. I turn, looking for any movement. What if I've lost the others? The time reads twelve forty-five. The guy yells something again from the garage, though it's too muffled for me to make out.

Part of me wants that family to escape. I want them to get in their car and drive away so I don't have to see them get turned. But I don't. Lots of people might still be hunkering down here, right in the Deathwind's future path. I know it, even though I can't tell which houses are empty.

And even if Williams Town is mostly empty now, there's still every other town it'll strike afterwards...

Another buzz. I look down. _Coming._

OK.

I pocket the phone. Look again at the open garage. A car door shuts. Someone opens and closes a door to the inside of the house and the yelling stops. They're going back inside for more. If they left now, they could escape the Deathwind.

"I'm sorry," I whisper. The words are hoarse. Raw. I turn away because I can't watch them anymore. I step into the full darkness of a yard and watch the corner instead. It's dead, as dead as I am inside.

Seconds tick by. A door opens and slams again in the garage. Something thuds.

"Is that them?"

I jump and whirl around. It's Madeline, standing with Kyle and Uncle Cassius in the dark of the yard next to me. Madeline looks over me to the house at the end of the street.

I nod. I can't say anything. I just can't.

Car doors open and close in the garage. They're about to leave.

Madeline shifts. If I had any light, I'd see her closing her eyes. Moving her lips. Giving the order.

A low _whoosh_ fills the air.

Followed by a metallic grinding sound.

And screams.

I put my hands over my ears. Minutes seem to pass. I turn away from it. From Madeline and Uncle Cassius. From everything.

Uncle Cassius calls my name.

Thuds up behind me.

Takes my arm.

I whirl around to face him. The roar fills my being and it has nothing to do with any storms coming. "Let go."

Uncle Cassius pulls me back. "We have to hide. Now!"

I go silent. It's too late.

There's a police car rolling past the corner, out on patrol. There's no time for us to duck. It slows, brake lights casting red on the pavement behind us. A spotlight swings towards us. It lands on me and Uncle Cassius, both standing near the side of the road. Then it swings over further, illuminating Kyle and Madeline. Kyle's still watching the garage. Madeline's already on alert. She freezes, swallows and squints in the sudden light.

We're caught.

But nobody moves. Uncle Cassius keeps my arm.

The police car turns. Kicks on its red and blue flashing lights. I can see the outline of the officer behind the glass. I'm not sure whether I like that or not.

And then, the whooshing noise grows louder above us.

It's the Deathwind. Madeline's sending it after the police now, too.

She stands there, dress flashing red and blue, staring down the police car. The door starts to open. A dark mass drifts over us like a phantom looking for prey.

And then, chaos.

The funnel forms right over the police car. The door opens all the way and the figure of an officer climbs out, shouting something, but it's lost in the wind. The Deathwind descends. Hits him. The officer goes down, badges shining in the spotlight and the Deathwind follows, draining into him.

Uncle Cassius pulls on my arm again and I come back to life.

I realize two things.

We're running.

And there's police sirens going off, getting closer and closer. The officer radioed for backup. The helicopter's getting louder, too.

Kyle's leading the way, muttering something. Madeline looks back at us and nods. I try to yank my arm out of Uncle Cassius's grip, but he's still bigger than me, still stronger.

Uncle Cassius keeps my arm. There's no other option. It's the worst place we can go, but it's only house on the end of the street. The only other option's to run across the fields.

Lights flash. Sirens blare. The helicopter roars overhead. We're seen. There's no getting out of this now. Madeline and Kyle run into the garage. The car's sitting there, motor going and lights on. Three figures lie slumped inside, unconscious.

"Inside," Uncle Cassius puffs.

Madeline yanks open the inside door with the breaking of another lock. We burst into the family's house and she closes the door behind us. Kyle slides a kitchen chair up under the doorknob.

We're cornered. They've got us.

Madeline slumps against the kitchen wall. Breathes out. "The Deathwind still wants more," she says, squeezing her eyes shut. "But if I send the Deathwind out again, they'll storm in here, shooting. I don't know what to do."

The sirens peak outside and stop. They've got the house surrounded. I imagine officers climbing out. Fanning around the property. Getting a sniper set up somewhere.

I believe Madeline about the shooting part. She'd know.

"Where should we put Allie?" Uncle Cassius asks. "They think she's our hostage."

"That's because I _am,"_ I insist. "I didn't come on this with you because I wanted to."

"That'll keep them from rushing in unless we attack first," Madeline says. "We can't let her walk out until I turn enough people to calm the Deathwind down. I think I only need a few more."

They're talking over me. "So I'm your pawn now? Great."

Kyle wipes his brow. "We need to make sure they don't come in before we can do that. Someone help me block the doors. Then we need to figure out a way out of here."

Madeline turns to him. "We're going to jail, Kyle. Prison. That's the best that we're going to do in this situation. We _can_ escape—I think--if we let the Deathwind level this town, but I'm not going to do that. And besides—" she looks between him and Uncle Cassius. "When we _do_ go to jail, we can escape that, too. All we have to do is wait for a storm to pass over."

Kyle's shoulders sag, then lift again. "We have to make sure they don't shoot us. How many of these situations end up with at least some of the hostage-takers dead?"

Madeline steels her stance. "Precisely. We need to think. Make sure all the curtains are closed. Allie, go and sit on the couch. I want them to know that we still have you."

I have no choice. Not now. I could run outside with my hands behind my head, but then Madeline and Kyle and Uncle Cassius will go down in a shootout. The Deathwind will blow up here. Kill everyone else. My being the hostage could make all the difference.

"Okay." I follow Madeline out into the living room.

She turns on the light. The curtains are open. The world outside is a light storm of red and blue. Dark figures run between vehicles. An ambulance weaves through and stops on the grass of the neighbor's house. All the flashing hurts my eyes. They've all got to see me in here. I know it.

Madeline points to the couch, then pushes me down on it. I stagger. Land on the cushions and stay there. I know it's an act, but it makes the roar explode inside me all over again.

She yanks the curtains closed. We're separated from the outside world.

"So what are you going to do now?" I ask when the roar calms down.

Madeline turns away from the window. Doesn't speak. Maybe her pushing me wasn't that much of an act after all.

"I said, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. There's no good answer for this."

I let my head flop on the couch. "There's no good answer for anything."

I watch the fan blades go round and round. The family forgot to turn it off. Round and round...never stopping...

I'm shutting down.

I can't deal with it anymore.

I breathe out. Numb.

There's nothing I can do right now except wait.

I wait for a knock on the door. Wait for it to come crashing in and for footfalls to thunder through the house. Wait for shouts at us to get on the floor. For the cuffs to come out. Maybe even for gunshots and smoke.

I just want it to be over.

Someone yells through a megaphone outside. The helicopter stays loud. Madeline's right that they're not going to rush in on a hostage situation, especially if they can't see inside. At least, not until they get something figured out. I'm the only thing keeping them back. Maybe this is another reason Madeline wanted to kidnap me.

The phone on the wall rings.

And rings.

It's the negotiator. It can't be anyone else.

I turn over. Bury my face in the couch pillow.

"Get that," Madeline says. Her words are high and scared, about to fall screaming off a cliff. "Make sure they stay out of the house. At least for a while. I still have to figure out how to turn more people without them coming in on me."

Kyle answers it.

"Yes, we have her," he says. His voice quivers. He's like a terrified nerd trying to play the part of the big bad hostage taker. I snicker into the pillow. I can't help it, he's so bad. "And we'll shoot her as soon as we hear any doors opening or any windows breaking. I mean it, officer. You got that?"

He hangs up.

The phone rings again, and this time no one picks it up.

I stop laughing. I'm going insane. My whole existence has spun out of control...in more ways than one. I snort. That's something Dorian would call a bad joke.

"Allie? Are you all right?" It's Uncle Cassius, standing somewhere over me.

"Fantastic."

"Lie here and get some rest," he says. "You might want to lie on the floor. You'll be safer there in case they do have to rush in here."

"Fine." I grab the couch pillow and crawl to the floor. I'm between the couch and the coffee table. Shielded. A little safer. "Thanks for pulling me into this, by the way."

He doesn't have a response for that one.

Minutes stretch into an hour. Maybe two or three. I can't tell. My whole world is the floor, the couch, the coffee table. The footsteps of the others. And the noises outside. Somewhere, a clock ticks. The phone seems to ring every five minutes, but no one answers it. Kyle and Uncle Cassius talk in the kitchen. I pray they're coming up with a solution. Something where nobody will have to die.

I may hate my uncle now. I may hate Madeline and Kyle. But I don't want them to take any gunshots. If Madeline dies, it's all over. Enough people have suffered because of this.

But what do I _do?_

Tommy would tell me we'd think of something, and he'd mean every word.

Dad and Mom would hug me and tell me they'd take care of it.

Dorian would—

Allie? Can you hear me?

It's Dorian's voice, echoing inside my head. I turn over. We're still connected, even through he's hundreds of miles away in his own misery.

I know you can.

I groan. Close my eyes. I've been awake too long. There's nothing else I can do right now except for wait. If the police were going to storm in, they would have done it by now.

Allie. Stop lying there doing nothing.

He's insistent. _Got any bright ideas, Dorian?_ I hope he does. I can't talk to anyone else right now. If I try to make any calls on my phone, Madeline will just take it away.

Your town's under the guillotine. It's going to end up like mine if you don't try something.

Like what?

Take this over, Allie. You can figure out a solution better than these morons. You're way smarter than them.

"Allie? Wake up." It's Madeline.

I sigh. Pull myself away from Dorian's voice.

Uncle Cassius tries next. "Get up."

I open my eyes, leaving Dorian's voice behind in the darkness. Sit up. I listen for knocking. The sounds of the police force storming in. But there's none. Madeline's standing by the curtains, keeping them pinched shut like a monster's on the other side, trying to look in at her.

Madeline turns to me. Her eyes are big. "Allie, your family's here."

I jolt back to life.

"My _parents?"_ Panic rises to my throat.

She takes another look out between the curtains. "It's them. And the boy, Tommy. They're standing out behind the police cars. There's a girl with them, too."

I stand. Madeline squeezes the curtain shut again and nods at the couch.

I can't sit. Not now. Everyone I love is still in the path of the Deathwind. "You've got to let me look."

"Allie..." Madeline blinks at the wall. "Okay. Just a small look." She goes over. Turns off the living room light.

I kneel down. Take a peek through the curtains at the mess outside.

It's nothing but police cars. Officers kneel behind open doors. Others stand farther back with radios. Lights glare in my eyes. A pair of fire trucks block the road, lights flashing.

And there...standing down the street—

Mom. Dad. Dad's got his arm around Mom, pulling her close. Tommy stands next to them. Even Bethany's there, arms wrapped tight around her chest. She hangs back, digging her toe into the street like she wants nothing more than to leave. She's only here because my parents—or Tommy—dragged her along. Bethany must have gotten separated from her family.

They're waiting. Helpless. As helpless as me.

And the horizon's pink with the coming sunrise.

I swear and turn away. Madeline waves me away from the window.

The phone on the wall rings.

"That's them again," Kyle says, marching into the dark room. "Let me pick it up."

"Don't answer it," Madeline says. "I don't want them setting anything up to their advantage."

"But how?" Kyle asks. "Dawn's almost here. All hell's going to break loose."

The phone rings again. And again.

My phone in my pocket joins in. Mom and Dad are making another attempt to call me. Or the police are. It kills me not to answer it.

"I don't know," Madeline says. "If I unleash the Deathwind here, they rush in and kill me before I can finish, and the Deathwind breaks loose anyway. If I don't, the Deathwind does the same thing."

My family's out there.

They're going to die if I don't do something. Dorian's right. Madeline and Kyle are messes. Uncle Cassius is no help.

That's it. I'm taking over.

"But we've got to stop the Deathwind. I don't care if you do have to turn some officers out there." I look at the grandfather clock. It's six in the morning. We've been in here for hours. "Turn on the TV. To the weather."

Madeline blanches. She finds the remote and clicks on the Weather Channel.

There's one green and yellow blob on the radar in the middle of Wisconsin, just to the west of Williams Town. The radar loops. It grows bigger, ready to plow right into us. There's no warnings on the screen, but I know better. It's the storm the Deathwind's going to use to unleash its full fury.

The radar updates. The storm on the screen is larger now, angrier with orange and red. It's building fast. Barreling towards us. Towards everyone I care about.

We have minutes left.

A breeze whips through the room, blowing some envelopes off the table.

Madeline looks around. Studies the ceiling, but nothing else happens. The breeze stops, letting one of the envelopes flutter to the floor.

No one says anything. We all know what it is. All the windows are shut, so it has to be the Deathwind. She hasn't calmed it down enough yet.

"We need to act. _Now,"_ I demand. My family's out there. Tommy's out there. I'm not going to stand here and let them get hurt—or worse. "If it's too dangerous to turn the officers from in here, maybe you should let yourselves get captured and put in cuffs. Since, you know, you're going to jail anyway."

Uncle Cassius shifts leg to leg. "Allie..."

I don't care if he ends up in the slammer. Not now. He's going to get out next time it storms, anyway. I turn to the others. "Madeline, you can call the Deathwind after they put all of you in the cop car. They won't shoot someone they've already arrested. They'll make your charges worse, yeah, but that's better than watching my town get leveled." Where am I getting these ideas from? I'm thinking so clearly, like my fear's sharpened every thought.

Pain flashes across her features. She takes a step towards me. "My town _did_ get destroyed, Allie."

I back away. She's shaking with fury, like the Deathwind's possessed her. I ready myself for the blow. The slap.

Uncle Cassius grabs her arm. "My niece has come up with the best idea so far. I suggest we take it. My sister's out there in this thing's path."

It's my chance. But there's one problem. One thing that can go wrong even if we stop the Deathwind. "Are any of us going to transform in this storm?"

Madeline shakes her head and turns it to the local news station. "I can't know. If the Deathwind goes crazy, we probably won't. That's only because there won't be any room left in the storm for us to." She looks outside. "And if we do, the storm's likely only going to take one or two of us. There are too many of us here for all of us to change at once. I can hold my transformations back, but the three of you can't yet." She glances at the coming light outside. "That's why I don't like the idea of us getting arrested."

"The same thing's going to happen if we stay in here."

"I know. But Allie, they _will_ take you to a hospital. To make sure you're not hurt. The storm might follow you there."

Oh, god. A _hospital._

NO. Not doing that.

I swallow. "True." I take a breath. "I'll have to run from everyone when you're done summoning the Deathwind. You know, in case I change. It's the only way. But you guys will be stuck here or at the police station."

Kyle looks at the floor. "I think I have the rest. We get arrested. Put in the cop cars. Then Madeline, you summon the Deathwind. Cassius and I can use the distraction to break out of the police cars and run before we transform." He's pale. Shaking. Kyle eyes the TV. He looks ready to throw up. "This might be my first transformation. I'm not ready for this."

"That's _if_ we stop the Deathwind," she reminds him.

A faint roll of thunder sounds through the air.

Another breeze whips through the room.

And the TV plays its news music and cuts to the weather guy. It's a special report.

My stomach lurches. Uncle Cassius turns up the volume. The weather guy stands in front of the radar, pointing out the storm. It's red and angry.

"...again, this has developed quickly and is moving towards Williams Town at forty-five miles per hour. Radar is picking up the possibility of large hail and some possible rotation on the southwest edge of the storm..."

I go for the door.

It's time.

I'm not waiting anymore.

Madeline and Kyle follow. "Let me get the door for you," she says. "I want it to look like we're letting you go. Put your hands behind your head. Then we're going to surrender."

I stand at the front door.

Do as she says.

Another roll of thunder sounds through the air. Tommy's got to be terrified. Waiting.

Madeline opens the front door.

Police stand between cars, guns drawn, waiting. All eyes are on me. I keep my hands behind my head and run. Run towards where I think my parents are. An officer tells me to keep running, not to slow down, not to look behind me. Another shouts an order. It's all muffled.

All I can focus on is the coming storm.

I can only see out of the corner of my vision, coming across the fields beyond town, but it's huge. Dark. It flashes like the clouds of an erupting volcano. It makes me wonder if all the fury of the earth has come out to destroy civilization itself.

Thunder cracks.

"Come on. This way." An officer's waving me closer. I reach him. He takes my arm. Leads me through the cars and towards the waiting ambulance.

I can't go in there. I can't.

"Allie!" It's Mom. Dad. They rush for me. Wrap me up in a hug.

"Let go!" I can't stand here any longer. They need to get away from me in case I do transform. I thrash. They won't release me. Why don't they understand?

Tommy's there. Even Bethany waits, standing up against a tree. A paramedic in white shoves him out of the way, gloves ready. They're smothering me. The storm's getting closer. Madeline's going to summon the Deathwind as soon as she's arrested.

"Let me _go!"_

At last, they do.

"Allie?" Mom asks.

"We need to leave!" I point at the storm. "We're going to have—"

The warning siren starts to wail.

Tommy jumps back. Dad grips the open door of the ambulance. I don't miss the scared way he looks at me. An officer yells at Madeline and the others to get on the ground.

"Allie?" Tommy asks. I know what his question is.

I breathe in. I feel fine. No growl. No lightheaded feeling. That means—

"The Deathwind's about to blow up."

I can't move. Not now. I face the fields beyond the last house. The storm's much closer, marching across the world. It drops low, turning, twisting like ash from a million burning cities. It's got to be miles across. It blocks all light from the dawn now. It's goodnight for Williams Town. Goodnight for everyone after Williams Town.

Madeline, Kyle and Uncle Cassius lie on the lawn of the last house, hands behind their heads. The police rush for them, cuffs ready.

I turn to Mom and Dad and Tommy and even Bethany. "That house has a basement. Get in!" What am I saying? That might not even protect them. Not if the Deathwind's going to be as bad as Madeline says...

Mom starts to run, but stops. Police swarm the yard. There's no way through. They're working fast, trying to arrest them before the storm hits. They don't have long. In a few minutes, they could all be—

The Deathwind bursts to life above the heads of the officers. Madeline's not waiting. The time for that is over.

Wind screams across the yard. Mom and Dad back away. Bethany screams. Tommy grabs my arm and pulls me back. The Deathwind spreads over the entire yard. The house. Lightning flashes and thunder roars. Two officers pull Uncle Cassius to his feet. Then Kyle. Then Madeline. She has her eyes closed. Her hair whips to the side.

Shouts ring out.

A gun fires.

Police scatter, going for the cover of their vehicles. Mom and Dad pull me back. Uncle Cassius dives to the side. Ducks. The Deathwind spins harder. The siren ebbs and flows. Car doors slam shut. Trash cans roll away. The Deathwind forms its funnel. Slams down onto someone.

"Let's go!" I yell, turning back to Mom and Dad and Tommy. But now they're frozen in terror, watching the scene.

It's all noise. Sirens. Doors closing. Engines. Shouts and radio crackles. And above all, the wind.

The Deathwind collects itself. Moves closer and stops over another group of officers. Dives again. Another cop goes down. It drives its way down into him, getting shorter, injecting him with its curse. Madeline stands in the middle of the confusion, dress whipping around her and hands cuffed. Kyle and my uncle are nowhere.

Bethany screams again. Staggers back. Trips over the curb.

The Deathwind swirls closer.

I grab Tommy's arm and wave at my parents with the other. "Run!"

The ice breaks and we dart away.

The world's a roar. Bethany climbs off the ground to join my mother.

We run for the edge of the yard. The Deathwind pulls at me. At us. It's zeroing in on my family.

"Go!" The paramedic runs with us, waving.

We break through underbrush. Out into the field. Towards a line of trees ahead. The siren wails louder like it's detected our escape. Clouds toil overhead. I'm not sure if it's from the coming storm or—

The paramedic goes down next to us.

It's the Deathwind. It's got him. That means Madeline's right behind us. She's escaped in the chaos she's caused.

Only my parents, Tommy and Bethany are here for it to choose.

I spread my arms out, shielding Tommy. Shielding Dad. It's all I can do. It's—

Silence. The wind stops. The roar dies with it.

Mom and Dad stop in front of me. Bethany crashes into them. I suck down air and stop too. Dad's staring ahead, at the storm that's closing in. He grabs Mom's arm and pulls her towards him. He's not aware that the Deathwind's still behind us.

Tommy appears at my side. "Allie..."

I turn to where he's facing.

The Deathwind's still, spinning in place over grass and dirt like it's lost all sense of direction. The paramedic lies in a heap back near the edge of a yard. Madeline's standing there, her cuffs broken and chains hanging off her wrists. She looks like a ghost in the dim light, eyeing the Deathwind and muttering to it, desperate. No police run after us yet.

"What _is_ this?" Dad asks. He's quiet. I don't miss the terror in his voice.

Thunder shakes the air. A hailstone falls and bounces off the ground. It's the size of a baseball. Then another falls, and another. Shouts come from the direction of the street, which is hidden behind trees. The police have another problem now.

Bethany lets out a terrified sob.

Mom sucks in a breath.

Tommy pulls me close to him. We're touching. Maybe for the last time.

There's no time to run for cover now. Besides, it won't matter.

The Deathwind gives one final, frustrated roar that cuts over the warning siren.

Rises.

I understand.

We're out of time. It hasn't turned enough people. The Deathwind's unleashing its full power.

It spins faster...faster...shooting its dark clouds towards the coming storm's jaws like it's making a sacrifice to the storm gods. The Deathwind grows smaller. More and more of it sails for the storm on a river of darkness, ready to annihilate everything living in its path.

Madeline reaches us. She stops, staring up at the Deathwind, shouting something that's lost in the roar.

"Look," Tommy says, pointing.

I follow his gaze.

Oh, god.

The storm itself spins slowly, dropping lower and lower to the ground. It's a lowering wall of twisting, turning death. It's miles across and it's going to swallow Williams Town and everyone I know and love.

Madeline gives a cry of terror. "It's started."

### Chapter Twenty-Seven

It doesn't even look like a tornado.

It looks like a dust storm descending from the sky with swirling demons inside, waiting to devour all living in their way. Vortexes form inside the main tornado. Rip across the ground. Disintegrate. Form again. Above us, the Deathwind shrinks, flying away to power the apocalypse.

It looms larger every second. I can't even make out its edges. It's a miles-wide carousel of dust, raging vortexes, and death. Its roar cuts over the siren, growing louder each second, punching my eardrums.

Terror bubbles up inside me. Explodes.

I have a feeling this thing can kill even Outbreakers.

Hail beats down on the earth. Mom cries out. She keels over, holding one hand to her shoulder.

"Back to the house!" Dad orders. He's full panic, taking Mom's arm. He reaches for me with his free hand. Grabs on. "Allie! _Move!"_

"No!" Madeline rushes in front of us.

Dad stops, then dives around her. He loses my arm. I stagger. The roar grows louder. Madeline pulls me to my feet. Dad lunges for me. She pulls me away. Mom cries out and Tommy yanks on my arm.

"There's still time!" Madeline shouts. She looks up at the shrinking Deathwind. "We can stop this if we turn someone right now! I can't make the Deathwind move." She lets go of me. "Pull one of them under it!"

Her words whip away on the raging wind.

And stab into me.

I have to choose who to turn.

The grass whips down. The tornado's closing in for the kill. Mom and Dad pull at me, screaming. Tommy stands in front of them, begging. Bethany pulls at him, strangling him with his own shirt. I can't...I can't...

The tornado's so close that the wind threatens to knock me over. Even the hail has fled. Branches crash into each other. One snaps. The whole world beyond the field is spinning, twisting, raging...

Bethany. She's the closest. I have no choice.

I lunge for her.

Grab her arm. Pull her away from Tommy. Under the Deathwind. She eyes the coming monster. Looks up. Looks at me.

Madeline closes her eyes.

Bethany screams.

Kicks.

Pain explodes in my knee and I let go. Bethany turns. Bolts for the trees. For any shelter she can find.

I straighten up, ignoring the pain. Reach for her. She's gone, disappearing into the dark. I can't even tell which direction she's running in. Mom and Dad grab my arms. They pull, but I hold back. Their mouths move, but I can't hear what they're yelling. Not anymore. The roar is everything. The world, black. I can't breathe.

Tommy pushes Mom and Dad out of the way. He grabs my arms and mouths something.

Turn me.

I stagger in the wind. It's black. It's hell. The tornado's close. I can't tell where the rest of the Deathwind is. Madeline's a blur next to me. She pulls me back. I keep Tommy's arm. The storm pulls at him, trying to take him away. I can't see Mom and Dad. I can't see the--

There.

The Deathwind's the size of a beach ball, gray against the darkness. It's almost gone. We have seconds to interrupt this.

I pull Tommy under it. "I'm sorry!"

He can't hear me. There's no way. I hug Tommy close, holding him in place. The Deathwind forms its funnel. Drops.

The wind screams.

Someone crashes into us.

We go down in the dirt. Earth batters us from all sides. Gravel pelts my skin like a million angry gremlins. The wind sucks the air from my lungs. I hold onto Tommy. He's not moving. Not reacting. He's the only solid thing left in the world.

I'm going to die.

Maybe I deserve this.

Maybe it's poetic justice.

The roar washes over us, popping my ears, stoning me.

Something hits the side of my head.

Then silence.

Nothing but silence.

### Chapter Twenty-Eight

I breathe in.

Lights sting my eyes. Figures stand over me and talk gibberish. They're blurry. Blobs of white and red. They hold me down. A door closes nearby. The world tilts and I'm sure I'm going to throw up.

I lift my arm.

It's covered in dirt. Mud. It can't be mine.

Why am I here?

I let my arm flop back down. My head's going to break open. Someone tells me I'm all right.

Pain sears.

I close my eyes. I don't care about anything right now. I only want the pain to go away.

That's all.

I fall back into the relief of nothingness.

* * * * *

When I open my eyes again, I'm lying in a bed and the pain on the side of my head is down to a dull throb.

A white ceiling spreads out over me. A television hangs in a corner. Something squeaky rolls past outside of the room.

I'm in a hospital. The place that Madeline warned me not to come to.

A hospital. They must have found me after the—

Horror explodes inside. My heart leaps. The Deathwind blew up. My family was there. Tommy was there. Williams Town was right in its path...

"Tommy!" I sit up, sending fresh throbs through the side of my head. The sun beats into my eyes from the window. "Mom. Dad..."

"Allie. We're right here."

I face the voice.

Tommy stands up from the chair in the corner. Mom's already rushing to my bedside. She leans over and places a kiss on my forehead. "You're all right, Allie. You got a nasty bruise on the side of your head, but the doctor thinks you'll be okay to go home tomorrow. They want to keep you here for observation."

Bruise. Head. That explains the pain. I reach up and rub my temple. It's tender. A little puffy, even. Something—a stick or gravel or piece of debris—must have hit me.

The Deathwind actually almost killed me.

Mom stands. Scratches line her cheeks. Her bare arms. They're scabbed. She has dirt under her fingernails. I lift my hand for a comparison. So do I, but at least my arms are clean and I don't seem to have any tubes in me.

"How you feeling?" Tommy smiles and grabs the rail of my bed.

Tommy.

Oh, god.

I held him there and let the Deathwind turn him. We wouldn't be alive if I hadn't. The tornado must have stopped right after that. The Deathwind got interrupted at the last moment and calmed down.

But Tommy shares this curse with me now along with far too many others.

I grab the white blanket and hold it close. I'm hyperventilating. Shaking. Hot tears stream out of me.

"Allie." Tommy wraps his arms around me, but I can't stop. Mom leans close and runs her hand through my hair. I sit there on the bed and bawl like a baby. I can't take it anymore. I've done horrible things. Tommy's life will never be normal again. My parents know what I am. My uncle's betrayed me on every level. He might even be dead.

Mom kisses me in my hair. "Allie, calm down. Everything's going to be okay."

"No, it's not. I'm a monster." I can't tell her what I've done. I just can't. That family in the garage. Tommy. Evansburg...

"No." Mom rubs my hair. "You're not, Allie. I don't care what anybody says."

"Can we be left alone for a bit?" Tommy asks.

His question hangs for a long time. I don't want Mom to leave. But I need to see Tommy. Alone.

I breathe out slowly, holding back a sob. "Can we?"

Mom rises. "Okay, Allie. Stay here with her, Tommy. I need to go check on her father."

She leaves, going slow to make sure I don't have another outburst.

Tommy hugs me close. I rest my ear on his chest. His heart beats slow and steady. "I'm sorry, Tommy," I babble. "I didn't want to turn you. I had no choice or we were all going to die. I was going to have Bethany turned instead but she got away and I couldn't catch her. I didn't want you to have to live like this. I—"

"Allie."

"...I'm so sorry. I really didn't want—"

"Allie!"

I stop. Lift my head from his chest. Tommy looks down at me. His eyes are soft. His face, forgiving.

"I didn't get turned. Like you said, I'd know if it got me. I never passed out through the whole thing."

I'm shocked into silence. I scoot to the edge of the bed. Sit up all the way. "Excuse me?"

Tommy shakes his head. "I'm not an Outbreaker."

"But—"

"I'm not, Allie. I'll even sit through the next storm to prove it to you." He's serious. There's no trace of a lie. No anything.

I fall back into the bed. Sink into the pillow. A new horror washes over me. The room spins with it. The ceiling comes down. "Then the tornado kept going."

"No, it didn't. Obviously, it ended before it got to us."

I look at Tommy. He twists his face like he's debating on telling me something. He turns to me. Slaps his hands down on his lap. Swallows.

"The Deathwind turned your father, Allie."

I blink. Sit up again. _"What?"_

The color drains from Tommy's face. "He saw the Deathwind coming down at us. He must have thought you were the one in danger. He pushed us both out of the way at the last second. I saw it hit him. Then the tornado stopped right there like Madeline said."

I remember something hitting us. Knocking us down.

I put my face in my hands. I'm relieved. I'm horrified. "Oh, _god._ What am I going to _tell_ him?"

Tommy looks out the window and back to me. "I think he knows already. You might not have to say anything. You already told your parents what the Deathwind does to you if it gets you, remember?"

"Is he here?" I ask.

"Yeah. They brought him in like the others. He's lying unconscious in another room. Your mom's just waiting for him to wake up. All the others the Deathwind took have woken up already. All the doctors around here are running around confused."

"Does my mom know, too?" I have to find out for sure. Mom's going to figure it out soon if she doesn't.

"I think she might."

"Great." I let my head fall to the railing. Big mistake, because it sets it off pounding again. "My family's going to be really interesting now."

Tommy's there, hugging me again from the side. "At least you won't have anything to hide from them."

"But...my _dad!"_

"I know."

I hug Tommy back. He's warm. Still human. Still normal.

"You know, Allie, I was totally willing to be turned."

"I don't want you to be."

"We were about to die. Even you were. It would have been worth stopping that."

His words make me think of something. "Madeline. Uncle Cassius. What happened to them?"

We separate. "Madeline's here, too. I saw her get put in another ambulance. She had a bunch of bruises. The tornado even almost killed _her_ it was so bad. I think your uncle and Kyle are in jail. I haven't seen them. But there's a lot of police going in and out of here, and a bunch of them down the hall by Madeline's room."

"Good." I can't believe how happy the fact makes me. How vindictive I feel.

Sixteen people in my hometown got turned last night, including one that I love.

Williams Town is never going to be the same.

Uncle Cassius didn't _have_ to tell Madeline to come here.

* * * * *

The drive back home is quiet.

Dad stares straight ahead the whole time. He makes all the right turns, but he stares ahead, lost. Mom tries to make some small talk. It's useless. None of us wants to discuss what we need to the most.

When we get home, we stand in the living room for minutes. I turn on the light and fiddle with the switch. Dad turns on the TV and keeps it low, but it does nothing to dispel the tension in the room. Mom finally leaves to go make some coffee for Dad. She leaves the two of us alone, waiting on either side of the couch.

We stand there, staring at each other. Time stretches out. Dad clears his throat, then turns away to follow Mom into the kitchen.

He's not ready to talk about it yet.

Neither am I.

When he starts to hear the growling in his head, he will be. When the next storm's coming, he will be.

I'll need to be there when it happens.

I turn away and go to my room. Flop down on my bed. Somewhere, Madeline and Kyle and Uncle Cassius are in cells. All they have to do now is wait for the storm that will let them escape.

The Deathwind's calmed down for now. It's caught up, satisfied that it's shed some of its energy. But it won't stay that way forever.

For now. I don't know how long we have before it blows up again. Madeline still needs to turn ninety-five more people if my math's right.

I close my eyes.

This has only gotten started.

* * * * *

"Allie. We must both be sleeping at the same time."

Dorian and I stand in a parking lot. It's a motel, lit up in tacky yellow in the dark. The blue car that belongs to his family's parked nearby. They've left Evansburg. Maybe for now. Maybe forever.

"Dorian." I pace in front of the closed doors. "My dad's...my dad's..."

"Turned. And your uncle's a jerk. Madeline's still got almost a hundred victims to go."

I stop and face him. "How do you know? I could have just as easily said 'dead.'" Can Dorian sense what I'm thinking right now?

Dorian digs his shoe into the concrete. There's a wad of ancient, smashed gum there. I can make out every detail of the pavement, every crack and every groove. "Something happened to us after we merged."

I lean against the car. "What?"

Dorian looks right at me. The black flecks in his eyes are pits so deep that I can't make out the bottom. "We have a link now, Allie. I don't think we can stay away from each other for too much longer." He steps closer. He's desperation. Longing.

He reaches for me.

I wake.

The room's mostly dark. My blanket's nestled under my chin, like Mom's come in and tucked me in. My computer's on, too. Mom or Dad has left it on the weather channel site, to a radar loop that's thankfully, empty.

I turn to face away from it. There will be time to think about it in the morning.

Because it's not over.

Not by a long shot.

Be sure to catch the next installment:

Torn (#2 Deathwind Trilogy)

Out Now at Your Favorite eBook Retailer!

Also be sure to check out the Destroyers Series, the prequel series from which the Deathwind Trilogy is based.

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