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Nadia ht after dark She looked around frantically, but so far nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary--and there was no sign of Mateo or Elizabeth

Chest heaving, exhausted, she braced herself against a nearby picnic table and tried to think Where would Elizabeth be? Dead center--right at the bull’s-eye of the target Verlaine had showed her But where was that? When they’d looked at it before, Swindoll Park had see, and noas filled with hundreds of people She should have downloaded Verlaine’s data onto her phone, so like that--

"Whoa Nadia" Kendall stood in front of her, wearing a pointy hat and soed he? Because it’s really more scary than sexy Just FYI"

Her ripped dress and crazy hair probably would make people stare on any day but Halloween "Kendall Hey No offense--gotta go"

"What, are you looking for Mateo? Iinsensitive, like, honestly, everybody could tell you were crushed out on him, so I think you should know about him and Elizabeth"

"I’ve been told" Kendall ossip, too Nadia pushed her hair back froene that runs in his faht have, like, stem cell therapy for it someday, but for now he’s bad news I don’t knohat Elizabeth’s thinking Taking a guy like that into a haunted house? That is basically asking for a total psychotic break"

Nadia grabbed Kendall’s arm "Did you say they’re in the haunted house?"

"They said they were going that way"

All her spells, all her ht Elizabeth, and they’d gotten their single biggest break from Kendall Bender

"Kendall, thank you," Nadia said, and then she took off running toward the gnarled old house with orange lights in all the s--using her last strength to reach Elizabeth and Mateo, if she could only an

23

MATEO STOOD IN ELIZABETH’S ARMS, WATCHING THE world catch fire

The walls of the haunted house browned, blackened, sparked into light and heat People began to shriek; parents snatched up their children and started running for the exits A guy in a Scream mask shouted, "Don’t panic!"

Elizabeth never htly, closing her eyes in satisfaction as the fire leaped and crackled around theood that feels"

"You’re going to burn us alive" Already the sh

"We won’t have a chance to burn," Elizabeth proan to quake