Dream Dark by Kami García Page B

The dress flew up toward her fingers, but before it reached them the fabric burst into flames. Lena yanked her hand back, and the dress hit the ground, the edges already charred.
    “Holy crap!” Link stomped on the material until there was nothing left but a smoldering black mess.
    Lena turned red.
    Ridley was unfazed. “Way to go, Cuz. Couldn’t have done it better myself.”
    Lena watched the last curl of black smoke disappear. “I didn’t mean—”
    “I know.” Ridley looked bored.
    Lena’s powers had been out of whack ever since she Claimed herself, which was dangerous, considering she was both Light and Dark. Her powers had always been unpredictable, but now she could cause anything from downpours and hurricane-force winds to forest fires.
    Lena sighed, frustrated. “I’l get you another one before the end of the day, Rid.”
    Ridley rol ed her eyes, digging through her purse.
    “Don’t do me any favors.” She pul ed out her sunglasses.
    “Good idea.” Link slid on his scratched black wraparound shades, which had been cool for about ten minutes when we were in sixth grade. “Let’s groove, Sugar Cube.”
    They turned toward the steps, and I saw my chance. I reached for Lena’s arm and pul ed her close. She pushed my brown hair, which was always a little too long, out of my eyes and looked up at me from under her thick black lashes. One perfectly gold eye and one dark green one stared back at me. Her eyes had never changed back after the night Sarafine cal ed the Seventeenth Moon out of time.
    She looked up at me with the gold eye of a Dark Caster and the green eye of a Light one—a constant Caster and the green eye of a Light one—a constant reminder of the moment Lena realized she possessed both types of power. But her eyes were also a reminder that her choice had changed things for both the Caster and the Mortal worlds. And for us.
    Ethan, don’t—
    Shh. You worry too much.
    I wrapped my arms around her, and the feel of her burned through my veins. I could feel the intensity of it as I struggled to keep my shal ow breaths even. She tugged gently on my lower lip as we kissed, and I was light-headed and disoriented in seconds. To me, we weren’t standing in the middle of the parking lot. Images flashed through my mind, and I had to be hal ucinating, because now we were kissing in the water, in Lake Moultrie—on my desk in English—at the lunch tables—behind the bleachers—in the garden at Greenbrier.
    Then a shadow passed over me, and I felt something that wasn’t the result of her kiss. I’d had the same feeling before, on top of the water tower, in my dream. A suffocating dizziness wrapped itself around me, and Lena and I weren’t in the garden anymore. We were surrounded by dirt, kissing in an open grave.
    I was going to pass out.
    As my knees buckled, a voice cut through the air and our kiss, and Lena tore herself away from me.
    “Hey there. How y’al doin’?” Savannah Snow.
    I col apsed against the side of the hearse, sliding to the ground. Then I felt someone pul ing me up, my feet barely touching the asphalt.
    “What’s wrong with Ethan?” Savannah drawled. I opened my eyes.
    “The heat, I guess.” Link grinned and put me down.
    Lena looked shocked, but Ridley looked worse.
    Because Link was smiling like someone had just offered him a record deal. That someone being Savannah Snow—cheer captain, Third Degree Burns–level hot—and the Holy Grail of unattainable girls at Stonewal Jackson High.
    Savannah stood there, squeezing her books against her chest so hard her knuckles turned white.
    She was wearing almost the same dress Ridley had tossed onto the asphalt seconds earlier. Emily Asher was trailing behind her, wearing her own version of Savannah’s outfit, looking confused. Savannah stepped closer to Link, with only her books between them. “What I real y meant was, how are you?”
    Link ran his hand through his hair nervously and took a step back. “I’m good.