The Flight of the Silvers (Silvers #1)(34)

“Zack!”

The shout came from the hallway. Zack turned around just in time to feel wet hair, soft flesh, and terry cloth pressed against him.

He awkwardly returned Hannah’s hug. “Hey, there you are. Speedy McLeave-a-Guy. You know, I’m used to women running away from me, but not at ninety miles an hour.”

She pulled away from him. “What are you talking about?”

Amanda blinked at them in bafflement. “Wait. How do you two know each other?”

“This is the guy I was telling you about. We met at the marina.” Hannah turned back to Zack. “What do you mean ninety miles an hour?”

“You don’t remember what happened?”

“I remember everything going all blue and super-slow.”

“No, you went all red and super-fast. You buzzed around the bench like a hornet on crack, talking so quickly I couldn’t understand you. You ripped my sleeve, then ran away. And I don’t mean Benny Hill speed. I mean you were a freaking blur.” He eyed her sling. “What happened? Did you break your arm?”

“No.” Hannah shook her head, dumbfounded. “That can’t be right. That’s not possible.”

“Yeah, that was the consensus at the marina.”

David matched Hannah’s befuddled look. “Forgive me, Zack, but even after everything that’s happened today, I have a hard time accepting what you’re saying.”

Zack shut the parlor door, then addressed the others in a furtive half whisper.

“I don’t want to upset anyone more than I already have, but I think there’s more than one kind of weirdness going on here. Beyond the flying cars and new state lines, I think something might be . . . different with us. Hannah’s not the only one doing strange stuff. Look.”

He opened his drawing pad, flipping through a series of crisp white pages. “Last night, I only had three blank sheets left in this thing. Now I have eight. My last five drawings disappeared like I never did them. And then there’s this one . . .”

He turned to a rough sketch of a nerdy couple, the two lead characters of his comic strip.

“This used to be finished. Now it’s not. I lost about a half hour of pencil work. That’s the kind of glitch that happens on computers, not paper.”

“What makes you think you caused it?” David asked.

“Because I watched it happen,” Zack said, with a delirious chuckle. “The drawing changed right in front of my eyes.”

Hannah shook her head in turmoil. Amanda nervously tugged her sleeve over her hand. “Look, I don’t think this is the best time to—”

“I’m hearing voices,” David blurted. “I’m sorry, Amanda. I didn’t mean to cut you off. I just had to get that out. Since this morning, I’ve been sporadically hearing people that I can’t see. People talking to each other, laughing, whatever. I only hope it’s related to this phenomenon you’re discussing, because otherwise I’ve lost my mind.”

“You’re not crazy,” Hannah assured him. “At least not more than the rest of us.”

Zack studied Mia’s dark and busy expression. “Got your own weirdness to share?”

She looked up at him. “Me?”

“Yeah. You’re a quiet one, but I noticed you got even quieter when we started talking about this. Is it something you can tell us?”

For a man who’d just been slapped, Zack was awfully perceptive. Mia had been thinking about her own incident—the glowing tube with the candles and the note, a special delivery that somehow managed to find her eight feet underground. She didn’t know how to bring it up without sounding insane.

“Not really.”

Zack eyed her skeptically. “You sure?”

“Leave her alone,” Amanda growled. “She’s been through enough.”

“We’ve all been through enough. But we’re all old enough and smart enough to speak for ourselves.”

Mia nodded at Amanda. “It’s all right.”

“It’s not all right. We’re still traumatized. Still grieving over the people we lost. The last thing we need right now is to fill our heads with supernatural nonsense.”

Zack peered down at Amanda’s crucifix and swallowed his next slap-worthy zinger. “Look, I’m just trying to make sense of this.”

“And I’m telling you it’s too soon to try.”

“Too soon for you.”

“Too soon for all of us!”

Zack chuckled darkly. “Really? How interesting that you already know me better than I know myself. Is this a new psychic power or just an old trick you learned at Judgment Camp?”

As Amanda stood up, Hannah took a reflexive step back. Over the course of her life, she’d seen every dark facet of her older sister. Shoutmanda, Nagmanda, Reprimanda. Hannah knew, as both a summoner and a witness, that few things were less desirable than a visit from Madmanda.

“You unbelievable piece of shit. Are you such a sociopath that you need to mock people just hours after they’ve lost everything? Is that how you were raised?”

Now it was Zack’s turn to step back. His wide eyes froze on Amanda’s hand. “Uh . . .”

“I don’t judge! I don’t preach! I don’t condemn the people who don’t share my faith!”