This was something worse.
So why did he want to confront it?
His head ached a little. It felt like something, like someone, was trying to pry apart the boarded-up windows of an abandoned house, only it wasn’t abandoned at all—it was Owen’s house and the boards were there for protection. They seemed to be holding, but Owen didn’t know for how long that would be the case.
“I’ve seen it before,” Owen said. The confession rolled out of his mouth like a tidal wave, impossible to stop. “The magician. She drove it.”
Jake’s hands were back at his chest. He seemed to be struggling for air—breathing hard like he’d just finished running the football from one end of the recess field to the other.
“Me too,” Jake said. “I saw it too. It came to my house.”
Owen and Jake’s eyes unglued themselves fr
