Blue Noon by Scott Westerfeld

last jump toward the stone spire. They landed in the high grass and rebounded without any pause.
    They rose above the trees again, and Jessica spotted two tiny figures standing close together by a fissure in the stone. “That’s them!”
    “They look like they’re in one piece,” Jonathan said softly. “Any slithers down there?”
    “Close your eyes.”
    She switched the flashlight on again, playing it across the small clearing, the rocks, and the treetops. Nothing burst into flame; no slithers hurtled screaming from the undergrowth. Jessica did catch, however, the dark purple flash of Rex’s eyes as he glanced up, then turned away, his expression of pain visible even from the air.
    “Oops.” Jessica turned the flashlight off. “Okay. You can look now, Jonathan. Landing in five, four…”
    They came down softly in the thick grass, about ten feet from Rex and the small, thin girl who stood next to him, clinging to his arm. She was about Beth’s age, wearing a ragged sweatshirt and pajama bottoms. Her eyes bulged as she stared at Jonathan and Jessica. She’d probably seen some pretty astonishing stuff tonight, but two people flying hand in hand was still pretty jaw-dropping.
    “Are you okay?” Jonathan asked.
    “Sorry about blinding you. Rex,” Jessica said.
    His eyes still covered, his hands shaking, Rex answered, “No, that’s fine. It cleared my head. You got here just in time.”
    Jessica raised an eyebrow, wondering what that meant. There weren’t any slithers here. Why had they been frying themselves just to delay her another minute?
    Jonathan dropped Jessica’s hand and crossed to the girl. “Cassie, right?”
    She nodded dumbly.
    “I’m Jonathan. Hey, your elbow looks ouchy.”
    Cassie looked at the red mark, then pointed into the cave. “Banged it in there. But you should see my ankle.” She pulled up one pant leg, revealing the dark bruise of a slither bite. Jessica winced, shaking out her own hand, which was still tingling with icy needles.
    “Ow!” Jonathan said. “I hate snakes.”
    “No. It was this stupid cat.”
    Jonathan glanced back at Jessica.
    She remembered that night, only her second time in the secret hour, when the black slither-cat had transformed horribly into a snake before her eyes. Then another dozen slithers had shown up, along with a darkling in the shape of a giant panther. And then the biggest surprise of all: finding out that the whole thing hadn’t been a dream, but an entire new reality opening up.
    Jessica frowned. On the phone this afternoon no one had mentioned what was supposed to happen after they rescued Cassie from the blue time. How would they keep her from spilling the beans to everyone in town?
    Of course, maybe the answer was obvious. Melissa would reach into the young girl’s mind and erase what had happened here. She had done it more than once before—to Jessica’s own parents, probably. And back when her talent was young and unformed, Melissa had forced herself into Rex’s father’s mind, leaving the old guy half crazy. The thought of his milky, empty eyes made Jessica shiver again.
    But maybe it didn’t have to be that way.
    “This is a pretty crappy dream, huh?” she said to the girl, rubbing her slither-bitten hand.
    Jonathan raised an eyebrow, and even Rex, who still looked pretty shaky, snorted out a short laugh.
    “What?” Jessica shrugged. “I’m just saying, as nightmares go, this one’s on the weird side. Right, Cassie?”
    The look of dazed confusion gradually faded from the girl’s face, her expression turning more thoughtful. “Well, I was kind of wondering: what’s going on here?” She looked up at the dark moon. “What happened to everything? And who are you guys?”
    “You’ve got a fever, right?” Jessica asked.
    “Not a fever. My grandma said it’s just a cold.”
    “Oh. Right. Okay,” Jessica said slowly and deliberately. “But sometimes when we’re sick, we have funny dreams.”
    Cassie crossed her arms.