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it.” 
    “Sherbet.”  
    “What about you guys?” Meredith asked. “How’d you get away from them?”
    “First, how did you lose them?” Cayne asked.
    They reached the van during Meredith’s explanation of how Dizzy had been so outraged over Mer’s running her over that she’d ended up making some tactical errors.
    “Meaning I got the chance to claw her face,” Carlin said.
    “And the others ended up having to keep her from going full meltdown,” Meredith finished. “Like, she’d already put every regular I could see on the ground.”
     As Julia climbed back to her seat, Cayne started explaining what had happened on their end.
    “I don’t understand how you’re still here,” Edan said, speaking for the first time. His typical I’m-so-clever-I-know-something-you-don’t undertone was gone, and his brow was actually furrowed. Julia was shocked to see his skin could wrinkle. “I saw Thierry. He had you by the foot.”
    Julia shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    “It must not have worked,” Edan said. “I don’t know many Chosen, but I’ve seen Thierry in action. If he touches you, you go.”
    And, in the silence, Julia thought the same thing the others didn’t say: unless you’re The One.
    She looked out the window and tried to pretend she was somewhere else. Cayne and Meredith made a plan to find a parking garage and get yet another new van.
    “I can help you find somewhere safe,” he offered Meredith. “Somewhere we could get in and out.”
    “Why don’t you switch seats with me in the next van,” Carlin said.
    Cayne cast a glance at Julia, like he was seeking her approval. She nodded weakly, tried to smile. “I don’t need supervision, and if I did, I’m sure Carlin would do just fine.”
    “I’ll keep you in line,” Carlin offered.
     
    Almost an hour later, they were riding around dark, glitzy St. Moritz in another van of the very same kind—this one green.
    “These Renaults are popular in Spain, too,” Carlin said. She lowered her voice and leaned toward Julia conspiratorially. “Many things were done in these back chairs in my school days.”
    “Seriously?” Julia popped out of Sad Mode, curiosity motivating her to rejoin the land of the living.
    Carlin nodded sagely. “I slapped a lot of hands—but not every hand.” She squared her shoulders and gave Julia a mischievous wink, and Julia was shocked to hear herself giggle.
    “My favorite—he was named Amadis.” She broke into a radiant grin. “You should have seen the size of his hands.” Carlin wiggled her own fingers. “Oh, he was such a macho man.”
    Just when Julia thought she might keel over at the hilarity of Carlin going on about her manly middle-school man, the Spanish girl’s face fell. “Did you have a lot of friends? Before,” she added softly.
    Julia shook her head. As she spoke, she scanned the road behind them for suspicious cars, but a surprisingly large part of her was right there, just chilling with Carlin. “I really didn’t. I was in the foster system, remember?”
    Carlin held her hand up, wobbling it like kind of .
    “American orphans, the ones that aren’t adopted, get placed in group homes or in foster homes, where people take care of them but only for a little while.” It seemed a sad summation of her childhood. Sad but true. “I went to a regular school,” she said, “and the other kids there, whose parents were alive, they didn’t really want to hang out with me.”
    To Julia’s surprise, Carlin’s jaw dropped. She waved at Julia’s All-Stars, then up, giving her the once-over. “But you’re so cool. Who would not want to be your friend?”  
    Blushing from the compliment, Julia shrugged. “Oh, you’d be surprised.”
    Carlin leaned forward again, close enough for Julia to smell her citrus gum. “Let me tell you this: I am feeling more happy with Cayne.” She smiled. “He’s not so bad. So let’s say this: When we find the Chosen who have an answer for your