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torture him in ways he couldn’t imagine. I could traverse with him.
    I glanced around, remembering how fast the cold and altitude affected Maryah. I’d bring him here then watch him suffer until his mind and body were frozen stiff.
    That didn’t seem like enough. He deserved to suffer much worse than that. I could traverse him to Antarctica, make him run from polar bears then let them rip him to shreds. I could feed him to great white sharks off the coast of Australia. The list of torturous deaths grew so long I didn’t know where I’d start first, but I eagerly anticipated that day.

 
    A RIVER RUNS THROUGH ME
     
    Maryah
     
    I wanted to go home.
    Rina, the mute ability-stealer, warned me that I needed to get out, and I wholeheartedly agreed. I kept focusing, trying every way I could think of to connect with my body. Rina sat on her mattress watching me but never uttering a sound. The strange black curtain fell around me again. When the dark lifted, Dedrick stood in front of me, beside a woman with snake eyes, and River.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I grumbled.
    River’s faux-hawk had grown out. He had a ten o’clock shadow of facial hair like he hadn’t shaved in weeks. I could see the family resemblance between him and his murderous uncle.
    “Did you miss us?” Dedrick asked all sing-song.
    River’s eyes were wide. He stepped closer, cocking his head while studying my transparent light form. A glowing ghostly version of the me he used to hang out with. The friend he tried to kill. If I could have produced saliva, I would have spit on him.
    “Holy shit,” he whispered.
    “I told you,” Dedrick sang. “It was easier than I thought. It took much longer considering the detour and all, but eventually she came around.”
    “Can she hear us?” River asked.
    “I’m quite certain she can.”
    River reached out, attempting to touch me. I backed away, but he stepped forward. I kept backing up until I was pinned against a wall. If I had a body he would have been pressed against it. His closeness brought back the repulsion I felt at Montezuma Well when he traced a heart on my palm and told me he’d never do something so evil as to throw me into the water alive and let leeches eat me. But he did drug me, and he would have shot me and then thrown me in the water. Now he stood in front of me again, just as evil as his uncle with who knows what disgusting thoughts running through his mind. Even though my voice shook, I wanted them to hear me. “Both of you sicken me.”
    River whispered too quietly for anyone else to hear. “I’m so sorry.”
    “Lexie,” Dedrick snapped. “Update me.”
    Lexie, the woman with snake eyes, spoke almost robotically. “She can hear you. Both of you sicken her.”
    Dedrick chuckled while River’s gaze dropped to his feet. Great, Dedrick’s drone could hear me. I’d have to be more careful of what I said.
    “She plans to be more conscious about what she says,” Lexie continued.
    She could hear my thoughts too? How could I stop thinking? Stop right now , I told myself.
    “She’s trying to stop herself from thinking.”
    I snapped at Lexie. “Stay out of my head.”
    “Not likely,” she replied. “It’s my job to hear your thoughts.”
    “This is such fun, isn’t it?” Dedrick clapped his hands. “And River?”
    River’s head jerked up at the mention of his name.
    Lexie spewed out her report. “Wondering how Maryah is here. He’s intrigued by how her soul could be trapped.”
    I stared at the table behind River, not wanting to react to anything. Table, table, table . If I kept my thoughts boring enough, Lexie would have nothing to report.
    “She’s diverting her thoughts by repeating “table,’” Lexie said. “River is angry that you asked me to intrude on his thoughts.”
    I hated her already.
    “Maryah hates me.”
    Dedrick snickered. “Don’t take it personally, Lexie. Maryah hates all of us. And River, don’t think of it as me intruding. I’m