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    “FYI, I was born with you already swimming in my mind.” He thought so, at least. They’d always been with him. “It’s not like I could stop what happened. Whatever happened. Even you don’t know.”
    Just once he’d like a flash of total peace. No voices in his head, no dead rising to eat him—or any of the other unnatural things he had to deal with on a daily basis.
    Things like Julian waking the dead and Elijah predicting the death of anyone who passed him. Things like Eve whisking him to the past, into a younger version of himself. One wrong move, one wrong word, and he would change his future. Not always for the better. Things like Caleb forcing him to possess someone else’s body with only a touch.
    Just one of those abilities would have set him apart. But all four? He was in a different stratosphere. Something no one, especially the boys at the ranch, let him forget.
    But despite the fact that he didn’t get along with them, he wasn’t ready to be sent away so soon.
    Dan Reeves, the guy who ran the D and M, wasn’t too bad a guy. He was a former pro-football player who had given up the game because of a back injury, but he hadn’t given up the disciplined, by-the-book way of life. Aden liked Dan, even though Dan didn’t understand what it was like to have voices chattering inside his head and vying for attention he couldn’t hope to give. Even though Dan thought Aden needed to spend his time reading, interacting with others or pondering his future rather than “rocking out and roaming.” If he only knew.
    Uh, Aden? Julian said, bringing him back to the present.
    “What?” he snapped. His good mood must have died with the corpse. He was tired, sore, and knew things were only going to get worse.
    Just another day in the life of Aden Stone, he thought with a bitter laugh.
    Hate to be the one to tell you this, but…there’s more.
    “What?” Even as he spoke, he heard the shattering of another tombstone. Then another.
    Others were indeed rising.
    He pried his eyelids apart. For a moment, only a moment, he didn’t breathe. Just pretended he was an ordinary guy whose only concern was what to buy his girlfriend for her birthday.
    Where was the brunette? he wondered. When was her birthday?
    Aden, honey, Eve said. You still with us?
    “Still here.” For him, concentrating was the equivalent of counting to infinity, and Eve knew that. “I hate this. I’m at the edge, and I’m either going to jump myself or kick someone in the—”
    Language, Aden , Eve said with a tsk .
    He sighed. “Kick someone in the butt and force them to fall,” he finished properly.
    I’d leave you if I could, but I’m stuck, Julian said, solemn.
    “I know.” His stomach protested and his neck wounds burned from strain as he pulled himself to a crouch. The pain didn’t slow him; it, too, angered him and that anger gave him strength. He saw four sets of hands breaking through the dirt, uprooting grass and the colorful bouquets left by loved ones.
    He swiped up one of his daggers. The other was still embedded in the first corpse’s neck, and he had to jimmy itfree. He might have been hesitant to battle in the beginning, but he was mad enough now to sprint in swinging this time.
    Besides, there was only one way to handle four at a time…Eyes narrowing, he dashed to the corpse closest to him. The top of its head had just emerged. It was completely bald, no skin remaining. A living skeleton, the kind of thing nightmares were made of.
    You can do it, Eve cheered.
    Arm up…back…waiting…waiting…Finally, its shoulders came into sight, giving Aden the canvas he needed to work his magic. He struck, in one fluid motion rendering the dead…dead. Again.
    “I’m sorry,” he whispered. Not that it could hear him. Made him feel better to say it, though.
    One down, Julian said.
    Aden was already running to the next grave. He didn’t slow when he reached it, just raised his arm and slashed.
    “I’m sorry,” he