Out of This World Read Free

told her he’s a Wildling, or that she’s suddenly crushing on him.
    â€œGood,” is all I say. “Thanks for covering for me.”
    â€œI wasn’t just doing it for you,” she says. “How’s Josh? Is he okay?”
    â€œJosh … went away.”
    â€œWhat’s that supposed to mean?”
    My heart begins to sink as I hear the faint edge of her usual belligerence.
    â€œHonestly,” I say, “I don’t really know. It’s some kind of Wildling thing, I guess. He just took off. He didn’t say where he was going. He didn’t”—my voice catches for a moment—“say when he’d be back.”
    â€œThis is bullshit.”
    â€œNo,” I shoot back at her. “This is the truth. You don’t get to call it bullshit just because you don’t want to hear it.”
    She glares at me, but I remember the advice Theo gave me earlier in the night, before I came by to get Ampora to cover me while I went out to Tiki Bay for the meeting.
    Just give her the hard stare, no budging .
    So instead of looking away like I usually do, I hold her gaze until she’s the one to break eye contact.
    â€œBut he’s okay, right?” she asks, all the aggression gone from her voice.
    I want to tell her that what she’s feeling for Josh isn’t real. It’s only because of the pheromones that Wildlings give off. But that seems mean-spirited. And really, what do I know? Maybe she really does like him. He’s a good guy. I crushed on him for years—long before he became a Wildling and there was any chance that pheromones were involved. So why can’t it be the same for her?
    Except I can’t tell her any of that, either. And for sure I don’t tell her that we assume he’s gone looking for Elzie. If Joshand my sister have something to work out, I’m not going to be standing in the middle. Des would say she’s a bitch and deserves to feel bad, but I can take the high road.
    â€œIt’s Josh,” I say, answering her question. “Lately he’s been surprising everybody with how he can deal with anything that gets thrown at him. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
    She nods. “Mamá called around eleven.”
    Oh, crap.
    â€œWhat did you say to her?”
    â€œDon’t worry,” Ampora says. “I was polite.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œIt’s cool. We had a deal. You don’t tell Papá and Elena about the trouble I got into, and I cover for you. She thinks you’re sleeping over.”
    Wow. Ampora should get in trouble with the Riverside Kings and then crush on Josh more often. This is the most she’s said to me in years without biting off my head. And she actually covered for me? I guess she took me seriously when I told her that if she wants to hang with Josh, she’d better get used to me being around, too.
    â€œSpeaking of which,” Ampora goes on, “we should get back inside.”
    I nod. “What’ll Papá and Elena say when they see me in the morning?”
    â€œThey’ll be so happy we’re getting along that they won’t even stop to ask how you got there.”
    â€œI owe you,” I tell her, giving the chain of her swing a little pull.
    â€œI know,” she says. “Big time. And I won’t forget.”

“Don’t live inside your head so much,” Tío Goyo says, and I start.
    But he’s right. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing. I’ve been walking beside him, staring at the ground and not paying attention to anything but the soap opera in my brain.
    We’re still trudging along a shoreline that’s a counterpoint to the one south of Santa Feliz. At one point Tío Goyo began explaining how we’re a few layers deeper than the part of the otherworld that I first visited. Something about them all being layered, or is it that they exist in the same space, only sideways