Swarm Read Free

posting about the club. She could work anyone who was willing to be part of a crowd.
    â€œI think your hair’s pretty cool, actually,” he admitted.
    â€œYou are a freak !” Sonia grinned and linked her arm through his. “But you’re not so bad, when you’re not going psycho. And hey, we’re practically Cambria royalty, right?”
    A familiar voice called from behind Ethan. “Hey, everyone! Free shipping for your Christmas packages!”
    Ethan turned. It was the guy who’d been stealing paper in the Office-O. He was in the doorway, shouting at the people on the street. His girlfriend stood beside him, warming her hands in the folds of her frilled skirt.
    â€œSeriously!” she added. “Mail your Christmas presents here and now. We’ve got packing supplies! Wrapping paper! FedEx forms! We’ll spring for it all!”
    A crowd began to gather, their arms full of shopping bags. They all looked tired and hopeful enough to believe in a Christmas miracle.
    The guy lifted his arms above his head. He had a thick wad of cash in each hand.
    â€œHuh,” Ethan said. So much for them having no money.
    â€œQuit stalling and let’s go,” Sonia said, dragging at his elbow.
    â€œDoes that seem weird to you?” Ethan asked, pointing at the couple.
    â€œEthan, I know weird, and that’s nothing like it. Free stuff always pulls a crowd.” She stared at her phone. “But this is weird. Whose phone is this?”
    â€œIsn’t it your—” Ethan began, but a convulsion struck his throat, like his Adam’s apple was expanding. “I should forget she’ll never I’m not good enough how could I—”
    Ethan stopped talking. His throat felt like someone else’s, and his voice sounded like someone else’s too. But worst of all were the words he was saying. They weren’t his anymore, after all that time he’d spent learning to speak, even though the voice could do it better. Suddenly his words felt like someone else’s, and he couldn’t get them out right.
    He tried again, “I just want what I can’t but it’s something I never—”
    This wasn’t the voice going haywire. No. It was his own voice—his Ethan Cooper voice, the one he’d spent his whole life trying to claim—somehow turned alien inside his own mouth.
    Panic roiled his gut.
    â€œI tried but it’s never wanted to know everything—” This was not him talking! Even his lips and tongue felt wrong, like a dentist had shot him full of novocaine.
    â€œBrain fart again?” Sonia asked, dragging him away from the Office-O crowd. “Come on. Because I’m still going to your nightclub, even I have to take you to the psycho ward first.”
    Ethan turned to her, his mouth working to explain but no sound coming out.
    Finally he managed to shout, “Mesopotamia!”
    It was his code word, something he’d chosen when he was a kid—a fail-safe, in case he ever had to make sure it was him talking and not his other voice. He hadn’t needed that word since he was ten.
    â€œYou are so random,” Sonia said calmly.
    â€œHello? Hello!” Yes, the pall was lifting. The words came out almost normally, and his throat felt like his own again. “Sorry, I didn’t recognize myself for a minute there.”
    Sonia was frowning at her phone again. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Come on, this Dish club of yours isn’t going to investigate itself.”
    Ethan let Sonia propel him away from Ivy Street and toward the Heights. He handed out a few more flyers as they walked, but he couldn’t use the voice with Sonia watching. After what had happened, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to speak at all.
    Right now all he wanted was for Nate to not be on the door when he rolled up with Sonia Sonic in tow.

CHAPTER 3
BELLWETHER
    THERE WERE TWENTY-SEVEN PEOPLE IN line. Not enough to