Burned

“And a bunch of it seems to be runnin’ into you. So, be careful, will ya, girl?” He reached out and brushed a springy blond curl from her face. “I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you.” He let his hand rest on her shoulder. His thumb gently caressed the line of her neck.
    “I’ll be careful,” she said softly.
    “You really don’t want to break up?”
    She shook her head.
    “I’m glad, ’cause I don’t want to either.”
    Dallas leaned down as he pulled her into his arms. His lips metStevie Rae’s in a hesitant kiss. She told herself to relax and melted into him. He was a good kisser—he always had been. And she liked that he was taller than her, but not crazy tall. He tasted good, too. He knew that she liked her back rubbed, so as he slipped his arms around her his hands went under her shirt—not to try to maul her boobs, like most guys would have. Instead, Dallas started to rub soft, warm circles over her lower back, pressing her closer to him and deepening their kiss.
    Stevie Rae kissed him back. It felt good to be with him . . . to block out everything . . . to forget for even a little while about Rephaim and all that stuff . . . especially about the debt she’d willingly paid that made her—
    Stevie Rae pulled away from Dallas. They were both more than a little breathless.
    “I, uh, I do have to go. Remember?” Stevie Rae smiled at him, trying not to sound as awkward as she felt.
    “Actually, I’d kinda forgotten,” Dallas said, smiling sweetly at her and brushing that stubborn curl out of her eyes again. “But I know you hafta go. Come on. I’ll walkya to the Bug.”
    Feeling part traitor, part liar, and part doomed prisoner, Stevie Rae let him take her hand and lead her to Zoey’s car, just like they really, truly could be boyfriend and girlfriend again.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
    Stevie Rae
    “That boy’s gone on you,” Kramisha said, as Stevie Rae pulled out of the school’s parking lot, leaving behind Dallas, who was looking more than kinda pitiful. “You know what you gonna do ’bout that other kid?”
    Stevie Rae braked the car in the middle of the blacktop that led to Utica Street. “I’m too stressed-out to deal with guy stuff right now. So if all you wanna do is talk about that, you can stay here.”
    “Not dealing with guy stuff just causes more stress.”
    “Bye, Kramisha.”
    “If you gonna act all crazy, then I won’t say nothin’ about it. Right now. Anyway, I got other more important stuff that you need to deal with.”
    Stevie Rae put the Bug into gear and kept driving off campus though she wished Kramisha would press her about the guy stuff so she’d have an excuse to leave her behind, too.
    “Remember when you told me to think harder ’bout my poems and such to try to get somethin’ that might help Zoey?”
    “Of course I remember.”
    “Well, I did. And I got somethin’.” She dug around in her huge bag until she brought out a well-worn notebook with pages that were her signature purple color. “I think everbody, including me until I focused myself, is forgetting ’bout this.” She opened the notebook and waved a page with her cursive print at Stevie Rae.
    “Kramisha, you know I can’t read that while I’m drivin’. Just tell me what you remembered.”
    “The poem I wrote right before Zoey and the rest of the kids took off for Venice. The one that sounds like it’s from Kalona to Zoey. Here, I’ll read it to ya:
A double-edged sword
One side destroys
One releases
I am your Gordian knot
Will you release or destroy me?
Follow truth and you shall:
Find me on water
Purify me through fire
Trapped by earth nevermore
Air will whisper to you
What spirit already knows:
That even shattered
anything is possible
If you believe
Then we shall both be free.
    “Ohmygood
ness
! I
had
totally forgotten ’bout that! Okay, okay, read it again, only slower.” Stevie Rae listened closely while Kramisha read the poem again. “It has to be from Kalona, doesn’t it? That part about being trapped by the earth makes it definitely from him.”
    “I’m practically sure it’s from him to her.”
    “It must be, even though that’s kinda scary, what with the whole double-edged sword beginning, but the end seems like a real good thing.”
    “It says, ‘then we shall both be free,’ ” Kramisha quoted.
    “Sounds to me like Z’s gonna get free from the Otherworld.”
    “And so will Kalona,” Kramisha added.
    “We’ll deal with that when it