Page 35 of Circle of Death
I feel his hands on both sides of my head, cradling my temples. I can remember the same feeling from when I was a boy, when Dache was trying to get me to focus on something important. “Do you have the place?” he asks.
“I do.” I’m picturing the Amazon rain forest—the snippet of it that ended up at the World’s Fair.
“Don’t say it,” Dache whispers. “Just think it.”
At first, I feel nothing. As I start to form another question, there’s a bright flash and a small pop in my brain, like a bulb exploding.
Suddenly the scents and sounds of the garden are gone. I’m inhaling the thick atmosphere of the jungle. The air is heavy. The ground is spongy and damp. I feel myself walking, but in someone else’s body. I’m human, but heavier and taller, and my breaths are coming from a bigger, deeper chest.
I’m following two shapes into the underbrush. My vision sharpens. Not perfect, but enough to see the shapes resolve into a tall boy and a girl in a red dress. I’ve never seen them before tonight, but I’ve chosen them. That much I understand. I can smell his sweat and her perfume. I can hear their supple young hearts beating. They’re perfect.
I’m following them through the humid foliage, deeper and deeper toward darkness. A buzz of excitement rises in my belly, like an urgent tickle. When the girl turns around, I freeze. I feel heat rising in me. The girl grabs the boy. Now he turns to face me. There’s no waiting. I need to move.Now!
In an instant. I see their expressions shift—from surprise to terror. They know they’re about to die.
I know it, too.
I’m the one who’s about to kill them.
CHAPTER 42
“WHAT THE HELL did you do to him?”
It’s a woman’s voice. Familiar, but foggy. My eyes are still clamped shut. I’m lying on the ground with hard pebbles pressing into my back. I’m not sure where I am, but I’m in my own body again. At least I think so.
“He pushed too far too fast.” A man’s voice.
“You’re the teacher, dammit!Controlhim!” Another woman. Younger. As soon as she speaks, the haze in my brain starts to clear. I open my eyes and look up. I’m in my garden, with Margo and Maddy kneeling over me. Dache is sitting on the stone bench, hands folded in his lap. Margo turns on him.
“Dammit, Dache! Healwaystries to do too much. You know that. It’s the way he’s always been. That’s why he’s always just one step away from disaster. Hetrustedyou!”
“I cautioned him,” says Dache. “We discussed the risks.”
“You should havestoppedhim!” Margo fires back.
I blink and run my hands over my face. I jerk my hands away, expecting to see blood. But I don’t. Now I remember what just happened to me. Most of it, anyway.
I sit up and look at Margo. “I was there!”
“Where?”
“At the murder! The two kids at the fair. Last night. I just saw it.”
I see Maddy’s eyes narrow. “Whatmurder?”
“We’ll explain,” says Margo.
But Maddy is way ahead of her. “Is this why you didn’t want me at the fair? You knew somebody was going to be killed?”
My head hurts. I’m in no mood for an argument. “We knew it might happen, yes.
And we didn’t want it to beyou!”
“Who did it?” asks Margo. “Who’s the killer?”
I put my head in my hands, still a little shaky and confused. “I was. It was me.”
Margo glares at Dache. “What’s he talking about?”
