She rolls her eyes and fiddles with her ring, twisting it around and around her middle finger, clearly tempted to flip it at me. “Fine. Can’t tell anyone. Got it,” she mumbles. “Next, please!”

“You can still eat real food.” I make my way through the intersection, slowly picking up speed. “But you won’t always want to, since the elixir pretty much fills you up and provides all the nutrients you need. But still, in public anyway, it’s important to keep up appearances, so you have to at least pretend like you’re eating.”

“Oh, like you?” She looks at me, brow arced, lip curled into a smirk. “You know, how you sit there at lunch, tearing your sandwich to shreds and crumbling your potato chips into tiny little bits and thinking no one notices? Is that what you’ve been doing all this time? Keeping up appearances? Cuz Miles and I just thought you had an eating disorder.”

I take a deep breath and focus on driving, keeping my speed light, refusing to let her get to me. Like the karma Damen’s always going on about—claiming that all of our actions cause a reaction—this is where my action has led me. Besides, even if I could go back and do it over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’d make the exact same choice as before. Because no matter how awkward this moment may be, it’s still better than attending her funeral, any day of the week.

“Omigod!” She looks at me, her mouth dropping, eyes going wide, voice all high and squeaky when she says, “I think—I think I heard that!”

My eyes meet hers, and despite the fact that the top is down, despite the fact that the Southern California summer sun is beating straight down on us, my skin goes instantly chilled.

This is not good. Not good at all.

“Your thoughts! You were thinking something about being glad you didn’t have to go to my funeral, right? I mean, I actually heard your words in my head. That is so cool!”

I immediately raise my shield, barring all access to my mind, my energy, everything, all of it. More than a little freaked by the fact that she was able to do that when I can’t read hers, and I haven’t even had a chance to show her how to shield herself yet.

“So you guys weren’t kidding, were you? About the whole telepathy thing? You and Damen really do read each other’s minds.”

I nod, slowly, reluctantly, as she surveys me with eyes that shine brighter than ever. What was once your everyday, basic shade of brown, often hidden by crazy-colored contacts, is now a brilliant swirl of gold, topaz, and bronze—yet another immortality side effect.

“I always knew you guys were weird—but this takes it to a whole new level. And now I can do it too! Jeez, I wish Miles was here.”

I close my eyes and shake my head, striving for patience and wondering how many more times I’ll have to repeat this, when I brake for a pedestrian and say, “But you can’t tell Miles—remember? We’ve already been over that.”

She shrugs, my words glancing right off her, as she twirls a chunk of glossy brown hair around and around her index finger, smiling as a black Bentley pulls up right beside us with some kid from our school behind the wheel.

“Fine. Fine! Seriously, I won’t tell him. Chillax already, would ya?” She zeros in on our classmate, smiling and flirting and waving, even going so far as to blow a series of air kisses at him, and then laughing when he does a double take. “The secret’s safe. I’m just used to telling him when exciting stuff happens, that’s all. It’s a habit. I’m sure I’ll get over it. But still, you gotta admit, it’s pretty dang cool, right? I mean, how’d you react when you first found out? Weren’t you totally psyched?” She looks at me, smiling when she adds, “No pun intended.”

I frown, pushing the gas harder than I meant to, the car lurching forward as my mind travels back to that very first day—or, at least the first time Damen tried to break the life-altering news out in the parking lot at school. But I wasn’t up for listening then. And I was pretty much as far from excited as it gets. Then, the second time he insisted on explaining our long and tangled past, I was still on the fence. I mean, on the one hand I thought it was pretty cool that we could finally be together after centuries of being kept apart. But on the other, it was a lot to take in. A lot to give up.

And while at first we thought the choice was all mine—that I could continue to drink the elixir and embrace my immortality—or ignore it completely, live out my life, and succumb to my death at some point in the far distant future—now we know better.

Now we know the truth about an immortal’s demise.

Now we know about the Shadowland.

The infinite void.

The eternal abyss.

The place where immortals linger—soulless—isolated—for all of eternity.

A place we need to steer clear of.

“Um, hel-lo—earth to Ever?” She laughs.

But I just shrug. It’s the only answer I plan to give.

Which only prompts her to lean toward me and say, “Excuse me, but I so don’t get you.” Her eyes rake over me. “This is like the best day of my entire life and all you want to do is focus on the negatives. I mean, hel-lo? Psychic powers, physical prowess, ageless youth, and beauty—does it mean nothing to you?”

“Haven, it’s not all fun and games, it’s—”

“Yeah, yeah.” She rolls her eyes and slams back in her seat, pulling her knees to her chest as she wraps her arms tightly around them. “There are rules—a downside. Roger that, loud and clear.” She frowns, gathering her hair to the side and twisting it around and around into a glossy brown coil. “But jeez, don’t you ever get tired of it? Of always being so burdened, so weighted down by the world? It’s like, you have the best life ever. You’re blond, blue-eyed, tall, fit, gifted, oh, and to top it all off, the sexiest guy on the planet just happens to be madly in love with you.” She sighs, wondering how I can possibly be so blind to her truth. “I mean, let’s face it, you’ve got the kind of life other people can only dream of—and yet, you make it look like the road to Suck City. And honestly, I’m sorry to say it, but I think that’s crazy. Cuz the truth is, I feel fantastic! Electrified! Like a lightning bolt’s surging through my body from my head to my toes! And no way am I joining you on your journey to Sad Land. No way am I slinking around campus in fugly hoodies and sunglasses with an iPod practically implanted in my head like you used to do. I mean, at least now I know why you did it, to avoid all the voices and thoughts, right? But still, no fugging way am I living like that. I plan to embrace it—with both arms. I also plan to kick some serious Stacia, Honor, and Craig butt if they so much as bother me or my friends!” She leans forward, elbows on her knees as she narrows her gaze. “When I think of all the crap they put you through and how you just rolled over and took it—” She purses her lips. “I don’t get it.”