Raised eyebrows. “With Chris?”

“What are you really doing with Becca?”

Hunter shrugged and looked back at the twine, letting the rock untwist itself. “Nothing. She asked for my help. I’m giving it.”

“This help wouldn’t be the na**d kind, would it?”

A smirk. “No. Just talking.” Hunter lost the smile. “I’m not messing with Chris. Or Becca. I wouldn’t. After . . . you know.”

Gabriel nodded. Then the screen loaded, and they were slaughtering zombies again.

“You know,” said Hunter, not looking away from the apoca-lypse on the screen, “I could tie that rock into the coat.”

“For what?”

“For next time.”

Gabriel didn’t look at him, just took another swig of his soda, keeping his eyes on the screen so Hunter wouldn’t kick his ass at Xbox.

But he kept thinking about those words. Next time.

There couldn’t be a next time. This time had been all about sheer luck. Luck and power. So much power Gabriel could feel it sparking under his skin, even now.

He gave a short laugh. “What happened to ‘lying low’?”

Hunter shrugged. “We don’t have to tell anyone . . .”

Gabriel hadn’t been planning on telling anyone, anyway. Accidentally lighting the woods on fire was one thing. Willfully walking into a burning building Michael would definitely have a problem with that.

“I have my uncle’s old police radio,” Hunter said. “We could do this again. On purpose.”

Gabriel gave him a look. “You mean, instead of by accident?”

“I don’t believe in accidents.”

His tone caught Gabriel by surprise.

Hunter shrugged a little, keeping his eyes on the controller in his hands. “I just mean, sometimes things happen for a reason.

Think about it.”

He’d said something similar when he’d been accusing Michael of killing his father and his uncle. Gabriel wondered if Hunter still thought that wasn’t an accident, that maybe there had been more to the car crash than bad weather and poor timing. He opened his mouth to ask.

But then the zombies attacked, and their focus was back on the screen.

Gabriel pulled into his driveway well after midnight. The house was dark.

Then again, he’d destroyed the porch lights.

He hadn’t wanted to come home, but Hunter’s grandfather had come downstairs and made some bleary-eyed comments about it being a school night, and maybe it was time for friends to go.

Michael would probably be sitting in the kitchen, waiting.

He’d sent half a dozen texts asking where Gabriel had gone, whether he was all right. He hadn’t shut up until Gabriel texted back that he was at Hunter’s.

Gabriel steeled his shoulders and let himself into the house.

But the lower level was dark and silent. Chris’s window had been dark, and Gabriel didn’t see a light under Michael’s door.

Maybe his brothers had all gone to sleep.

Figured.

But then he saw the line of light under Nick’s door. His twin was still awake.

Gabriel hesitated in the hallway. He’d fought with Nick before, but this . . . this felt different. He lifted a hand to knock.

But he heard a girl giggle. Then the creak of a bedspring.

Gabriel snatched his hand away.

Holy shit. Quinn was still here.

His breathing sounded loud in the quiet hallway, so he took a step back.

Nick had never let a girl spend the night.

It wasn’t allowed, for one thing, and Nick wasn’t a rule-breaker. Michael always said if he could get them to eighteen without going to jail or getting a girl pregnant, he’d consider it a success.

For an instant, Gabriel entertained calling Nick on it. Walking in on them, creating enough ruckus to wake the house. He remembered Nick trapping him in the hallway, stealing his breath.

Humiliating him.

Stupid.

Gabriel gritted his teeth. What an ass**le.

But when he reached out to grab the knob, to throw the door wide, he thought of Layne, the intensity in her eyes when she stood up to him.

Sometimes you cut right to the quick, you know?

It made him think of the hurt on Nick’s face when he’d laid into Quinn.

He’d been the one to f**k this up. Not Nick.

So he turned and locked himself in his room, burying his head under his pillow when he heard Quinn’s giggle through the wall.

CHAPTER 13

This frigging substitute had to go. Gabriel hadn’t even done the previous night’s assignment, and now she wanted to start every class with a six-question warm-up that she would collect and grade each day.

He might as well just kill himself right now.

It wasn’t like he could wrangle his thoughts into submission, anyway. He kept thinking about the fire.

Last night had been a fluke. Too many things could have gone wrong. Sure, he’d held the flames for a few minutes but he could have lost it. He could have killed that kid. Hunter. Himself.

He’d felt that kind of potential before.

But this had been different. Working with Hunter was like finding another level of control. It was nothing like calling elements with Nick, who always backed away from risk.

Gabriel scowled. He didn’t want to think about his twin.

Because thinking about the fight with Nick just made him think about the fight beforehand, with Layne’s father.

At least Layne wasn’t here yet. Gabriel wasn’t sure what to say once she showed up.