Willful Machines by Tim Floreen

Author:Tim Floreen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

18

I could’ve stayed there with Nico for hours, just the two of us on our own secret tropical island, but I knew the longer we stayed, the more we risked Ray catching on to Nico’s trick. After a few more minutes we shook out Nico’s towel, switched off the sun, and made our way back into the gloom of Inverness Prep.

When we got to the third-floor corridor, I peeked around the corner to check on Ray. He stood right where we’d last seen him, outside Nico’s door. It looked like he’d fallen asleep standing up—something I’d seen him do a couple of times before. We returned to the boys’ washroom—deserted this time—and peered out through the shower stall window. Outside, the downpour continued.

“We’ll be soaked by the time we get back to your room,” I said. “What’s Ray going to say when he sees me?”

“I have towels we can use to dry off. You can borrow some of my clothes.”

I liked the idea of wearing Nico’s clothes. I imagined they’d carry some of his warmth with them.

“On the other hand,” Nico said, “climbing back won’t be easy. Are you sure you’re up for this? We can try to think of something else, Lee.”

I shook my head. “No way. Climbing over here—it was scary, but it felt good, too. Like I’d really done something, you know?” I slid open the window. “Let’s go.”

We couldn’t use our pucks to light our way this time—they couldn’t fly reliably in rain this heavy—so we stuffed them into our pockets. We could still see by the school’s exterior lights, although not as well. Nico crawled onto the branch. I scrabbled after him. My glasses filmed over with rain right away. I yanked them off and stowed them in my hoodie. Without them, everything farther than a few feet away became a blur, but at least I could make out the branch in front of me well enough. A gust of wind bustled through the tree. The limb underneath me shifted and tossed like a boat on rough water. My stomach dropped out of my body. Why had I insisted on doing this again?

“You okay?” Nico yelled.

I nodded. We made our way toward the trunk. The rain hissed down through the branches even harder now. I forced myself to keep my eyes on the tree limb in front of me and copy Nico’s movements, like I had before. That helped.

Then something appeared in my peripheral vision: a black shape, moving fast, straight at me. Along with that, a rushing sound, like the rain but louder. The thing rammed into my shoulder. I lost my balance and toppled forward, my chest and chin smashing against the rough, wet bark, my teeth clacking together. I flung my arms around the branch so I didn’t slide off.

“You all right? What was that?”

Whatever it was had vanished. A falling tree branch? A bat? Or else . . . I didn’t even want to think it.

“I don’t know,” I shouted. I pushed myself up again.

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