Conjured (38 page)

“You mean, you want to go home? Do you miss home? Your parents?”

“Sometimes, yes, of course. I love them, even as messed up as they are. I worry about them, that they’re worrying about me. But that’s not what I mean. I mean, I don’t want to travel forever. Someday I want a home that’s ours, that we stay in, that we fill with our things and our memories. It should have lots of skylights. Maybe be near an ocean. You know, oceans cover seventy percent of the Earth’s surface, and if you extracted all the salt, you could bury the continents in five feet of salt. It would be nice to be near an ocean.”

I think about a home by the ocean for Zach and me, imagine it with our own hall of photos, and decide it does sound nice. “All right,” I say.

“But not yet,” he says.

“Not yet,” I agree.

We lie side by side for a while more. The bread is gone. The clementines are gone. The cicadas are louder now, and the forest is silent. His body is wonderfully warm beside mine.

“Should we see another world tomorrow?” he asks.

“I’d like that,” I say.

I turn my head to look at him. He turns his. We are only inches away. He smiles at me, and then we kiss. We don’t do any magic. It’s only a kiss, magic on its own.

I’d like to thank my nightmares. Without you, this book would never have been born. Also, thank you to my magnificent agent, Andrea Somberg, and to my fantastic editor, Emily Easton, as well as Laura Whitaker and all the other amazing people at Walker who have worked to bring Eve’s story to life. Many thanks and much love to my family, who have given me so many wonderful memories. And a thousand kisses to my children, who make me feel alive, and to my husband, who makes my dreams come true.

Copyright © 2013 by Sarah Beth Durst

All rights reserved.
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

First published in the United States of America in September 2013
by Walker Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.
E-book edition published in September 2013
www.bloomsbury.com

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Walker BFYR, 1385 Broadway, New York, New York 10018. Bloomsbury books may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at [email protected]

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Durst, Sarah Beth.
Conjured / by Sarah Beth Durst.
pages    cm
Summary: Haunted by disturbing dreams and terrifying visions, a teenaged girl in a paranormal witness protection program must remember her past and why she has strange abilities before a magic-wielding serial killer hunts her down.
[1. Supernatural—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. Identity—Fiction. 4. Memory—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.D93436Co 2013     [Fic]—dc23     2013007847

ISBN: 978-0-8027-3459-4 (e-book)

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