Shadow Train Read Online Free PDF Page B

healed wonderfully. Miraculously, in fact.
    â€œZhai!” she said when she saw him, and hurried over.
    â€œYou look gorgeous,” he told her. He summoned up the courage to take her hand and give her a kiss on the cheek as he handed her the bouquet.
    â€œYou can’t steal her away yet, Romeo,” Myka teased, her trademark edge of sarcasm in her voice. “I still have some finishing touches to put on her makeup.”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” Zhai joked as he sat down on the bed. “I’ll wait quietly. Don’t mind me.”
    Myka, as usual, was dressed as Goth as possible. She wore a torn black T-shirt with a faded red image of an anatomically correct heart on it, paired with a puffy black skirt, high black leather boots, and livid-red lipstick. Her nails were painted black and her hair was streaked with red; her nose and one eyebrow were pierced. Before he got to know her Zhai thought she was a little scary, but his attitude toward a lot of the Flats kids had changed since Raphael’s disappearance.
    Zhai had spent a lot of time with all of them as they combed the woods around Middleburg looking for his former best friend. Sometimes at the end of a long afternoon of searching he’d spring for pizza, since he knew money was tight for the Flats kids. He also spent a lot of blissful time at Lily Rose’s, hanging out with Kate while she recovered from the injury those monstrous Black Snakes had inflicted on her. In the process, he’d ended up spending a lot of time with the Flatliners, too. And gradually, a strange thing happened: they all started becoming friends.
    â€œWhere are Emory and Nass?” Zhai asked, breaking his promise to sit quietly.
    â€œNass was supposed to be here an hour ago. The boy is late as usual,” Dalton said with a sad shake of her head that Zhai knew was meant as a joke. She would definitely give Nass a hard time about it when he showed up, but that was just the way they were—always teasing each other. Their comic banter cracked Zhai up, and it gave him hope that one day he’d be comfortable enough with Kate to joke with her that way.
    â€œEmory should be here any minute,” Myka said, as she carefully applied Kate’s eyeliner.
    â€œWhat about Aimee? Has she hung out with you guys lately?” Zhai asked. He’d always been closer to Rick than to Rick’s little sister, but like the Flatliners, he was worried about her new choice of companionship.
    â€œNope. I’ve barely seen her since the gym got demolished at homecoming,” Dalton said. “We don’t have as many classes together since we started the new schedule. Besides, she doesn’t come to school much these days—and she hardly talks to me at all when she does. It’s like she’s a totally different person.”
    â€œStill spending all her time with Orias?” Zhai asked.
    â€œI guess,” Dalton replied with a frustrated shrug.
    â€œI don’t know how,” Myka said as she brusquely applied blush to Kate’s cheeks. “I work for him, you know, and he freaks me out. Always running around all perfect and gorgeous and always saying the right stuff. I watch him in meetings all day—he’s cold, like a snake charmer. I’m telling you, Aimee is in way over her head.”
    Dalton nodded and sat down heavily in an old Papasan chair in the corner, as if the whole conversation depressed her.
    Just then, the doorbell rang. “That’s probably Emory,” Myka said.
    They could hear Lily Rose’s muted greeting to the new guest, and a second later Emory poked his head into the room. He was wearing a black stocking cap, a pair of black pinstriped dress pants, and a black leather motorcycle jacket. He and Myka were the perfect couple, Zhai thought—they were the two most emo-looking kids at Middleburg High.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Emory whispered as soon as he was in the