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counter, my heart pounding hard in my chest. I would have used my inhaler, but who knew if they'd included that detail as something to look for. I heaved the basket onto the counter and stepped back my arms shaking from the weight and fear.
    "This all?" The guy behind the counter looked annoyed.
    "Uh, no, we have gas on pump nine." I stuck my hand into my pocket, still only feeling those three little bills. The attendant began ringing things up and stuffing them, none too gently, in bags. I guess he wasn't used to people actually grocery shopping in here.
    "Your total is $74.36." The guy behind the counter looked bored. Wait until we tried to pass off these singles. I pulled the money from my pocket and started to hand all 69
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    three across the counter. But Caelan, standing behind me and turned slightly so he could see the rest of the store, stopped me.
    "Just one," he said.
    So I peeled off one of the singles and handed it over to the clerk, watching his face for the slightest reaction.
    "Hey, lady, what do you think this place is?" He scowled at me.
    "I'm sorry I–"
    "Read the sign." He pointed one grubby finger toward the peeling sticker on the front of the cash register. "This ain't a bank. No $100 bills after dark."
    Technically, it was still twilight. But I wasn't going to argue with him about it. "Uh, sorry about that." I snatched my single back from him and stuffed it back in my pocket. "Caelan..." I whispered.
    "Give him the other two," he answered. So, I handed across the other two singles and waited for the clerk's reaction again, grimacing in expectation. But this time, he just made an exasperated face and snatched the two bills from my hand. He rang them up as $100, so he must have thought I'd given him two $50s. "$25.64 is your change and have a nice evening." He ripped off the receipt and then got annoyed with waiting while I gathered up all the bags.
    "We actually made money doing that," I said once the door closed behind us outside.
    "It is a useful gift." Caelan sounded slightly out of breath.
    "I guess." I hurried toward the car to toss everything into the back seat. But as I flipped the seat forward to climb in the front again, I looked up and found Caelan only now reaching the back of the car, and he was limping heavily.
    I got back out and hurried over to him.
    "Are you all right?" I caught him under his arm, as I'd done before.
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    "I will be fine. Extending my powers took energy away from healing and I..."
    "You still have that big piece of glass in your back," I whispered. Somehow, I'd sort of forgotten about it, figured it must have fallen out already, like all the others. I helped him into the passenger seat. "It is in much deeper than the others. I may need help," he said. That statement alone alarmed me so much I forgot to freak out about him reading my mind. He'd never asked for help this whole time and now...it must have been hurting him badly.
    I shut the door after him and ran around to the driver's side and got in.
    "I'm sure there's a doctor around here somewhere." I started the car.
    "No," he said.
    I looked over at him trembling and sweating. "You're kidding right?"
    "Find some place out of the main course of traffic and humans. Then I will tell you what to do," he said.
    "No way."
    "It is not difficult."
    "Easy for you to say. You don't have to do it." My chest was starting to seize up again.
    "No, but it is my back," he responded. Okay, that was a good point. But still...
    He sighed deeply. "If this does not work, you may take me to medical care immediately."
    "You think it's not going to work?" My hands were sweating on the wheel as I pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned gas station, just down the road from where we'd bought our gas.
    "It will work, but I must convince you to attempt it first."
    "So you're manipulating me?" I slammed the gearshift into park.

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    "Zara, please." He looked over at me, the weariness and pain