Elle kept on walking. "It's where they put the bad little boys who didn't eat their vegetables," she sneered. "There are monsters under the beds and in the closets. And who hasn't heard of Doogie Howser?" If she'd heard of him, the rest of the world must have, right?

The suggestion that she needed to rest made Elle turn back to the boy, her fingers flexing around tiny lightning storms that flared, died, and flared again above her palms. "I'm fine," she insisted. "But if you want to stop and take a nap, I'm sure there's a grizzly bear around here somewhere that would love to babysit." She didn't need to stop; she wasn't weak like that.