They dropped June off outside her house, assuring her that they’d help her get her car back tomorrow. She had been trembling too much to get behind a wheel.

“I’m gonna have so many nightmares,” June sighed.

“Keep that necklace on,” Bianca reminded her. “I’ll meet you early at school tomorrow, okay?”

June nodded and trudged up the stairs to her small home, which looked more like a cottage than the Tudors and Craftsman houses of Ayers. Leila moved up front. She had enjoyed spending time with June and was surprised by how easygoing a best friend of Bianca’s could be. If Bianca was all mood swings and dramatic outbursts, June was the balancing force that kept the two of them level. Except, of course, when it came to supernatural djinn.

“So,” Bianca said once they were back on the road. “Today has been… interesting.”

Leila gave a harsh laugh, then stopped. She never gave harsh laughs. She felt gross, the skin of the djinn somehow still sticking to her. Was he watching her now, at this moment? Could he see and feel everything Leila did? That cackling sound must have come from whatever effects he had on her.

“Does it hurt?” Bianca asked. “Having the djinn… you know.”

Leila chugged more water. Her mouth had felt dry all afternoon, her skin itchy and tight. “It doesn’t hurt,” she began. “I just feel wrong. Like I’m not myself. There aren’t enough showers to get this weird feeling off me.” She strained to hear that voice inside her head, that caustic, snide commentary she’d heard when she’d driven Foster home. Nothing.

She sighed, sinking into the passenger seat. “I don’t feel anything now. But, Bianca, we gotta get this thing out of me. I feel disgusting.”

Bianca nodded, her eyes still on the road. “I’ll do some more research, okay?”

Leila’s eyes fluttered. She was so, so tired. This single day had felt like a week. She struggled to stay awake the whole car ride, and Bianca went uncharacteristically quiet to let her rest.

Half an hour later Leila tossed and turned in bed, trying to get comfortable despite that unwashed, unclean feeling that coated her like a layer of grime.

There, on her nightstand, was the iron ring she’d gotten for her birthday from her parents. Had it really been yesterday? She leaned over, about to put it on, when suddenly it flashed bright red.

“Gah!” Leila cried, yanking her hand away. It throbbed painfully, as if she’d touched a hot poker, even though she couldn’t see a visible mark.

She collapsed back in bed, clutching her hand. What did this mean? Was she a djinn who couldn’t touch iron now, either? And why had her father given them iron rings in the first place?

Leila screwed her eyes shut, willing herself to go to sleep so she could deal with all this in the morning.

Needless to say, this was not how Leila had wanted her senior year to go.

The next day, Foster picked her up at the same time, whistling as if nothing unusual had happened the night before. Bianca had already left to meet June, and Leila wished she’d woken up earlier to check in with her sister this morning.

“Are you all right?” Leila asked Foster as she buckled in her seatbelt.

“I’m great, babe,” Foster said, grinning at her. “Kind of embarrassed I passed out, though.”

“It’s fine,” she said soothingly. “You probably didn’t eat enough yesterday.”

Foster nodded. “Yeah, I really need to up my protein.”

She was lucky that Foster didn’t remember anything. He wasn’t even crafty enough to pretend he didn’t remember just in case he was testing Leila for whatever reason. For better or worse, Foster Hutchins wore his brain on his sleeve, and Leila wasn’t sure if she liked or disliked that about him.

They rode in silence the rest of the way to school. Leila noticed a white BMW sedan behind them, and she wondered who in Ayers had the kind of money to buy something impractical that would get dirty so quickly. When they pulled into the school parking lot, the car didn’t follow, probably headed somewhere more exciting with fewer potholes.

The mundane routine of copying notes from the board, grabbing books from her locker, and trading hi’s and hellos with her friends was enough to make yesterday feel like a dream. Here, in the harsh fluorescents of the senior hallway, was real life. Had she really gone to a mountain with a city in it yesterday? Had a djinn really wormed its way into her subconscious? She thought of the ghul in the pitch-black night, so eerie and strange. How could it have been real?

Without checking in with Bianca, it all felt so far away from her. She was tempted to write the whole thing off, like so many other parts of her life. She zoned out in class, struggling to bridge the magical world she’d witnessed and the normal one she currently occupied.

Leila diligently got out her notebook for science class, ignoring Shivani’s pointed looks from the other side of the classroom aisle. Finally, when Mr. Gordon turned back to the board, Leila looked up.

“You still haven’t told me if you’re going to the end-of-­semester party tomorrow night,” Shivani whispered urgently. “Spencer’s brother got a mini keg. It’ll be awesome.”

Leila almost laughed in her face. A party? The second she got home she was going to brainstorm with Bianca about how to de-djinn her body. But there was no way Shivani would understand that.

“Maybe,” was all Leila whispered back. She didn’t drink, and she wasn’t a big fan of being around drunk people. Besides, she’d probably have to help her dad pick out a Christmas tree for their mom. Even though Dad wasn’t Christian, she could tell he secretly loved trimming the tree every year.

The bell rang. Shivani shot her a curious look.

What? Leila mouthed.

“Why are you being so weird?” Shivani demanded, waving a mechanical pencil threateningly.

My period, Leila mouthed desperately, hoping the lie would convince her.

“Bullshit,” Shivani shot back.

Damn. “I’m just tired,” she whispered. “I’ll try to make it, though.”

Shivani gave her a look as if to say This isn’t over! She turned back to her notebook and Leila breathed a sigh of relief. Then she looked past Shivani’s face out the windows that overlooked the school parking lot.

There, idling by the front entrance, was the same white BMW.