54

It took the rest of the afternoon, a raid on Mrs. Rappaport’s closet, and a cheeseburger (medium rare, spicy mustard, toasted bun), but by the time Finn and Topher got to Gracie’s house, I was costumed.

“Well?” Gracie asked the guys as she spun me around in the driveway. “What do you think?”

“Aaah,” Topher said, incapable of looking at anyone other than his girlfriend. Gracie’s Sexy Nurse costume had robbed him of the power of speech.

“Erm,” said Sherlock Finn, eyes wide. “Do I get three guesses?”

“If you say Sexy Big Bird, I will punch you in the throat,” I warned.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Finn said.

“Come on!” Iron Man, aka Garrett, grabbed his sister’s hand and pulled her down the driveway. Topher followed, his eyes still on Gracie.

“Come on, you guys,” Gracie called to us.

“In a minute,” I promised.

The wind was picking up, blowing hard enough to send the last of the leaves to the ground and make little tornadoes, the tiny funnels gathering speed and spinning down a street filling with superheroes, witches, and monsters who giggled as they ran from house to house, their bags already drooping with candy.

Finn waited for our friends to get a little farther away, then he drew me into the shadows. “I like the mask.”

I kissed him.

“The wings are cool, too,” he eventually said.

I’d woven an entire bag of feathers into an old shawl of my grandmother’s. Gracie had pinned the most colorful feathers in my hair. She’d also dug into her treasure chest of makeup and painted bold streaks of violet, gray, and turquoise around my eyes. Under the shawl, I was wearing black tights and a black football jersey of her dad’s that went down to my knees. As long as I kept my wings on, no one could see the name and numbers on the back of it.

The wind stirred my feathers. I touched the fat piece of amber-colored glass hanging around my neck. In the bottom of my grandmother’s jewelry box, it had looked like a garage sale leftover. In the half-light, with the wind gusting, it glowed, transforming me.

“This is a magic amulet,” I whispered into his ear. “I am an owl, bird of the night. I see everything. I know everything.”

“Do you know what I’m thinking?”

“Yes. Beware, boy, or I’ll turn you into a toad and eat you.”

* * *

We followed Garrett for hours: running up driveways, cutting through yards and gardens, begging him to share his loot and laughing as he found a million and one reasons why he wouldn’t. His Iron Man costume was one of the best out there, but I don’t think he cared. For a while, we walked with some of his buddies. Their parents wore costumes, too, video game characters and football players and vampires, lots of middle-aged vampires, some sipping from coffee to-go cups that did not have any coffee in them, given how often they tripped over their own feet.

Topher spent a while on the phone, lagging behind and talking into it so quietly I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Gracie gave him a dirty look when he caught up to us and pulled away when he tried to put his arm around her waist.

“What’s going on?” Finn asked.

“Party at the quarry is hot.” Topher kept his voice low enough that the parents ahead of us wouldn’t hear him.

“No,” Gracie said.

“The place doesn’t have ghosts,” Topher said. “I asked. But it does have Jell-O shots, dancing, and the possibility of a bong or two.”

“Nothing good happens there,” Gracie said. “I’m not going.”

“All those stories are exaggerated,” he said. “It’s just a way to get girls nervous so they’ll want their boyfriends to hold them tight.”

“Well, maybe you should find a different girl,” Gracie said.

All that magic in the air, squealing kids, spooky music, free candy, and those two had to fight. I was beginning to see signs of zombification in both of them, but Halloween was the wrong time to bring up the subject and, besides, I had better things to do.

Finn and I took advantage of every shadow to sneak in kisses. When thin-boned fingers of clouds raced over the moon, it felt like I could soar.

* * *

Gracie’s mom had given permission for Finn and Topher to hang out until midnight watching movies with us, so when Garrett’s bag was full, the four of us headed back toward the Rappaports’.

“I think you need some sweats,” Finn said for the fiftieth time. “You can’t claim to be a very wise owl if you get pneumonia.”

“I’m not just an owl, I am Athena.” I flapped dramatically, twirling so he wouldn’t see my teeth chatter. “Goddess of wisdom and weaving and weapons and cheeseburgers. Goddesses do not wear sweatpants.”

“They do when they’re in human form. I’m pretty sure it’s a Goddess Law.”

I sneezed. “Goddess Law? I am so using that.”

“I’m not kissing you again until you get something warmer.”

“How can you be boring and hot at the same time?”

We caught up with Gracie, Topher, and Iron Man and told them we were detouring past my house and would meet them in a few minutes. Finn insisted on draping his coat over my shoulders, and did it gently so I wouldn’t lose any feathers. The warmth felt better than I wanted to admit.

The rental car parked in the driveway brought me crashing back to Earth.

“Ugh,” I said. “My father has a date. Stay outside, okay? The sight of her might blind you.”