Rae Voight has finally discovered the truth about her mother. Every horrible detail. That knowledge is like a sweet taste in my mouth, a sweet taste dripping juice down my chin. If only I could kill her right now, right this second--

But someone else has been watching my Rae. And if I kill her now, the way I'm burning to do, I may never find out who it is. That could be dangerous -- dangerous for me. This person wants Rae dead. But Rae and I are connected, in one of the deepest ways possible. And if that connection has something to do with why this other person is after Rae, then I could be the next target.

I don't think they know the truth about me. But I need to learn everything about them to be sure I stay safe. Without Rae my chance to gather information is lost.

So she has to stay alive. For now. But I won't be able to hold out much longer.

"Excuse me," Yana Savari called to the girl arranging sleeveless cable-knit turtlenecks on a table. "Do you have these in a six?" She shook the pleather pants she was holding in the girl's direction.

"I'll check the back," the girl answered, and headed off at a pace slow enough to show that she was doing it because she wanted to, not because she had to.

Yana shook her head. "She clearly thinks her poop could be made into designer jewelry."

Rae laughed. Yana could always make her laugh. Even when Rae had been in the hospital and Yana was a volunteer there, Rae had always ended up laughing at least once every time they talked.

"I know you love ordering around the help, but I don't wear size six," Rae told Yana.

"They have to be tight. That's the whole point," Yana answered. She narrowed her blue eyes. "Don't be trying to weasel out of our deal. I get to make you try on whatever outfit I pick -- that includes size."

"When I agreed to this makeover game of yours, I didn't know that I'd be risking organ damage," Rae complained. She scanned the boutique, looking for the perfect outfit to put Yana in when it was Rae's turn to be makeover queen. It had to be something Yana'd hate. That meant cute and sweet and ultra-girlie. Maybe one of those--

A girl passed in front of the rack of skirts Rae'd been eyeing, and Rae quickly turned around and headed as far away from the girl as she could, ending up in front of the discount rack tucked in the corner of the boutique.

Not someone I need to run into, Rae thought, thumbing through the shirts on sale. If she had to, she could make chitchat with Jackie Kane, but it wasn't something she wanted to do. Not something Jackie probably wanted to do, either. They'd hardly spoken to each other this semester, and Jackie'd only shown up at the hospital for one visit, one group visit. Yeah, it was better for both of them if Rae pretended that she hadn't seen Jackie. Who knew -- at this very moment Jackie could very well be pretending that she hadn't seen Rae.

"You're not actually trying to hide from me, are you?" Yana asked as she stepped up beside Rae.

"Well, you are pretty terrifying today. But no," Rae answered.

"Come on. I got the pants." Yana led the way to the dressing rooms and shoved Rae into the closest one with the clothes Yana'd picked out.

Rae unbuttoned her pale yellow silk shirt and slid it off, then pulled on the Boys Lie T-shirt Yana'd chosen for her. It hit her just above the belly button. Jackie wouldn't be caught dead in this, Rae thought. She went more for the classy-sexy, where it wasn't totally clear that you were going for sexy at all. At least it wasn't unless you shopped with Jackie and saw how totally calculating she was. She felt a little pang thinking about shopping with Jackie. It was like she was thinking about another girl -- a girl named Rae who looked like Rae but who was an alternate-universe Rae.

Yana's lots more fun, anyway, Rae thought. She stripped off her khakis and started working on the pleather pants. She had to lean against the dressing-room wall and stretch her legs out in front of her to get them zipped.

"Let's see you." Yana rapped on the flimsy rattan door of the dressing room.

"One sec," Rae called back. She straightened up, inspected herself in the mirror, and frowned. She pulled the Boys Lie T-shirt a little farther down to cover the top of her belly button because she didn't like the weird little dimply thing in the center, then stepped out of the dressing room.

"It's the antiyou. Exactly what I was going for," Yana said. She dragged Rae over to the long mirror at the end of the row of dressing rooms. "Yep. The complete opposite of your prep school khakis and little sweater sets. Or it would be if you hadn't left on the bra. That T-shirt should come with a label -- hand wash, cool iron, no bra." Yana reached over and fluffed Rae's curly reddish brown hair, studied her for a moment, and gave a satisfied nod.

"Just don't tell me to go pantyless," Rae answered. "I think you could do serious damage to yourself wearing pleather with no protection."

"Oh, yeah. That's your real problem with--" Yana stopped abruptly. "You've got to see this," Yana whispered, leaning close to Rae. "The Barbie who just came out of the dressing room is walking away with about five hundred dollars of merch. That stuff she has on the hangers -- those are the clothes she wore in here."

Rae looked in the mirror and caught sight of Jackie pushing her way through the daisy-patterned curtain that separated the dressing rooms from the rest of the store.

Jackie. The girl whose nickname with the guys was Snowball because she could be so chilly. The girl who knew exactly where she wanted to go to college, what job she wanted, how many kids she was going to have. Getting nabbed for shoplifting couldn't be part of her famous life plan.

"I know her. She goes to my school," Rae told Yana, realizing she hadn't responded.

"I'm not surprised. It's always the rich wenches who shoplift," Yana said, a vein of bitterness running through her voice.

Rae didn't want to get into a conversation about rich people versus poor people with Yana. The fact that Rae and her dad had so much more money -- mostly from an inheritance of Rae's mother -- than Yana and her father did always felt icky. She wasn't going to go anywhere near there.

"I used to be friends with her," Rae added. "Like eat-lunch-every-day, hang-out-most-weekends friends before, you know, I did my impersonation of a crazy person in the caf at the finale of my sophomore year."

Yana hit Rae on the back of the head. She had this rule against Rae even getting close to calling herself crazy.

"Anyway, Jackie was never into anything like that," Rae continued.

"Guess she got bored with--" Yana shrugged. "Whatever it is you guys use to make your college applications look impressive. Reading to the blind or whatever."

"Maybe I should catch up to her and..." Rae let the words trail off. Like Jackie would take advice from the school loon.

"Yeah, go get her," Yana urged. "She probably didn't realize she left wearing the wrong clothes."

"Okay, dumb idea," Rae answered, even though there was this little part of her that felt like she should do something, that she shouldn't let a former friend, even a former friend who was probably repulsed by Rae, do something so stupid. She shook her head, trying to flick the thought away.

"Let me change. Then it's my turn to create the antiyou." She turned to face Yana. "Definitely going to need something that will cover the tats," she added, her eyes going to the DNA tattoo that circled Yana's belly button.

"If you're not going to get that T-shirt -- which you should -- I want it," Yana said. "I've been saving up for something new. Everything I own makes me want to puke," Yana called after Rae as Rae started back toward her dressing room.

"Walking around with the words Boys Lie blazing across your breasts probably isn't going to improve your social life," Rae warned over her shoulder. "And I'm getting you a guy by prom time -- no matter what it takes." Rae pulled open the dressing-room door. It gave a squeak that sent a tingle from her finger bones all the way up to her shoulder.

"Wait. Rae, come back here. But try to look casual about it," Yana instructed, her voice intense. Rae turned around and saw that Yana's blue eyes were wide and her lips were pressed together into a thin line. Suddenly Rae could feel the air between them crackle with a current stronger than electricity. Fear.

Rae started toward Yana, heading back to the spot where the row of dressing rooms dead-ended at the long mirror. Her heart accelerated with every step, and it felt like the narrow corridor was closing in on her. She tried to act like a normal girl doing the normal shopping thing. "What's up?" she asked, her voice coming out too loud.

"We're being watched," Yana whispered.

Rae's throat closed up. She twisted the hem of the T-shirt with both hands, stretching out the material. "Where? Who?" she got out.

I am such an idiot, she thought. God, like a store in the Atlanta Underground mall is some kind of safe place. Like whoever's been following me would be unable to cross the threshold of a boutique.

"Slowly, look up and to the right," Yana instructed. "Past the edge of the mirror, right in the corner."

Rae obeyed, surprised she still had complete control over her body when her brain was sizzling with panic.

"You see it?" Yana asked.

Rae searched the wall, fighting the urge not to look, to just grab Yana's hand and run as fast and far as she could. But she didn't see anything out of place. Just the...

"You mean the security camera?" Rae asked, shoving the words through her tight throat.

"Yeah." Yana grinned, the tension slipping off her features. "I guess I meant we should be being watched," she explained. "Somebody's going to get their butt fired. They should have been all over your girlfriend."

A bark of laughter escaped from deep inside Rae. Then another one. She sank down onto the floor, laughter jerking out of her, so sharp edged, it brought tears to her eyes.

Yana sat down next to her and gripped Rae's shoulder tightly. "You okay?"

Rae couldn't answer for a minute. "Yeah," she finally managed to say. She let out another machine-gun burst of laughter. "But you should have heard what was going through my mind. I was thinking -- I was thinking--" Laughter took her over again, cramping her stomach, making the inside of her throat feel raw.

Suddenly Yana winced. "Oh, Rae, I'm sorry," she said. "You were thinking what it's completely normal to be thinking. You were thinking I meant we were being watched by the psycho who tried to kill you." Yana gave Rae's shoulder a squeeze. "I shouldn't have joked around like that. Not with everything you've--"

"It's okay," Rae interrupted, all desire to laugh suddenly sucked out of her. "I don't want you to treat me like a--"

"Like a delicate prep school flower?" Yana cut in, using her fingers to comb her bleached blond hair away from her face.

"Exactly," Rae answered. "Now, let me change. Wait until you see the outfit I'm picking out for you. I'll get my revenge for your little joke. Don't you worry about it." She turned around and made her way back into the dressing room, the door giving its horrible squeak again as she closed it behind her.

"Oh God," she muttered, catching sight of her reflection in the dressing-room mirror. Her mascara was halfway down her cheeks. She licked her finger and started wiping it away.

What a total idiot I was, she thought. Yeah, okay, some strange, weird, and very bad stuff has happened to me. But things are smoothing out a little. None of my friends has been kidnapped in weeks. It's been even longer since the attempt on my life. There hasn't been a pipe bomb waiting for me anywhere.

Rae shook her head. What normal person was relieved just to say nobody had been trying to kill them lately? But still, her life was calming down. She hadn't even gotten one of those gifts from... whoever the hell it was that had sent her the box filled with cremated remains.

Rae forced a smile at her reflection, then licked her finger again -- and froze.

Don't do this. Don't you do this again, she told herself. Don't have another freak-out over nothing. You should still be in the walnut farm if you do.

She pulled in a long, shuddering breath. "Just check it out," she said out loud. "It's going to be nothing, but you have to look."

Slowly, jaws aching, she opened her mouth as far as she could and peered inside. There, there near the back of her tongue, was a spot of... Rae leaned closer to the mirror, her harsh, hot breaths immediately clouding it up. She wiped the mirror with her sleeve. "It's not nothing," she whispered. There was definitely a small spot of fungus growing on her tongue.

She flashed on her mother's medical records, the memory of reading them so clear, it was as if the words had materialized in front of her face. One of the nurses had made a notation about a fungus on her mother's tongue. It was one of the first signs of her deterioration, of the wasting disease that progressed so quickly, she was dead before the doctors had the slightest clue what was happening.

So that's it, Rae thought. She knew she should feel more surprised, but this had been her fear for so long. She didn't want to be like her mother in any way. But she was, she was so, so much like her. And now she was going to die in exactly the way her mother had.

How long did she have? Months? Weeks? If it went exactly the way it had with her mother, Rae might only have days.

She felt the hysterical laughter begin to build inside her again. Whoever's trying to kill me might not even get the chance, she thought wildly. My own body might beat them to it.