I knew what – who – it was suffocating me. I’d been waiting for the Shift and trying to prepare myself, but the second I slipped back into my other self, back into my green dress, back into the basement and Dex’s arms, his warm face and wet lips slap up against mine, I snapped. Sometimes our own strength can be a real surprise. Mine sure-as-shit surprised Dex when – somewhere around what must’ve been second seven or eight of his kiss – I launched him clear across the pitch-black basement. He fell into something that tumbled with him to the ground, making a loud clanking sound. Too preoccupied with trying to breathe and hold off another bout of nausea, I barely even heard his response. Something about ‘what’ and ‘hell’. I felt the same way. He clattered about getting to his feet. I opened my mouth to start a long-winded apology, hoping I wouldn’t throw up on him in the process, when the door flew open at the top of the stairs. ‘Whoever is down there, get up here.
