Zal informs me, “you’ll be given a hero’s farewell, quite unlike this one.”She hands me a wood and brass spyglass, and within a moment, I’m looking through it, and down at my high school’s parking lot. I lift my head when she says that.“It sounds like my funeral here is already planned.”“Living’s a risk, Aza,” she says sharply. “Heroes die young. Would you choose to be less than a hero? Here, the sky will light with fire for you. Our funerals are their sunsets.”I see. How comforting. (How insane.)Below us, on the ground, people start to come out of my high school, dressed in black. I’m breathing fast, but I’m finefinefine, completely and totally fine——until the moment the crowd parts for the tall guy in the alligator suit.Then I’m not fine anymore. I say his name once, quietly, then louder. “Jason.”I can see, even from this far away that Jason Kerwin’s faking fine. The alligator head’s in his hand, and I can see his chapped lips through the spyglass.
