"For you, Alex Walker."
"You came out of my cave with my crystal in your pockets," the thing said softly, "and Darkness pouring off you like steam off a kettle. A boy. A human-shaped boy, full of Darkness, wearing a ring that hums." Lena's eyes went to his thumb. "I could smell you on her for weeks. She thought about you every single day. That you'd come. That you always come. Do you know how rare you are?"
"Pretty rare," Alex said. "I'm one of a kind. Everybody says so."
"Brave," said the thing. "And so very stupid."
'Lexie,' said Luna. 'Listen to me. Don't touch her. Don't send anything into her. That's what it wants.'
'It's in her HEAD, Luna! It's been in her head since the CAVE! I pull worms out of heads, that's what I do now! It's just a bigger worm!'
'It is not a worm.'
He looked at Lena's hands, folded in her lap. A minute ago they had been shaking. A minute ago, for one second, she'd been in there, screaming at him to run.
