We won’t have to kill anybody, Nick reminded himself. We won’t. We’ll figure out some other solution. We will.
He just didn’t know what that solution could possibly be.
EPILOGUE
Jackson walked carefully, sandwiched between his mother and his sister. He tried to keep his thoughts just as confined. His brain had been fritzing out a lot lately, and he knew if it happened again here, in a dangerous cave, his parents would totally freak out.
Also, he didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of those other kids, Eryn and Nick. His stepsiblings.
The real humans. The ones who . . .
Don’t think about that, he told himself, swinging away from panic like someone barely avoiding a cliff. Think about . . . limestone. Sandstone. The beauty of a cave biome.
He knew that he and his sister, Ava, were the only ones who could actually see the cave around them right now. Dad had programmed them to have only ordinary vision, just like anyone else, but Jackson and his sister had figured out how to upgrade their eyes—even giving themselves the ability to see in the dark. It had been easy.
But now, while the others clutched flashlights and still stumbled constantly, he knew better than to brag about his own skills. He knew not to say, Take a look at the veining in that rock!
He also knew not to say, Was I the only one who saw those papers Eryn and Nick hid from us as soon as they saw us coming in that door? Was I the only one who read what was written on those papers? About how . . . how . . .
Jackson’s knees started to buckle.
No! No! Stop thinking about it! His brain screamed at him. Or, he screamed silently at his own brain. He was never quite sure which way it worked. His brain—or possibly his own self—screamed back at him, I can’t stop thinking about that! I have to do something! If anyone else sees those words, if Eryn and Nick decide to obey them, I have to . . .
Jackson’s body pitched forward. Ava and Mom grabbed for him, but it was too late. His inner circuits sizzled and zapped. He felt his mind blanking out.
His last thought was, It’s okay. I can think about this later. I won’t forget. I’ll figure out how to handle this.
There was still time to fix everything.
There had to be.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my sister’s family—Janet, Robert, Will, Jenna, and Megan Terrell—for acting as consultants on certain aspects of this book.
Thank you to my friends Linda Gerber, Erin MacLellan, Jenny Patton, Nancy Roe Pimm, Amjed Qamar, and Linda Stanek for reading early versions of parts of this book and offering helpful advice.
Thank you to Sharon McCubbins, school media librarian at Cumberland Trace Elementary School in Bowling Green, Kentucky; and Violet Fairweather and Alecia Marcum, librarian and former librarian at William H. Natcher Elementary School, also in Bowling Green. When they invited me to speak at their schools—and then my visit came soon after a nearby sinkhole swallowed up eight Corvettes—they gave me a good idea for where to locate an important scene in this book.
And, as always, thank you to my agent, Tracey Adams, and my editor, David Gale, and everyone else at Simon & Schuster for their help.
About the Author
Margaret Peterson Haddix is the author of many critically and popularly acclaimed teen and middle-grade novels, including The Missing series, the Shadow Children series, Claim to Fame, the Palace Chronicles, and Uprising. A graduate of Miami University (of Ohio), she worked for several years as a reporter for The Indianapolis News. She also taught at the Danville (Illinois) Area Community College. She lives with her family in Columbus, Ohio. Visit her at HaddixBooks.com.
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Also by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Found
Sent
Sabotaged
Torn
Caught
Risked
Revealed
Redeemed
Sought (an e-Book original)
Rescued (an e-Book original)
THE SHADOW CHILDREN
Among the Hidden
Among the Impostors
Among the Betrayed
Among the Barons
Among the Brave
Among the Enemy
Among the Free
THE PALACE CHRONICLES
Just Ella
Palace of Mirrors
Palace of Lies
The Girl with 500 Middle Names
Because of Anya
Say What?
Dexter the Tough
Full Ride
Game Changer
The Always War
Claim to Fame
Uprising
Double Identity
The House on the Gulf
Escape from Memory
Takeoffs and Landings
Turnabout
Leaving Fishers
Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Haddix, Margaret Peterson.
Under Their Skin / Margaret Peterson Haddix.—First edition.
pages cm
Summary: Twelve-year-old twins Nick and Eryn investigate why their mother and new stepfather are keeping secrets, why they are forbidden to meet their stepsiblings, and, most important, why their lives are in danger.
ISBN 978-1-4814-1758-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4814-1760-0 (eBook)
[1. Science fiction. 2. Robots–Fiction. 3. Human being—Fiction. 4. Extinction (Biology)—Fiction. 5. Secrets—Fiction. 6. Twins—Fiction. 7. Brothers and sisters—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.H1164Rdm 2016
[Fic]—dc23
2014036962
terson Haddix, Under Their Skin
(Series: # )