Zombies vs. Unicorns (46 page)

A loud bang startled Tahmina. She heard a girl’s scream followed by a succession of hard pops like a hail of bullets. Gun in hand, Tahmina raced out onto the football field. Her breath caught as she looked up. The night sky was on fire with strange weeping flowers of colored light. The firecrackers zigzagged up into the dark with an audible hiss before exploding into tiny pinpricks of red, blue, green, and white that burst out yet again into rippling sparks. The crowd roared its approval.

“Hold on. We’re just getting this party started!” Javier shouted over the din. Grinning, he caught Tahmina’s
eye. “Sorry. I had an extra box under the bed. You gonna bust me, Officer Hassani?”

They all turned to look at her. Tahmina shook her head. “It’s prom.”

And then everyone was cheering, shouting “Fuck yeah!” Some of the football players nearby hugged her and offered her a beer, which she declined. Tansey Jacobsen threw her arms around Javier’s neck and kissed him hard on the mouth, leaving a bright red smear of lipstick across his cheek when she pulled away.

“Get ready! This is the best one yet.” Javier stood back and lit the tail on another firecracker. It shot straight up. For a split-second nothing happened. Tahmina craned her neck to the sky, anxious for the heat-quickening bang, for the moment of wonder. She couldn’t stand the waiting.

“I’m sorry,” Robin Watson said into the unbearable silence. “I’m sorry.”

And the sky exploded with new light.

LIBBA BRAY
is the author of the
New York Times
bestselling Gemma Doyle Trilogy and is the recipient of the 2010 Michael L. Printz Award for
Going Bovine
. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, son, and two cats of questionable intelligence. She has always found zombies to be vastly entertaining dinner companions who will eat just about anything, whereas unicorns are vapid bores who complain a lot and never bring good wine. You can visit her online at
LibbaBray.com
.

MEG CABOT
(her last name rhymes with “habit”—as in “her books are habit-forming”) is the #1
New York Times
bestselling author of over twenty-five series and books for both adults and tweens/teens, selling over fifteen million copies worldwide. Visit her website at
MegCabot.com
.

CASSANDRA CLARE
is the
New York Times
,
Wall Street Journal
, and
USA Today
bestselling author of the young adult urban fantasy series The Mortal Instruments. She is also the author of the upcoming prequel trilogy The Infernal Devices. She lives in western Massachusetts with her fiancé and two cats. She was once suckered by a unicorn into a real estate scam in Florida and now she doesn’t trust them. Visit her online at
CassandraClare.com
.

KATHLEEN DUEY
grew up in the Colorado mountains and now lives in Southern California. Kathleen’s young adult trilogy, A Resurrection of Magic, began with
Skin Hunger
, a 2007 National Book Award Finalist. The second book,
Sacred Scars
, was a 2009 Cybils finalist. Both books were honored as
Kirkus Reviews
“Best of YA” picks, featured in
Locus
, and are on state Teen Read lists. Kathleen is working on the third book now. You can learn more at
KathleenDuey.com
.

ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON
lives and writes in New York City, whose many charms do not include its smells or its weather. She is the author of the Spirit Binders trilogy, the first two books of which are called
Racing the Dark
and
The Burning City
. (Book three is in the works.) She has also written the entirely unrelated 1920s vampire novel
Moonshine
. You can find out more about her on her website:
AlayaDawnJohnson.com
.

MAUREEN JOHNSON
is the bestselling author of several young adult novels, including
Suite Scarlett
,
Scarlett Fever
,
Devilish
,
13 Little Blue Envelopes
, and its upcoming sequel,
The Last Little Blue Envelope
. She lives in New York City, where she eagerly awaits the zombie apocalypse. You can visit her online at
MaureenJohnsonBooks.com
.

MARGO LANAGAN
has written three short story collections:
White Time
,
Black Juice,
and
Red Spikes
; a novel,
Tender Morsels
; and a novella, “Sea-Hearts,” published in the anthology
X6
, edited by Keith Stevenson. She has won three World Fantasy Awards, two Printz Honors, four Aurealis Awards and four Ditmar Awards, and found herself on the shortlists of numerous other awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, Tiptree, and Shirley Jackson. Margo lives in Sydney, Australia, and is currently working on another novel and a fourth collection. She can be found online at
AmongAmidWhile.blogspot.com
.

GARTH NIX
’s novels include the award-winning fantasies
Sabriel
,
Lirael
, and
Abhorsen
, and the young adult science fiction novel
Shade’s Children
. His fantasy books for children include
The Ragwitch
; the six books of the Seventh Tower sequence; and the seven books of the Keys to the Kingdom series. His books have appeared on the bestseller lists of the
New York Times
,
Publishers Weekly
, the
Guardian
, the
Sunday Times
and the
Australian
, and his work has been translated into thirty-eight languages. He lives in a Sydney beach suburb with his wife and two children. Learn more at
GarthNix.com
.

NAOMI NOVIK
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of the Temeraire series and winner of the Campbell Award. She studied English literature and computer science and worked on computer games before writing
His Majesty’s Dragon
, the first of the Temeraire novels. Her latest,
Tongues of Serpents
, is the sixth. Naomi lives in New York City with her husband and six eight a large number of computers. Her website and LiveJournal are at Temeraire.org.

DIANA PETERFREUND
is the author of the four books in the Ivy League series, as well as
Rampant
and
Ascendant
, two books about killer unicorns and the kick-ass girls who hunt them. She lives in Washington D.C., so she has first-hand knowledge that zombies aren’t as scary as folks think they are. Visit her website:
DianaPeterfreund.com
.

CARRIE RYAN
is the author of two novels set decades after the zombie apocalypse:
The Forest of Hands and Teeth
and
The Dead-Tossed Waves
. The third in the trilogy,
The Dark and Hollow Places
, will be released in Spring 2011. She lives with her husband in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they are not at all prepared for the inevitable zombie uprising. Visit her website:
CarrieRyan.com
.

SCOTT WESTERFELD
is the author of many novels for both adults and teenagers, including the Uglies, Midnighters, and Leviathan series, and a vampire-zombie apocalypse duology,
Peeps
and
The Last Days
. He keeps well-stocked bunkers in both New York City and Sydney, Australia. Visit him online at
ScottWesterfeld.com
.