Page 25

Did I fall asleep? Bright light burned through my eyelids. Closed eyelids. I could see all the little veins crisscrossing over the thin skin. I must’ve fallen asleep at some point, though I didn’t remember dropping off. And why was the sun shining in my face? Ireland hadn’t seen more than an hour of strong sunshine since I’d arrived.

I groaned, cracking my eyes open. I was in the new wing somewhere, and one of the hunters was shining a flashlight in my face, asking why I was somewhere I shouldn’t have been. There were nearby voices—other hunters, probably—but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

But then my eyes adjusted to the light, and I froze. The new wing, I realized, was long gone, and… oh, man, was I not in Kansas anymore.

I lay on a sloping hill that led down to a purple stream, and the grass was the silvery white of fresh winter frost. The colors were all wrong. Bright, red-trunked trees grew white leaves, copses of pale purple bushes carried alarming bright blue fruit, and above stretched a sunless pink sky with pastel yellow clouds. There were moving clouds, but no wind. There was light, but no sun. There was definitely supposed to be a sun. Everyone knew that.

What the hell happened to me?My body was shaking, but not from the cold. It was the shock of jolting out of my happy daze into whatever this was supposed to be. Presumably not the real world anymore.

I squinted as I noticed hovering lights by the stream. They bobbed around in a familiar way. Little gassy balls of color, playing with one another. Where had I seen that before? My mind felt like it’d been stuffed with cotton balls, and the trippy landscape wasn’t helping.

You followed them here… It was coming back in hazy bursts, like a half-remembered dream. Only this was the part that felt like a dream. I remembered being in the new wing and hearing that song… A mesmerizing tune that pulled me through a door of light. I realized, with a stomach lurch, that this must have been where it led to. A hidden world. And, if it was hidden, who the heck was going to find me?

I lifted my hand to my brow, blocking out the light that seemed to be everywhere at once. It took just half a second to spot another person… and another, and another. Quite a lot of people, actually, all scattered across the sloping hills, tucked under the weird trees, or sitting by the stream as if everything was totally cool. But they didn’t seem very… with it. They were all staring into space, their lips moving in a steady rhythm. The whisper of the cumulative voices drifted across the hidden realm like wind.

Getting up, I dusted off the back of my jeans. A silver, glittery residue clung to my palms, so I wiped harder, sending cascades of powder floating to the floor. Sort of like snow, but not. Sort of like frost, but not.

Trying my best to ignore the bizarreness, I set off to explore. Every footfall made the grass crunch, leaving my distinct footprints. I saw more of these tracks trailing the hills, where people had obviously gone a-wandering. So, why wasn’t anyone walking now? It looked like someone had arranged them in this world the way they wanted them, like dolls or mannequins, then abandoned them. And not one of them seemed to be aware of their surroundings.

Edging down the slope, I spotted a familiar face standing on the stream bank. Dark hair, sourpuss face, fancy clothes—oh yeah, I remembered this girl. Xanthippe. The first to go missing, and the first to launch a discriminatory tirade at me. Gritting my teeth for the anticipated cry of “Get away from me, filthy Atlantean,” I headed toward her. But she didn’t even turn when I touched her arm.

“Xanthippe?” I shook her arm, this time. “Hey, Xanthippe!”

Her eyes stayed fixed on something in the distance as her mouth moved, whispering words I had to lean close to hear. “I’ll follow you. I’m here. I want to hear the music.” I waited for her to snap out of it, but she just kept repeating those three sentences, stuck on a loop. Her eyes were zoned out, entranced.

“Xanthippe!” I screamed in her ear, yanking on her arm. But every time I pulled her, she moved right back into her autopilot position.

Okay, this is freaking me out. I scanned the rest of the people, in search of more familiar faces. There must’ve been thousands of people scattered to the four corners of this place. Some wore modern clothes, so I guessed those were Institute people. However, they were a distinct minority. The rest, from what I could tell, were either re-enactment enthusiasts or… or what? Was it possible that they were actually from an ancient time? Old-timey jerkins and bloomer-looking pants stopped mid-calf. Long cloaks and men in plate armor. Hunched elderly folks in threadbare dresses and tunics.

One of the armored men wasn’t too far away—twenty yards or so. Making a decision, I left Xanthippe to her mantra and made a beeline for the soldier. The glowing orbs closest to him winged away, not wanting to be close to me. I didn’t mind that one bit; I didn’t want to be close to them either. The soldier was less frozen than some of the others, doing a kind of box-step on replay. I gave his sword a wide berth as I approached.

“Hello?” I patted him awkwardly on the back. “Can you hear me?”

The soldier continued to box-step, his chainmail clattering with each move, all the while speaking in an accent so thick, I wasn’t even sure he was speaking English. “Leanfaidh mé thú. Táim ag teacht. Fan liom. Leanfaidh mé thú. Táim ag teacht. Fan liom. Leanfaidh mé thú. Táim ag teacht. Fan liom.”

After a few repetitions, I realized it wasn’t English at all. It sounded Gaelic, but it might as well have been gobbledygook to me. His eyes had the same glazed sheen as Xanthippe’s.

“Am I dead?” Finch and Harley had comforted Persie and me with tales of the afterlife. They’d categorically confirmed its existence, after Persie had had a nightmare about dying. But even they didn’t know what lay in the great beyond, behind the proverbial veil. They knew it existed, because they’d had passed loved ones communicate with them, but there was still no roadmap. Maybe I’d found it. Maybe that was where the door really led.

If this was heaven, it wasn’t for me. And the floating orbs whizzing around made poor and slightly unnerving angels.

Determined to push away my increasing terror, I stepped away from the soldier and headed for a duo of elderly folks, an old man and woman, both drowning in dirty cloaks. Beneath, they wore a tunic and a dress, respectively. The woman carried a basket, while the man had his arm around her, and both had muddied, bare feet. Like they’d walked into a bog. Another strange detail. Where, here, could they have gotten their feet so filthy? The grass couldn’t be drier—it crunched, for Pete’s sake.

This time, I stepped right in front of them. “Excuse me?”

They stared right through me, both chanting the same mantra under their breaths: “I’ll follow you. I’m coming. Wait for us.”

“Who are you following?” I asked helplessly.

The same words repeated back.

“Someone else has to be awake!” I snapped, my nerves jangling. “Hey! HEY! Can anyone hear me? Where the heck are we?!”

Why was I the only conscious person here? Was I supposed to be like them, a glitching statue? A blood-chilling thought snuck into my head. What if I would end up like them? Was it only a matter of time? I had no idea how long I’d even been here.

I decided I’d find someone in modern clothing. Maybe they wouldn’t be as stuck as the others. But then I heard, behind me, a crunch of the silver grass. I whirled around, and there, approaching on the opposite side of the riverbank, was a man, and he was looking at me. A conscious, mobile, non-hypnotized man. He was dressed in old-fashioned clothing, too—black leather pants tucked into high boots, and an elegant jacket that split into coattails at the back. Brass buttons went all the way up to his high collar, and he carried a riding crop in his left hand.

Neither of us moved. He simply watched me with a sullen expression on his face. Sad and bitter.

“Hey! You!” I broke into a run, heading for the riverbank. He didn’t take his eyes off me. The closer I got, the more miserable he appeared. His shoulders were hunched and his red hair was all mussed, as though he’d been running anxious hands through it for hundreds of years. His mouth was set in a grim, melancholy line. Still, he didn’t answer. Had he forgotten how to speak? I supposed that could happen, if he’d been here long enough with no one to talk to. Or, worse still, perhaps he thought I was a figment of his imagination, so there was no use talking to me. I knew I’d go bonkers if I was trapped here alone.

Coming to a halt on my side of the river, I waved to him. “Can you hear me? Can you understand me?” He tilted his head, but his mood didn’t improve.

He didn’t say a word. In fact, the cheeky bastard turned his head away from me.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” I glanced down at the river. A bit of Air would launch me clean over this thing. However, when I tried to release my Chaos… nothing happened. A few pathetic sparks sputtered out, nothing more. Puzzled, I tested my invisibility spell instead. Sure enough, the shield of green slid over me. I let it slough away again, not wanting to go through the burning pains for the sake of an experiment.

Well, that’s weird… and probably not good. Wherever I was, it seemed to have some kind of ability dampener on it. Hexes and spells worked, but not innate powers. Still, I had to cross this freaking water. Even if I had to do it the hard way.

Sadly, I had no ‘walking on water’ spells up my sleeve. I didn’t love the idea of the water being purple, but it didn’t look too deep. And it was totally clear, revealing every rock and shiny pebble below the surface.

Keeping my gaze locked on the guy, I clambered into the water. My body braced for the shock of cold wet, but it didn’t come. The stream felt like I’d stepped into the Goldilocks of baths. Not too hot, not too cold. It did, however, have a bit of a current. I used my hands like paddles to help me cross.

I was halfway—a few more steps and I’d be there. The other side of the water. That’s where I’ll find answers. I slipped on a smooth stone on the riverbed, and as I regained my footing, I saw the man whisper something. The precise words were lost over the babbling rush of the water.

I thought I’d try again. “Hello?”

He turned his back on me and walked back toward the white-leafed tree behind him.

“Hey! Would you just… wait!” I swallowed the despair in my voice. “I need to—”

My words died on my lips as I noticed something else coming toward me at breakneck speed: all of the glowing lights that had been hovering around, minding their own business… Well, they weren’t minding their own business anymore. Whatever that man had whispered, these orbs had heard. And now, they were coming for me. Fifty or more of them, rocketing through the air.

Panic set in. Scooping my hands through the water as fast as possible, I struggled to cross the riverbed. But I was still at the center, where the current was strongest. Leaning forward, I forced my thighs to power through. If that guy thought he could send a horde of… aggressive lights after me and not get an earful, he was sorely mistaken.

I ran through the water, keeping my eyes fixed on sweet, dry ground. After clawing with all my might to haul my body out, I collapsed onto the crunchy grass… just as the orbs descended. They spiraled around me, blocking my view of the tree and the man. I turned this way and that, looking for an escape, but they only whizzed faster and faster, overwhelming my senses until all I saw was bright, blinding light.

And then, I saw nothing at all.