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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I don’t know how long she kept me there. I had no concept of the passage of time. I could barely even register my own existence. As soon as I started to regain a sense of self, of the world around me, she’d come back and drain it away.

At one point, I became aware of a sound, a dull thudding, though I was in no state to pay it any mind. The thudding became crashing, which then turned into voices. A woman’s voice, mainly. I knew it sounded familiar but past that, everything was blank.

“She’s in here,” the voice said.

The noises got louder but I couldn’t lift my head to see, and even if I could, I didn’t have any sense of curiosity.

“Can you free her?” the voice said. “I’ll…”

The woman kept speaking but it was too hard for me to concentrate on translating her words into meaning. Instead, I just let them wash over me, let everything happen around me. I felt myself being lifted, carried, but it was a remote sort of awareness, as if it was happening to someone else, someone in a grey, bleak film.

And then, suddenly, I was Lucy again. I knew who I was, where I was. I was weak, absolutely drained, but I was . A sense of warmth flooded through me, all emanating from where Tennyson was holding my hand. The only thing that existed for me, the only thing that mattered , was that Tennyson was there. He always had been, always would be. That was everything.

“You’re safe,” I said, though my voice was thin and wavery. I couldn’t manage any more than that. I needed to know what was happening, where everyone was and if there was any way to get back home, but it was all too much right then. I could barely form the thoughts, let alone the words.

“Rest now,” Tennyson said. “I’ll be right here.”

I closed my eyes, and for the first time in what felt like forever, fell into a proper, restful sleep.

I was woken by the sound of an argument. I tried to sit up, worried it might be Other-me there to take me back to that awful little room, but it was only Tennyson and Mrs Spencer. We were in one of the platforms in the forest around not-dad’s compound, though I couldn’t tell if it was the same one where Nikolai and I had been. All the monitoring equipment was smashed up but it was a smart spot to hide out, as it was easy to spot anyone approaching from far off. It was crowded though, the platform wasn’t huge to start with and beside me, Tennyson and Mrs Spencer, there was Sam, both Nikolais and one of the escapees from the dungeons.

“She’s been through enough,” Tennyson said. He was trying to keep his voice quiet but the irritation cut through.

“We need to get her powers back,” said Mrs Spencer. “Or we’ll be stuck here forever.”

“We need to get the others and get to somewhere safe,” Tennyson argued. “We can worry about everything else once we have time to regroup.”

They continued arguing but I must have dozed off again, because the next thing I knew, I was being carried again. I was strapped to Sam’s back, the same way he’d been strapped to other-Tennyson. It was night and we were traveling through the forest. Tennyson was just ahead of us but I couldn’t see who else was with us.

“You’re okay,” I said to Sam. I wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement, but either way, he didn’t answer me.

The next time I came to, we were out of the forest. We were back in the compound, in not-dad’s office, I realized. That didn’t seem like a great idea but I was in no position to argue. Someone else was arguing though. Nikolai and Other-me.

“You betrayed me,” she said. “You helped them escape. I should have known I couldn’t trust you.”

“You can trust me,” he said. “I did what I did for a reason but we can’t talk about it here. Just open the portal back to school, once we’re there, I’ll explain everything.”

Other-me didn’t know the rest of us were there, I realized. We were hidden by the screen that sectioned off the seating area. So other-Nikolai had helped us escape, had he? And now he was trying to get the portal opened. I wasn’t sure which side he was playing, but I was grateful either way.

“You think I’m stupid,” she said.

Other-Nikolai laughed. “I’d be stupid if I did,” he said. “Look, maybe I betrayed you, maybe I didn’t, but if we keep hanging out here and your father finds us, you’ll never know the truth.”

She sighed. “Fine,” she said, walking over to her father’s desk. Sam stepped back to keep us out of sight and I realized there were several people behind us.

“I’ll hear you out,” she told Nikolai. “But it better be good.”

Some lights flickered as the portal became active at the office door. Other-me and Nikolai were at the far end of the office, and as soon as the portal activated, our group ran toward it.

I could hear Other-me screaming in rage behind us, and I worried she’d close the portal down before we got through, but her yelling was cut short and when I turned my head, I could see from the corner of my eye that other-Nikolai was keeping her restrained.

When we entered the portal, I lost consciousness again.

I woke up to a familiar sight. I was in my bed, in my room in the Red House. I glanced around to see if Hannah was there so I could tell her about my super weird dream, but nope. It hadn’t been a dream. My room was full of all the refugees from not-dad’s compound. Tennyson, Nikolai, Mrs Spencer, and a few others. And other-Althea, who had held down the fort while we’d been gone, though we hadn’t been able to return with her brother.

“No Althea,” I whispered.

“No,” said Tennyson. “There were several of us that couldn’t be found.”

I reached out for him and he took my hand. “We’ll find her.”

He nodded but didn’t look at me.

“Did they hurt you?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “No. Nothing like what they did to you. They were still only monitoring me when Sam and his mother found me.”

“And other you?”

He shook his head. “He got out with me but some guards found us while we were getting Nikolai and he stayed back to fight them.”

I sighed. I had no idea how we were going to get out of this one. Everything was such a mess, and I still felt so empty.

“Mrs Spencer and Nikolai managed to get a lot of her research, so we know quite a bit about what she was doing to you, what she was planning…”

“Can you reverse it?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “We’re not sure. If Althea were here, she might have a clearer understanding, but as it is, we’re relying completely on –” he glanced over to Mrs Spencer. “People we don’t necessarily trust.”

I thought for a moment. Can you still hear me? I asked him. If everything else were gone, I could live with it. It would be a relief in some ways, even. But if my connection with Tennyson were gone, I’d have nothing left.

He squeezed my hand. Always , he said.

“And we’re safe here?” I asked. “In the Red House?”

He hesitated before answering. “As safe as we are anywhere in this world, I think. Nobody knows we’re here yet. We got in without anyone seeing us, thanks to this world’s Althea. I’m not sure how much time we have, but as soon as we’re able, we’ll go back and get the others, then find a way home.”

I wasn’t sure how. We couldn’t get back to the compound without going through the portal and Other-me wasn’t exactly going to open it for us, and even if we got there, I had no clue how we’d manage getting home. Tennyson knew that, though, without me saying it aloud.

“For now, you need to rest more,” he said. “She didn’t just drain your powers, she drained your life force, according to her notes. And the best way to get that back is to rest a lot and eat well.”

“Well, luckily those are two areas where I excel,” I said.

He smiled at me, but it didn’t disguise the worry in his eyes.

The next few days weren’t exactly fun, living on top of each other, terrified we’d be discovered, terrified about what was happening to our friends. Despite the dark cloud over us, I didn’t hate that time. I had Tennyson all to myself for a change, and even though we barely talked, even though we were squished into a room full of people, just that quiet time with him by my side helped me heal more than any food or rest ever could. I knew we couldn’t stay that way forever, in our little bubble, which only made it more precious.

Mrs Spencer would sneak out for a few hours each night and bring back food and other supplies.

One night, after she got back, I called her over.

“More lasagna?” she asked.

I shook my head, then changed my mind. “Actually, yeah that’d be great, but I want to talk to you about something.”

I was feeling a little better, I could walk around the room without help and stay awake for hours without nodding off, but I was starting to get antsy. Tennyson and Mrs Spencer were constantly sniping at each other, Sam still barely spoke, and Nikolai seemed preoccupied. Other-Althea was silent and pale. The few others who had managed to escape with us kept pretty quiet, as if they were too scared to speak or they might get caught again. Even though I wasn’t completely recovered, I wanted to do something, to make a plan, to read over Other-me’s research again , anything.

She brought me over another slice of lasagna and all thoughts went from my mind for a few minutes. It was very delicious. But I couldn’t be entirely distracted.

“When you go to get the food,” I said to her quietly, “I assume you’re spiriting out of here?”

She nodded. “I go into the bathroom so the new kids don’t get freaked,” she said. “I think they think there’s a secret passage in there or something.”

I ate another bite of lasagne. “When you do it, it’s more like teleporting than what I was doing, right? You’re not just walking through the wall.”

She raised her eyebrows. “That’s more or less what you were doing too,” she said. “You weren’t actually passing through a solid object.”

That was news to me, but I had no reason to disbelieve her, it wasn’t as if I’d ever kept my eyes open.

“How far do you think you could do it?” I asked.

“Could I go back to that compound, you mean?”

I nodded.

She thought for a moment. “I don’t see why not. It’s not a matter of distance, just projection. They don’t seem to have wards against that sort of thing, seeing as how we could both do it while we were in there. The only trouble would be since we went there through the portal, I don’t know where the place is on a map. I might end up somewhere wacky, thrown off-course, but that’s always a risk anyhoo. I’ll just have to keep my wits about me.”

I nodded, thinking over our best course of action. “She took my sword,” I said. “We won’t be able to get home without that.”

“She didn’t have it with her research, in that room with you, or I’d have grabbed it.”

I had no way of knowing if she’d left the compound while she’d been experimenting on me, or where she’d even go if she had. “We can check her room here,” I said. “If it’s not there or at the compound, then it could be anywhere.”

“She wouldn’t have taken it anywhere her father could find it,” Nikolai butted in.

I looked at him, surprised. Then I looked more closely. “What?” I said. “How?”

It wasn’t our Nikolai at all. It was the Nikolai from this world.

He shrugged. “We thought it would be funny to switch for a bit,” he said. “I didn’t know things would get so ugly and he’d be left behind.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “So, we have to rescue Nikolai as well.”

He shot me with finger guns. “But on the plus side, you have all the insider information you could ask for!”

That was true, he could be helpful.

“Can you get into her room and look for the sword?” I asked him.

“I can, but I’ll tell you right now that it won’t be there. She’ll keep it close, probably on her person. She wasn’t sure what it could do but she knew it had some sort of power so she wouldn’t leave it sitting around somewhere.”

That made sense, though it meant I’d have to deal with her again at some point before we could leave. I wasn’t strong enough yet, though.

“Could you tell Mrs Spencer what she needs to do to activate the portal from here to the compound?” I asked him.

“I can tell her but she won’t be able to do it,” he said. “It can only be activated by Lucy or her father and even then, it needs their fingerprint.”

I waggled my fingers at him. “Well, we have that.”

“You can’t chop off your hand!” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “Have you never watched TV in your life? We can do that thing where we make a silicon mold of my fingerprints.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “At least it’s not retina scanning, I guess.”

I felt much better with a plan of action. It only took a quick online search to find how to do it, and then we sent Nikolai to the art department to get what we needed. It would take a day for the mould to set and then another day for the fake finger, which gave us a chance to strategize, and me a chance to get stronger.

After two more days, we were all well and truly sick of living in such close quarters. The escapees were getting a bit more confident and had even started talking about what they’d do next, how they’d try to contact friends and family members to find somewhere safe for them in the long run. I questioned them to see if any of them knew anything about Hannah’s father, but none of them had any information.

Tennyson, Mrs Spencer, other-Nikolai and I were all solid on our plan. But Sam, Sam still wasn’t talking. Not to his mother, not to Tennyson, and definitely not to me. He seemed angry that I’d come to this world, angry that I’d rescued him. He was completely closed off and I didn’t know how to get through to him.

Finally, the two days passed and my fake finger was ready to go. The middle of the night seemed the safest time for it, according to Nikolai. Not-dad liked to get a solid eight hours, and Other-me thought the compound was too creepy at night, apparently. There would be guards, of course, but they hadn’t posed too much of a problem before now. The main issue would be if they’d upped the security after our escape, because we were basing our whole plan on other-Nikolai’s information. There was also the risk of other-Nikolai luring us into a trap. Tennyson and I had discussed the possibility and couldn’t rule it out. All we could do was be as prepared as possible.

I wasn’t back to full strength as we waited on the lighthouse steps for Mrs Spencer to get the portal going, but I was much better. None of my powers had returned, and it didn’t feel as if they ever would, so I tried not to think about it. That was something to worry about after all this was over, once everyone was home and safe.

It seemed to take forever after Mrs Spencer vanished. Tennyson, other-Nikolai and I waited on the steps of the lighthouse, not sure if she would be caught, if she’d be able to trigger the portal, if our plan would work. We were too tense to talk, but that was okay. We’d been over the plan a hundred times.

Sam wasn’t with us. I’d half-expected him to come, if only to try to get himself caught again. I knew it was for the best that he stayed behind, but I wished he’d at least talk about what was going through his head. Other-Althea had wanted to come, to look for her brother, but it was too dangerous. I promised her I’d bring him back, but it would do nobody any good if she went only to get captured again. I hoped that was a promise I could keep.

Finally, the portal appeared and the three of us stood to face it.

“Okay,” said Tennyson. “You know the plan. Stay together, don’t get caught.”

Nikolai and I nodded and the three of us moved forward, through the portal and into the unknown.