Chosen One—special—destiny—now hero? I stepped back, rubbing my chest, although it wasn’t like the nail flick had hurt. “That’s semantics.”
“You can’t sit and wait for others to take action. You must be proactive. You must make decisions. You must move forward. Look what happens when you don’t.”
As cold as I’d been when flying on Neven’s back earlier, I now had to unzip my coat to let the wind blow through. It was too hot. “What do you mean?”
Neven watched me, as though waiting for more. It didn’t come. “Since we last saw each other, you’ve showered, slept, changed clothes, pet a cat, attempted groceries—”
“That was Red!” I regretted saying it even before I saw Red recoil. I didn’t have time to apologize. Neven kept going.
“Collective you! You had breakfast, you discussed the news—”
“How do you even know that?” Rainbow interrupted. Then, gentler: “I mean, you weren’t there.”
“I’m given the information I need to do my job. Hazel, had you even thought about what to do if the agency found you? Had you even considered leaving the apartment before they forced you out? And this, after I tell you that you must discover your destiny? This, after I tell you the world is in danger?” Neven’s voice edged dangerously close to anger.
I stepped back unwillingly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know where to start. I was . . .”
“Exhausted. I know.” She exhaled abruptly. Hot air formed puffs over her nose. “I forget how fragile humans are sometimes. I only mean to say that the day is not won by sitting and waiting.” She masked a twitch of pain as she rested her head on her paw again. “I cannot give you the answers.”
“I thought that’s why you’re here. Right? You said you’d offer answers.”
“Not about what’s next. I can merely help you find your own answers.”
So I knew just as little as before. “Trolls,” I said quietly, helplessly.
Red held up her phone to get our attention. “I found blurry photos that look like—well, like trolls, though not everyone calls them that. A couple towns up north say they’re practically under siege. Wellsboro, Damford, Mansfield . . . It’s just not getting attention because of what’s happening in Philly.”
“Damford?” Rainbow held out her hand. “Can I see that?”
Were we wasting time? The more I thought about it, the more it felt like I was missing something.
“If it’s not trolls,” I said aloud, sorting through our options, “I don’t know where else to look. Is whatever we need to fight even in Philadelphia? Pennsylvania? America? Is it new? Is it supernatural?” My mind raced, desperate to say something sensible. I hated the way Neven had chided me almost as much as I hated that she was right. “Um, is it the government? Is the MGA evil? That has to be it. Chosen Ones don’t fight evil just because; there’s always a personal connection. I was chosen for a reason. Right? It can’t be to fight trolls. It can’t be that”—I sounded so desperate I almost choked on the words—“that random. Right?”
“You’re still looking to me for answers,” Neven said quietly.
I swallowed a lump. For those few seconds, I’d thought I was onto something. It wasn’t that I thought I could take down Director Facet, or even wanted to; I’d simply hoped to have a place to start. Knowing about the MGA was the one thing that set me apart from the other Hazels, the one reason the Powers might choose me over anyone else on this planet.
When it came to trolls, I had nothing to offer.
“Um, guys?” Rainbow’s eyes were glued to the phone.
“What is it?” I asked.
Wordlessly, Rainbow passed me the phone. The screen was cracked like a spiderweb. She’d found a photo of a street; a gray blur in the left corner was circled. It looked like a small figure running across the road. Probably a troll. “Yeah, that looks like what we fought. Proportions fit.”
“Look.” Rainbow zoomed in on a house in the background. The sun hit a second-story window just right, lighting up the person peering behind it. Although small and blurry, I recognized her in the space of a breath.
“Another Hazel.” My head snapped up. “Five?”
“And she somehow ended up in Damford, the town worst hit by trolls,” Rainbow said.
Could that be a coincidence?
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Red said.
I passed the phone. “Five Hazels seems like overkill.”
Neven huffed. “Agreed.”
“Maybe the troll in Lina’s apartment wasn’t a coincidence, either,” Red mused. “There could be a link. Something could be drawing the trolls to us.”
“One way to find out,” I said with determination I hardly felt. I breathed in deep. “Let’s go to Damford.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
We were going to Damford—
Once Neven had time to catch her breath. We insisted. It would take hours to fly to Damford, and she’d just fallen from a damn balcony.
Neven had given in surprisingly quickly. She now lay curled up in a corner of the parking garage while the rest of us sat near some motorcycle spots farther down. There were plenty of cars in the garage, but we hadn’t seen any signs of life. The airport must’ve closed the moment the rift started ravaging the city.
I wondered what the rift was doing right now. I’d never been so far away from it. Rainbow was scanning the news using Red’s phone, but had only given us a bare-bones update about the chaos in the city.
The memory of those crowded streets last night made my head spin. It’d just been—too much. I hadn’t seen so many people in one place ever. Not immaculately dressed agents on my front lawn. Not patient parents tolerating their kids’ excitement over mini-golf. Not familiar West Asher-ton faces gobbling down burgers at Franny’s.
They’d been people, strangers, living lives far beyond West Asherton.
Strangers.
Of course. That was why Philadelphia freaked me out. I’d never been around so many strangers.
“Can I see the knife again?” Red sat cross-legged with her elbows propped on her knees.
