“I—”
The nearest troll attacked.
It shot up Dr. Torrance’s leg. Its claws hooked into her slacks. A second later, it crouched in her lap. Instinctively, she tried to back away, but she only shoved herself deeper into the armchair.
The troll leaped.
I bolted toward Dr. Torrance, knife in hand.
Alpha reached her first. She grasped the back of the troll’s head and spun, yanking the troll away. She flung it toward the kitchen. It slid over the tiled floor, scrabbling for a foothold.
Alpha snatched a letter opener from a shelf near the armchair and pointed it at the troll. “Don’t.”
Grinding noises spread like whispers through the living room. All the trolls faced Alpha; some stepped closer, while others stayed at a wary distance. I clenched the knife. The trolls felt like elastic bands stretched to their breaking point. Any moment, one could snap.
“Emma.” Alpha’s voice remained steady. “You should go.”
“I want to stay.” She sat frozen in the chair. Blood welled up from scratches on her hand and face.
“I can’t hold them back much longer. And you’re their first target.”
“Because . . . Because they’re picking up on your thoughts?” Dr. Torrance reached up with a shaky hand to straighten her glasses. “And those thoughts tell them I’m not your favorite person.”
“Thoughts. Feelings. Who the hell knows.” The troll Alpha had flung into the kitchen scurried out through the window. She lowered the letter opener. “Go. I have nothing else to tell you, and you have nothing else to offer me.”
Slowly, Dr. Torrance stood. Her eyes flicked from troll to troll. “I’ll go.”
“You too.” Alpha turned to the rest of us. “It doesn’t matter whether I believe you. I can’t help you. And you’re not helping me. You’re stressing me out. I’ll—I’ll just cook some more.”
She walked stiffly into the kitchen. A couple trolls followed. Others watched us from their perches under the coffee table or atop the shelves. Slowly, they edged closer. Showed rotting-dirt teeth. Hissed.
“That looks like our final warning,” Rainbow said. “We need a different plan.”
“At least now we know it’s possible to kill them if they’re vulnerable enough,” Four said.
Red took a backward step toward the garage. “We could focus on the steel. Prime, didn’t Tara mention more steel coming into town soon?”
Dr. Torrance nodded. “A truck bearing supplies is arriving any moment. It’s supposed to, anyway. Communication has been difficult.”
One troll scurried toward Red. Within moments, all of us were backing to the garage. We carefully checked the SUV’s interior for hidden trolls, then started filing inside.
“I’ll take you to the library,” Dr. Torrance said. “We can help each other.”
I entered the car last. I’d already stuck my head inside, my hand on the door for stability.
Then I let go. I stepped back.
“You guys go,” I said. “I’m staying.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“We want to help you figure this out.”
It was just me, Alpha, and half a dozen trolls in the kitchen—me in the doorway, Alpha clumsily washing dishes, and the trolls hovering around our feet or perched atop the fridge. I stood as still as possible. I didn’t want to give them any reason to attack. Making my way from the garage to the kitchen had been nerve-racking enough.
Alpha turned. She didn’t look surprised to see I’d stayed behind. “Figure out what? The dishes?”
“Um, no. Although that looks like a dishwasher.” I pointed.
“Right.” Alpha dropped the sponge. It hit the countertop with a wet flop. She looked less combative now. More defeated. “Those exist.”
In her world, working dishwashers were probably a rarity. And though she’d been in this dimension for years, I doubted she’d done much in the terms of chores while being held by the MGA. In a way, she knew even less of the world than I did.
“I told you to leave,” she said.
“Because you’re worried for our safety. Right? Well, we’re . . . We’re worried for a lot of people’s safety.”
“You can’t help.”
“Let us try.”
“Us? I only see you.”
I’d figured staying here by myself might freak her out less. Maybe the key to this mystery wasn’t more Hazels, like the Powers That Be seemed to think, but fewer. “Dr. Torrance is driving the others to the library.”
“Dr. Torrance,” she echoed. “Wow. You sure are polite.”
I bit my lip. Instinctively, I wanted to defend the MGA, but I couldn’t do that to Alpha, of all people. “Is she really that bad?”
Two trolls by Alpha’s feet slinked closer to me. “She’s one of the best people in that organization.” She scoffed. “Doesn’t matter. She’s still with them.”
I nodded silently. That made sense.
“Why did you stay?” she asked warily.
“I want to know to what extent you can control the trolls.” I tugged my head at the ceiling. “Just you, me, and a troll. We can sit in Tara’s room. Or anywhere you’re comfortable. Forget about the Chosen One thing. Forget about the Powers That Be. I just don’t want trolls to ravage this world like they did yours.”
“Don’t expect me to stop that. All I can do is delay it.”
“I just expect you to try.”
Alpha was silent for a moment. Then: “Do you like tomato soup?”
I watched the troll intently.
Its claws pierced the bedsheet, where it sat with its spine arched and its head dangling from its thin neck. It was skittish, twitching at every movement of Alpha’s and mine. It bared teeth that reminded me of shards of bark.
What the troll didn’t do was leap off the bed and stand upright, like we were hoping it would.
“Told you,” Alpha said. “It’s not gonna move.” She sat ramrod straight on Tara’s bed, a few feet between her and the troll. Green sheets were bunched up by her side. She peered at the closed bedroom door every couple of seconds.
Skkrtch skrrrtch.
The other trolls weren’t happy being locked out.
I couldn’t tell whether Alpha was genuinely trying to make the troll move. She didn’t seem to be
