The roar of an engine cut through the air. A pickup truck careened around the same corner the trolls had come from.
“Run!” one woman crouching in the back shouted at me. She gestured at the street behind them, right as the truck caught up with the trolls. It crashed into them. The trolls screamed—a sound like boulders colliding.
I sprinted down the street. Past twitching piles of dirt, past the truck, which came to a screeching halt. Within moments, the group had leaped onto the asphalt, clutching everything from clubs to rakes. All metal.
“Looks like they were headed here,” one guy grunted. “Why the hell were they in such a rush?”
The truck must’ve followed the trolls. Alpha’s panic had reached far.
The group spread out without even needing to discuss a plan of attack.
A handful of damaged trolls rushed toward the truck on all fours, dirt teeth bared. One woman tightened her grip on her spade and swung it in a low arc. She sliced through two trolls in one go. Dirt sprayed through the air. A leg dropped, twitching, to the street.
Others were still running at the truck—no, past the truck. They weren’t focused on fighting the group. They were focused on me.
The truck abruptly backed up, crushing another few trolls.
But taking down trolls in a fair fight wasn’t the way to beat this problem. The Powers had something different in mind.
I kept running. I stayed low and tried to keep my footsteps quiet. An uncomfortable, heavy feeling twisted in my chest. Leaving these people to fight my battle. Leaving Alpha behind, panicked and alone.
And no plan for how to fix any of this.
I reached the end of the street. For a moment, I was unsure where to go. My breathing came labored. Find a quiet place to call the other Hazels or Torrance? Find the library?
Neither. I needed to find Neven.
She’d said she’d wait for our signal just outside of town, hiding in the same woods we’d crossed through to get in. I crept through the streets as quietly as I could. Here and there, I saw trolls or heard the click of their nails; every time, I dove behind a shed or parked car and held my breath, wondering about the trolls’ sense of smell. The sweat pooling under my arms and in the small of my back could tip them off.
For a few silent minutes as I walked, I might as well have been on another world. This was a movie. An idle daydream gone too far. I needed to get my feet back on solid ground and return to West Asherton life as I knew it. This wasn’t my city, wasn’t my fight, wasn’t my weapon, these weren’t even my clothes—
This wasn’t me.
But for now, it was. No matter how much the notion terrified me.
With one hand on a wooden post, I leaped over a barbed-wire fence. I ducked through long grass toward the trees. When I slipped into the shade of the forest, I didn’t know whether to be relieved because I’d be harder to find, or worried because the trolls would be harder to spot. I wished I could just call Neven aloud, but any trolls nearby would find me before she did.
Once I was shielded, I took out the phone and texted Torrance. Are you still with the others? Stay away from the house. Will come to library to explain.
I also texted Alpha, who still had Tara’s original cell phone. We’re not going to hurt you. I promise.
I stared at the screen. The text left a bad taste in my mouth.
The phone vibrated. If it was Alpha, maybe—
No. The text was from Torrance’s phone. Red here. Still at the library. Everything OK?
I replied, Am fine. See you soon.
When no other texts arrived, I kept walking. Every step I took, every leaf I crunched or twig I snapped, I was sure the trolls would be on me in seconds. I ended up aiming the phone screen at my feet, keeping it active by tapping it every now and then. It was a lot less noticeable from afar than the phone flashlight.
A murmur from up ahead. I recognized Neven’s voice.
I released a sigh of relief. I was already stepping closer when I heard a second voice.
“—questioning me?”
I recognized that voice, too.
It was my own.
My mind ran through the others’ locations. Red had told me minutes ago they were at the library. Alpha had to be at or near the house.
I slipped the phone into my pocket. Another step forward. There, past a knobby old tree, I saw a glow. The shape was familiar. Long wild hair, a tall shape in a pink T-shirt—
That was me.
A sixth version of me.
A glowing sixth version of me.
The glow was so gentle I doubted I’d have noticed it if not for the dark surroundings. It looked similar to how my knife lit up whenever I held it. Just enough to think: This doesn’t look right. Where’s that light coming from?
The Hazel stood a few feet from Neven in a partial clearing. I only saw Neven from behind—the roundness of her belly, the slope of her skull. I shifted so the tree hid me better.
Glowing. Was there a dimension where I glowed? That couldn’t be right.
“You could’ve warned me you planned to call the trolls,” Neven snapped. “You knew she wasn’t prepared.”
“We had to spur them on.” This Hazel’s voice sounded subtly off, like it had an echo. “We need this rift closed before I get into worse trouble.”
“Listen. Hazel is untrained, inexperienced, and far too eager to please. I tell her to take initiative, and she takes on a dozen trolls instead of sensibly fleeing. The girl’s barely ever been in an argument, let alone a fight. She wasn’t ready. You could’ve gotten her—No. You did get her killed. Didn’t you?”
Hazel—glowing Hazel, not-quite-right Hazel—eyed Neven coldly. “I fixed it.”
“And tore the
