Torrance shrugged off her coat. “Not everyone has a place to go to, or money for a hotel. They’d rather take their chances here. Others wanted to stay and fight. Some wanted to be near their families.”
“Have you reported back about us? Or about the connection between Alpha and the trolls?”
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Yet.”
Torrance cast a sidelong look at me as we crossed the hall. Her frameless glasses gleamed in the light. “I don’t want to betray Alpha’s trust, or yours, but it’d be irresponsible to hold off much longer. The agency has resources. They might have solutions. I only waited because I worried those solutions might not prioritize Alpha’s well-being.”
I shared that concern. The MGA would never want to hurt Alpha—or any of us—but if it’d save lives, I fully believed they’d consider the option.
And it would save lives. The thought sickened me nonetheless.
“Please wait,” I said quietly. “I know you’ll probably lose your job, but . . .”
Torrance winced. “No ‘probably’ about it. I know I shouldn’t be worrying about my job, but I’m a mom, and without that income, I might—” She shook her head. “It’s probably too late already. Let’s just see how our plan works.”
She gestured ahead of us, where the library opened into a back room. Red and Four sat in tattered desk chairs, while across from them, Tara sat cross-legged on a table. What was she doing here?
An ancient-looking laptop, askew stacks of books, and a coffee mug occupied the rest of the desk.
“. . . at a distance?” Tara was saying.
At the sight of Tara, Rainbow smiled so quickly and sincerely it had to be a reflex.
“Here.” Four thrust a wrapped sandwich at me. “There’s more if you need it.” Similar wrappers filled the bin beside the desk. I didn’t know what kind of sandwich Four had given me, and I didn’t care. I tore off the plastic and chowed down with a vengeance.
“OK, the plan.” Red rested a hand on the back of Four’s seat. “Anyone in Alpha’s position would be stressed. The MGA, the trolls, another dimension, and then us and Dr. Torrance . . . The trolls respond to that stress. What if we can make her feel safe?”
Tara nodded. “The others filled me in. I didn’t believe it, but, well, Rainbow convinced me.” Her face twisted into something that was part smile, part grimace, all awkward. She was tapping a pencil against her leg. “Even my dad doesn’t know some of those things about me.”
“Ha. Sorry about that.” As joking as Rainbow sounded, the way she pressed her teeth into her lip suggested otherwise. It was the first time I’d seen her bite her lip, I realized. I’d seen it on all the others.
“I can help.” Tara looked at me with determination. “I can talk to Alpha. Try to put her at ease.”
“What?” I said around a mouthful of sandwich. I swallowed. “No way. That’s too dangerous.”
“Not necessarily,” Red said. “Alpha should have enough control
to keep the trolls from attacking Tara; she stopped them from hurting Dr. Torrance, at least at first, even though she hated her.”
“Present tense,” Torrance corrected. “Hates me.”
Red smiled apologetically. “Tara doesn’t have the baggage Dr. Torrance came with, or the pressure we came with.”
“I don’t know . . .”
The others looked at me, some hopeful, some cautious. Tara was still playing with the pencil.
Their logic held up, and the solution would be elegant. We would save the world with love instead of death.
I wanted to believe them—but I couldn’t.
“Alpha is panicking,” I told them. “I barely got out alive. Do you think Alpha would simply make Tara some hot cocoa and settle in to watch a movie together? She can’t hold off the trolls indefinitely. Alpha would know that any slip of the mind could result in Tara’s death. A death Alpha would be responsible for. She wouldn’t be soothed; she’d be terrified.”
The others were silent. “Shit,” Red eventually said. “You’re right.”
“I wish I weren’t,” I said quietly.
Four looked up, pleading. “I don’t know what other options we have.”
“I do.” I couldn’t say it, I couldn’t, I couldn’t ask them to be party to this—
The Power’s words echoed in my mind. I’d failed before. If I didn’t do this, I’d fail again, and the world would end because of me.
Rainbow, Red, and Tara raised their eyebrows, an invitation to continue. I licked crumbs off my lips, which felt uncomfortably dry. “The Powers That Be want us to kill Alpha.”
The room erupted into gasps and questions. For a few moments, I simply stayed in the doorway, one hand clutching the half-eaten sandwich, the other gripping the doorframe. I let a splinter dig into my skin as the noise washed over me.
Maybe they could find a solution without me. I didn’t want to put the responsibility on them—I just wasn’t the right person for it, either.
Again, I thought: Someone like Alpha should’ve been the Chosen One. Or someone like Red with her smarts, or Rainbow with her guts, or . . .
“Killing her?” Torrance put one hand in her neck. “I really didn’t want it to come to that.”
She’d already wondered? The idea hadn’t even occurred to me before the Powers That Be shoved it into my face. In retrospect, it should’ve. I’d been too naive.
“Prime, are you sure? How?” Red asked.
“Yes. It’s a long story.” I didn’t want to get into having overheard the Power. “But Alpha knows, too.”
“That’ll be why the trolls became extra aggressive so abruptly,” Torrance said. “I’m guessing she got upset.”
Tara raised an eyebrow. “Um, yeah. Seems reasonable.”
“We can’t,”
