“Sandra,” he said, “I wouldn’t intervene unless it was both important and time-sensitive.”
“Mm-hmm.” Mom stood protectively between him and Four.
He wasn’t an intimidating man: broad-shouldered, yes, but in a gangly way, where his shoulders jutted out and his neck was too long and the pieces didn’t seem to fit together. His eyes were a nondescript brown, his black hair peppered with gray, his skin pale and freckled. The most colorful thing about him was the bright blue frames of his glasses.
Somehow, intense was still the best way to describe him.
“I’m relieved to see you’re all right,” he said.
I practically saw Mom think, No thanks to you, but she kept silent.
“We’re happy about that, too, sir,” I said.
“You came back so we could work together?”
“It seemed like our best bet.”
“Our only bet, I reckon.”
“How much did Dr. Torrance tell you?”
He paused. “Is this about the destiny thing?”
I frowned. His phrasing boded poorly. Rainbow glared with such vivid irritation that I was relieved she stood outside his line of sight.
Something glinted near Rainbow’s collarbone. Her necklace, the one with the intertwined Venus symbols. I’d completely forgotten about it. My heart thudded louder. Mom and Carolyn could see her—had the necklace been just as visible when she visited Dad—?
Rainbow reached up and tucked the necklace into her shirt. She must’ve noticed me staring.
When Facet spoke again, I almost missed it. “This Chosen One story . . . We can’t devote much time to that theory. We need to investigate all possibilities. Scientific rigor. I know someone as smart as you understands that.”
“Theory?” My face fell. “You know me. I’ve always tried to help. I wouldn’t lie.”
His forehead creased. “I trust you. I simply don’t trust the source of your information. But we shouldn’t waste time arguing about the trustworthiness of . . . let’s say winged reptiles of unusual size . . .”
“Who self-identify as dragons in crystal-clear speech,” Rainbow interjected.
Facet stared her down. “Let’s get to the point. Hazel, I want to discuss what you have to tell us, and why you felt the need to run, but our first priority is to close that rift. Are we on the same page?”
He normally listened. Maybe I’d pushed it too far. An apology for wasting his time hovered on my tongue.
I swallowed it. “We’re on the same page.”
“Great.” He seemed pleased. “We’d like to take you straight to the rift for some tests. Yes, Sandra, we’ll take the utmost precautions—almost none of our researchers or agents have been injured to date.”
“Almost,” Mom echoed. “Hazel, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. None of you.”
“I want to, Mom.” I smiled to show her I meant it. After all these years, I finally had a chance to solve instead of cause. To help instead of burden. I’d take that chance in a heartbeat.
“I never doubted it,” Facet said. “We’ll give details on-site. Let’s get you moving.”
The van stopped on a deserted highway.
Torrance hopped out of the vehicle and strode across the road. The headlights glared at her back. The lighting lining the highway was dead. So were the billboards. The only light aside from the van’s was a faint glow from past the guardrail.
Valk, Sanghani, and I followed Torrance. She looked over her shoulder. Her glasses gleamed. “Just got word. The other three girls are up in the helicopter. We’ll signal them once the team is ready with the main Hazel.”
“I thought you wanted to test whether the rift responded to the others, too?” I asked.
“Not yet. We need to see whether—or how—the rift responds to you before we introduce other factors.”
“Dr. Torrance?” Agent Sanghani cleared her throat. “Are we sure keeping the girls in a helicopter is safe?”
“Are you worried about the dragon?” Torrance sounded amused.
“Well, yes. It’s a dragon.”
“A fair point,” Valk agreed.
“The pilot has instructions.” Torrance inclined her head at the glow past the guardrail and gestured for us to follow.
I picked up my pace so I walked side by side with Sanghani. “I’m sorry about what happened with the, uh, knife, back in Philadelphia when I was getting my dad out of the water,” I said. “I was just scared.”
“Whereas having a knife pointed at me made me feel so fuzzy and safe,” she said.
I recoiled. I’d never heard her so snarky. “I really am sorry.”
Sanghani had always been one of the friendly ones. She’d looked out for me. For the first time, I saw disappointment on her face. “Hazel, you’re a nice girl. I know you mean well. But people are dying. Cities are being destroyed. You might be the key, and when we needed you most, you turned on us and ran.”
“I thought I was helping.” I hated the uncertainty in my voice. I hadn’t just thought I was helping, right? I’d known I was helping. The MGA just hadn’t believed me.
I wasn’t sure I believed myself anymore, either.
“Well, you’re helping us now, at least.” Sanghani gestured past the guardrail. I stepped closer and peered down. In the dark, I hadn’t realized we weren’t level with the ground. Another highway stretched out beneath us.
And at its center, the rift.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
“Did it get bigger?” I placed my hands on the cool metal of the guardrail and stared down.
“We believe so,” Valk said.
“It changes,” Torrance said. “The edges are neither stable nor clearly defined. But on average, yeah, it’s growing.”
The rift hovered at a forty-five-degree angle to the highway, its lowest end shimmering mere feet over the asphalt. Around it—at a safe distance—stood a handful of vans with spotlights and odd equipment on their roofs.
I had a dozen questions right off the bat, but Torrance might not be the person to ask. “Why are you here, anyway?” I wondered. “You said you’d never worked with the rift itself. And I thought Facet would’ve been unhappy that you didn’t immediately report back once you found us.”
“Oh, he’s livid.” She sounded almost
