We reached the front hall. The doors stood wide open. Cold light streamed in, so bright my eyes hurt.
“Please,” I said as they pulled me onto the lawn. “We have to find the others!”
A handful of researchers loading vans by the gate looked up. Something seemed odd about them, something I couldn’t put my finger on. I didn’t linger on it. Not while the Hazels were in danger.
“The agents will kill them!” I braced myself in the grass, but my socks couldn’t get a grip. I stumbled after Emerson. “Please! They’ll kill them. And it won’t help! It’ll be for nothing! I can fix this!”
A nearby researcher abandoned his work and started briskly in our direction. No—not a researcher. Director Facet. I’d expected him to be long gone with the evac teams.
“You told the agents!” I screamed. “You told them to take the others!”
We’d almost reached the car. Right as I heard the click of the doors unlocking, Facet reached us. “I assume she’s not talking about the girls being evacuated,” he said to Sanghani.
I sputtered. “You gave orders to take them from the evacuation—”
“I did no such thing,” he said sharply.
Sanghani looked hesitant. “We couldn’t check with you, sir, with the equipment down.”
Facet’s eyebrows knit together, his eyes flitting left and right as though thinking something through. “They must’ve used my name so no one would kick up a fuss.”
He really hadn’t given the order?
“What happened here?” he asked.
Sanghani nodded at me. “We found her trying to free the dragon. She had that knife we’d heard about.”
“Give it to me.”
I itched to snatch the knife away as Sanghani handed it over, but Emerson held me too tight for me to even try.
“Excuse me,” another voice piped up. “Who’s getting killed?” Torrance stood a couple of feet away, wrapped in a thick winter coat and watching us with both concern and curiosity.
“We’re not sure what the situation is,” Emerson confessed.
“The situation?” Facet lifted his eyes from the knife in his hand. “From what I gather, your colleagues claimed I’d instructed them to take the other girls away. They must’ve been quick about it. No one had time to verify. I’m putting money on Valk. Anyone else?”
Emerson blanched. Sanghani looked uncomfortable. Seemed like Facet’s guess was correct, which meant—
Valk was involved?
I felt the blood drain from my face. That couldn’t be right. Not Valk, right? Not Valk, who—
Who’d talked about all she’d sacrificed to protect the world from the rift—
Who’d pressed a hand over Red’s mouth and dragged her into a van—
“Well, shit.” Torrance huddled deep into her coat.
Maybe it wasn’t Valk. Facet could be wrong. But the rest . . . “It’s true,” I told Facet. “Agents took two Hazels. I think they’re going to kill them. It won’t close the rift. It won’t.”
“The rift is downtown,” Facet said. “Valk believes throwing them into the rift will solve the problem. Odds are: All it’ll do is kill them.”
“We have to go!” I pleaded. We couldn’t debate the matter. Not while knowing that, any second now, a Hazel would die or the rift would expand or both—
A crash sounded behind us. As one, we turned to the rift barn.
“The dragon?” Torrance squinted. “I thought that’d been taken care of.”
A low sound rumbled from the barn. I fixed my eyes on the building. Any moment now, the doors would fly open, or cracks would appear in the wall. Come on, Neven.
Sanghani hissed, one hand on the car door. “We won’t be able—”
“Sanghani. Emerson. Hand me the car keys and delay that dragon.” Facet nodded at the barn. “Torrance and I will get the girl to the airport to join the evacuation.”
“Sir?” Emerson said.
“Go!”
I’d never heard Facet so curt.
“Torrance, Hazel, in the car.” He held up one hand, catching the keys Sanghani tossed him.
“But—” I started.
Torrance opened the back door and unceremoniously pushed me inside. The leather squeaked as I hit the seat. Instantly, I pulled myself upright—maybe I could stall until Neven escaped—but Torrance climbed in beside me. The door slammed shut. I reached over her to grab the handle, but the door wouldn’t budge. Child lock. I scrambled across the back seat, trying the other door just in case. Nothing.
Facet dropped into the driver’s seat. I twisted around to look through the rear window. Emerson and Sanghani were bolting toward the barn.
“Sir?” Torrance said. “I don’t need to be evacuated yet.”
“We’re not evacuating.”
That could mean one of two things: Either Facet was on my side and wanted to find and help the Hazels—
Or he had given Valk the order to take and kill them, and now planned for me to join them.
Either way, it meant Facet would take us downtown.
To the rift.
I clutched the grab handle above the door. “Go.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
The car spurted forward. Its tires sprayed slick mud into the air behind us.
Then we were gone, swerving around the remaining two vans and careening down the driveway. The researchers who’d been outside with Director Facet watched us leave, baffled.
When I’d first exited the barn, something about the researchers had looked off. Looking back over the lawn now, it suddenly hit me what was wrong: the light. Everything on the grounds was bathed in light. It came at them from every angle, instead of just the spotlights at the fence or the sky above. There was barely any shadow to be seen.
I studied Facet in the front seat and Torrance beside me. The light looked different here, too.
The sky had been flat gray when I’d entered the barn to find Neven. It should’ve been getting darker.
Instead, the sky was lightening. The same went for the people. Torrance and Facet were normally pale, but now they looked nearly sick.
The rift was growing too big.
I’d known this would come. I just hadn’t known what it would look like. How slow it’d go.
We hit the main road. Facet took a sharp left, toward Philadelphia.
“Why did you tell the agents you were evacuating us?” I asked.
