I was about to ask who she was talking to when the sharp blast of a horn filled the air, causing us to whirl. Those in the factory spilled out the front door; Old-Jymm dug out a spyglass and held it up, squinting out across the horizon.

“It’s the train!” he yelled.

“By the sharpest wind, what is Cornelius Britley doing all the way out here?” Apple asked, tugging a pocket watch from her dress folds. I recognized it as the one Timblewon stole from the ringmaster at the circus. “And so dreadfully off schedule…”

The train was moving faster than I’d ever seen it; wind off the engine blasted over the snowdrifts as it rolled to a stop, violet sparkles littering the ground. The moment the gears stopped spinning, the golden-arched doors swished open, and I made a face.

“Emily?”

My friend emerged beside Cornelius Britley, who kicked out a metal staircase attached to the train.

“Helen!” Emily rushed down the stairs. Her chest rose and fell as she pursed her mulberry-purple glossed lips. “I know this is bizarre, and you told me to stay away from here for my own safety or whatever. But…it’s your grandma.” Emily tapped her long, painted nails together as she paused to catch her breath. “She’s in the hospital, and I didn’t want anything to…well, you know. I didn’t want something to happen while you were gone.”

My lungs constricted. I saw it all over again—Grandma in Sylvia’s hallway, dropping her cane. But it couldn’t have been real. Everyone I knew who went to the hospital either died or fell into a coma; my grandmother was too alert for that place.

“So anyway, I didn’t want her to be alone, and obviously I don’t know her that well so it would be weird for me to go there,” Emily went on.

I closed my eyes. “I have to go,” I said.

“It should be you, Helen,” Kaley agreed. “She’s always been closest to you.”

“You’re not coming?”

Kaley slid the orb necklace over her head. “I have something important to do.”

Stifling my objections, I grabbed my sister’s hand. “Make sure you’re back across that intersect before it closes,” I said.

“Wait…Helen…” Zane appeared in front of me with a wild look on his face. “I just…” His fist came against his mouth like he was trying to shut himself up. “It’s too bloody soon. I thought I had you for another ten plus two days,” he blurted through his fingers.

I took in his bright, Rime eyes, memorizing how he looked this year so I’d never forget. “Bond or not, I’m going to miss you until it hurts,” I said, and Zane’s shoulders dropped.