“Don’t worry, I can find her,” Rex said.

“Huh?”

The seer didn’t answer as the outskirts of downtown rose up around them. They had landed at street level finally and angled onto the highway. Jonathan imagined the cars around them springing to life again in twenty minutes, all weaving to a stop, people struggling to control them with brute strength, their power steering and brakes suddenly heavy as lead.

Rex made a strangled noise with every bound.

When they reached a light patch in the frozen storm, Jonathan spoke up again. “Listen, Rex. Why don’t you let me go on alone? You could still make it back there in time. You’re killing yourself on that sprained ankle.”

“It’s broken, actually.”

“What the hell?” Jonathan looked down at Rex’s right cowboy boot. It was turned wrong somehow. The next time they landed, he watched Rex hold the foot up off the ground, taking all his weight on his other side.

“You have to stop, Rex. I’ll take you back to Dess first. You’re going to tear your foot apart!”

“No. You need me to track Jessica.”

“Track her?”

“She smells like prey to me now. You all do.”

Their next bound took them over a frozen pickup truck piled high with sharp, deadly scrap metal, giving Jonathan a moment to think before he answered.

Rex had really lost it; he was certain now. For once his plan had actually made sense, yet the seer seemed determined to screw everything up.

Except for the parts that Beth has already managed to screw up.

He let out a sigh through clenched teeth, wishing he hadn’t promised Jessica that he’d do what Rex said. Of course, following orders didn’t mean he couldn’t try to make sense of them. “So, wait. Why do you need Jess downtown?”

“Lightning,” Rex said in a strangled voice, then cried out as the ground rose up and struck them again.

He refused to say another word the rest of the way.

29

12:00 A.M.—

LONG MIDNIGHT

BETH

“Beth!” Jessica shouted for the hundredth time. “Where are you?”

The cave had to be around here somewhere, she was positive. But three weeks ago Jessica and Jonathan had flown here, not walked. Somehow the path had disappeared right under her feet, fading out into scrub and tree roots. Everything looked weird and unfamiliar here in the rip, the edges of the leaves glinting with purple and crimson fire.

She checked her watch. It had been almost ten minutes since she’d left Melissa behind. Soon the younger darklings would be closing in.

She pulled out her flashlight and whispered its new name: Foolhardiness.

The beam surged through the forest, driving away the violet shimmer of the rip. Jessica heard movement ahead, a slither—or something larger—fleeing before the white light.

“Beth!” she cried. “Where are you?”

Finally an answer came. Not to her ears, but in words that sounded distantly in her mind.