Quentin looked at his partner. “Did Daniel say anything to you before you met up with Hollis?”

“He said . . . I’d need my strength. That I was—we were—needed here. In Salem. I said something about how Gray and Geneva had handled things weeks ago. Then he said come along or something like that, and started leading the way downslope, toward the town I could sort of see. We came out of a denser part of the forest, and that’s when I saw Hollis.”

“Go on.”

“She was relieved.”

“I was,” Hollis agreed. “That place is bad enough with company. Alone, it’s spooky as hell. And I always sort of worry if Diana isn’t there pretty quick. That I might not be able to find the way out on my own. And she said something about that, asked, I think, if I’d been pulled in by accident because she opened a door.”

They all knew it was a possibility that worried Diana.

She said, “And that was when Daniel said we were both needed. But he wouldn’t say why then, just started toward the town again.”

Hollis said, “And while we were walking, there was a sort of mist that swirled around us—and just like that we were on the sidewalk down on Main Street. It was so sudden I stubbed my toe. Because pavement.”

“That mist,” Quentin said to his partner. “I don’t remember you mentioning anything like that before. It was different? Something new?”

“Far as I can remember, yeah.”

“It was weird,” Hollis said. “Always before, when I’ve been there, it’s just blink and you’re somewhere else.”

“Same here,” Diana said slowly. “I think.”

“So maybe another signpost,” Bishop suggested.

Diana frowned at him. “What could that mean? A weird sort of mist?”

“Portal,” Hollis said, then blinked.

DeMarco was watching her. “Why do you say that?”

She thought for a few moments, then swore under her breath and answered him with even more frustration in her voice. “I have no idea. Dammit.” She looked at Bishop. “Do you?”

He was frowning very slightly. “You know the only sort of portals we’ve dealt with have been energy portals. Closing and sealing them was the goal, not stepping into them.”

“I know that’s the only kind Reese and I have dealt with,” she said. “I don’t recall seeing anything about them in other team reports, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any.”

“There haven’t.”

Hollis nodded, accepting. She looked at Diana. “So it really was a first for you in the gray time?”

“Right.”

Quentin spoke slowly. “Something for us to remember, but I don’t see how a portal of any kind in the gray time helps us here and now.”

Bishop shook his head. “Neither do I. It’s quite likely a quality of the gray time, even if it seemed to be something new to Diana. The fact that it’s a place for spiritual energy means the laws we deal with likely don’t apply, so what seems strange here is normal there. It could easily be just another way to move—or be moved—from one point to another. Hollis, what happened next? Daniel talked to you and Diana?”