Michaela shook her head and took a step back. “No way. We can’t stand against Victor.”

“Sarah Beth is right. He’s going to go after the kids who are hiding. They’re all dead if we don’t do something,” Corbin added. “And don’t forget, just because we’re in the Sanctuary and the other kids are in the tornado shelter, it doesn’t mean we’re safe. Victor doesn’t need to touch us to hurt us . . . The mind is his weapon of choice.”

“Yeah, but he can’t get into all of our heads at the same time,” Michaela said. “There’s only one of him, and more than two hundred of us, if you count the little kids.”

“Um, that might not be entirely true,” Sarah Beth said, wincing as the words came out.

“What do you mean?” Michaela snapped.

“When Victor was coming after me, it felt like—I don’t know—like he wasn’t alone. It was as if he had an invisible army running behind him. Or with him . . . At first, I thought maybe my mind was playing tricks on me because I heard dozens of voices and hundreds of footsteps. When I looked back, I saw only him, but his face was changing again and again. Corbin, is it possible for a Dark One to be possessed by more than one demon?”

Corbin pursed her lips in thought. “No one’s ever asked me that before, but it explains a lot. Until now, I didn’t understand how he did it.”

“Did what?” Josh said, having finally stepped out of the elevator.

“How he evaded all of us. How he planned this attack and slipped into the school unnoticed, despite the entire campus being full of Watchers on high alert,” Corbin said. “He must be using a legion of demons under his control to amplify and spread out his power. In the Bible, in both Mark and Luke, Jesus confronts the demon-possessed man in Gerasenes. Jesus asks him his name, and the demon says, ‘I am Legion, for we are many.’ Remember, he casts them out and they go into a whole herd of pigs and the pigs jump into the sea and drown.”

Sarah Beth looked at her in awe. Corbin shook her head.

“Don’t be impressed,” she said with a smile. “I learned it in New Testament class last year. So what if Victor is possessed by many demons?”

A terrible and crushing silence hung between them while they each considered Corbin’s words and wrestled with the fear those words stoked inside.

Finally Corbin broke the silence and extended her hand like a team captain in a sports huddle. “Our brothers and sisters need us,” she said. “We’re the strongest. We have to help them.”

Sarah Beth put her hand on top of Corbin’s. “I’m in.”

Josh nodded and clapped his hand on top of hers. “Me too.”