Corbin had said there were kids hiding in the dorm rooms, common area, bathrooms, and locker rooms. She was closest to the locker rooms and bathrooms and decided to check those first. When she got to where her corridor intersected West Hall, she stopped short. Nerves on fire, she crouched low and peeked around the corner, looking south toward the tornado shelter and the girls’ dormitory.

A chill rippled through her the instant she saw Victor—standing outside the tornado shelter door, his hands pressed against the steel slab. Mr. Baker’s corpse lay sprawled at his feet exactly where she’d left him. She felt a stab of guilt as she flashed back to that gruesome moment.

There’s nothing you could have done, she told herself.

But was that true? Could she have stopped Mr. Baker from squeezing the trigger if she’d jumped into his head? She’d pulled herself out of Victor’s iron mental grip; could she do that for others? She boxed up the thought for another time. Now was no time for regret and second-guessing. She needed to be present, engaged, doing her job in the moment. She shifted her attention back to Victor.

What is he doing? No way he can get that door open. Unless . . .

Before she completed the thought, Victor turned to look at her.

His eyes flashed the color of flame and she gasped.

A profound sense of vertigo washed over her as she felt her actual body jerk in mirrored movement to her projected self.

Oh no!

Sarah Beth snapped back into herself, just as her left foot slipped off the metal rung. She grabbed tightly and then reset her foot on the next rung down. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she descended to the ground.

“You scared me half to death there,” Corbin said, hand pressed to her chest. “What happened?”

“I projected, that’s what happened,” she said, wiping rainwater from her eyes and smoothing a wet drape of hair out of her face. “I found Victor, and we have a problem.”

“Where is he? What’s he doing?”

“He’s standing outside the shelter door in West Hall.”

“Doing what?”

“Trying to get in.” Sarah Beth turned her gaze to Michaela. “You’ve got to connect with your roommate and warn her.”

“Okay, what do I tell her?” Michaela said.

“That Victor is out there trying to find someone inside the room whose mind he can penetrate and coerce to unlock and open the door for him. The senior Watchers in the shelter need to work in teams to guard the doors. All it takes is one person to give in to the fear and he’s in.”

“I’m on it,” Michaela said.

“What do we do now?” Josh said, picking up the spear and holding it in a two-handed grip in front of his chest.