Nick had no idea that this day would lead him right into a vortex—and not just any vortex, but one of the most dangerous ones Everlost had to offer. All he knew was that nothing was going according to plan. The moment Nick had heard Allie was in Memphis, he was convinced that he was destined to find her. He was certain that he would arrive, and there she would be. How foolish. Did he expect her to be standing there in the middle of Beale Street waiting for him?

He had teams search the city for days, battling that soulnumbing wind, but they didn’t find a single Afterlight in Memphis, or a single clue as to Allie’s whereabouts.

A scout had returned from St. Louis, claiming the Mississippi wind was no better in that city. He spoke of rumors that Mary Hightower was farther north. Michigan, perhaps, or Illinois. Charlie, who wanted to map more of the Midwest rails, was urging him to head north, but Nick wouldn’t have it. They could face Mary without Allie, but having Allie there simply felt … right. The sum of the parts would be greater than the whole. It would make them complete. It would make him complete.

“Allie the Outcast is here!” he told his restless troops. “I can feel it.” And he could. That connection, forged the moment they were born into Everlost, told him that she was right under his nose, if only he knew where to look. “Keep searching!” he told them, sounding more like an Ogre by the minute.

Then, on their sixth day in Memphis, Johnnie-O approached him with some news.

“She’s coming,” Johnnie-O said. By the tone of his voice, and the look on his face, and the way he cracked his knuckles, Nick knew he didn’t mean Allie. “Somehow Mary knew we were here!”

Nick stood from his chair. It was getting increasingly harder for him to rise, and as he walked forward, he dragged his feet, leaving chocolate skid marks on the ground.

“How close is she?” Nick asked.

Johnnie-O cracked a knuckle, the sound as penetrating as a sonar ping.

“Stop that,” Nick said. “For all we know she has a kid with big enough ears to hear that a hundred miles away.”

“Sorry.” Johnnie-O looked deeply worried, and he was not an Afterlight who was easily intimidated.

“How close is she?” Nick asked again.

“You’re not gonna like it,” Johnnie-O said.

“Just tell me.”

Johnnie-O let his large hands fall limp by his side. “She’s already in the city. Less than two miles away.”

Nick stared at him incredulously. How could that be? Everywhere they went, they sent scouts out for ten miles in all directions, searching the skies for the Hindenburg. If there was one thing Mary Hightower could not do in an airship, it was sneak up on them. “How could she get so close?”