The dark disk of the moon was steadily gliding in front of the sun, like a lid sliding over a pot. The air grew dimmer. It was already as dark as late afternoon, tilting into evening. That cobweb feeling was getting more intense.

Eleanor tried angling toward the side of the path, but she couldn’t turn, even a tiny bit. Katie checked her watch. “A minute and a half to totality,” she said. “We’re going to flunk our project.”

Eleanor let out a strangled laugh. “I really don’t think we should worry about that right now,” she said. Then she spotted something up ahead.

It was hard to make out in the darkening gloom, but Eleanor could just see the pale ribbons of two more paths, all three meeting in a three-way crossroads. And there were figures on the other paths, too—two people on each.

“Oh no,” she said.

Pip got there first, striding up as soon as she spotted the others, her companion trailing well behind. Then Eleanor and Katie arrived, and Otto and his friend, who looked just as frightened as Katie.

Actually, she looked a lot like Katie, if Katie was two inches taller and a bit skinnier and wore makeup and slinky black tops.

“Otto,” Pip said quietly. Gloaming was in her hand, bare steel glinting softly even in the near-total darkness. “Who is your friend?”

“This is Katie?” he said. “And that’s—” He looked at Eleanor.

“Katie,” she said, edging away from the girl with tear-streaked cheeks who was suddenly looking a lot less terrified.

“And this is Katie, too,” Pip said casually, stepping forward and turning at the same time to put herself between Eleanor and Otto.

Pip’s lab partner was the tallest of the three Katies. Her hair was back in a single, severe braid, and she looked older than the others, more serious. Her head tilted as she examined the three friends, and the other two Katies copied the movement perfectly.

“This worked far better than I’d hoped,” they said in unison, their voices so closely matched it was almost hard to tell there was more than one. The shorter Katies stepped closer to the one in the center, and the air sort of flexed, and then there was only one Katie—a tall woman with colorless white hair that flowed in ringlets down to her waist. She wore a gray dress. At her throat was a black ribbon from which hung a silver pendant: a full moon flanked by two crescents facing in opposite directions.

Pip lifted Gloaming, standing in front of the other two protectively.

“You’re Mr. January’s other sister,” Eleanor said.

“Of course,” Katie replied. “In your world, I go by the name Katie Rhodes. Though sometimes I have been compared to—”

“Hekate,” Pip said. She was an expert in mythology, especially since Halloween. “Goddess of witchcraft and crossroads. Right?”

“But the clock isn’t ticking,” Otto said.