She left the bank, her thoughts turning to the links she’d found between her life as Analise and the two victims. A dust jacket and a tiny mountain town in California. Two strangers living in a city of thousands whose lives shared eerie connections to her past. A past she couldn’t reveal without jeopardizing her freedom.

It was one more terrible decision she would be forced to make because of Nathan Rhodes. One more in a series that had begun more than a decade before.

CALLENWOLDE UNIVERSITY, TUCKED along a curve in the San Francisco Bay, had been training exceptional students for more than a century. Mornings in September were crisp, with the bite of fall in the air. The semester was in full swing, and students had resigned themselves to another bout of classes.

In marked contrast, Analise tried to tamp down her excitement as she parked her bike outside the linguistics building. The clear, brisk weather matched her mood perfectly. She jogged across the lawn and took the stairs two at a time. Students filed out of the building, but few spoke to her. She’d been on campus for more than a year, but her reputation kept her isolated, even among those like her. Orphaned weeks after coming to campus, she was accustomed to the loneliness. Welcomed it.

Today, though, she didn’t notice. She’d called Dr. Rhodes last night, asking for an appointment to show him her draft text on the linguistic similarities between a Malaysian dialect and one found in the jungles of Brazil. After working hard on it all summer, she was so excited to show him her discovery, she’d emailed the document at midnight. If he found it persuasive, perhaps he would agree to coauthor the final paper. To publish with Dr. Rhodes would be an honor, one only select graduate students experienced, let alone a college junior. At sixteen, she was younger than many of them, but she had been studying language her entire life.

She keyed in her access code for the laboratory wing and, when the panel coded green, she heaved open the thick glass doors and rushed through. It was her finest work yet, she thought. Her parents would have been so proud. A wave of grief caught her and she stumbled to a halt. Bodies pressed past her, but she didn’t move.

Guilt overwhelmed excitement. She couldn’t blame them for sending her away. Though she’d fought them, she had required closer supervision than either of them could provide. She could finally admit that their difficult decision to leave her in California had been the best choice for all concerned. It wasn’t as though they’d abandoned her. No, Callenwolde and the famed Dr. Nathan Rhodes were the only choice. He had promised careful attention to the brilliant but troubled teen.