The edge of the forest caught us like a knife’s edge, so abrupt it was almost unbelievable. One moment we were walking through the trees, and the next we were stepping onto a muddy embankment, with only a few feet separating us and the road. A white van was parked there, a radio station’s logo and call sign on the side. The distinguishing markings were more than half-covered with mud, making them more of a puzzle than anything else. Was that a 5, or the letter S, or something else? Was that a falcon or the curve of a very strange wolf’s flank?

The van door opened.

Jeff stepped out.

I gaped, briefly unable to find the words to say anything. He was here. He was real. I’d known he existed since his first text, but somehow I hadn’t quite made the leap that would translate that into the material world where Graham and I could meet him.

He was taller than either of us, although not as tall as David, with light brown skin, black hair, and dark brown eyes. His Chinese heritage showed in the shape of his face and the cast of his features, while his blue jeans and gray sweatshirt were as nondescript as his van. No one who saw him would think twice about what he was doing there, or think to report him to the police for anything less than witnessing him actually committing a crime.

There was a white bandage taped over his right cheek.

He looked at the four of us, scanning each of our faces before his eyes settled on me and a grin spread across his face. “Stasia,” he said, and his voice was longing and relief and yes, affection, so bone-deep and pure that it made me want to sink into the ground. I didn’t even know this man, and he was looking at me like I was the solution to every question he had never quite known how to ask. “You came.”

“We could say the same for you,” said Graham, angling his body slightly so that it was between me and this relative stranger, this man of my literal dreams. “Thanks for coming to get us. We could have been in real trouble back there.”

“You still could be,” said Jeff, his smile fading, replaced by a coolly calculating expression. “Did anyone see you go into the woods?”

“No,” said Graham.

“Are you sure?”

“The man’s sure,” said David. “We’d have noticed if a bunch of armed police were following us through the forest.”

“And you didn’t mention my name while you were inside the facility?”

“No.” This time it was Toni who spoke. She gave him a level look. “You’re not on my wall of crazy, either.”

Jeff blinked, visibly confused. “What?”