“Harper,” Bee said, moving forward, but I stopped her with a hand.

“Not now, Bee.”

“But—”

“Seriously!” I snapped. “I’ll be . . . I’ll be right back.”

Something flickered across her face, but I shut the door before I could put a name to it. I had way more important problems now. Namely that I didn’t know what to do next. I had to keep Blythe from David, but that meant I had to find Blythe. She was obviously here, but where? Should I just stand guard over this door, or should I make my way downstairs, fight it out?

And then the choice was made for me. There was the pounding of feet on the stairs, and suddenly, people were swarming the landing, all headed for me. The knife Saylor had given me rested cold against my thigh, but the first person to leap at me was my Aunt May, and I couldn’t even think about using it.

Aunt May, my sweet Aunt May, who taught me how to knit, who bought me a piece of candy every time we went to the store, jabbed a cocktail fork at my eye. I ducked, my back still against the door, and then Mrs. Green, the children’s librarian, reached down and tried to tug at my ankle. I shook her off, but even as I did, someone else was grabbing my hair, and another hand closed on my wrist, and I was fighting and kicking, but there were so many of them, and they had me backed up against the door.

“Harper!” I heard someone cry from inside the room. I thought it was Bee, but I couldn’t be sure. More hands were on me now, and someone had a pie server nearly at my throat.

I shoved it away, trying to close my fingers around that spot that had worked on Miss Annemarie. I had to get to Saylor. I had to find Blythe. I had to get out of this before I was killed with some elaborate cutlery.

“Bee!” I shouted through the door, Dr. Greenbaum’s nose crunching under my elbow. “Is the door locked?”

“Yes!” came her muffled reply. “But, Harper—”

I would have to hope it held. One thing I knew for sure was that Blythe wasn’t upstairs. I’d been in all the rooms, and she wasn’t in the crush of people surrounding me. Taking a deep breath and muttering, “I’m really sorry about this,” I pushed both arms out as hard as I could, fists clenched.