“Come back here!” I whisper, groping at the walls, taking a few cautious steps forward. The temperature in the tunnels grows warmer, and I panic as I realize the smaze must really be gone. “Wait! You can’t leave me alone in here! Where are you?” My voice echoes differently here, as if I’ve entered a larger space. I reach out, taking tiny steps. A low hum vibrates in the distance. A dim glow burns through the blackness ahead, and I head toward it, desperate for light.

Slowly, the glow begins to brighten and the hum grows louder. After a few more steps, I can clearly see the outline of an arched opening into another room.

At first glance, the room seems empty, and I step cautiously toward the hulking shadowy shapes inside. The hum is almost deafening now.

Stasis chambers.

Dozens of them. Lined up in rows. Most of them dark. A handful of them are plugged into generators. The room’s thick with the smell of exhaust that’s being sucked by huge fans into a hole in the cavern’s ceiling.

I move toward a row of lighted chambers. The faces of sleeping Seasons are silhouetted inside, their control panels blinking. I recognize one of them—a Spring who lived across the hall from Poppy and me. Poppy had heard rumors that she’d met a girl and moved to France. That she’d been freed by Lyon and Gaia. If the rumors were true, why is she here, in the belly of the Observatory? If she did decide to come back, why isn’t she sleeping in her dorm?

Voices and laughter carry through the chamber, along with the squeak of a rolling cart. I duck down, scurrying on hands and knees between two unlit stasis chambers. Breath held, I press back against a stone slab as the voices grow louder.

“How many more chambers does Chronos want us to bring down?”

“As many as we can fit.” I can hear their grunts as they heft a chamber off a cart. It scrapes against the stone as they ease it onto a slab. “We lost another six Seasons yesterday. Control Room says they’re all in the wind. He’s dispatching another hunting party tonight.”

“I don’t understand why he’s going to all the trouble of rounding them up and bringing them back. Why not just make more?”

“Commander Lixue says he’s not ready yet. Besides,” he adds over the hum of the fans, “Chronos says they’re the property of the Observatory and they belong here. He wants them all brought in for Reconditioning and Reassignment. Here’s a list of the ones he’s bringing in tonight and the chambers he wants on standby.”

I crouch low as a switch flips and a soft halo of light washes around the slab. I draw my knees tight against my chest, pulling the toes of my sneakers out of the light.