And it does. I conduct until the plant is too big for me to hold, then put it down on my board and keep pulsing Ha’i into it. Soon there’s a beautiful pumpkin just the right size to sit on, with a thick vine growing up between my legs, long and strong enough to strap myself to the pumpkin and the pumpkin to the board.

And that’s how I continue my journey. On a pumpkin throne with a vine seat belt, trying to breathe easy as I gust through the tunnel, losing track of what could be minutes or hours.

I talk to myself. I sing. I yell at the top of my lungs.

I am a shooting star, a meteorite, an avalanche.

I am a girl riding many miles an hour on a pumpkin.

A girl approaching an air lock.

I shriek with relief as I recognize the platform. By the time I slow and pass through the air lock, I’m crying. I’ve made it to Arcadia. To Genesis.

Home.

The station is empty and dark. No sign of anyone. No sign of Kor.

I should have intercepted them in the tunnel. There’s a large hourglass on the station wall, and the accumulation of sand indicates it’s around early evening. I’ve made good time. I can’t imagine they got here before me.

Unless they traveled some other way…

Automatic lights blink on as someone moves in the shadows.

“Hello?” I call out.

“Ada?” a boy’s voice asks.

“Simon? Is that you?”

It is. The young Valkyrie hops down onto the track. He’s wearing his Guard uniform, and I’m suddenly dizzy with a strong sense of déjà vu.

“Are you okay?” he asks me.

“Oh. Yes.” I’d momentarily forgotten how I must look, a sweaty crying mess sitting on a pumpkin bound to a hoverboard in the middle of a train track. “But could you help me cut these vines?”

He’s quickly at my side with his spoon out, cutting me free. “Did you by any chance come through the Atlas tunnel just now?”

“I did.”

“That’s odd.”

I don’t really know how to respond. But Simon seems to be taking the whole thing in stride.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I was sent down to check that the emergency exit out to the cove is secure and to disable the elevator. But once it’s disabled, it can’t be reenabled without a council member’s key, so I have to wait down here. You’ll have to wait now too; there’s no way to get up.”

“You were sent alone?” Why would Rafe have risked that? What if Kor had made it here before me?

“I think Rafe was hoping I would…” He shrugs his wings so they ruffle out slightly.