“Imogen told Rush she heard voices in the woods years ago. I think she’s always been able to feel that place. And now . . . I think she’s there. The part of her that’s missing. I’ve been able to feel her all over these woods since I got here, but it’s like feeling fog. It’s everywhere and nowhere.”

“We need to bring Imogen back,” Hawthorn says. “The whole Imogen. That’s the point.”

“I’m not sure that’s a fantastic idea,” Danny says, her feet catching on a branch. It clacks like teeth biting down. “There’s still someone causing problems. Someone who killed Sebastian and Neil.”

“Right,” Lelia says. “Imogen knows who. When we find her, she’ll be able to fix things.” She can feel, even as she says it, that her reasoning is thin, but she doesn’t want to admit that. She tugs at her jacket as if it’s armor against more than the damp night.

Danny stops walking. She looks at Rush and makes some kind of decision. A no turning back look. “Remember how upset you got about Imogen keeping secrets?”

“Yes,” Rush says.

“I’m not going to do that.” Danny talks directly to Rush, even though the rest of them are there. “This is going to be different.”

Rush nods, but it’s choppy.

“I don’t want you to get hurt.” Danny looks around at all of the Grays now, giving them a stare that they recognize, because they know Danny. She’s asking them to banish their doubts and believe her. “I don’t want any of you to get hurt.”

“Of course not,” Hawthorn says, urging Danny toward the point. She can’t let Imogen’s trail to go cold while they stand here.

But Rush needs more time.

Rush isn’t ready.

She tries to tell Danny that without saying anything. She tries to spin a connection as strong as the one she has with Imogen, but that takes long-stretched years and the tiny stitches of moments.

“Danny —” Rush says, desperate.

“I think Imogen wanted to get to Emma Hart,” Danny says, cutting her off. “The only way she knew to break through was for someone to be in danger. Falling-out-of-a-giant-redwood danger. Almost-dying danger. So she used her magic to . . . scare people. I don’t think she meant to hurt anyone. It must have gotten out of control. It’s happened before. She almost killed Haven once. And . . . I heard Imogen in the hermit’s vision. She said I’m sorry, Neil.”

The silence of the woods feels so deep that the Grays could dip their hands into it, like dark water.

“How do you know it was her?” Hawthorn asks at last.