“Maine was a new start for me, too—you’re not the only one who lost that. So if you take off without me, I’ll just follow you. Because I made a promise. And because that’s what stalkers do, I guess.”

I stare at him for a long moment before glancing down at the leg of my jeans. Without a word I lift up the right hem. And there it is: the scar like a little dent, nestled against my shin.

Even as my pulse trips, I tell myself anyone could have seen it and made up some story. I remind myself I never said anything in my letter about Luka. But I never did about Clare or Ivan, either.

Ivan.

I look around, and then at Luka. “Do you have a phone?”

“Yeah . . .” he says cautiously.

“Give it to me.”

He hesitates, then pulls the phone from his pocket, unlocks it, and holds it out.

I dial in the numbers.

“What are you doing?” he says.

“You want me to trust you? Trust me for a minute.”

Ivan picks up on the first ring. “Did you get away?”

I slide from the backseat, walk out of earshot.

“Yeah.”

An audible exhale on the other end. “Did he get anything?”

“Please, how do I know you?” I say.

“Did you give him anything?” the voice insists.

Luka storms over and reaches for the phone. I spin away.

“No. Because I don’t know anything! I went back to the Center and my records are gone.”

“What are you doing?” Luka hisses.

“Who’s with you?” Ivan says.

“A friend.” I stumble on the word, shoot Luka a warning. He’s glaring, looks ready to rip the phone from my hand.

“The fact that you’re alive is enough,” Ivan says. “They know you’re hiding something important or you’d never have done this.”

“They who? The Scions?”

And then, a faint exhale: “It isn’t . . . it isn’t possible you found it?”

“Found what?”

“Where are you now?” he says quickly.

“Near Chicago,” I say, glancing toward the highway. “Please. Whoever I did this for—I think they’re in trouble. You have to tell them. You have to warn—”

“Audra, they’re not just after your life.”

My parents—all of them, ostensibly—are gone. “I know. They’re after the Progeny I knew.”

“No. No, something much more important.”

“Than a life? What else is there?”

“If you found what I think you did, you and anyone close to you is in far worse danger.”

“Found—what?” Luka is staring at me.

“You have to get here. We can hide you. If nothing else, at least you’ll be safe for a while.”

“I can’t come to Croatia! I’ll go to a battered women’s shelter, or—”

“Audra, get out of the States. Now.”

“I don’t even have a passport!”