My chest ached at the thought. How long had she been there? Did they let her up to rest? To eat? To use the restroom? “How does she look?”

“Tired and scared, but whole. The cells are opened by electronic locks, and I’ve figured out how to get hers open, but the leg irons require an actual key. Even once we find that and unlock her, we’ll have to get her past at least half a dozen cops and courthouse employees just to get out of the building. Then, of course, there’s getting us all out of town.”

“Okay. We’ll deal with the courthouse first.” I took a deep breath and looked around to make sure no one was watching. “Are there limits to your…ability? Can you take over anyone you want?” Seizing strangers’ bodies without permission felt like a fundamental violation, but there was no line I wouldn’t cross to get Mellie back.

Finn shrugged. “Anyone human. As far as I know, anyway. But I can’t get into someone who’s possessed.”

“Okay. Can you get inside someone who has the authority to just walk out with her? Like…fake a transfer or an appointment or something?”

“I think so,” he said. “They’ll probably send a security escort, but if I can get them out the back door, you guys can help get rid of the extra security, right?”

“Yeah.” I almost felt bad for anyone willing to stand between me and my sister. Almost.

“You might even be able to get a car,” Maddock added, and I could hear the excitement in his voice, even over the speaker and the buzz of the crowd. “I mean, if she has an appointment somewhere—like with a doctor, for the baby—they’d expect someone to drive her there, right?”

Finn nodded. “Okay, I’ll be back once I’ve lined up a body and a car. You two find Reese and Devi, and be ready to go when I have details.” Then Finn walked his borrowed body back to the edge of the crowd. I could tell when he was gone because the man whose body he’d hijacked stiffened, then glanced around in confusion, no doubt wondering how he’d managed to fall asleep on his feet and miss half the press conference.

We’d missed the first part too, but when I looked up at the screen, Sister Pamela was still recapping what everyone already knew about the “crisis in New Temperance,” along with the latest suspicions from investigators about where the outlaws might be hiding.

They’d found the remains of our refuge in the abandoned warehouse and were currently searching that same area for something similar in another unoccupied building.

They were way off base. Thank goodness.

“We’re going to have to go deeper to find Devi and Reese,” Maddock said into my ear, and I followed his gaze to a clique of four policemen at the edge of the crowd. Reese and Devi would have moved as far from them as possible, especially Reese, who couldn’t afford for members of the New Temperance police department to realize they didn’t know this particular brother in blue.