She crossed the threshold. And there she found herself standing at the mouth of an empty room. There were a few jackets and bags scattered around, probably dropped here by students at the event. But as always, she could see very clearly in the dark. There were no signs of life ahead. Or undeath, for that matter.
She turned back to the atrium. Mila, dropping all pretense, crossed the room to meet her. “He’s not in there,” Lucy said.
Mila exhaled through her teeth. “How would he have gotten in and out? This room is wall-to-wall west-facing windows. Do you feel him here?”
“No more so than usual,” Lucy muttered. The heaviness of his attention was there, but it felt like it had the night before: just close enough to raise the hair on her arms. He was somewhere nearby, but he wasn’t in the room with them. “And I haven’t heard—”
She faltered. She’d almost forgotten that in all the chaos of the day, she hadn’t told anyone about Laurentius yet, about theclick-clickof the doorknob turning.
“Heard what?” Mila asked.
Lucy shook her head. She did need to tell them. But she needed to tell them later. “Maybe he’s deeper in the building.”
“I’ll check the hall,” Mila said. “Stay here in the light.”
“Neither of you should be leaving the light,” said Athena’s voice in Lucy’s ear.
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Lucy said. “I’ll come with you.”
“What did I just say?”Athena said. “Lucy, I don’t like this. Tell Mila you need to withdraw.”
Athena’s tinny voice was apparently audible to Mila, too. “Tell her we’re not withdrawing yet,” Mila said. “I won’t be gone long. I just want to take a look around.”
Lucy winced. This was rapidly becoming overwhelming. To Athena, she said, “We’re okay. We’re just figuring out what to do.” Then, to Mila, she said, “If you don’t want to take me, take Natalie. Just because I’m the one he’s after doesn’t mean he hasn’t recognized you as a thr—”
Click-click.
The sound of the turning knob came from just over Lucy’s shoulder. She started to rush toward it before she’d fully recognized what it was. And before she could do anything—visualize the door, press the lock, slide the deadbolt—there came another sound. A pop, then a creak. Something opening.
In the pin drop of a moment that followed, Lucy had just enough time to lock eyes with Mila. What an impossible thing they were all asking of her. To expect her to juggle both this creature she would have to kill, and this near-stranger she had to try to keep alive. It was so much to ask of this girl who looked so calm and in control that Lucy kept forgetting she was a regular person, too. Lucy wished she’d gotten to apologize for that.
But then nothing happened. The sun kept shining through the windows. The red voice didn’t flood her mind. She still felt Vanya’s presence, but at a distance. Nothing had changed. She was still in control.
“What?” Mila said.
“I don’t know.” Lucy turned in one direction, then the other. Where had that come from? It couldn’t have been a normal door. It was too loud. “I thought—”
It wasn’t until Lucy’s gaze landed at the front of the atrium, where they’d entered, that she saw what was missing.
Natalie wasn’t where they’d left her.
“Mila.” The name came out like a punch in the stomach. “Where’s Natalie?”
It was horrible, hearing the blood drain from Mila’s face. “She was just there,” Mila said. “Wasn’t she?”
“Lucy,” said Athena in her ear. “What’s wrong with Natalie?”
“Just a minute,” Lucy said. Then, to Mila, she said, “The hall.” Natalie wasn’t in the crowd, and she wouldn’t have just left. That meant there was only one place she could have gone.
Mila nodded tightly, and reaching down, she took Lucy’s hand. Athena was still in Lucy’s ear, still asking what was happening, but Lucy didn’t have answers for her yet. They passed by the edge of the crowd, heard a snatch of conversation. And then that overrode everything else.
“—had a really weird moment setting up earlier,” someone was saying. “I thought I sawAddison Greene.”
“Well, that’s impossible, right?” another voice said.
“Yeah,” said the first voice. “Probably just someone who looked like her. That was so weird, though. I haven’t thought of her in ages.…”
It wasn’t clear to Lucy who broke into a run first: her or Mila. But Mila, with her long strides, pulled ahead fast. If not for their linked hands, she would have left Lucy far behind her.
