MasukThe heavy security doors clicked shut, locking a weeping Jessica inside the mansion. As the team moved swiftly down the driveway, a sudden gust of wind swept through the trees, and heavy, thick snowflakes began to fall from the grey morning sky.
As they adjusted their heavy tactical packs under the thickening snowfall, Joanna turned to Caleb, her brow furrowed. "Why the rush, Caleb? What did you see up there?"
“I don’t know,” Caleb said quietly. “What I do know is this. In your dream, you put yourself on the line for me. And in every timeline I’ve watched, it’s the same. You step in to save someone else, and you die because of it.”Joanna’s hands curled in Bubbles’s fur. She said nothing.“He knows how to read weaknesses,” Caleb went on, “and yours are your friends and family. Your first instinct will always be to shield us. In this, you can’t. We have to shield you.”A low murmur passed around the circle. Julian’s jaw went hard, and his arm slid around her shoulders like a barricade.“The man in your dream has vines, right?” Caleb asked.
“Joanna?”The voice was tense and wary, and the air near her crackled with wind. Kailee stood a few paces off, her hands half raised, her eyes moving between Joanna’s white-knuckled grip and Caleb’s pale face. She would have died for either of them. But the look in Joanna’s eyes, cold and murderous and barely leashed, frightened her.Joanna blinked. The red haze in her vision thinned, and she realized what she was doing. She let go of Caleb’s jacket one finger at a time. Her heart was racing, and her breath came uneven and ragged. She looked around, and everyone had come back. Julian had stopped a few steps behind the others, his eyes locked on her face, worry and quiet alarm written across it. Glacier, Fletcher, Will, Bubbles, and Piper with her sproutlings stood in a loose half circle, watching her. Even the sproutlings had
Joanna had barely noticed the others fanning out to round up Piper, Bubbles, and the sproutlings, who had spent the last hour behaving like toddlers on a sugar binge. Faint shrieks of joy and the crunch of demolished houses drifted over the ridge, and she let it all wash past her. The knot in her stomach had tightened again, cold and heavy, pulling her attention inward.A hand settled on her shoulder.She turned. Caleb stood behind her, and the easy, tea-sipping calm he usually wore was gone. His face was tight with worry, his eyes distant, like he was looking at something far beyond the broken lane.“Joanna,” he said quietly. “Have you ever wondered why you were chosen?”Her brow furrowed. “Chosen for what?”
Joanna looked back at her old house one last time. She and the team had agreed to leave it standing, along with the house next door, as the only two worth taking. Every other house on the ridge was marked for demolition.She turned to Kailee. “I have some small cameras in my space. We could set them up here and give ourselves eyes on the place.”Kailee nodded. “I know how to tie them into a computer, if you have a laptop.”“I do.” Joanna reached into her space and pulled out a battered laptop and a crate. Twelve compact camera units sat nested in foam, each one the size of a deck of cards, with weatherproof casings and a lens like a black bead. She handed the laptop to Kailee and a handful of cameras to Will and Caleb.“They don&
“I know,” Joanna said.They climbed out, and the others followed a few steps behind, giving her room. She walked up the cracked path alone, boots crunching on dead leaves, and stopped at the threshold. Much of the house was destroyed: ceilings stained brown and bowed with water, wallpaper hanging in strips, glass crunching underfoot, a tree growing up through the dining room floor.But the memories rose anyway, as sharp and clear as if no time had passed.She had grown up here, with her mother, Gwen, and her stepsister, Alice. There was the kitchen where she had scrubbed the dishes every night while the other two laughed in the next room. The hall closet where she had kept the vacuum, because the vacuum was hers. Up the stairs, behind the broken banister, was the best bedroom, big and sunny, with a windo
Joanna pulled her team out inside Glacier’s building, and the first thing she noticed was how solid it felt. The sagging ice was long gone. Fresh stone and steel plating covered the old damage, the fencing outside held firm, and a guard stood posted at the gate.Glacier and Fletcher were waiting in the entry hall. Glacier looked tired, with shadows under his eyes and a smear of rust on his sleeve, but he stood straighter than he had in weeks.“How is everything?” Joanna asked.“Better,” Glacier said. “After you cleared the warehouses, we hauled in a lot more materials. I used some to fix up another place for your team, in the building next door.” He jerked his chin toward the street. “Come see.”Fletcher fell in besid







