Crossing over was her only chance. Keira blocked out everything but a tiny ripple in the black stone of the room’s walls. She looked for the familiar sights of her neighborhood with her peripheral vision, trying to see even the edges of something normal.
The tall, litter-strewn grass of an empty lot drifted into view. Keira knew that lot—it was two doors down from the Reynoldses’. It would be muddy beneath her. And she could see the grass moving. It must be breezy. She struggled to feel those things. Keira welcomed the almost familiar press of sliding between the two worlds. Her skin had begun to go clammy with the feeling of going home when a light flared to life above her.
A guard stepped around the side of the machine, his robe swirling out in front of him. The fabric was the same as what Smith had worn, only this looked finer. It moved like magnetic dust, shifting and re-forming as if it were alive.
The guard yelled when he caught sight of her.
His shout broke Keira’s concentration and for a horrible moment, she felt herself catch in the thin place between Darkside and home.
Unable to move.
Unable to breathe.
Her gaze was locked on the guard. Beneath his hood, she saw two eyes, pure black as a spider’s. They glittered in the strange antireflection of the ceiling light. Keira tried to scream, but she had no air to scream with. The guard reached for her with his unnaturally long fingers. He brushed her shoulder and she jerked, every molecule in her body pulling away from him.
She landed on her side.
In the mud.
In the empty lot.
Home.
Keira let out a choked sob as she rolled away from the spot where she’d come across from Darkside, afraid that the guard would be able to reach into her world somehow. She knew they couldn’t cross through the fabric of their reality, but she also knew that she’d made a new rip in Darkside. She wasn’t taking any chances. Keira stood up and picked her way across the debris-strewn grass. Her bare feet slowed her down as she tried to look for Walker in the Hall while still avoiding the broken bottles in her world.
She stopped near the edge of the lot. Cautiously, she looked for the other world she knew was there. The world that was more than the leafless trees and suburban grass and cracked sidewalks in front of her.
Keira dug her toes into the mud, keeping her physical awareness in Sherwin while she looked for Darkside. A swirling dark mark twirled on the top of her naked foot, reminding her of the place she’d just escaped; luring her back.
The machine-filled room was gone. From her spot at the edge of the lot, she found herself looking at a Darkside wall.
She wasn’t inside the Hall of Records anymore. She couldn’t see anything except the building’s smooth facade.
She had no idea where Walker might be now, but he was in the Hall of Records somewhere, and she’d be damned if she was going to leave him to fend for himself.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
KEIRA THOUGHT FRANTICALLY, TRYING to come up with some sort of plan. She couldn’t wander around the neighborhood, peeking into the Hall of Records while she searched for Walker. For one thing, Jeremy was home and already hot to use his baseball bat. For another, she didn’t have any shoes. Someone might notice a muddy, barefoot girl roaming the sidewalks.
She wanted to plunge back into Darkside but she’d barely gotten out the last time. What if she got stuck? They’d catch her, and then who would save Walker? The memory of the guard’s eyes ghosted through her like a recurring nightmare.
She needed to find Walker while keeping herself from getting caught. Her thoughts were impossibly tangled and her vision swam—she was having trouble shaking the effects of passing between the two worlds. Her fingers ached for her piano. She needed to play—to use the rhythm of the notes to quiet her mind. It was the way she’d always worked through her problems and without it, she felt lost.
But then again, she’d never had this sort of problem. There was no time to pick through a sonata when a life hung in the balance.
Suddenly, Smith appeared in front of her. Keira would have staggered back if he hadn’t grabbed her shoulders.
“He’s still there, Keira, on the floor. You have to go get him before the guards decide they can spare someone to drag him away.”
Now she knew what people meant when they said their hearts had leapt into their throats. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow through the thudding fear that filled her neck.
“What about you? Why didn’t you bring him across?” she croaked, both worried for him and also desperately wanting his help.
“I couldn’t! They would have seen me. I’ll go to another part of the Hall and create a distraction.” Smith’s face was grim, but determined. “If we both get caught trying to get Walker out, they’ll take the three of us in front of the Tribunal for sure. If they’re busy watching me throw a fit, though, we might all make it out alive.”