MAIN STREET IN BLACKSTONE, VIRGINIA, looked as if it had been lovingly painted from someone’s dream of what America had once been. It looked so perfect, in fact, that if I’d seen it in a film, I probably would have called it clichéd: striped awnings, brightly painted brick buildings, and old-fashioned streetlamps. Flags and patriotic bunting from the Fourth of July still crowned the street six weeks after the holiday, and a sign announcing the return of the local movie theater was strung between the two sets of stoplights.

The worst thing you could say about Blackstone was that it was a bit out of the way of Petersburg and Richmond. Its small size meant it hadn’t merited the high-tech security cameras that had been installed in the bigger cities, and there weren’t the telltale UN symbols on the dumpsters and fire hydrants. But those were hardly faults when it came to finding a place to hide a secret halfway house for Psi.

“Are we just driving in circles?” Priyanka asked. “Or are we waiting for something—or someone?”

I’d woken up in a bad mood, and nothing about the day had done anything to take the edge off it, least of all the extra six hours it had taken us to reach the town with all the roadblocks and police checkpoints in place across the state.

Just as I’d expected, the closer we got to what they wanted, the tighter the leash became. Priyanka came with me if I needed to use a restroom. Roman stayed in the passenger seat, marking our progress on a stolen map. I’d finally been able to regain control of the wheel earlier in that morning, but only after lying that my friends would need to see me driving to know it was safe to let us in.

I was never going to be able to get away from them; once I’d gotten in the car at the motel, I’d sealed my fate, the same way they’d sealed theirs now. Everything else had been hope and delusion.

The day-old gas-station hot dog I’d eaten for breakfast sat like a brick in my stomach. “I’m just making sure that we haven’t been followed. They prefer night arrivals.”

It was easy to lie now. Just a simple matter of shutting down every stray feeling and keeping my focus sharp. Of course Ruby and Liam didn’t prefer night arrivals. They also had a step-by-step process for kids in need to make contact with them. I still remembered it from my last and only visit.

But we weren’t going to use it. We were going to make our arrival as suspicious as possible.

Priyanka’s fingers danced along the backs of the two seats. Roman took the last sip of his coffee, his eyes on the street. The wind tore one of my WANTED flyers off a nearby streetlamp and skimmed it across our windshield. I would have laughed, if I were any less anxious about this. Instead, I reached up to pull my baseball cap lower and push my sunglasses up.

Roman’s jaw tightened, a single ripple in that calm exterior. I wondered if there was something he wanted to say, or something he didn’t trust himself not to.

“Fine,” Priyanka said, bouncing a little in her seat.

I remembered almost nothing about the drive here, or even the dreams I’d had that left my throat feeling like it had been clawed at from the inside. But I did remember one thing. One word.

Lana.

It didn’t matter if they were looking for Ruby, or if they were looking for whoever Lana was—they weren’t ever stepping foot inside Haven.

Hours passed, carrying the sun in its wide arc through the sky. I moved the car several times to avoid the parking enforcement officer checking the time left on the parking meters. Eventually, I settled us at the edge of a cul-de-sac, in front of the construction fence on a house that had been torn down to its foundation.

Finally, at sunset, I put the keys back in the ignition and turned, letting my heart roar along with the engine. If I could keep it together, this weight would be off me soon. I’d be able to breathe again once all the lies and secrets were unraveled.

“Headlights,” Roman reminded me, his voice thick with sleep.

“Not this time,” I said.

It was a short drive outside the town, weaving through back roads and side streets, then looping back through them again one last time to make sure I wasn’t being followed. The car’s tank was dangerously low as I drove us away from the signs of suburbia into the sprawling dark forest.

When I was sure there was no one nearby, I briefly switched the headlights back on.

“What are we looking for?” Priyanka asked.

The length of blue tape flashed as the headlights skimmed over it, marking a hidden gate.

I slammed on the brakes. Priyanka gasped as her seat belt snapped over her chest. “That.”

I pulled the car over and left it running as I got out. “I’m going to need help.”

Roman joined me, shutting the door quietly behind him. We made our way over to what looked like a tall, overgrown blackberry bush and I carefully reached into it. The metal gate beneath it had absorbed all of the day’s heat. The latch gave way with a loud click.

Roman had a small smile on his face as we pushed the barrier out of the car’s way. I was standing close enough to feel the excitement vibrating off him. “Is this really it?”

The cleared lot started narrow at the gate, then funneled out to allow for parking. It was like an optical illusion. From the road, you wouldn’t even notice that the trees were missing in an otherwise dense forest.

“This is it.” I stepped out of the way as Priyanka climbed into the driver’s seat and navigated the car through the gate. Roman and I made quick work of shutting and re-latching it behind us.

The few cars belonging to the residents of Haven were lined up neatly on one side of the clearing, most covered in camouflaged sheets. The sight of a familiar truck made my heart jump.

They’re here.

Priyanka climbed out of the car with a low whistle. “Quite the setup,” she noted mildly.

I smiled. “Oh, just wait.”

“What should we bring with us?” Roman asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “Actually…maybe the flashlight.”

He nodded, dutifully going to retrieve it from the trunk. “Priya, where did you put it?”

She pivoted back toward the car, her long legs eating up the distance. “It should just be in one of the pillowcases—”

It wasn’t. I had moved it when we stopped earlier, shoving it under the backseat. I had maybe a minute before they spotted it and my makeshift distraction was over.

From what I remembered, the cameras Liam and his father had installed were motion-sensing. They had to have switched themselves on as soon as the car pulled in, but they were disguised and insulated well enough in the trees that I only found the one nearest to us by tracing the length of the hidden cable feeding power to it.

I turned my face up toward the lens, giving it a clear look at me. Then I did the only subtle thing I could think of to indicate things were not okay. I brought up my arms, resting each hand on the opposite shoulder, creating an X.

Please still be using them, I thought, as I mouthed a single word: Help.

Liam had told me he was teaching the Haven kids about the old road signs the Psi used to use, including the X surrounded by a circle that had indicated a place wasn’t safe. If the people watching, whether that was Liam, Ruby, or someone else, couldn’t tell what I was signaling, maybe it would still be enough to signal that things weren’t what they seemed—that something was very wrong.

“Found it,” Roman said, shutting the back door. He switched the flashlight on, scanning it over the ground.

“What’s wrong?” Priyanka asked, coming to stand beside me.

I let my hands drift down my arms, pretending to hug them tighter to my chest. “I just got cold for some reason. Must be the lake or something.”

It had to be seventy degrees at least, never mind the humidity. Priyanka just shrugged.

“Let’s go,” I said. “We have to walk a little ways.”

We had to buy Haven some time to figure out what was happening and what to do.

Roman kept pace with me, his head up, eyes sharp as he scanned the trees. He had the gun on him, but kept it tucked into the waistband of his jeans. I could see its outline through the close fit of his gray T-shirt. I’d debated telling him to leave it behind, but I hadn’t been able to think of a way to do it that wouldn’t have set off an alarm in his already cautious mind.

“While traipsing through the woods at night is one of my all-time favorite nightmares,” Priyanka whispered from behind us, “I would dearly love to know what I should be looking for. A house? Some kind of tunnel?”

“It’s not far,” I whispered back. “Listen for the water.”

The lake was a speck on most maps, looking especially insignificant next to the nearby Lake Lee—a fact that had not gone unnoticed or un–joked about by one Liam Stewart. But it was big and deep enough to require a boat to cross to the other side, where the trees were thicker on the ground and there was no road access to the structures hidden behind them.

I kept them going forward, meaning to swing them in a wide arc before looping back to this spot, but Roman suddenly straightened.

“I think it’s this way,” he said, nodding his head in the exact direction of the lake.

I turned before Roman could say anything else, reaching back to take the flashlight from him. The path wasn’t as clear here; there were large rocks and a slope to contend with. I didn’t need an excuse to make my way down slowly. By the time we reached the muddy bank of the lake, my heart was beating like we’d run all the way here from Nebraska.

I knelt down, motioning for the others to do the same. I angled the flashlight toward the opposite shore and switched it on, off, on, off, on, off….

“What are you doing?” Roman asked.

“It’s a signal,” I lied, “to let them know we’re friendly. They have a security protocol.”

And this was absolutely not part of it.

Here we are, I thought. Come and get us.

“Ooh,” Priyanka whispered, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “This feels very sneaky.”

“Yup,” I agreed.

“I think I see someone,” Roman said, squinting at the other side of the lake. Sure enough, a moment later, there was a faint splash as something entered the dark water.

A boat, and the single person rowing it, took shape out of the night. The oars pulled through the water with ease. I rose to my feet, gripping the flashlight hard enough to feel a spark from the batteries snap back at me. Flannel…light hair…

It wasn’t Liam.

As the boat neared us, the rower turned to judge the remaining distance. I actually recognized her. It was Lisa—one of the first teens that they’d gone to retrieve three years ago. She was eighteen like me, and, at this point, was probably one of the older Psi at Haven.

Not Liam. Not Ruby.

Lisa looked at me, her face brightening with recognition. With my plan in pieces, I managed to salvage one last useful bit of it.

“Who the hell are you?” I called.

She stiffened, freezing halfway out of the boat. Roman reached behind him, his hand hovering over the gun.

“I don’t know you,” I said, keeping my voice hard. And you don’t know me either. Come on, Lisa…. “Where are the Psi in charge?”

Lisa’s mouth opened. Shut. Fear flickered across her face.

Liam or Ruby should have come. Things couldn’t have changed that much, especially when it came to security.

Something’s wrong. Something else was happening here.

Priyanka stepped up behind me, her shoulders back. “Do we have a problem?”

Roman moved in close to my other side. If it were almost anyone else, I would have thought they were trying to back me up, not make sure I couldn’t slip away.

No one said a word, and it was only because of that silence that we heard the branch snap. In the next instant, a voice barked out, “Drop it!”

Six figures, their faces obscured by black ski masks, poured out of the trees behind us, an array of rifles and pistols in their hands. They were camouflaged in dark shirts and slacks, and while none of it was military grade, it was good enough for an evening ambush. They’d used the distraction of Lisa’s slow approach across the lake to surround us while our backs were turned.

One of them, a tall teen, stepped out in front, moving his finger to the trigger of his rifle as he said, calmer this time, “Drop it.”

Roman had the gun in his hand before I’d managed to look behind me. That horrible, emotionless mask was back over his face as he shifted his gaze from threat to threat, assessing.

He could take them. The realization was like a knife to the gut. Roman wasn’t the type to take chances. If he was ignoring the order, it was because he knew he’d win.

I reached out, putting a hand on the barrel of the gun. He glanced toward me, and there was nothing there, just ice. I pushed it down slowly, watching him swallow hard.

Finally, he switched the safety back on and tossed it toward the young man out front. I didn’t like the look he shot Priyanka, or the message buried in it. I put my hands behind my head, kneeling on the ground.

“Just so there’s no misunderstanding,” I said, “I’m armed.”

Check them for more weapons.

Lisa nodded at a different masked teen, and the girl stepped forward, briskly patting me down. Finished, she kicked me square in the back, forcing me to catch myself before I ate dirt.

“Don’t touch her again,” Roman warned. To my surprise, the gun was all he’d had on him. The only thing they pulled from Priyanka was the two phones. Lisa caught me watching them and shoved them in the pocket of her flannel hoodie.

Separate us, I begged silently. Get me away from them long enough to find out what’s happening. Separate us. Don’t bring them to the house.

“I can explain,” I began.

The boy gripped my arm, hauling me back onto my feet. “You’re damn right you will.”

Priyanka took a menacing step forward, ignoring the guns pointed her direction. “Now, that’s no way to talk to a lady, is it?”

I held up a hand, trying to mask my own surprise. “It’s fine—it’s okay.”

The masked teen squeezed my arm. Reassuring, not threatening. “Take the others to the hole. We’ll question this one.”

“No!” Roman surged forward, forcing two of the teens to grab him and a third to point their gun directly in his face. “Don’t—please—”

That one word took the air out of my lungs. Please. I forced myself to look back at Lisa, who watched the scene unfold, her expression pained. The game I’d been playing was starting to splinter around me.

The anger burning in his expression was real. The fear in his voice was real.

The others turned to Priyanka. She held up her hands. “I’m not going to be dramatic about it.” Then, with one last nod toward me, she added, “But if you so much as scratch her, I’ll redefine that word for you.”

The boy drew me over to Lisa, to the boat, steadily guiding me into it. He made enough of a show of flashing his gun that I felt like I couldn’t see what was happening to the others, not without exposing the whole charade.

He dragged the small boat back into the water, and, somehow, the three of us fit comfortably on it. As we drifted away, I took in a deep breath of the cool, moist air rising from the moon-bright water. The more the distance grew, the less I understood what had just happened. I’d expected them to try to fight being separated, knowing they wouldn’t want their tool out of sight before they could use me, but…

Not like that.

The opposite shore was a few dozen feet away before the boy pulled off his mask and took in a steadying breath of his own. Jacob.

“That was something else,” he said.

“Seriously,” Lisa said, a bit shakily.

“You all right?” Jacob was a good foot and a half taller than I’d remembered. Even sitting in the boat, he still had to duck slightly to look me in the eye. He’d been the quietest of the original three, almost painfully shy. At the time, I’d thought he resembled Chubs, both in appearance and in his energy. Now he looked like he could bench-press him.

“Zu?” he said, a bit more urgently. “You did want us to pull you away from them, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. I had to fight the urge to keep from looking back.

“You didn’t use the normal procedure, but we weren’t sure if you just…didn’t remember it,” Lisa said, hesitating over the last part. “It’s been a while.”

“That was smart, using the X symbol,” Jacob said. “Miguel figured it out right away. We rowed out behind the house and circled around the long way to meet you. Good call with the stalling.”

I wanted to feel proud of that, or even just acknowledge that this insane plan had worked. Somehow, it was just…

Please.

“I’m all right, and yeah, that was what I was after,” I said as we bumped into shallow water. “Safe to assume my new reputation has preceded me?”

I barely knew these kids; we’d only met once, and that had been minutes, not even a full hour of interaction. We all just happened to fall inside Ruby and Liam’s bright constellation.

In that moment, though, with their sympathetic eyes on me, that automatic assumption of my innocence, I could have hugged them both and never let go.

“Listen,” Lisa began uneasily, “before we go in…”

The boat rocked against the water, but neither Jacob nor Lisa moved to get out. Then I remembered.

“Where are they?” I asked.

“Didn’t Charlie tell you? Ruby and Liam left two weeks ago to do a pickup,” Jacob said, “and neither of them came back.”