Los Angeles was going to hell.
People from everywhere else in the country had been saying that for years, of course. They gasped in fear at the helter-skelter sixties, raised their eyebrows when teased hair, pleather, and loud music took over the Sunset Strip in the eighties, and shook their heads at the nineties riots. And that was all before reality TV. They said too much sunshine soaked into people’s brains and addled them. Or maybe it was the Botox. Or the traffic. The city was home to gangs, vegan cleanses, Lindsay Lohan. One day the whole place would break away and sink right into the Pacific Ocean, and good riddance—it was all falling apart, anyway.
Shannon Mei had heard all that and more her whole life, but never had any reason to take it seriously.
Until now.
Shannon’s best friend, Liv Phillips, had been gone for twenty-four hours, and in that time, their hometown had taken a serious left turn into the crazy. For a solid chunk of those twenty-four hours, Shannon had been holed up at the West Los Angeles Medical Center, staking out the room of a strange, mostly unpleasant boy and watching the city outside turn to chaos.
For the twentieth time that day, Shannon parted the blinds in the tiny hospital room and looked out the window. In late August in Los Angeles, the sky should have been a deep, clear—but still familiar and unremarkable—blue, maybe dotted here and there with wispy white clouds.
But this sky wasn’t the one Shannon knew.
For one thing, it was orange. And not the bright, Technicolor orange of sunrises and sunsets, but a sickly, brownish orange, thick with rust-colored clouds. It looked angry. And the people in the city sprawled out beneath it gazed up, helplessly, at a sky that had turned on them like a loyal dog suddenly gone feral. What else could they do? Run? How could you run from the sky?
And that wasn’t the only thing going wrong. After a large earthquake the day before (one Shannon knew had been caused by Liv traveling to another world), the ground continued to rumble every couple of hours. It was getting warmer, too. Los Angeles was always hot in August, but temperatures didn’t usually climb quite this fast during the day. Even in the air-conditioned hospital, the fabric of Shannon’s slinky T-shirt clung to her back.
She closed the blinds again.
Inside the small room, it was dark and quiet. Merek lay still on the hospital bed, his thin, lanky frame nearly edging off the small cot. The top of his head was wrapped in gauze, and the right side of his face was a dark bruise. Merek was being treated for smoke inhalation, a concussion, and a gash on his collarbone that needed twelve stitches. But that bruise on his face was maybe the worst—a nasty gift from when Cedric, Merek’s friend, enemy, and leader, had smashed Merek’s face into the ground repeatedly for what turned out to be no reason at all.
Merek was still unconscious, leaving Shannon alone to parse through everything that had happened in the past day while the world outside fell apart. That her best friend, Liv—calm, steady, annoyingly organized Liv—was secretly some kind of scroll who had the ability to open portals to another world through the power of a back tattoo, of all things, was ridiculous enough. That Liv had befriended a group of runaway royals from said other world, and was also on the run from monsters and knights and who knew what else—it was a lot for Shannon to keep track of.
Like, a whole lot.
It was almost too much to be believed, if Shannon hadn’t been an actual witness to all of it. She still felt like maybe she was insane, or dreaming. But all she had to do was part the blinds of the hospital room to see the sky and know that the craziness was real. And far from over.
Whatever was going on outside, it had something to do with the portals—and with Liv. But Liv wasn’t around to fix things right now, and Shannon couldn’t follow or even call her—she doubted the magical “other world,” whose name she could barely pronounce, had Verizon cell towers. Liv had left her behind, left her to deal with this whole mess.
Not that Shannon had any idea what to do. She’d stayed with Merek the day before, like she promised Liv she would. But right after she’d gone home for a much-needed nap and shower, everything went to hell.
It was like the whole city had ground to a halt. Even Shannon’s rational, left-brained parents, who never raised their voices at her even when she stole the car, wore miniskirts to church, or dropped out of advanced calculus to take drama, had genuine panic in their eyes. They sat with Shannon as the freaky orange sky turned darker—but not completely black—that night, and the three of them hardly slept at all. The next morning, they decided to skip work, which scared Shannon more than anything else. But Shannon had promised to look after Merek, and she couldn’t shake the urge to do something, so that morning she’d left her parents a letter explaining that she went to check on Liv (a lie) and would be back soon (hopefully true).
So now, here she was. A TV on the wall across from Merek’s bed was on, but muted. Shannon reached for the remote and turned up the volume.
A pore-free news anchor with a helmet of shiny blond hair had her Very Serious News Face on. She was talking via satellite to a balding man who looked like he’d had maybe three too many cups of coffee and a stern-looking man with thick eyebrows and a buzz cut. The ticker at the bottom of the screen read, “ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE IN LA?” And then, below that, “GOVERNMENT CONSIDERING FEMA RESPONSE.”
“So are you definitely saying this is an effect of climate change?” the news anchor asked, a tiny furrow appearing in the skin between her perfectly plucked brows.
Buzz Cut Man scoffed, while Balding Man put his jittery hands in front of him.
“No, no, I’m not definitely saying anything,” Balding Man replied. “At this juncture, it would be irresponsible to ascribe any one cause.”
“But you’re not ruling out climate change.”
“I don’t think we can rule out anything. But it seems unlikely that global warming would cause such radical changes overnight, or even in an instant, as many reports indicate—”
“But what else could cause such abnormalities in the sky and weather?”
“Well, uh . . . it could be many things. . . .”
Beads of sweat dripped down into the Balding Man’s collar. Shannon felt a jolt of sympathy for him. Buzz Cut man took his cue to cut in. “While the scientists are dithering back and forth, Amy, what we should be focusing on is how to contain a worsening situation in Los Angeles. A military presence is needed to stem the panic—”
“Loud girl?”
Shannon muted the television again and spun toward the scratchy voice. Merek was awake, his eyes on her. She scooted her plastic chair closer to the edge of his bed.
“Welcome back.”
“Where am I?” Merek asked, struggling to rise. “It’s so . . . white.”
“You’re at a hospital on Wilshire. The doctors have been treating you for smoke inhalation.”
Merek’s hand slowly rose to the bandages around his head. He winced.
“And a head wound.”
When Merek brought his hand back down, he saw the small tube sticking out of his right arm, just above the elbow. The tubing led from his arm to a small fluid sack hanging from a stand by his bed. His eyes widened, and he reached to pull the tubing from his skin. Shannon moved quickly to stop him, grabbing his free hand with her own.
“Stop. That’s making you better.”
“Is that going inside of me?”
“Pretty sure, yeah.”
“Why?!”
“I don’t know, I’m not a doctor. But they know what they’re doing here. This is where Zac Efron had his appendectomy.”
Merek’s eyes stayed on the tubing. “This is barbaric. How long have I been here?”
“About a day.”
Merek pushed himself up to a sitting position and looked to the door. “Are the others outside?”
“Uh . . .” Shannon bit her lip and looked down. In the past few hours that she’d been watching Merek sleep, she’d wondered how she would tell him his friends had split. Tact had never been her strong suit. But honesty was.
“No, they’re not here. They’re gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Back to your home planet.”
“What?”
Shannon drew a big breath. “Joe said that Cedric had to get out of the hospital because the police want him on account of how he’s always around when police officers get beat up. Which, fair enough. And Joe couldn’t tell the cops the truth, because talking about portals and monsters and knights would get us all locked up. Again, fair.”
Merek gave a quick, exasperated sigh, which Shannon just took as a cue to continue.
“So Cedric, Kat, Liv, and her brother and sister went to Daisy’s house in Malibu to wait for you to get better. Oh yeah, and Cedric’s sneaky little sister went, too. Then that same sneaky little sister stole Liv’s brother in the middle of the night and made him open a portal to your home world. Or maybe he went willingly, that part’s less clear. Joe told me all this on the phone. Anyway, the others decided to go after Liv’s brother. Well, Liv, Cedric, and Kat did, anyway. So. That’s the short version.”
Merek leaned back against his pillows, and for a moment Shannon saw what might have been a glimmer of hurt in his eyes. But it disappeared so quickly she wondered if she’d ever seen it at all. When he spoke, his voice was cold.
“They left me here.”
“Yeah, looks that way,” Shannon said. “If it helps, they left me here, too.”
“Pardon me if I do not find that of particular comfort.”
“Hey,” Shannon said, meeting his eyes. “You want to talk about comfort? I’m the one who’s been sitting in this tiny room for hours and hours, waiting for you to wake up. And does this chair look comfortable to you?”
She gestured to her plastic chair. Merek just raised an eyebrow. Which was clearly a mistake, because he immediately winced in pain.
“Serves you right for being so ungrateful,” Shannon said.
“I never asked you to sit on a chair for me.”
“Yeah, well, I never asked for my best friend to be able to jump to another world and leave me behind with Captain Sarcastic. I never asked to have to lie to my parents, or watch the city fall into an apocalypse—”
“What?”
“Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that?”
Shannon stood up and walked to the window. She pulled open the blinds, revealing the orange nightmare of a sky. “The world is falling apart.”
From the doorway, someone cleared his throat. Shannon looked up to see Joe, Liv’s social worker. He nodded toward the window. “There might be something we can do about that.”
“Joe!” Shannon couldn’t keep the joy out of her voice. She’d only met Joe once or twice during the past few years, usually when he was helping Liv find a new foster home after one flamed out. And even though it turned out Joe had the same back tattoo—marking, whatever—as Liv, and the same ability to open portals to another world, he’d still become a point of sanity and comfort over the past few days. When your best friend starts making out with princes and jumping through portals, it can be good to have an adult-type figure around.
Joe smiled at Shannon and then quickly and quietly closed the door behind him, shutting the three of them away from the busy hospital hallway.
“Any news?” Shannon asked.
Joe gave his head a small shake, and Shannon tried not to be disappointed. She knew it was asking a lot to expect Liv to come home in less than a day, but she still hoped her best friend made it back sooner rather than later.
“What about Daisy?”
Joe sighed. “I’ve been in touch with her parents. They’re trying to catch a flight back to LA, but all flights to and from the city have been canceled for the time being. For now, I’m keeping Daisy with me. She’s at the vending machines in the hall.” Joe looked to Merek. “I’m glad to see you’re awake. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been stabbed, battered, and left to die,” Merek responded.
“Cedric didn’t want to leave you behind,” Joe said.
Merek rolled his eyes. “I doubt that very much. If anything, I am sure he was glad at the chance to finally be rid of me.”
“All right with the self-pity already, we get it,” Shannon said. “Nobody likes you, everybody hates you, blah, blah, blah.” She turned to Joe. “You said there’s something we might be able to do? About the sky?”
“Hopefully,” Joe said, and sighed. “It’s a long shot. But the sky began to change the minute Liv went through that portal. We have to assume the two are connected. Maybe opening that large portal with three scrolls had something to do with it, or maybe it was just the final portal that broke the Earth’s back, so to speak. What we need is more information.”
“Where do we get that kind of information? I’m guessing there’s not a helpful blog somewhere?”
Joe blew air through his mouth and crossed his arms. “Doubtful. I think I’ll need to go right to the source this time.”
“The source?”
“The Knights of Valere,” Joe said.
Shannon raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. She hadn’t been present the first time the ancient sect of nut jobs who called themselves the Knights of Valere had attacked Liv, but she’d been there the second time. She’d seen their leader, a man Liv referred to as the professor, try to shoot Liv to prevent her from opening a portal.
The Knights were not Shannon’s favorite people.
“But aren’t the Knights the bad guys?” Shannon asked. “I mean, you’re like Liv, Joe. A scroll. Won’t they just try to kill you?”
Joe cocked his head. “Maybe. But they’re the only ones who know anything about the portals. They may have the answers we need.”
Joe’s eyes went to the window, and Shannon’s followed. “Desperate times . . . ,” she whispered.
“But before we can even think about getting to the Knights, we first have to figure out a way to get out of the hospital.”
“Sounds like a fine idea to me,” Merek put in. He reached for the tubing in his arm again. And again, Shannon stopped him.
“It won’t be that easy,” Joe went on. “Merek, the doctors have to clear you. And after that, the police will have questions for you. They’ll want to know how this happened, who you were with . . . We’ll have to come up with a story, a good one they can’t poke holes in. I’ll tell the police you’re a minor so that I can take you into my care and there’s less chance they’ll want you to go down to the station . . . but for that to work, you need to be convincing.”
“Convincing?” Merek asked.
“Yes,” Joe said. “We don’t have time to deal with the cops and child services right now. We need to find the Knights and figure out how to fix whatever’s happening out there in the city, before things get worse and people start getting killed.”
Merek shook his head in confusion. “Who’s getting killed?”
“Los Angeles is a big city with millions of people,” Joe said. “The kind of panic this will cause, the earthquakes alone . . . we need to get out of here and find the Knights as soon as possible. So, Merek, your first interaction with the police has to be completely believable. You have to be sincere, polite, and willing to cooperate if we have even a chance of pulling this off.”
“Oh man,” Shannon said, shaking her head at Merek’s anything-but-polite expression. “We are so screwed.”