It turned out an apocalypse did little to help LA’s traffic problem.
Shannon’s head was swimming in exhaust fumes as she gazed out at the slowest-moving jam-up of cars she’d ever seen in her life. And worse, she was stuck in the passenger seat and couldn’t even express her frustration by pounding on the horn. At the wheel of his decade-old Jeep, Joe was too cautious and levelheaded to honk at the hundreds of cars in front of them on the 134 (though no one else on the road seemed to share his stance on honking).
“Another breakdown,” Joe said, pointing to a stalled-out car on the roadway up ahead.
Shannon groaned. “Seriously, Joe, if you stop and pull a Good Samaritan with every car we pass, we’ll never get to Pasadena.”
Joe sighed. “This one looks abandoned anyway.”
She felt a stab of guilt as they inched past the car, which was not only empty, but also had its windows smashed in. A pile of blankets and debris was littered outside the car’s doors, and Shannon could only guess what had happened to the people inside. She tore her gaze away.
Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t help every single person who was currently trying to evacuate the city. What she could do was try to stop things from getting worse. Which was why she’d persuaded Joe to take her with him as he went to track down a lead on one of the Knights of Valere. Daisy and Merek had come along as well—Daisy because she was still waiting for her parents to come and get her, and Merek because, well, he had nowhere else to go after being released from the hospital.
Shannon’s phone buzzed in her lap. She sighed, but knew better than to ignore it.
“Hey, Mom, what’s—?”
“Where the hell are you?”
Shannon’s mom had never sworn at her before, not once in her life. Not even when she’d “borrowed” the van at fifteen, before she technically had her license, and it accidentally got towed from the beach.
“I’m safe, Mom. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry? I’m beyond worry. How could you just leave? Do you even know what’s happening out there?”
“I’ve got an idea—”
“Shannon Ning Mei, this is not a game. What could possibly have possessed you to leave the house at a time like this?”
“I had to, Mom. I had to check on Liv and make sure she’s all right.” The lie came out smoothly, but Shannon’s hand that held her phone twitched a little, and she was glad her mom couldn’t see her.
“I am sure Liv is perfectly fine.”
“She doesn’t have a family like I do, Mom. She doesn’t have anyone.”
A pause. “I understand why you’d want to make sure your friend is okay.” Her mom’s voice was slightly softer. “But you’re my daughter, and I need to know that you’re okay. I need you here.”
“I told you, Mom, I’m safe.”
“Where are you? I’m coming to get you.”
“No! Mom, I’ll leave soon. I mean right away. I’ll leave right away.”
“You better, Shannon. I want you home before dark, or I’m calling the police.”
“I think they’ve got other things to worry about—”
“Shannon Ning—”
“Okay, okay. No need to keep middle-naming me. I’ll be home before dark.”
They said good-bye and Shannon hung up, then let out a huge breath.
“I don’t feel comfortable with you lying to your parents,” Joe said, his eyes on the road.
“Would you rather I told them we were on the hunt for former members of an ancient sect bent on keeping magic portals from opening on Earth?”
Joe sighed again, and Shannon looked out the window as they moved toward an off-ramp at a glacial pace. The truth was, she hated lying to her parents, too. It felt different now than it ever had before, which was funny, because trying to save the city was a much better reason to disobey her parents than cutting class to get tickets for a Taylor Swift concert.
But then again, she’d never seen her parents this upset before. Her mom, an environmental scientist who gave lectures on American wastefulness and had never set foot in a Costco, had already bought out several shelves’ worth of canned goods, bottled water, and toilet paper from the local store. Shannon’s dad, meanwhile, had started obsessively watching the news, his eyes bouncing between the CNN talking heads on TV and the CNN app on his tablet.
Not that the news had any more . . . well, news on what was causing the “abnormalities” in the atmosphere. But there was plenty of information on the results. People were getting out of the city as fast as their hybrid cars could take them.
Shannon felt restless and stuck. And worse—she felt powerless to help her parents. Just like everyone else in Los Angeles, they were desperately trying to understand why all this was happening, why their lives had turned upside down in an instant. Unlike everyone else, Shannon had a good idea what was going on. But she couldn’t tell her parents about Liv’s tattoo, or portals, or any of it—not without sounding crazy. And even if she did tell them the truth, and they believed her, what exactly could they do with that knowledge? They weren’t scholars on arcane magic or whatever energy worked the portal stuff. There was nothing they could do to fix things.
But the same wasn’t true for Shannon. She could do something—she could help Joe. Even if it meant being stuck in traffic for hours on end in a car that was honestly starting to smell.
“This world has far too many people,” Merek said from the backseat. A bicyclist moved quickly past his window, and he flinched backward. “Do you not feel cramped all the time?”
“I do right now,” Daisy responded, squirming away from him. “Seriously, Joe, how small is this car? You could have at least gotten an SUV.”
“I don’t think social workers make SUV-level salary,” Shannon responded.
“Hey,” Joe replied. “You’re right, but still. Hey.”
“Are we there yet?” Merek asked, completely oblivious to how annoying that question was during a long car ride. Daisy snorted, and even Joe managed a small smile.
“Now, now, don’t make Joe turn this car around,” Shannon said, grinning.
Merek looked between them, confused at their smiles. “I do not understand half the things you say, let alone why you dragged me along on this ridiculous mission.”
“It was this or stay in the hospital,” Joe replied.
“With the tubes,” Shannon added.
Merek made a face like he didn’t care, but Shannon could see him half shudder as he turned to face the window, ignoring them once again.
Eventually, Joe turned onto a small side street on the outskirts of Pasadena. The houses had mostly dirt lawns, and the few palm trees wilted in the hot, still air. Joe parked in front of an adobe house with faded Spanish tile on the roof.
“This is it,” he said.
Shannon reached for her door handle, but Joe stopped her.
“I think it would be best for the three of you to wait in the car, at least until I make sure it’s safe.”
“I thought you said there was only, like, a twenty percent chance a Knight actually lives here,” Shannon said. Even though Joe had spent years trying to keep Liv, Daisy, and Peter safe from the Knights who’d killed their parents, he said he’d only picked up on their actual trail a few times. And he’d never gone looking for them before.
“That means there’s a twenty percent possibility it’s dangerous.”
“So you drove us all this way just so we could sit in the car?”
“You’re the one who begged to come, Shannon. If you want to help, this is how you can do it. By listening to me and keeping an eye on these two.”
“Hey!” Daisy and Merek both said in unison from the backseat.
“Sorry, guys, but Daisy, you’re only thirteen. And Merek, you could still pull your stitches out at any moment.”
“Wait—what?” Merek asked, eyes wide. “That could happen?”
“Fine, I’ll stay and watch over the backseat misfits.” Shannon sighed and lifted her hand from the door handle. “But at least leave the air on. It’s a hundred degrees outside.”
“A hundred and two, according to my phone,” Daisy piped in from the backseat.
Joe shook his head, but left the keys in the ignition as he got out of the car and headed up the dusty front walk toward the house.
Merek shifted over to look at Daisy’s phone. “That thing can tell you the current weather?”
“Current, future, whatever.”
“Can I see?”
Daisy shrugged and handed her phone over to Merek. He took it cautiously, as though it were a hot cup of coffee that might spill and burn him.
“This world has so . . . much,” he murmured. And for once, he didn’t sound snide.
Shannon wondered, not for the first time, what Merek’s home world was like, and how Liv was doing there. What would it be like to leave behind everything you knew and travel to a place so different? Personally, she’d never wanted to live anywhere but Los Angeles. She’d known what she wanted to be ever since the first time she’d seen Hannah Montana: famous. She already lived in LA, so she figured she was halfway there. She and Liv planned to go to USC or UCLA; she’d study theater and Liv would study film, they’d get an apartment together, and then they’d take over the world. One of them leaving Los Angeles—let alone their whole world—had never been part of the plan.
Shannon watched Merek, wondering if he’d had any sort of life plan before coming to LA. He glanced up from the phone screen to see her staring at him and grinned, lifting one cocky eyebrow as if to say caught you. Shannon opened her mouth to put him in his place when, suddenly, the Jeep started shaking.
It wasn’t a gentle shake, either. The Jeep lurched quickly to the right, then back again. Daisy yelped, and Merek put his hands on the back of the seat in front of him to steady himself, eyes wild. Shannon gripped the armrest and waited for the earthquake to be over. They’d been happening every few hours for the past couple of days, but they were jarring every single time.
After a minute or two, the shaking tapered off.
“It feels like they’re getting stronger,” Daisy said, her voice low.
Shannon thought she was right, but didn’t want to say so. The idea that things were getting worse made her feel restless. The air in the car felt sticky and oppressive, even with the AC on. She squirmed in her seat.
“I can’t wait in this cramped car anymore. I have to go check on Joe.”
“But he said—”
“I know what he said. But if this guy is dangerous, Joe might need backup. And if he’s not, then we have just as much right to hear what he has to say. You more than anyone, Daisy.”
Daisy shifted awkwardly, and Shannon thought of the dark marking on her back. It was identical to Liv’s, and it had the same power to open up a gateway to another world. Daisy might look like just another thirteen-year-old girl (well, a thirteen-year-old girl with a $500 Coach bag), but she had a big role in whatever was happening to their city.
Shannon hopped out of the car and a second later heard the other car doors open and shut behind her. Merek moved quickly to her side.
“Well, aren’t you the rash one,” he asked.
“You can always get back in the car if you want,” Shannon snapped.
Shannon felt just a little nervous as she walked toward the front door of the house, but there was no way she was turning back now. It felt too good to be outside the car, to be doing something.
She opened the front door, pushing her way inside. After a few steps she stopped, suddenly finding it hard to move, or think, or breathe.
She’d walked out of an apocalypse and into a horror show.
A man—what used to be a man—was lying on the living room floor. The carpeting underneath him was stained dark brown, and similar dark brown stains spotted the nearby couch, chair, coffee table, wall. Shannon covered her face with her hands to block out the smell, the sight of the blood, but she couldn’t. There was too much of it. Her knees buckled.
Merek put a gentle hand on Shannon’s back to keep her upright. She had just enough foresight to throw out an arm behind her, stopping Daisy from coming inside.
For Shannon, it was already too late to unsee any of it.
Behind the body, Joe stood with one hand on his knee, one hand clutching his cell phone to his ear. His face was a shade of white-green. He looked up at Shannon and Merek with watery eyes.
“Someone else got here first.”