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“If he sees me—”

“He won’t,” I said.

I thought about telling them everything then, that Kai had joined the fight, that Adrian and Soren had already been reassigned. But I saw Jess pull out her phone, and I waited.

“Damian’s driving ahead,” I said. “At the top of the grade, there’s a junction. If we get two headlight flashes, the road’s clean and we take the turn for the spur. If not, we keep driving.”

“What time do we start?” Priya said.

“If we haven’t heard anything by nine-thirty, we begin.”

Priya sat up. “Nine-thirty? Marlowe, we’ll be there at seven.”

“We have to get there early. And we have to leave before the tide comes in. If the water comes in, we’re done, finished or not.”

“And the guys?” Priya said.

“We can’t contact them.”

I saw Jess look at me in the mirror. “Aurora takes their phones,” I explained.

“That’s insane,” she said.

“That’s the part you think’s insane?” Callie said, looking over her shoulder.

“It’s all insane,” she mumbled.

We left the highway and the strip malls and gas stations petered out, then the houses, the fences, the city limits. The fog crouched offshore as a long gray wall. Callie tried the radio, got a man discussing salmon quotas, and turned it off.

“Vivienne,” Priya said. “Which guy are they giving her?”

I glanced in the rearview mirror. I saw Jess’s expression shift, but I wasn’t sure whether it was sadness or a brighter, fiercer emotion.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Some beautiful creature with the patience of a saint.”

“How many of them are there?” Jess said.

“I never asked,” I said. “Because it makes me sick.”

The redwoods thickened until they closed over the road and hid the world from us. The road narrowed to a scratch through the brush. Then the trees thinned, and the Pacific opened up beneath us, a froth of waves on graphite that looked impossibly deep and monstrous.

My phone lit from the cupholder. I picked it up right after taking a switchback that the truck protested with a crank and a groan.

see you later

“Damian’s arrived. They’re about to hand over their phones. No communication from here on out.”

“I need to text Kai,” Callie said, her voice cracking.

“Why?” I glanced at her, only for a moment, as the road demanded all my attention.

“To say goodbye, just in case—” She didn’t finish.

“No goodbyes. Remember what Branwen said.”

I caught sight of the backseat and saw Priya and Jess look at each other. I glared at Callie.

“Why do you care?” Priya said. “It’s not like he’s real, Callie. He’s not really…yours. I thought you were sick of him, anyway. He’s a trick.”