“The men are in the den watching football,” Mrs. Calloway says, bringing the Jell-O to the refrigerator.
The menwould be Mr. Calloway and his brother-in-law. Stereotypical gender roles have always been on full display here in this house on Thanksgiving. Mrs. Calloway wouldn’t have it any other way. Anytime one of themenoffers to help, she shoos them off. She adores Thanksgiving. She loves to cook. And only her sister is invited to join her in the sanctuary that is her kitchen.
So, Dad heads downstairs.
And I grab Twig by the arm. “Let’s go put our coats in your parents’ room.”
As soon as we’re inside, I check under the bed and behind the curtain in case the twins are inhere hiding. When the coast is clear, I shut the door. “The plant can open a rift.”
“What?”
“The plant. In my bedroom.” I pull him deeper into the room. “Before we left, it started glowing. There wasn’t a new leaf. I didn’t have another vision or anything. But there were these dots, like the ones on Lainey’s wrist, and when I touched it, the air started to hum.”
“Great Scott,” Twig says under his breath.
“Yeah,” I say back.
“So, what happened?”
“I let go. It stopped glowing. And we came here.”
“But you think…?”
“If I’d held on, it would have opened a rift. I know it would have.” Deep down in my bones. Without a single doubt. “The plant is our way in. We can get to my mom and Simon and maybe even Emma and Sienna. I just have to figure out how it works.”
I sit on the edge of Mr. and Mrs. Calloway’s bed and stick my thumbnail between my teeth. “Even if it does start glowing again, I can’t open a rift in my bedroom. Something is hungry and hunting on the other side. Whatever it is, I’m not giving it access to my dad.”
“I think we both know what it is,” Twig says.
We look at each other, then say it at the same time—the Hollow Walker.
A hunter of souls.
Eternally hungry.
With a pack of beasts bound to do his bidding.
Black as soot.
Thin as a winter crow.
With eyes like glowing embers.
That’s exactly what attacked Lily in my latest dream.
Somehow, on Halloween night, we woke it up. We wokethemup. And now, they are hunting.
“If I can figure out how to activate the plant, then I can bring it somewhere remote, like St. Fortuna’s. I could open a rift, slip inside the Overlay, and take a look around. Maybe there’s some sort of clue that would lead me to Vorat.”
Twig glances at the door. “I keep thinking about Rafe.”
“Why?” I ask warily.
“He’s appeared to you three times now.”
I give him a look, likeso what?
“Let’s say he’s not a ghost. Let’s say he’s alive, trapped inside the Overlay, trying to contact you. First at the hospital. Then at Evermore. This last time, at school.”
