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t thing she ever did, Evie would free her brother from that machine.
Sound moved strangely here. Probably the effect of the trees bouncing their voices around, an echo upon echo. The wind seemed to carry distant voices, as if moving them across time. Evie shut her eyes, straining to hear. Finally, she removed her glove and laid a hand on the ground, searching for some trace of her brother. Anything. Anything at all.
Theta touched her shoulder. “You think that’s a good idea, Evil?”
Sam was waiting. The present needed her. Evie shoved her hand back into her glove.
They peeked through the trees and saw Hopeful Harbor rising up from spring’s first green. It was a breathtaking little fiefdom, all ivy-covered stone and perfectly manicured lawns—a magazine advertisement for the good life. But Evie had been inside its many rooms and had found it oddly cold. It had felt less like a house and more like a beautifully appointed reliquary; it was a place that wanted to preserve the past.
“Look. In the drive,” Theta said. She pointed to a brown sedan parked in front of the house. “Shadow Men.”
“How we gonna get around ’em?” Isaiah asked.
“I don’t suppose you’re getting any visions about that, are ya?” Theta asked.
Isaiah shook his head. “Don’t work that way.” Isaiah looked sad again.
“What is it?”
“If Memphis were here, he’d fuss about the way I talk.”
“You can talk any old way you want,” Evie said.
The front doors opened. The Shadow Men stepped out, and with them was a woman whose hands were bound by chains. “Come on, Miriam,” the smaller of the two Shadow Men said.
“Miriam! That’s Sam’s mother,” Evie whispered to the others.
“Miriam is the one who’s been talking to Sarah Beth,” Isaiah said.
Miriam’s head shot up as if she was listening. Her gaze fell upon the line of trees where Evie, Isaiah, and Theta were hiding, and then her voice was in their heads: Can you hear me?
“Yes,” Evie whispered. She didn’t know if Miriam could hear her like this, but she didn’t know what else to do. “I’m Evie. I’m Sam’s friend. We’re trying to find him. We’re here to rescue him.”
It is hard for me with so much iron, Miriam said. And Evie could see that even this small exchange was costing her. Smoke rose from her wrists under the chains, and her mouth was set in a tight line. They hold him below. Third door on right. You must go quickly.
“What’s the holdup?” the bigger Shadow Man said. He came around and took Miriam by the arm, and Evie felt the phantom touch on her own skin. The Shadow Man put Miriam in the backseat and shut the door. The brown sedan prowled in reverse down the long driveway and turned onto the road, driving out of sight.
“Now,” Evie said, leading Theta and Isaiah into the rose garden. From her previous visit, she remembered that there was a side entrance into Marlowe’s study from there.
“I hope you know where you’re going,” Theta whispered as they slipped into Marlowe’s private office.
“Jericho said there’s a secret elevator behind one of these bookshelves.”
“Okay. Which one?”
“The one marked ‘secret elevator,’ I imagine,” Evie cracked. “Do I know? Just keep at it till one opens. Wait! I do know.”
Evie removed her glove and rested her hand against the books. It would have proved overwhelming had most of the books been read. She could feel small remnants of the past in some, though, and when she came to one that had belonged to Will, she lingered, her eyes stinging with tears. She could see him, young and alive and brimming with hope. He was seated on the sofa with Jake, Sister Walker, and Rotke:
…and then she was channeling a spirit from beyond, writing messages dictated from the other side upon the slate. I tell you, we were in the presence of a new frontier!
How had it all gone so wrong? Evie wondered.
“I found it!” Isaiah’s happy voice brought Evie back. He’d tugged down two fat volumes of Napoleonic history and the panel had opened to reveal a small elevator.
“Isaiah, you’re the cat’s pajamas!” Theta exclaimed.
Isaiah gave a goofy smile. “Thanks.”
