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“We aren’t sure about that, either,” Petra said. “But we have a theory.” She looked at me. “You said the fairies at Grant Park didn’t have guns.”
“Right,” I said. “Knives, bows—that kind of thing.”
“So no modern technology.”
I opened my mouth, closed it again. “Yeah. You’re right.” And I knew where she was going. “They didn’t mean to disappear in Grant Park—they were trying to work magic, to bring the green land forward, so that’s why they had bows and swords and tunics.”
Petra nodded, obviously pleased I’d gotten the right answer. “Exactly. We think Grant Park was a failure. They wanted to pop the green land into place right over the conjunction, but they couldn’t make it work. Instead of using the ley lines’ power to move the green land in, they moved themselves out.”
“Into the green land?” I asked.
“It’s possible,” Theo said. “We’ve been up and down the ley lines’ tracks, and we haven’t been able to find them.” He looked at my mother. “Claudia was able to shift you into the green land, and they’re able to shift part of the green land here. It stands to reason they can shift themselves, too.”
“United Center may be another error,” I said. “They tried again to pull the green land here, this time without the conjunction, and they only made it halfway.”
“They got the green land,” Theo agreed with a nod. “But not in the right place.”
“There’s no ley line near United,” Petra said. “But Claudia was at the church. That might have been enough of an anchor to make the switch happen there.”
“Why are they failing?” my father asked.
“This is big magic,” Petra said. “It would take skill and expertise to make and control.”
“And Ruadan is young,” Yuen added. “He’s discarded their queen, who’s lived long enough to have seen the green land when it existed in our world. She’d have been an asset to the process. Instead, they pushed her away.”
“She probably told them not to do it,” I said, looking at my mother. “It’s her realm, right? If she thought it could be done correctly, wouldn’t she have already done it?”
“Probably,” my mother said.
The office door opened again, and Kelley stepped inside.
“Claudia?” my father asked.
“Nothing yet,” she said. She walked to the monitor, switched the view from the map of Chicago to the twenty-four-hour news station. And we watched grass creep slowly up Lake Shore Drive.
Traffic was stopped, and the grass inched toward the vehicle in the back of the line. Then the grass reached the tire, and the tire began to disappear, like a drawing being methodically erased. Trunk, back seat, front seat, engine, tires.
The car was subsumed, along with everyone in it. And the grass still crept forward, the stalks undulating in a breeze that undoubtedly smelled like salt and time.
People realized what was happening, began abandoning their vehicles, confused or screaming, and running to get away from the danger that crept toward them.
The Ombudsmen’s screens began buzzing. And then the office phone began to ring.
Yuen pulled out his screen. “It’s Dearborn. I’ll be back.” He stepped into the hallway.
“We have to evacuate Chicago,” Theo said. “There’s no avoiding it.”
“First,” I said, “we have to talk to Claudia.”
• • •
While Yuen talked to his boss, Theo and I walked upstairs to the room where Delia watched over Claudia.
Delia stood in the hallway outside the closed door, bright pink scrubs a contrast against dark skin and hair, chatting quietly with one of the assigned guards.
“How is she?” Theo asked.
“She’s stable, as far as I can tell. But she’s away from the castle, from the magic. She’s not fading as quickly as she once would have because of the Egregore’s infusion, but she won’t last forever. She needs to be with her people.”
