“So Paul was going to come back at the exact same time as you?” Theo asks.
“That’s what he said.” I know Paul wouldn’t break that promise, and yet I won’t feel totally reassured until I’ve spoken to him or seen him, here in our own world. Slowly I get to my feet, slightly dizzy but determined to keep going. “Where did I leave my phone? I want to call him.”
“Don’t worry,” Theo says. He’s already looking on the rainbow table, which isn’t where I usually put my phone, but I guess it’s a place to start. “Take it easy. You’ll find him, Meg.”
Meg.
Only one person has ever called me that—Theo.
But not my Theo.
I turn to him, horrorstruck. From the way his smile hardens, I can tell he knows that I know who he really is. The Triadverse’s Theo has returned.
“Was it the nickname?” he says. “I bet it was the nickname.”
“Why are you here?” I demand. “Why did the Triadverse send you? Theo can’t take much more.”
“He’ll have to,” Theo says, maddeningly calm. “Just like you.”
Then he steps closer to me, and I see what he has in his hands: a syringe filled with emerald-green liquid. Nightthief.
I jerk away from him, but he tackles me, slamming into my back so hard it hurts. Landing on the wooden floor knocks the wind out of me, and for a moment all I can do is try to breathe.
“Sorry about that, Meg,” Theo says as he kneels over me, pinning me down. “But, you know. The ends justify the means.”
I feel the needle sink into my arm.
You idiot, I want to say. Nightthief helps travelers take over their hosts. What is this supposed to do to me while I’m in my own body?
Maybe he’s just poisoning me with the stuff—
Then a shudder ripples through me. Overwhelming—paralyzing. I try to move my hand, but I can’t.
I hear my voice come out of my mouth, speaking words that don’t belong to me. “About time,” I say.
Theo’s smile has become more genuine. “Always a pleasure to meet anyone from the Home Office.”
No. But I know it’s true. The Marguerite who believes in Triad—who’s willing to kidnap, blackmail, or kill in order to make our dimension obey her own—she’s leaped into my world. Into my body. And because of the Nightthief, she’s in charge.
She has turned my skin and bones into my prison.
“So,” Theo says. “What’s our first assignment?”
“Figure out what they’re up to.” There is nothing more horrible than the feeling of glee within my captor. This Marguerite hasn’t just captured me; she’s enjoying it. “My parents aren’t the kind of people to surrender even if it’s the smart thing to do, in any universe. But once the versions here have been outsmarted a few times, sabotaged a few times more . . . well, we might be able to bring them in line yet.”
Theo nods as he reaches down to help me—her—to her feet. “And if we don’t get them to work for our cause?”
She laughs. “Then it’s time for this dimension to die.”