“It’s in another world. I don’t even know which one. It travels around.” But the idea was worming itself into my mind. As long as I had Zach, what could stand in our way? So far, I hadn’t seen a limit to my powers. If I could learn who I was and why I had these powers and why I could share them and what had been done to me and who had done it … If I could learn what my past was, then maybe I’d have a chance at a future.

“Do you know how to get to other worlds?” he asked.

I glanced at Patti. “Level five?”

“Level five,” she confirmed.

Patti raised the shade in her library office and then opened the window. Outside, the parking lot was half-full. A woman in a rose-colored raincoat yanked a toddler onto the sidewalk. A man tossed books into the backseat of his car. Another man pulled out of his parking spot.

The black car with the tinted windows was in its familiar spot under a tree.

“I’ll try to buy you time,” Patti whispered. “Good luck. Be safe. And if you can’t be safe … be yourself.” She squeezed my shoulder as I climbed out the window and dropped down to the ground behind a bush. Zach followed after me.

Above us, Patti closed the window and shut the shade.

“Fly?” Zach suggested.

I shook my head. “They’ll expect that.” Through the branches, I studied the black car. I didn’t see any movement, but from here, I couldn’t even tell if the engine was on or off, much less if anyone was inside.

“But they don’t know …” His eyes bulged as he realized what I’d implied. “You think Patti will tell them we’re here?” His voice was incredulous, as if such a betrayal were inconceivable instead of logical.

“I know she will,” I said.

“But …”

“Her safety depends on cooperating with them,” I said. “She’ll tell them everything. But I have an idea. See that car?” I pointed toward the black car. “I think we should use it.”

His cheek next to my cheek, he peeked out at the parking lot in the direction that I’d pointed. “You mean, steal a car?”

“Stealing isn’t the same as lying.”

“True, but …”

“It’s an agency car. We can drive it to the agency.”

“Oh. Then that’s not even stealing,” Zach said. “That’s returning it.”

Grabbing his face, I brought his lips to mine. I breathed into him as his arms wrapped around my waist. We broke away, and I felt slightly dizzy.

“Ready?” I said.

“Uh, yeah. That was … wow.”

“On three? One, two, three …” Hand in hand, we burst out of the bushes and ran across the parking lot toward the car. The car door flung open, and an agent stepped out. He had his gun in his hand.

And then the gun transformed into a flower. Petals fell from the agent’s hand, and the stem drooped. Zach stole another quick breath of magic, and the agent was swept forward—up, up, up onto the roof of the library.

We ran to the car. Zach dove into the driver’s seat, and I hopped into the passenger seat. The key was still in the ignition, and the radio was playing. Zach shifted the car into reverse and then stepped on the gas. The car lurched backward, and we careened out of the parking lot. I clutched the glove compartment and wondered if this one had a gun in it like Malcolm’s did.

“Left,” I told him. I continued to give him directions until a block from the agency. I pointed to the parking lot of a convenience store. “Stop there.”

He swung into one of the parking spots, facing the Dumpsters. “Now what?”

Twisting in my seat to face him, I said, “Last chance to change your mind. You can go home, be with your parents, and live your normal life, and I won’t blame you.”

He was quiet for a moment. “You saw my home. You met my parents. You saw my normal life. Just tell me how to leave this world. Please.”

I nodded. And he exhaled, his face relaxing into an almost-smile. “The offices are level three, the hospital is level four, and the silver room—the way out—is level five.”

“What about one and two?” Zach asked.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It might matter. I bet it matters to the people on one and two. You know it’s going to bother me, not knowing what’s on one and two. I like to know things.”

“Zach, focus. We need level five. I thought we could transform—”

“Cats?” He sounded eager, as if he were about to start bouncing like a puppy. “Birds? Or mice. Mice could work. Mice can drop twelve feet without injury and can jump twelve inches straight up.”

“Zach. You know this isn’t a game.”

He calmed instantly, and in his eyes I saw a hint of … fear? “I know. But if I think of only the magic, it makes the rest of it less terrifying. Leaving home? Stealing a car? Breaking into a government facility? Searching for a potential serial killer? Let me focus on the flying and the shapeshifting and kissing you.”

I nodded. We sat in silence for a long moment. I spoke again, softly, calmly. “I think we need to change into people—specifically Malcolm and Aunt Nicki.” Unclipping my seat belt, I faced Zach. “You can do me first. She has an angular face with a chin that juts out farther than her lips. Her nose is narrower than mine, nearly to a point, with a prominent bridge. Her eyes … brown with thin eyebrows, dark brown and plucked.”

Zach held up both hands to stop me. “It’s okay. I’ve seen her before.”

“You have?”

“At the library. She dropped you off once.”

I didn’t remember that. It must have happened during the days I lost. But for the first time, my memory didn’t matter. Only his did. “Can you do this?” In response, he leaned forward and breathed in my magic, then furrowed his forehead and concentrated. I felt my face begin to itch, and then my skin bubbled and stretched. I described her typical all-black pantsuit with the fake knuckle-size pearls that Aunt Nicki liked. Sweat beaded on Zach’s forehead as he changed my clothes. When he finished, I flipped the visor down and looked at myself in the mirror.

For a brief instant, I expected to see the antlered girl.

Aunt Nicki stared back. Or almost Aunt Nicki.

“Shorten the hair.” I mimed where it should be cut. I watched it shrink and flatten. “And her skin has more olive in it. I think that’s … yes, that’s it.” He flopped back into his seat as I touched my face. Its shape felt wrong under my fingertips, and I had to suppress the urge to yank and tug my skin back into its familiar shape.

“I am going to have to close my eyes when I kiss you,” he said.

“Your turn. Do you remember Malcolm?”

“No one could ever forget Malcolm,” Zach said. His skin and bones shifted and moved as I watched. He then changed his height and the width of his shoulders, as well as his hair, skin, and eye color. Lastly, he added muscles and darkened his clothes to a black suit.

“Perfect.” Staring at him, I felt marginally better. Safer. As if Malcolm himself approved this insane plan. Opening the glove compartment, I found a pair of sunglasses and handed them to him. There wasn’t a gun, but there were insurance and registration cards for the car. “Can we change these into agency IDs?”

“Sure. Can you describe them?” His lungs, nose, and vocal cords were a different size, so his voice had deepened with the new body, but the inflections were pure Zach.

I’d seen the IDs, but I hadn’t memorized them. I tried to picture the position and size of the photo, the words and the logo. Zach transformed the cards to match my directions. “I wish I could remember them better,” I said.

“Just … wave them fast or something.”

I couldn’t remember if Aunt Nicki and Malcolm handed the IDs to the guard or just displayed them. I hoped the latter. I tucked the IDs into the cup holder between us and wondered if we’d be caught before we’d even begun. I wished there were time to make a better plan. But the longer we waited, the more likely we were to be found. And the more likely I was to lose my nerve. “Are you ready?” I asked.