“I think this is where I’m supposed to say I was born ready.” Zach flashed me a smile. “But I was born ordinary.”

“Don’t,” I said.

“Don’t what?”

“Disparage yourself.” I twisted in my seat to face him fully, and I tried to see Zach behind Malcolm’s face. “You think just anyone would come with me like this? You say you dream of the extraordinary, but you’re extraordinary. I say I’m broken, and you try to fix me. I say I’m lost, and you try to find me. I say I’m empty, and you fill me. You’re … like a knight in shining armor, but from one of the nice stories.” I took a deep breath. I hadn’t meant to make a speech. I felt my face, Aunt Nicki’s face, flush pink.

He stared at me for a moment, then blinked. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m awesome. Let’s go.” Driving out of the parking lot, he ran over the curb. The car jolted up and down. I braced myself on the glove compartment again.

“Look calm,” I instructed Zach. “Malcolm always looks calm.”

As we drove closer, I pointed to the agency’s garage doors. Gray and plain, the doors looked like they belonged to a nondescript office building. Zach hit the brakes too hard at the guard station—the car jerked as if we’d hit a pole. Taking a deep breath, he rolled down the window.

The guard leaned in. “Car trouble?”

Zach nodded.

I waved our IDs from the passenger seat. The guard glanced briefly at them, but he frowned at me. I wondered if we’d gotten Aunt Nicki’s face wrong. Maybe her nose was flatter, or her eyes smaller, or her hair darker. “I could’ve sworn you’d … Never mind. Go ahead, Agent Gallo, Agent Harrington.” He hit a button, and the garage door rumbled up.

“Have a nice day!” Zach called out the window. He stepped on the gas before the guard could change his mind. We shot into the garage. “Probably shouldn’t have said that.”

I looked behind us, but the guard wasn’t following us. The garage door was closing. Daylight disappeared with it. “I think we’re all right.”

Pulling into a parking spot, Zach stopped the car. “At least he didn’t shoot us on sight. I’d call that a win.” He tried to smile, but it disappeared quickly.

“Zach … If things turn bad, I want you to take a breath of magic and run.”

Zach opened his mouth, and I knew he was going to say something flippant or brave.

“Please, Zach. I don’t want to have visions of your death haunting my memories. Promise me that you’ll run. Or I tell that guard who I am and let them capture me right now.”

“Fine,” he said. “But you run too.”

“Or fly.”

“Definitely fly.” He kissed me, and I wasn’t sure if it was for the magic or just to kiss me. It didn’t matter. I kissed him back, and his lips felt different, broader and softer. He tasted the same, though—like Zach, sweet and minty.

He broke off.

He looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t know what. I opened the car door and stepped out into the garage. He did too. “Eve …”

“Gallo,” I corrected. “He calls her by her last name.” I headed for the door. Taking the ID cards from Zach, I held them up to the scanner. Nothing happened.

“I doubt we accurately replicated the magnetic strip,” Zach said. “Is there another—”

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the surveillance camera trained on the door. If anyone was watching the feed … but we didn’t have much choice. “Quick. Walk us through the door.”

He hesitated.

“I walked through a wall before.”

He grinned suddenly, stretching Malcolm’s cheeks abnormally wide. His expressions weren’t the same as Malcolm’s, even using the same face. “You’re always full of surprises.”

Zach put his hand up, and it melted into the door. He drew it back, took my hand with his other hand, and then we walked forward. Using the magic from the kiss in the car, we passed through the door. The cool metal sank into my skin and deep into my bones. I felt myself shiver and then shudder as we emerged on the other side, inside the hallway.

There were cameras in this hallway too.

Releasing Zach’s hand—Aunt Nicki wouldn’t have held Malcolm’s—I strode toward the elevator. Zach kept pace beside me. He didn’t have the same walk as Malcolm. His movements were jerkier, and he picked his knees up higher like a stork. Malcolm had a glide to his gait. I hoped that no one else knew Malcolm’s walk the same way I did. Only a few steps to the elevator.

At the elevator, I pushed the button and we watched the numbers flicker down. The doors slid open. And Lou stood there.

I felt my bones harden into place. I couldn’t breathe.

“Up?” Lou asked.

I nodded. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zach was nodding too. I wished there were a way to warn Zach … but he knew who Lou was, didn’t he? He’d mentioned that a bald man had interrogated him. We walked into the elevator.

My finger hovered over the numbers. With Lou here, I couldn’t push five. Instead, I pushed three. We’d have to lose him in the offices—and hope we didn’t see the real Malcolm and Aunt Nicki.

As the elevator lurched upward, the tinny music played. It sounded like the carousel.

“This time, we contain her,” Lou said. “No more of your touchy-feely nonsense. She stays on the hospital floor under guard. She is not to be treated like a refugee. Or even a pet. Do you understand me, Agent Harrington? I blame you for this.”

Zach cleared his throat. “Yes, sir.” He tried to pitch his voice lower. It came out close to a growl. Lou looked at him sharply.

The door slid open. For an instant, I thought we could stay in the elevator. But Lou slapped his hand on the elevator door to hold it open. We had to walk out.

“We’ve alerted the airport terminals, bus terminals, and train stations—the usual cover story.” Lou aimed a fingers at me. “Gallo, bring in that Zachary boy. I want to know what he knows. I knew we should have kept him here. Remind me never to listen to you two bleeding hearts again.”

“Yes, sir,” I said.

He frowned at me, and for an instant, I thought he knew. But he pivoted and strode toward the lobby. We trailed after him. He halted at the receptionist’s desk and leaned over the desk to speak to her. I couldn’t hear what he said. She handed him a locked aluminum briefcase.

Maybe we should run now, while he’s distracted … Before I could move, Lou turned and shoved the briefcase at me. Automatically, I took it. “Um, what do you want me to do with this?” I asked before I thought. I then froze. Aunt Nicki might have known the answer.

Lou smiled at me. It was an unsettling expression on his face. His cheeks and eyes crinkled like a crunched paper bag. “I want you to do your job, Gallo, before I fire your ass.”

I looked at the briefcase. It had a combination lock.

He took the briefcase back and set it on the receptionist’s desk, and then he turned the numbers on the combination lock. The lock snapped open. He raised the lid. Inside was the Magician’s box. Instinctively, I shrank back. He lifted it out and then held it out toward me, his palm flat, not touching the clasp. “You might want this, when you find her. We’ve tested it—magic doesn’t penetrate it. It will keep her from turning you into shrubbery.”

Hands shaking, I took it. The metal felt chilled, as if the box had been recently stored in a freezer. I didn’t trust myself to speak. I shoved the box into my front pocket. It bulged, and I felt the corners press against my thigh.

Ahead, I heard voices. Malcolm’s office door swung open. We had to leave now. Smiling weakly at Lou, I pivoted and strode back toward the elevators. Zach walked fast beside me. My heart was beating so loudly that I was certain Lou could hear it.

“Gallo! Harrington!” Lou called after us.

From his office, Malcolm called, “Sir?”

I looked over my shoulder to see Malcolm, the real Malcolm, step into the hallway. I broke into a run as I heard him say, “What the hell—”