“You want to talk to Pete, so let’s go talk to Pete,” he snapped, shooting a death ray over my head in Joaquin’s direction. “Let’s put an end to this once and for all.”

He tromped up the stairs and passed a still-stricken Krista without so much as a glance. The rest of us stood around uncertainly, a fierce breeze tearing at our clothes and whipping my hair into my eyes. Were we supposed to follow him? Did he even want us to?

I glanced at Joaquin, my heart a destroyed and pounding mess. His eyes hardened, and I felt something inside me fall away.

“So let’s go,” he said.

Joaquin bounded up the stairs, and the rest of us followed. Maybe Tristan had been right earlier, in the park. Maybe this party had been a bad idea. We had let our guard down. We had forgotten to be vigilant. And now we were responsible for more devastation.

“There’s something else,” Krista said to Joaquin as she fell into step with him. I stayed right behind them on our way up the hill, blowing by the old Victorian houses and ducking under the bowed branches of bare and spindly trees. “The twins got away from the mayor before she could wipe their memories again.”

“What?” I demanded.

“So they’re out there right now telling people that a bunch of locals are making people disappear at the bridge?” Joaquin said fiercely. “Great. That’s the best news I’ve heard today.”

Krista looked green. “She’s got Chief Grantz looking for them, so hopefully they’ll be locked up soon, too.”

Joaquin upped his pace, and I trained my eyes on Tristan’s back until we finally reached the town square. Tristan stormed across the park and took the steps to the police station two at a time. As he yanked open the front door, I paused to look back at the mayor’s house. What had once looked like an exclusive hotel to me now seemed like the menacing witch’s dark castle, another symbol of everything that was wrong with this world. The weather vane, sure enough, pointed south, obstinately ignoring the wind that swirled around it.

“What’s Tristan going to do?” I asked Bea as she caught up to me. I hugged my arms against the chill.

“I don’t know, but it’s gonna be interesting.”

We jogged across the park to catch up, blowing by Joaquin as we bounded up the marble steps. Through the lobby and down the stairs, we could hear Tristan shouting. In the time I’d known him I’d only ever heard him raise his voice once, and that was during an argument with Joaquin. Bea’s eyes widened with mine as we bolted for the door at the far end. Pete was sitting facing the corner of his cell, his knees drawn up under his chin. Tristan shouted at Pete’s back, crouched on the floor as close as he could get to the bars. Dorn stood in the far corner, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared everyone else down like he was Tristan’s personal bodyguard.

“You killed her, Pete!” Tristan blurted, gripping the steel poles. “You killed Nadia! Do you even realize what that means? Do you know what’s going to happen to you when we finally decide to usher you? Have you thought about what it’s going to be like in Oblivion?”

“Tristan,” Bea said softly.

The four-foot space between the outer bars of the two cells and the exterior wall of the room was now crowded with Lifers. Bea and I were closer to Tristan than anyone, having arrived first, but we were giving him a wide berth. His muscles were so taut, his teeth so tightly clenched, that I was almost afraid to touch him. He looked like a feral animal. Pete, ever so slowly, started to rock forward and back, forward and back. His forehead dipped toward his knees.

“Your only hope is to help us, Pete,” Tristan continued, leaning into the bars. “That’s your only hope. Because I swear to god if you don’t open your mouth and start talking right now, I’ll rip you out of that cell myself and send you over the bridge directly to Oblivion. I’ll do it happily.”

Pete let out a strangled sob. I didn’t know what I had planned to say to Pete to persuade him to help us, but it wasn’t this. I swallowed my fears and put my hand on Tristan’s shoulder. He flinched, but then relaxed when he saw that it was me.

“Tristan, please. Listen to yourself,” I whispered. He didn’t move. I squatted next to him, moving my hand gently down his back. The curve of his spine, the lines of the muscles in his shoulders were visible through his shirt. “This isn’t you.”

His eyes darted to mine. For a second I thought he was going to contradict me, but instead, he sighed. Slowly, he stood up, tugging my hand to bring me with him.

Just then, Liam slid sideways into the room. His eyes met mine as he slunk along the back wall, trying to disappear behind the crowd of Lifers in front of him. But he wasn’t fast enough to hide the fact that he was out of breath, that his white tank top was stained with sweat around the collar.

“Liam.” The word was out of my mouth before I had even formed a fully coherent thought. He stopped, his red baseball cap bowed between Fisher’s shoulder and Kevin’s, but he said nothing.

He’d been on the beach until a few minutes before the fog rolled in, and then he’d taken off with Kevin. Kevin, who was the only one of our friends not present.

“Where were you?” I asked. “Where’s Kevin?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I lost him in the fog.”

Pete stopped rocking at the sound of his voice. I looked back and forth between the two of them, my skin tingling with sudden suspicion. Something was going on between them. I remembered something, but whatever it was hovered on the edge of being known.

“Where did you go when you left the beach?” I asked.

Liam laughed, a sharp, bleating sound. “We went to the Thirsty Swan to look for chips and salsa, which we found, but when we came back out, I lost him in the fog. Is there a problem?”

Dorn’s eyes slid back and forth from me to Liam. He sucked his teeth and narrowed his eyes.

“Then where’s Kevin now?” I asked, my knees quaking. “Why isn’t he here?”

“I don’t know.” Liam snorted. “Jeez, Rory. What’s with the third degree?”

The whole time he was talking he was moving toward the door. People parted to let him through, clearly not grasping what I thought was obvious. Liam was scared. I could see it in his eyes. He was trying to act casually indignant, but he was vibrating with fear. Dorn, finally, stepped in front of him, effectively blocking his escape.

“Rory, what are you getting at?” Tristan asked. “What did he do?”

“There’s something weird going on with him and Pete,” I said, and then it hit me. I looked over my shoulder at Joaquin. “Yesterday, when Liam and I came here, he freaked when we thought Pete was about to wake up. And the other day, at the bridge, Pete turned around and left as soon as he saw Liam. They’re hiding something.”

“It’s a little thin, Rory,” Bea said.

“But he did jump at the chance to leave the beach when Kevin asked, and where the hell is Kevin now?” Joaquin put in.

Tristan’s face turned hard. “Where’s Kevin, Liam?”

“I told you, I don’t know! Why don’t you call him and find out?” he said, gesturing at Tristan’s radio.

“I think I will.” Joaquin lifted the walkie-talkie to his lips and pressed it to speak. “Kevin? You there, buddy? Over.”

He released the button. Nothing but a low, distant hum of static. Everyone eyed Liam, who was rapidly turning white.

“Anyone seen Kevin? Over,” Joaquin asked.

Silence.

“Dorn,” Tristan said. “Lock him up.”

Liam made a move like he was going to bolt, but there was no getting around Dorn, whose massive hands came down on his shoulders and dragged him backward.

“No. You can’t do this!” Liam shouted. “I have rights.” He looked around desperately. “Don’t I? Don’t I have rights?”

With one swift motion, Fisher had the door of the second cell open. He held it while Dorn tossed Liam inside and then closed it with a clang. Liam practically threw himself at the bars. Bea glanced around at the crowd. Everyone was looking disturbed or unsure or murderous or a combination of the three.