😱 **THE GROUND SPLIT OPEN BENEATH A MASSIVE OAK TREE—AND I FELL INTO A SECRET UNDERGROUND LAB FILLED WITH FROZEN GIRLS WHO LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE ME! THEN A MYSTERIOUS WOMAN WHISPERED, “YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN OUR MOST RESILIENT COPY.” BUT WHEN I DISCOVERED WHY THEY'D BEEN MONITORING MY BLOOD FOR 22 YEARS, THE TRUTH WAS MORE TERRIFYING THAN I COULD EVER IMAGINE!** 🧬💔

Clara ran after the security vehicle until Marcus caught her around the waist.

“Let me go!”

“It's gone!” he shouted. “Running into the woods won't bring her back.”

She fought him once, then stopped. On the gate screen, Voss had replaced June's image with a live countdown to four a.m.

Ortiz called the fire chief. “Begin moving people uphill. Don't wait for Asterion's permission.”

In the SUV, Elena held June's abandoned bracelet. The crooked star was coming loose. “They threaten the sleeping girls whenever June won't obey,” she said. “She didn't betray you. She traded herself.”

Clara remembered June gripping her hand in the darkness. She had called herself foolish for needing someone to tell her who she was. June had known the value of a name all along.

Marcus handed Clara his phone. A message had arrived from an unknown number: NORTH GATE. COME ALONE. BRING THE GIRL WHO GLOWS.

Beneath it was a photograph of June behind glass, holding up both hands. On one palm someone had written HELP THEM.

“It's bait,” Marcus said.

“Obviously.”

“Then what's your plan?”

Clara looked at Ortiz. “Can you contact somebody outside this county?”

“My cousin works for a state investigator. And I know a reporter who'll answer her phone even at midnight.”

“Get them everything Victoria has. If I don't come back, make sure June isn't just another line in a secret report.”

Marcus stepped toward her. “I'm coming too.”

“You can help the girls if you're not standing next to me.” She swallowed. “You've already spent twenty-two years looking for one person. Don't lose twelve more.”

Before she left, Elena caught her sleeve. “You don't owe me courage because we share a face.”

“I know.”

“Then why go?”

Clara looked toward the estate, where a single red light burned over the oak.