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ONE

TWO FOR THE ROAD

Shelby and Miles were laughing when they stepped out of the Announcer Its dark tendrils clung to the briled ponytail as the two of theed

Even though Shelby’s body felt as weary as if she’d done four back-to-back sessions of Vinyasa yoga, at least she and Miles were back on solid—present-tense—ground Home Finally

The air was cold, the sky gray but bright Miles’s shoulders towered in front of her, shielding her body from the brisk wind that sent ripples across the white T-shirt he’d been wearing since they’d left Luce’s parents’ backyard on Thanksgiving

Eons ago

“I’ “Why is it so hard for you to believe that er across her lip and recoiled exaggeratedly “They’re like sandpaper!”

“You’re crazy” Miles snorted, but his eyes followed Shelby’s finger as she gingerly traced her lower lip “Lip balm is what you missed inside the Announcers?”

“And ray leaves “And my sun salutations on the beach—”

They had been leapfrogging through the Announcers for so long: from the cell in the Bastille where they’d ive his naht back out of a bloody Chinese battlefield where they didn’t recognize a soul; and, most recently, fro for Luce Only Daniel wasn’t entirely hihostly past version of himself And he hadn’t been able to set himself free

Shelby couldn’t stop thinking about Miles and Daniel fencing with the starshots, about the way Daniel’s two bodies—past and present—had been wrenched apart after Miles drew the arron the angel’s chest

Creepy things happened inside Announcers; Shelby was glad to be done with theet lost in these woods on their way back to their dorm Shelby looked tohat she hoped est and started to lead Miles through the dreary unfamiliar section of the forest “Shoreline should be this way”

The return home was bittersweet

She and Miles had entered the Announcer with a h in Luce’s parents’ backyard after Luce herself had disappeared They’d gone after her to bring her hohtly—but also just to els and de over her, Shelby and Miles didn’t care To them, she was a friend

But on their hunt, they kept just one fron of Luce

She and Miles had bickered several tiet there—and Shelby hated fighting with Miles It was like arguing with a puppy The truth was, neither of the

But in Jerusale: The three of theotten along Noith Daniel’s blessing (soht call it a command), Shelby and Miles were finally headed back ho Luce, but another part—the part that trusted Daniel—was eager to get back to where she was supposed to be Her proper era and place

It felt like they had been traveling for a very long time, but who kne time worked inside the Announcers? Would they coone just seconds, Shelby had wondered, a bit nervously, or would years have passed?

“As soon as we get back to Shoreline,” Miles said, “I’, hot shower”

“Yeah, good call” Shelby grabbed a chunk of her thick blond ponytail and sniffed “Wash this Announcer funk out of my hair If that’s even possible”

“You knohat?” Miles leaned in, lowering his voice, even though there was no one else around Weird that the Announcer had planted theht we should sneak into thesome of those flaky biscuits—”

“The buttery ones? Froenius idea froood to have around “Man, I’ve ood to be—”

They crossed beyond the line of trees A meadow opened up before the any of the fas, because they weren’t there

She and Miles were … somewhere else

She paused and glanced at the hillside surrounding thehs of trees that Shelby suddenly realized were definitely not California redwoods And the slushy hway It wound doard over the hillside for severalcity protected by a massive black stone wall

It reminded her of one of those faded old tapestries where unicorns frolicked in front of medieval tohich soed her to see at the Getty

“I thought ere ho somewhere between a bark and a whine Where were they?

She stopped just short of the crude road and looked around at the muddy desolation before her There was no one around Scary

“I thought ere, too” Miles scratched his cap gluuess we’re not quite back at Shoreline”

“Not quite? Look at this excuse for a road Look at that fortress thing down there” She gasped “And are those little hts? Unless we’re in soes!” She covered her ue Whose Announcer did you open up in Jerusalem, anyway?”

“I don’t know, I just—”

“We’re never going to get home!”

“Yes, we are, Shel I read about this … I think We got backwards in tiels’ Announcers, so et home that way, too”