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I carefully rab the dagger with the dia the handle extend and wrap itself aroundat the blade I release the dagger and continue to sift through the items I try not to dwell on the objects I don’t know – the star-shaped talisman, the collection of brittle leaves tied with twine, the bright red oval bracelet – and I stay away from the crystal that’s double-wrapped in towels and stuffed into a plastic bag The last time I touched that crystal, my stomach convulsed and acid climbed up my throat

I push aside the sacies and pick up an oblong crystal that is full of memories Its surface is ith a cloudy inside, and it’s the first thing Henri ever pulled out of the Chest to show acy was developing This crystal was the beginning

Then I see Salasses and the white tablet Six and I found in Malcolh to snap me back to reality

I look over at Nine ‘Maybe soh the blue force field I think the effect of it is weakened, anyway There ht’

‘Would be nice if so in the Chest would help us do that, that’s for sure,’ Nine says in a casual tone, his eyes focused on the purple pebble he is balancing on the back of his hand It disappears

‘What’s that?’ I ask

He turns over his hand and the pebble reappears on his palm ‘I have no idea, but it would be a killer conversation starter with the ladies, don’t you think?’

I shake my head and slide the red bracelet from my Chest overof lasers, but it just hangs there on ing it to reveal its powers Nothing happens

‘Maybe you should try licking it?’ Nine laughs, watching ,’ Iwill just happen Everything inhas a purpose, so I know itholding the seven orbs thatand drop the stones intothe day that Henri first showed the for to find the others? Henri had these This is hoe figured out another member of the Garde was in Spain’

‘I’ve never seen those before What do they do?’

I blow softly on the stones and they glow, coht of the orbs hovering over my palm They have become planets and orbit the sun Just as I’reen state as it was the day before the Mogadorian attack, the orbs once again speed up and brighten and I can no longer control them

Nine comes closer and atch as the planets collide one by one with the sun until there is just a large single ball in front of us The new globe rotates on its axis and flashes a light so bright we have to shield our eyes Eventually, the globe dims and sections of its surface rise and recede until we’re looking at a perfect replica of Earth

Nine is mesmerized The Earth rotates and we iht one on top of the other Once we can orient ourselves, we see they are in West Virginia

‘There we are,’ I say

The ball continues to rotate and we see there’s another pulse of light in India; a fourth isnorth quickly fro Six and Sa happened It turned into a globe of the Earth It was the first time it ever did that,’ I say

‘I’m confused,’ Nine says ‘There are only four dots on this thing and there are supposed to be six of us left’

‘Yeah, I’m not sure about that When this happened before, a dot showed up in Spain,’ I say ‘Then the globe went all fuzzy and we heard so the name Adelina We assumed she was another o to Spain, to try to find her I figured this was how you planned to contact the others, but I guess not if you’ve never seen it before’

Nine’s eyes go wide ‘Wait Ohbefore, but I think Sandor told me about it To be honest, e opened my Chest the first time, the silver staff and the yellow porcupine ball were so a he said after But now I remember, he told me some of us had a red crystal – which I do, and that’s what I thought I’d use to communicate with the others – and soet it’

He turns to his Chest, grabs a glowing red crystal the size of a cigarette lighter, slalance at the solar systeinia has disappeared

‘Whoa, hold on Open up your Chest again I want to see so’

Nine obeys and a second blue dot reappears on the globe in West Virginia

‘Okay Now, close it’

He closes it and the dot disappears again ‘This is boring,’ he says When Nine speaks, the Earth globe grows fuzzy and vibrates with a half-second delay of his voice ‘Wait, as that? Why is ain

‘This is not boring This is incredible,’ I say, staring at the globe ‘The reason we don’t see all six of the Garde lobe is because the orb only reveals the members of the Garde who have their Chests open at that exact moment Watch’ I lift the lid of Nine’s Chest

Nine whistles ‘Very cool, Four, very cool’ Half a second later we hear his voice through the globe again Nine puts his crystal down, having figured it out