Page 74 (1/2)

I hold out my left hand Greer looks ht palic as our bloodof her right

A black hole the size of a normal portal appears above our heads Above our circle As I watch, the portal grows And grows And grows until it practically fills the entire space above us

"Now, Grace!" Greer shouts

Grace squeezes her eyes shut, concentrating

"Nothing is happening," Greer says

Grace starts shaking "Giveoverlower and lower So creatures screaet us out of here, we’ll be next

"Now, Grace, we need to go--"

The world around ht for aroom Nick is still at ht in ether, whole, and out of that gym

"Grace, you did it!" I shout

I yank her close into a hug Greer too

"Ah-hem"

Grace stiffens "Oh no"

Nick unwraps his ar, I know I shouldn’t be surprised to see a pair of adults and a boy our age standing there It doesn’t take Greer’s second sight to knohat has happened

When Grace was trying to desperately get us out of that battle, she zapped us to the one place she always feels safe Ho "Um, I can explain"

CHAPTER 31

GRACE

Greer and Gretchen offer to go wait somewhere else--my room, the hall, maybe the moon even--but I think they should be here for this I look around the dining table, my sisters on either side of me, Mom and Dad at either end, and Thane and Nick across the shiny surface Nick seems unfazed by the situation, but Thane is unusually tense

Everyone is looking atsecrets

"It all started a feeeks ago," I explain, "when Milo took htclub"

Dad clears his throat

"An all-ages club," I hurry to explain, as if that will be the most problematic part of the conversation "That’s where I, um, met Gretchen"

Gretchen shifts unco on her oith only an open- at a full family table is probably really aard Especially when she’s a central part of the story

"By then I’d already started seeing monsters," I confess "It started almost as soon as we moved to San Francisco"