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“So do you have the vial or not?” Jo tried to sound harsh, but there was a tremor in her voice, and she shifted her weight back and forth between her feet.
Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five.

Josie flashed a view of the vial in her hand, then clenched it firmly behind her back.

Jo’s hand shot forward. “Give it to me.”

“You said I could come home,” Josie said, taking a step back. Her hand grazed the heavy, viscous surface of the portal.

Jo held up her hands. “No!” she squeaked. She glanced to her left, took a slow breath, and regained her usual composure. “I mean, not now.”

Not exactly a surprise answer. “Why not?”
Thirty-three, thirty-four.

Jo’s eyes shifted to her left again. “Because . . .”

“Because we can’t allow it.” Josie knew that voice, only the version of it that she knew was more like a jingly domed bell, while this voice was harsh and staccato and lacking anything even remotely considered hospitable. Dr. Byrne stepped into the room from the hallway. She held a gun clasped tightly in her left hand, only it wasn’t pointed at Josie but off to the side. With a violent yank, Dr. Byrne pulled someone into Josie’s view. The straight, black hair. The watery dark eyes.

Penelope.

Josie clenched the vial even tighter. “What is she doing here?”

Penelope gasped. “Josie?” she said. Her eyes flitted back and forth between Josie and her doppelgänger. Josie could pinpoint the exact moment Penelope realized she wasn’t in Kansas anymore. “Wait, which of you is Josie?”

“It’s me, Pen,” Josie said.

“But . . .”

“I know.” Josie’s voice choked off. She’d lost Penelope once and to have her here, in danger again—it was too much. Josie swallowed hard, forcing the emotion back into the pit of her stomach. She had to focus, now more than ever. Penelope’s life depended on it.
Thirty-nine, forty.

Penelope stared at the mirror, taking in all the details of Jo’s room. She turned and took a quick look at Josie’s bedroom, then back to the mirror. “Wow,” she breathed.

“Enough,” Dr. Byrne said, tugging at Penelope’s arm. The gun wavered. “Give me the vial,” Dr. Byrne said coldly. “And I’ll let her go.”

A new plan began to take shape in Josie’s mind. A laser, right there in her house. Penelope would know how to use it, if only Josie could get her out of there. She could get Josie’s dad, explain what she saw. Together, maybe they could force Dr. Byrne and Jo to switch back. . . .

“You can’t come home,” Jo said, in that soothing you-can-trust-me voice that had at one time been so seductive. “Okay? We can’t both be here. Someone will find out the truth. But I can give you something else.”

“Josephine, hurry.”

Forty-seven, forty-eight.
Josie shrugged. “Like what?”

“Nick. We can exchange them.”

Josie practically laughed out loud. The idea of exchanging her old boyfriend for the Nick she’d grown to care for was ludicrous. “Not a chance.”

Jo tilted her head to the side, her expertly waxed brows drawn together. She must have thought the idea of delivering Nick would have Josie salivating, and Josie’s lukewarm reaction threw her for a loop. Her pinched face reflected confusion, but her eyes reflected something else. Something more like suspicion. “Why is that funny?”

The five-second countdown. Time to act.

Josie tossed her head. “I’ll give it”—she nodded at Penelope—“to her.”

“Fine.” Dr. Byrne shoved Penelope. She stumbled forward, unable to take her eyes off Josie. Jo crept up behind her and stood at her elbow almost as sentry.

Josie caught sight of the mirror just as the image began to blur. Time was up.

She spun around and threw her arms around Penelope, enveloping her in a massive bear hug. “Tell my dad,” Josie whispered directly into Penelope’s ear. “She’s not my mom. You’ve got to get the mirror free at exactly three fifty-nine p.m.”

Penelope stiffened, unused to the physical contact. “Huh?”

“Do it,” Josie hissed.

“O-okay.”

“Run,” she whispered. “Now.”

WITHOUT ANOTHER WORD, JOSIE BROKE HER embrace and tossed the vial toward Dr. Byrne, who lunged for it, dropping her aim momentarily. Josie had timed it perfectly. Just as the image muddied, she gripped Jo’s arm as tightly as she could, then with all of her strength, she yanked Jo toward the mirror.

Jo was caught off guard, focused on her mom’s attempt to catch the vial. She lost her balance, stumbled forward, and tripped on the bottom edge of the mirror. Josie gave one final heave, and Jo careened with her through the mirror.

She landed on top of Josie, momentarily knocking the breath out of her. Josie rolled onto her side and just caught sight of the distorted image of Penelope dashing out the bedroom door before the mirror only reflected Josie and Jo.

Finally, something had gone right. Josie prayed that Penelope made it out of the house safely, and that Josie’s dad would listen to the bizarre story she told him with an open, objective state of mind.

“What did you do?” Jo screamed. She sounded winded, taking labored breaths between each word. “What the hell did you do?”

Josie pulled herself up on the side of the bed; her legs were wobbly and weak. But with one look at Jo, she felt a shot of adrenaline racing through her. She reared back her arm and slapped Jo across the face.

“Me?” Josie roared. “What the hell have
I
done?”

Josie braced herself, prepared for Jo to lunge at her. Instead, Jo collapsed onto the floor and dissolved into tears.

Okay. Josie wasn’t expecting that.

“Why are you crying?”

Jo didn’t answer, just continued to sob.

Josie was torn between incredulity and offense. Shouldn’t
she
be the one crying? Wasn’t
she
the one who had been lied to, manipulated, and stranded in another world?

“Stop it,” Josie said, more harshly than she realized. “This is all your fault.”

“I know,” Jo wailed. “I know it is.”

Dammit. She’s not supposed to admit to being wrong.
How was Josie supposed to continue to hate her if she admitted this was all her fault?

“Calm down.” Josie grabbed a wad of tissues from the dresser and shoved them in Jo’s face. “Here.”

Jo stopped wailing and took the tissues, dabbing gingerly at her eyes while she tried to control her sobs. “What,” she started, “what are you going to do with me?”

“Do with you?” Josie had no idea what she was talking about. “I needed you as a hostage.”

Jo’s eyes grew wide and her bottom lip trembled.
Shit, wrong choice of words, Josie.

“Not like that,” Josie said quickly. “More like collateral. I needed to make sure I had a way home.”

Jo shook her head. “It’s no use. She won’t go.”

“Your mom?”

Jo nodded. “Not after what happened.”

“Look, I don’t care where you guys end up. Your mom sabotaged an experiment and tried to sell state secrets to the Grid? Whatever. Don’t care. As long as my mom and I get to go home.” The idea had never occurred to her that Jo and Josie, Dr. Byrne and Josie’s mom could all stay in the same world at the same time. It would be weird, but whatever. “So your mom doesn’t have to go back if she doesn’t want to, okay?”

“She doesn’t?”

“I don’t see why not.” Another idea flashed in her mind. If Jo and Dr. Byrne could stay in her world, why not Nick?

“We just have to make sure everyone is safe.” Josie slipped the real vial out of her pocket. “I’ve got the injectable, so that’s something to bargain with.”

“You kept it?”

Josie shrugged. “You’re not the only one who can lie. The one your mom has is a fake.”

“Oh.”

“With any luck, your dad and Nick are working out a way to use this to get rid of the Nox for good.”

Jo straightened up, her tears forgotten. “Daddy?”

“Yeah.” Josie turned her back so Jo couldn’t see her smile. “He’s with Nick.”

“What do you mean?” Jo snapped.

Oh, Josie was going to enjoy this. “They’re breaking into Grid headquarters at Fort Meade to steal a laser.”

Josie expected to see jealousy reflected in Jo’s face. Instead, all the color had drained out of it and Josie could see that she was trembling.

“My . . . my father?”

“Yes!” Josie said, exasperated. She felt oddly protective of Mr. Byrne. The way his wife and daughter had abandoned him, lied to him. Like Josie, all he wanted was his family back, and Josie would do everything in her power to make that happen for both of their sakes. “Maybe if you’d bothered to trust him, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Trust him? Trust my father?” Jo looked confused, uncomprehending, as if Josie had spoken her last words in Swahili.

“Duh,” Josie said. “He wants what’s best for you both. Hell, he’s been trying to get my mom out of Old St. Mary’s for the last few days just because I asked him to. And he never even questioned me when Nick and I asked for his help.”

“Getting her out of Old St. Mary’s?”

Why was Jo suddenly so slow in putting all these pieces together?

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

Jo shook her head back and forth. “He’s not going to help your mom.”

There was something in the slow, metered way in which Jo said the words that made every hair on the back of Josie’s neck stand at attention. There was fear in Jo’s voice, combined with a kind of resignation that made Josie’s mouth go instantly dry. “What do you mean?” she croaked.

“Josie,” Jo said simply. “He’s the one who put her there.”

SCIENCE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO PROVE IT, BUT there are moments when time actually slows down. The exact second you cross the event horizon, for example. Due to the tremendous gravitational pull of the black hole, once you passed the point of no return, time would elongate to such an infinite level that a second might last a year, and if you looked back toward the lip of the black hole, you’d actually be able to see yourself as you crossed into oblivion.

Theoretically, of course. No one had ever experienced the inside of a black hole firsthand. But what Josie felt at that moment was as close to time standing still as she would ever get. It was as if she felt every nanosecond of time from the instant Jo dropped the bomb. Her brain tried to come to terms with the information she’d just heard. The room faded into the background, the mirror and the vial a distant memory. All she saw was Jo, who stood before her tense and edgy, a wildebeest in a Sahara full of cheetahs and lions, ready to bolt at the slightest hint of danger.

“What do you mean?” Josie repeated.

“He sent your mom there. He knew right away she wasn’t his wife.”

Panic gripped Josie’s stomach, twisting and turning it like a wrung-out dishrag. “I don’t understand,” she said lamely.

“You weren’t supposed to trust him,” Jo said. “He’s known about the portal all along. About you and about my mom. He’s the one who made me switch places with you, to try and find the injectable my mom supposedly brought with her when she accidentally zapped into your world. What he wants more than anything”—she pointed to the vial on the bed—“is that. He’ll do anything to get it.”

“He was the traitor. He sabotaged your mom’s experiment. He was going to sell the formula to the Grid.”

“Exactly. He’ll kill anyone that gets in his way,” Jo said. “Anyone.”

Josie’s mind whirled. She could go to the authorities with what she knew, show the antidote, and hope someone would actually listen to her, but that seemed unlikely at best.

No, there was only one way to get her friends and family back. One thing Mr. Byrne wanted more than anything else.

The vial.

“Jo,” she said. “Would your father really kill anyone who got in his way?”

“Without blinking an eye,” she said.

“Even you?”

Jo looked confused by the question. “I—I don’t know.”

“Do you want to save Nick?”

The mention of Nick’s name seemed to brace Jo’s courage. “Yes.”

“Then let’s find out how far Daddy would really go.” She pulled out her cell phone, dialed Mr. Byrne’s number, and handed it to Jo.

“What are you doing?”

“Just act like you’re on his side. That you’ve caught me and have the vial. I’ll prompt you.”

Mr. Byrne answered on the first ring. “Princess!”

“Save it, Daddy,” Jo said. “It’s me.”

“Jo?” He sounded genuinely surprised.

“Of course.” She glanced up at Josie and covered the mouthpiece.

“Tell him you came back to find the injectable,” Josie whispered.

“I came back,” Jo started. Her acting skills were impressive. She sounded cold and confident. “Like you told me. Mom doesn’t have the vial.”

Josie gave her the thumbs-up.

“Doesn’t matter now,” he said. All the fake warmth had vanished from his voice. “I’ve got everything I need.”

“Not everything,” Josie whispered.

Jo echoed her. “Not everything.”

“What do you mean?” Mr. Byrne snapped.

Josie held up the vial.

“Josie had the original vial,” Jo said. “I’ve taken care of her. I have the antidote now.”

“Well, well, well,” Mr. Byrne said. “I guess you’re my daughter after all.”

“Ask to exchange it for Nick,” Josie whispered again, lower this time.

Jo nodded. “More than you know. I have what you want, and you have what I want.”

Mr. Byrne laughed. “The boy?”

“Yes.”

“I thought I taught you to think bigger than that.”

Jo didn’t take the bait. “Do you want to make the exchange or not?”