Jessica woke up early.

  That in itself wasn’t unusual; if she was anything, it was an early bird. She’d planned on being up by four thirty—or as close as she could get—every workday, and by five or five-thirty on days she didn’t spend at the Field Museum.

  But this time was different. This time, her heart wouldn’t stop pounding, both in time with and faster than the pounding at the side of her trailer house.

  Tori was already up. She’d catapulted herself out of her sleeping bag, already getting ready to cast a spell at the door. Her eyes were wide, but a hint of determination was already washing the fear away. “Hands up, whoever you are!”

  The voice that shouted back sent shivers up Jessica’s neck, and she reached halfway to her face out of instinct—and to the wound that still ached and itched. “Listen, Jessica, I need help. These kids need help. You want to hold a grudge, whatever, I’ll fuck off after this. But Hal’s gonna kill my ass if you don’t help them out.”

  “Kids?” Jessica asked. She was still blinking sleep off, still fighting the adrenaline Tommy’s knocking and shouting had dumped into her system.

  Tori had no such problem. She shoved past her step-mom, jerked the door open, and pushed past Tommy, who backed off a step. “Where are they?” she growled at him.

  “Down below, in the clinic,” Tommy said. “Calvin ran into us, said he’d be back soon but not to let him slow us down.”

  Jessica didn’t wait to hear more; she saw the man’s bandaged stump where his hand had been, and the blood leaking through the filthy cloth, and sprang into action.

  “Wake up, Hal,” Beth said. “You’re going to be late for the bus, and Mom’ll be so mad if she has to drive us in again.”

  I didn’t want to wake up, but my sister wouldn’t stop pushing on my shoulder and talking about the math test I had scheduled for this afternoon. But she wouldn’t stop blabbing on and on about Zane and Carol, and some guy named Tommy she seemed to really hate—

  The second my half-asleep brain processed the names, I was up. Beth half-jumped and half-fell backward as I sat straight on the wooden bed and part-time workbench I’d fallen asleep on the night before. “They’re back?”

  “Yes, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Beth—no, Tori—said. “They just got in. Mom—Jessica—is checking them over; all three of them have some nasty injuries and Tommy keeps talking about ‘Dennis Fucking Rodman,’ whoever that is.”

  “And Calvin?”

  She shook her head, face darkening. “Tommy said he was on his way, but he hasn’t shown up yet. I don’t trust him, either. If Calvin doesn’t show up soon…”

  “He’s fine. Tommy said he was on the way?”

  “Yeah. I don’t know much besides that. Jessica told me to wake you up, and she had her ‘not to be messed with, super-serious’ voice, so I decided to listen just this once.”

  I headed for the door, making sure the Voltsmith’s Grasp was on and my Trip-Hammer was at the ready. There was almost no chance that Tori’s suspicions were founded in any sort of reality—Tommy had found Zane and Carol, and they were all back, after all—but the world wasn’t exactly safe, and I just didn’t feel dressed without the gauntlet anymore.

  It wasn’t a long walk to Jessica’s clinic. Tommy was on the bench, a half-rotten stump where his hand had been. Filth-covered bandages littered the floor as he muttered and whimpered about the United Center and the arena he’d had to fight in. I had questions about what he’d heard in there.

  But before I could ask, the other two figures needed my attention.

  Zane Parker: Level 33

  Class: Mage

  Carol Parker: Level 35

  Class: Skirmisher (Rogue)

  Neither of the twins looked good. They were both filthy, and they stank like death and a sewage system had decided to have a baby. Zane’s eyes had a hollow look to them, and the dirt on Carol’s face was tracked with tear lines. They were covered in half-healed injuries, too, and while neither was as hurt as Tommy, they’d both need some time with Jessica.

  Carol was half on her feet, ready to fight me, before she saw my nameplate. The motion turned into a collapse back into the seat she’d been crying in as her shoulders slumped from what I hoped was relief. Zane stared for a second, then went back to looking at nothing.

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  “Those kids are tough little fuckers,” Tommy said. He gritted his teeth as Jessica’s magic cleaned his stump. “They didn’t go for the United Center until I rolled up. Hal, sending me was the stupidest goddamn idea you’ve ever had. They knew who I was.”

  “You were the only one I could spare, besides Calvin,” I said. That was only a half-truth; I was hoping Calvin would find them and Tommy would leave and start a new life somewhere else. Anywhere else. The fact that he was back meant…

  What did it mean? I had no idea. Was it a problem? And if it was, how could I solve it?

  Or was it an opportunity?

  “That should take care of things,” Jessica said, interrupting my thought. I glanced at Tommy’s stump, which looked like he’d lost the hand months ago. “Tommy, you and Hal get out of here. Zane, right? You can stay if your sister wants you to, but I’ve got to get her out of her armor, and for that, I need privacy. Tori, it’s up to Carol whether you can stay.”

  “Nope, I’m leaving,” Tori said.

  Zane glanced at Carol, who shrugged and climbed onto the table, already unbuckling her armor. That was new—she’d upgraded a lot since the Twilight Menagerie. I headed for the door, and so did Tori and Tommy.

  A half-hour later, the sun was finally starting to come up over Lake Michigan.

  Tommy didn’t stick around. He disappeared into Museumtown as Tori shot daggers at him—with her eyes, not her magic, thank god. He’d leveled up a few times, too, but something about Tori made him uncomfortable, and I didn’t mind seeing him go. We sat and watched the sunrise, waiting for Calvin.

  “Think he actually saw him?” Tori asked.

  “Yes. There’s no reason for him to lie,” I said after a minute. “He knows how lucky he is.”

  “With a missing hand in this world?” Tori snorted. “Some luck.”

  “I’m serious. I had him dead in The Void. Every moment he’s alive is a gift after that, and the fact that we didn’t kick him out and gave him an important job? That buys a lot of goodwill with someone.”

  Tori shook her head. “I’ll never forgive him. He cut my…he cut Jessica.”

  “He did.” I went quiet for a minute. The sun was just cresting the Alder Planetarium, and I wanted to see the bronze dome glint in the first light.

  We sat that way for a while, watching. “I’ve been thinking,” Tori said.

  “Oh no.”

  She slapped my arm, and I was reminded of Beth again. “I’m serious, Hal. The twins are around my level. They need some help if they’re going to catch up to you and Bobby, and I don’t want to run with him. I’m going to talk to Carol and Zane about finding some Tier Ones to farm once they’re ready.”

  That was…actually a pretty good idea. “Okay.”

  “Okay? Just like that?” She seemed almost annoyed at how easy it had been.

  “Yeah. They’re good kids, and you need some friends who aren’t me. Besides, I’ve been thinking, too.” I let that hang in the cool morning air.

  “Oh?” Tori asked after a while.

  “Yeah. I’m going to run a couple more Tier Twos with Bobby, then talk to Jessica about getting you into one or two. If we’re both there, you should be pretty safe, and it’ll help catch you up, but if you’re running Tier Ones with Carol and Zane, that’ll only be good for you.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I think you’re close to ready—at least for the first floors. They’re not so bad, really. Just a little tougher than Tier Ones.”

  “Alright!” Tori pumped a fist in the air.

  “It’s up to your step-mom, though. If she says no, I still don’t have any power to go against her,” I said.

  “Bullshit. You’re four times her level.”

  “Closer to five times, actually.” I stood as the sun’s rays hit us. “Doesn’t matter. She’s still your parent, and I’m not going to risk what we’re building here to get you a single dungeon. Come on. She’s probably done with the twins, and Calvin might be back, too.”

  I headed back into Museumtown as it slowly woke up to face another day in the apocalypse.

  An hour later, Zane and Carol hadn’t been able to provide us anything we didn’t already know. They’d been on the run, hiding out in dungeons and clearing them while they tried to avoid people. Brian’s death at the hands of Eddie had shaken them; neither of them wanted anything to do with most of Museumtown.

  Jessica, Tori, and I were exceptions. And so was Tommy. He’d been part of Eddie’s group, but as I listened to their explanation of the United Center dungeon, I started to understand.

  “We knew he was following us,” Zane said. His voice was still lifeless, but his face looked less pained than it had the first time I’d seen him. “We were going to head for the United Center and try ambushing him inside. We’d done it before; it’s pretty easy with Carol. But we never got inside.”

  “You never got inside? What stopped you?” I asked.

  Carol answered. “Dungeon break.”

  “A dungeon break? What does that mean?”

  Jessica’s clinic went quiet for a minute while Carol and Zane stared at each other, having a silent conversation I couldn’t follow. It went on and on, until Carol shook her head. “Someone was already inside the United Center. When they failed to clear it, it broke. The monsters inside came out, and we had to run. That’s when Tommy jumped in.”

  “We should have died,” Zane said.

  “We should have,” Carol agreed. “He didn’t win. But he slowed it down, and all three of us got away.”

  I waited for more. Neither of them volunteered anything, and Tommy was already gone.

  He wasn’t a good man. But he was trying. He’d saved their lives, and that was a big change from being Eddie’s right-hand man.

  But the thought of a dungeon break changed things—and it changed them a lot. As far as I knew, no one had tried to clear the Shedd Aquarium. It felt ominous in a way that neither the Adler Planetarium or Field Museum did; the ocean was scary enough without the system screwing with everything inside of it. But until we investigated it, the Shedd Aquarium was a dagger aimed at Museumtown’s throat.

  The trouble was that I had no idea what to expect in there. I was a farmboy from Nebraska; I hadn’t even learned to swim until I was in high school. The ocean didn’t call me. There was no mystery I wanted to discover there.

  I’d need help. Serious help.

  “Tori, what do you know about underwater dungeons?”

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