I try to focus my mind, back in reality. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” she says, wiping at the tears beneath her eyes. “He’s happy for me. He’s just … shocked, I guess.”

She drops down next to me on the couch. For several long moments she’s lost in her thoughts. I want to comfort her, but I don’t think telling her about my vision will help.

“I—” She sniffs. “I knew I couldn’t keep this a secret forever. But I wasn’t ready. Not yet.”

And this is all my fault. “I’m sorry.”

“No,” she blurts, turning to face me with her whole body. “No, it’s fine. I should have told them sooner. As soon as I found out. I was too scared, I guess. It’s better that they know. Well, Thane knows. He won’t tell Mom or Dad unless I ask him to.”

“Will you tell him everything? Will you tell your parents?”

“How can I?” She shakes her head. “I’ll have to. Someday. I just—I don’t want them to worry.”

I nod, but I don’t really understand. If I told my parents about my heritage, my destiny, they would rush me to the nearest therapist. I’d be committed to a psychiatric ward for life. They would never understand. They would never want to understand.

“It’s okay. It’ll be fine,” Grace says. “So, why did you come over?”

“Right,” I say, relieved to be back on solid ground. “I think I know how to get to Gretchen.”

“Really?” she squeals.

“Well, I know how to figure out how to open the portal anyway.”

“Okay,” she says, slightly less enthusiastic. “How?”

I take a breath. “I need to hold the pendant.”

“Oh no.” Grace jumps to her feet. “No way—you heard what Nick said.”

I rise to face her. “I know. But I had a”—I search for the appropriate word—“I guess, a vision.”

Grace gives me a skeptical look.

“I did,” I say. “Besides, what do we really know about Nick? What do we know about his motives? His background?”

“Gretchen trusts him.”

“Yes,” I say, “but even if he’s trustworthy, that doesn’t mean he’s right. That doesn’t mean he knows everything. What other options do we have?”

“I found a lead,” she says quietly. “To our birth mother. Her name is Cassandra Gregory and I found a phone number from four years ago.”

“That’s wonderful,” I say, not fully understanding the change in subject.

“We can find her,” she insists. “She can help us. You don’t have to take this risk.”

I smile at her concern. “We don’t have time,” I reply. “If the number you found is old, it could take ages to find her again. If we can find her at all. Gregory is not an uncommon surname.”

“But it’s another option. I don’t want your”—she wipes at tears—“brain to explode or anything.”

“Grace,” I say, taking her hand and looking her straight in the eyes. I feel as if I have never been more certain in my life. “Trust me.”

She takes a deep breath, considering. I can read her thoughts in her expression. She’s scared—for me, but also for Gretchen. She wants to do the right thing. She’s just not sure what that is. I know she’ll make the right decision.

Finally she says, “Okay. It’s in my room. I’ll go get it.”

“Good.” I sigh a relieved smile. “Then I think we should go to my rec room, to have plenty of space for whatever happens.”

She nods. “Let me tell Thane I’m going.”

“I’ll wait out in the hall,” I say, wanting to give her and her brother as much privacy as possible. “And when we get Gretchen home, we can start looking for our biological mother.”

She smiles and heads for her room.

While she’s gone, I take a moment to savor her news. Our birth mother. Cassandra Gregory. I could have been Greer Gregory. Doesn’t have quite the ring of Morgenthal, but I could have made it work.

A minute later, Grace is walking through the door, pulling a small cross-body bag over her head.

“Let’s go.”

She starts walking and I follow quickly behind. If she doesn’t want to talk about her brother, I’m not going to force the issue. What do I know about sibling relationships? But I can’t help wondering what that weird final echo in my vision was all about. What does it mean? Did he really already know about me, or was that some trick of my mind? I don’t know enough about my power to be sure.

That’s something I’ll tackle after we use the pendant, after we get Gretchen back. Thane can wait; we’ve got a sister to save.

Grace and I sit on the floor facing each other, kind of like in a sacred circle or something. She pulls the pendant out of her bag, holding it carefully between her palms.

“You’re sure you want to do this?” she asks.

I want to make a sarcastic quip, but I don’t think that will alleviate her concerns. “Yes,” I say. “I’m sure.”

Holding out her shaking hands, she lets the pendant dangle. The light from the overhead fixture hits the gem, spreading golden beams throughout the room. I feel the magic drawing me closer. I take a deep breath and brace myself for whatever is to come. I reach for the pendant.