Page 63 of Imaginary Numbers

“Come on.” Sam clapped me on the shoulder with one massive hand. “She’s not going to wait for us, and I know you’ll be pissed if she goes running off to the rescue without you.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” I said, and followed Annie.

She didn’t look back once as we walked to the barn and inside, to where Elsie and Dad were still standing watch over our two captive cuckoos. Elsie studied her nails, tucked the file into her purse, and stood.

“Took you long enough,” she said. “Dad owes me five bucks.”

“To be fair, I couldn’t estimate how long it would take Annie here to get tired of waiting for Artie to move,” said Dad, voice mild. He gave the can of Raid another shake, still aiming it directly at Heloise’s face. “You can’t have this one, kids. I’m sorry if your plan was depending on her, but I don’t trust her enough to let her up.”

“We only need one asshole for this extraction,” said Annie, producing a knife from inside her shirt . . .

. . . and using it to cut through the ropes holding Mark to the chair. I attempted to protest. All that came out was a garbled squeaking sound.

Mark stretched his arms over his head, grimacing. “You people don’t care much about chiropractic health when you’re tying someone down, do you?” he asked.

“What the hell, Annie?” I managed not to shout. I was pretty proud of myself for that.

“He’s going to lead us to Sarah,” said Annie. She made the knife disappear back into her clothing. “Relax, Artie. He can’t reach our minds through the charms we’re wearing, which means he can’t do anything to hurt us. Unless he knows how a gun works. And managed to get his hands on one, which, not going to happen.”

Mark laughed wryly. “My parents never allowed firearms in the house. Too much of a chance Cici would pick one up and manage to hurt somebody with it.”

“Your parents?” I asked. “I thought cuckoos always left their babies with host families.”

“Shut up,” hissed Heloise.

“I thought we had finally come to an agreement,” said Dad, and shook the can again before giving a small, warning squirt of pesticide in the air above her head. Heloise whimpered. She didn’t say anything else.

“You know, I gotta say, I’m really impressed with how terrible you people are,” said Mark. “I’ve been listening to Ingrid talk about her daughter the princess, and how she was going to make her a Queen and use her to destroy the world, for years. She never mentioned that the people raising her were genuinely awful. You hate us because we’re the competition, right?”

“We hate you because you’re dangerous predators who murder innocent people and make things worse for absolutely everyone, but thanks for playing.” Elsie stood, slinging her purse strap over her shoulder. “Dad, you’re cool with staying here, right?”

“Of course, pumpkin.” Dad gave his can another shake. “Your mother’s going to be furious when she realizes what’s happening. I’m hoping this little gift bag will keep her from getting too angry. It’s not every day you get a cuckoo to play with.”

“I’m not a toy,” snarled Heloise.

“Sort of are,” said Elsie. “Sort of turned yourself into one when you decided that a bad haircut and a pair of yoga pants meant you could pretend to be our cousin without getting in trouble for it. Because your friend is right: we’re not good people. We can’t afford to be. We’re one side of a three-sided war, and you’re the enemy.”

“Hey!” I hadn’t realized I was going to shout until I was actually doing it. Everyone except for Heloise turned to look at me. I glared at them, trying to encompass the whole room at once. “If somebody doesn’t tell me what’s going on right now, I’m going to march back inside and tell Mom that this is happening.”

“We’re going to rescue Sarah,” said Annie bluntly. “Mark here is going to lead us straight to her, and we’re going to get her back.”

I looked at Mark. He turned his face slightly away, not meeting my eyes, and I knew. I knew what he wasn’t ready to tell us yet; what I wasn’t ready to hear, because there was still a chance he might be wrong. He’d said there hadn’t been a Queen in centuries, not since the cuckoos had ripped a hole in whatever innocent dimension they’d parasitized before this one. He could still be wrong.

Sarah could still be saved.

“Fine,” I said. “Elsie, you’re driving.”

“I am,” she said. “It’ll be a tight fit, but I’ve crammed five people into my car before.”

“So let’s go.” I shook my head. “I can’t imagine Sarah wants us to keep her waiting any longer than we have to.”

“She’s never been that kind of patient,” Annie agreed. The five of us started for the door, forming a tight little clump with Mark in the middle, where he couldn’t run away.

“Have fun, kids!” Dad called, and then we were outside, and everything was happening.

Mark got the front passenger seat. I didn’t like putting him up there with my sister and easy access to the steering wheel, but it was that or cram him into the backseat, which would increase the odds of accidentally touching him without a layer of clothing in the way. Our anti-telepathy charms were good. They weren’t good enough to stand up to extended skin contact. We might have decided to trust him for the moment, but that didn’t mean we wanted him inside our minds.

That was where a cuckoo could do the most damage. Once they were past your defenses, they could basically do whatever they wanted, and there was no way to catch or stop them.