DAYLIGHT. MATTIE’S WINDOWLESS room didn’t tell her the sun was up. The scent of coffee and sound of footsteps coming through the door did. She was human again. In the same lifeless room, with the same lousy smell and lighting. She tried the door. It wasn’t the same! It was unlocked!

“Good morning,” Humphrey said. He appeared to have been waiting for her. Mattie used the washroom and returned. He had a cup of tea ready and steaming.

“Gloves, please,” he said, indicating a pair of white cotton gloves on the table. Mattie slipped them on, then added three sugars and some cream to her tea. The small kitchenette smelled like coffee and breakfast cereal.

“Where is everyone?” she asked.

“Out. Working.”

“On?”

“Cast Members have to work.”

“True enough.”

“That was a big decision you made last night,” he said.

“I thought the quickest way to get rid of them was to pretend I was going with them. It worked.”

“Why’d you choose to stay? It’s not like we’ve been treating you so great.”

“You have to ask? I lived in the Barracks longer than most of you.”

“You escaped the Barracks.”

“You know what it feels like in there! Turns out running away isn’t so great. It’s been hard for me out here alone,” she lied. “Finding you all—or I guess technically you found me!—scared me at first. I do not want to go back there.”

“And him?” Humphrey pointed through the kitchenette’s windows, which looked onto the hallway, indicating the closed door across the way.

“I was going to ask you,” Mattie answered nonchalantly. “Amery’s brother, right?”

Humphrey didn’t answer right away. He played with the spoon in his cup of tea, watching it swirl. “He was the prize.”

“Excuse me?”

“Did you think we were that interested in a disloyal, ungrateful former resident of the Barracks? We’ve been watching you. You must have figured that out once we decided to show ourselves. Come to find out, you’d been spending time with the traitor brother, a man who doesn’t recognize his father’s cause, his family’s cause.”

“I was…bait? You used me?”

“Does that bother you? You’ve helped us, Mattie. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Bother me? As a person, yes, of course it does. I do not appreciate being used!” Her head swam. She’d led them to Zeke. Had they watched as Zeke had summoned Mickey and the others? Did his ability to round up the good characters give them something they lacked? “I don’t know why you care about Ezekiel Hollingsworth all of a sudden.”

Though Mattie’s expression didn’t change, inside she was livid. She cursed the gloves. How she’d have loved to read Humphrey’s thoughts at that moment. Philby or Willa could have figured it out, she thought irritably. Some kids were smarter than others; some had more powers.

A dreadful thought hit her—a kiss would be as good as wrapping her fingers around a wrist or arm. Humphrey had that drooling boy look, the kind that told a girl to look out. He was the kind to touch your cheek or brush shoulders or—heaven forbid!—kiss your knuckles, acting like he was a prince and you a princess.

Back in the Barracks, he’d been that annoying boy who thought he was God’s gift to girls. It worked on some people—Mattie remembered that one of the Fairlies here seemed to have a crush on him—but to her, he was repulsive, arrogant, and pushy. A boy who saw himself as a leader, took the place of said leader, but never really understood how to lead.

“Who said it was all of a sudden?” Humphrey asked. Mattie blinked, trying to remember what they’d been discussing. Ezekiel Hollingsworth.

“I’m not saying you could possibly know why you’d been ordered to capture the man’s brother,” Mattie said slowly. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. Who could know that?”

“Embarrass? We’re getting him out of the way, Mattie. We’re protecting him.”

“Of course you are,” she said in a disbelieving tone. “Not that you’d tell me the truth anyway! I mean, all I did was blow off my chance to escape.” She paused a second, trying to confuse him. “I suppose you’re the leader because of your ability, right? ’Cause this is not an easy group to convince to follow you. I remember, at the Barracks, that was something they counted on: as long as we didn’t come together behind a leader, we were no threat to them. But here you are, Humphrey, and you’re the obvious leader…along with Mary Ann.”

Even though Mattie was playing Humphrey, she found she was nervous. She knew psychological manipulation, and yet she didn’t know how to make herself attractive to boys. It just seemed to happen sometimes. In movies, the girl could control it, could manipulate the boy, make him like her if she wanted. In real life it was a lot trickier.

But Humphrey was blushing, so she thought her comment about him being one of the leaders had worked. “Leaders are strong,” she added. “Powerful. In command. I happen to like that, for what it’s worth.”

He clearly appreciated her comments.

“So that would make your ability…what? Did you drop the temperature last night?” She knew it had been Mary Ann, but asked anyway. “No, I don’t think so. Your ability’s bigger than that. You can change your voice? Maybe it’s something like you can identify the last person who touched an object before you? No. Those are useful, but not quite leadership material. Invisibility? Yes, that would do nicely to establish one’s leadership. You could spy. Pry. Surprise. Is that it, Humphrey? Can you make yourself invisible?”

“Games? Tricks? You think?”

He was playing along. What next? Mattie wondered. How to draw him in, so he’d confess his ability? To know one’s strengths meant you also knew his weaknesses.

“You know what I think I’d find out if I read you, Humphrey?”

“No, but I think you’re going to tell me.”

“I think I’d find out you want to kiss me.” She let the sound of it bounce around the room. She’d never said such a thing to a boy before, but these were special circumstances.

In truth, the thought repulsed her. Humphrey was far from ugly, but hardly her type. If she could have put Finn and Philby into the same boy, that was the boy she’d want to flirt with.

Humphrey looked…embarrassed! Mattie decided to strike fast as a snake. “For someone, anyone, to lead this group, he or she would have to have an ability that went way beyond impressing the others. We were all impressed at the Barracks.”

He leaned forward. “So if I tell you, I get to kiss you?”

She had him. “On the cheek.”

“On the lips.”

“But just a peck. A quick kiss. Nothing mushy. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“Let’s hear it. But if I don’t believe you, the deal’s off.” Mattie already regretted it. In the old days, she knew, girls used to sell kisses at county fairs. She’d seen it in movies. And sure, she’d watched the High School Musical movies, with all their mushy kisses. But she wasn’t about to do it. Not with Humphrey, that was for sure!

“I enhance other people’s powers,” he said, boldly and proudly.

“What? Seriously?” She’d never heard of such an ability.

“If your power is hearing things at long distances and I focus on you or touch you, that distance just got a mile longer.”

“No way.”

“Way!”

He was so blinded by her offer of a kiss that he didn’t understand what he’d walked into. If this was true, his ability meant that when they kissed, his ability would magnify the depth of her reading. Likewise, she thought, her reaching. What thought could she push into his mind that would help the Keepers and Joe long term?

And then, she had it, right there in the forefront of her mind. On the tip of her silent tongue. A thought to bury deeply, so that it might bubble up days later and he’d take it for his own.

A girl walked past the kitchenette. “Show me on Shelby,” Mattie said.

“You don’t believe me.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said, toying with him.

“It’s complicated with Shelby. Hang on.” He summoned the girl, a brunette with a bowl-cut bob, large brown eyes, and puffy lips. Her chin was broken out, her ears a bright red as the two talked. After a moment, Shelby nodded.

Humphrey ran down the hall excitedly and returned with a pair of binoculars. “Okay!” he called. “Come on!”

He led them to the end of the hall and out onto a side balcony overlooking the park.

Mattie’s heart leaped. They were high up, at least five floors. The park sprawled out at their feet. Off in the distance, Mattie could see Disneyland, the Grand Californian. Buena Vista Street cut a line from the entrance to the Carthay, separating them from Soarin’ over the World. The Hyperion stood to her right, the edge of Hollywood Pictures Backlot directly below. Tower of Terror, Mattie realized. In Humphrey’s excitement to show off, he’d given away their location.

“Pick a person,” Shelby instructed Mattie.

“Anyone?”

“Anyone.”

Humphrey giggled, unable to contain himself. He sounded about seven years old.

“Okay. The girl in the gray yoga pants. Light blue top. V-neck. She’s—”

“Reading the ice cream menu. Got it!” Shelby declared, studying the girl carefully, then closing her eyes. “Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bar,” she said. “That’s the last item she read, the one she considered for the longest time.”

Humphrey passed Mattie the binoculars. The girl in the gray pants ordered something. A moment later the Cast Member at the stand handed her a Mickey Premium.

“Lucky guess,” Mattie said. “Everyone loves those.” She’d never heard of a Fairlie being able to see through another person’s eyes.

“You, of all people, should know better,” Humphrey said. “Okay. Ready for the eight-cylinder version?”

“The what?” Mattie asked.

“Never mind!”

“Pick another,” Shelby offered, clearly offended by Mattie’s doubt. “Someone just looking around, not at anything too close.”

“Okay. The guy with the dreads. Wide shoulders.” Mattie offered the binoculars back to Humphrey, but he motioned for her to keep them.

Shelby did the same study-and-squint routine. “He’s looking up the street. There’s an Asian girl wearing a Nike volleyball jersey. Number twenty-seven.”

Mattie searched for the volleyball player through the glasses. “Impressive.”

“Check this out.” Humphrey placed his hand on Shelby’s shoulder. “Same guy.”

Shelby did the squint routine and smiled. “Nice! Double reflection. The glass behind the girl, then a reflection off a window across the street. There’s a popcorn stand with a blond astronaut girl doll cranking the popcorn.”

Mattie focused the lenses, saw the perfect reflection in the glass behind the Asian girl, then refocused to see the reflection in the next window. There, sure enough, was a faint, tiny blond doll wearing an astronaut’s plastic bubble helmet.

“You could know that already,” Mattie complained. In fact, she was hugely impressed with Humphrey’s boosting of the girl’s ability.

“Could I also know,” Shelby said, “that the guy behind the doll is wearing sunglasses and has a short, dark beard?”

Mattie checked the binoculars. And when she pulled them down from her eyes, Humphrey kissed her on the lips without warning.

In that nanosecond she was flooded with his thoughts—some of which she would forget as quickly as possible! Most of them she simply filed for later study. She then reached, transferring her thought to him, burying it as quickly as it took for her to lean away.

“No fair! No warning!” She wiped her lips with her forearm.

Shelby laughed hard. “He got you!”

“You would have played coward!” Humphrey said.

It was true; she’d already been working out a plan to avoid the kiss. “Would not have!”

“Would, too!”

“Okay. Okay. So, I believe you. Your ability. It’s impressive. You too,” she said to Shelby, who nodded back at Mattie.

“We all got what we wanted,” Humphrey said.

If you only knew, thought Mattie.