“It’s Rho.”

It was purely inexplicable. What was Jenna doing at the hidden Auran landfill? There was only one explanation, but Spencer’s mind kept refusing it. Jenna was too perfectly normal. That was what he’d liked about her at New Forest Academy. Was it all a lie? Was Jenna actually one of the . . .

Jenna nodded. “I’m an Auran, Spencer.”

“What!” Daisy shrieked. “You? But . . . why’d your hair turn white?”

Jenna suppressed a grin. “It was always white. It’s an attribute that all the Aurans share. I had to dye my hair every morning at New Forest Academy just to make it blonde.”

Well, at least Spencer had missed out on that side effect. His hand instinctively raised to touch his own brown hair. He wasn’t ready to go gray.

“I didn’t know there were girl Aurans,” Daisy said, a hint of awe in her voice.

“Ten girls, three boys,” Jenna said. “That’s the way the Founding Witches wanted it.”

If Spencer had been thinking clearly, it might have bothered him that the girl Aurans outnumbered the boys more than three to one. But before he could ponder it, his mouth was spouting another question for Jenna. “What were you doing at New Forest Academy?”

“I was there to keep an eye on Director Carlos Garcia,” she said. “He’s one of the warlocks.”

“Yeah,” Alan said. “We figured that out the hard way.”

Jenna walked past the group and peered over the edge of the gorge. “Looks like your friends weren’t so lucky.”

“They weren’t our friends,” Penny said. “It was the BEM. They were trying to stop us from reaching you.”

Jenna shook her head. “They should have read the sign on the gate. This is a limited access area. Authorized vehicles only.”

There was something different about Jenna. The way she moved and talked. She showed an air of wisdom and maturity that contradicted the youthful person that Spencer had met at New Forest Academy. Walter had explained that the Aurans were more than three hundred years old, trapped forever in juvenile bodies. Still, Jenna had played quite a convincing thirteen-year-old back at the Academy.

“Are you saying that my garbage truck was authorized?” Bernard asked.

Jenna strode over to the vehicle and inspected the tires. “How did you find this place?” she asked.

“We solved the thirteen clues,” Alan said. “We followed the map that led us here.”

“Did you follow the map closely?” Jenna asked. “Made every turn and drove every inch of the highlighted route?”

Alan nodded.

“Then, yes,” she replied. “Your vehicle is authorized.”

“I don’t get it,” Bernard said.

“The route on the map took you past twenty-seven schools,” Jenna said. “Each school had a crosswalk painted over the road. The paint for those crosswalks was Glopified. As your vehicle passed over the crosswalks, a magical residue adhered to your tires. All twenty-seven lines, when driven over in the proper order, create an authorization code. That bridge,” Jenna pointed to the wreckage, “was designed to recognize the crosswalk code, allowing your vehicle to pass over safely.”

“But we barely made it over!” Daisy said. “It wasn’t safe at all!”

“The BEM vans,” Walter muttered. “They hadn’t followed the map route, so their tires weren’t properly coded.”

“Like I said,” Jenna cut in. “Only authorized vehicles are allowed over here. The bridge is rigged to collapse under non-coded tires. It’s a strict policy. Violators fall to their doom.”

Spencer could barely follow the conversation. The fact that Jenna was there, welcoming them to the landfill, was too much to take in.

“So you lied?” he finally managed.

She turned to him. “Pardon?”

“At New Forest Academy,” Spencer said. “You lied about everything?”

“No,” Jenna said. “Not everything. Remember when you flew that school bus off the edge of a cliff? I trusted my life into the hands of a twelve-year-old boy. I was genuinely terrified. No lies there.” She chuckled, but her expression changed when she saw the stony look on Spencer’s face.

“I’m sorry,” she finally apologized. “I couldn’t tell you I was an Auran. The time wasn’t right. But it is right now.” She smiled at him. “I hope you can trust me.”

Something popped into Spencer’s mind. He thought of the note Jenna had given him when she left New Forest Academy. He’d read it so many times that he had the thing memorized. The last line stuck in his mind. “Next time we meet, I hope U can trust me 2.”

Spencer took a deep breath. Jenna wasn’t who she’d said she was. But she had only lied to protect him. If she was ready to deal the truth now, Spencer was all in.

“Okay, Jenna. What now?” he asked.

“One more thing,” she said. “My name’s not Jenna. It’s Rho.”

Daisy shrugged. “I think I like Jenna better.”

“It’s Rho,” the girl repeated. “And that’s what you’ll call me.” She kicked a piece of trash back onto a pile and strode off, dangerously near the edge of the gorge.

“Where are you going?” Alan called.

“The other Aurans will be excited that you’ve arrived,” she answered. “We must call them home. Follow me!”

“Rho.” Spencer whispered the name to himself. In a way, he was grateful to call her something different. Jenna was gone. Never existed, really. She was Rho now. An Auran.