Pulse

you everything,” Dylan said as they walked down a steep staircase together. “I’m warning you up front, she can be a little on the cold side. It’s just her way; don’t take it personally. The good news is, she’s on our side.”
    “I didn’t realize there were sides,” Faith said. She wanted to ask about this mysterious new person, but she decided to stay quiet. She was thinking about how long Dylan had been watching her sleep at night and how brooding and distant he’d been at school. And what had her parents told him? She didn’t even want to think about it. At the bottom of the stairs, a final door stood open.
    “She knew we were coming; otherwise this one’s usually locked. She’s got the only key.”
    “How deep does this rabbit hole go?” Faith asked, wondering all over again if all the circumstances of the past month were nothing more than an elaborate, Wire Code–induced dream.
    She could see that there was light inside. The ceiling was lower than she liked, but as they rounded a corner to the right, things opened up. The ceiling was higher, and the room was forty or fifty feet deep. They were in a basement with concrete walls and old-fashioned lightbulbs hanging from exposed beams. At the far end of the room, sitting in a red chair with a high back, was a woman. Three folding metal chairs sat around her in a semicircle. They were all empty.
    “Time for me to go,” Dylan said. “I’ll come back for you.”
    “Wait, you’re leaving me here? With her ?”
    Faith wanted to grab him by his leather jacket and make him stay, but it was not in her nature to be weak. She would see this through; and if push came to shove, she would put whoever sat in the red chair through the wall. Faith looked across the long, empty expanse of the dimly lit room, trying to size up the situation. When she turned back, Dylan was gone.
    “Come, sit down,” a voice called to her. It was a woman; that much was obvious. Faith was determined to find the answers to her questions; and if talking to this person was the way to get it done, she would sit in one of the chairs and listen.
    And so she did.

Chapter 18
I Brought This for You
    A green apple sat on one of the metal folding chairs and, on another, an unmarked envelope with a splattered wax seal. This left only one unoccupied chair, which Faith stared at for a long time before dragging it noisily toward her across the concrete floor and sitting down.
    “Your chair looks more comfortable than mine.”
    Faith spoke first because the woman, for whatever reason, seemed happy to let an awkward silence fill the basement. Whoever she was, she wasn’t like anyone Faith had met before. Her face was at once delicate and threatening: skin so paper-thin that Faith could see the veins in her forehead, blue eyes that never wavered from their chosen target, dark hair held back by a slender, black band. Her lips were pale but full; and when she spoke, very little else moved. Not her gaze, not her hands, not her flawlessly straight nose. Only her willowy eyebrows betrayed her feeling, and hearing Faith comment about the chair, they rose with what appeared to be either surprise or concern.
    “Would you like to trade places?” The woman asked.
    “Who are you, and why do you live in a basement?” Faith asked. She was not going to let herself be tricked or bullied.
    “So we’ll stay where we are then, good. I’m Meredith; didn’t Dylan tell you anything ?”
    Meredith leaned back slightly in her chair, crossing her long legs.
    “He told me some, but not enough. He said you would tell me more.”
    Meredith kept staring at Faith. She seemed to be trying to decide something, but it was difficult to say.
    “I live underground because it’s safe. Also I’m a troll.”
    Faith was taken aback. It sounded like Meredith was making a joke, but that couldn’t be right.
    “You should see me out of these shoes. Hooves . Ghastly.”
    Faith didn’t want to smile, but she did. “You’re not what I expected.”
    Meredith leaned forward slightly. She had a way with slow, small movements that made Faith wonder if she was made of plaster.
    “Dylan tells me you’re a quick study. I’d like to see that for myself, if it’s all right with you.”
    Faith didn’t like the idea of being tested, but deep down inside she was dying to show Meredith how powerful she was. She was thinking about what was in the room that she could move—the chairs, the apple, the envelope,