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they
kidnapped you and left you for dead.”
    She clenched her hands into fists. How could
she possibly forget that? “Why would they leave me for dead if I
had information they needed so much?”
    “ I don’t know! Obviously, we don’t
know all the answers. But can we please keep walking?”
    “ Fine.” She took out the map book.
“Where’s Holy Trinity Cemetery?”
    James’s face fell. “Beth.”
    “ Don’t call me that.”
    “ Why not? You’re
Elizabeth.”
    “ Or this supposed
replica.”
    “ Don’t say that. I know you’re
Elizabeth.”
    “ How do you know?”
    James shrugged, taking a step closer to her. A
soft breeze blew past them, unsettling his black hair and sending a
drift of his cologne under her nose. “I just know.”
    She glanced down at the map book. “Well, I
like Fiona, okay? Where’s the cemetery? I want to visit their
graves.”
    James hesitated, glancing around and
scratching the back of his neck. “All right, it’s up on Broadway
and 155th. It’s probably quicker if we drive.” He peered at her.
“Are you sure you want to see them?”
    “ If you’re set on not taking me
into the lab.”
    “ I am. Just give it another day or
two, okay? Walter and I–”
    “ Who’s Walter?” Fiona
asked.
    “ Your uncle. Your mom’s
brother.”
    Fiona’s mouth dropped open. “I have an uncle?”
she said quietly.
    “ Yeah. He’s trying to figure out
what to do.” He glanced around. “Okay, I’ll go grab my car. Want to
wait over in that parking lot? I’ll come pick you up.”
    She nodded, still stunned to hear she had
living family. An uncle. James jogged back toward the house, and
she walked to the parking lot James had pointed out. She wondered
what her uncle’s name was. What he looked like.
    Fiona kicked at fallen leaves as she waited.
The red and orange leaves crunched under her feet, and the trees
were only half-dressed. Their branches stuck out against the
blue-gray sky like veins.
    James picked her up, and she got into the
passenger’s seat. “Is this a rental?” she asked as she looked
around at the clean leather.
    “ No,” he said, smiling, “I just
take care of my car.” His smile faded a bit. “It’s kind of an
obsession, really. When I wasn’t working or looking for you, I’d
clean my car.”
    “ Well, now you found me, and this
car doesn’t need any more cleaning.” She sighed, watching buildings
and people roll past them. She liked it here in the city, the
bustle, the chaos. “I just want to come home.”
    “ I know. I want you to come home,
too, trust me. But the Alarias… not to mention everyone you knew
thinks you’re dead. Everyone but us and the Alarias.”
    “ What about Sarah?”
    James raised his eyebrows at her. “You sure
you don’t remember anything?”
    “ I read the journal. She was an
assistant in the lab, and she knew about Remus. Does she know there
was a replica?”
    “ Yeah, she knows… I don’t think she
really believes it, though. I haven’t talked to her in a couple
weeks. She’s kinda disappeared.”
    Fiona frowned. “What do you mean?”
    “ She and Keith broke up again. She
usually avoids me for a week or two after that.”
    “ And Keith and Faith, do they
know?”
    “ Keith knows because Walter asked
him to live in the old house. I haven’t told him about finding you,
though. Faith doesn’t know. I don’t know how she’d take it
all.”
    “ How did you find out about Remus?
What made you want to read my journal?” she asked James.
    “ Well, I knew Remus was why the
Alarias did it. I wanted to find out more about it, and I started
looking around in what was left from the fire. I found your
journal, and when I read about the Remus project, I knew you had to
be alive somewhere.” He made eye contact with her,
half-smiling.
    Her face warmed, and she almost reached out to
take his hand, but thought better of it. “Why did you think it was
me–or Elizabeth–that the machine replicated? It could have