CHAPTER 42When the light receded, it took a moment to adjust to the sudden silence and the nearly dark shade of the swamp’s trees. Mara blinked and allowed her eyes a moment to adjust before she attempted to stand. When she did, she grabbed the bumper of Diana’s SUV to steady herself. Straightening, Mara worked her chrome fingers back and forth, trying to get relief from the tackiness left on them by the adhesive from the exterior of the Arboretum.
The vehicle was where they had left it—on the side of the trail leading into the dense swamp, down the road a b it from the cinder-block pumping station, the silhouette of which she could just make out in the limited light.
“What happened? Where are we?” the other Mara asked, standing on the far side of the Ford Edge SUV.
Diana’s head popped
