There’s no Elusion-type buzz when his lips touch my skin, but there is a sudden warmth that gathers in the back of my head.
I turn to my father. “Okay, what does Josh know that I don’t?”
“Only that he and I are currently working on a new plan,” my dad says with a wink. “To get everyone home safe.”
“Everyone?”
“You’re about to meet them.”
We exit the passageway and suddenly I’m in a vast open space, completely blank and empty, like someone has erased every single detail of the landscape. A hearty wind begins to blow and the whiteness is pulled up from the ground like a veil. In front of me is an odd honeycomb type of structure, with loads of cave-like rooms just like the one I was in.
Standing in front of me are at least a dozen kids, girls and boys ranging from the ages of about thirteen to twenty, all dressed in dull, drab garments from a bunch of different Escapes. They stare at me with complete awe and wonder, as though they’re seeing someone they’ve only heard about in folk stories and fairy tales. The crowd circles around me, a flurry of gray eyes meeting mine everywhere I look.
Positioned in the center of the group is a familiar girl with short hair and a slight frame. A girl who is looking at me, and maybe even straight through me, like we’ve known each other our entire lives.
A girl who looks exactly like Josh.
“Nora?”
She nods and grins as the shock registers on my face. “Hey, Regan. My brother has told me a lot about you.”
Josh leans in and whispers. “All good things, of course.”
This moment is beyond surreal, but when my father places his hand on the small of my back, I feel so grounded and comforted—maybe even like I’m coming home.
“Welcome to Etherworld,” he says.
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HarperCollins Publishers
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE WHO HELPED us bring the world of this book to life, and we’re so very grateful to all of them.
Big thanks goes to our families for supporting us as we worked like maniacs on this project—our husbands, Brian Klam and Ben Lindvall, for encouraging us when deadlines loomed and celebrating with us when we finally hit our stride; amazing daughters Sadie and Lily Klam, our own personal focus group; Mattie Matthews, Barbara Robinson, and Michael and Terri Lindvall, for taking such good care of us during our writing “vacations”; and Yvonne Gabel, for reading the manuscript in its earliest stages and giving us great feedback.
Extra special thanks to Paul C. Gabel and Ryan Guttridge, for assisting us in developing the technology for Elusion—there was so much we needed to learn about hypnosis, psychology, adaptive programming and the theory of complexity, and you walked us through all of it with such patience and enthusiasm. You’re the best father and brother us girls could ask for!
Heartfelt appreciation also goes out to our agents, Christy Fletcher and Esther Newberg, whose tireless dedication and commitment to this project and our careers astound us; and Josie Friedman and Nick Harris, for believing in this book before it was even a book.
And of course, we have so much love for our fabulous, indefatigable editor, Sarah Shumway, whose guidance and graciousness is invaluable to us; our awesome publisher, Katherine Tegen, who continues to astound us with her wit, wisdom, and charm—we are so proud to be on your list! We owe a great bit of debt to the rest of the Harper team: Susan Katz, Kate Jackson, Caroline Sun, Lauren Flower, Erin Fitzsimmons, Amy Ryan, Tatiana Plakhova, Karen Sherman, Kathryn Silsand, and Laurel Symonds.
Lastly, we’d like to say thank you all our friends who stood by us along the way, cheering us on whenever we needed it. You can’t know how much you mean to us!
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HarperCollins Publishers
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CLAUDIA GABEL AND CHERYL KLAM have each written several books. You can find Claudia and Cheryl online at www.claudiagabel.com and www.cherylklam.com or on Facebook and Twitter.
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers
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COPYRIGHT
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
ELUSION Copyright © 2014 by Claudia A. Gabel and Cheryl Klam All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-0-06-212241-4 (trade bdg.)
EPub Edition June 2013 ISBN 9780062122414
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