The Messengers

The third book in the Greystone Secrets middle-grade series follows siblings Chess (12), Emma (10), and Finn (8) as they confront an escalating threat from a dangerous alternate world. In earlier books, the children discovered they were born in this alternate world, where a corrupt government controls citizens through lies and fear. Their father, Andrew, was killed there, and their mother, Kate, fled with them to a safer, parallel Earth. Recently, the children and their friend Natalie Mayhew traveled between worlds to rescue their mother, other captives, and the three Gustano children, near-duplicates of the Greystone kids who had been kidnapped by agents from the alternate world.

As the story opens, the Greystones return home briefly before relocating to the house of Ms. Morales, Natalie's mother. Mrs. Gustano, Mom's near-identical duplicate in this world, arrives at the door with her children Rocky, Emma, and Finn, demanding answers: Police have found her husband's fingerprints in the Greystones' basement and are accusing him of involvement in his own children's kidnapping. Mom appears despite Chess's efforts to keep her hidden. The two women, who share an almost telepathic rapport characteristic of doubles across the two worlds, agree to talk at a local restaurant called the Cuckoo Clock.

At the restaurant, Emma notices a carved angel on the giant clock identical to carvings she saw in the alternate world. When Chess presses the angel's wing, a small brass coin covered in coded symbols drops into his hand. Joe Deweese, a fellow escapee from the alternate world who has coordinated with Mom for years, arrives with alarming intelligence: intercepted messages reveal that the Gustano children were used as test subjects for mind-control experiments during their captivity, testing whether chemicals designed to induce despair would work on children connected to both worlds. Joe's 11-year-old daughter, Kona, waits nearby with his baby daughter, Kafi. That night, Chess and Kona eavesdrop on the adults' conference and learn the experiments succeeded, meaning none of their children are safe.

The next morning, Emma exposes a man posing as a police officer as a fraud. The group watches on surveillance equipment as he drives to the Greystones' house and destroys a hidden camera, proving their enemies know they are being watched. The children then piece together a revelation about the coins. Rocky reveals he has carried a coin since his fourth birthday, and Emma recognizes her late father's handwriting in its symbols. Mom explains that she and Andrew, working as underground journalists in the alternate world, collaborated with a physicist named Gina Chiukov to invent coins that carry thumbprint-authenticated voice messages between a person and their duplicate across worlds. The first coin was sent on Chess's fourth birthday. Five days later, Andrew and Gina were both killed, and Mom fled with her children, believing the project had failed.

A new coin descends from the ceiling into Natalie's hand, activating a recorded warning from Other-Natalie, her alternate-world duplicate, who pleads for mutual help. More coins rain through the house. The euphoria shatters when Natalie's father, Mr. Mayhew, seemingly arrives with boxes of food, but Natalie instantly recognizes the visitor as his alternate-world double, the Mayor, the most dangerous leader the children have encountered. The boxes contain "stink grenades" that fill the house with mind-control chemicals, inducing overwhelming despair. The adults and some children collapse. The Mayor, protected by a gas mask, tries to seize the lever, a device made of fused coins that opens passageways between worlds. Emma fights him off, but more grenades crash through every window. With Mom barely conscious, Chess slams the lever into the floor, opening a tunnel that sends him, Emma, Finn, Rocky (holding Kafi), and Kona into the alternate world.

They land in the home of the Judge, Ms. Morales's alternate-world duplicate, and the Mayor. Finn yanks the lever free, sealing the passage and trapping Mom, Natalie, Joe, and the remaining families with the attackers. The house is also in ruins, filled with stink grenades and motion-activated televisions broadcasting fabricated war footage designed to keep citizens indoors. Emma discovers that the coins provide immunity against the chemical smells, but the TVs prove far more powerful: When Chess triggers a kitchen TV, all the children drop their coins and become mesmerized by false broadcasts. Baby Kafi saves them by crawling to the outlet and unplugging it. Outside, they see only clear sky. The war footage was entirely fabricated. They tape coins to their wrists for protection and flee.

Outside, they encounter Lana, Other-Natalie's best friend and a member of an underground network of "helpers" who smuggle coins carrying citizens' recorded pleas to their doubles in the better world. Lana reveals the coins stopped crossing between worlds that morning, disabling the levers. She leads the children to her family's house, where her parents and household staff sit tied to chairs at their own request because they cannot resist the pull of a covered TV. The children learn that coins protect only children from the TVs, not adults. Finn proposes a breakthrough: if TVs can deliver evil messages, they can deliver good ones too. The children drive to the country's only TV station, where Finn addresses the nation, telling viewers their leaders have been lying and urging everyone to go outside and look at the sky.

The broadcast briefly works. On security footage, Emma spots a man dropping coins during the moment of independent thought. Rocky recognizes his father's alternate-world double, whom Finn nicknames Gus. Gus confirms he created the Greystones' lever and reveals that Andrew and Kate Greystone inspired the entire coin movement. He explains that corrupt leaders fuel their power by draining the mental energy of citizens under TV control; when people briefly thought for themselves, the disruption allowed coins to pass between worlds.

The children fill Gus's car with mountains of recorded coins from a hidden basement beneath the alternate-world Cuckoo Clock building and head toward a nearby stadium, where a giant screen displays captured resistance members and labels them enemies. They devise a coordinated plan: Some children will dump buckets of coins from the catwalk above the screen while Emma and Kona use the lever at the Cuckoo Clock building. The coins cascade down the screen and vanish, passing through to the other world. But the Mayor steps through the tunnel from the other side, smiling.

In the stadium, Lana's complete set of coins reaches her double, Other-Lana, in the better world. Other-Lana appears holding a fused stack of coins shaped like a wand; receiving the full set and pledging to help activated the passage. Hundreds of doubles from the better world materialize throughout the stadium, each pair activated by a complete set of coins. People stop watching the screen and begin talking to their doubles. The screen falls silent.

At the Cuckoo Clock building, Emma notices the stadium speakers have gone quiet and realizes the Mayor's power is crumbling. In the stadium, Finn calls for the Mayor's double to be brought forward. The Judge commands guards to retrieve Mr. Mayhew from the other world; their compliance reveals shifting loyalties. When Mr. Mayhew arrives, the two doubles experience the instant mutual understanding characteristic of meeting one's counterpart, and Mr. Mayhew immediately grasps the Mayor's crimes. Emma tricks the Mayor into activating one of his own recorded coins, and his voice plays for the entire crowd: "I get so tired of telling lies all the time. Just once, I would like to confess everything I am guilty of." Under questioning, the Mayor admits to arranging violence and kidnapping the Gustano children but insists he never intentionally ordered any deaths.

Mom, Joe, Mrs. Gustano, and the remaining children enter the stadium to cheering crowds. All four Greystones lean into the microphone and say, "Now we've got everything we need." That evening, a news alert announces that peace delegations have signed an agreement to end hostilities, arrest corrupt leaders, and hold multiparty elections. In the Greystones' basement, the children discover a new angel carving. When all the children press their coins simultaneously, coordinating with allies within each world, a shimmering vision reveals hundreds of versions of themselves stretching into infinity and invites them to join an "Inter-World Rescue Squad." The vision confirms that far more than two worlds exist, promising future adventures.