She fought him with the desperate strength of someone who didn’t understand why the adults were taking her away from the only person she trusted.

He carried her upstairs while she called down to me.

I followed them in that impossible, weightless way.

I could see Piper’s room, the night-light shaped like a moon, the little socks lined up beside her bed.

She climbed out as soon as Wyatt closed the door and ran back toward the staircase.

By the time she reached the dining room, the lights had been dimmed and someone had spread a throw blanket over me.

Not even a pillow had been placed beneath my head.