I nursed you on snowmelt and gutter run-off. Those hallmarks of spring, when dead things blink awake and the hard glint of ice begins to spoil.

You know me as the first tree regrower. We’ve repaired all the damage that has been done by the Evanescent City. Tomorrow, you will go there.

Didnthappendidnthappendidnthappen did not Hiding under the bed wasn’t working as well as it used to. Cade’s bed at home had been bigger and they could get all the way back against the wall and be blanketed in darkness.

When I first saw her, she was a suggestion lurking amid the seaweed. Back then, she had little-girl fingers like mine, shyly tickling my feet to get my attention.

Long lean legs, a tongue dripping with hot saliva, tail held arrow straight. The timber wolf stands at the edge of the trees almost, but not quite, hidden from me by the penumbral pines.