Nest nodded. “I know. But it was so, so …”

“Sometimes, I forget myself. Sometimes, all the children inside me come together in a knot and claim me. They want to be alive again. They want to be who they were. Their memories are so strong that they overwhelm me. I can feel everything they feel. I can remember everything they knew. They fight to get out of me, to become free. They need to touch another human being. They want to be inside a human body, to feel it warm and alive around them, to be real children again.”

Her small voice faded away in a whisper, and her dark eyes seemed to lose their focus. “It scares me when that happens. I think that if they succeed, there will be nothing left of me.”

Nest swallowed the dryness in her throat. “It’s all right, I wasn’t hurt. And you’re still here.” She forced herself to look into the tatterdemalion’s opaque eyes. “Tell me, Ariel. What is it that bothers you about John Ross? Why did you tell me to stay away from him?”

“He is lost,” the tatterdemalion replied softly.

“Lost?” Nest shook her head. “Lost how? I don’t understand.”

“You can’t save him. Nothing you can do can save him. It is too late.”

Nest stared in confusion. “Why would you say that? Why is it too late?”

The strange childlike face looked at her wonderingly. “Because he has demon stink all over him. He is already claimed.”

They stood facing each other in the shadow of the overhang that protected the pier walkway, eyes locked. Nest started to speak again and then stopped. There were people moving all around them, passing on their way to someplace else, talking, laughing, unaware. She did not want to draw attention to herself; she did not want them to hear.

The sun broke through the high clouds and blinded her. She turned away. Demon stink? On John Ross? She shook her head slowly. This wasn’t making sense.

“We have to go,” Ariel said suddenly, and she started to move away.

“Wait!” Nest called out to her, saying the word so loudly that heads turned. She tried to look nonchalant as she detached herself from the pier railing and walked over to where Ariel hovered, glancing out at the boats as she did so. “Go where?” she whispered fiercely.

Ariel pointed north, down the trolley line, away from the direction they had come. “Someone is waiting to see you.”

“Who?”

“Someone you know. Hurry, we have to go.”

Ariel moved out to the sidewalk and Nest followed reluctantly. They turned north along the waterfront, passing Elliott’s on Pier 56 and the shops on Pier 57. The wind whipped off the bay, cold and sharp, and in spite of the sunshine, Nest hunched down into her windbreaker, wishing she had brought something warmer.

Her mind raced as her eyes followed the movement of her feet. She spoke without looking up. “Ariel, were you in the building with me at Fresh Start, when I talked to John’s friends?”