“I can’t possibly—”

Mia cut her off with a lifted hand. “How do you know unless you try? Concentrate.” She stepped behind Nell, laid her hands on Nell’s shoulders. “There’s light inside you, and heat, energy. You know it. Bring it together. Feel it. It’s like a tingling in the belly, and it rises toward the heart. It spreads up, fills you.”

Gently, she put her hands under Nell’s arms, lifting them. “It runs under your skin, like a river, flows down your arms, to your fingertips. Let it come. It’s time.”

While they worked, Ripley watched. There was something lovely about it in a strange way. Something like watching Mia balance Nell on her first two-wheeler, offering encouragement, keeping pace, building confidence.

The first time wasn’t easy on student or teacher, she knew. Nell’s face was sheened with the sweat of effort. The muscles in her arms trembled.

The clearing, never completely silent, seemed to vibrate. The air here, never completely still, sighed.

There was a faint and fitful spark. When Nell would have leaped back, Mia was there, holding her in place, her quiet and steady encouragement like a chant.

Another spark, stronger.

Ripley watched Mia step back, leaving her little sister wobbling on two wheels, solo. Despising the weakness, Ripley felt tears, pure sentiment, gather in her eyes. And a little spurt of pride as Nell’s fire shimmered to life.

For the first time since she’d begun, Nell felt the beat of her own heart, the rise and fall of her own chest. Power, bright as silver, pumped through her blood.

“It’s better than losing your virginity. It’s beautiful, and bright,” she whispered. “Nothing will ever be the same for me again.”

She turned, full of joy. But Mia was no longer looking at her, but at Ripley.

“We need three.”

Furious, Ripley refused to let the tears fall. “You won’t get the third from me.”

Mia had seen the tears, and understood them. She also understood Ripley. “Very well.” To Nell she said, “She probably can’t do it anymore.”

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do,” Ripley piped up.

“It’d be hard for her to find that out, especially after watching you do so well, after such a short time.”

“And stop talking like I’m not here. I hate that.”

“Why are you here?” Mia asked with annoyance. “Nell and I can make the third together.” Which had been Mia’s plan before she’d seen Ripley at the door. “We certainly don’t need you and your pathetic, rusty attempts. She was never as good as me,” she said to Nell. “It always infuriated her that what came so easily to me was such an effort for her.”

“I was every bit as good as you.”

“Hardly.”

“Better.”

Ah, Mia thought. Ripley never could turn down a challenge. “Prove it.”