“Oh, I never actually planned a suicide attempt. Mostly, my despair led me to oversleep and do badly in class and alienate anyone who might have become a friend. Normal middle school things. I wonder what it’s like for thirteen-year-olds in Westil.”

It took Danny a moment, but then he smiled. “That’s right. That was Loki’s whole project. To keep the Sutahites out of Westil.”

“I get the impression that life there can be perfectly miserable without any help from the Sutahites,” said Pat.

“Maybe,” said Danny. “The woman who murdered the boys’ mother, or tried to, anyway—”

“Her body died,” said Pat.

“Murdered her, then. She didn’t need any little voices seducing her. Nothing but her own naked ambition.”

Pat was silent for a moment. “What about you, Danny? Do you have any ambitions?”

Danny thought about that. “Well, I … not specific ones. I don’t even know what I want to major in in college.”

“By all means, let’s go see the school counselor! You’re only a year from graduation, it’s time to decide where you want to go to college and whether you’re premed or, I don’t know, aviation? Astrophysics? Maybe you can figure out faster-than-light travel, or interstellar voyages, or maybe just the ability to travel instantly from one place on Earth to any other place.”

“Now you’re being silly,” said Danny. “That’s just sci-fi stuff, you can’t actually do those things.”

She clung a little closer to his arm. He was aware of how her body pressed against his.

“I’ll tell you my ambition,” said Danny. “To be with you, living in the same house, raising the same ugly little children—no, wait, your genes might prevail.”

“You can heal their acne for them. I don’t think that’s cheating. Acne doesn’t build character, it prepares you to buy a gun and shoot people.”

“I’m even more ambitious than you think,” said Danny. “I want to have the kind of job where I can break away when I need to.”

“Like Superman,” said Pat. “Somebody needs saving, so you duck into a storage closet to change into your cape.”

“No,” said Danny. “So I can break away and come home when one of the kids needs a doctor’s appointment.”

“Oh, like that’ll happen,” said Pat.

“We have to let them get their immunizations and checkups or we’d look like irresponsible parents,” said Danny. “And sometimes I’d break away just to come home and have you hold me like this, and to remember, This is why I left my Family, this is why I left Silvermans’ … to find you.”

“That may be too extravagant an ambition,” said Pat. “It presupposes that they’ll ever leave you alone. It seems to include the idea that somehow, someday, you’ll get rid of that ugly terrible thing inside you.”