“I don’t know,” said Veevee. “He’s already done things that nobody has ever done to resist the Belmage. I’m very proud of my clever clever nephew.”

“He’s not really your nephew, is he?”

“The school records say so,” said Veevee, “and they’re very official.”

Pat sat in silence.

“Do you mind putting down that wind?” asked Veevee. “You’re scaring me.”

Pat had no idea what she was talking about. Then she looked around and realized that there was a gale blowing in a circle all the way around the clearing. A wind so strong that it was bending the nearly leafless trees. It was making a kind of suction in the middle that had already raised her a few inches from the ground. Veevee was clinging to a branch.

Pat reached out and stilled the wind. “Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know I was doing that.”

“Undisciplined,” said Veevee. “Not your fault, but you really do have to keep the wind from picking up on your moods and acting them out.”

“I didn’t know I was…”

Veevee was looking at her with amusement. And, it seemed, pity.

“Yes,” said Pat. “I did know. But I didn’t notice. It just felt…”

“Natural,” said Veevee. “Listen, Pat. I love that boy almost as much as you do.”

“But in a different way,” said Pat.

“Don’t kid yourself,” said Veevee. “All the ways of loving people overlap more than we’re comfortable with admitting. Possessing, controlling, exploiting—we do those things and call them love just as we act kindly and unselfishly. And call it love.”

“But real love—”

“Do you really love Danny North? You’ve known him for only a few months. I’ve known him for a few years. But the people who loved him most and first—his parents—they were ready to kill him if they had to, for the good of the whole Family.”

“But it wasn’t a good family, so the good of the Family wasn’t good.”

“And which family do you have in mind, when you speak of good families?”

“Most families are mostly good,” said Pat.

“How much do you love Danny North?” Veevee asked again. “Do you love him enough to kill him?”

Pat turned away, her face flushing, because she knew exactly what Veevee meant. What if Danny’s only escape from the Belmage was death? Did she love him enough to set him free from that bondage?

“I’m not saying that’s what you should do,” said Veevee. “He’s showing so much more freedom and control than any other possessed person I’ve read about. But he’s still not free.”

“That’s like asking if you should let someone in a coma starve to death,” said Pat. “If you don’t know that they’re never going to wake up, what right do you have to—”