“Oh, sweetie, you don’t have to stay out here and talk with me,” said Veevee. “I think you’re a despicable traitor and I don’t enjoy your company right now. So why don’t you go make yourself a sandwich or watch something on YouTube? Indoors, with the air-conditioning. Or go shopping.”

Hermia was beginning to think she wasn’t wanted. She went down the elevator to the beach and walked for a couple of miles. She knew perfectly well where the gates were, but she couldn’t really celebrate her new freedom by using gates that were under the control of the Gate Thief. It was walking aimlessly that made her feel free. Something that any drowther could do.

Danny was right. Everything that matters, drowthers can do, and probably better than any Westilian. But the games of power, those belong to us, and when we play, everybody loses.

Chapter 8

8

Pat did not know where she was going. She simply went where Danny was. Ever since her passage to Duat and back, enfolded—or so it seemed to her—in Danny’s inself, she knew at every moment where he was, and could join herself to him, taking her body with her.

She found herself in a living room—no, a parlor—with Danny, two boys, and two adults.

“Thank you for coming,” said Danny.

“When did you invite her?” asked the woman.

“And why?” asked the man.

“I thought about her, and the fact that I needed her, and she came,” said Danny.

“What kind of magery is that?” asked the woman.

Instead of answering, Danny made the introductions. But now Pat remembered them from the Great Gate in Maine, when she made her momentary visit to Westil and awoke her latent windmagery. Marion and Leslie Silverman, Danny’s foster parents. And they seemed to know exactly who she was, which was encouraging—it meant that Danny had talked about her. And had said good things, because they were warm in their welcome to her, though Pat also suspected there was a tinge of pity in the way Mrs. Silverman spoke to her.

“We’re glad to have you here,” said Mr. Silverman, “and especially so if Danny needs you.”

“Though I hope you don’t sit around doing nothing, waiting for his call,” said Mrs. Silverman. “Devotion is fine, but he’ll lose interest in you if you don’t have a life of your own.”

“That’s not an issue,” said Danny. “It’s impossible for us not to be aware of each other at all times, and she carries on her life just fine.”

That was not actually true, but Pat knew that Danny had little knowledge of what her life had been before she died and he brought her back, so how could he compare?

“She’s not agreeing with you on that,” said Mrs. Silverman.