But no one saw her. Once, late at night, Livvy came across two girls kissing in an alcove, one with curly black hair and the other fair. They were only a year or two older than she, and Livvy wondered if this was their first kiss. The fair-headed one drew back at last and said, “It’s late. I should get back to my room. Books aren’t going to read themselves.”

The curly-haired girl sighed but said, “Okay, but that’s true of kisses, too. I’m not going to make out with myself.”

The other said, “Good point.”

But this time the curly-haired girl was the one who broke away from the embrace, laughing. She said, “Okay, okay. It’s late and you’ve got the kissing thing down. Top marks. And there’ll be time for more kissing later. So much time for so much kissing. Go read your books. See you at practice tomorrow?”

“Sure,” the fair-haired girl said, and ducked her head, blushing. Livvy trailed her all the way back to her room. “Can you see me? Can’t you see?” she demanded. “Life is short! Oh, can’t you see? There’s less time than you think, and then it’s gone.”

Sometimes Livvy wondered if she was going crazy. But it was easier in the day, when Ty was awake. Then she wasn’t so alone.

After dinner, which was indeed olive loaf, while he was getting ready for bed, Ty said, “Everyone keeps talking about Idris. About what might be going on in there.”

“Jerks being jerks is what’s going on there,” Livvy said.

“No one can get in because of the wards,” Ty said. “But I was listening to them and I had an idea. No one can get in, but what if you could get in?”

“Me?” Livvy said.

“You,” Ty said. “Why not? You can pass through all sorts of things. Walls. Doors. We could at least test it.”

“Well,” Livvy began, and then was silent. A feeling came over her, and she realized that the feeling was excitement.

She grinned back at her twin. “You’re right,” she said. “We should at least test it.”

“Tomorrow, after Volcanoes and the Demons that Dwell in Them,” Ty said. He made a note in his schedule.

But that night, while Ty was sleeping, Livvy found herself pulled toward Dimmet Tarn again, toward the nothingness of its depths. Every time she thought of Idris, and the experiment that she and Ty would try tomorrow, she thought of her own death, of the blow that Annabel had struck. That moment of pain and dislocation. The stricken look on Julian’s face as she fled her body.