“Yeah, sure,” Anush said. “I’ll come back later. See if he needs anything.”

Catarina Loss poured a glass of water for Ty and helped him sit up to take a drink. “You fainted,” she said in a neutral voice. “Sometimes new students take their course of study too seriously and forget about things like getting enough sleep or eating.”

“I don’t forget things like that,” Ty said. “I have a schedule so that I don’t forget.”

“You came to me the other day about the lynx,” Catarina Loss said. “How is she doing? I see there are scratches on your arm.”

“She’s great!” Ty said. “She eats everything I bring her and she’s drinking fine too. How long have I been here? I should go make sure that she’s okay.”

“You’ve only been here a little while,” Catarina Loss said. “When Anush comes back, you can tell him to look after her for tonight. I think he’d be happy to do that. Do you think you could eat something?”

Ty nodded, and Catarina Loss said, “I’ll see what delights the kitchen can supply. Stay in bed. I’ll be right back.”

When she was gone, Livvy said, “Ty!”

Ty frowned at her. He said, “I could feel you getting farther and farther away. It hurt, Livvy. And you were getting stranger and stranger, the farther away you got. I could feel you. But you didn’t feel like you anymore. You felt—”

Livvy said, “I know. I felt it too. It was scary, Ty. I was scary. You’re going to have to write that down in your notebook. I don’t think it’s good when I’m away too long. I think the farther away from you that I get, the more dangerous it is for both of us. The longer I stayed away, the more I forgot things. Like who I was. Like you. Why I should come back.”

Ty said, “But you did come back.”

“I came back,” Livvy said. “Almost too late. But I’m here now. And just in time. Irene is gnawing her way through your door.”

She grinned at Ty reassuringly, and Ty smiled back. Then his eyes closed again.

“Ty?” she said.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Just really tired. Going to sleep for a little while, Livvy. Will you stay with me while I fall asleep?”

“Sure,” she said. “Of course I will.”

He was asleep when Catarina Loss returned with a tray of food, and still asleep when Magnus Bane came through the door several hours later in a puffy scarlet down parka trimmed in black fake fur that came all the way down to his ankles. He looked as if he had been mostly swallowed by a very fat eiderdown dragon.