“It’s where we’re from,” Eleanor added in response to the girl’s puzzled expression. The cobblestone road was one of the ones downtown, where all the shops were decorated to look quaint and old-timey and the streetlights looked like Victorian gas lamps. It was night now, and the lamps glowed with pale, colorless light through a thin fog. There wasn’t anyone around, but that wasn’t unusual.

“Um. Guys?” Pip said. “We have a problem.”

She was looking up into the sky. Eleanor frowned and followed her gaze—and her heart skipped a beat. She’d thought it was the middle of the night because it was dark out. But the sun was still in the sky.

It was just covered by the moon.

“The eclipse,” Otto whispered. The faintest line of light licked the edge of the moon, marking its position in the sky. “It’s still totality. How is that possible? Did we come out in exactly the same moment we left?”

“Time does work differently in the Wending,” the hedgewitch said, but she sounded doubtful. “Was it this cold when you left?”

Eleanor shivered. The air was brisk and chilly, no hint of the early summer warmth they’d left behind. And the leaves on the trees had fallen. They were scattered across the cobblestones.

And they were gray.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Eleanor whispered. “How is it still the eclipse?”

A little hiccup of sadness drew Eleanor’s attention. Thea stood off to the side under the glow of a streetlamp, shoulders hunched, holding the kitten-of-ashes cradled in her arms. The kitten looked ruffled and very annoyed at her ill-treatment, but Eleanor didn’t think she was hurt.

Eleanor knelt down in front of Thea. “I’m sorry about your brother and sister,” she said.

“Why would they do that?” Thea asked plaintively. Fat, glistening tears ran down her cheeks.

“Mr. January betrayed us. Big surprise,” Pip growled. She kicked a rock, sending it plinking into the side of the café they stood in front of. Its windows, Eleanor saw with growing alarm, were boarded up.

“Why are you comforting her? She is your enemy. You ought to dispatch her before she grows wise enough and powerful enough to realize it,” the hedgewitch said.

“She’s a little kid,” Eleanor said, putting herself between the hedgewitch and the trembling Thea.

“What she is now matters less than what she will become,” the hedgewitch countered. “We should eliminate her.”

“Whoa! Nobody’s eliminating anyone! Especially not kids!” Pip said. “I don’t know what kind of creepy nonsense is happening, but if Eleanor says she’s on our side, she’s on our side.” Pip went to stand next to Eleanor, arms folded.

“Why did she say I’m your enemy? Who is Mr. January?” Thea asked, looking confused.