Adesina was tangled up in her pink floral sheets, moaning, with tears running down her cheeks. “Adesina,” Michelle said, giving her a little shake. “Baby, please wake up.” But her daughter continued to scream. Michelle pulled her close and started running her hands across Adesina’s wings. That had always worked in the past to calm her down, but the only thing it did now was turn the screams into a horrible low guttural moan.

“Adesina!” she said frantically. She smoothed the cornrows out of Adesina’s face. “Adesina, it’s just a dream. It’s just a dream. Wake up! Baby, wake up!”

But Adesina wouldn’t open her eyes. She ground her teeth, and the horrible growling grew louder.

“Jesus!” Michelle gathered Adesina even tighter to her chest, but it didn’t help. That awful sound couldn’t be coming from her daughter. A cold sweat broke out across Michelle’s back. “Jesus! Baby, please, wake up!”

“They’re coming,” Adesina said in a thick, guttural voice. Her eyelids snapped open, but her eyes were rolled back and the only thing visible was the sclera.

Then she blinked. Her brown eyes stared up, and Michelle could see the fear there. Adesina pressed her face into Michelle’s chest and put her arms as far around Michelle as she could.

My God, Michelle thought. She felt sick to her stomach. It’s finally happened. All that shit that went down in the PPA has finally caught up to her. The psychologist said it would.

Her little girl was reliving that nightmare. Being taken by those soldiers from her parents. The charnel pit. All the dead children. Even Michelle had had more than a few nightmares about that.

“It’s okay,” she said, rocking Adesina. “You’re home. We’re safe here. Nothing can happen to you here.”

But Adesina didn’t answer, just kept crying and burying her head in Michelle’s chest.

Michelle didn’t know what to do. She could blow shit up. She could make it rain bouncy bubbles. She could absorb the blast of a nuclear bomb. But she didn’t know how to keep night terrors away from her daughter.

She hadn’t felt frightened or helpless since her card had turned. Until now.

TUESDAY

THEY HADN’T MADE IT far. Once they were in the hills Baba Yaga tapped the driver on the shoulder, and nodded toward a pull-off into a stand of trees. For the first time the old woman had looked not just old, but frail as well. It was now full dark and the plan was made clear when the guard gave Baba Yaga his coat and she lay down in the backseat.

Franny wasn’t sorry they’d stopped to rest. The wounds in his side and shoulder were hurting, and despite being cold and hungry he managed to sleep. He only awoke when a door was slammed. Morning mist crept along the ground and through the trees and reflected back the light from a small campfire. The guard had a couple of fish on sticks over the flames. The smell of the charing skin was maddeningly delicious.