How can I fix this? Michelle thought. A new flutter of fear bloomed in her chest. I have to fix this. She couldn’t bear to see her daughter looking so frail and frightened.

“You look like you could use some dinner, pumpkin. I got your favorite—mushrooms and black olives.”

A wan smile crossed Adesina’s face. It looked like everything was a huge effort for her. There has to be a way to stop this, Michelle thought.

“I’m not hungry now,” Adesina said, her voice getting softer as she spoke. “Maybe later?”

“But it’s going to get cold and you hate cold pizza.” Right now she just wanted to get calories into her daughter. She’d try for Mother of the Year later.

Mrs. Klein slid a couple of slices onto a paper napkin. “I’m going to head across the hall. If you need me, you know where I am. Adesina, feel better, bubbeleh. I’ll bring you some cookies from De Roberti’s Caffé tomorrow. The anise ones you like.”

But even the promise of cookies didn’t make Adesina look happy. Michelle and Mrs. Klein exchanged concerned looks. There was a new, stronger flutter of anxiety in Michelle’s chest.

“I’ll check in tomorrow,” Mrs. Klein said, then took a sniff of the slices. “This smells yummy, even with those mushrooms and olives.”

After Mrs. Klein shut the door, Michelle snuggled closer to Adesina. “How was your day? Did you get any sleep?”

Adesina shook her head and burrowed down into her blanket. “Not much,” she replied. “I don’t want to go to sleep again. There are things…”

“You know that you never have to worry about anyone taking you away again,” Michelle said earnestly. “There are no soldiers here—no one who will ever hurt you again. You know I can keep you safe.”

Adesina gave a slight nod, and Michelle knew that Adesina didn’t believe her. And that felt like a kick in the stomach. Keeping her daughter safe was her job.

“But you know there are no soldiers here, right?”

Adesina nodded again. “I’m not afraid of the soldiers, Mommy.”

“Then what is it? You’ve never been afraid of your dreams before. And you’ve been good about keeping out of other people’s dreams.”

Michelle worried about Adesina’s ability to slide into dreams and how she could control them. It was a powerful enough capability that Michelle had tried to limit Adesina’s use of it.

But Michelle had made an exception with Hoodoo Mama. Adesina had walled herself away in part of the dream world while Michelle helped Joey confront the event that caused her card to turn. Watching Joey get raped as a child was something that would haunt Michelle for the rest of her life.

Despite having Adesina protect herself, it had been a profoundly selfish and dangerous thing to ask of her daughter.

“If it isn’t what happened to you with the soldiers, then whose dreams are they?” Michelle asked. She didn’t like the sound of Adesina’s voice at all. A dark undertone that didn’t belong to her little girl.