I told myself to stop being stupid, but after another thirty minutes of trying and failing to get my mind off of it, I sat down the book. We were alone in the house, but I still looked around as I reached for the box. I had no intention of stealing it, but I did want to see what it was. See if it opened, what was inside.

If it made any odd noises.

There was no lid or way to open it, and giving it a light shake produced no rattle from inside. Still, it was much heavier than I'd expected, so I didn’t think it was a solid piece of wood. There was something else inside.

I gave Stoffel a cursory glance, but he was just staring off into space, a thin thread of spit stretching an impossible length between his pajama shirt and his lower lip. He wouldn't mind me messing with his box a bit more. So I stuck it to my ear.

The sound was immediate as soon as the box was close to my ear. It reminded me of the sound a rainstick makes, but much higher pitched. While the noise itself wasn't unpleasant, I found my vision beginning to swim. I went to pull the box away when a hand covered my own and pressed it back against my head even as I heard Hillary speaking into my other ear.

“Weasel. Dish. Firelight. Thimble. Amber. Jack. Chimney.”

By the time I was able to react and move my head, she'd already finished. And whatever she had done, I knew something was wrong.

I looked up at her, my eyes seeming to gain and lose focus moment to moment. “What…did you…did you do to me?”

She stepped back, almost as though she thought I might attack her, but I could barely stand. “Something that I hope will help my brother. I'm sorry, I really am. I wish there was another way, or that it had been that nasty nurse that Elliot first had once he got home instead of you. But I just figured out the words, you see. It's not just the sounds of the words you have to replicate. You have to understand the words too. Elliot, he understood the Ugtatu language. For you, I had to find English words with the same sounds. It really was a challenge.”

Now I considered attacking her after all. She had done something to me and now was patting herself on the back instead of answering me. “Did…you do the pur…purification thing on me?”