Kane couldn’t face what had just happened, and he wasn’t going to let them hurt Sophia. He hugged her to him as he guided her from the garden. They left the Others staring after, putting the small house squarely between them, as though its new emptiness was vast enough to swallow any bridge the Others might devise.

But as they reached Sophia’s car and Kane took the keys from her stiff hands, he had to wonder: Was she better off with him? Was anyone?

He buckled Sophia into the back seat and drove them home, turning to check on her every couple of minutes. Her eyes were fixed on the distance as though she could see right through this world and into the next. When Kane got her in the house, she waved off the hello from their parents in the living room and climbed the stairs, stepping as light as smoke from a snuffed candle. Her door shut softly.

“Are you two fighting again?” Kane’s dad asked. He wasn’t mad. In fact, he sounded relieved that Kane and Sophia were talking at all.

“We’ll figure it out,” Kane promised.

His parents exchanged a look, then went back to their reading, though Kane knew they were waiting for him to leave so they could talk. He gave them both quick hugs, which he was sure alarmed them, and then went to his own room. But he didn’t close the door. He kept it ajar, so that he could hear if Sophia needed help, so that he’d know if anyone tried to enter their home and erase her memories. Focusing on Sophia meant he didn’t have to think about Helena.

Kane listened all night, until he didn’t even know he was falling asleep, and in his dreams the burning form of Maxine waited. Only this time, Maxine didn’t wait alone.

Helena burned, too.

It was two days later. More than that, actually. It was sixty hours later. It was twenty-three cold glances from Adeline later. It was six missed calls and five voicemails from Elliot later. It was nine notes from Ursula later, each stuffed into his locker and each left folded. Kane couldn’t respond to any of it. He could only count, and keep counting, wondering how much longer it would take the world to forget about him.

And then Elliot kidnapped him.

“I’m sorry for the trap,” Elliot said as he drove them toward an unspecified location. A moment ago, Kane had gotten into his mom’s car, with his actual mother, to head home from Roost. And then, suddenly, his mom was gone, replaced by a teenage boy. Elliot. Kane’s mom’s Subaru was gone, revealing Elliot’s car. It had been an illusion. “A necessary illusion,” Elliot said. “We really, really need to talk to you.”

Kane texted his mom. Grabbing food here. I’ll call when I’m ready to go.