“You should go to meet it with Vince,” Sammi said. “Maybe it’ll help us. I think I’m going to need more time. Too much more time. I don’t know if I can do this at all.”

“I believe in you,” Angela said.

“In fairies?”

“Yes. You know I do.”

“You’ve been made to believe. Just like I have.” Sammi heard what she was saying and sensed the hurt it caused in Angela, but she could not hold back. It was almost as if someone else was using her voice. They were her words, her thoughts, but something harsher spoke them. The something I’m becoming. She didn’t look up at Angela, and when she moved away Sammi let out a sad, relieved sigh.

Sammi closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, catching hold of herself and maintaining her grip on the person she knew she was. Her mom and dad would want that, and she was desperate to hold on to reality.

For as long as I can.

She remembered shopping with her mom, her easy, kind laughter and willingness to talk to strangers. Why wouldn’t you want to talk to strangers? she would say if anyone asked. You never know what they’re going to say, and mysteries are important.

Sammi wished her mom could see the mystery she had become. She would likely never know why such a talent had not manifested in her mom, or even if she’d known what miraculous powers she carried in her blood, dormant and waiting. Perhaps Sammi’s heritage had come to the fore because of the situation she found herself in. Exposure to the Kin might have awakened their trace within her, and Grace’s lightning bolts had been well targeted. It was since the fairy’s touch that Sammi had begun to really appreciate the differences she carried within her.

She remembered vacationing with her dad at the beach house. There had always been an empty space there with them, a hollowness where her mom should have been. Whether they were eating breakfast together, sunning on the dock or playing frisbee in the garden, that space had always been with them, making the house seem too large for just two people but too small to contain their grief. It had usually gone unspoken, but sometimes—in the evening when they sat on the patio and her dad had a glass of wine—they’d spoken about her mom, and sadness glittered in their eyes like reflected stars.

When she thought of the lightning strikes that had brought her into the world of the Kin, Sammi opened her eyes and focused on the relics laid out before her.