But then it all disappeared into nothing. I couldn’t make sense of the glimpses I remembered.

I sat up straighter in my seat and looked around the cabin of the plane. I hadn’t gone to Isarna alone. When I tried to stand up, the seat belt pinched at my waist, so I unbuckled it and stood up too fast and banged my head on the overhead bin.

The man in the aisle seat got up, mistakenly thinking I was heading to the bathroom. But since he suggested it, it sounded like a good idea. The plane ticket was still balled up in my hand, and I surveyed the passengers as I walked down the aisle but didn’t recognize any of them.

In the tiny mirror above the even tinier sink, I saw my reflection for the first time in . . . in I had no idea how long. Above my left eye, the larger of my eyes, was a fresh bluish splotch of a bruise, but my face was pale and sallow. My tangles of dirty blond hair were pulled up in an especially messy bun.

And I finally looked down at the outfit I had on. A large gray sweater featuring a smiling cartoon moose under the phrase Glad Älg, two sizes too big for me, and indigo linen pants that were uncomfortably snug in the thighs and hips. These clothes weren’t mine.

I leaned back against the door and uncrumpled the ticket, looking for more clues about what was happening. The destination was the airport in Minnesota, which could explain why Pan, Dagny, and Elof weren’t on the same flight as me. They were probably going to Oregon, back to the Mimirin.

But why wasn’t I going back to the Mimirin too? Förening in Minnesota was my home, basically, where I’d lived before I left for my internship in June. But I had been renting an apartment in Merellä since then, and all my things were there.

Had I been kicked out of the Mimirin institution, or even the city of Merellä? And if I was, what of everyone else? Had Pan been sent to Ottawa, Elof to Ondarike, Dagny to Ningrava?

Then I finally noticed the date at the top of the ticket. 8 AUGUST 2019.

That couldn’t be right. We flew out of the States on the Fourth of July. I remembered watching the fireworks from the plane, and I could only account for a few days after that. That meant I was missing weeks.

A month of my life was just . . . gone.

I put my hand over my mouth to hold back the frightened sob that wanted to escape. I squeezed my eyes—

My mind instantly went to Pan, lying in a dark room, blood all over the floor. He gave me a hazy smile and told me, “I would follow you anywhere, and it’s worth whatever risk there is.”