JASON STEPPED OUT of the halo of light that came from the dollhouse. He heard the sounds of creatures moving through the darkness nearby. Scaly tails slithering. Enamel claws digging into the ground. They must have been drawn by the arguing. He strained to hear Connie, but she was gone.

“Jason, help me!” Lou called out again.

Maybe Marcus had wanted him to give chase. Jason wouldn’t have come back. Lou would have been left alone with the last two kids—Nina and Rufus—and who knew if either of them were trustworthy anymore?

He had to find a way back inside the dollhouse. But Connie was the one who’d known the way in and out.

He slowed his breath and concentrated. Over the past few hours, he’d watched Connie work her own kind of magic. He thought of the book she’d taken from the shelf in her father’s art studio—how she’d stood in front of the mirror and closed her eyes, trying to will the book into the pocket of her apron.

He closed his eyes and faced the house.

“Jason! Please!” Lou’s voice echoed faintly out into the gloom.

He focused on Lou, picturing the room where he’d last seen her. He imagined all the details he could remember.

1. The blue of the wallpaper
2. The curve of the canopy bed
3. The soaring height of the ceiling

He thought of the few times back home in the condo that Lou had asked him to help her put together a piece of miniature furniture for her dollhouse. He’d never admitted to her how much he’d enjoyed it. But it wasn’t so different from thinking about the maps he’d drawn of Mount Diablo and the ecosystems that thrived there. The building had been like a three-dimensional plan of a place that neither of them could have imagined truly existed.

The air felt suddenly different against his skin. Drier. Cooler. He opened his eyes to find himself standing inside the master bedroom. Nina and Rufus were only a few feet away. Lou was hunched over, kneeling by his feet.

He’d done it! He’d made it back inside. By himself!

“Jason!” Lou called out again. She still could not see him. He sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her, but it wasn’t like a real hug. Where their bodies should have connected, Jason felt an immense gulf. He could not feel her warmth, and he didn’t believe she could feel his either. Yet she seemed to calm, relaxing her shoulders. “Jason?” she whispered.

“I’m here,” he replied. She couldn’t hear him, couldn’t see him, but he knew she sensed his presence. Maybe that was enough?