Leelo had imagined such carnage when Ketty told her tales, fields full of bloody stumps and crazed animals with red glowing eyes. She’d had nightmares every night for years. Sometimes she overheard her mother pleading with Ketty to stop scaring the children, but Ketty would call her sister a traitor, a fool, and Fiona would eventually back down as she always did.

If Leelo confided in Sage and she “solved” this problem for her, Leelo would be indebted to her forever, just like her mother and Aunt Ketty. She could envision them years from now, Sage making all their decisions for them, constantly reminding Leelo of her foolishness, and the guilt would drag on her like an anchor. She couldn’t imagine her mother ever getting into a mess as bad as this one, but whatever Ketty had done for Fiona, she would never let her sister forget it.

No, Leelo thought as she adjusted her pillow for the hundredth time. She wouldn’t let Sage hold this one mistake over her for the rest of her life. She would simply have to solve this problem all on her own.

When Leelo woke in the morning, she was stiff from shivering. She rolled over to find that Sage had stolen all the blankets.

With a sigh, she pulled them back to cover herself, but a second later, Sage yanked on them again, leaving Leelo more exposed than before.

So that’s how it is, Leelo thought. Sage was doing this on purpose, probably to punish her for missing her Watcher shift. Annoyed, she ripped the covers back over herself, starting a far-too-intense-for-early-morning bout of tug-of-war with Sage.

“Sage,” Leelo said through gritted teeth. “Just give...me...the...blanket!” Leelo pulled so hard she almost fell off the bed. “What’s the matter with you, anyway?”

“What’s the matter with me? What’s the matter with you!” Sage’s auburn hair was tangled from sleep, and her yellow-green eyes were so wide Leelo could see the whites all around.

“There’s nothing the matter with me, except for the fact that I’m freezing because you’re hogging the blanket!”

“Girls!”

They both turned to the door without releasing their fistfuls of quilt. Aunt Ketty stood with her hands on her hips, watching them with disgust. “What in the name of all that is sacred has gotten into the two of you?”

Leelo and Sage began yelling to defend themselves at the same moment.

“Enough!” Ketty shouted. “Leelo, your mother is trying to rest. And, Sage, your mother is trying to start breakfast. Whatever has happened between the two of you, work it out. Your shift starts in half an hour, and no one wants to listen to you bicker.”

As Ketty stormed out, Leelo scrambled out of bed and yanked on her tunic and trousers, her back turned on her cousin.

A second later, a pillow hit her square between the shoulder blades.