“I think whatever is happening to you is also happening to her. I need to find her before—” She didn’t need to finish her thought. Finn’s future was staring her in the face.

The starlings on the roof started chittering. Nora slowly flexed her fingers and took hold of Zadie’s arm. “She’s asking to get up,” Jenna said, hurrying around to Nora’s right side. “You take one arm, I’ll take the other.”

Zadie and Jenna pulled Nora to standing. “Where do you want to go, Nor?” Jenna asked her sister. Nora swayed in the direction of the conservatory door. “Come on,” Jenna said, nodding toward the hallway.

The three women inched down the hall of birds together. Nora’s steps were shambling, but she moved with purpose to the front door. “She wants to go outside.” Jenna opened the door and they stepped out into the fresh air.

The hundreds of starlings parked on the roof and lawn were making a terrible racket. “Does this happen a lot?” Zadie asked, still unnerved by the enormity of the flock.

Jenna scowled. “Unfortunately, yeah. These noisy little jerks showed up the same day Nora did and never left. Don’t ask me to explain it.” Zadie thought she caught a brief flash of amusement in her mother’s eyes, as if the birds were not some unexplained phenomenon but an elaborate prank she’d coordinated just to annoy her sister.

“Now what?” Zadie asked. Just as the words left her mouth, the sea of winged bodies began to take flight and Nora’s gaze lifted with them.

Jenna watched them go. “They’re heading toward the cliffs.”

“I can drive,” Zadie offered.

“Your car would never make it up those dirt roads.” Jenna pulled out her keys and nodded toward her pickup. “We’ll take mine.”

TWENTY-SIX NEST

Jenna drove while Zadie rode in the truck bed with her mom. “She likes being able to see the sky,” her aunt had explained as they helped Nora over the tailgate. The road was bumpy, so Zadie kept one arm firmly around her mother’s wiry shoulder as they watched the starlings fly overhead: flap-flap-flap-glide, flap-flap-flap-glide. The light caught their iridescent feathers and Zadie could see not only dark blues but violets and greens, too. It was like staring up into the belly of an abalone shell.

Zadie glanced at Nora out of the side of her eye. Maybe it was only because Nora couldn’t talk back, but she suddenly felt the urge to get something off her chest. “Remember that big fight we had the day before you left? The one at the festival?”

Nora blinked.

“No, of course you don’t. Well, I said some pretty mean stuff, stuff I shouldn’t have said.”

Zadie looked at Nora again to see if she was listening. If she was, it was undetectable.