She went back to the mouth of the cave and applied the device. It grabbed tight to her skin, pulling uncomfortably on her eye socket. She held her breath, praying to see her Smartscreen. The message from her mother. Anything. But of course the Eye hadn’t fixed itself.

Pais, she pretended to say through the Eye. Paisley was dead. She still couldn’t believe it. The tears came out of her in a rush. Since I’m pretending already, I’m going to pretend you’re still alive and that this is a big joke. A Practical Joke Realm. But a really terrible one that should be deleted. I’m in a cave, Paisley. On the outside. You’d hate it. I hate it. She wiped her tears with her sleeve. This is the second cave I’ve been in. It stinks like rotten eggs in here. And there are noises. Weird draggy noises, like something is dragging? But the first cave wasn’t so bad. It was smaller and warmer. Can you believe I have a favorite cave? Paisley . . . I’m not doing so great right now.

Crying had sent her headache piercing through the backs of her eyes and she knew, she just knew the tree thing was in the cave shuffling toward her. She pictured that big stare and the gnarled mouth with all the crooked teeth and glistening drool.

Aria grabbed the knife and darted outside.

Silence. She sniffed and looked around. No tree people. Nothing but the woods. The cave loomed behind her. She was not going back in there.

She picked her way down the slope, overly aware of the knife in her hand. She found the berry bush without any trouble. Smiling, she stuffed as many berries into her cargo pockets as she could and then made a bowl with her shirt.

She imagined what the Outsider would say when he saw them. It would be one word, no doubt. But he’d see she could do better than stay. Aria hurried back uphill, deciding she’d take control over what she could. She was tired of being useless.

She hadn’t been gone more than half an hour, she guessed, but darkness was falling fast. She smelled the smoke first and then saw a pale column up ahead, against the deepening blue sky. The Outsider had returned. She almost called out to him, wanting to brag about her berries. She decided to surprise him instead.

Aria came to a dead stop a few feet away from the cave. Smoke tumbled from the top of the wide mouth like a waterfall pouring upward. Several male voices spoke inside. She didn’t recognize any of them. She backed away as quietly as she could, her heart thundering in her chest. With her ringing ears, she couldn’t tell how much noise she made. She found out when three figures emerged from the cave.