“Come on. You can’t second that.”

“Because I’m not an official team member?”

“Because I don’t want to stop now. There are people I can talk to, things I can arrange.”

“Like?” Sveta asked.

I spread my hands. “I don’t know, the—”

“You don’t know,” Sveta cut me off.

“You didn’t let me finish.”

She paused, waiting.

And I apparently took a second too long to formulate my thought. She tilted her head a bit, giving me a ‘mom’ look. Except it wasn’t really my mom’s sort of look, at least not before her head injury. None of the exasperated affection. My mother was too… collected to be that exasperated.

“Where are we resting?” I asked.

“My house,” Rain said. “This way. White house, with a big white stable, in case you’re looking for it in better light.”

I thought of what I’d seen on the screen. People are fighting tooth and nail right this very second. Dying. Homes are being destroyed. World-ending threats are inching toward completion.

I followed them.

⊙

Uncomfortable dreams stirred me from my nap. I looked at the clock.

I’d had my eyes closed for what felt like seconds, but I’d dreamed.

Sveta’s coat was hanging on the peg by the door. Lights were on elsewhere, in a room I couldn’t see from where I slept, and I could hear the low murmur of conversation. I slept on Rain’s old couch. Across the room, Kenzie was curled up in a loveseat, blankets piled high over her, headphones on. A phone screen glowed, but she didn’t look at it.

A projected figure sat by her. A man with dark brown skin and no face, a book on his lap, like a ghost. From the headphones she wore, I imagined it was a book on tape, reciting from whatever he was supposed to be holding.

We were all just trying to deal.

I felt the disorientation of going to sleep in the dark and waking up in the dark. I could see a number on a radio or device above the television, reading 9:20, and for a moment I couldn’t figure out if it was evening or morning.

But there was other disorientation, other unease. I put my hand out—a forcefield hand, and it felt, without tactile sensation but with an awareness that wasn’t human, like it was unsteady. Uneasy.

Like if I could sleep, if I let my guard down, I’d lose it.

I focused for long minutes on steadying it, getting it even again, until I felt comfortable with how it would move if I asked it to move.

Then I exhaled.

In roughly an hour, Rain sleeps.