I was five or six, little enough that I could fit in the space between suitcases. There were lots of suitcases because we were always going places. That’s because my mother and father went to far-away places to dig things up – wonderful treasure they sometimes brought back for me, like brightly colored beads and globby coins with smushed-in faces. Sometimes I went with them but sometimes they left me with Grandmother. I didn’t like that. Grandmother always looked at me as if I might be about to explode all over her white couch, which made me feel like I might indeed throw up. She never touched me. This was supposed to be one of those times when they left me. The car to take me away was outside waiting, but if they couldn’t find me then maybe they would send the car away and I could go with them instead. I heard them calling my name, making a game of it like they always did, my daddy calling “Kay” and my mommy calling “Lex,” but then they stopped, right in the middle of my name and I heard my father say, “I hate her going there as much as she does. One of these times Adelaide is going to notice …”

“There’s nothing to notice. She’s been warded.”

“That’s another thing. That can’t be good for her, having all those locks and binds on her spirit. It’s like she’s been caged up. Sometimes, Katy, I swear she looks at me like she’s lost. What if she has gotten lost? What if she’s lost now …?”

I heard my father’s voice crack, and I couldn’t hide anymore, even if it meant going to my grandmother’s.

“Here I am!” I cried. “I’m not lost …”

“I’m not lost, I’m not lost …” I woke in the closet, murmuring the words to myself. The Aelvestone lay on the floor by my side. How long had I held it? It had taken me into some kind of fugue state. Into some part of my past … something about hiding in the closet when I was little … and hearing my parents talking about me. My mother saying I had been warded. My parents had known about the wards on me!

I picked up the stone. It throbbed against my hand like a trapped animal. Like she’s been caged up … My father had sounded scared. As if I might be in danger. Then why hadn’t they done something to remove the wards? I shoved the stone into the suitcase with my winter sweaters.

In the bathroom I looked longingly at my deep claw foot bathtub, but I didn’t think it was a good idea to surround myself with that much water.