“Jack?” Matty asked, his voice a tremor.

She crouched and touched her hand to Jack’s forehead. “You have a really high temperature. We have to cool you off.”

“Water,” he said.

She brought him a cup and tipped cool water to his lips as he jerked in swallows. Then she pulled off his coat and looked at the patch of blood seeping through his shirt, his gashed forehead. Her gaze slid to his. “You need a doctor.”

“No,” Jack said.

“I could drive you—”

“I said no.”

The sound of Matty sniffling carried through the room.

“Get me cold water and a bowl,” Ava said to Matty. “Be quick.”

Matty did as she told. With great care, she peeled up Jack’s shirt. Jack felt shreds of his own flesh break free from inside the fabric and he turned to be sick. She held his forehead while he vomited water into the bowl. When he finished, she helped him lie back onto the blankets. She held a cool cloth to his swollen forehead while he shook. He was getting blood all over.

“I’m sorry,” Jack said.

“It’s okay.”

“You won’t go anywhere?”

“No. I won’t.”

Jack’s vision was tunneling. He could not keep his eyes open.

“Help me get his clothes off,” Ava said. “Hurry.”

The dreams came slow and sharp and warm with sweat. In Jack’s head, he woke in the dark and could not find Matty. He sat up and pushed off the blanket and could not see him, and he said Matty’s name and said it again, but nobody answered. No wind. The air so cold, it took his breath. He walked to the door and opened it to that black soundless night, and there in the snow he could see bootprints. The tracks went away from the house and off across a ridge of blue-lit snow until they disappeared into nothingness. You didn’t lock the door, he thought. You fell asleep, and you didn’t lock the door. They came and took him, and you didn’t keep him safe, and he is out there somewhere in the dark. He is in the cold.

Well, then.

You better get up and go look for him.

He sat up and pushed off the blanket. Pain gushed through him. There was a bandage over his ribs. His clothes were gone. He looked around for them.

Ava sat by the fire, watching him. She stood and whispered, “Lie down.”

“I gotta go.”

Her cheeks glowed with color. “Oh. I can help you outside…”

He shook his head, embarrassed. “Not that. I gotta find Matty.”

She came to his side and sat, laid a flat palm on his chest and pushed him back to the blanket. “It’s okay. Lie down.”

“My brother—”

“Hush. He’s right next to you.”

Then Jack felt him there. Curled up on his side, soft breath. Right there. Sleeping like a rock.