Geordie and Lizzie were playing a tune on their fiddles and stopped in midbar. Geordie cried out in surprise. He dropped his fiddle into its case and grabbed a stick as he stood. Lizzie was as quick to set aside her instrument, but she rose in silence and barehanded. Before the ground was steady under Joe’s feet, she’d assumed a defensive stance that showed she knew what she was doing. Beside her, a knife appeared in each of the doonie’s hands—Joe didn’t see where they came from. The little man almost threw one before he recognized Honey.

Joe quickly changed back into a more familiar shape—at least more familiar to Geordie. Beside him, Jack did the same.

Geordie let the stick he was holding fall to the ground.

“A little warning next time would be nice,” he said.

“Sorry about that,” Joe told him. “We started to run here from Honey’s den, then decided to just jump the distance while we were still in animal form. I wasn’t thinking.”

The doonie’s knives vanished as mysteriously as they’d appeared.

“I am so ready to go home,” Lizzie said.

Joe ignored her.

“Any word from Jilly?” he asked Geordie.

“No, and she’s been gone for hours. I hate this.”

“You and me both,” Joe said. He turned and asked Honey, “Can you get me into this place where she’s gone?”

No. Like I told you, it’s a closed world And even if I could, I wouldn’t. This is something she wants—she needs—to do on her own.

“I get that,” Joe said. “But shouldn’t she be back by now?”

We have no idea how long this will take.

“But if she’s in trouble . . .”

Remember, Honey told him, we need to have faith in her.

Yeah, Joe thought. Faith. He had faith in Jilly, that she’d do her best. But sometimes your best just wasn’t good enough. You could give it your all and still fail.

What if this was too much for her? What if she was facing something so big and terrible, the only way she’d survive was if someone had her back?

“I need to make this right,” he said.

Jack put a hand on his arm. “No, you need to let go of the idea that this was your fault.”

“But if I’d protected her better, she wouldn’t—”

“And then you need to do like Honey says. Have some faith. Maybe pray, if you have anybody you pray to.”

“This is going badly, isn’t it?” Geordie said.

Jack shook his head. “We don’t know that. We don’t know anything except that Jilly told you she had to go back. By herself. I’m guessing that means she thought she could handle it, because she never struck me as the suicidal type, and the Grace knows she’s had enough crap thrown at her.”