Geordie gave him a slow unhappy nod. His gaze left Jack’s face and drifted to the place from which Jilly had disappeared earlier.

You were playing music, Honey said to Geordie.

He nodded without looking at her. “I was trying to do something to stop myself from worrying, but it wasn’t really working. I don’t think I’ve ever played so badly.”

“Yeah, well, your not so good is another person’s great,” Lizzie said.

Geordie started to turn, but then something happened in the air above the vortex. A dim glow appeared that suddenly burst into a flare of light. They were all blinded, except for Joe, who’d automatically closed his eyes. It wasn’t that he’d anticipated the flare. He couldn’t say why he’d done it. But because he had, he was the first to be able to see the small figure standing there when the flare died down.

Jilly.

She blinked in the firelight, obviously having come here from a place where the light was much brighter.

A wave of relief went through Joe when he saw she seemed to be all in one piece. But then he noticed something different about her. He took a step forward, then stopped when he realized what it was.

He’d always been able to see that light of hers—big and golden. He could see it as clearly as others took in her cheerful nature. But he could also see the shadow at the heart of it, that old piece of unhappiness that made it impossible for her body to be healed, because that shadow had to be healed first.

The shadow was gone.

“Wow,” she said. “Check out the welcoming committee.”

Joe started forward again but Geordie got to her first, wrapping her in his arms.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m totally okay,” she told him.

“So you put that sick freak down?” Lizzie asked.

Jilly turned so that Geordie still had an arm around her shoulders as she faced them.

“In a manner of speaking,” she said. “He’s not going to ever bother anybody again.”

“And that evil little girl?”

Jilly smiled. “I put her in charge.”

“You what?”

“It’s a long weird story.”

She stepped away from Geordie to give Joe a hug.

“You look so worried,” she said.

“Not anymore,” he told her.

She let him go and went down on one knee to open her arms to Honey. The dog came to her and let her put her arms around her neck.

I’m proud of you, Honey said.

“You and me both. Putting an end to Del’s threat wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was making up for what I did to Mattie when I was a kid.”

What do you mean?