The house was dark and still. Well, mostly still, as the spiders that cared for the plants never slept. A faint giggle followed Tess out the front door.

On the street, only Tess and the Rollers were up and at work. The Rollers picked delicately at any stray trash that littered the sidewalks and the glass cobbles, rolling the rubbish into balls, the same routine they’d been performing for over 150 years. Tess barely took notice of them as she walked one block, two blocks, three—searching yards and alleys, in bins and under dumpsters. New York City, which always felt so small and familiar to her, was enormous and odd at four a.m. She imagined it filled with hidden dangers and lurking strangers, ready to take what wasn’t theirs. Finders, keepers, the strangers might say, unmoved by the fact that what they found had been stolen, not lost at all.

After searching till dawn for any sign of Nine, Tess sat on Aunt Esther’s stoop, defeated. Someone must have taken her. That was the only explanation. Someone knew she was special and was keeping her for themselves. Instead of tears, frustration burned Tess’s eyes dry, and she scrubbed at them with angry fists. That was how her mother found Tess—eyes itchy and red, her hands curled on her lap.

Her mother sat down next to her in the pink light of the early morning. “Were you out looking for Nine?”

Tess didn’t answer, simply tracked a nearby Roller as it scraped a banana peel from the walk in front of the house.

“I guess you’re not talking to me yet, huh?”

Tess most certainly was not.

“Okay, you don’t have to talk to me. Maybe you could just listen?”

Again, Tess said nothing.

“Look, sweetheart. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” her mother said. “I’ve called in favors at animal control. They’re on the lookout for her.”

Tess pressed her lips shut.

“They’re searching everywhere. They know how special she is. How important.”

At this, Tess said, “You shouldn’t have done it.”

Because Tess’s mother was her mother, she knew Tess meant that Nine should never have been given up in the first place. That this was the mistake Mrs. Biedermann should be sorry for. “I know you’re upset. But what I shouldn’t have done is pulled strings to get you a license for Nine in the first place.”

At this, Tess gasped. “What?”

“If other people couldn’t get large chimera licenses, why should we get one? It wasn’t fair to use my influence. I was wrong.”

“That’s not what you were wrong about!” Tess shouted.

“Isn’t it? Don’t you think there are other people who deserve a companion like Nine, but couldn’t get one? What I should have done is lobby for new city regulations instead of skirting them for the kid I love.”