Chapter 14

“He is your familiar.”

“My familiar?”

“An animal guide,” she said. “A lifelong companion.”

“Lifelong?”

My sister, Tabor, had a cockatoo. She got it when she was three and named it Tutu. Not a bad name, considering the alternative, I’d always thought. I knew cockatoos lived as long as some people. But rats?

“It is explained in the book,” Delphine told me.

“I feel dizzy.” It was the magic, the anxiety, or maybe a sudden drop in blood pressure. Did I even have blood pressure anymore? I didn’t faint, but I did close my eyes, and with Mystic cuddled up to my heart, once CJ and the one I couldn’t see helped me down to the sand, I relaxed enough to bring forth another moment I might or might not have experienced before.

* * * *

“Mom?” The hospital room was dark, except for the lights on the monitors to prove I was still alive.

“No. It’s me.”