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in it. He couldn’t risk you and Russ getting hurt.”
    War? What the hell was she talking about? She pulled away from her mother. “You were so mad at him all those years. Now I know you aren’t real. You can’t be.”
    Elizabeth released her hold on Meaghan, and turned away, her face in her hands. Shaking her head, she said, “I didn’t know. I couldn’t see— wouldn’t see—what was happening to him. Because I didn’t want to believe it.” She raised her head and looked over her shoulder and spoke to someone who wasn’t there. “I need a minute more. Please . . . I know . . .” She nodded. “I’ll be quick.”
    She turned back to Meaghan. “Meggy, it’s almost time for you to wake up. Listen now.” She scooped up one of Meaghan’s hands and gripped it so hard it hurt. “Trust your eyes and your ears. Soon you’ll be dealing with some strange things. Your father was supposed to ease you in, but he got sick so fast there was no time.”
    Elizabeth stared at Meaghan with an intensity Meaghan never remembered her mother displaying in life. “Believe what’s in front of you,” Elizabeth said. “Even if you don’t know why and it seems crazy. Trust your gut. And don’t be afraid. You have power you don’t know about yet. And allies.”
    She pulled Meaghan back into a tight embrace, kissed her daughter’s cheek, and whispered, “Remember.” The world dissolved and Meaghan woke up.
     

Chapter 6
    M eaghan was lying on her side on the settee, injured foot at an awkward angle on the ottoman. She pushed herself up. Groggy and disoriented, she looked around the yard. The dark forest of her dream was gone.
    She fumbled for her cell phone on the floor boards under the settee. It was almost four. She’d been asleep for over an hour. That dream, what the hell was that? She recognized the hollow grief she hadn’t felt in years. For her mother. Waking felt like losing her all over again.
    Meaghan shivered. The porch, now heavily shaded, was chilly without the early June sunshine. She stood up and tried putting some weight on her foot. Experimenting, she discovered she could walk on her heel, avoiding the rest of the foot, without too much pain.
    She limped into the house. She stopped in the hallway bathroom, patted her nap-disheveled hair back into some semblance of its normal shape, and went to find her family.
    Matthew and Russ sat at the kitchen table. Matthew worked on some kind of puzzle while Russ read a cookbook.
    “Hi, Daddy,” Meaghan said, squeezing his shoulder. An unfamiliar wave of tenderness broke over her as she looked at him.
    “I did my homework,” he said with pride. “All done, Becky, take a look.”
    “Dad, that’s Meaghan,” Russ said, not looking up from his cookbook. “We see Becky tomorrow. At the hospital.”
    Matthew sighed and looked up at her. “I don’t know what’s happening anymore.”
    Meaghan leaned her cheek on top of his head. “I don’t know what’s happening most of the time anymore either.”
    Matthew smiled up at her. “Becky’s never met Meaghan.”
    Russ shook his head and put down the book. “No, Dad. She hasn’t. Maybe Meaghan can go to the hospital with us tomorrow.”
    Matthew nodded, then sat up straighter. “Car in the driveway.” He jumped up with a spryness belying his age and headed for the front door.
    Russ sighed. “Half the time he can’t hear you even if you shout in his ear, but he always knows when someone drives up. It’s like Duke and the fridge door.”
    Duke had been their childhood dog. A scruffy German Shepherd mix, by age twelve Duke was stone deaf, except for the refrigerator door. He could be sound asleep upstairs under a bed, but if someone opened the fridge even a crack to peek in, Duke came running.
    Russ got up to follow Matthew to the front door. “It’s probably Jamie. He said he’d stop by with some stuff for you to read when I told him you’d jammed your toe and wouldn’t be by for a few