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“I’ll add him to my list of people who want me dead.”
    Suddenly, with the specter of Nelson in the conversation, Connor finds bringing the conversation back to Lev is now a relief. “Anyway, Lev hasn’t grown any—except for his hair. I don’t like it. It’s past his shoulders now.”
    â€œI worry about him,” Risa says.
    â€œDon’t,” Connor tells her. “He’s safe on the Arápache reservation, communing with whatever it is that Chancefolk commune with.”
    â€œYou don’t sound too happy about that.”
    Connor sighs. When Connor and Grace left the Rez, Lev was filled with all of this crazy talk about getting the Arápache to take a stand against unwinding. As if they ever would. In some ways, he’s just as naïve as the day Connor saved him from his tithing. “He says he wants to fight unwinding, but how can he do it from an isolationist reservation? The truth is, I think he just wants to disappear someplace safe.”
    â€œWell, if he’s found peace, then I’m happy for him—and you should be too.”
    â€œI am,” Connor admits. “Maybe I’m just jealous.”
    Risa smiles. “You wouldn’t know what to do with peace if you had it.”
    Connor smiles right back at her. “I know exactly what I’d do.” Then he leans in close to whisper, she leans in close to hear—and he licks her ear with precision enough to get him happily slapped. He thinks it might get her off the subject, but it doesn’t.
    â€œI miss Lev,” she says. “He’s kind of like a brother. I never had a brother—or at least not that I know of.”
    â€œI have a brother,” Connor tells her. He doesn’t know why he’s chosen to volunteer this. He’s never spoken of him to Risa. Mentioning his life before the unwind order somehow feels taboo. It’s like conjuring ghosts.
    â€œHe’s a few years younger than you, isn’t he?” Risa asks.
    â€œThree years younger.”
    â€œRight—now I remember,” she says, which surprises him. But then he shouldn’t be surprised at all. The whole life of the notorious Akron AWOL has been dissected by the media since the day he first got away.
    â€œWhat’s your brother’s name?” Risa asks.
    â€œLucas,” Connor tells her—and with the mention of the name comes a wave of emotion more powerful than he was prepared for. He feels regret, but also resentment, becauseLucas was the child their parents chose over Connor. He has to remind himself that it wasn’t his brother’s fault.
    â€œDo you miss him?” Risa asks.
    Connor shrugs uncomfortably. “He was a pain in the ass.”
    Risa grins. “That doesn’t answer the question.”
    Connor meets her eyes, so beautifully green, and just as deep and expressive as their natural color.
    â€œYeah,” Connor admits. “Sometimes.” Back before Connor’s parents gave up on him, he was constantly being compared to Lucas. Grades, sports—never mind that it was Connor who taught Lucas to play every sport. While Connor never had the dedication to stay on a team for a whole season, Lucas excelled, to their parents’ enduring joy. And the more Lucas shone, the dimmer Connor’s light seemed to them.
    â€œI really don’t want to talk about this,” Connor tells her. And as easily as that, his old life and memories of his family are locked away just as securely as his letter to them is locked in Sonia’s trunk.

4 • Lev
    Lev is anything but at peace.
    He’s in the treetops again. It’s the dead of night, but the night is alive. The forest canopy rolls like aquamarine clouds beneath a blue floodlight moon.
    He’s following the kinkajou again, that large-eyed monkey-like creature. Adorable but deadly. He now knows that it is his spirit he chases. It races before him through the