Lily offered to walk me part of the way back to the coffee shop to get my car, and I accepted, suspecting that she wanted to talk about something without her brother present. Sure enough, as soon as we were in the parking lot, Lily blurted, “He looked bad, didn’t he?” I glanced over at her worried expression. Lily was a sunny person, cheerful, animated, with very little interest in filtering. I was starting to feel like everyone in my life had done some sort of bizarre personality flip-flop. “He looked tired,” I said cautiously. “This sandworm thing . . .” She shook her head. “It’s not just that. He’s been different since . . . well, since you brought him back.” Oh. That’s what this was about. I had never actually told Lily what I’d done to Simon, preferring to let him decide, but he must have told her. Or, more likely, she’d pried it out of him. “He was only gone for a couple of minutes,” I offered. “That happens to people all the time, with no lasting damage.”
