I stared after it, desperate to understand what had just happened.

A broken sob sounded from beside me. I turned to Ellison, the real Ellison, and threw myself over the table rubble to get to her. As soon as I gathered her into my arms, she gasped as if she'd just won a race with her own shadow. My sister, always so logical and stoic, almost always wore her emotions internally. An ache speared hot and sharp through my chest that she had gone through this.

She pulled ...