“Yes,” he said, setting down his spoon. “I must see them.”

I called for Tom, who arrived a few minutes later. He took Josh into the bathroom, where, from the sounds of it, he helped him brush his teeth and shower.

“Would you like assistance shaving?” Tom asked.

“Thanks, but no.” Josh’s answer came as a grunt.

When he emerged in the room again, he was still unshaven, but wearing clothes more suitable for the outdoors than his pajamas: a thick, thermal sweater and pants, even though it wasn’t cold outside. I gave him a smile.

“Shall we go then?” I asked.

He nodded, though when I moved to take his chair’s handles, he shook his head.

“I’ll push myself,” he muttered. I opened the door for him, and out he rolled down the corridor. I wondered if we were going to have a repeat of yesterday, where he would roll for a bit and then collapse from exhaustion. But although he covered the same distance this time, by the end he did not appear as exhausted. Perhaps he was gradually gaining strength in his arms.

He allowed me to push him into the elevator. We descended to the ground floor and exited the hospital, emerging in the sunflower meadow. As I breathed in the fragrant morning air, I couldn’t help but steal a glance at him. His eyes were wide, bright and alert.

I pushed him until the end of the meadow and then along the path through the woods. Soon we spotted a group of human fourth-graders on their way to school.

“Those are pupils of The Shade’s school,” I explained as I caught him looking at them.

“Did you go to school here?” he asked.

“I still do,” I replied. “But I’ve been given some time off…” So I can look after you.

Nearing the courtyard outside the Sanctuary, I was surprised to spot Victoria sitting alone on one of the ornamental stone benches.

“Just a minute,” I said to Josh, pushing him over toward her. Hearing the wheels crunch over dry leaves, she looked up suddenly, and that was when I realized that her eyes were bloodshot.

“Vicky?” I said, frowning. “Are you okay?”

She forced a smile. “I’m fine,” she said, her eyes flitting to Josh. “When did you get back?”

“Yesterday,” I said. “This is Josh. We found him at the IBSI’s base, unconscious. Shayla has been working to fix him and I’ve been appointed as his caregiver.”

I was tempted to press and ask if she was all right once again, but whatever was the matter, she probably didn’t feel comfortable talking about it in front of a complete stranger.

“We’re on our way to visit the jinn now, to ask them about some, uh, medical issues.”

“Okay,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you, Josh.” She shook hands with him and then gave me a hug before I continued wheeling him along the path.

I could take a pretty good guess as to why Victoria was feeling down. She seemed to have developed quite an attachment to that wolf who’d saved her, the way she had been insisting that we go back to help him and his people. I hoped that wherever he was now, he was all right and she would be able to see him again.

As we made our way through the woods, Josh was looking around in quiet wonderment. He let out a breath as we arrived at the borders of the Residences. He had just spotted the first couple of treehouses: Ashley and Landis’, and Gavin and Zinnia’s homes.

“I live in a tree house like that,” I said proudly.

“How did you build those things up there?” he asked, squinting up at the treetops.

“With the help of our witches,” I replied simply. “We wouldn’t be able to do most things on this island without help from them and our jinn.”

As the morning progressed, it really became very pleasant out. A warm breeze rustled through the woods, and I relished the silence, the snapping of twigs beneath the wheelchair, the occasional chirping of birds.

Finally we reached the end of the forest and arrived in the clearing in front of The Black Heights.

Ever since the jinn had arrived to live permanently in The Shade, there had been two main entrances into the bowels of these mountains. One for the dragons, for their portion of the mountains, and one for the jinn, for theirs. I headed to the jinn’s, further to our left, and pushed open the heavy wooden door. We appeared in a narrow tunnel with marble floors lit by glowing lanterns. Jinn typically made their residences a lot more luxurious than this, even the entryway, according to my parents who had visited the realm of jinn—The Dunes. But the jinn of The Shade had toned down their extravagance while here for the sake of fitting in better with the rest of us.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, we arrived in a circular entrance hall which split off down various corridors to the jinn’s apartments. Many of them were absent now, having accompanied the League to The Woodlands. I took the nearest corridor to our right and headed for Safi’s apartment. Safi was Aisha’s older sister, though I always remembered her as the girl who had fed my mother human bones.

I knocked on the door. She opened it after about a minute and hovered in the doorway, gazing at me curiously, then down at Josh.

“Sorry to disturb you,” I said, “but we’ve got a problem we need help with.”

She raised a brow.

“This is my friend, Josh,” I said. “We found him in The Woodlands, at IBSI’s headquarters. He has suffered a severe loss of memory and he doesn’t have any feeling in his legs. He can’t move them at all. I’m really hoping that you can find a solution, just like you did for my uncle.”