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I opened my eyes, but the daylight came in too bright and unfocused. Shapes moved above me. People leaned close, then shifted aside. My lungs were raw, and every muscle carried the heavy weakness that followed silver exposure, only deeper and less familiar.

I tried to sit up. Several hands stopped me. “Easy,” someone said.

I pushed harder. The world tilted. My stomach rolled, but panic overrode it.

“Mom.”

“She’s safe.”

“Caldwell?”

“Safe.”

“Grandpa?”

“Also safe.”

I recognized Jason kneeling beside me, though it took longer than it should have. A clear oxygen mask hung from one hand. His face was pale, his eyes red from the smoke.

I looked past him.

The front lawn had become an emergency staging area. People lay or sat beneath blankets while council responders moved between them carrying medical bags, masks, and portable oxygen tanks. Several windows stood open in Mom’s house. A pale residue stained the broken frame near the living room.

The neighboring house looked almost as bad.

Memory came crashing back. The bang. Glass breaking. The bitter cloud under the connecting door.

I lurched upright.

Jason caught my shoulders. “Stop. We got everyone.”

I twisted away from him and got one foot beneath me. My strength failed before I stood fully.

Jason and Byron grabbed me from either side.

“I have to check,” I said.

“You can barely walk,” Byron replied.

“I can walk.”

Jason coughed. “You’re currently proving otherwise.”

They lowered me back onto the grass. My body resisted less than my mind.

Mom appeared behind them, wrapped in a gray blanket. Her hair was loose, soot or powder streaking one cheek.

I cleared my throat. “What happened?”

“A wolfsbane device,” she said. “Two of them.”

“Smoke bombs,” Byron added. “Modified novelty canisters packed with dried wolfsbane and something that helped disperse it.”

I looked toward the broken window. “Who did it?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“It was the Fletchers.” The words came from behind us. Aaron Carpenter stood several yards away with his parents. His face had gone colorless, and one of the Kipner twins hovered at his shoulder.