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a little too much.
    Click.
    The bedroom door made a metallic noise. I crossed the room in three strides, and tried to open the door, but found that it had been locked from the outside.
    I knocked on the wood loudly. ‘Um, Mrs. Greenwood? I think the door locked itself,’ I called, pressing my ear to the door.
    There was no response. I banged louder on the door.
    ‘Mrs. Greenwood? The door is stuck-’
    ‘I’m sorry, Avalon. I have to do this,’ said Mrs. Greenwood, her voice breaking. She was standing on the other side of the door.
    I dropped to my stomach and peered through the crack under the door. I could see Mrs. Greenwood’s shoes, pacing in front of Jaime’s door.
    ‘What’s going on, Mrs. Greenwood?’ I said, hoisting myself back up. ‘Let me out.’
    ‘I can’t do that, Dear. You have to stay here until they come.’
    Panic flared in my gut. ‘Until who comes?’
    ‘It was the only way,’ she said. I could hear her crying now. Her gentle sobs echoed through the hall.
    ‘Please, Mrs. Greenwood!’ I called, banging on the door with both of my fists now. ‘Don’t make me force my way out!’
    ‘You have to stay,’ she repeated. ‘It’s the only way I’ll be able to see him again.’
    ‘See who?’ I said through gritted teeth.
    ‘Jaime,’ Mrs. Greenwood sobbed. ‘If I have you … maybe they will give Jaime back to me.’
    My heart sank, and I cursed loudly. The Realm had taken Jaime.
    ‘He’s human, isn’t he?’ I asked, holding my breath in anticipation of the response.
    Several seconds passed. ‘Yes,’ she sniffled. ‘They took him a month ago, but I think they might give him back in exchange for you-’
    I released the breath I had been holding. ‘Mrs. Greenwood, I’m sorry about your son, but the Realm doesn’t work that way. They won’t give him back to you-’
    ‘Then we can buy him back with the bounty money,’ she said, her voice shaking. ‘They’ve sold him, I know it. We’ll buy him back.’
    ‘Do you know who has him now?’
    She sniffled. ‘My husband has been spending his days searching for Jaime. We don’t know who has him, or where he is.’
    I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. ‘Where is Mr. Greenwood? Was he in on this too?'
    ‘I put a sleeping solution in his dinner,’ Mrs. Greenwood said softly. ‘He was … against the idea of handing you over.’
    Suddenly, the conversation Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood had been having downstairs made sense.
    ‘If we can keep her here until they arrive-’
    ‘We can’t do that, Caroline. I won’t have it.’
    ‘Jack, there might not be another way-’
    Caroline had been referring to the Realm, and not Jack and my family.
    ‘You drugged your husband?’ I said, trying to control my anger.
    ‘I drugged you, too,’ she whispered. ‘The milk … the dinner. But it didn’t work.’
    That explained why I had been so sleepy. ‘My body temperature is much higher than the average Mage. I’d burn off any drugs you added.’
    ‘I didn’t think about that. I’d hoped you’d be unconscious, so I could send a message to the Realm.’
    It was amazing, really, the lengths a mother would go to get her child back.
    ‘Look … I know you’d do anything to get your son back, Mrs. Greenwood. Really, I understand how you feel-’
    ‘You have no idea how I feel!’ she sobbed. I heard her lean against the door, and slide down it. 
    ‘My sister is a human,’ I confessed. ‘The Realm took her a couple of months ago. That’s why Jack and I visited you the first time … we were heading to Concord City to get her back.’
    ‘Did you … did you find her?’
    ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘We got her back … but … but she wasn’t the same afterward. They changed her. She doesn’t know who I am, or who she is, even.’
    ‘But you’ve got her?’
    ‘In a way, I suppose. Her memories are gone … or locked away, or something.’
    ‘Her memories? You don’t think-’
    ‘I’m sure Jaime is fine,’ I lied.