“Are you all right?” she asked softly. “Yes,” Angharad replied. “Yes, more than all right. I’m happy. I only hope that you are, too.” In this moment, it was easy to say yes. But Effy knew it would not always be so simple. She would need one pill or another. She would hear the siren song of an oblivious, dreamless slumber. She would need books and fairy tales to build a seawall around her, to hold against the vicious, rising tide.
