The world turned inside out. She felt her name peel off her like a second skin— Haylo tumbling into the void, Kiss flowering in the thing’s chest. For one eternal second, she was nothing but the space between heartbeats.
That was the first time Haylo understood the name her grandmother had given her. “Haylo,” the old woman had whispered on her deathbed, “is for the place where you hide. And Kiss is for the thing that finds you anyway.” Haylo Kiss
“I take what is given,” it said. “Your father left the gate unlatched. Your mother prayed for a sign. The sheep were… collateral.” The world turned inside out