It began and ended on the same night.

The moon was a sliver, waning toward its next phase. The sky was clear, and a few stars appeared in the black, straining against the dimming lights of the city.

Sayeva sat on her porch and watched the birds hopping from tree limb to tree limb, settling in for the night. Not with a predator’s eye, but with an absent gaze, her thoughts drifting somewhere in the space above her head. She blinked slowly and turned her head at the sound of a car approaching her block.

Her yard was twice as big as the other Garden District homes around hers, as she had bought the lot to the right of hers after its former occupants chose not to return to it after Katrina. She had converted it into what appeared to be a large green space enclosed by tall hedges; i...

Please subscribe to keep reading.