The doctor was voicing beliefs that Sam had grown up with, but the words had a hollow ring. He felt empty, scoured by despair at what had happened to his sister. Their father had tried to protect his family from the twisting of the Change, but now it was thrust upon them with a violence that tore both Sam’s and Janice’s lives out of joint. Whatever perverse power fueled goblinization had taken his own sister. How was it possible? Sam fought down a scream of anguish.