Tessa
an excerpt

The first time my sister ran away I was only four, and she was six. I don’t even remember why she was doing it, just that she started moving around our nursery late one night, murmuring things about “the unfairness of it all”, a phrase I’m sure she got from our cook, Regina. Then she took my crutches and moved them to the other side of the room. I sat up in bed, my stuffed bear falling from where he usually rested above my head and protested.
“Sorry, Tessa,” she said. “But I’m leaving, and you can’t stop me. Tell Mama and Papa I’m going to go join the fairies. I’ll make myself a changeling.”
At four, I felt far more worldly than a six year old sister who still believed in the fairies. She was gone, though, before I could explain to her what our brother Landon had told me, and I sat there in the dark wondering how to proceed. If I cried out Mama would come immediately and send Ariadne back to bed, but my sister would probably suffocate me with one of her pillows.
I sat there, my small brain whirling in thought for what felt like hours but was probably mere minutes. I had just made the decision to hobble down the hall and into my parents’ bedroom to let them ask me where my sister was when the sound of our huge wooden main doors closing awakened the whole household. My sister was back in our bed beside me within minutes, with several privileges taken away in the meantime.