“It is. I didn’t know things would be like this. I’m still your Patrolman—”

“Just don’t.” I rolled my eyes.

“—and I know that because my heart turned to a frostbitten ice-block when the intersects closed and you weren’t in Winter anymore.”

“What a poetic sonnet.” I shook my head and began to pace, but I stole a peek at him when he shut his eyes.

“I need you to forgive me,” he whispered.

“You’re going to have to be more specific. Exactly which thing are you asking for forgiveness for, Eliot? Lying to me since the day you showed up at my school? Trying to get Zane killed by a snowsquatch? Luring me to the Red Kingdom where Quinten was waiting? Letting me get thrown into that horrible forest?” My voice shrieked by the end. “You were my friend! I don’t have a lot of those, but I actually cared about you. And it was all fake.”

“It wasn’t all fake.” His eyes flew open. “Ragnashuck, Helen. You were my friend too.”

I folded my arms and dropped my gaze to the hardwood floor. After a pause, I dragged my feet to stand before the ex-Patrolman in the silver jacket. “Are you here to trick me again?” I asked.

His brows tilted in. “No! How can you ask me that after what I just said?”

It was odd, and possibly a smidgen frustrating, but I had to admit he seemed sincere.

“Where’s my sister?” I asked.

Eliot cleared his throat and released a heavy breath. “They’ll be at the Gingerbread Feast at midnight. They’re not prisoners, so try to find a pinch of cheer in that, for frostbit sake.”

“They?”

“Leutenski is with her.”

Thank goodness.

“The queen knows I’m a Trite,” I said. “This cute little act of yours isn’t going to last.”

“It doesn’t matter what she thinks you are. The Evergreen Host is crumbling beneath the Ruby Legion’s might at the border. She’s desperate for help, and the Three Kings of the East have armies. She wouldn’t risk offending an emissary, whether she’s certain of me or not.”

“How convenient.”

“Helen…” Eliot stepped in, throat bobbing again. “I tried to get back to you. Even before the intersects were open. I couldn’t stand the way I felt…”

My bitter thoughts slowed. “What do you mean you tried to get back to me…?”

“In the dead world.” He hugged his arms to himself. “I was trying to find a way across. I know it was a spinbug idea, but I had to see you.”

“Did you?” I stepped in too, my hands falling at my sides. “Did you find a way to get through? Did you learn how to make a door?”