Alice shakes her head against the pillow. “All that carnage to get Arthur to Call him. People were killed, your mother mesmered and tracked, Sel’s mom labeled a traitor. And Arthur was never going to Call him anyway.”

“Arthur was never going to Call Nick, either, but people believing he was the Scion cost him his mother. His childhood.” I sigh. “No wonder he’s so… frustrated right now.”

“Right now?” Alice frowns. “You say that like you’ve spoken to him.”

“Welllll.” I pull a face, tilting my head back and forth. “I think I have?”

Alice sits up, eyes wide. “Tell me everything.”

“I still haven’t met the guy,” Alice says, “but from what I’ve heard, Nick Davis doesn’t give up on people, no matter what. And if Nick knows you at all, he knows you’re the same way.”

“Hmnh.” I collapse into the musty smelling pillow. “Tell me something happy.”

After a moment, she smiles. “I know how to throw a punch now.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “You do?”

She shrugs. “We had downtime while plotting your epic rescue. I asked Gill to teach me, just in case.”

“Just in case what?”

Alice rolls her eyes. “In case I end up fighting someone or something. She gave me these cool iron knuckles—”

I blink. “What?”

She digs into her front pocket, pulls out a wicked-looking set of metal knuckles, and loops her fingers into the holes so that they rest high over her hands. “Iron. It negates aether, just like Sel’s cuff thing? And maybe a little like your Bloodcraft, based on what you told me about it burning through the foxes, except obviously these don’t burn, so the effect is to a much different degree, but they should allow me to do some damage. I just need to get faster—”

“You have learned a lot more about the Legendborn world than I realize, haven’t you?” I gape at her.

“And…” She smirks. “Samira said I could have one of these babies.” She pulls a small, round black item out of her back pocket. It looks like a tiny hockey puck–shaped case with an unlit LED light.

She thumbs the case open to reveal a button. “An omnidirectional, ultrasonic acoustic device. A ‘Super Mosquito.’ What they used on the Mageguard. It’s targeted specifically for certain types of demons with sensitive hearing and works on cambions too. This one is short-range and only lasts about ten seconds but could be useful in a pinch if we need to knock out some Merlins.”

“Yeah, well, we’re on the run with a Merlin, remember?” I caution. “I don’t want to disable Sel, so let’s be careful how we use that.” I close the case, half-scared she could hit the button by accident. “You’re legit scary right now, Alice.”

“Sel’s scary!” she exclaims. “And he’s a jerk!”