I changed clothes and came back downstairs to find dinner on the table—assorted containers of soup. Someone had added a box of crackers, a bottle of ketchup, bottles of small-batch soda made in Chicago, and a bottle of blood for me.

Lulu was already seated, arms crossed and staring blankly across the room.

“Eat,” I said, taking a seat next to her. “It’s probably going to be a long few nights, and we might need your strength. Have you been practicing with those throwing knives Alexei gave you?”

I was trying to shift the mood from grieving to planning, hoping that giving her a goal, something to focus on, would help dilute the sadness. She picked up her spoon, at least, dabbed it into the soup.

“Some,” she said. “I’m more comfortable with guns.”

Lulu might have avoided supernatural drama, but she had no issues with weapons. Weapons were her father’s magical specialty, so she’d been taught how to use a variety of them. And there was nothing supernatural about an M1911.

I pulled the lid off my container, found chunks of beef in a thick potato- and carrot-filled stew that made my stomach rumble. I could eat, even if the act felt selfish because it wasn’t laser-focused on getting our parents back.

“Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish,” Connor said, as if he could read my mind.

When I gave him a narrow stare, he just smiled. “It was written all over your face, Lis. And it’s going to take time and energy to fix this.”

“Will we fix it?” I hadn’t meant to express that as a question. But my fears were real.

Alexei leaned over, snatched a cracker from Lulu’s plate, chomped it.

Lulu gave him her driest look. “Could you not?”

By way of response, he took her soda and nabbed a solid swig of that, too, all the while meeting her gaze. Then he put it down again, went back to his soup with a sly little smile. He was trying to make her smile, I thought, even through the pain.

“They’ll be working on getting back,” Connor said, and waited for Lulu to look at him.

“What?” she asked.

“Our parents. They solved a lot of problems together in Chicago in their day. And they were already planning on helping with the demon. They may be somewhere else, but they’re researching a way to get back. To reverse what was done.”

“Yeah,” she said, frowning as she considered it. “Yeah,” she said again, this time more sure. “And the Librarian, Paige, the guards. Everyone. They’ll all be working on it.”

That seemed to lighten her mood, even as it depressed mine further. Everyone I loved was either at this table or totally unreachable.

“Maybe it’s Candy Land.”

We all looked at Alexei.

“What?” Lulu asked.

“Maybe they’re in Candy Land. Or a world made of steak frites, theirs for the taking.”

“Dad would like that,” I said. “Mom would prefer deep dish and chocolate.”