Thisbe gripped her tangled hair, distraught. “I didn’t know,” she wailed. “I didn’t hear you. Where were you?”

“In one of the towers. Locked up. She saw right through my act.” He stumbled over to the window, trying to get away from the emotion, but it followed him. “I told you she would.”

Thisbe grimaced. “We couldn’t risk checking for you. There were dragons everywhere. I assumed when you didn’t come to our meeting place that she’d sent you to the dungeon.”

“Well, she didn’t.” Dev sniffed hard and wiped his eyes on his sleeve, then took a deep breath and let it out. “I warned you it wouldn’t work. That I wasn’t a good enough actor. She—she tried to kill me.”

“She thinks you’re dead,” Thisbe said. “She told us so. I’m so sick about all of this. And I understand if you can never forgive me. I really thought our plan would work. But in the end… well, you turned out to be the sacrifice. You saved the rest of us. And we were all planning to come back, to find you and take down the Revinir just as soon as we could. But then she abducted Fifer and me from Artimé and told us you were dead. And I… I felt like I died inside. You’re like a brother to me, Dev. You’re my family now. I’m so happy you’re alive. How did you escape?”

Dev narrowed his eyes and looked sharply at Thisbe, but he didn’t say anything for a long moment. Some of his anger slipped away at her words. “It was Drock,” he said in a quiet voice so the dragons outside wouldn’t hear. “He saved my life. He’s not under her mind control after all. Not yet, anyway.”

“Seriously?” said Fifer, moving farther into the room. “That’s great to know. Wonderful news.”

Dev turned, realizing she’d been standing there. “Yes.” He looked back at Thisbe. “We have a lot of things to talk about.”

Thisbe nodded. Fifer joined her sister on the sofa. The twins put their previous argument aside so they could fill Dev in on everything that had happened after the ghost dragons had brought Thisbe and her crew to Artimé, including the civil war they’d helped win. Then Dev told them what had happened with Drock catching him and bringing him to the cavelands, and his time with Astrid, and then coming here. He told them about the biggest fright of his life in the river, hiding from the Revinir and the red dragons, and the dread that came with seeing the Revinir return. So much had happened, and their stories stretched on through the afternoon. By the time they were tired of talking, some of Dev’s hurt feelings were soothed. But it would take him a while to build trust with Thisbe again.