She found her way over to her bed and sat down with a sigh. Trinity climbed up onto the bed, then shifted around so that she was sitting on Emily’s lap, both hands around her waist. “Comfy,” Trinity muttered.

Emily started patting Trinity’s head, as if the girl were an oversized, bony cat. She did have very soft little ears. There were . . . a lot of things to take care of. A whole heap of them, really. Emily wasn’t sure where to even start.

Still, things were relatively quiet, and she enjoyed quiet—quiet was good.

“We need to get you a costume,” Emily said absently.

Trinity gasped and looked up at Emily, eyes wide and almost glowing with excitement. “Can I be a bandit?”

“A . . . bandit?” Emily asked. “Like, the house-robbing kind?”

Trinity nodded. “Bandits are cool because they find all sorts of things. I can be a great bandit. With a big bag to put all the things I find in.”

Emily paused in her patting of Trinity’s head to rub at the bridge of her nose. “You know what? We’ll see.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

Costume Shopping

Emily had a bit of money. Not a ton, not even enough to make anyone suspicious, but enough to get by for a little week or two. Maybe.

Having a . . . significant number more mouths to feed made that bit of cash pretty meaningless.

Still, she felt that her sisters deserved a break, and they were going out to have some fun. Costume shopping was a nice, calming way to spend the day.

They paused by a corner store, and Emily splurged a little on six slushies. She regretted it as soon as the last one was out of her hands and being slurped up by a Trinity who was already shaking with the start of a sugar high.

A problem for later. Maybe if she walked around enough, her three(ish) sisters would be able to bleed off some of that energy by the afternoon. “Right! On to the costume shop!” Emily said.

She couldn’t help but hold back a smile as her squadron of little sisters formed up around her. Teddy, of course, took the lead, marching ahead and walking as if she was about three feet taller and owned the entire sidewalk.

Athena kept to Emily’s side, one hand hanging on to Emily’s while she tried hard not to look like she was observing everything around them. Emily hoped no one noticed the way Athena’s head would turn too far when she was looking at something behind them.

And Trinity walked next to Emily—and ahead of her, and behind her too. The raccoon girl wasn’t wandering around too much, not while occupied by her slushie. It was a little weird to hear three straws being slurped at exactly the same time, but Emily figured anyone passing by who heard that would dismiss it as coincidence.