He was there alone in one of the pews. A single candle burned gently in front of him. He was wearing a black cape as usual, with a white shirt that had the collar turned up. Effie wasn’t surprised that everyone was in love with him. He looked like an elegant, maybe harmless vampire.

“Effie,” he said. “Have you heard?”

“Heard what?”

“The Guild is voting today on whether or not to bind children. Well, people under eighteen. Basically us.”

“What?” said Effie. “They can’t be serious.”

Leander nodded. “Apparently they had a complaint from the Otherworld. About, well, about you, in fact. They say you’re out of control and they’re using that as a reason to potentially bind all of us. If the vote goes through, then you’ll—we’ll—have to hide. But especially you. You’ll basically be top of their list.”

“But . . .” Effie felt like someone had punched her. Could she not do anything right at all? “What can we do?” said Effie. “Can we stop them?”

“Nope.” Leander shook his head. “Just hold tight for now. The vote might not even go their way. Not everyone in the Guild agrees with Masterman Finch. Don’t worry,” he said. “You’re not the only one on their hit list. They’ve been after me for a long time too, mainly as a way of getting to my mother, but also because of some other stuff. I suppose the only good part of this is that they might bind my sister and do the world a lot of good.” He smiled half-heartedly.

For a few moments the chapel was completely silent. It was a deep, soft kind of silence, filled with the smell of incense and burning wax, and the special kind of light that comes through stained-glass windows. Tiny particles of dust danced timelessly in the air.

“Oh, Leander,” said Effie. “Do you ever feel like you’ve just made one big mistake and then everything’s gone all out of control? Like . . .” She remembered the class she’d just had. “Like in tragedy. I know that sounds weird, but . . .”

“Don’t forget you’re talking to another interpreter,” said Leander, smiling weakly. “It doesn’t sound weird to me at all. Applying stories to life—or vice versa—is one of the things we’re best at. It can go too far, of course. But that’s never stopped me. Basically if there’s a mistake to be made, I’ll make it, whether it goes with the story or not. And you know the worst thing? When life’s not even tragic, it’s just messy.”