“Right. Of course,” Eleanor said, mentally cursing herself. Okay, maybe she hadn’t gotten around to telling Katie she couldn’t come over—not when she didn’t have a good excuse. Katie would just think she didn’t want to be friends.

Katie traipsed cheerfully into the kitchen for waffles. Jack dropped his voice as he spoke to Eleanor. “This was not part of the plan.”

“I know, I know,” Eleanor told him. “But I can’t tell her to leave now. There’s no way to do it that isn’t completely awful.”

“Being devoured by umbral hounds would be significantly more awful,” Jack pointed out, raising an eyebrow. Eleanor slumped. Maybe this was what Wander was talking about, when she said to guard your heart. Cold as glass, Eleanor thought. Do what has to be done.

Eleanor took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen. Katie was sitting at the table already, piling up her plate with waffles. The pinhole camera sat on the table beside her. Eleanor paused in the doorway. She looked back at Jack, who gave her a nod.

“Katie, I’m sorry, but we can’t do our observations together,” she said.

Jenny glanced up sharply from where she was tending the waffle iron. Katie looked startled. “Why not?” she asked.

Cold as glass, Eleanor thought. “Pip and Otto and I are doing it together,” she said. “Just the three of us.” She said it firmly, and she didn’t need to say anything else—she knew her meaning was clear. Just us, and not you. Because you aren’t our friend.

“Eleanor,” Jenny said in a dangerous tone, but Katie was already slipping from her seat, her cheeks beet red.

“Oh,” she said, looking down at her feet. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I’ll go.”

“You don’t have to go anywhere,” Jenny said, her expression furious. Eleanor flinched and looked away. Jenny thought she was awful. But she had to do this. She had to.

“I’d rather go,” Katie said. “I’m just going to go call my mom.”

Before Jenny could stop her, she stumbled past Eleanor into the hall. Eleanor tried not to notice that there were tears in her eyes, or that the front door slammed loudly on her way out.

“Eleanor Barton, what exactly was that about?” Jenny demanded, a hand on her hip. “Is this what you’re going to be like now that you’re a teenager? Some kind of mean girl?”

Eleanor looked helplessly back at Jack, but he looked as uncomfortable as she felt. She looked back at the abandoned plate of waffles. Katie hadn’t even had time to add the syrup. Her pinhole camera sat next to the plate, forgotten.