It was like the story from The Tales of the Gray, and it wasn’t. The princess was born with backward hands and a glass heart—a heart that contained the princess’s magic. Her parents were Stories. They knew they would be taken over by the tales eventually, and wouldn’t be able to protect her. They feared for her fragile glass heart, and so they taught her not to feel anything too strongly. They taught her not to love anyone, especially them.

And so when they faded, and the Stories forgot her, the princess was prepared. She felt some slight sadness, but they had kept their distance from her all her life; she felt no sorrow.

Then came the knight. She rode a silver horse and carried a silver sword and a silver bow. And she, like the princess, liked to wander. And despite herself, the princess fell in love. She loved with abandon, heedless of her parents’ warning.

And then came the part Eleanor was dreading. The knight fought a dreadful beast and won—but the beast’s fangs carried a lethal poison, and the knight lay dying from her fatal wound.

Eleanor knew how it ended. The knight died. The princess’s heart shattered. And she learned never to love again.

But Eleanor kept reading on, and as she did, she frowned.

“Hey, Miss Studious,” Pip said, knocking on the doorframe and tearing Eleanor’s attention from the book. She and Otto entered, both looking as worn out as Eleanor felt. “What are you doing in here all by yourself?”

“Reading. Thinking,” Eleanor said, setting the book aside reluctantly. “Waiting for a perfect solution to all of our problems to occur to me.”

“Awesome. Is it working?” Pip asked. She plopped down into the chair by Eleanor’s desk, elbows on her knees.

“Not so far,” Eleanor admitted.

“Rats,” Otto said. He plopped down onto the bed next to Eleanor, leaning back on his hands. “Maybe if we all frown at each other like we’re thinking really hard, inspiration will strike.”

“As long as there’s no actual thinking involved. My thinker’s all thinked out,” Pip said. She waggled her eyebrows at Otto. “Got anything useful in your extra brain?”

He made a face. “It’s not an extra brain,” he said. “It’s more like I’ve got my own search engine.”

“And what does it tell you about the People Who Look Away?” Eleanor asked.

“Mostly just the stuff we already know,” he said. “Plus a whole bunch of awful things they’ve done to other people. No secret ‘how to defeat them’ knowledge.”

“Of course not. That would be too easy,” Pip said.

“There’s got to be a way to fight them,” Otto said. He stood up and started pacing back and forth.

“You’re the one who comes up with the plans, Elle,” Pip said. “What have you got?”