I study him for a moment. “Are you saying she left him there on purpose in order to gain our trust?”

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” Ash says. “There is something they’re not telling us, and I intend to figure out what it is.”

I nod at him. And for a few seconds we sit there, staring at the fire, both lost in thought. In the quiet, my worries drift back to Layla and Matteo.

“You’re stewing about something,” Ash says, and I realize I’m staring far too intensely at the fire. “I’m exceedingly familiar with that look because Layla is perpetually in her head about something, and has been ever since she could talk. You wouldn’t imagine that a two-year-old could stew, but Layla made it an art form.”

I smile, picturing a small and serious Layla. While I can’t tell him what I’m thinking about in this moment, the overall list of things I’m anxious about is long. “I’m not clear about the plan.”

Ash laughs. “No one is clear about the plan. We’ll be lucky if we sort it all out by the time we get to the ball.”

“I mean the bigger plan,” I say. “We find my dad, and let’s say we actually manage to use his knowledge of the Lions to disrupt the current leadership…then what?”

Ash looks thoughtful. “You mean, do we go back to the Academy or do we stay in Europe?”

“Yes and no,” I say. “I didn’t grow up as a Strategia; it’s like my whole identity has suddenly changed and I’m not sure what that means going forward or if I’m even okay with it.”

“You were always Strategia,” Ash says.

“Yeah, but I didn’t know that,” I say.

“Yes you did.” He sounds so confident that I look at him sideways. “You didn’t have a word for what you were, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t know deep down. You’ve told me multiple times that you always loved knives and swords, that you loved strategy games, that your dad went out of his way to challenge you and teach you survival tactics. You weren’t raised with stuffy history tutors like me and Layla and you weren’t sent to spar with the estate guards while your parents critiqued you, but you learned what you needed to all the same. You haven’t suddenly changed. You’ve just been given context and a word for your identity. And I get that it must be an adjustment, but you’re just as much Strategia as you’ve always been.”

I open my mouth to argue, then close it.

The corners of Ash’s mouth turn slightly upward. “See, even you agree.”

I smirk. “You think you’re so clever.”

“That’s because I am so clever,” he says with a sly grin.

“And humble,” I say.