“Continue, Ember. We all need a good chuckle before Jag cuts us up into little pieces or feeds us to his crocodiles,” Aarya says. “What other nonsense would you like to spew at us?”

“I…” I look at each of them and find that despite this being the lowest point in my entire life, I, too, am smiling. “Thanks, Aarya. I actually really needed that. You’re a good friend.”

Aarya brushes off my comment, but I can tell by her slightly startled expression that the acknowledgment means something to her.

“She used to help me through my bad dreams when I first came to live with her,” Ines says, smiling at the memory. “No matter how bad they got, she always found a way to make me laugh.”

Aarya looks increasingly flustered. “Ines, that’s private—”

“Wow, Aarya, who knew you had such a big heart?” Ash says, now wearing a smile as well.

Aarya’s mouth opens. “I have no such thing. Don’t you dare even suggest it.”

“No sense in hiding it,” Ines says. “Might as well just come out and admit the truth.”

Aarya’s face turns bright red. “I can’t wait until Jag kills us all. Then I won’t have to listen to this crap for a second longer.”

Even though it’s a morbid joke, we all laugh at her absurdity. And for just the briefest of moments, we’re not four Strategia in a dungeon awaiting death, we’re four friends sharing our lives with one another. As I look at each one of them, I realize how much they gave up to be Strategia, how they probably never got the summer nights lying on a blanket under the stars telling jokes and eating junk food, never got told to keep it down while playing Truth or Dare at a sleepover, and never suffered the amazingly awkward moment of slow dancing at a school dance. They’re always focused, always strategizing, always guarded. I sigh, fervently clinging to the hope that I get more time with them.

Chapter Twenty-seven

THE BOUNCER UNLOCKS the door of our cell, trailing eight guards behind him, and everything in me sinks. This can’t be happening now. I need more time. I need…Then it occurs to me: Layla’s not here. She didn’t break us out of the dungeon, she didn’t even give us a sign that she was going to try. I swallow, the blood draining from my cheeks. What if I was wrong about her being the one who killed those guards, or worse, what if she’s been captured, too?