It was frigid inside the cavern, but Hassan was too exhausted to protest. He also felt mildly shocked—of all the feats he’d seen Anton perform so far, getting Jude to concede an argument might have been the most impressive yet.

Hassan sat down heavily on a rock beside Khepri. She looked exhausted, sitting with one knee pulled up to her chest, staring off into the darkness, chewing on a roll.

He took a breath, deciding how to start this conversation. “Khepri, you didn’t need to come with us just because of me.”

She lowered the roll and stared at him. “What makes you think I did it for you?”

He looked away. She was right—she’d given him no reason to think that. He’d just hoped. “I guess I’m asking then.”

“Hassan, neither of us has slept more than six hours, and we have probably four weeks, at minimum, before we get to wherever we’re going,” Khepri said. “So if it’s all right with you, can we please just hold off on any deep conversations about our feelings and our—whatever, until we do what we’ve set out to do?”

Hassan bit down on a flash of anger. “Look, I’m trying to give you space because I know things are complicated, but I just need to know where I stand with you.”

“Where you stand with me,” Khepri repeated. “Right now … right now, we can be friends, Hassan. That’s where we stand. That’s all I have. All right?”

Hassan swallowed. He could tell she was annoyed—he was annoyed—but there was something deeper and more aching in Khepri’s voice.

“Khepri,” he said. “If you need someone to talk to about what you went through, about what happened to you when the Hierophant kept you captive, I—”

“I don’t,” she snapped. “I don’t want to talk about it. I want to keep going.”

He pressed his lips together. When he looked closely, he could see that Khepri was fraying at the edges. He was, too. He tugged a hand through his hair.

“So that’s it?” he asked. “You’re just going to shut me out because you don’t want to deal with what happened?”

“That’s really something, coming from you,” Khepri shot back.

“I made a mistake,” Hassan said. “A terrible mistake that I regret, more than anything. But don’t pretend you’re blameless.”

“Stop,” Khepri said sharply. “Just—stop.”

“Yes, please, both of you stop,” Ephyra groaned from somewhere in the dark. “We’re trying to get some sleep so if you could go argue somewhere else that would be fantastic.”

Hassan flushed.

“She’s right,” Khepri said abruptly. “Get some sleep.”