He had already dragged two mannequins into the hall and was going back for a third. He stood them shoulder to shoulder in the hall. He didn’t have to explain what he was doing. In the dim light, the mannequins looked convincingly and confusingly vital, at least enough to give an intruder pause. A sham army.

Ronan was beginning to understand that Bryde’s first instinct was always to play with his enemies’ heads. He would fight if he must, but he always preferred having his opponents defeat themselves.

“You just gonna stand there?” Ronan asked Hennessy as he and Bryde dragged out a snazzy executive in a three-piece suit, a wartime housewife in a flowered dress, and three cadets in dusty uniforms.

“I can’t touch bad art.” Hennessy gestured to a sailor with unevenly painted eyes. “It will rub off on me. What a way to lose my powers.”

Without malice, Bryde observed, “If I had the same policy about dreamers, you wouldn’t be here.”

Ronan made a sizzling sound as he touched a train conductor’s cheek. “That burned so hot this guy’s face melted. In fact—”

“ ‘The West Virginia Museum of Living History is also’ ”—Hennessy raised her voice to drown Ronan out, the brochure held in front of her face—“ ‘available for overnight birthday parties and weekend home-school outings. Discounts available for groups over three.’ Shit. If only we had one more dreamer, the money we would save. We could put it toward Ronan Lynch’s college fund. Not for going to college; for when he burns one down and insurance doesn’t cover it. Bryde, love, any chance we can pick up a hitchhiker? Another dreamer who will fail you less than I? For a family fun pack?”

Bryde stepped away from the mannequins, dusting off his hands. “Do you want another?”

Ronan didn’t care to think about this. It gave him the same vibe he used to get back at the Barns some nights, when he got trapped in one particular train of thought, where he imagined he and Adam had been together a very long time and then Ronan died of old age or bad choices and Adam found someone else and later they all three were reunited in the afterlife, and rather than getting to spend the rest of eternity together, Adam had to split his time between Ronan and this stupid usurper he’d fallen in love with as a widower, which completely ruined the point of Heaven. And that was before Ronan even got to worrying if Adam made it to the afterlife at all, with his agnostic tendencies.

“Three’s a good number,” Ronan growled, shooting Hennessy a dark look as they headed deeper into the museum. “Burrito’s built for three.”

“You can fit two more people in the backseat,” Hennessy said.

“Not if the person in the backseat’s lying down.”