“Devin Nile of Cobblestone Creek.” I shake Prue’s hand. “Nice to meet you too.”

Prue winks. “I already knew you were Devin. I saw you fall from the sky last night. That’s how I landed in the forest as well, but I was alone. At least you had company.”

“You saw me fall?” I say in surprise.

Prue falters. “Sort of?”

“Prue is a witch,” Tara says bluntly. “She sensed you all coming.”

Sasha leans forward eagerly. “So Olivina banished you here too? Why?”

Tara steps between her and Prue. “Probably for the same reason she banished all of you. Everyone knows Olivina doesn’t like being questioned or threatened.” Tara sits down on a giant sack that says MIRAGE MIX: ALWAYS STOCK UP! “There’s no point rehashing how we all got here. What’s done is done.”

Everyone is quiet for a moment, but Sasha can’t hold back her questions. “So how’d you upset her? Did you break into the restricted section in the library, research her origin story, and get caught?”

The thunder booms and rattles the ship, and a curtain behind Tara stirs. I’m suddenly very aware of a strange beeping sound coming from behind it. Tara’s face darkens. She glances at Prue.

“I led a protest in the Royal Underground school mall over the lack of sorcery classes,” Prue blurts out. “I made a big speech about how it was prejudiced to think a girl couldn’t be a princess and a witch. Why can’t a person be both?” She fills a vial with a purple slime-like substance from a bubbling cauldron.

“Agreed!” Sasha says knowingly. “My sleuthing put me on her radar.”

“I was punished for helping students with their hair and wardrobe when that job is supposed to belong to people like Marta, according to Olivina,” Corden tells us. “She felt I should be working in the metal workshop crafting the perfect sword instead of creating a smudge-proof twenty-four-hour lip stain.”

Heath shakes his head. “I’m not even sure how I got here. I didn’t love RA, but I got tossed out with only one warning.”

Raina bursts into tears. “And I only had two, technically. One was from when Devin led a whole group of princesses to illegally exit a tower exercise.”

“They don’t need to hear about all this,” I say hastily, side-eyeing Tara. I’m not sure I want her knowing everything about us and our situation, especially since she doesn’t seem too keen to offer up her own story.

“The tower exercise,” Corden and Prue say knowingly.

“To be fair to Devin, the tower was on fire, and the princes couldn’t get through,” Raina says thoughtfully. “Devin helped us get free and climb down on our own, and then Olivina and her assistant, Hazel Crooksen, got mad…”

“Hazel!” Prue covers her face with her hands.

“I don’t miss her,” Corden agrees.

“I don’t think everyone needs to trade war stories,” Tara says, trying to interject.

“Before that, Olivina was already upset about this creature care class Devin convinced her to offer that my sister, Snow, ran,” Raina continues, ignoring Tara. “It only had one session because a dragon got loose in the school—”