Someone pulls out a pack of cards, and we all start playing poker. I picked up the rules from Liam, who would play to make extra cash on the side. Kara promises not to use her powers, but her eagle eyes are so keen I feel like they see into my very soul. It’s Anna’s turn to deal, and as the game goes on, I begin to watch her carefully. Finally, she stops and meets my gaze.

“Are you dealing from the bottom?” I ask suspiciously.

She freezes. “I would never.” She holds my gaze as she very slowly, very purposefully, deals the next card from the top of the deck.

I roll my eyes, and she laughs. “Where’d you even learn that?” she asks.

I snatch the deck from her, not doubting for a second she’ll do it again if I look away. “Liam used to play sometimes, and he’d take me along.”

“Mountebank,” Anna accuses, and I stare at her in surprise. She grins. “You’re not the only one who knows fancy words. It means a person who tricks others for money!”

Nora swats Roy. “I told you to stop teaching her these things.”

He holds up his hands innocently. “I would never.”

“Straight,” Rose says simply. “For once.”

“Straight flush.” Kara drops her cards atop her sister’s with a flourish. She or Rose have won every game we’ve played.

Anna gestures at them. “That’s why I learned.”

I laugh, and in that moment, I feel like a puzzle piece finally slotted into place. Is this what my life would have been if my parents had never left Wick? Had they once sat where I sit now, eating s’mores and playing cards? Mom would have been so competitive, then grumpy whenever she lost, and Dad would have cajoled her into trying again. He’d have been the first asleep, and Mom the last to leave.

I try to picture them there, and I hold on to that image as I gather up the cards to deal again, content to drink apple cider and play cards by the fire forever.

Chapter 16: Anna

I splay Colin’s journal out before me on my bed that night, my hair still smelling faintly of bonfire smoke and my stomach full of s’mores and cider. I’ve been practicing drawing a mechanical pocket dragon for days, ever since our talk in the garden. Eventually Colin will want to add something to the journal, and the first step is drawing an image, one of the few skills he actually doesn’t have.