I pause. I let the scene sit in my mind for a second as another probably-bad idea forms. I was just wishing for a distraction, and now Elliott’s handed me one on a silver platter. And a way to get him out of here too, before he gets any bright ideas about turning himself in to his mom.

I wait until the mayor turns to glance at the opposite side of the crowd. Then, as slowly and casually as I can, I weave between the three people separating me and Elliott.

I reach him. He’s looking straight ahead, laser-focused, as if his mother is the only person in the world. I remember how empty his eyes were the last time he saw her. They’re not empty anymore, but the emotion in them is something too private and painful for me to have any right to name, so I lean in and speak instead.

“Thirty feet north down this road is a storm drain. The grate comes up easy,” I say in a low tone.

He startles, his gaze darting to me. His eyes widen and that painful emotion washes away, replaced by alarm. “What are you doing here?” he whispers, then shakes his head, a tiny flick of a motion. “I don’t know what’s going on or how we got back, but you have to get out of here. She’ll see you.”

“No. She’ll see you,” I say. “The storm drain leads to the sewers, which eventually connect to the mines. Underneath the southernmost part of town is an old hydraulic elevator with a padlock on its back wall. Find it and wait there.”

He stares at me for a second. Then his eyes drop to my arm. To the black veins that are creeping higher by the minute. Something flits across his expression, softening it. “No,” he says. “You go. I’ll cause a distraction.”

I bite back a groan. He has to make everything harder, doesn’t he? Stupid hero. “Yes, that’s kind of the point,” I say, a little ruefully.

His eyes narrow. He knows me well enough to be suspicious, but he’s also remembering how I grabbed that scorpion off him, and how I’m dying for it now.

Not for much longer, though.

I cut off his internal debate. “Good luck,” I tell him, echoing Mirage’s words from earlier.

His whole body goes tense. “Callahan. What are you talking about?”

I take a long step back. I put myself between him and his mother, cutting off the line of sight between them, being careful to keep my own face hidden. Then I point at Elliott and yell: “Oh my God, he’s got a mirror!”

The crowd explodes.