She ignored him. “Are Joey and Mason dressed? It’s almost time to get going.”

“Adeline and Sophia got them into their costumes but now they’re chasing them around the house threatening to give them cooties that will eat their dreams,” Elliot said.

Ursula grimaced. “Too soon.” Then she set her attention on the small sugary catastrophe Elliot had produced in her absence. He rushed in front of her. “Do you sift the flour before measuring it, or do you measure it after it’s sifted?”

A long pause followed Elliot’s question. Finally, Ursula said, “That’s the same thing.”

They began to discuss. Kane watched, all smiles. They had all been preoccupied with Kane’s drama for so long, and rightly so, but in the time since they’d defeated Poesy there was room and peace enough for new things to grow. Ursula and Elliot now did homework together after practice. They went on runs together before school. They always invited Kane, and he always said no. He watched them from afar, preferring to observe their growing affection from a safe distance. It was the weirdest, best thing.

Adeline and Sophia had been spending time together, too. Last Kane heard, they were working on a book together about a wealthy girl meeting a scrappy rebel. Kane heard them talking late into the night.

That was a weird, best thing, too, and Kane kept out of it. These stories surrounded him but were not his to explore. You didn’t have to feed every single bird, as Ursula said. Sometimes it was better to trust people to figure it out for themselves and to be there just in case they didn’t. That was their newest approach to unraveling the reveries, and so far it was working well.

Dean took a seat across from Kane. They held hands under the table, even though nothing about them was a secret anymore, and they didn’t say a word. Since they had escaped the multireverie, their interactions had been full of these silent, pensive moments. Dean seemed to thrive in them, and Kane did enjoy the way Dean flexed beneath the self-control. The quiet between them never felt empty, though. To Kane, it always felt full of a music only they could hear, and these small gestures were his favorite dance. It was the most comfortable Kane had ever been with another person, and sometimes he had to remind himself to say so. Like right now.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Kane said. “Like, really glad.”

Dean grinned.

“I didn’t think I’d make it back. Ursula is unstoppable,” he said. “I’ve never met someone with such a knowledge of sweets. Did you know they make sugar that is all big? It’s called ‘coarse sugar’ and for some reason it’s more expensive.”

Ursula interjected, “It’s for decorating. Finer crystals don’t look as good on drizzled caramel.”