Elliot’s face brightened into a stupid smile. “We’re making caramel?”

“No, we are not making caramel.” Ursula was all business in her kitchen. “I am making caramel. Do you know how easy it is to burn sugar? Here, grab me that candy thermometer. I’ll show you.”

They got back to work.

“See?” Dean whispered. “It’s odd.”

“Oh, be nice,” Kane said. “This is odd? Of all things?”

This made Dean smile his rare, sheepish smile, an expression Kane went through great efforts to uncover. Dean’s voice grew more serious. “Speaking of which, where is your crown?”

“Your house,” Kane said. “On the bookshelf.”

Dean’s irises glowed a translucent emerald as he followed each step.

“Where?”

“On top.”

“It’s not there.”

“Check the middle shelf. Near The Witches.”

Dean shook his head, scanning. They kept the crown just in case they needed it again, but so far the reveries had been much easier with Dean helping them out. Still, sometimes Kane sensed something rippling the veil of reality outside the reveries. Things that spoke in chattering drone, like Poesy. Her sisters, maybe. Whoever or whatever they were, if they did come to town, Kane was ready.

After a pause, Dean nodded. “Found it. Ms. Daisy is cuddling with it again in her bed.”

Kane smiled. “Let her.”

Outside, the neighborhood swarmed with trick-or-treaters celebrating beneath October’s final sunset. Two miniature firefighters scampered down the sidewalk. The Others followed, stepping to the side as parades of children ambled past in unwieldy costumes. There were dragons and fairies and princesses and robots. There were ninjas and archers and martial artists. There was the requisite gaggle of vampires, cats, and superheroes, but some children had opted for more cryptic costuming. One such child was wrapped in a cardboard cylinder painted like a can of soup, with nothing but a small window cut out for eyeholes.

“I love your costume!” Adeline said to this particular child as they waddled by. “What are you supposed to be?”

“A can of soup.”

Adeline frowned. The can waddled off, unbothered.

Kane and Ursula hung back a bit, walking with her little brother Mason, who couldn’t receive a single piece of candy without trying to eat it. Ursula’s stepmom had made Ursula promise she’d budget their sugar intake but, so far, this just meant Ursula was eating half the candy herself. Kane was helping, too.

“Maxine and Helena seem to be adjusting okay to being alive and like…back in reality, all things considered,” she was saying. “Maxine is working on a new series. Mythical creatures made out of gems. She and Helena keep asking Adeline to let them remember a little bit more. She’s mostly just been telling them stories. It’s so cute, the way they listen. They say they want to go back, but I told them they had to convince you.”