“I need to be there,” Trey insisted when Henry suggested that his presence would become a distraction if he was recognized—and it certainly would be, considering that so many of our classmates would be in attendance. “I don’t want McKenna facing off with Mischa unless I’m around.”

While I was flattered by Trey’s wanting to protect me, we agreed as a group that having Trey cause a stir and possibly draw cops to the cemetery would be a disaster. However, we might still need his help in dealing with Mischa before we got her back to the Simmons house, so he’d come with us. “We’ll take my car,” Violet announced. “We can all fit inside of it. I don’t like the idea of us splitting up.”

There was some debate about the danger of us all riding together, relying on one vehicle. But eventually Henry shrugged, consenting to this strategy, even though I knew he probably didn’t like the idea of Violet being behind the wheel. In high school, Henry had been a big shot. It had to bother him that there wasn’t much of a leadership opportunity for him in our loosely planned endeavor, but I appreciated how cooperative he was being.

And finally, we all came to the consensus that there was no point in discussing our plan anymore. We were talking in circles, and it was after eleven. We needed to start getting ready to head into town, even though my eyes were burning with tiredness and a headache loomed on both sides of my head behind my ears.

“Maybe you guys should, like, call your parents or something,” I suggested, consciously omitting the second half of that sentiment, which would have been just in case.

Violet and Henry looked at each other with hopeless frowns and shrugged, both coming to the same conclusion that I had earlier. It was probably in everyone’s best interest to not reach out to parents and engage in conversations that might turn into farewells, for whatever advantage that might give Mischa over us.

I didn’t dare look over my shoulder at Henry as I ascended the grand staircase to the second floor with Trey trailing behind me. If Henry’s feelings were hurt that I was spending time alone with Trey, I couldn’t allow myself to be distracted by guilt.

Already, the day had taken on an air of mourning, even though we hadn’t left the house for the cemetery yet. Violet had generously washed and dried the black dress I’d worn the previous day to the shiva, and it hung on a hanger over the top of the door of her private bathroom. She had washed Trey’s clothes too, the ones he’d worn since he had escaped from Northern Reserve. Despite both Trey and I being fully aware that this might be the last few moments we’d ever get to spend together alone, we both dressed in silence. Trey pulled on the navy pants and white T-shirt that were part of his Northern uniform, and then wiggled back into the black sweater that Violet had presumably pinched from one of her father’s drawers for him.