I haven’t heard from the coven myself since that night, but I’m certain Brixia eventually recovered from her broken neck, just as Viviane recovered from her own; and in fact, over the past couple of weeks, I’ve come to realize something. The water sorceress—who could read minds and accurately predict the web of time—had to have known that she might not make it through the ritual. I can’t help but think about how they had Hope pick me up that day, and how she had to reveal her secret to me as a result. I can’t help but think about how the whole idea I devised for the battlefield ruse came out of that revelation.

Brixia knew, or at least suspected, that she would die—and that another water elemental, strong enough to stop the Ascension, would be on hand to take her place.

“So … coffee?” Adriana tries again. “We don’t have to go to Sugar Mama’s.”

We all have mixed feelings now about our formerly favorite café. Gunnar doesn’t work there anymore, but I think about him every time I go in—and it makes me sad in a way I don’t totally understand yet. With a shrug, I say, “Sorry, I can’t. I have to go home and help my parents pack shit up.”

“Nooo, I don’t want to hear this!” Adriana claps her hands over her ears, pouting and stamping her feet for good measure. “I don’t want you to go anywhere. You can’t leave me!”

“I don’t want to leave you, either,” I say, matching her pout. The statement is factual, insofar as I wish I could take her with me. But beyond that? Get me the fuck out of here. “But we’re not moving anytime soon. We still have to find a new place, and my parents need to sell our house—which, you know, isn’t exactly easy in Fulton Heights.”

“Still.” Adriana wraps her arms around me, and we shuffle down the hallway like that. “The friend part of me is sad, even if the good friend part of me understands.”

“How are your parents doing?” Hope asks with a polite cough.

“They’re okay,” I reply, lying through my teeth. My mom and dad aren’t the same people they used to be. They barely sleep anymore, and when they do, they have night terrors so violent that they wake up screaming. Neither of them has been able to talk about what happened when they were in captivity, but I’m not sure I could handle knowing about it, anyway. Almost dying was easier than watching them suffer. “They’re just, you know, super ready to get out of Dodge. Hence all the early packing.”

“I get it.” Hope’s tone is soft. “Do you know where you’re moving to?”