“I do,” Gabriel said, looking up from his burger. “You all had something planned for tonight, but you don’t know me, so you can’t talk about it in front of me. Like I said, don’t worry about me. I’m not going to snitch to anyone.”

“We’re not doing anything that’s actually wrong,” Jia said. “Besides, some rules were meant to be broken.”

Rachel sighed. “Don’t listen to her. She’s looking for her next thrill after trying to take down an Old One.”

“Um, succeeding in taking one down, thank you,” Jia said.

“It was just going to be one last night hanging out before classes start,” Fort said, not sure how much worse this could get.

“Just the four of us,” Rachel said quickly. “It’s like we’re a club or something. No new members until school officially starts.”

Sierra dropped her head into her hands. “You guys are so bad at this, Fort. Do you want me to just wipe his memory of this whole meal?”

Maybe? he thought at her, clueless about how to bring this back under control. And more importantly, they really did need to go over the plan, just in case this was their last chance before Dr. Opps brought the book of Summoning out of hiding. Can you just make him hear a fake conversation for a minute or two?

Sierra frowned. “I was kidding. You really want me to do this? I’m not entirely —”

I don’t want you to, I need you to! We have to have that book if we’re going to get my dad back. Nothing else matters, okay?

“… Okay, Fort,” Sierra said, and he could feel the worry coming off of her, but he couldn’t let that bother him now. “But he’s still wearing that amulet, so you’re going to need to remove it first.”

Ugh, right, the amulet. Fort winced, then turned to Gabriel. “Hey, what’s that chain thing you’re wearing? Can I see it?”

Sierra groaned loudly as Gabriel slowly turned to stare at Fort. “Excuse me?” he asked.

“It just looks like one of the protective ones that Colonel Charles wears,” Fort said, which was true, since the colonel always wore his, probably ever since he heard that Sierra wiped his memory. “I’ve always wanted to see one.”

Gabriel snorted. “That’s what he said. I kinda doubt it does anything. Take it if you want it.” He yanked it over his head and tossed it to Fort, who missed it, letting it hit the table loudly. He quickly grabbed it as the guards turned to stare, and he nodded at Sierra.

“I really don’t feel good about this,” she said. “It’s the thing with Cyrus all over again, and I still don’t like that we did that.”

You’re going to be doing it to Dr. Opps later!