“I think we got those monsters all riled up,” Jia said. “A few of them tried to grab for us while Rachel floated us down, before we worked out where you’d gone.”

“Floated you?” Fort said to Rachel. “I knew you could make tornados, but I didn’t know you could fly.”

“We’ve had an interesting few days, me and Jia,” Rachel said. “I’ll tell you about it when you’ve apologized to me a few thousand times.”

“Anyway, that’s how we got here,” Gabriel said, clapping Fort’s shoulder. “And now that we’re all together—”

“You can leave together,” Fort finished for him. “You can’t be here! If you stay, then… then bad things happen, okay? I know it for a fact. Cyrus—”

“Cyrus told us, too,” Jia said. “Both what would happen if we came… or if you went alone.”

“Yeah, nice try,” Rachel said, glaring at him. “You think you’re just going to leave us behind and get trapped here forever? We’d just spend the next few weeks trying to get you out, and probably all die trying.”

“So, what, then?” Fort said. “You all just planned on showing up and carrying me back home, whether I wanted to go or not?”

“We should,” Rachel said. “You deserve it. But first, we’re going to do this.” She leaned down and set her fireballs against the book of Summoning.

Fort started to stop her, but then paused and changed his mind. After everything he’d done, and now putting his friends in danger, this might be the right move. Besides, now there really was no way the Old Ones could get ahold of it.

“We, uh, never said we’d be doing that,” Gabriel said, his voice low as he stared at Rachel.

“I don’t remember needing to ask your permission,” Rachel said, glaring at him.

“Rachel,” Jia said, and began whispering to the other girl as Rachel tried waving her off.

“Fort,” Gabriel said, turning back to him, though he still seemed annoyed about the book. “We talked about it, and we’re with you,” he said. “But none of us are going to get ‘lost’ here, or whatever Cyrus said. Because I have a plan.”

“Oh, a plan,” Fort said. “Those have gone so well for us in the past.”

“Yeah, but this one Cyrus told me would work,” Gabriel said. “But he also told me if I told any of you, that you’d mess it up, so I have to keep it to myself.”

“Yeah, we didn’t buy that either,” Jia said as Rachel shook her head. “Still, we can’t leave your dad here, Fort.”

Fort just stared at his roommate in confusion. “What could you do that would get us all home safely that none of the rest of us thought of? Cyrus told me that there was no way, that it didn’t matter what we did.”