“No. I’m . . . sorry about Evander.”

“I was right there.” Isaac’s hands clenched into fists, and he thrust them into the pockets of his coat. “I was right there and I couldn’t do anything.”

Alice, thinking of the magic mirror in Torment’s hoard, nodded in silent sympathy. “I . . .”

She hesitated, and he cocked his head. Alice took a deep breath.

“I came here,” she said, “to find my father.”

Isaac looked at her, uncertain, as Alice began the story. She’d never told anyone the whole thing, not like this, from the fairy in her kitchen to her ambush of Vespidian, and her desperate hope that somewhere in Esau’s fortress she would find an answer. There was no one else in the world she could tell, no one else who knew the truth about her deal with Ending, or what had happened inside the Dragon’s book. It took longer than she expected.

When she arrived at her confrontation with Torment, where she’d nearly died, Isaac’s eyes went wide. Alice swallowed hard and continued, describing the scene in the magic mirror and the battle above the Gideon. As she reached the very end, her voice cracked.

“My father . . . tried to give himself up. For all the other people on the ship. He knew what would happen. But Esau and Geryon . . .”

Alice shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She hadn’t allowed herself to cry, not since they’d told her that her father was dead; crying was what you did for someone who was really and truly gone, and she had never believed that. Tears were spilling down her cheeks now, and she was powerless to stop them.

She felt Isaac wrap his arms around her, hugging her tight, and she rested her head on his shoulder.

“What am I supposed to do now?” she whispered. “I came here to find him, to save him. Now . . .”

Isaac pulled away, and she found herself staring into his eyes. The pain she saw there was a mirror of her own.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s the same for you, isn’t it?”

He nodded.

“I feel like I have nothing left,” Alice said. “Now what?”

“I don’t know,” Isaac said. “But we’re alive. You and I. That’s something.”

A long, quiet moment passed. Isaac suddenly seemed to realize how close they were to each other, noses nearly touching, and he flushed and took an awkward step back.

“What are you going to tell Geryon?” he said, after a pause.