Alice stepped up onto the landing, hands in the air. Ellen was standing by another doorway, which was blocked by a barricade of books. Her clothes were ragged, covered in small tears and matted with spots of blood. More blood had dried around a cut on her scalp, and her blond hair stuck up in wild spikes. Over her head hovered the white light Garret had called her “halo,” and her hands glowed with the same brilliance. Alice remembered the beams of deadly radiance she’d hurled at the monsters, and swallowed hard.

“It is you,” Ellen said wonderingly. “I thought . . . something was trying to trick me, or . . .”

“It’s all right,” Alice said. “Can I put my hands down now?”

Ellen relaxed, and the white glow faded away. Then, to Alice’s utter astonishment, the older girl dropped to her knees and began to sob.

Some time later, Ellen wiped her bleary eyes on her sleeve. “Sorry. I’m sorry. It’s just . . .”

“It’s all right,” Alice said.

Alice felt strange, offering comfort to someone so much older than she. Much less someone like Ellen, who had held nothing but cool disdain for her from the beginning. But, Alice thought, Ellen had been lost and alone all this time. At least I had the Dragon.

She guided the teenager over to the pile of books and got her to sit against it, then sat down beside her. For a long time, Ellen was unable to speak, and Alice waited, not sure what to do.

“Did you see . . .?” Ellen hesitated.

“What happened on the bridge?” Alice cleared her throat awkwardly. “I did. And I saw you and Garret, while we were resting. I didn’t mean to, I was looking for Isaac.”

“Oh.” Ellen’s cheeks flamed pink. “Nobody was supposed to know about that.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Alice said, automatically, then wanted to kick herself as Ellen’s eyes filled with tears again. The older girl sniffed and fought down the sobs.

“It . . . couldn’t have worked out. I knew that. Something was bound to happen, sooner or later. Readers don’t have friends, much less . . . anything else. But . . .” She swallowed. “I suppose you wouldn’t understand.”

Alice thought of the way she’d felt when Isaac had refused to speak to her. “I suppose not,” she told Ellen, keeping her thought to herself. “Are you all right otherwise? Are you hurt, I mean?”

“Not badly.” Ellen touched the cut on her brow. “I got hit by a rock when the bridge fell apart, and I had to fight a few more creatures before I got here.”

“You should come with me up to the roof. The others are waiting.”

“Others?” Ellen blinked. “You found some of the others?”

“All of them, actually.”