“That’s it?” Isaac said. “That’s what we came for?”

“Looks like it.” Alice frowned. “There are supposed to be eight.”

“That’s what my master told me.” Isaac reached in, carefully, and tapped one of the fruits with his finger. “Maybe it’s not a good batch or something.”

“There’s three for each of us, anyway,” Alice said. She grabbed one of the fruits and tugged. It came free of the stem with hardly any effort. “That’ll have to be enough for Geryon.”

Isaac nodded, and collected his own fruits, stuffing them deep into the pockets of his coat. The flower was already wilting by the time they’d stripped the plant bare, purple leaves shriveling into brown gunk.

“I guess that’s it,” Isaac said.

“I guess.” Alice held the three fruits awkwardly in one hand. “Where’s your portal-book?”

“That way.” Isaac pointed.

“Mine is this way,” Alice said. “So. I’ll see you some other time.”

“Yeah.”

There was a moment of awkward silence.

“I really am sorry I snapped at you,” Alice said.

“You told me already,” Isaac said.

“I—” Alice shook her head, not sure what to say. When she was with Isaac, her anger at Geryon seemed a little more distant, but the prospect of going back made it flare up again.

“I get it,” Isaac said. “Just—”

“Be careful?” Alice finished for him.

“Yeah.” He shifted uncomfortably. “There’s something else. I shouldn’t tell you this.”

“What is it?”

“I overheard my master talking to some of his servants. He’s calling a conference of all the Readers. I think they want to get to the bottom of what happened with Esau and Torment.”

“Do you think they have a way to find out?” Alice said.

Alice, Isaac, and the other apprentices had been assigned by their masters to investigate the murder of the Reader Esau. When she’d returned, she’d mostly told Geryon the truth: Esau had been killed by his apprentice, Jacob, at the urging of the mad labyrinthine Torment, whom she and her fellow apprentices had defeated. She’d left out the fact that they’d only survived with help from the Dragon—a creature she’d bound from a prison-book that even Geryon couldn’t control—and of course what she’d discovered at the end, in the magic mirror hidden in Torment’s storeroom. If Geryon finds out I know he killed my father, who knows what he’d do to me.

“I don’t know. But you should ask Ending.” Isaac sighed. “I still don’t know if we can trust a labyrinthine, but you’re right. She’s the best ally we have, and you’re the one who’s in the most danger. I worry about you.”

Alice smiled, and her heart gave a little flip-flop, like a landed fish. “Thanks.”

“I’d better go.” He was blushing, just a little, as he turned away.