Side? “Are you serious? The two of you are acting like children, and I want to know how he got here.”

She was pretty sure Ash hadn’t managed to stow away on the Black Crow. The ship had been in the Fairmont parking garage since their last trip, guarded by a team of their best Freaks. She’d have heard if he’d managed to sneak in.

A moment passed, and then Roman’s shoulders slumped, reminding Dorothy of a chastised child.

“He started it,” he muttered. But he let his arm drop.

Children, Dorothy thought.

That should have been the end of it. Dorothy thought it would be the end of it—

But then Ash lunged, slamming into Roman and knocking him to the ground. Dorothy turned and found the two of them rolling around in the mud again.

She let her eyes close for a fraction of a second, annoyance thrumming inside of her.

Oh, for heaven’s sake.

The last time all three of them had been together, things had gone just as poorly. She still remembered that moment on the docks outside the Fairmont. Roman and Ash would’ve fought to the death if she hadn’t intervened.

Since showing up in New Seattle a year ago, she’d had this fantasy that she might just shove the two of them in a room together and force them to work out their differences but, now, she could see that it wouldn’t be that simple. She hated the both of them in that moment.

But she couldn’t just let them kill each other. She couldn’t bear to lose either of them.

She waited until the boys had separated, and then she grabbed Roman from behind, using a hold he’d taught her months ago: she merely grabbed his arm and pinned it behind his back, wrist cranked upward to send pain shooting through his forearm. It was a move designed to use an attacker’s own strength against him.

Roman gasped in pain and shot her a furious, betrayed look.

“Ash,” Dorothy said, and she was surprised by the sound of her own voice, low and pleading. “Please. Just go home.”

And now Ash turned his gaze on her, hurt. Dorothy felt something inside of her clench. He looked back at Roman.

“Fine,” he spat. His lip was bleeding. He glanced at Dorothy, opened his mouth like he was about to say something else, and then shook his head, apparently deciding against it. Shoulders bunched up around his ears, he turned to go.

36

Ash

Ash should’ve just asked Dorothy and Roman to give him a ride, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He opened his mouth wide, stretching his jaw again. His face throbbed where Roman had punched him.

“Asshole,” he muttered, even though no one was there to hear him. He was standing on the beach, staring at the anil out on the water, waves lapping against his ankles. The only thing he could think to do was swim out to the anil and see if whatever had allowed him to travel through time the first time would work again. He was . . . more than a little nervous.