“I know,” says Tobias. “To be honest, it’s thrown everything here into complete turmoil. You should have heard my mom. I almost never see her angry side, but she was fuming last night. I thought she was going to make us cancel this whole bloody visit up here. Luckily I managed to convince her that maybe having a few extra hands wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, so apologies in advance if you get roped in to some tasks you weren’t expecting.”

“I’ve already been made to cut more Christmas cookies than I ever thought I would in my life,” moans Kai.

“You shouldn’t have been so good at it, then!” says Ashley, laughing.

“It’s not my fault I have such delicate hands,” he replies primly.

Sounds like they’ve all been having a good time when what we really need to do is work out how we’re going to find Lake Baku.

“Don’t worry,” Tobias says as if he’s reading my mind. “I have a plan.”

22

We take a seat on the squishy couches, forming a semicircle around Tobias. This is what we’re all here for.

Aero spreads his wings, and the map shimmers into view. “This is where we are,” says Tobias. We all lean forward. The cottage is perched right at the edge of a long, thin lake, labeled as Lake Washington.

River lets out a low whistle. “This is like billionaire cottage country,” he mutters. He’s not wrong. All around the lake are cottages marked with the names of the richest people in the country. Monica Chan and Eric Smith both have cottages on the map.

“Why is it called Lake Washington if everyone has a cottage here? What makes your family so special?” asks Kai.

“My mom found this place. It was just a bunch of rundown old shacks around the lake before. She designed all the buildings and turned them into luxury cottages.”

“Holy cow. Your dad is a top companioneer at Moncha, and your mom is an elite-level architect?” says Zora. “Impressive.”

“Thanks,” he says. He looks awkward at all the attention on his family, so I reach out and touch his arm.

“Where’s Lake Baku?” I ask.

“Here.” Tobias zooms on the map, flashing me a grateful smile. Just to the west of Lake Washington is a much smaller body of water. It does appear to say “Lake Baku” in very teeny-tiny writing. Tobias must have really studied this map closely—and thank goodness for his memory. “It’s about a mile from here, if we cut through the woods.”

“The woods?” asks Zora, her voice sounding skeptical. “Are there like…wild animals and stuff in there?”

“Well it’s winter, so there won’t be many wild animals. But there will be a lot of snow. Thankfully I think we’ve got enough winter gear in the basement for all of us. Ever been cross-country skiing before?”