I leaned over. Out of the drinks she’d balanced across the tray, the plastic lids had little buttons that could be depressed to show what type of drink it was. I grabbed the iced tea and didn’t think too hard about how Kenzie might know it was my go-to drink. I’d think on it later.

“We checked with each other before bringing it up. Just like you guys probably talked about how you wanted to keep Amy’s involvement with Goddess a secret at first, because it would have been awkward and unnecessary.”

Kenzie nodded.

“That was fine for me. We wanted to figure out if it was fine for you. It needs to be talked about. Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Gotta talk about it. One hundred percent. So long as we’re fair. I know he did something weird and betray-ey the other night, but I think he would have had to have good reasons.”

“He’s always kept things close to the chest,” I said.

“He had a lot of secrets,” Tristan said. “But when someone like him tells you who they are, believe them. He told us what motivated him. He wanted to dive head-first into the intense, powerful cape stuff. He was grumpy about being left out of the visit to the W.H.Q., and he was perfectly happy to be in the midst of the Fallen thing. Now he’s maneuvered to be in the midst of the Earth-Shin thing.”

“I don’t like that interpretation,” Kenzie said.

“Why not? It’s fair,” Tristan asked.

“Because it makes it seem like he schemed his way through it all. Isn’t it better to give him the benefit of a doubt and be wrong, than to not and be one hundred percent worse than we could pretend he is?”

“Honestly, I like giving him the benefit of a doubt,” Rain said. “I know how shitty it can be to not get it.”

“I’m not painting him as the bad guy here,” Tristan said. “Okay? There’s no need for doubts or benefits of the doubt. I’m laying out basic facts. This is what he always wanted, and this is what he was open about, and it’s what he ended up doing, apparently. Going to where the powers are.”

“The reason I don’t like it is that if you put it that way, it sounds like we were only a means to an end, and I refuse to believe that.”

“That—” Tristan started. I moved my hand, indicating for him to stop.

“Let’s take five,” I said.

“Sure. Sorry Kenz.”

“It’s fine,” Kenzie said, with a shrug.