“I’ve had to deal with some incredible pains in the ass in the course of my villainous career,” Tattletale said. “Some were on my team. March? She ranks up there. Trust that I know what I’m talking about when I’m telling you this stuff.”

“Sure,” Rain said.

“My advice? The thing you need to know? If I were in your shoes, with the same relationship to that bunny-eared train wreck, I’d suck it up, say goodbye to your little team of damaged, overzealous heroes, and join March’s group.”

“No way, that doesn’t make any sense at all,” Lookout said.

“It really doesn’t,” Rain said.

“She doesn’t make sense. She’s this fixated on Foil, and Foil has barely interacted with her. She actually did you a huge favor, Precipice, getting involved when she did, providing sanctuary, and saving you from the Mathers witch. You owe her and if you give her an excuse, throwing that debt you owe in her face and ignoring her? You will become her focus.”

“Is this your power talking or is it just you?” I asked Tattletale.

“Both. It’s always both, and anyone who tells you it’s one or the other is lying to your face. The powers always tie in.”

“If everything you’re saying is true, it seems like it’d be more dangerous to stick with her,” Rain said.

I respected the ‘if everything you’re saying is true’ part. It showed he wasn’t getting sucked into Tattletale’s vortex.

“Hon, she hunted down and recruited the Graeae twins for a Foil-related reason. I’m certain of that. Let your imagination run wild as to why. Think of the most sketchy of the ‘kiss’ applications of that power, I’m sure Victoria can come up with something if your imagination fails you. Then think of the most sketchy ‘kill’ application. Start with how she can functionally keep Foil alive forever. Then combine the two ideas. That’s when she likes Foil. If you cross her, Precipice, then she won’t like you.”

Victoria can help you come up with something. The words went past barbed to being something else. Bitter, even monstrously ugly if I considered that she’d been there when I’d been eaten alive by acid, and she knew what had happened after. She hadn’t been able to resist getting the dig in, for cleverness’s sake.

Chris had been the same, when I’d first met him. Jessica had warned him.

No wonder that she was alone at a time she was this hurt. There was no friend at her side to make sure she was okay or to get her her medications.

Dwelling on that was easier than dwelling on the words themselves. Things were just a little bit less ‘turn around and she could be there’ than they had been in recent weeks, but nothing was fixed.