“For that, you need to take time, and you need to give me time. Let me research. Let me ask questions.”

“We’ve looked at a lot of options and possible power interactions,” Weld said.

“Let me research,” I said, my voice terse to the point that it was almost hostile.

“Then I will,” Weld said. “Okay. How long?”

“A month. Two.”

“Month and a half?”

I shrugged. Already, I felt more like I was buying time to stave off devastation than I felt any hope that I’d stumble on a solution.

“Victoria,” Precipice called out from the other end of the room. “We’ll be outside!”

I twisted around, looking down at the parking lot. “Trouble?”

He shook his head. “Getting organized. I’m going to load some stuff into the car.”

“I should go,” I said.

“Thanks for being a friend,” Weld said.

“You know, if you break up with Sveta, meet a gorgeous girl and break Sveta’s heart again, I’m obligated to throw you into the center of the Atlantic Ocean.”

Weld winced. “Sveta’s dished on my weaknesses, I guess?”

“Hm? Not really.”

“Fear of mine.”

“Through the stratosphere then, so long as it’s ignorance and not maliciousness, but I don’t think you’re that kind of guy.”

Weld shook his head.

“What you do is your choice. You don’t have to stay with her. But you have to be gentle.”

“I don’t even know if I will go through with it,” Weld said. “It’s just… thinking. The idea of making her genuinely happy makes me happier than anything. Even imagining that I might make her sad is making me more miserable than I’ve been in a long time.”

I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Go,” he said. “I’ll go after the Shepherds, distract myself by talking to some vaguely familiar and probably hostile faces.”

Victor and Rune.

I slid the window open, then flew through, heading for the lot. I shut the window behind me, and floated down.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck…

Precipice and Foil were just now reaching the ground floor. I waited for them. Rain indicated the dumpster at the edge of the street. Metal for roofs, fencing, and power tools that had been thrown out, because they’d been made cheap in a time of need and they hadn’t been made to last. He’d spotted all of it when we’d pulled up to the library.

We loaded as much as we could fit into the trunk. Foil used her power to slice some pieces of corrugated metal into smaller chunks.

We climbed into the car. The driver turned on the engine, but he didn’t pull out of the parking spot.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

He held up a note. There was still tape at the top.

I didn’t even get a chance to read it when the passenger door opened.

“Scoot.”