“How many tries did that take to pull off?”

“That was the first try,” Aiden said. Darlene wanted to bounce on the spot, but that would have bugged Aiden, so she just clasped her hands together and let the nervous energy jitter through one leg, toe of her boot on the ground, heel bobbing rapidly up and down.

“It’s cool, don’t get me wrong—”

“Very,” Tress said.

Darlene’s hands, still clasped together, thumped against her upper chest, pressing against her collarbone, arms hugged against her body.

“It doesn’t mean you’re not going to get hurt if you get into a fight,” Tattletale said.

“If someone’s going to get hurt, and my friends are there, I have to be there,” Aiden said. “I have to.”

“Do you know if it’s a danger?” Capricorn asked, quiet. He dropped his left arm, the disc strapped to it, dark, and held a phone to his ear instead. He turned to Tattletale. “What does your power say?”

“Nothing clear,” Tattletale said. “And I’m not taking a leadership position. I’m taking a looking-after-the-junior-members position. My power isn’t at your beck and call.”

Capricorn raised his hands, surrendering. His phone was in one hand. “Sveta? Thoughts?”

“We need to help them if there’s a possibility of trouble.”

“I’m not sure. Some radio silence is normal. With tinkerings especially. Except there’s nothing on the phone either.”

“Phones being down sometimes is normal too,” Aiden said. “In most places.”

“True,” Capricorn said. “But you can see where I’m worried.”

“I’m worried too,” Aiden said. “That’s Candy, Roman, and Lookout out there. They’re some of my favorite people.”

“Tch,” Juliette made a small sound, because Aiden had mentioned Roman.

Capricorn blurred. His entire body and the blue armor he wore became just a little bit bigger, and where his eyes were, she could see a glow. The glow faded last, as the blurring went away.

He cleared his throat, a little louder in that than he’d just been, talking quietly.

“There’s another option. They’re out there, thirty to forty-five minutes away, something like that.”

“Less,” Tattletale said.

“But still a trip. We have to get there. So think, which of them are getting into trouble where our arrival decides things? Are they running, and we show up in the nick of time? Or are they better off with us moving forward, possibly winning, and creating a negotiating position.”

“Hostages?” Darlene asked.

“Hostages only work if Love Lost or March even care about what we’re doing here,” Capricorn said. “I’m thinking that they want answers or people or something else. We can get that here and change things there.”

“I vote for that,” Juliette said.

“Mmmm. You were just talking about killing people,” Capricorn pointed out. His finger tapped against his forearm, where his arms were folded. He looked at Tattletale, “Is she trustworthy?”