“Do you want help?” I asked.

Juliette shook her head. She reached over to the light switch. Only half of the lights in the space were on, and with a flick of the lights, only the light from the back room where Lookout and Swansong were and the light from the stairwell we’d come from were there.

Nobody complained or commented.

She settled in against the wall, leaning sideways into it instead of sitting with her back to it.

I was wary as I watched. There was something about how quiet she was and how rigid Darlene was, that made me feel like Juliette was a powder keg about to go off. I had no point of reference, I didn’t know much of anything about her except that she and her brother didn’t get along, and the feeling persisted because—because there was no way she could be like that and not be bottling up emotion, ready to vent it at the next or nearest excuse.

She pulled out her phone from her pocket. The screen glowed in the dark. She fished in her pocket with the shaky arm that was attached to a shoulder with a gap in it that I could have put my hand through, and she pulled out the headphones that were threaded up and under her top.

I saw it coming as soon as I saw the glimpse of blue at her side, where it looked like a triangle had been taken out of her. The headphone cord had been severed.

Her hands shook as she held the severed cord.

“Do you—do you want mine?” I asked. “My earbuds?”

She nodded once, a single jerk of the head.

I pulled mine out. Rather than approach, I tossed them to her.

In taking them, she turned further away from me. As if she had to move away from giving a thank-you, refuse my existence further, because I’d supplied that help.

“Antares?” Darlene asked, a question in a small voice.

One eye on Juliette, I found my way to Darlene’s side, crouching down.

Juliette plugged the earbuds into both phone and ears. Her head leaned against the wall as she stared down at the screen, the blue light illuminating a pale face with drops of red at the side, spray.

Darlene, at least, seemed to relax as Juliette did. I touched her shoulder, and felt her start at the touch.

“I peeked in on Lookout and Swansong. Capricorn is helping them. If—I may have to go help him again.”

“Don’t leave,” she said, her voice small.

I slumped against the wall, going from a crouch to a hard sit. She reached out, trying to hug me, and I pulled her a bit closer, which provoked a head shake.