“I handled things when Nieves brought her up. I can hold it together while we’re there. She probably wants to play nice, maintain good relationships with Shin. If it gets ugly, I walk away.”

“Alright. Can we have a signal, in case I need to nudge you to walk away?”

“Touch your left ear?”

“My left ear. That’s the signal that you need to back off or check yourself?”

I nodded.

“Alright. Thanks.”

Costumes were awkward to put on and take off at the best of times, and getting the necessary shots meant pulling off the upper body of costumes. Byron had to unstrap his armor around his arm, get the shot, and then switch to Tristan. Kenzie and Rain had to unzip and pull an arm free of their sleeves. Ashley had to remove her coat, which wasn’t so bad.

I nudged Vista. “Do me a favor?”

“Sure.”

“Shrink those huge needles down for my teammates?”

Vista smiled. “This is for Tristan, right?”

“I think everyone would appreciate it.”

“He got super talkative and chuckly when the subject of needles came up.”

“Go,” I said. I was sitting on a railing, and I twisted around, sticking the toe of my boot into her ass cheek to prod her forward.

She went.

“Looks like Precipice and Swansong are getting expedited,” Golem observed.

“I’m betting they got a bunch of booster shots before going to prison.”

“I wanted to ask,” Golem said. “Precipice was Fallen, before?”

“Yep. Open secret,” Sveta answered.

“You think he’d mind talking about that kind of stuff?”

I exchanged looks with Sveta.

“Can’t say for sure,” Sveta answered. “But I think he could use a friend who ‘gets it’.”

“That’s it, isn’t it? Getting it. Cuff’s the best, but I can talk about stuff and I feel more lonely than before I brought it up.”

“Tell her,” Sveta said. “Communicate that. Don’t freeze her out.”

“I’m not. That’s not it. She can be understanding if I’m really clear or even if I’m really blunt about, hey, this is a big deal to me, right? But it takes work and reminders that, y’know, this thing wholly outside of her experience is a thing that’s pretty profound to me. Sometimes you don’t want to constantly put in that work and you want to get straight to figuring it out.”

“Yeah,” Sveta said. She sighed heavily.

“They’re bringing out the stethoscope for Kenzie. Deep breaths,” I said.

“What does that mean?” Golem asked.

“I’m guessing all the Wardens who’ve been through this process were in pretty good shape.”

“Kinda gotta be.”

“They’re worried about allergens, allergic reactions, lung capacity, and other issues. Which means that if they’re not sure she can handle it, she gets filtered air.”

“Oh,” Golem said. “Someone did mention that.”