I could feel her shoulder tense beneath my hand. “What?”

“Some things I need are back at my workshop. The one I set up with my other team. Uuugh.”

“Alright,” I said. “It’s up to you. It doesn’t have to be tonight—”

“But it should.”

“Probably. And we were talking about this as a conversation that needed to happen.”

“Ugghhhh.”

I rubbed her shoulder. She let her head wobble with the motion.

“They’re out of the city, by the way,” she reported. “They got into a pair of cars. Ash—Damsel of Distress is riding shotgun. There’s less cameras near them now.”

“Okay. But you can track them?”

“I put a tracker on Torso.”

“I’d say that’s perfect, but I don’t like you getting that close to the action, especially with an unknown power.”

“Sorry,” she said.

I gave her shoulder one last rub, then stuck my cold hand in my pocket. What was I even supposed to say here? What would Ashley have said, that would be so out of sync with normal expectations but so right for Kenzie?

Who’s going to stick around to tell me I’m awesome if you go and get your head smashed in?

No, not that blatant about the ego. But…

“Who’s going to tell me to use challah for french toast if you go and get your head smashed in? I like having you around, Kenzie.”

After a pause, she let her head tilt left, resting against my arm.

“And for the record,” I said. “I’m saying that to Kenzie, not Lookout. I like Lookout too, but I think we got along from the start, when we first met. That was before tinker powers came into play.”

“I always get along with people at first. Usually, when it counts. Then I ruin it. It’s dangerous, saying stuff like how you like having me around.”

“I can handle dangerous,” I said.

Of course, finishing that sentence made my throat tickle, and I had another coughing fit.

At the very least, when I was done, I could feel Kenzie’s head trying to find its place resting against my arm, while she laughed to herself.

I craned my head down to see, and there wasn’t a smile on her face. If anything, she looked pensive, jaded, eyes half-lidded and downcast, even as she shook with the last few chuckles. I felt in the moment like she’d grown up by years in the past few months.

It was a fucking shame, in so many ways.

The others rejoined us. Tristan signaled, and I nodded.

My hand on Kenzie’s back to give her the initial impetus, we started walking, heading over to the Huntsmen.

“Good work,” Snow White said. Etna was just a bit behind her, floating while leaning against a car, still holding the glass spear.