I adjusted the buckler at my left arm.

“Dinner’s here,” Kenzie said.

It was Snuff, back from his errand, with bags bearing the unappetizing name of ‘Roadkill’.

I walked over to Tattletale, as she backed away from the defused situation with the Heartbroken. Chicken Little was unwrapping Kenzie’s dinner for her, holding her burger out, while Darlene tried far too hard to be okay with it.

In this moment, at least, with the stress of the clock hanging over her head, Kenzie seemed to be as happy as I’d seen her since Ashley had died.

“Tattletale,” I murmured.

“Hm?”

“The way you described that thing in the room. Sounded familiar.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Fair warning: it’s all educated guessing at this point. Very educated, but no guarantees.”

“Sure,” I said. I looked at the constantly replaying image of the thing emerging from the shadows. “Is it an Endbringer?”

“Nah,” she said. “Smaller in stature, more limited in scope.”

I realized I was holding my breath, and I didn’t release it. I felt like there was a ‘but’ coming.

“It’s the same scaffolding. Same construction material. Similar principles,” Tattletale elaborated.

“Thanks,” I told her.

“You’re not taking your kid in with you, are you?”

I looked over at Lookout.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” I said.

“Say something happens to your team,” Tattletale said.

I held my finger to my lips. I turned my head toward one of the more obvious cameras.

She brought a hand up to her nose to scratch it but then left it there, cupped over her mouth. “Do you have any preferences? Messages to pass on? People you’d rather see looking after her?”

I didn’t see Kenzie acting strange. With Darlene crowding in to take over burger duty, Aiden holding out a napkin to catch drippings, and Candy laughing at something, the group of them were probably a sufficient distraction that Kenzie wasn’t monitoring my conversation with Tattletale.

I covered my own mouth as I talked, “If anything happens, contact the Wardens. Dragon and Defiant can handle the tech side of things, but you’ll probably need the heroes to get a handle on her.”

“I’ll waive my usual fees for handling contingencies if you’re quiet about Chicken Little and his loose lips.”

I nodded.

With that, Tattletale walked away.

We have to do this, I thought. Then I had to amend my statement, because we’d already let the guard dog out of its pen. We had to do this. We can’t be following behind every crisis.

The clock counted down to Rain’s bedtime. 31:32, 31:31, 31:30…

⊙

2:15, 2:14, 2:13, 2:12…

“Don’t try to control your breathing, ignore all of that usual stuff about deep breaths or breathing in through the mouth and out through the nose,” Sveta counseled. “Breathe naturally. Don’t get mad at yourself if you stop breathing naturally, just move on, move forward, return to what we’re focusing on.”