“If we do nothing the Simurgh might win. We live.”

“We won’t be us and you fucking know it, Tattletale,” I told her.

She was silent. There wasn’t a hint of a grin on her face.

“You’d rather die,” I said. “Than see people you love die.”

“My life is defined by regrets,” she said. “And I don’t know if I’m that different from Cryptid. I don’t trust the people who are pushing for status quo, and when people are taken from you… it’s not noble or good or pretty. There’s no heroism to fighting cancer or hurling yourself against an Endbringer and hoping it goes away.”

I thought of Dean. Of thoughts I’d had not long after losing him.

“It’s just an ending,” Tattletale said.

“You could go, in place of Imp, or in place of Chicken Little.”

“What number are we trying to reach, then?” Tattletale asked me. “You didn’t sound sure about how many would need to die.”

“I’m absolutely not.”

Someone moved on the other side of the curtain. Tattletale flicked at the curtain itself, reached out with a hand, as if to tell someone to stop. People reacting to the aura.

She clenched the outstretched hand, then brought it down to her side, balled into a fist. “Then how many, Victoria? How many people do we need to convince in a painfully short period of time? What’s the point I can say we’ve met the threshold, I can trick Imp into staying home? Or trick Chicken Little?”

She looked so sad, like she was about to cry. I hadn’t seen Tattletale like that, but it felt more like her than any other conversation I’d ever had with her.

“Enough,” I said.

“Insufficient.”

“It’s the way it’s always been. Against Endbringers. Against Scion. The more the better, and if we don’t get enough, then everyone loses.”

“Vista doesn’t get her knight in shining armor, and Capricorn doesn’t get to blow off years of pent up steam with Vista.”

“It’s not about that. He’s not about that.”

“If you go, then you’ll break Capricorn’s parents’ hearts again. How about that? You’re leaving Lookout alone or you’re asking that poor kid to die alone despite the fact that it’s her worst fear. You’re asking Precipice to end his journey unfinished. Sveta never gets to be a human for a prolonged period, doesn’t get normal dorky dates with a creative boyfriend.”

“You’re using your power to get details. That’s low.”