“Sorry. It’s not a huge thing, but I thought you’d want to know.”

“Is it the sort of thing where I’m wearing my pants backwards and nobody’s had the courage to tell me, or—”

Kenzie snorted.

“Help,” Chris eked out the word.

“—Yeah, yuk yuk, Kenz,” Tristan said. “Or is it bad news, Sveta?”

“It’s bad news, I guess.”

“Great.”

“I know you have issues with Moonsong. The Shepherds lost some members, and she impressed people enough that she’s getting promoted.”

Tristan didn’t immediately reply.

“Sorry again. I thought you should know before you ran into them,” Sveta said.

“A promotion. She wasn’t my favorite person, but I always respected her talent. Reach—we had a lot of good capes. It doesn’t surprise me.”

“What kind of promotion, do you know?” I asked Sveta. I could see her over my shoulder. “To a specific function, like team liaision, or a captain of a sub-team?”

“Second in command of their first team. Which Weld said puts her third in command overall, somehow.”

“Damn it,” Tristan muttered.

“That’s because the Shepherds folded into the Attendant, bringing their name and logo,” I said. “The people who worked together stayed together as they merged, making them two teams under one name. If something happens to the leader of their A-team, the leader of the B team takes over the leadership of the whole group.”

“I know Weld is busy,” Sveta said. “I barely saw him before but now I only see him for an hour a day, sometimes. Maybe Moonsong will be too busy to pay attention to you.”

“I don’t know,” Tristan said. “Damn it. Thank you for telling me, that really does help.”

“Are you sure?” Sveta asked.

“Yeah. I’ve gotta figure out what I’m doing. Now I know to stay a solid distance away from them.”

“I hope I’m not prying,” I said. “You never really told me what happened.”

“I lost it,” Tristan said, his eyes fixed on the road even though traffic crawled. “I’m not trying to deflect blame or anything, but I was dealing with the C-seventy bullcrap, three-point-four GPA, kicking ass as a hero on a kick-ass team, made friends and hung out with those friends. I did it while living half a life… and something gave.”

“That happens,” I said, trying to sound neutral.

“It happens, yeah. I got desperate and I stopped thinking straight. I did some impulsive stuff, dug myself into a hole, and then kept digging. I look back and I don’t even recognize the person I became.”

“We all deal with that to some degree,” I said. “It comes with powers.”