“Sorry, no,” Ellery mumbled.
She returned to find Domenic and Hanna in an intense debate.
“—think I don’t know why you’re here?” Domenic hissed.
“Ididn’t want to be here,” Hanna snapped. “I didn’t want any of us here! I was overridden!”
“And yet you volunteered.”
“Oh, would you rather it’d been Sharpe with his nose up your—”
As Domenic spotted Ellery, he jabbed Hanna with his elbow.
“Any luck?” he asked Ellery.
Ellery studied them both. Hanna chewed a wad of bubble gum, seemingly unfazed. Domenic flushed.
“Kind of.” Ellery held up the single room key. “Everything okay?”
“Y-yeah,” Domenic said. He was a terrible liar. “Areyouokay? You know, um, being back here?”
“I’ll live,” she said flatly. Somehow, this made him flush fiercer.
The trio hauled their luggage up several dilapidated flights to their room. The fixtures were outdated. The bathroom had seen better days. But it wasn’t the yellowed wallpaper and moth-eaten carpet that set Ellery’s heartbeat ratcheting. It was the bed, singular.
She and Domenic glanced at each other, then looked hastily away.
“So, I don’t care who’s cozying up next to me, but I’m sleeping on that bed,” Hanna announced. Then she flopped unceremoniously onto the drab comforter.
Ellery perched primly on the other side of the mattress. “Don’t hog the covers.”
Domenic heaved out a dramatic huff before setting down his suitcase. “Great. Fine. Well, I’m calling first dibs on the shower.”
As he stalked into the bathroom and closed the door, Hanna rolled over, then propped her head on her hand. She still wore her slushy boots.
“So,” Hanna drawled. “Any bets on what kind of trap’s waiting for us up here?”
Ellery removed her boots in the hopes that Hanna would follow suit (she didn’t), then crawled onto the covers and leanedagainst the headboard. The mattress creaked in protest. “Kythion ambushing us, probably.” As terrifying as that notion was, at least they’d get a chance to slay the last remaining monster of the Dire Three. “Sorry. I’m sure you’re thrilled at the prospect of fighting a building-sized winterghast.”
“Psh, compared to spending every day learning way more about random Order magicians than I ever wanted to know, this is practically my vacation.”
Ellery knew Hanna had yet to uncover evidence of Summer’s traitor, but she’d never spared much thought for whatelseshe might have uncovered. The enormity of sifting through so many minds, so many memories, was a tremendous burden. Perhaps not as great as saving the country, but a burden all the same.
“I guess I’d prefer Kythion to that, too,” she said quietly.
“Don’t worry. At this point, nothing surprises me anymore. I’ve seen it all—every lurid secret, every horrible thought, every humiliation.” Hanna popped in a new piece of gum, then stuck her old one beneath the nightstand. “I mean, have youseenthe way Peak looks at Iseul? It’s tragic.”
“Oof.” Ellery tugged a piece of hair around her finger, curious despite herself. “What about the rest of the Council?”
“Glynn devotes way too much mental energy to his pretentious hobbies. And for all Iseul tries to keep things tidy, her mind is so cluttered. She’s always thinking about twelve things at once in two different languages and not one of them is remembering to pay the electric bill.”
“And Sharpe?”
“His mom preferred his older sister and he never got over it.”
Ellery snorted. “So… exactly what I’ve always suspected, then.”
Hanna burst into a cackling laughter, like a hyena. Then, abruptly, she sobered. “This how you always pictured your great homecoming?”
