Page 586 of End Game

Dex sits across from them and reaches for Micah’s paper bag of sugary madness. “I was informed these are communal.”

Micah opens the top, looks inside, then looks at him. “They're not.”

Dex places a hand over his heart. “Wow.”

“You have your own.”

“That has nothing to do with the principle.”

“What principle?”

Dex considers this for several seconds. “I haven't decided yet.”

This time Micah actually smiles.

Small. Brief. Real.

Dex sees it and, to his credit, does not react like he has accomplished anything.

I take my seat behind the screen before anyone can ruin the moment by acknowledging it.

Once everyone has food, dice, character sheets, and whatever assortment of drinks they have decided qualify as campaign provisions, I open my notebook.

“Alright. When we stopped last week, you had finally crossed the northern wastes with an artifact that at least three unpleasant organizations would like to remove from your possession, preferably after removing several necessary parts of your bodies first.”

Dex lifts one finger.

“No.”

His hand stays up. “You don't know the question.”

“I know you.”

Cami laughs into her soda.

Dex lowers his hand with exaggerated dignity. “Continue, tyrant.”

“You've reached the ruins of Vael Toren. The main road through the old city collapsed approximately two hundred years ago, so you have two practical options. You can take a three-day detour through territory currently occupied by the faction that's been following you since Easthaven, or you can use the old aqueduct system beneath the city.”

“Aqueduct,” Griffin says immediately.

Cami nods. “Absolutely aqueduct.”

Micah leans forward to study the map, his attention moving over the streets and broken structures I sketched earlier this week. After a moment, he shakes his head. “Too obvious.”

Dex points toward him. “Sad Boy has spoken.”

The nickname has existed long enough that nobody usually reacts to it.

Tonight, Dex hears himself say it and immediately looks like he would like to pull the words back out of the air.

There is a pause.

Micah lifts his eyes. “And yet I'm still right.”

Dex's shoulders loosen. “That's my broody little murder elf.”

Micah flips him off.