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“There’s gremlins everywhere, the pixie has no respect for authority or anyone, and I took a look at your accounts, brother. You’re one broken pipe away from going bust.”

That all sounded . . . accurate. And I missed that crazy place like a hole in my heart. “I see you had the full SOS Hotel experience.”

“That place is a dump, populated by mewing prey.”

“Maybe.” But even broken things could be remade stronger when they came together. My brother had just told me he’d underestimated our SOS Hotel family. They’d played him, strung him along, made him think he was winning, but all the while, behind the scenes, they’d plotted against him to bring him here, to me, right now . . .

I glanced at the cameras, and the dark outside the windows.

I trusted Tom, Leomaris, Madame Matase, Little Jimmy, all of them. They’d come through, any second now . . .

“Waiting for a save?” Syros chuckled, prompting Jenny to snigger too. He leaned forward. “Nobody is coming for you. You’ll rot here, while outside, I take it all. When this world is on its knees, maybe then I’ll come get you out, brother. Or maybe I’ll just leave you here to die like the humans have left all the other troublesome Lost Ones.” He rose to his feet. “Stupid humans got that right. Cut out the rot. It’s the only way. You killed the rest of our kin because I let you. Easier that way. But not me, brother . . . You didn’t get me.”

I swallowed. My heart fluttered. They would come through.

But there wasn’t much time left. Syros turned his back on me. I had to stop him, buy more time, do something instead of just siting and taking it.

“Wait.”

He stopped, turned again and waited, eyebrows raised. Jenny stopped beside him, waiting for my big speech too.

“I uh . . .” I got to my feet, buying a few more seconds to find my words. “I mean . . . You know . . . I never really understood what it meant to have a family.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Our kin? They weren’t a real family. They were killers. I’m talking about people you care for, people who care for you. Not because of blood, or some kinda bond they didn’t have a choice in, or destiny. People who choose to be around you, who choose to love you.”

Syros snorted. “And you think you know what that is now? Those losers at that hotel barely know you exist. I could kill you here now and nobody would notice.”

It was my turn to smirk. He had no idea what it meant to be loved, and never would. It was so alien to him, he couldn’t even see it when it had been right in front of his face the moment he stepped into the SOS Hotel.

“Why are you smiling?” Syros stomped toward me. “Huh? What have you got to smile about? You’re stuck in here and I’m out there! I’m free! And I’m going to make this world my sandbox. There’s nothing to smile about.”

“I dunno . . .” I shrugged. “I think there is.”

“What?!?” he snapped. “Huh?”

Jenny glanced at him, watching him lose his cool. Maybe she was beginning to realize the unhinged monster she’d buddied up with would turn on her too.

“I’m smiling because I know, without a single doubt, that I’ll never be alone.”

He barked a dismissive laugh. “You’re alone right now, idiot.”

Jenny’s gaze caught mine, and held it. My heartbeat quickened.

I wasn’t alone.

But Syros was.

He narrowed his eyes on me, then looked at Jenny and opened his mouth to ask why we were bonding over a glance, but a screeching siren beat him to it.

The lights went out, plunging us into a blink of darkness before the emergency lighting kicked in. Green Fire Exit signs lit the way.

A phone rang somewhere nearby, behind a door or that long mirror.

Here we go . . .

“What’s going on?” Syros strode for the door.