“We hope he has a plan to get out of it,” Sophie said. “Like how he had a plan to save me with that bead.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Fitz pressed.

Sophie didn’t have an answer.

“Come on,” Juline said, breaking the suffocating silence. “The solarium is this way.”

She led them toward the back of the house, into a giant glass bubble of a room that made it feel like they were standing in a life-size fishbowl. A thin row of plants lined the round space, and Sophie noticed that their emerald green leaves shimmered with a thin layer of hoarfrost. The rest of the room was mostly empty—just a few topiaries scattered around and a pile of four rolled-up sleeping bags.

The real focus was the view: a wide stretch of garden filled with flowering vines, gleaming silver fountains, and the most lifelike ice sculptures that Sophie had ever seen—a mix of spring and winter only a Froster could have at the same time.

The woolly mammoth had been carved to scale, and somehow its icy fur looked soft and silky. And the saber-toothed tiger’s eyes gave Sophie chills.

“They’re amazing,” Biana whispered.

Juline’s cheeks reddened at the praise. “Thank you. Our lives are too chaotic for pets, so this is my compromise with the triplets. They get to decide which creatures I carve every week. And speaking of pets, is your imp going to need a bathroom spot? We can set up some sort of box if you don’t want him out in the cold.”

“Or we could give him a way fluffier fur coat!” Biana jumped in. “Maybe change his color, too! Do you have any elixirs, Dex? I’m thinking purple this time—or maybe green.”

“I’ll check my room,” he told her.

Biana clapped. “Yay—first makeover of the night!”

“You mean the only makeover,” Fitz corrected.

“Aw, come on—you and Keefe let me do it once before!” Biana whined.

“Seriously?” Sophie asked. “Now that’s a story I have to hear.”

Dex snorted. “Me too.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be searching Alvar’s records?” Fitz asked.

Biana shrugged off her satchel. “I can’t imagine that’s going to take all night.”

“It might,” Dex warned. “There are a lot of scrolls. I’ll need help carrying them down.”

Fitz volunteered, and Biana pouted as the boys headed for the stairs.

Juline handed Biana her other bag and gave Sophie Iggy’s cage. “For the record, I hope you guys have a little fun tonight. I know you’re worried about your parents. And I know how hard you all work trying to solve everything. But I speak for all of us when I say that we want you to enjoy being normal teenagers.”

“But we aren’t normal teenagers,” Sophie reminded her. “Or I’m not, at least.”

Juline took her hand. “Yes, you are. Even after everything you’ve been through. Even with everything you have ahead. You’re still a fourteen-year-old girl who deserves to relax and have fun with her friends.”

“So what you’re saying,” Biana said, “is I have your permission to give Dex a makeover?”

Juline laughed. “I’ll leave that up to Dex.”

She winked and left them alone, and they got to work setting up the sleeping bags—which turned out to be a much trickier job than it should’ve been. The all-in-a-straight-row concept felt super awkward. But the round room made it impossible to go to separate corners. Eventually they settled on an X shape. That way their heads would be close enough to talk to each other, but they’d each still have as much space as possible.

“Keefe is going to pout so hard when he finds out he missed this,” Biana said, claiming the sleeping bag closest to the room’s entrance. “We could’ve all scooted over and put his sleeping bag right here.”

Sophie tried not to notice that the arrangement would’ve looked like a star.

“You know what I hate?” she said, moving her backpack to the sleeping bag on the left of Biana’s. “If the Neverseen really do attack Havenfield today—and everyone stays safe—they’ll probably know that Keefe warned us. We tried to make it look like all the security was stuff they’d have set up in order to protect me. But I’m not there.”

“Right, but it’s not like you never leave the house,” Biana reminded her. “And Keefe’s a quick thinker.”

“Also a good liar,” Sophie mumbled.

But talk didn’t mean much to the Neverseen.

If they got suspicious, Keefe would have to do something to prove himself again. And it would have to be even bigger than what he already did at Foxfire. . . .

“You know what I hate?” Biana asked, pulling a tab on the side of her sleeping bag and making it plump up like a pillow.

Sophie copied her, and when she sat down, it felt like sinking into a giant stretched-out marshmallow.

“I hate wondering how many times I should’ve figured out what my brother was doing,” Biana whispered.

“That’s why Edaline told me hindsight is a dangerous game,” Sophie reminded her.

“I know. But it feels so obvious. Like, I remember after my dad’s mind broke, Alvar decided to stay the night at Everglen because my mom had a super-rough day. And I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to wander the halls. I heard him in my dad’s office, talking to someone on his Imparter—but I figured he was trying to help finish one of my dad’s projects.”

“Do you remember anything he said?”

“Bits and pieces. I should’ve paid better attention. I heard him say something about changing the timeline. And he asked about test subjects. I also remember him using the word ‘criterion’ a couple of times. But I don’t know what any of that means.”

Sophie pulled Ella from her backpack and leaned her cheek on the elephant’s pillowy belly. “You know what I miss? Back when I first moved to the Lost Cities—and the Black Swan were running my life from the shadows—I’d know I was on the right track because I’d hear a word and it would trigger new memories. Now it seems like everything we learn is stuff that even the Black Swan don’t know.”

“Do you think that means they were preparing you for the wrong thing?” Biana asked.

“Ugh—I do now!”