“Oh, I have,” Fitz said. “But I’m always prepared to be busted if I get caught.”

“Who cares about getting caught?” Maruca asked—her voice more hiss than whisper. “My mom is ready to go to the Council—”

“She can’t do that!” Sophie interrupted. She checked to make sure Magnate Leto was deep in conversation with the Coaches on the other side of the field before she whispered, “The Black Swan don’t want the Council to know this happened.”

“Then bring us to see him,” Maruca said.

“Is that a threat?” Biana asked.

Maruca shrugged, tucking her blue strip of hair behind her ear. “If that’s what it takes to see Wylie.”

“But you’re threatening the wrong person,” Sophie told her. “I don’t have a crystal to get to the place where they’re keeping him.”

“Even if that’s true, if anyone can make it happen, it’s you,” Maruca insisted. “You’re their suncatcher—or their boobrie—or whatever weird bird they call you.”

“It’s a moonlark,” Fitz told her. “Though now I’m kinda wishing they’d called it Project Boobrie.”

Sophie was too stressed to smile. “You’re overestimating how much the Black Swan listen to me,” she told Maruca. “They shoot me down all the time—and they’ve been especially difficult about Wylie.”

Maruca bit her lip. “All I’m asking is for you to try. Please. I know you don’t know me—and that I haven’t been very nice to you. But I need to see him. I need to know for sure that he’s okay—that they haven’t finally broken him.”

The catch in her voice crumbled Sophie’s resolve.

“Fine. I’ll hail the Collective when I get home and see if they’d be willing to arrange something.”

“Why not hail them now?” Maruca pressed.

Sophie pointed to the groups of kids hanging out all around them. “Because we shouldn’t even be talking about this at all right now.”

“Then let me go to your house with you,” Maruca begged. “I’m not saying I don’t trust you. I just might be able to help you convince them.”

“She is pretty pushy,” Fitz said. “It might be kind of fun to sic her on the Collective.”

Sophie rubbed her temples. “If they say no, you have to promise you’ll leave it at that, okay? Or find someone else to hassle about it.”

Maruca nodded and Sophie pulled out her home crystal.

Stina looped her arm through Sophie’s. “I’m going with you guys.”

“So am I,” Fitz said.

“What about Dex?” Biana asked. “He’ll be sad if we all go without him.”

“Then why don’t you stay here,” Fitz suggested. “I’ll meet you back at Everglen as soon as we’re done and we can trade stories.”

“Yeah, I want a full update,” Sophie told Biana, pointing to where she’d spotted Dex and Marella talking.

Marella had her face turned away, so it was a little hard to tell.

But Sophie could’ve sworn she was crying.

SOPHIE COULDN’T HAIL MR. FORKLE, SINCE he was still in Magnate Leto disguise at Foxfire. So she reached out to Granite.

“Whoa,” Maruca whispered when Sandor and Grizel opened the door to let Granite in. “That’s a crazy disguise.”

“It is,” he said, his limbs cracking as he followed them into the living room. “And I’m trusting you not to tell anyone you’ve seen me like this.”

“Why?” Maruca asked. “It’s not like I know who you are.”

“We still prefer the public know as little about our organization as possible.” He turned to Sophie. “Where are your parents?”

“Out with the new stegosaurus that arrived this morning. Why—did you need them?”

“Not at the moment. I’m just glad to hear they’re well and safe. And I need all of you to understand that ordinarily I would never agree to a meeting like this. The only reason I did is because I know how much your family matters to Wylie,” he told Maruca. “And as it happens, Physic will be easing Wylie off the sedatives tomorrow. We’ve sheltered him as long as we can, but it’s time for him to begin returning to reality. And it might be helpful for him to have a few familiar faces there when he wakes up—if you think you and your mother would be up for it.”

“We are,” Maruca assured him, wiping away a few tears. “We’ll do whatever he needs. What time and where should we meet and how—”

“I’ll send instructions to your house as soon as I’ve spoken with Physic,” Granite interrupted. “Keep an eye out for a scroll tomorrow morning.”

“Can I go too?” Sophie asked.

“I think it’s best that we not overwhelm him,” Granite said. “Plus, I fear that once he sees you, he’ll grow too fixated on the favor he requested.”

“What favor?” Stina and Maruca asked.

“That is classified,” Granite told them. “As is tomorrow’s meeting. No one can know that it’s happening, aside from your immediate families. And speaking of which”— he stalked closer to Stina— “in the future, I hope you’ll pay more respect to your father’s privacy. Overhearing something does not give you the right to repeat it to others.”

To her credit, Stina kept her head held high as she told him. “Maruca needed to know.”

“Then you should’ve informed your father and let him handle the matter through proper channels. We are an order, Miss Heks, and there are rules and protocols that must be followed.”

“Is that what you say to Sophie?” Stina snapped back.

“Miss Foster has received her fair share of lectures. She’s also a very special circumstance, so I would not make the mistake of putting you—or your father—in the same category. If we have reason to view your family as a security risk, we’ll have no choice but to release your father from his oath. Is that what you want?”

Stina tried for a careless shrug. But Sophie could see her tremble.

Granite must’ve noticed too, because he nodded, promising Maruca he’d see her the next morning, before he leaped away.