The rations were in the usual bowls, and thankfully, they had lids on. When the woman at the station laid eyes on him, she frowned a bit, moving more slowly than she’d been when serving the others before him. That changed when he reached the large metal serving station.

  Suddenly, she couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. Like the workers of the WSF, she consulted a large sheet before reaching behind the station, where she brought out a silver tray, carrying three of those large bowls.

  She stacked them one on top of the other and handed them to him. “Sign,” she said, looking around fearfully as if his presence might bring trouble.

  He stared down at the sheet, then looked up and found all four of the servers looking straight at him. He took the lady’s pen and wrote his name. It didn’t take much to disguise the top line of the Z he’d written by mistake as an oddly drawn O.

  When he looked back up, they all said, in unison, “Witnessed.”

  He took the bowls and set off back down the road. The cold of the morning left his fingers numb, the bowls feeling like stones beneath them. He focused on not dropping a single one, barely looking around until he reached the apartment building.

  The WSF workers were placing the last bucket of water in front of the building, the water still steaming from the heating stones. There was no way he’d be able to carry the water and the rations up to the apartment. That’s why John and Eve used bags.

  “Oli?” Eve asked, stepping out of the building.

  She wore a thick jacket to ward off the cold and gloves that practically doubled the size of her hands. Her hair was tied back into one long ponytail, and her eyes were full of affection. Though Zach thought he saw some sadness in there. And guilt. Most likely because she’d considered asking him about his and Leo’s time with the Head.

  “You went to get the rations?” she asked, glancing up and down the street. “Nothing happened? No one said anything?”

  She relaxed visibly when he shook his head. “Good. That’s good. Let’s hurry up and get our water before it gets as cold as this weather.”

  He nodded, handing her the rations. She looked down with an amused expression, but took them. The buckets had numbers on their lids. There were more twos than everything else, but he looked for a bucket with a three on it. The bucket was slightly larger than the others, a light blue that hinted at the water filled to the brim within.

  Eve held the doors open for him as he made his way in and smiled fondly when he thanked her. That smile hit him hard, but he focused on the bucket, trying not to spill a single drop even though the lid looked secure enough.

  When they reached the second-floor landing, Ava and Peter were coming down the third, laughing about something one of them had said. Ava paused, her eyes struggling to meet Eve’s. Peter looked between the two of them, then glanced at Zach.

  “John still upstairs?” he asked, deliberately ignoring the subtle tension between the two women.

  Zach nodded, then felt the silence gave their tension too much room to breathe. “He is.”

  “Meditating every morning, right on schedule, but he’ll swear he isn’t spiritual,” Peter said, shaking his head.

  “Eve,” Ava suddenly said. “You know I’d never hurt you on purpose. I needed you. And I was right. You’re the one who found the strange clotting. I would’ve attributed the low blood to something else. Tell me you know that.”

  “I know that, Ava,” Eve said with a long sigh. “I’m not stupid. I just need another hour or so to be mad at you. Just give me until after I’ve eaten and washed, alright?”

  Ava smiled and sighed in relief. “Then, I’ll ask you again in an hour.”

  Eve gave a small smile of her own before Ava and Peter continued on their way. Zach was still staring at Eve’s gloves, the sight reminding him of the bandage still on his hand. It was going to have to come off soon. He was going to have to think of a way to hide his miraculously healed wound.

  They went up to the apartment.

  As Zach laid the bowls out, removing the lids and taking out the spoons from the drawer, Eve went to call John. When she opened the door, he found his eyes going there by chance. John sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed, his hands cradling what must’ve been a necklace, its pendant hidden in the palm of his hands.

  Before Zach could see what it was, Eve came back out. “He’s still busy.”

  “What’s he doing?” Zach asked, silently cursing the impulsive question.

  “You don’t remember?” she asked. “He calls it honoring his brother. Never gets into the specifics, though. Never mind that, I hear you’re shooting again?”

  Zach nodded. “It didn’t go so well last time,” he said weakly, before he rushed on with, “but I’m trying my best. I promise I won’t stop trying.”

  Eve looked up at the intensity in his voice, smiling with a slight frown. “I know you’re giving it your best. Oliver,” she sat down on one of the barstools, “not even a month has passed since you left the hold. With everything that’s happened, with how everyone’s looking at you, and what happened at the hold...

  “You’re doing better than a lot of people would’ve in your shoes. I’m more than proud of you. Okay?”

  Zach blinked. A part of his mind, the same part he’d first encountered when he’d laid eyes on her back in the medical ward, recoiled at that. It wondered if she was simply offering him this bit of praise so she could ask about his past interactions with the Head.

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  It was a setup. A clever manipulation tactic. Except... she’d done the same at the hospital. She’d shown her affection and hadn’t asked or demanded anything in return. This was genuine. He had to remind himself of that. But knowing that didn’t make it easier.

  He immediately spooned some of the boiled grain into his mouth, savoring the smooth, buttery taste. “That’s good,” he said, hoping to change the conversation.

  She accepted it without a second thought, saying she wasn’t a big fan of the grainy feel spread throughout the mash. It tasted like barely seasoned sand.

  John finally came out, fingering the cord of his necklace, the pendant now hidden underneath his shirt.

  “You were quick,” he said to Eve, nodding at Oliver—at Zach.

  “Someone already fetched the ration,” she responded, giving Zach that smile of hers.

  He couldn’t take any more of it. “Are we just shooting today?” he asked, pretending he hadn’t seen her look.

  “You and the Rades boy,” John answered with a nod, taking a seat and spooning some of the mash into his mouth. “You’ll come back to the Store in the afternoon. We have to discuss our final preparations. We’re leaving a day or two after the upcoming council meeting.”

  Zach remembered Jonathan and Michel with their papers. This council meeting wasn’t something he particularly looked forward to.

  Even as he took special care not to finish too fast, he still managed to finish his bowl well before them. That done, no one found it strange as he went to his room and retrieved his washing bucket, and filled it.

  Knowing how fast they got themselves ready, he knew he wouldn’t be able to read through the journal. So, he focused on washing, then looked through Oliver’s things until he found gloves. That would help once he took the bandage off. No one could blame him for wanting to keep his reminder of the hold hidden.

  When he finished with everything—including that cursed waste bucket—he stepped out into the apartment, and just as he’d thought, John was there, ready and waiting for him. Whatever emotion he’d shown last night, there was no trace of it this morning.

  Before he knew what he was doing, he studied how John and Eve interacted with each other. Like John’s emotions, there was no hint of the conversation they’d had last night.

  He found John staring at him. There was something in those eyes, almost as if he were wondering what Zach had heard. He nodded to himself, shutting his mouth. Whatever he’d been ready to say, gone.

  They left the apartment, buckets in hand. Like before, Zach set the waste bucket down with a deep aversion. He was almost prepared to say that of everything he missed from his world, he missed plumbing the most.

  Eve left on the wagon with the other residents of their building, John and Zach taking the special wagon that would take them down to the base. This time around, the driver stopped at Noah’s building before they were off.

  The moment they arrived at the shooting range, Zach was pleasantly surprised that he remembered the stances and drills he’d been taught. The enforcer instructing them still found his dismantling of the gun too slow to be of any use out in the field.

  Even more surprising was the fact that Noah seemed to struggle. Every shot missed its mark by far. Zach wasn’t hitting them either; he wouldn’t strain his eyes in front of the enforcer, and yet, he was still remarkably closer than Noah.

  Zach thought it was like the walk and the hunting, that Noah simply didn’t want people knowing he could handle a gun, so when they were finally left alone with some ammunition to practice with, he waited eagerly to see how good he really was.

  But the second the enforcer disappeared into the base, Noah engaged the safety, dropping the gun as if it had bitten him. Zach winced, thinking it might misfire, but nothing happened.

  “What the hell was that?” he asked, still staring warily at the gun.

  “The safety was on,” Noah said, pressing his hands firmly against his sides.

  “Still...”

  His words fell away as Noah dropped to his knees, a pained expression coming over his face. Had the gun gone off? He didn’t look injured. Once he realized what was happening, Zach cringed inwardly.

  Emotion.

  He forced himself to stand still. Guilt overcame him. The reaction had been instinctive, though he couldn’t explain why that was.

  Noah’s hands were bunched into fists, his face looking as though he were straining against some deep pain. “Damn it,” he suddenly swore. “Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.”

  Zach looked around the shooting range, expecting someone to do or say something, but of course, they were alone. John had long since gone back to the Store. Which meant he had to handle this alone. He saw you cry when you remembered Leo. He wanted to cling to that thought, but that had been different.

  “Are you alright?” he finally asked, not looking directly at him.

  “I knew we were coming to the shooting range today, but I didn’t think it would be this difficult.”

  “Difficult?”

  “I hate guns, but I told Lucas I’d be okay.”

  Not knowing what to do with the discomfort, Zach said nothing. The silence stretched on for a minute before Noah shook his head and got to his feet. Though it was still some time before he picked up his discarded gun.

  “Did you find anything in Lucas’s book?” Zach finally asked.

  As he’d guessed, Noah seemed to accept the change of conversation. “We pored through everything but found nothing concrete. We only found that we can test it, see if it’s something made from Theurgy. I also tried looking through the history books we have; there’s no mention of a royal family anywhere. There isn’t any mention of a Cardinel, either.”

  Zach nodded. That made sense. Especially after the latest entry he’d read. The others prefer that we move in the shadows. Words straight from Cardinel’s journal. Every time he thought about it, the mention of the others bothered him. Zach told him about the entry, about Cardinel’s plans to kill the sitting king.

  “The shadows... That’s why we can’t find them in the books. Lucas is usually very good at history, and he didn’t know about any of this either.”

  “Yesterday, you wondered if Severity Claimed me or Oliver. I know now it Claimed Oliver. He was seeing Severity’s realm already. But... according to him, the demons in the realm were bowing to him. They wanted him to come in.”

  “But they attacked you. Is that why you’ve been having a hard time entering the realm?”

  “But Severity said it Claimed me. More than once,” Zach said.

  “Maybe it can’t tell the difference between the two of you,” Noah reasoned. “Or maybe it goes back and forth. It could even work with memories, whichever mind is more dominant when you enter. You should try going in holding Oliver’s memories, then yours. See which ones the demons respond to.”

  “I should also see how much a trip into the realm would take from me,” Zach said. “Now that I have a better understanding of how it works.”

  Noah was staring at the gun again, his fingers flexing by his side. Before he started shuddering as he’d done earlier, Zach said lightheartedly.

  “Darkness and guns, huh?”

  Noah looked at him with a frown. “What?”

  “That’s what you’re afraid of. Makes sense. A gun would only be more dangerous in the dark.”

  Noah’s face grew guarded, a hardness setting into his jaw. His back went stiff as he bent down to pick up the rifle. “That’s how they killed my family. In the dark with guns.”

  Tuesday!