After what felt like the longest few minutes of my life, the car came to a stop, and the door was pulled open. Miles stared down at me. "How's he doing?"

"He opened his eyes for a second, and he's made a few noises, but not much else." Carefully, I lifted Brenon off of me and positioned myself under his shoulders to help guide him out of the car.

Miles held him in his arms like a child despite the fact that Brenon wasn't a small man. He just looked small compared to Miles.

"I thought you were staying with Evangeline," I said. "Did you find any other survivors?"

He frowned. "One or two. The rest had already fled. They should be at Kay's."

I wanted to check on the Sayges and my aunt. But I had to know if Brenon was going to be okay first. I told myself there was nothing I could do to help there. I was needed here.

I followed Miles to the train, among a rush of people who were flooding the tracks from multiple cars that had shown up since we arrived. Where had they all come from? Had the Circus had these cars all along?

"Ara!" I turned at the sound of my name.

Some of the tension I was holding left as Joe crashed into me, pulling me into a hug. A second later, Goldie slammed into us, the two of them squishing me between them for a long moment before letting go.

"You okay? I heard what happened. Goldie and I were here using this crazy communication system they have to monitor it all." Joe looked around. "Where's your aunt? And the others?"

My stomach tightened as guilt settled inside me. "I don't know. Miles said the survivors went back to Aunt Kay's."

"We can contact them for you," Joe said. "There's this mailbox thing and special paper, come on, I'll show you."

I glanced behind me. Miles had vanished inside the train with Brenon, and I felt like every bit of me was fighting the urge to be in there with him. I looked back at Joe. "Can you check for me? I want to see if Brenon's okay."

Goldie grabbed my arm. "What happened?"

"Iron dust," I said.

She let go of my arm, then pushed me. "Go. We got this."

"Thanks." I turned and ran toward the train before Joe could say anything. If Brenon was waking up right now, I wanted to be there. If there was any way my magic could help, I wanted to do something. Could they give him the orange drink he'd given me to help me feel better? What was the cure for something that was so dangerous to Fae?

When I entered the train car, my breath caught as I saw the sprawled out form of Brenon on his simple bed. Miles sat in a chair next to him and stood when I walked in.

"Anything?" I asked.

Miles shook his head. "Not yet."

I walked over to the bed and knelt down on the ground. Brenon looked like he was asleep. I rested my hand on top of his, and silently willed him to open his eyes. "Is there anything I can do?"

"We have to wait for it to leave his system. I don't know how much got in there, but he's not dead yet, so that gives us hope that he'll pull through."

"How long do we wait?" My insides squirmed at the thought of not being able to do anything. I hated feeling so helpless.

"Ara?"

I turned to see Evangeline standing in the doorway. "I brought you some company and some news."

Behind her, I could see Joe and Goldie waiting. Had they reached my aunt? "What news?"

"Your Aunt Kay is fine, but the Sayges are done with us. They lost a lot of people. They won't help us anymore." Evangeline stepped into the room and moved aside so Joe and Goldie could pass.

"It was a nice try, and I don't blame you if you want to go back to the Sayges," Evangeline said.

I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to get a read on her. Did she want me to leave? Was I going to have to deal with her jealousy around Brenon? I shook my head. "I'm not going anywhere, and you know that. What are you trying to pull here?"

For the first time, I saw a flicker of weakness in Evangeline's usually impassive expression. She looked hurt. "I'm not trying to pull anything. You showed great strength today, and I don't want you to leave."

"I don't understand you at all." Evangeline had been more of a mystery to me than Brenon at times. She seemed to dislike me but wouldn't risk upsetting him. What was it about me that made her so upset.

"I know I come across stern, but I don't know any other way. I want you to stay here. You make Brenon happy, and he deserves to be happy. But so do you, and if going to your family is what you need, I want you to do that. I don't want you to feel trapped."

Hand still holding on to Brenon's, my brow furrowed. "I'm not leaving him like this."

She nodded, then without arguing, she left the room.

"I'll give you three some time," Miles said to me. "If anything changes, send Goldie to find me."

I nodded as Miles left the room.

Joe and Goldie walked over to where I sat next to Brenon's bed and sat down on the floor next to me.

"How's he doing?" Goldie asked.

"I don't know," I said.

Joe squeezed my shoulder. "He'll be okay. You're owed something good at this point."

"I hope you're right," I said, not sure if I believed it.

* * *

My fingers were asleep when I woke, stretched out next to Joe and Goldie on the floor.

"Morning," Goldie said.

I rubbed my eyes and glanced at the light streaming in through the windows. "How long was I out?"

"Few hours."

I shook out my hand and turned to where Brenon was still laying, eyes closed, on the bed. Brushing my hand against his cheek, I wondered how long I'd have to wait. Was he going to open his eyes again? He'd looked at me for a second in the car, but since then, there'd been little to no response.

"Hey," Joe's groggy voice sounded from behind me. "Any news?"

"Not yet," I said.

The door to the car opened and Evangeline entered. She took one look at Brenon, then let out a sigh, then looked back at me. "Ara, you should take a break. Get something to eat. I'll watch him."

The last thing on my mind was going to get something to eat, but my stomach growled at the mention of food.

Evangeline settled herself on the floor next to me, taking up vigil beside Brenon. "Go, Ara. Take Joe with you. Goldie can stay with me if you're concerned."

"That's not it," I said. "What if he wakes up?"

"Go," Goldie said. "If he wakes, I'll come running for you."

Knowing it would do no good to argue, I stood and crossed the room, pausing at the door before I left.

"Come on," Joe said. "We'll be back before you know it."

Goldie had settled in my place in front of Brenon. With a sigh, I pushed open the door and left, with Joe behind me.

"You doing okay?" Joe asked as we walked through the corridors toward the dining car.

"Not really." Terra was still alive, Gia was with Terra, Brenon had iron poisoning, and we weren't any closer to solving the issues we were facing. And now, anything we did would have to be without the Sayges.

"I wish I had something comforting to say," Joe said.

I glanced behind me and noticed his expression was darker than I'd seen in a long time. This was getting to him. My shoulders sank. I didn't want Joe to internalize all of this. He'd relapsed once before, and I didn't want this to send him there.

Pausing in front of a door to take us to the next car, I turned and pulled Joe into a hug. "Thank you. I couldn't do this without you."

He hugged me back. "Yes, you could."

I let go of him and looked at him, brows furrowed. "No, I couldn't. If you hadn't believed me in the beginning, if you hadn't agreed to go with me, I'd probably be going crazy somewhere alone."

"You've overcome so much," he said. "You're stronger than you know."

"I've never overcome something like this before," I said.

"Hey," Joe squeezed my shoulder. "If you can kick the blue pills, you can handle anything."

I froze as I recalled someone mentioning the blue pills. They kept magic away, making those with magic unable to use it so they could hide. I'd resisted the idea of Brenon cutting off the supply but what if we asked them to quit taking the pills? What if they came to us? "Joe, you're a genius."

I took off in the direction we had just come and burst through the door. Renewed hope rushed through me. "Evangeline, can you contact the others? The supernaturals and Fae that are in hiding?"

"Yes, why?"

"What if we ask them all to come here and stop taking the pills? Can we hide them while their magic returns? If there's enough of them, can we work together to surprise Terra?" My pulse raced. Could this work?

Evangeline stood and looked into the distance for a moment as if considering my words, then she nodded slowly. "I think it might work."

"I can put out an announcement," Goldie said. "Like we do for the Fire Festival invite."

Evangeline looked back at Brenon and frowned. "This isn't how I wanted to take the lead." She turned to Goldie. "Do it."