Running from the gunman, finding herself in the middle of the fray- it had been exciting. Silver killing her hadn’t just made her content. It had, unfortunately, made her feel alive. Now she felt bare and wrung out and embarrassed, in ways that diving and thrill rides had never elicited.

“You have no experience,” Cat and Asmeret both began to say, speaking over each-other. “You’re twenty,” the latter emphasized.

“Recruiting more help from the Society would be preferable to recruiting you,” Cat said. “Connell knows we have a familiar on our side. He could send a familiar after us next time. We need to assume he has connections with bound witches. You won’t be able to go up against that.”

“I’ve been talking to Isra about it.” Julia scratched the back of Yuli’s neck. “Look, maybe I could train Phoebe a little. In the basic endurance and strength stuff that I learned when I joined the Society. It couldn’t hurt.”

“If Connell is a witch, could he be bound? Could he have his own familiar?” Bluebell asked.

“Yuli’s never scented one. Not on the train or anywhere else,” Julia replied.

“There’s also-” Phoebe cut in. “Consumptions can’t be undone, right? But the Firebird might be able to break the bond between me and Silver, in a way that won’t hurt us. I might be able to free myself from him.” She sat her mug down and looked at Cat. “Would that be possible?”

“How familiar are you with common motifs in Firebird lore?”

“Not very,” Phoebe admitted. “Mostly moral lessons from fairy tales and stuff.”

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3.6.2024
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