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“That’s really there,” Adam says. “I thought maybe you were exaggerating. Not lying. Just, you know. Under stress.”

“I wish I was,” I say quietly.

Felix is quiet again, properly quiet this time, the kind that means he’s actually thinking rather than just processing. “Has Dis said anything to you about any of this?”

“No. Why would he?” I ask.

“Because he’s been odd,” Felix says. “For days. Distracted. Goes quiet mid sentence and won’t say why.”

“Oh,” Adam says. “Hex has been doing it too. He goes very still, like he’s listening for something. He hasn’t teased me properly since yesterday.”

“What happened yesterday?” Felix asks.

“Nothing, that’s the thing,” Adam says. “We were just watching telly. He went quiet halfway through an episode, just stopped talking mid sentence. When I asked what was wrong he said it was nothing and changed the subject. He’s done it every time since.”

Nobody says anything for a moment.

“Since yesterday?” Felix repeats.

“Yesterday,” Adam confirms.

I look between them. “You’ve both noticed this. Separately. And neither of you said anything?”

“I thought it was a Dis thing,” Felix says. “He gets like this sometimes. Goes into his own head. I figured he’d come out of it.”

“I thought it was a Hex thing.” Adam picks at the edge of the box he’s still holding. “He gets moody sometimes too. Not often. But it happens. I didn’t want to make it a whole conversation over nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” I say. “It’s not a them thing. It’s the same thing. Something serious is happening in the Shadow Realm.”

Nobody argues with that. Nobody can.

I think about Dark, wherever he is right now, whatever he’s doing to help his brother. I wonder if he’s as unsettled as Dis and Hex clearly are. I suspect he is.

“Dis was the king,” Felix says. “Before. If anyone would understand exactly what Night’s dealing with, it’s him. And if he’s gone this quiet about it, it’s because he doesn’t like what he understands.”

“So what do we do?” I ask.

“I need to talk to him,” he says, his shoulders settling into a very determined position. “Tonight.”

“Tonight?” I repeat, startled.

“Tonight.” He nods briskly.

I can’t help it. “You do know he’s an ancient shadow monster. Formidable. Once ruled an entire realm?”

“And?” Felix says, unbothered.

“And you’re about to march in there and demand answers like he’s a teenager who missed curfew,” I say.

“He is, functionally, a teenager who missed curfew,” Felix says. “He’s just very tall and very old about it.”

“I’m just saying,” I say, grinning despite everything. “It’s objectively very sweet. Terrifying ancient being, brought entirely to heel by someone who barely reaches his shoulder.”

“Height has nothing to do with it,” Felix says, with the flat certainty of a man who has never once doubted this. “I could intimidate a mountain if I wanted to.”

“I don’t doubt that for a second,” I say.

“Good,” Felix says, already halfway out the door. “Neither does Dis, which is exactly why this is going to work.”