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“They do.”

Mercury squared his shoulders, then turned, only to come face to face with the Violet Giant. After a lifetime of ghosts appearing without warning, Mercury wasn’t ever startled by their sudden and often silent arrivals. He wasn’t in that moment, either, but he was wary. Had something else gone wrong?

“The Vanns have been released from their cell,” Mercury said.

“I know.” He spoke quietly, yet his voice still rumbled. “All the ghosts are speaking of Baby Blue. They’re saying he’s been taken away.”

Mercury nodded. “The Forever Flame has taken him. I don’t know where or how.”

The Violet Giant studied him with confusion. “He has ‘taken him’?”

“Ripped away the connection. Baby disappeared, whisked away somewhere. And the Forever Flame has set his sights on Zizzy next.” Mercury rubbed at the back of his neck. “I can’t let him rip her away as well. But if I don’t know how he takes them, I don’t know how to stop him. Or how to get Baby back.”

“It would help for you to understand that—” Without warning the Violet Giant was yanked away, rushing off the roof and out of sight.

Mercury’s confusion lasted only a flash of a moment. The Vanns were fleeing Aventine, likely in the carriage they’d arrived in. The Violet Giant had to stay within five hundred feet of Mr. Vann. Their departure necessitated his.

Mercury could try chasing them, but he didn’t know where they were going. By the time a carriage was prepared, assuming Mercury didn’t get caught by the remaining invaders and imprisoned in his own traps, the Vanns would be too far away from Aventine for him to find them again.

Blast it all. The mammoth ghost had been about to tell him something potentially helpful.

“Two of the prisoners have doubled back,” the Winged Monk said. “They’ve gone inside the house.”

That wasn’t unexpected. “Spread word among the ghosts that all of the human interlopers at Aventine are to be included in their campaign of torment.”

“Is there anything else you’d like me to tell the others?” the Winged Monk asked.

“To be careful. I don’t want the Forever Flame to feel he ought to retaliate against any of you.”

Mercury made his way to the Scholar’s tower room, hoping Tacey would be there. He felt less upended when he was with her. And she knew Zizzy well. She might know a better way to explain things to the poor girl, to help Zizzy understand that Mercury needed to protect her.

Fate, it seemed, intended to be kind to him. For once.

He stepped inside the Scholar’s room and found both Tacey and Zizzy inside, in the midst of a conversation on the very topic that weighed so heavily on his mind.

“But he promised he would never trade me,” Zizzy said, her voice little more than a teary whisper.

“He is trying to protect you,” Tacey said. “If he doesn’t trade you, the Forever Flame will be able to take you away. We can’t let that happen.”

Either Zizzy had explained what Mercury had told her, or Tacey had managed to piece it together on her own. Mercury hadn’t spoken with her about any of this.

“But he promised.”

“I know, dear,” Tacey said. “And I know him well enough to be certain the very idea is tearing his heart to bits.”

Mercury kept near the door, being as silent as he could manage.

“And,” Tacey continued, “though he hasn’t spoken with me about it, I would guess the person he wishes to trade you to is me.”

That pulled Zizzy’s watery gaze to Tacey. “You?”

Tacey nodded. “And the moment we have thwarted the Forever Flame, the Governor, and the law, we will trade you back. I swear to you. I swear it.”

“So do I,” Mercury said as he stepped closer to them.

They both turned toward him. Heartache filled both of their faces. It likely touched his as well. He’d always been so good at hiding any uncertainty or worry or sorrow. He couldn’t entirely manage it in that moment.

“The Forever Flame will think he simply hasn’t found my connection to you and will keep looking,” Mercury said. “That will keep you safe. It will keep him from doing to you whatever it is he’s done to Baby Blue.”