Page 865 of End Game

“That was later.”

Griffin laughs.

Cami looks at me. “The puppet thing. It told us to choose a partner.”

I nod. “And you decided that instruction was optional.”

“It was a dumb instruction.”

“It specifically said choose a partner.”

“Yeah, but there were four of us.”

She says it so matter-of-factly that I almost laugh.

“We could all do it.”

Micah’s smile widens slightly.

Griffin says, “No splitting the party.”

Dex leans back. “God, we were codependent before we even knew why.”

“You are not using that word correctly.”

“Emotionally entangled, then.”

“Better.”

Cami’s thumb continues tracing the edge of her sheet. “We all held on.”

I remember.

The wooden puppet.

The ribbon.

The maze.

Her immediate solution to a challenge designed for two people.

All four of them.

No one lets go.

“You moved like one organism with too many hands and a shared pulse,” I say.

Her head snaps up. “You remember the exact line?”

“Yes.”

“Of course you do,” Griffin murmurs.

I remember more than the line.

I remember the catacombs beneath Miralen’s Keep and the glowing chalice Micah absolutely should not have touched. The first mimic. The Whispering Fair. Cami’s first session. Dex trying to seduce things that did not have anatomy. Griffin treating dungeon combat like incident command. Micah quietly solving encounters I expected to take two hours. Cami discovering that Guiding Bolt solved an unreasonable number of problems.

The Headless Horseman.