After a whole lot of pleading from Cannoli, Jazz finally agreed to let Tristan and Ara rejoin our party. We left her chamber and returned to the main hall to collect them with a less stringent guard. Ball was released from his bag and settled on Ravyn’s shoulder, squawking and snapping at any of the spear carriers that came too close to her bubble for his taste. Cannoli held Buttons close to her chest but kept her eyes straight forward, her gaze set with a resolve like I’d never seen before. We had a plan. Maybe it wouldn’t be the next coming of Catania, but it would let them stop eating sewage.

The situation in the prison cell was not pretty. Tristan was huddled in a corner, holding Desiree close to his chest, while a furious Ara stood guard at his feet, her eyes never leaving the other catgirls sharing their quarters.

“He abandoned us!” one shrieked, clawing at Ara’s forearm.

Ara snapped her wrist and boxed the woman in the jaw with lightning speed.

“You who live in the brothels of Venicia would dare to defend this weak excuse for a man?” Another pointed at Tristan, noticeably remaining out of arm’s reach of Ara. “You’re just as fucking guilty.”

Sanaia—who was, unfortunately, the guard with the keys—watched the exchange with a cynical smile.

“Hey! Get him out of there!” I grabbed her shoulder.

Sanaia glanced at my hand, wearing an expression as if I’d slapped her, and swatted it away. “Mind your place.”

“Follow your orders,” I growled. I was starving, exhausted, and losing my patience with this tribe.

Narrowing her gaze, she stepped forward and unlocked the prison cell. “You two, out.” She jabbed her fingers at Ara and Tristan. “The rest of you, stay back.”

“What the fuck, Sanaia? They get to leave before me?” The girl Ara hit ran to the bars, her tail whipping back and forth behind her. “All I did was take some goddamn bread!”

“You know the rules, Tori. Stealing rations is a week’s repentance.”

Ara and Tristan rushed away from their prison and grouped up with the rest of us. Closer up, I noticed long streaks running through the dirt on Tristan’s cheeks. His eyes were bloodshot and defeated. I felt for the guy; I couldn’t imagine what he was feeling.

“Have anything we can eat?” I asked Sanaia once she’d relocked the prison door.

“Are you fucking deaf? Were you not listening to a word Jazz said?” Sanaia flicked the side of my head and locked my gaze. “We. Don’t. Have. Food.”

“I-I should have enough for all of us,” Cannoli spoke up, holding her hands beneath her chin. “We just need somewhere safe to light a fire.”

Sanaia frowned and set her jaw. “You’ll find a fire pit in your quarters.”

“Mou ii. Could you please just take us there, bitch, and stop wasting our damn time?” Ravyn snapped. Hangry Ravyn was a dangerous opponent.

“Jazz should have killed you all,” Sanaia spat, then jerked her spear in a direction farther into the cave. “This way.”

We followed in relative silence, drawing more gazes and whispered words from catgirls that hadn’t seen us enter earlier. Keke snaked her arm through Cannoli’s elbow and, to my surprise, Ravyn hooked her fingers through the bottom hem of my shirt. She held on tight but refused to meet my gaze. Seeing as we’d almost party-wiped just a few hours prior, I found the gesture comforting and didn’t draw attention to it.

“Here. There should be enough cots.” Sanaia stopped suddenly and drew back a gigantic dusty curtain dangling over one of the alcoves. “There’s your fire pit in the center and buckets in the back for you to piss in.”

There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s…

“One of the guards will wake you at daybreak, and you will begin your…whatever the fuck it is that you’re doing then.” She dropped the curtain and eyed Cannoli. “Oh, and lastly, there are some crawly Encrochers that like sleeping in the hair of pretty girls. Sleep tight.”

Cannoli shivered. Buttons licked his lips. I was pretty sure even if what Sanaia said was true, Buttons was going to feast that night.

Our “room” was a rounded-out section of the cave that barely fit the six of us and the firepit in the middle. We’d have to sleep with two people side by side, and three people head to foot. Nothing decorated the walls besides the dirty curtain, and two wooden buckets lay on their sides in the far back.

“Let’s make the best of it,” Keke said, taking a stab at the tense silence blanketing all of us.

“Right! Let me see what I have!” Cannoli bounced to the opposite side of the meager tinder, and Ravyn released my shirt to quietly set to work on starting a fire.

I put a hand on Tristan’s shoulder and gestured for him to hang back with me. I dropped the curtain to give us some semblance of privacy—even if I could hear every person breathing on the other side—and lowered my voice. “You okay?”

Tristan held Desiree closer and shook his head. “They hate me, Matt. Maybe leaving Venicia really was a mistake.”

“Hey, no, you can’t look at it like that.” I rubbed the back of my neck with one hand and shook my head. “This is your chance, man. This is how we show them you do give a shit about them.”

“B-but, you guys are going to do all of the work here. Just like you did all the work in Anyona. Goddammit. I’m useless.”

I wracked my brain. There had to be something Tristan could do to show them he wanted to get better. That he really was going to help beyond bedding every girl he came into contact with. I remembered his room back at the school and recalled all of the art supplies stacked in the corner. “You like art, right?”

“I love it. More than anything, really.” He rubbed a fresh set of tears from his eyes and sniffed. “I, um, used to decorate some of the storefronts in San Francisco. And do the art on the buildings.”

“No way. That’s great!” Better than I thought. “Look, the walls in this place are totally empty. Doesn’t art make other people feel better? Raise morale?”

Tristan slowly nodded. “I would draw a lot of the catgirls back at Venicia, especially if they were feeling down. Some of them enjoyed posing nude.” A smile finally tinged his lips. “But yeah, they really liked that.”

…Naked drawings? And we didn’t take them with us? No! I pushed the thought out of my head. “What if you drew the girls here? On the walls?” I gestured behind me in the general direction of the girls. “We’re going to be here a couple of days. Help me out during the day and draw at night. Get to know them. They’ll come around, you’ll see.”

His smile widened, and he nodded. “That’s a great idea, Matt. Thank you!”

“Yeah, don’t mention it.” Let’s just hope it works. “I’m sure more of them are going to fire some shots, but just take them in stride, okay? No more crying.”

“You’re right. I have to be strong.” He readjusted Desiree in his arms, and she nuzzled her cheek to his face. “I really do want to fix this.”

“I know, man.” I clapped him on the shoulder and pulled the curtain back. “I know.”

Cannoli managed to conjure up enough vegetables and spices for a sizeable stew. Keke added a few pieces of the meat she’d carved from our roach hunts, and Ara had, apparently, held on to a loaf of bread since Venicia.

“You never know when you may need it,” she reasoned with the rest of us as we stared at it greedily.

“She understands me!” Cannoli gasped, eyes sparkling at her newfound kin.

The atmosphere grew a lot cozier with the warmth from the fire and the smells of cooking food filling the walls. I spied two hungry catgirls peeking around our curtain, eyes lingering on the simmering meats.

“I think we have enough for two more,” Cannoli murmured. She glanced up at the newcomers and motioned them inside. “Come in. Share with us!”

One was young—still in her early teens, if I had to guess—with deep blue hair and silver eyes. She licked her lips and sat cross-legged near the fire. The other was older, around my age. Her brown eyes flickered to each of us in turn, and she nervously toyed with her auburn hair. Every girl in the place seemed dressed in whatever scraps they could pull together and bind with a thread. Tops that protected their chests, paired with simple side skirts or loincloths. The auburn-haired girl’s shirt had one long sleeve while the other end cut beneath her armpit. Dirt and grime marred their skin and beneath their fingernails, and I wondered how long it had been since any of them had bathed.

“What are your names?” Tristan asked kindly.

“I’m Amara,” the blue-haired girl said.

“Kira,” said the other.

“Have you lived here all your lives?”

Amara and Kira exchanged glances, then nodded.

“We was born here,” Amara replied. “We go up to the surface sometimes. With everyone else. But Jazz says it’s too dangerous to live up there anymore.”

Kira glanced toward the ceiling and sighed, pulling her knees into her chest. “I lived in a house with my mama up there. I didn’t recognize it last time we went up. It was all broken up.”

“We have many in Venicia who have been through similar situations,” Ara said gently. “I am sorry for your losses.”

“The guards talk about Venicia sometimes. Is it really run by a demon?” Amara asked with wide eyes.

Before Ara or Tristan could reply, Keke, Cannoli, and Ravyn said, “Yes” in unison.

I chuckled beneath my breath.

“That is rude to say,” Ara snapped.

“Maybe it’s rude. But it’s not wrong,” Keke replied easily.

The girls giggled. The sweet sound, I think, lifted all of our spirits.

Cannoli passed around helpings of the stew, and Ara sliced off pieces of the bread to go along with it. While most of us ate with spoons, the younger girls slurped it straight from the bowl, breaking the bread to dip in the broth one tiny piece at a time.

Enjoying Cannoli’s cooking again made our nightmarish day feel just a little bit easier. My hunger sated at last. I realized just how tired I was. Even with two paper-thin blankets and a flat cave floor, I was certain there was little that could wake me that night.

Amara and Kira thanked Cannoli with tight embraces and warm smiles. Cannoli glowed with pride as she cleaned her pan with a strip of cloth and packed up her things. Just as they were about to leave, Tristan called to them.

“I want to help Catania look just like Venicia again,” Tristan continued. “I hope you’ll let me.”

The two exchanged glances, then looked at Tristan and nodded.

Solid start, Tristan. You can do this.