Grim passed the laptop back to Eli. “Looks good, Valenz.”

“Yeah?” Eli chewed his lip as he scanned the screen one more time. “You think he’ll approve?”

Grim smirked. “I think he’ll be surprised you made a twenty-slide deck just to tell him you’re going to grad school.”

“If I get in.”

“You’ll get in.”

They were sitting together on the porch swing, trying to take advantage of the sunny afternoon before the forecasted rain rolled in. Eli bent over the laptop and scrolled through the deck again, trying to pinpoint what still felt so off about it. He had been sure that gaining Grim’s approval would make him feel better.

His eyes kept landing on the per-semester tuition and its horrifying number of zeroes. That was it.

“It’s just…” He closed the laptop. “Are you sure he can pay for this? I know if I ask him, he’ll say yes, but if he’s lying to me, and he’s going to starve himself so I can go off and become a teacher—“

“He can pay.” Grim stood, then leaned against the railing, as if reluctant to retreat inside when the sunshine was still so warm. “He’s been planning on getting out since the day he started.”

Eli stood to copy their stance at the railing. “But Dawn and I weren’t part of the plan.”

“You are now.”

The intercom crackled inside the cabin, spouting a frantic call. Eli whipped around—it sounded like Sherry, but was far too muffled to hear through the walls. Grim yanked open the porch door and leaned in to listen.

“Basement!” Sherry repeated, her voice shrill. “Everyone!”

They sprinted to the basement without a word, nearly colliding with Banneker as he thundered down the stairs.

“What is it?” He looked to Grim, his grip tight on the railing.

“No idea. Go.” Grim opened the basement door and ushered them inside.

Eli frantically scanned the room the instant he hit the stairs. No flames or blood, nothing broken, no strangers. His eyes landed on the two figures standing outside the lab—Sherry biting her nail and pacing, Ambrose hunched over on a chair. Though Ambrose’s gaze was cast down to the floor, Eli could see both of his hands shake as they buried into his own hair.

“I miscalculated, this is my fault,” he muttered, his broken voice barely registering over the sound of Sherry’s footsteps.

“This isn’t your fault.” Sherry’s reassurance faltered as her pacing grew quicker. “We knew this could happen.”

“I can’t.” Ambrose hunched lower, nearly bent in half. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t—“

“What is it?” Grim stopped at the foot of the stairs, and Banneker slid to a halt next to them. Though Eli wanted to go to Ambrose, he forced himself to follow suit and give him space. Sherry let out a ragged sigh upon seeing them.

“We don’t have enough icefall,” she said, her voice as unsteady as Ambrose’s.

“We should have had enough after Pearce’s lab.” Ambrose launched out of his chair, but refused to meet anyone’s gaze as he stalked in angry lines across the basement. “Enough to complete the research before the handoff. But now the handoff is in two weeks and I don’t have...I have to…” He ground to a halt, his words like jagged glass as he faced away from them. “I can’t do it again.”

The room fell silent, no one looking each other in the eye. Eli’s heart sank. Not a soul in here wanted to force Ambrose into another heist, into more overdoses and fear and wracking pain.

But there was only one way they were going to get out of this cabin.

Eli stepped forward, letting the words fall from his lips before he had a chance to think about them. “What if I helped?”

Ambrose finally whirled around to face him, the distress in his eyes snapping into fear and drawing a hard line around his response. “No. No, I refuse.”

But everyone else lifted their heads at Eli’s offer. Next to Eli, Grim shuffled, arms folded. Ambrose’s face turned desperate. “Grim, I said no.”

“Beake, the last icefall target in the area isn’t a one-person job,” they countered. “It wouldn’t be a bad idea for him to join you.”

Sherry was next to succumb as she placed a hand on Ambrose’s arm. “I’d feel better if it wasn’t just you on the mission.”

“No, Sherry, please.”

“I’ve got extra comms,” Banneker jumped in. “I can keep an eye on you both, easy.”

Eli’s heart began to race, the adrenaline in his system already getting swept up in the mission, just as it always had at the agency. In his excitement, he even let loose a smile, then quickly wrestled it down as he caught sight of Ambrose still staring at Grim.

“One condition,” he hissed, but Grim was already shaking their head.

“It’ll be easier if—“

“No.”

“It’ll be safer if—“

Ambrose exploded. “He’s not taking any icefall!” he shouted, his command choked with tears. “I’ll—I’ll drink it all right now if I have to—“

Any excitement Eli had for the mission melted into guilt. He closed the gap between them and touched his arm, keeping his voice low and even. “If it’s going to help the mission, I’m willing to take the risk.”

“I’m not willing for you to take the risk!” Ambrose ripped his arm out of Eli’s grasp. “If anything happened to you, it would be my fault. On top of everything I’ve already done to you, I can’t…”

Before Eli could say anything else, Ambrose had blown past them up the stairs. Sherry rushed to the railing and leaned against it as she looked up the steps.

“Ambrose, it’s going to rain—“

The front door slammed shut. Grim sighed, then stepped forward and clapped a hand on Eli’s shoulder.

“He’ll come around when he realizes he doesn’t have a choice,” they said. “Come on, I’ll brief you in the meantime.”