"You'll like him, I think. He's much less spooky when you're having drinks with him as opposed to meeting him in a dark hallway burning evil books." Or when you're planning to burn evil books with him. "Just try not to flirt too much."

The Elias Problem is going on the back burner for now. They have loads of time to talk about Elias and the Entities and the horrors of Deerington. Right now is just for the two of them, a campfire and an entire bag of marshmallows.

"Salty snacks and Gerry's terrible whiskey. A bit of a downgrade from his last birthday I got to go to. But it was nice." She frowns slightly, her hand gripping his just slightly tighter. "...It was hard, last month. There was a lot going wrong. We all needed a bit of a reprieve."