Chapter 20

Ivy dressed in the same clothing as yesterday, since opening her satchel where all her grading was would only distract her further. She’d already been distracted enough by the heated discussion of the night before, plus the rather lackluster de-briefing session she and her siblings had had before they quit the night to their individual rooms.

“I still don’t get why we just don’t leave,” Hazel had said the night before, straddling a corner between the front foyer and the elevators of the hotel. “She can’t stop us.”

“I beg to differ,” Rowan said. “I think if there was a way to stop us, she’d find it.”

“Yeah, using tea leaves and good thoughts. Which is only a mind trick, and nothing more,” Hazel said. When Rowan went quiet, once again, Hazel turned to Ivy. “What about you? You seemed gung ho to leave, I would have thought you’d be on this train right away. Or bus or whatever.”

“I am. I just…I’m siding with Rowan.”