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“And you can’t talk to anyone else, because…?”

“Noah’s mad at me.”

“Should he be?”

“Probably.”

“Anyone else?”

“I don’t have anyone else.” That was a gut-punch to admit out loud.

“What about Val—Hart?”

“Hart isn’t exactly your friendly neighborhood elf.”

He laughed. “I’ll tell you a secret.”

“What?”

“He absolutely does have emotions.”

“No way. Not possible.”

“Yep. But only to me. And Taavi.”

“Hart doesn’t really people.”

“True.”

“You aren’t people. Well. Human people.” I winced. That sounded bad.

But Elliot laughed again. “No, I suppose not. Taavi does emotions much better.”

I hummed. “Yeah, but… I don’t know him. Noah does. They used to work together. He seems nice, but…” I trailed off.

“So I’m it?”

When he put it that way, it sounded even worse. And absolutely violated Rule Two. “Sorry.” I hung up and let myself fall sideways on the bed—because I was drinking sitting in bed, like the absolute loser I am—staring off into space.

My phone lit up again.

I stared at it, confused.

It went dark.

Then lit up again.

“You don’t have to talk to me,” I told him.

“I know.”

But he didn’t hang up. This time, neither did I.

“They were kids,” I blurted.

“The bodies?” he guessed.

“Yeah.”