“So you’re saying it was Connell,” Kirk said.

“It had to be. This is why you have to exercise some fucking caution. He was able to kill a high-profile public figure, just… swoop in and snatch Vinter away from everyone, and we still don’t know how.” Cat made Connell sound like an owl, bearing down on fledglings from above before disappearing into the canopy. A silent ghost.

“But how does that make the video dangerous?” Kirk asked. “Almost everyone thinks it’s fake, and you can’t use it to figure out where I am now.”

“He’ll know who you are. He’ll know about Occult Ontario, about Abigail. What if she mentions me when he calls? Then all he has to do is get ahold of my number and track us down that way. He’ll recognize my name.”

“Okay, fine. Whatever. I’m sorry.”

“The only thing you can do now,” Cat brushed past Kirk’s weak apology, “is delete that video and scrub any association with your old job. I’ll give Abigail a call. And, the sooner you gain control over your invisibility, the sooner you can leave.

“What’s the point?” he spat back. “This isn’t what I wished for.”

Cat sighed. “The Firebird rarely gives you exactly what you ask for, but people never realize that until it’s too late. We don’t think things through, we don’t understand, and then we have regrets. But you can’t seclude yourself here because of that. You can’t spend your whole life pretending like you don’t exist.”