Brindle is huge enough to have seven air rail stations. With Wilder’s help, Mino figures out that the one they need to go to is the southeasternmost location.

  Brindle is also very, very far away from Portis. It is late morning by the time that Mino, Iris, Bee, and Wilder are ready to leave Portis, and they don’t arrive in Brindle until after the Underground has already reached its darkest time. Wilder carries Mino into an inn, deposits her in a soft bed, and then she’s dreaming.

  Mino dreams of stars, twinkling in the sky. She focuses on one, sees it’s shape and luster. Colors become more vivid the longer she looks—seafoam, coral, wisps of daisy yellow, all swirling and shining faintly through the bright whiteness.

  Then, the star falls.

  Another, and another, shooting down from the sky, bursting into the earth, burrowing, burrowing down. Down through grass and root, past worms and beetles and marching ants, deeper and deeper into rock. They emerge from an unseeable ceiling and drip, incendiary, through open air. They burst and break and reform, moving around, hovering above the ground. Mino is standing on a hill, wind howling, so many lights glinting all around her. She looks down. Her body is gone. All she sees is a star.

  In the early morning, Mino gets a better look at Brindle from the balcony outside of their rented room. As far as she knows, Brindle is the only community in the Underground with large condo complexes. The buildings are huge, at least five or six stories high. She’s never seen anything like it—or at least, she can’t remember ever seeing anything like it. Many of the buildings are also crowded together, making it nearly plausible that some people could reach out of a window and touch the structure next to it.

  In this place, the greenery is intertwined with construction. Trees grow into buildings, shrubs overtake benches, and vines burrow into wood and stone. Flowers peek down from atop every condo and spill over the edges of rooftops.

  Everything in Brindle looks older and more worn down than in many other places Mino has seen. Most things in the Underground are well-loved, but it seems like Brindle is a little more than that. Even the balcony Mino stands on is missing a chunk of it’s railing, and it could have been like that for years with no efforts or plans for repair. Iris had said to her on the air rail yesterday that “In Brindle, they just keep using things until someone gets hurt, then they tear it down and build somewhere else.”

  Mino wonders if Iris is still sleeping or if Wilder has woken her up. They should all find some breakfast. Mino is itching to follow the map in her mind. Who are they going to meet here? What will they be able to tell Mino about her flowers?

  She reaches up and touches them softly. Even though they’re beginning to encroach on her field of vision, Mino feels differently about the flowers than she did before. She’s starting to get used to the cheery growth. She’s not afraid of them at all now. Something in her trusts that they won’t hurt her, and everything will be okay.

  Iris is, in fact, awake, and the others are already eating breakfast in their rented room. Mino crunches some toast eagerly, trying and failing to avoid spilling crumbs all over. She insists on cleaning up after herself.

  As they all prepare to leave the room for the day, Bee double checks that everyone has their copies of the clunky key. Mino tucks hers around her neck so it’s resting under her shirt, the cool metal solid against her collarbones. Then they’re ready to go out looking for the home in Mino’s mind.

  It being so early, not many locals are out and about yet. The residents of Brindle seem to retire late and rise late.

  It is surprisingly difficult to find a specific building in Brindle. So many tattered, colorful flags and banners wave from every corner, every post, every balcony, distracting the eye. Seeing around corners or far distances becomes impossible, especially with the height of the condos. Mino easily locates the district that Janos had showed her, as it’s very close to the rail station. But the home itself remains hidden.

  They finally see a local as they wander the avenues. She immediately understands the exact location Mino is referencing. She points them down a side alley that Mino hadn’t noticed before. A few turns later, Mino’s vision feels as though it has a dark halo around it, and a strange, strong and buzzing sensation fills her mind. Her vision zooms in as though magnified to focus on a home some yards ahead. It looks identical to the vision she’d seen in Janos and Torin’s shop.

  “There!” Mino points, excited. Even after walking around for so long she is renewed with fresh energy. She runs ahead to the building, then pauses a few paces back to examine it.

  It’s not a communal space like the condos, but it’s still very large: three stories and many feet wide. It looks much too big for only one family, but there is only one point of entry, only one address. 1111 Nineteenth Alley and Pick. Mino thinks back to her own home, which is simply designated, 371 Finlow. In Brindle, they can’t designate addresses according to the town name. How many people live here?

  Wilder, Iris, and then Bee catch up with her. She looks up at them—though she thinks that she doesn’t have to crane her head back as much as she used to, especially when looking at Bee.

  “This is the place,” she says. Bee examines it, thoughtful.

  “Let’s forge ahead, sister,” Wilder says, smiling down at her. He steps forward and knocks firmly at the door. Mino smiles, enjoying the warm feeling of completeness that comes whenever Bee or Wilder refer to her as family.

  The door is opened by a little boy, four or five years old, who is looking at her curiously and holding onto his thin shirt. His hair is pale and there are small, round, furry ears twitching atop his head. Mino wasn’t expecting a child. Is this who is supposed to help her?

  Surprisingly, it is Iris who speaks up. “Hello darling, are your parents home? We’d like to have a chat,” she says.

  The boy’s face lights up. He speaks in an unfamiliar language, so Mino looks at the words in the air. “I can take you!” He beams. “Papa is here! Papa is here!” He looks proud in the way of small children when they can be helpful. He’s just so darn cute…

  Bee leads the way into the house, following the little boy up several flights of wide wooden stairs. As they progress, they pass several other children, and the little boy gives them looks of self-importance as he marches forth. Mino looks around curiously at the meticulously cleaned walls, the old but comfortable furniture. There are so many children here, at least ten that Mino has seen. Surely they don’t all belong to one couple? Many of them don’t look as though they could possibly be related.

  On the third floor there is only a single door to go through. The boy steps forward and knocks on it solemnly. The door swings open from the inside, but it doesn’t look like anyone is there… ?

  The boy turns around. “Wait here,” he commands, and then disappears into the room. Faint voices can be heard, and then he returns. “Papa will see you now,” he announces with dignity. Then he runs back down the staircase.

  Mino steps ahead again before anyone else can and enters the room.

  There is a man standing inside next to a wide, cluttered desk. He is tall and extremely thin, almost alarmingly so. His skin is dark but somehow faded, desaturated. His hair is thin and brittle-looking. Something inside Mino tells her that this man is very, very sick.

  As the others enter the room, Bee lets out a choked noise and immediately yanks Wilder back out.

  Mino blinks, startled. She looks at the man, who is leaning on the desk and looks as though he could fall over. He’s staring, aghast, at the empty doorway. Then something strange happens—parts of his body flicker in and out of view, like they’re going transparent for a moment before snapping back into place.

  Iris steps out to look for her brothers, and Mino signs a quick, “Sorry, one second,” before following. She’ll figure out what is going on with that man in a minute.

  Bee is holding Wilder and shaking. Mino is immediately struck with a powerful memory.

  Light shines through a cracked-open door. Mino peeks inside. Bee rarely leaves his bedroom door open, she’s curious! She looks around and doesn’t see him at first, but then she does. Bee is hunched over next to his bed, gripping the sheets that are half-pulled to the floor. He’s trembling. Before Mino can say anything, he lets out a choked sob. He shudders, body tense, muscles straining tightly enough to scare Mino. She takes an uncertain step back. Other than the small noise Bee let out, he is silent, shaking, still. The ground trembles below her feet and Mino feels off-balance. She falls back and stumbles into the wall. She’s never, ever seen Bee like this. She’s never seen him cry.

  By the time the ground stops moving, Wilder has come up the stairs. Should she tell him? But he smiles and whisks her downstairs to show her something. Only a moment later, Bee is downstairs too, looking like nothing ever happened. Wilder looks clueless and unconcerned. Mino swallows down the uncertainty and never tells anyone what she saw.

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  Mino remembers, and she remembers afterwards, too. How she had always wished she had gone in to hug Bee at that moment, so he knew he wasn’t alone.

  She goes to hug him and Wilder now. She hears what Bee is saying:

  “Wilder, that’s your dad. That’s our dad. He’s our dad.”

  Mino didn’t know they had a dad. Of course, they must, but she didn’t know he was here. So many people in the Underground had only parts of their biological family with them. Sometimes people died, sometimes they got mad and moved away, and sometimes people came from the Overground by themselves or without everyone who was related to them. People built families around themselves, around where they lived. Bee and Wilder’s father was here, living, in Brindle? How long had he been here? Why was Bee crying? Was he happy, or upset?

  After a moment, Wilder extracts himself from the hug. He looks down at Bee, eyes warm and wet, and he says, “I don’t remember him. I want to meet him.”

  Bee looks shaken, his jaw working. He looks as though he can’t decide whether to be angry or scared. When Wilder steps back into the room, Bee follows him immediately. Mino and Iris are right behind them.

  The man has sat in an old armchair, head in his hands. He looks up when they enter. Parts of his body continue to flicker and fade in and out of view. Bee looks disturbed by this, Wilder cautious. Mino turns her head to the side so she can see better, with her uncovered eye. Is her brain tricking her? It looks a little bit like her flowers are leaning towards the man.

  “Why are you doing that,” Bee asks the man, still shaking, fists clenched. “Stop looking pitiful, I want to punch you.”

  The man flashes hard upon hearing this. His expression is pained and focused, his breathing deep and steady. Mino suspects that it’s forced. His lips move. Mino steps closer and hears, “My sons,” and, “I’m sorry.” His words don’t appear in the air. He gets more translucent by the second.

  He needs help. He needs Mino. She doesn’t know why or how she knows this but the knowledge is there, so strong inside of her.

  Mino takes his hand. The flickering is soothed, not quite so violent or strong anymore. Why does holding her hand make that better? The man looks at her strangely, but very quickly looks back at Wilder and Bee.

  Bee grips his bangs so hard that it looks as though he might rip the hair out. Iris tries to put a hand on his arm but he flinches away. “What the fuck,” he hisses. “You should be dead. I hoped you were dead, damn it, because at least that would explain why you never came back!”

  The man is shaking just like Bee. Mino keeps holding on to his hand. She wants so badly to be at Bee’s side right now, but it feels like she has to keep holding on. If she lets go, something in her is afraid that the man will disappear completely.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” the man says, this time loud enough for the others to hear.

  “Oh you’re sorry, Chat? You left me alone. I was a kid! How was I supposed to take care of Wilder by myself?”

  A few tears fall down Wilder’s face. “You said Dad had to leave,” he says.

  “I lied,” Bee spits out. “He’s an ass, not a hero. I lied to you, because I never thought we were gonna see him again so what did it matter if you thought he was good? It made you happy.”

  Wilder flinches.. Mino has to do something. She sits with her back leaning against Chat’s leg so that she can use her hands. “No swearing in front of the kid,” she says.

  Bee watches her hands. She can tell that she’s reaching him, he looks a little less on the edge.

  “You’re mad,” she says, trying as hard as she can to figure out the right words. “He hurt you. He keeps saying he’s sorry, I don’t know if you can hear him. If you’re mad at him, he’s the only one who can explain what happened. Maybe you can listen. Maybe it will help you feel better, even if you don’t forgive him.”

  Bee’s grip on his hair loosens.

  “We’re here for you, kiddo, not group therapy,” he mutters. He looks almost ashamed. Wilder slowly takes his brother’s hand. Poor Iris looks extremely uncomfortable.

  “This is more important.” Mino says.

  The room is quiet for a minute.

  “Should we sit?” Iris asks softly. She looks to Bee to decide. He hesitates, then gives a short, sharp nod. The three of them move toward the side of the room where Chat and Mino are, where another armchair and a wide, short couch are placed. The three sit, brothers side by side. Iris sits on Wilder’s other side and wraps her arm around him in support.

  “Mino,” Bee says. He opens his arms to her. Mino wants so badly to sit with him. She knows he needs her. Chat needs her more.

  “I need to be here,” she says. “I think it’s important. I’m scared that he will go away.”

  “Why are you scared of him leaving?” Bee asks.

  “I can feel it,” Mino says. “I don’t understand it, but I feel it.” She looks up at Chat, hopeful that he can explain.

  Chat’s voice is very quiet when he speaks, and his words still do not appear in the air. “I am sorry, Bee,” he says. “I’m sorry, Wilder. I didn’t want to leave you. It was because of an accident.”

  “With one of your experiments?” Bee asks harshly. Chat nods. Bee seems taken aback, almost as though he hadn’t expected a straight answer. How did Bee know that it would have been an experiment that caused his father to leave?

  “The accident affected my magic,” Chat says. “It… changed my magic. I can no longer access my old abilities, and now, if I am affected by strong emotion, I begin to fade out of existence.”

  He looks down at Mino, expression thoughtful and even appreciative. “It seems that this little one strengthens my tie to the earthly realm.”

  He looks back at Wilder and Bee, taking a deep breath. “I feel too deeply. I always have. I began to come too close to disappearing altogether. I have read many books on psychology and the function of the mind. I knew that if I was able to force myself into a deeply dissociative state, I might be able to control my emotions long enough to figure out some other kind of solution. However,” Chat hesitates. “Doing so would be a danger to my sons.” He looks at Bee and Wilder pointedly. “I left notes asking Marco and Elna to look after you, because I knew I would no longer be able to.”

  “They passed,” Wilder says.

  “Less than a year after you vanished,” Bee adds, bitter. “You left notes for the neighbors, but not your own sons?”

  Chat shudders. His form flickers. Mino reaches up to hold on tighter, scared for him.

  “I was, afraid,” he chokes out. “I was ashamed. I still am. It is no excuse. I… could not figure out what to say to you. Everything sounded wrong. So I said nothing. I thought I would write to you once I had found somewhere to stay, once I was stable. But then… I convinced myself that the two of you would no longer wish to see me.”

  “So you’ve just been hiding here for years,” Bee says. “What are all the kids downstairs for?”

  Chat shakes his head. “I can tell you about them later. They are innocent, please, leave them out of my mistakes.”

  Bee shakes his head, but Wilder asks, “Is Mino really the reason why you haven’t faded away? How do we know you aren’t lying?” Mino is surprised at Wilder’s suspicion.

  Chat blinks away tears, body extremely still. “I am not lying,” he says. “I cannot prove this theory to you. If she lets go, I, too, am afraid that I will not recover.” His grip on Mino’s hand grows a little tighter.

  “I have been practicing,” Chat says stiffly. “I’ve been working on improving my tolerance to emotions and improving my control over my own vanishing. I have developed the ability to dissociate on command, which has saved me from a few close calls. But this is not the kind of person I wished to be if I ever met you again. I… have begun to lose hope that I would ever be stable enough to meet you.”

  “Are you dissociated right now?” Bee asks, eyes narrow.

  “Partially,” Chat admits. That’s a bit alarming. What can Mino do? How can she help more than she already is? Mino searches and searches for an answer. There must be a way.

  Mino stands and sits in Chat’s lap, facing sideways.

  “Have you ever eaten a flower?” she asks him.

  Something deep in his eyes shifts, but on the surface, nothing changes. “I have not.”

  “How do you feel about trying?”

  “Mino, what the fu—what the heck,” Bee says. Mino waves him off.

  “Bite one off of my head. It won’t hurt me,” she says.

  Iris laughs nervously. “Even I have to say, Mino, this is a little weird.”

  “Trust me,” she asserts. This has to help him. Mino wants to listen to her instincts. She wants to trust herself.

  Chat leans forward and carefully bites a bloom from her head. His teeth only close around the petals, but when he pulls away the entire stem separates from her head. Mino feels a slight pull, then nothing. The man chews, then swallows, a mildly unpleasant look on his face.

  Mino feels it immediately. His body stops buzzing. She didn’t know that it had been before, but now that it feels more settled, the change is obvious. A little more color flushes into him, his eyes look brighter. He regards her as though she is a rare butterfly that has somehow found it’s way here from the Overground. Well, Mino isn’t a butterfly, but she supposes the rest is true.

  “Feel better?” she asks.

  “Somewhat,” he replies. “I think I will need to take a closer look at those flowers.”

  “Good, since that’s why we came here,” Mino says. “We didn’t know you would be Wilder and Bee’s dad.”

  “I received word from Janos that he had sent some people my way,” Chat nods. “I did not know they would be my sons.” He looks at them. Echoes of love begin to flood into his eyes, and this time, his form barely flickers at all.