The lobby is suspiciously quiet, which is how you know something is wrong.

Abaddon is perched upside down on the banister as he watches Esther pace back and forth with a clipboard she definitely stole.

“She said do not touch anything” Esther mutters, tapping the clipboard against her palm. “Which obviously means something bad is going to happen.”

Ben sits on the floor nearby, back against the desk, sketching the hotel from memory in the margins of his homework.

“Maybe she just meant do not summon anything” he offers.

Abaddon snorts.

“That is still touching things” he says. “Also it is already too late.”

The lights flicker on cue. The walls groan like they are stretching.

Esther looks at you, exasperated.

“If my mum asks” she says quickly, “this was not our idea.”