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that was an affectation to throw off anyone who might be spying on the group.
    Abraham clasped hands with me, then pulled something from his pocket and held it up. A small silver chain with a pendant in the shape of a stylized S hanging on the end. It was the mark of the Faithful, the religion to which Abraham belonged.
    “Abraham …,” I said.
    “I know you don’t believe,” he said. “But you are living the prophecy right now, David. It’s as your father said. The heroes will come. In a way, they have .”
    I glanced to the side, where Prof set down a duffel bag for Cody to carry. I closed my fist around Abraham’s pendant and nodded. He and his kind believed that the evil Epics were atest from God, and that good Epics would come if mankind endured.
    It was naive. Yes, I was starting to think about how good Epics—like Prof—might help us, but I didn’t buy into all of the religious mumbo jumbo. Still, Abraham was a friend, and the gift was sincere.
    “Thanks,” I said.
    “Stand,” Abraham said. “This is the true test of a man. He who will stand when others grow complacent.”
    Abraham picked up Tia’s pack. She and Prof hadn’t taken much longer to get ready than I had. As a Reckoner, you learned to live light. We’d already changed hideouts four times while I’d been with them.
    Before we left, I ducked into Edmund’s room to say goodbye. He was sitting and reading a novel by lamplight, an old science fiction book with yellowed pages. He was the strangest Epic I could imagine. Soft-spoken, slender, aging … He had a genuine smile on his lips as he rose.
    “Yes?” he asked.
    “I’m leaving for a while,” I said.
    “Oh!” He hadn’t been listening. Edmund spent most days in this little room, reading. He seemed to take his subservient postion for granted, but he also seemed to enjoy his life as it was. He was a gifter, like Prof—in Edmund’s case, he granted his powers to men and women in Enforcement who used them to charge the power cells that ran the city.
    “Edmund?” I asked as he clasped hands with me. “Do you know what your weakness is?”
    He shrugged. “I’ve told you before that I don’t seem to have one.”
    And we suspected he was lying. Prof hadn’t pushed the issue; Edmund complied with us in every other way.
    “Edmund, it might be important,” I said softly. “Forstopping the Epics. All of them.” There were so few Epics people had actually had a conversation with, particularly about their powers.
    “Sorry,” Edmund said. “I thought I knew it for a while—but I was wrong. Now I’m as baffled as anyone.”
    “Well, what did you think it was?”
    “Being near a dog,” he said. “But it really doesn’t affect me like I thought it did.”
    I frowned, making a mental note to tell Prof about this. It was more than we’d gotten from him before. “Thanks anyway,” I said. “And thanks for what you do for Newcago.”
    Edmund walked back to his chair, picking up his book. “Some other Epic will always control me, whether it be Steelheart or Limelight. It doesn’t really matter. I don’t care to be in charge anyway.” He sat down and continued reading.
    I sighed and made my way back out into the main room. There, Prof slung a pack onto his shoulder, and I joined him as the last one out, entering the catacombs under Newcago.
    We made little conversation as we hiked a half hour or so to one of the hidden garages near a road leading up out of the understreets and into the city. There, Abraham and Cody packed our gear into a jeep for us. I’d been hoping we’d take one of the copters, but that was apparently too showy.
    “Watch out for púcas as you travel, lad,” Cody said, shaking my hand. “Could be imitating anything out there.”
    “Once again,” Tia said as she settled into the seat in front of me, “those are from Irish mythology, you nitwit.”
    Cody just winked at me and tossed me his camouflage baseball cap. “Y’all stay safe.” He gave