Sometimes, when he was feeling brave enough to prod at the fire, Nico allowed himself to imagine what his relationship with Bianca would have looked like if she’d been alive. There were a million factors to consider—a million variables that made it hard to think about, sometimes serving as a wilier deterrent to that imagining than even grief. A Bianca who outlived him in the Hunt. A Bianca who left it but grew apart anyway. A Bianca with whom he could have a relationship as secure and equal as he did with Hazel. He’d envisioned a possibility of a relationship that ebbed and flowed with a healthy sibling rivalry at times. This was when he imagined them as siblings inching towards adulthood together, against all odds.