"We only managed to take our parents down because Alex wanted Karolina and Molly's parents dead and it didn't occur to him that I'd tell him where to shove his happily-ever-after," Nico countered. "And because some of our parents were on the fence about killing us. Whatever version of the story made it here, it was pretty obvious that it was sheer desperation and dumb luck that got us through all of that. And pretty much everything after. Not exactly something I'd look for, even unconsciously.

"I mean, you and your brother make sense, you're..." she gestured, trying to find the words to frame what she meant. "You're the kind of guys who go up against an alien invasion after they already chased you out of town once because it's the right thing to do. We took the first excuse someone handed us and let someone else take care of the mess."