There was a large dragon tail curled around Ava's body.

Dewie could see it as clear as day, no matter how many times he rubbed his eyes.

She was sitting a couple of seats ahead of him in their Heroes and Helpers class, and he'd been staring at her for almost the entire period.

Well, more accurately, he'd been staring at the dragon's tail.

The end of it looked sharp, and it poised right over her spine.

Dewie swallowed.

Ever since he'd stopped taking his medication, almost everyone he came across in this school had something strange going on with them. He'd never seen so many things at one time before. He didn't know if coming off the medication made him worse, or if Victoire's students were just extraordinarily unlucky. Everyone either had something hanging off them or had features that changed in some way.

Usually, those changes lasted for maybe a day or two, and occasionally, it was even just a few seconds.

But Ava's dragon tail had been there every single day, and Dewie didn't know if it was his imagination, but it looked like the tail was wrapping tighter and tighter each day, the scales on it close to touching her skin.

What would happen once it did?

His throat felt tight, and he squeezed the stylus in his hand. His breath quickened.

He'd forgotten how much he hated this. He hated being the only one seeing all these creatures, with their grotesque bodies and their gleaming eyes. He hated that it always meant some misfortune was coming. Most of all, he hated that he had to say something.

He couldn't just see someone about to get impaled by a dragon's tail and stay quiet. As much as he wanted to keep his head down, he didn't want a repeat of Grandma Molly. He had to tell Ava what he saw.

Yeah, tell her, a mocking voice echoed in his thoughts. And she'll probably think you're a freak and spread rumors about you and tell everyone what a weirdo you are. Then Jace will stop being friends with you, and the other first years will start bullying you again, and someone will lock you in the toilet and–

"Dewie."

Dewie's head snapped up at Professor Love's gentle call. "Yeah?"

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked. "It sounded like you were breathing really loudly back there."

Heat filled his face as more people turned to stare at him.

"Yes," he stuttered. "I'm fine."

Professor Love gave him that soft, pitying look that all the professors had been giving him for weeks now. Like he was going to fall apart at any second.

It made him uncomfortable.

Ever since Lexie's death, everyone made him feel uncomfortable.

"If you need to take some time off," Professor Love continued in that tone. "There's no shame in that."

"No, I don't need time," Dewie insisted. Time out of the academy meant going back home and listening to his parents' fighting almost every night, then waking up and going to dermatology appointments in the morning, and meeting with different tutors, all of whom promised they could fix him for exorbitant amounts of money.

He already had enough of that on the break. He didn't want it anymore.

"I'm fine," Dewie insisted.

Professor Love gave him an indulgent smile, but thankfully, she moved on and got back to the lessons. One by one, the eyes of Dewie turned forward, and he was left with his thoughts.

Again, his thoughts were occupied with what to do about her dragon tail.

How was he supposed to tell Ava about what he saw?

For a second, he considered what would happen if he didn't tell her.

The dragon tail might not mean anything too bad. It might just mean that she was going to have a stomachache or something, and was it really worth ruining his entire social life just for that?

Was it worth losing all the friends he'd worked hard to gain?

What would I even tell her? Dewie wondered. I don't know what it means.

Therein lay the problem with his visions. He never knew what they meant, and he'd never bothered to find out.

He'd documented some of his visions with Lexie's help, but there were so varied they'd never been able to figure out much of a pattern. Plus, he didn't even know where the journal was. He'd given it to Lexie because she wanted to help him translate the visions and wanted to make a deck just for him, so he could use his powers for good.

But in the end, he'd turned her down because he wanted to be normal.

Emotions surged up his throat. His eyes suddenly stung, his nose flaring.

No. I don't want to cry here.

Not in front of all these people who already feel sorry for me.

He didn't want them to feel even more sorry. It was his fault that Lexie was dead.

Keep it together, Dewie.

He took deep breaths, trying to suppress the storm of emotions raging within. Moisture pushed behind his eyelids.

He shouldn't have thought about Lexie again. Every time he thought about her, he cried, and he'd done that every night since her death. He tried to do it quietly so as not to bug Jace. But sometimes Jace would still wake up anyway and awkwardly pat his back, or crack jokes to cover the sound of Dewie's silent weeping.

Lexie's death had been like a storm that shook up his world. It was why he'd stopped taking his medication in the first place.

Without them, he could have foreseen it coming.

Just like with the explosion in their elementary school classroom, he might have been able to warn Lexie not to go near that dungeon. He would have told her that she was in danger. He would have stopped her death.

But no. He'd been taking that medication to suppress his visions, just because he wanted to fit in.

Even though he couldn't do any other kind of magic, he didn't want to stop, because for once in his life he'd been normal, and that meant more to him than just about anything else.

It had meant more to him than Lexie's life.

And the worst part was, even after everything, he still wanted to fit in. It was why he was so scared to tell Ava about the dragon tail.

But he had to. He didn't want what had happened to Lexie to happen to anyone else. Not to Ava, or Jace, or Xena, or Jett.

He had to tell her.

After class was over, Dewie was out of his seat. He was supposed to be meeting Jace, Jett, and Xena for lunch, but he followed Ava instead. She was going back to her room. Lexie's room. Her brown bob bounced as she walked, staring straight ahead like she always did.

Dewie was a few feet behind her and tried to call out to her. "Um…Ava…"

She didn't slow her stride, nor did she act like she'd heard him at all. His voice probably got carried away by the wind.

Dewie tried again, a little louder this time. "Ava?"

"What do you want?" she asked in a tone that suggested that she'd heard him the first time, but chose to ignore him.

"Can I talk to you?"

Ava walked a few more steps, stopped abruptly, then turned around to stare at him.

"You have thirty seconds," she said.

"Oh, um…" Dewie's nerves failed him at the fierce look in her eyes and her bored expression. Ava intimidated him more than just about anyone else except his mother.

She was never mean to him and didn't bully him, but there was something about her eyes.

Also, maybe it was because he didn't know what her powers were. Jace didn't know either. During gym, she always just kind of stood around and did nothing, so they figured her powers weren't combat-related.

Still, she was scary.

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"Um…"

"It's fifteen seconds now," she said. "Just spit it out."

"Right." Dewie rubbed his sweaty hands on his robes and inhaled. Just spit it out, Dewie. It won't be that bad.

"I–"

Just then, an alert flashed across his screen. It was a meeting with Journeyman, marked as urgent.

Dewie's nerves vibrated.

Oh no.

Did Journeyman figure out that Dewie wasn't taking his medication? He usually just flushed the potions down the toilet little by little, and he hadn't warned anyone about the visions yet, so he thought no one, not even Jace, would notice.

Would Journeyman force him to start taking them again?

"Five seconds," Ava said, and Dewie blurted out:

"I have to go meet Journeyman."

Ava frowned. "That's what you wanted to tell me?"

"No, it's not, but um...I can tell you what I wanted to tell you later." Provided the dragon tail was still there when he was done.

It would be great if it weren't. He would be grateful if the situation just resolved itself.

But he doubted he would get that lucky.

"Bye." He spun around and scurried away to Journeyman's office, painfully aware that Ava was watching him go.

He took his time at the first set of steps, but then decided to hurry it along as he went up the staircase. Dragging it out would only make it harder. Better to get there and get it over with.

He knocked on Journeyman's door once before it swung open.

Dewie's mouth opened.

Journeyman wasn't the only one there. There were three other people: his mom, a man in healing robes, and another large man with eyes even scarier than Ava's.

"Hello, Dewie," the scary-eyed man said. "I don't think we've properly met, though you may know who I am. I'm–"

"I know who you are," Dewie interrupted. He'd come to the memorial, and everyone at school had been talking about the man who'd taken Lexie out of school the day before she died. "Dominic Vacek."

***

"Here you go." A plate of food was slid in front of Xena, full of lentils, peas, and cheesy garlic bread.

"Thanks, Henrietta," Xena responded. She didn't have much of an appetite, but she'd already lost a lot of weight, and Lionel said she couldn't afford to lose any more muscle than she'd already done.

He was worried about her. For weeks now, her training had been terrible, and rather than progress with her light bending, she'd regressed. She felt very disconnected from the Light and had no motivation to figure out the problem. It drove Lionel crazy.

"Xena, I know you're going through a lot," was the latest speech he'd given her. "Believe me, I know how hard it is to lose a friend, especially in such a horrific and unexpected way. But I'm going to need you to work through it."

Xena had nodded, but he didn't seem satisfied with that. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "How are your therapy sessions?"

Xena merely shrugged. The sessions were fine. She would go in, and the nice lady would ask her questions, and she would either answer yes or no. She didn't talk much beyond that because she didn't want to talk about anything with anyone. She especially didn't want to talk about Lexie and the fact that she was now dead. The last conversation they'd had with each other was an angry one.

She probably died thinking I hate her.

Lionel sighed. "Maybe we need to have more sessions."

Xena shrugged. She didn't care one way or another. It wouldn't change anything.

Later, she'd overheard Lional talking to someone over the system, about how he felt unequipped to handle Xena's grief.

"Look, I'm not good at this, at comforting teenage girls with dead best friends," he was telling them. "You guys need to send someone more capable down here, STAT. Or we're going to lose her."

By someone, he probably meant a mind healer. Xena had already been to see one, using a special exemption. Lionel was probably getting desperate because the meeting with the Fae was only in a few weeks, and Xena was nowhere near where she should be with her powers. He'd already stressed to her that a lot of the concessions the Fae gave Earth were contingent on the Lightlark's ability, and if their abilities weren't adequate, then they would pull back their funding, and that would be very bad for the Lightlarks and Earth as a whole.

Xena was the first Lightlark of her kind they'd found in ages. A lot was riding on her and the pressure felt overwhelming sometimes. As the older generation was approaching retirement, they were counting on her to take up the fight against the forces of darkness.

The problem was that Xena didn't care about any of it anymore. She didn't care about the meetings or impressing the Fae. She didn't care about bending light rays or ridding the world of Eldritch infestations.

Her best friend was dead. And it was all her fault because she hadn't told anyone Lexie was possessed.

No amount of sessions with a therapist or a mind healer could help her because they couldn't change the fact that Lexie was dead. The best they could do was numb the pain, and even then, the healer said she couldn't do it more than once in a while; otherwise, it would be dangerous, and it might affect Xena's brain chemistry, numbing her forever.

Being numb forever sounded nice, actually. Xena wanted to crawl into a bed, draw the blanket over her head, and go to sleep for a long time. She wanted everything to just stop so she didn't have to think or feel things anymore. She wanted to give up.

It was why even simple things like dragging herself out of bed and getting her own food were difficult.

Luckily, Henrietta was there to help.

As grateful as Xena was, she stared down at the plate dispassionately. Now came the other hard part. Choking it down.

She distracted herself from the food by glancing around. Everything still looked the same. It was weird. The sun was still shining. People were still going in and out of class, and even Torin Firebringer had come back to school after his temporary suspension.

Xena could see him sitting there, eating with Kai Skysoarer. His hair was once again slicked back pristinely, his posture perfect.

He was fine. And Lexie was dead.

Xena felt a loathing so strong it shook her to her core. It was his fault too.

"Hey, Xena."

Xena removed her gaze from Torin to watch Jett and Jace approach. They both gave her careful looks as they sat, and she pretended not to notice.

"Hey," she responded. "Where's Dewie?"

"He texted me that he got called to the office by a Journeyman," Jace said. "So he might not make it to lunch."

"Oh? Why?"

"I don't know. He already had a potion refill earlier this week, so I'm not sure what it's about."

Xena frowned. There were only a few reasons anyone would be called to Journeyman's office. One, they were in trouble. Two, they were having special training sessions or received special treatments from him, like with Dewie's potions. Or three–

Xena bolted up, staring at everyone around her.

"What is it?" Henrietta said. "What's wrong?"

Xena shook her head.

No.

This couldn't be happening.

Lexie had been called to the Journeyman's office, too, the day before she died. He'd sent her out on a mission, and according to Emma, Aiden had been furious about it. The next day, Lexie had died.

And now, Dewie was called to the Journeyman's office, just like Lexie had been.

It probably wasn't the same thing, Xena tried to convince herself. Dewie didn't have any magical skills. There was no way they would be calling him for a mission. Right?

She didn't know, but she had to find out. She had to be sure that it wasn't what she thought it was.

"I'll be back." She threw out as she stalked off to Journeyman's office. She took the stairs up two at a time, but when she got there, she didn't stand in front of the door. She didn't want to trigger the automatic activation.

Instead, she pressed her ears against the wall, trying to hear what they were talking about.

The cool brick was great at muffling sound. Xena couldn't hear anything, no matter how hard she pressed her ears, and she felt.

"Come on," she muttered. "Just a little."

Frustration had her pushing her magic outwards unintentionally, like when she bent light, and suddenly her body glowed.

And she could hear.

"...what do you think?"

Huh? Xena retreated for a second, blinking at the wall. What just happened? Why could she hear them clearly through the walls? Did she just...awaken a new skill?

She decided to think about it later, after she was done listening in on their conversation.

She put her ears back, just in time to hear Dewie say, "...Lexie's not dead?"

Xena's breathing stopped.

"We're not sure," a deep voice replied. "But we have reason to believe that she might still be alive. We just recently retrieved Theo Firebringer from a dungeon, and we might be able to do the same thing for Lexie. But we need your help in finding her."

"Okay." Dewie's voice was as eager as the hunger riffling through Xena. "I'll do anything."

No! was Xena's instinctive thought. She didn't want Dewie getting involved in anything dangerous?

At the same time, she was conflicted.

For the first time in forever, hope bloomed inside her, setting her magic ablaze.

Was the man telling the truth? Was Lexie really alive?

"Good." The deep voice said again. "But there's something you should know about your skill, Dewie–"

The voice cut off suddenly, and Xena couldn't hear anything anymore.

She frowned. What happened? Why did it stop working?

The door to the office opened, startling her.

A large man stood in the doorway. Dominic Vacek.

Instead of acting angrily, he almost smiled. "Nice of you to join us, Xena. You can come in."

***

"The second test," Ryn told Lexie as they hiked up the mountain. "Usually triggers at around this point."

Lexie nodded. After travelling for what felt like ages, their communication had gotten better. Ryn was learning to portray things in a simple format, and Lexie was learning to better understand the point behind her ramblings.

"What is the second test about?" Lexie scratched her wrist. The itching had magnified, and it was all over her skin now like a thousand ant bites. She was miserable, but it was something she had to bear. Eventually, she would get used to it. At least she hoped so.

She diverted all her thoughts about violence into questions about what was to come. She could feel her curiosity about the world coming back, her brain activating for what felt like the first time in forever.

It wasn't a comfortable feeling, but her head was clearing somewhat.

"It's a dollhouse," she said. "We had to find and take the doll to escape. The problem was that the place was a maze, and finding it was difficult. If not for my companion's superior scouting skill, we would not have made it out."

Lexie didn't think she had any scouting skills to speak of.

"Well, it might be different this time," she said a tad hopefully.

"It might," Ryn responded. "But again, it might not."

No sooner had the words left her mouth, than the world around them changed rapidly, like blocks were being stacked around them, enclosing them within.

Lexie was alarmed and instantly jumped into attack mode, but she didn't know what to attack.

The air shimmered as the environment changed. A roof landed on top of them. White walls and cream tiles replaced grass and red sand.

Brown tables and white chairs were arranged in rows as a blackboard appeared out of nowhere.

"This is not a dollhouse," Ryn said, glancing around. "What is this?"

"A classroom," Lexie responded, her heart beating. It was a very familiar one. She walked up to the board and traced the drawings on it.

Chemical elements.

Hydrogen. Helium. Lithium. Beryllium.

She spun around again as memories filled her mind, focusing on the desk in the left corner, and another desk near the middle. She walked to the second and pulled out the chair, instinctively glancing underneath.

Sure enough, the initials MS had been carved onto it.

Lexie did the same with the seat next to it. This one bore the initials LE.

Mickie Sullivan.

Lexie Evans.

"We're in St. Juana's Prep," she whispered.

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