The lights flicker above us in the training hall, casting long shadows across the empty space. Kareem removes his hand from inside my wrists, a way to check my vitals.
"Training is done for the day," he finally says, moving away to pack his duffle bag.

"I hope you know if I'd known the clock would affect you physically, I never would've told Madame Brooke where it was." He turns back to me and sighs. "As your sensei, shrink, and most of all your friend, I apologize."

Unmoved, I get up from the tatami. "It's too late to apologize, but you can make up for it by telling me—why the white stone? What do they need it for? I mean, I know it's an essential healing balm, but we've got our own healer, Madame Cornelius. She’s one of the best all over Pyrenees. Brooke wouldn't risk years' worth of building a relationship with Giovanni for nothing."

I know asking this kind of question is the equivalent of throwing him under a bus. He lets out a laugh before shaking his head, knowing I'm not backing down from getting this information, come rain, come thunder. Looking away, he takes a deep breath.

"Madame Cornelius is not well," Kareem spills.

There is a pause as the information sinks in.
Who heals the healer? Of course, the answer to that is the underworld. They have the most powerful magic.

"You never would have agreed to steal from the underworld... You know how they are with the white stone."

"What does Amelia get from all of this?"

"Well, whatever she asks for. Plus, she loves getting under your skin, so there's that."

"Giving her whatever she wants is dangerous territory."

"Fleur Panache needs Madame Cornelius. She is the only trusted healer and neutralizer we've got inside HQ. Emphasis on trusted. The last thing we want to do is put the entire organization's health in Enasis's hands, because of the obvious. That trickster would sell us for all our organs." He looks around the place as if the grandmaster is going to pop up from anywhere. Which, we wouldn’t be shocked if he does. "Without her, this place will go amok with all the superpowers and magic swelling around. That's more important than Amelia being a loose cannon."

True. Amongst the Panjandrums, Madame Brooke is the power-hungry one, doing anything and everything to keep us ahead of other clans in Pyrenees. Madame Sage is the staunch and aristocratic one who cares about detail, the perfectionist who maintains order around these parts. Madame Cornelius, the healer, the observer.

I start to wonder what other deals Brooke has made with Amelia since I ran away because so much has changed.

"Out of curiosity," he starts, suspicion drawing on his face, "how in the world did you manage to convince the King Giovanni Morais to release Amelia after he found out she'd stolen the stone? He is such a stubborn prick."

He would have to kill me to confess.

"I just asked."

My mind heads straight to Xanthe. It has been four days, I still haven’t seen Xanthe.
No charming smile. No demands for land. Nothing.
I should be relieved.
But something keeps drumming inside me whenever I think of him.
Is he... okay?

Remind me to slap myself next time I worry about a merman... even if he did save my life.

"Your vitals are off," Kareem says.
"I know you’ve gotten attached to the device," he adds, "but you, my dear friend, have no choice but to destroy the clock."

The Demize Clock, my claim to fame in Pyrenees.
I won it in a challenge judged by the Octavians, the most powerful mages. At first, I thought it was ornamental. A silver artifact. A trophy.

Then came Nightfall. I rescued abandoned children in Dominican Bay. The night creatures came for us. My horgle lost the fight.
And the clock... responded.

It enveloped us in a veil of protection. No spell. No words. Just instinct. Energy to energy.
No one believed it at first. Not even me.

Until Enasis said my aura had intensified. Until Azoya, a wandering prophet, confirmed it. The Octavians warned of attachment... and fans. Brooke tried to keep me anonymous.

But now the clock is tarnished.
Is this sabotage? Have I grown too strong?

I glance at Kareem. I already know the answer.
I’m not giving up.
I’ll restore the clock.

Destroy it?

"Not an option," I say.

My fingers brush the cold surface of the clock, where I’ve hidden it beneath my shirt. A pulse answers, low and erratic. Not gone. Just... haunting.

From somewhere far off, a bell tolls. I step to the window.

It’s coming from beyond the Panachean towers, across the ravine. Smoke curls upward from a cluster of pine trees. A ripple, barely visible, tears across the sky like silk splitting at the seams. It hums with old magic. Something’s breached the veil between clans.

"Just please do one thing for me..."

Kareem waits for my request.

"Request that I be stationed at Wildsprings High in the meantime. I need a break."
And to figure out what to do with the clock.

"Okay. I'll write something up and send it to Brooke," he assures me.

Suddenly, Sira bursts into the dojo, breathless, her dreadlocks wind-whipped.

"Both of you, we need more hands on deck," she says. "There’s been an attack."

We turn fully to her, spines locking into place.
"Where?"

"The 88 Menchants have attacked the Ankara and Onga clans."

Of course they have. Those thieves.
I don’t blink. I don’t speak. I simply move.

♤♤♤

Mr. Barlowe is my substitute teacher. Though, of course, given my schedule, the reverse was deemed truer.
Our exchange is usually under pressing circumstances, but today... not so much. It is because of Kareem’s note.
He has to take over my classes while I join the class.

"My apologies, Miss Oliveira."

In his mind, I am a Chosen, Brooke Stane's favorite. I can do no wrong. This power is the reason why there is this heaviness in his bespectacled brown eyes.

"It’s alright."

Fleur Panacheans prefer occupying the back of the class to evade unwanted looks, to no avail. I head there. No more self-indulgent tutoring for me, for now.

"I can’t believe Madame Cornelius took your tutoring privileges," Bottega whispers her disdain, eyes fixed on the lecturer.

"It’s alright. That’s what I get for requesting a break after running away."

"And fighting with Amelia in the Fleur garden," one of the Sterling twins leans in as if she's telling me a secret.

"On the plus side, Barlowe is the best lecturer around the school," Tetris chimes in.

"Is that why you’re playing one of your games during his lesson?" Bottega fires back. Tetris shrugs.

"Here." The other Sterling twin, Viola, sitting in front of me, hands me a note. It's written: See me?

Bottega covers her laugh with a cough.

I had forgotten how jocular the student side of Wild Springs High had always been.
It is a note from Jacob, the popular football captain. He winks at me the second I spot him on the other side of the room.

Mezzo, leader of the 'Seven Signs,' glares at him from the other end of the class. Mr. Letterman's jacket sneers back.

"Ughhh." I slip far down my chair, hoping to disappear from existence.

Now that I don't have Purists and Brooke to worry about, I find I've got some free time on my hands.
Tetris, Jade, Bottega, and I indulge in a few of our pastimes.
This is where we go around Wild Springs enforcing the law, which benefits us as Panacheans.

"Hi." Namjook swings my way as I look around the 'Seven Signs' candy shop, a place the boys run when they are not undercover, surveilling Wild Springs High.
If we are talking about a paradise, this is it. My eyes fall on the sour worms.

"So... I heard you and Amelia got into it... again."

It’s in the way they organize the candy in different varieties.

"Is it true? You guys are always fighting over a guy from your old world?" Terriq calls out from the other side of the room while organizing more candy jars.

Word travels fast around here.

"Here," Tetris throws him a game mainly to shut him up. "Test my new game."

"Really? Come here. Did you advance Aurora?" Terriq leads her to the pastel pink-colored L-shaped couch.

"Can I have those?" I point at the sour worms.

"No." Mezzo, with his matured self, covers my view. "You are not allowed. What do you want? The real health inspector guy was here three days ago. So I know you’re not here for a check-up."

"We are very much authorized to do a re-inspection."

Nick jumps over the counter in his ripped jeans and ragged boots. "He said no, Miss Oliveira. Where were you the last three months? Now that you’ve decided to grace us with your presence and order us around."

"Somewhere that doesn’t concern you."

"Of course, that’s what you would say with your self-centered a—"

"Nick, back off." Mezzo cuts in without looking at him.

"Fine with me. You're the one who couldn't stop complaining about working on the 'Savages and Purist Operation' with Amelia. You did say you were going to give Frankie a piece of your mind when you see her. You look kind of pu**y right now."

"You said that?" I confront Mezzo.

He bites his pierced lower lip without as much as a smile. Out of the entire group, he is something I would call a friend...

"You ran away, what did you expect?"

"There you go. Not so hard after all."

"Go away." He orders him.

"Okay, okay." Nick withdraws, hands up in surrender.

The 'Seven Signs' are trackers for the Fleur Panache organization, masquerading as undercover spies at Wild Springs High. Every student who has been outed as an outcast, it's thanks to them.
There has been mild pushback concerning their Fleur Panache affiliation, but they take it in stride, probably because the general public isn't quite versed in the depth of their entanglement with the organization.

This shop, their annoying popularity with the girls, and individual style play a role in this vagueness.
However, in reality, to put it directly—if Fleur Panache is to go to war, they are coming with.

The 'Savages and Purist' operation is alive and roaring thanks to their rather reluctant but effective input.

"Okay. I’m sorry. Next time..." I try to mend whatever bridge I’ve currently burned.

"Next time? You’re planning on running away again?" Nick interferes in Mezzo and I's conversation again. This time, he is artfully perched on some corner with a book.

"I mean, no. There won’t be a next time."
My focus drifts from Mezzo's stare to the sour worms.

"It’s still a no."

"I hate to break this up, but I got something for you," Bottega goes on to whisper that we've just been added to a mission.
"The 88 Merchants have attacked again. The Ouma area."

It’s all I need to keep my persisting headache from the clock at bay.
I have to keep busy to forget the thing is making me suffer.