Flin grabbed my hand and led me down the hallway towards the gateway room. Silvy floated right over my shoulder.

After seeing the picture that they'd used for the wanted poster, I wasn't that concerned with anybody recognizing me. Sure, there was that confrontation at the ruins of Blackhart when Lebec very publicly exiled me and the classmates who were there that day would definitely remember me, but the majority of the student body wouldn’t be able to pick me out of a crowd.

A girl opened the door at the end of the hallway and began walking towards us. She moved slowly, not really seeming to be in any sort of a hurry. She was staring down at something in her hand, something that was lighting up her face.

Lumadex.

As she got closer, she seemed to realize that there were other people in the hallway with her. She glanced up at Flin, nodded in recognition, and then her eyes fell on me. She took in my parka, my thigh highs, and my boots, then promptly looked back down at her Lumadex.

I didn't know if she’d recognized me and was playing it off, or if she just saw me as more background noise in her otherwise magickal life. I continued after Flin, doing everything in my power not to glance over my shoulder to see if she was following us with her eyes.

We made it three or four more steps before Silvy whispered into my ear. “She just went into her dorm room. She didn't bother looking back.”

“Good,” I muttered.

“I wish she had. That would've been an interesting fight. You and her, tussling.”

“Tussling?” I laughed. “Who uses the word tussling?”

“Probably the same one who thinks this little plan you’re carrying out is doomed to fail.”

“I thought you liked ideas like that.”

“Oh, I do. I'm just letting you know what sort of person would use the word tussle.”

“You’re not a person.”

Silvy snorted but didn’t say anything back.

Finally got her. The score stands at Hex - 1, Silvy - 500.

As we neared the end of the hallway, a door to my right opened up suddenly and a boy came out surprised to find two people walking in front of his own door, tripping and bumping into me. He hit the ground a little harder than I think either he or I expected.

Before I knew what I was doing, I bent down and extended a hand to help him up, the sort of thing it felt like I should do.

Flin sucked in a breath and tried to get between us, tried to help the boy up himself, but the boy’s hand was already in my own and I was pulling him up.

“Thanks,” the boy said. “Thank you so—”

He stared into my face and his eyes grew wide. I saw a look of recognition. He was one of the classmates in my vanisher class. And he’d recognized not another classmate, but forbidden Hexana Covington.

He tried to relax his face, tried to act like he hadn't recognized me but before he really got a chance, green light shot over my shoulder and hit him right in the center of the forehead. He flew back, hit the door, and slid down it. As he slumped to the side, his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Flin breathed in my ear. “We need to move fast now. He's only going to be passed out for a minute or two. If he remembers anything when he comes to, we need to get out of here.”

The door of the dorm room the boy had fallen into opened and the boy fell back into the room. A girl let out a surprised scream, stepped over the boy’s body, and stepped out in the hallway. She got a good look at my shocked face and I saw recognition there. I recognized her as well.

Is everyone in this hallway in my class?

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Silvy drifted over to the girl and started floating around her head in circles.

“I could always pop out her eyeballs,” Silvy suggested helpfully.

“No,” I said. “I'll handle this.”

The girl raised an eyebrow, confused by what I was saying. I took a step forward and pressed my forehead to hers. I let her feel my horns, the sharp edges of them, press into her hairline. Her eyes grew wide when she realized what they were.

“That's right,” I whispered. “Listen,” I dropped my voice lower into something that I thought was approaching threatening but ended up sounding sultry. “You can stay quiet and you can live. Or you can scream, and I’ll eat your magick.” I gave her a smile. “Those are your options.”

The girl's eyes widened as everything clicked home for her and she swallowed. What she did next was surprising. She bent down, lifted the boy’s torso and head, then pushed him out into the hallway. She stepped back into her dorm, avoided making eye contact, and closed her door.

I didn't wait. I turned around and saw Flin waiting at the far end of the hallway, holding the door open.

I ran.

I didn't walk calmly. I didn't stay collected. I sprinted.

I glanced back to see the smoke of Silvy creeping back up from under the door of the girl’s dorm room. The smoke raced down the hallway, lightning fast, and reformed on my shoulder.

“Did she do anything?” I asked.

“No, I doubt that she will until after she finishes sobbing.”

Great job. With all the PTSD you’re giving people, you should start a practice.

As Flin and I ran down the stairs towards the gateway room, Silvy laughed. “She tasted like pure, unadulterated fear. Delicious.”

“Why did you cut her?”

“I think you should be addressing that question to yourself. Your horns were what opened her skin.”

I shook my head.

Even better. So not only that I threatened and scarred her, but I'd also injured her. Mental scars and possibly physical scars. Greeeeeat job, Hex.

Ahead of me, Flin was hopping over stairs, moving faster, trying to get us out of Bristlebloom.

“What did you talk about with Lebec?” I asked Flin, inspiration striking me.

“Nothing. Just general Bristlebloom business.”

“General Bristlebloom business,” I repeated.

It wasn't a lie, but it also wasn't the entire truth.

Why doesn’t he just tell me what they spoke about?

I let it go. There was too much on the line right now, too much being held together with little more than spit and paperclips.

As the staircase terminated and we hit the ground floor, Flin moved over to the little tiny window through which we could see into the gateway room.

“Crap,” he said in a quiet voice.

“There's someone in there?” I asked.

“A dwarf.”

“Lebec?”

“No,” Flin said. “Someone else. I don't recognize them.”

“Will they be able to recognize me in what I’m wearing?”

“I don't know. They're just standing in the center, like they're waiting on someone.”

“What if they're waiting on Lebec?” I asked.

Flin looked back at me and rolled his eyes. “Not all dwarves know each other.”

“Right,” I said. “Okay. Sorry.”

“What do you want to do?” Flin asked.

Geist isn’t going to wait forever at Blackhart. The Builder’s Stone will intrigue him, but eventually he’ll realize it’s a set up. Assuming he hasn’t already…

“I think we need to go now,” I said. “I don't want Geist coming back halfway through me doing what I need to do.”

“And what is that again? You never really filled me in on it.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And I'm not going to. Let me worry about that. I just need you to get me in. As soon as we walk through that gateway you should probably walk back out. I'll handle everything else.”

If something went wrong, I didn't want Flin stuck in there with me. I didn't want him to have to face the Shadow Vaile. I'd already seen the horrors within it and knew the Covington blood was supposedly good at handling the place. I didn't want to see firsthand what would happen to someone who didn't have that same luxury.

“Okay,” Flin said. “It's your show.”

He pushed the door open and walked in. I hesitated for half a second and buried my head as far into the back of my hood as I could, trying to look down at my feet, trying to shadow my face as much as possible.

The dwarf turned around and looked at us, glancing at Flin, nodding at him and then turning her attention to me. As soon as I saw her, I knew we were in trouble.

I recognized her.

Oh, you have got to be kidding.

She was the dwarf I'd met in that strange infinite hallway when I first came to Bristlebloom. I could see that she recognized me too, but I couldn't tell if the recognition was of our awkward interaction or if she’d connected that I was the girl on the poster.

She smiled at me. “Hello again.”

I cleared my throat and moved over towards Flin. “Hi,” I said.

“Where y'all headed to?” she asked.

I glanced at Flin.

“We’re headed to Witherstone,” he said.

Her thick eyebrows raised at this. “Witherstone? Who do y'all know there?”

“Her father,” Flin said.

I didn't know what Witherstone was and I had no idea why he was mentioning my father, but I went along with it.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Well…” She nodded at me. “Good luck.”

We headed towards the gateway Flin chose, but before we could go through, the woman called out behind me. “Oh, just one more thing.”

We both turned around. As we did, I saw Flin's eyes grow wide. He grabbed the handle of the gateway and flung it open before wrapping his hand around my wrist.

The woman stood with her feet spread like she was bracing herself against a giant pushing her. Her fingers traced quick, violent shapes in the air and a spinning green seal began to form in front of her.

“You’re Hexana Covington, right?” The woman smiled as she flicked her fingers and seal rocketed towards us.