Once Alejandra disappeared inside Calawit’s tent, Nick walked up the path. When he entered the tent, something buzzed above him. He glanced up, curious, until a waterfall of flower petals rained down on him. He held in a gasp as the red petals forced his wrists together, then pinned them to his chest, cocooning his torso. It had been a long month since he’d entered Calawit’s tent. He almost forgot that this was the punishment for knowing thieves cant. Evelyn glanced over, frowning, then shot Calawit a look. She was busy tinkering with something, ignoring Nick as he walked up to join his friends. Milo left to examine the potions, and Ezekiel and Clarissa were talking about something near the book section.

The conversation took a lighter tone. He could tell because Tyler was leaning against Calawit’s desk, not nearly as stressed, and Derek was talking animatedly with his hands.

“Dude, seriously?” Tyler asked.

“Yeah! She asked me! I’m still in shock, actually,” Derek said.

“Good for you, man. That’s exciting.” Tyler then glanced at Nick as though noticing the cocoon of petals before shooting Calawit a look. Calawit pointedly ignored him.

“What is this winter ball you speak of?” Hraktar asked.

“Huge school dance. There’s a few of them, and this one is in the winter,” Derek said.

Grizzizzik frowned. “This Annie girl. How well do you know her?”

Derek matched his frown. “What are you talking about?”

“Did she have any glowing pupils?”

There was a moment of silence, then Derek’s shoulders slumped. “Oh, come on. Don’t take this from me.”

“It’s a fair question.” Grizzizzik glanced at the others. “This seems like unusual behavior for a woman who, as you said, was completely out of your league and something you’d never envisioned would happen to you in a thousand years. Akshi should be back by now, and you broke up with Emma.”

Derek slowly nodded, his face morphed into one of pain. Nick felt obligated to ask the question he was positive everyone had on their minds right then. “You… did break up with her, right?”

Derek gave a non-committed nod. “I mean… yeah.”

“What does that mean?” Evelyn asked.

“It means the two of us are definitely not seeing much of each other anymore.”

Rafael rubbed his head. “Okay, and how likely is it that Pippa moved on from Emma to Annie?”

“That’s… no, never. Not… come on, Pippa can’t follow every girl I interact with.” Derek’s eyes shot to Milo. “Can she?”

Milo said nothing, a far off and terrified look in his eyes.

Evelyn patted Derek’s arm. “If Annie didn’t have a glow in her eyes, then she wasn’t controlled. I know Annie. She’s a sweet girl. If Pippa was controlling her, it’d look far more like Mr. Stower, with her hanging around Annie all the time.”

“Maybe it was her choice, but if Derek’s interested, Akshi might make Pippa go after Annie now,” Grizzizzik said.

“But we’re… we’re going as friends,” Derek said.

Milo looked like he was in pain. “It still feels like something Pippa might do.”

Derek made a sound like a wounded dog, and Evelyn looked far more concerned. “I can… stay by her side at school. Make sure she’s safe. Pippa will have a harder time controlling her, so I’d know if Annie started getting charmed.”

Derek sighed in relief. “Good.”

“Not good,” Grizzizzik said.

Derek’s shoulders stiffened up again. “How is this still not good?”

“Because Akshi hasn’t made an appearance yet, and if I know the guy, he has a flair for the dramatics,” Grizzizzik said.

“Must be a family trait,” Nick muttered.

Grizzizzik shot a glare in Nick’s direction before focusing back on Derek. “When there’s a threat, you don’t split up the party. Your party. You and your friends.”

“We’ve… we’ve totally split the party before,” Derek said.

“That was when we’ve known exactly where Akshi is. Now he’s disappeared. We need to stick together. Especially at a big event like a dance,” Grizzizzik said.

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“That should be no problem,” Rafael said. “It’s a dance, after all. We’ll make it a group date. Hazel and I can go with him.”

“I can go too. After all, Annie’s my friend.” Evelyn then glanced over at Rafael. “We can sort out details.”

Rafael kept his mouth shut and nodded.

There was a pause that Nick didn’t understand. Grizzizzik glanced over at Nick, and he realized too late why the silence got so awkward so fast. At first, he was worried about Evelyn and Rafael in the same dating group, but they’d proved time and time again that they did all right, as long as they didn’t have to acknowledge each other.

No, he realized as more and more eyes fell on him, that this was about a different matter entirely. Him being home alone. Him not being part of the group again. Getting permission from his dad to do anything. It would get progressively harder as the weeks went by if his reputation became increasingly unstable. The winter ball was early next month. There was no way he’d get permission from Walt. Even if he did, who would he go with? If they needed to keep the group together, the first choice would be…

Oh.

Nick glanced over to see Alejandra two seconds away from steam leaving her ears. He quickly dropped his gaze, staring at the floor.

“Grizzizzik’s right, Alejandra. At a school dance, a place we already know Akshi can infiltrate, we should all—”

“No!” she shouted, cutting Rafael off. It was said with such vehemence that Nick recoiled. She spun around, heading for the door. “I’ll wait in the car.”

She stomped out of the tent, and Nick didn’t dare watch. He kept his eyes forward, not sure which sounded more impossible. Him getting permission from Walt to go to the winter ball, or Alejandra agreeing to go with him.

There was a growling right by his ear, and Nick turned to see a mouth full of jagged teeth and yellow, dragon-like eyes locked onto his. Nick scrambled back, swearing under his breath. It had also been a bit since he’d seen Quetzal, and that creature had grown. The drake had to be at least a hundred pounds, looking like an adult Komodo dragon. Quetzal had climbed onto a bookshelf to be eye level with Nick, and he crept forward, ready to pounce onto Nick’s head again. Quetzal’s claws were out, ready to attack. If he tried that, it would undoubtably cause another gray mark to resurface.

“Quetzal.” There was a slight chastisement to Hraktar’s tone.

The drake hesitated, keeping his eyes on Nick. Nick didn’t dare move. Quetzal let out a snort before slipping off the shelf. Nick backed away as the drake ran out of the tent, no doubt heading for Alejandra. Nick didn’t dare breathe until the drake was out of sight. Everyone was watching him, and he tried to get back to the subject at hand.

“Doesn’t matter. I doubt my dad’ll let me go.”

Grizzizzik, who looked entertained by the entire exchange between Nick and Quetzal, dropped his smirk. “Alright, fine. I suppose you and Alejandra will both stay home in separate houses while the rest of your friends are at the dance. I’m certain Akshi will completely respect that decision and not exploit it.”

Nick glared at his character. Glared, because he hated how much Grizzizzik was right. It was awful when Grizzizzik was right. “What about all of you? What will you six be doing? No splitting the group, right? Will you be there too?” Nick glanced at their characters.

Grizzizzik shrugged. “Probably be together. Wait to be teleported in if something goes wrong.” The rogue let out a sigh, glancing at the tent door. “So many things can go wrong.”

“Tyler? You… shouldn’t be alone either.” Evelyn’s gaze dropped to the gray mark on his neck.

Tyler’s fingers scratched against the mark. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Maybe I’ll hang out with everyone’s characters close to the school.”

“And if everyone’s teleported in and you’re not?” Evelyn asked.

“I’ll have my car and drive to Elmwood High. If everyone’s teleported in, that means something big is happening and I need to be there.”

Calawit set down the contraption she was working on. “Are you all ready to be pointed toward the next monster? Because I actually have it trapped right outside my tent.”

That brought everyone’s attention to Calawit.

“You… trapped a monster?” Milo asked.

“Yes. The obnoxious thing was trying to enter my tent. Sludge creature that would undoubtably dissolve all my precious things.”

“If you captured it, why didn’t you just kill it?” Grizzizzik asked.

There was a silence as Calawit’s eyes flickered back to the contraption. “I will give you ten gold apiece if you don’t ask questions.”

Grizzizzik’s eyebrows shot up in excitement. “Done. Where’s the creature?”

“Well, Grizzizzik.” Milo walked toward the shopkeeper’s desk. “We at least need to make sure Calawit’s not killing it because it’s secretly an incredibly dangerous creature.”

“That’s a question,” Grizzizzik said.

“Clarissa’s bubble keeps the more dangerous creatures out. I’m hiring you to get rid of the creature here. You’re nothing more than professional exterminators. Do you want the experience points or not?” Calawit asked.

“And the ten gold pieces,” Grizzizzik said.

Calawit rolled her eyes, then stood up on her desk. “Alright, follow me.”

They started moving out of the tent.

Rafael walked closer to Nick and dropped to a whisper. “I’ll talk to your dad. Maybe he’ll let you go to the winter ball if I ask for his permission.”

Nick was surprised and touched. “Uh, yeah. It’s all but guaranteed, unless my reputation becomes completely worthless soon.”

Rafael nodded, and Nick got the impression his old friend didn’t hear that last part. Derek fell into step with them. “The harder part will be convincing Alejandra.”

Evelyn frowned, glancing at him. “What do you mean?”

“She’s… you know…” Derek said. Evelyn’s face clearly said she didn’t know. Derek lifted his shoulders in a shrug and kept them there. “She’s… angry. At Nick. You saw it yourself.”

Evelyn took this in, then glanced at all of them. “Yeah, I did. Who’s going to check on her?” There was silence as they all looked at her. The longer the silence lasted, the more her smile disappeared. “You’re seriously going to let her stew in her own anger because you’re all too scared to face her?”

“She might bite my head off,” Nick said.

“She’s already bitten Rafael’s head off,” Tyler said.

Evelyn sighed, shaking her head. “Oh my god, guys. You saw her tonight. She’s hurting. What did you expect?”

No one said anything. Nick just stared at her, brows furrowed. Evelyn shook her head again. “Bunch of barbarians, I swear. Well, someone’s got to tell her we’re staying here for the fight, so she doesn’t wait in the car all night. I’ll volunteer for that and check in on her.”

Evelyn walked out of the tent, not looking the least bit frightened.