Rafael glanced at Alejandra as they drove toward Calawit’s tent. She had Quetzal on her lap. Derek had all the other characters with him, since they kept him protected at nights. Derek was getting better, slowly. True, every day they got past Saturday was mentally healing for all of them, but it also meant Akshi was more likely alive. Pippa would never come back, but Akshi no doubt realized they were a threat. They had foiled his plans a lot, and a guy like that had a perfect memory. He would no doubt strike back hard. They all needed to be prepared.

“Is someone finding me another date for the winter ball?” Alejandra asked.

Rafael glanced at her, not sure what to say. “Yeah. Yeah, we’ll line someone up for you and Nick.” Dread entered his stomach. He still hadn’t talked to Walt about it. That had been his responsibility. Anything to do with Walt was his responsibility.

“Because the winter ball is about three and a half weeks away, and it’s best to give the date as much time to prepare,” Alejandra said.

“It will be one large group date,” Rafael assured her.

“It’s also your responsibility to make sure Nick never talks to me all night.”

The silence in the car became prickly. Rafael wasn’t sure what to say, because what Nick said to Alejandra certainly wasn’t winning him any trust.

“Nick’s… certainly been acting weird lately,” Rafael said.

“Has he? Or is this just how he always is, and we’re finally seeing the real him?”

Rafael furrowed his brows. “Alejandra—”

She turned, raising an eyebrow. “What?” Rafael sighed, not sure how to respond. “Seriously, Rafael. What? What could you possibly say that will somehow excuse everything Nick’s been doing lately? How is any of this my fault? I seriously want to know.”

Rafael sighed, drumming his fingers nervously against the steering wheel. “I didn’t say it was your fault. I’m just saying… Grizzizzik is bothering him somehow. Leading him to make choices he otherwise wouldn’t do. That much is obvious.”

“Then why doesn’t he act like an adult and tell us?” Alejandra asked, tears in her eyes. “Why does he resort to insults about what dad did to us?”

Rafael’s stomach churned again. Something was wrong with Nick. He remembered Nick’s face when he talked to Grizzizzik on Saturday night. If Rafael had to guess, his old friend almost looked horrified as Grizzizzik talked to him. But it made little sense. This almost felt like a blackmailing situation, but what could Grizzizzik possibly hold over Nick that everyone else didn’t already know about? Why was Nick not coming to them?

“He might be pushing you away,” Rafael said.

“Nick?” Alejandra asked.

“Of course Nick. I’ve pushed you away before. To keep you from… figuring out things.”

“That’s completely different,” Alejandra said.

“Is it?”

“Yes.” She scratched Quetzal under his chin, and he nuzzled up to her. “You never attempted a blow that low before.”

“I’ve already talked to him about it. He won’t do that again,” Rafael said. “When I asked him about it, he seemed…”

Confused. Apprehensive. Rafael couldn’t quite understand Nick’s emotion. It was like Nick was apologizing, but like he was reading it from a script. It wasn’t genuine, even though what he said to Alejandra really was incredibly shitty.

Rafael pulled off to the side of the road. Alejandra gave Quetzal a hug before opening her door.

“Could you take him to Calawit? If I hear one more time that I should be prepared for him to fight next month, I’m going to scream,” Alejandra said.

Rafael opened his door. “Yeah. Alright.”

Quetzal was already halfway to the tent when Rafael got out. He walked the rest of the way into the tent to see Quetzal and Calawit talking. Quetzal already had the red pedals on his paws.

“Where’s your sister?” Calawit asked.

“She wanted to stay in the car,” Rafael said.

“Ah, I see.”

Rafael got the distinct impression she really did. “Alejandra is quite protective of Quetzal.”

“She’s just never experienced our world,” Calawit said. “This is the first drake she’s seen. She must notice how much he’s grown already. By the end of next month, he’ll be so much stronger.”

Quetzal snarled at a mouse before pouncing. He missed the mouse by an inch as it squeaked, scurrying away.

“Oh, come on. I was trying to hype you up, and you missed a mouse?” Calawit asked. Quetzal curled his lip before snapping at Cal. She placed her hands on her hips. “Oh, stop it. You can’t be such a sore loser on the battlefield. Come on, let’s go practice.”

Rafael raised an eyebrow. “You two… practice?”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Obviously. How else will I spend my time with the drake?” Calawit said as Quetzal scuttled over to her. “He’s a strong one. I guarantee in four more months he’ll get his spark breath, and two months after that, he’ll have a lightning attack.”

Rafael did the calculations quickly. “May? He’ll have a lightning attack by May?”

“Yep.” Calawit climbed onto the drake’s back and stood up, hands on her hips. “Alright, Quetzal. I’m going to stand the entire time. Walk steady and sure, and make sure I don’t fall off.”

Rafael raised an eyebrow as the drake scuttled away, holding his back steady as Calawit remained balanced. He thought Quetzal was helping Calawit organize her store, but he also realized there was no organization to this place.

Rafael walked to the car, hands in his pockets. He decided to not tell Alejandra about Calawit’s training. Calawit was right. They knew nothing about drakes. With how fast Quetzal was growing, he would get stronger by the end of the month. But Alejandra would have to see for herself.

***

Nick rolled from a distance, as he always did. Grizzizzik had fought yesterday and today. Nick’s heart wasn’t in it. It hadn’t been for a while. He would roll when required, but waited to see the experience bar get ever closer to 14,000.

It annoyed him that Grizzizzik refused to use any of his warlock spells. He understood, of course. What with the whole trying to keep things quiet thing. It was difficult, though, because he was mostly relying on his third level rogue skills, and they simply weren’t doing the damage any of them wanted.

It still got him experience points, though. No doubt Grizzizzik would keep doing this, with no one else questioning why a supposed fifth level rogue didn’t have more damage with his sneak attack. It certainly was annoying Nick. Sneak attack was awesome, except he was still rolling two d6’s instead of three.

The battle ended and Grizzizzik got a whopping seven hundred and twenty experience points from that fight. That pushed Grizzizzik to 11,320 experience points total. That much closer to his warlock level three.

Except he didn’t do anything. Grizzizzik had earned a lot of experience points this week, and there was a chance none of them would count. The thought alone made an ice cold bead of sweat appear on his forehead.

Tomorrow, they’d do one final battle before they needed a break. It was Thanksgiving, after all, despite how confused Grizzizzik got with the holiday. Grizzizzik wanted to grind the entire week again. Maybe it was selfish of them all to take the holiday off, but Derek couldn’t escape his family without people asking why. In fact, Nick and Evelyn were planning on attending the battle tomorrow because Derek needed to be with family.

But would it matter? Nick placed his pencil down and rubbed his eyes. It was all too much. The weekly contract ended tonight, and Nick didn’t steal anything. It still felt like an incredibly chaotic week, though.

There was a gentle knock on the door. “Nick? Can I come in?”

Evelyn sounded so quiet. Before she would have waltzed right into his room, but now she waited until he gave his permission.

“Yeah, come in,” Nick said.

Evelyn took a tentative step inside. It was so strange to see his sister looking so nervous, but she’d done that a lot around him. Ever since his return from the police station. She had her phone to her ear. “It’s Tyler.” She handed over her phone. “I’ll go wait outside your room.”

She handed her phone to him before walking out. Nick tried not to sigh, then placed the phone against his ear for his nightly chat with Tyler. “Hey.”

“Hey, I forgot to ask yesterday. Has your dad returned your phone to you?” Tyler asked.

“Yeah, he has.”

“Perfect. Then I’ll go back to calling your phone starting tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

“Just got off the phone with Derek. Sounds like they were fighting two lizard gladiators.”

“Yeah, sounds like we got over seven hundred experience points for them.”

“Nice.”

“How’s Prince Sylvar, by the way?” Nick asked.

“Good. He’s doing great. It seems like I get nothing for days, then a full day of rolling with only short hour rests. He’ll get to level five soon.”

Nick tapped nervously on his desk. “Hey, I actually had a question for you.”

“Okay. Shoot.”

“So, you sense Chaos and Order in your mind, right?”

“Not often, but I do.” Tyler sounded a bit more reserved.

“Is it easy to differentiate between the two?” Nick asked.

“Well, I mean, it’s mostly judging off context clues. There is a touch of order and chaos to every prompt I have.”

“Okay. So… have you ever had a prompt that’s purely chaotic or purely order?” Nick asked.

“Yeah, that sounds good. Good luck with your homework, Nick. I’ll see you Saturday.”

Nick stared at the wall. His throat felt tight, strangling the words as they left his mouth. “See you Saturday.”

Tyler hung up, and Nick slowly brought the phone down. He hated these reminders that his friends couldn’t hear him. He had been as careful as possible, but Chaos was keeping him from communicating with his friends.

Nick got up, giving Evelyn her phone back, fighting the desire to shut the door when he was done. Walt had just given it back to him. He didn’t want to lose it again.

At ten-thirty, Walt walked in without a sound, hand out. Nick pulled out his phone and handed it over, and his dad left. Entering and leaving his room like it was the living room to the house. Nick closed his eyes, resting his head against his hands. He had school tomorrow and a battle. He had no excuse for Grizzizzik why he didn’t steal from Mr. Morgan.

No, that wasn’t true. He had an excellent excuse. But it wouldn’t pacify Grizzizzik.

As soon as the house settled, Nick had the strongest urge to take a walk. One he resisted. He obviously knew why he felt that urge, but he didn’t want to face Grizzizzik or Chaos. Not only that, but there was no way he could simply take a walk. Not without Walt asking him a dozen questions he couldn’t answer.

Nick fought the urge. Fought it for half an hour. He stole nothing from Mr. Morgan, and he refused to. He also had little desire to explain why, to either Grizzizzik or Chaos.

“Nick.”

Nick turned his head toward the window to see his character right outside the window. He stared long and hard at Grizzizzik. Nick never rolled for anything. How was Grizzizzik here?

He walked to the window and opened it up. “How’d you get here? I didn’t roll for anything, and I didn’t teleport you.”

“I don’t know. I just appeared. Must be Chaos’ doing.”

“Perfect. Great.” More sweat formed on his forehead.

Grizzizzik stared at him. “You didn’t steal anything.” Nick didn’t answer, because Grizzizzik technically didn’t ask a question. “Why didn’t you do it?”

“You honestly think I’ve been enjoying all these times I—”

“Nick?” He froze at the sound of Walt’s voice. He didn’t even dare turn around. “Who are you talking to?”

“No one,” Nick said, staring right at Grizzizzik.

“I heard you talking, Nick. Don’t deny it,” Walt said.

Nick finally turned, trying not to glare, but it came up anyway. “Fine. I was talking.”

“And who were you talking to?” Walt asked.

“No one important,” Nick almost spat out. Grizzizzik rolled his eyes on the other side of the window.

Walt glared back before gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb. “In the living room.”

Nick glared at Walt. He was going to search his room again.

“Great. Hraktar has probably noticed I’m gone by now. I’m going to get caught,” Grizzizzik said as Nick headed toward the hallway.

“Not my problem,” Nick mumbled. He doubted Grizzizzik heard, but he didn’t want to say it any louder in case Walt heard.