Kade was quiet when we parted from Wells. When I’d asked what was wrong he only waved me off with an overly forced smile. Concern pooled heavy in my stomach, remembering the shift the last time we’d been together. Even if everything was going well, it didn’t mean it would stay that way.

For all the questions I had about how my own feelings were going to get tangled in all of this, if at all, I knew I didn’t want to leave Kade like this. His spiraling would lead to my own. It lead to the question I was most curious about.

“Hey Kade?”

“Hm?”

“If you could make any wish, what would it be?” He was a dear-in-headlights. It was a better expression than what he was wearing before. The surprise had chased it all away. He took a moment, as though really considering it.

“What would be yours?”

I expected the question to be lobbied back at me, “When we were little, me and Abigail promised each other we would have a happy ending no matter what. My wish would be for us to have that. Whatever it means for both of us.”

His gaze fell, “Do you really think you can find it? A happy ending.”

If I didn’t, there was no point in any of this, “Not easily. But I think I can.”

“If I could have a wish it’d be…” His voice trailed off and he looked at me. His eyebrows drew together in a determined line before he continued. “Can I…show you something?”

“What is it…?”

As we entered our neighborhood, Kade veered off the usual path. Despite the confusion swirling around in my chest, I followed. Our neighborhood was nestled alongside the start of the woods. Near the houses the foliage was thinned, but the further in one went the thicker it got. Abigail and I had dared each other as kids to go a little farther in each time. She could have wandered through it for hours, with little care of getting lost. I only ever took an extra step each time I was dared.

When we reached the tree line, he stopped, “…Promise you won’t tell anyone else?”

“I…yeah. Of course.” Doubt was crossing his face now. In any other situation, I think alarm bells would have gone off in my head. But strangely, I didn’t feel the need to get away.

He swallowed, “It’s um. It’s not going to be what you’re expecting.”

I knew what this was about, “It’s…ok.”

We descended through the trees. Shadows kissed my skin from the reddening leaves on the trees. The light filtered down from the lowering sun, and all the dust glinted suspended in the air.

Kade came to a stop where the space was clear of trees. Just fallen leaves, still soft in their freshness, stuck to the soles of my shoes as I stopped a little away from him. He stayed quiet, gathering himself and his thoughts. I let him.

It was not silent, despite neither of us talking. Skitters danced around us and birds called to each other amidst the branches. If I tuned in, I could hear my own breaths and Kade’s as well. The calmness that found me was foreign, but a welcomed experience I hadn’t felt in a while.

He finally turned to look at me. His hand raised, a blue spilled into the atmosphere around us.

“Magic.” I said, and I felt the prickle of strong emotions I’d felt before. It teased my skin, trying to raise my anxiety once again. I did my best to shake it off, knowing these feelings were his own and not mine.

When our eyes met, his were wider than mine, “You’re not surprised?”

“I think I’ve been feeling it this whole time.” I raised a hand, as though to cup the color. The world around us became muted in a blue filter. The creatures around us became quiet, the world came to be only the two of us.

“I don’t know how to control it. Not well.” He stepped closer to me, scanning my actions to see if I flinched away. I didn’t. He came closer. “You asked what my wish would be, it would be able to handle this. Whatever it is.”

“…There’s a chance, right? There has to be.” I knew nothing about magic, and the way Fox had described it made it seem like as long as there was intent behind the magic it was possible to bottle it up and contain it. “You’re not the only one who…”

I cut myself off. I couldn’t mention Fox or Fable or anything else. But I could assume, regardless of my own experiences, part of this world was steeped in magic. My hand fell back to my side, and slowly the blue faded away into nothing.

He swallowed, “This is…This is the real reason me and Wells fought. I kept it from him, until it started to spiral out of control.”

“Did…” I didn’t want to ask.

Kade’s smile was strained, “I didn’t hurt him. Not physically. But I…”

He bowed his head, as though he could hide from his own feelings and thoughts. I inched towards him, filtering through so many sentences and phrases I could say. Nothing felt right. His catharsis was painful, a sight I shouldn’t have seen.

“I…I don’t know what you did. But if you want to control your magic then I’ll…I’ll do my best to help.” I stopped right in front of him, hesitant on what to do. He lifted his head, eyes reflecting the dying light. When I reached my hand out, he pulled me in without question.

“Thank you,” he murmured as he hugged me. His heartbeat was against my chest, a foreign sound. My hands reached around him, because that’s what I was supposed to do. I tried to ignore his shaking, along with my own guilt.

//

I laid in bed. All I could think about was Kade. I’d walked him home after, a strange sense of duty taking over. If there was nothing I could do, there had to be something someone else could do. Fox was always the first person to pop into my head, but I couldn’t help but think about Wells. I needed to know what really happened. Those words Kade couldn’t say.

If I asked Wells, would either boy be upset?

I sat up, unable to help myself. The paper sword was on my desk, and on top of it was a golden petal. My body stilled, as I lifted my attention to the marigold. It was starting to wilt. The golden hue it once had was slowly slipping away. The Headmaster said I only had a limited amount of time if I hit a failure condition.

It was inevitable. This would be a half started piece. It was because I knew my own feelings. I knew I couldn’t ever fall for Kade. There was no point in playing pretend anymore. All my effort would merely vanish when this was reset.

It was a heavy thought that kept me awake the rest of the night.

//

“How long until the flower wilts?” Fox leaned onto his desk, his hand reaching out and pushing away stray hair from my face. I smacked his hand away, and the corner of his lips quirked up. The smile was strained.

“Failure already? Well, I guess it was bound to happen.” He pushed himself back into an upright condition. “You could still save this depending on how bad it was.”

“It was just…starting to droop? A petal fell.”

“Early then?” I nodded, and he drummed his fingers against the table. “What’s the game plan?”

“I was…going to talk to Wells. About Kade.”

His eyebrows raised, “Not giving up then? I thought you would the moment you saw failure looming ahead of you.”

“I…” Kade’s hug, despite my heavy suspicion he was somehow developing a crush on me, had merely happened. For all my constant anxiety, I’d been strangely calm in the moment. Rather than calm, I’d felt nothing at all. The hug had been no different, other than a nail in the coffin. “I owe them that much at least.”

“…Do you?” Fox glanced away, staring out the windows next to us. It was rare to catch him like this. He had existed toeing the line between taking nothing seriously and taking it all too seriously. But now there were worry lines on his face, and my stomach curled in response.

“…I’m so disappointing, aren’t I?” Fox snapped back to me. “I haven’t even done anything. I don’t even know who the guardian or the villain is. And I don’t think I have any chance of liking him. It’s all just…”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Before I knew what was going on, he reached out and dramatically mused my hair. I yelped in protest, “Didn’t we all tell you everyone fails the first one? I’m not disappointed. You took the first steps, that’s good enough.”

“Fox—”

“But if you failed your math test after all the tutoring I gave you, I just might not ever talk to you again.” With a testament of death, the bell rang above us. The teacher held all of the class’s tests in hand, and I tried not to look back at Fox and beg for mercy. I did fine. I think.

“Once I hand these back, you can spend the period reviewing what you did wrong. If you turn in those revisions, I’ll give you partial credit.” The teacher walked from student to student, getting to me and Fox last.

When he slid my paper upside down and handed it to Fox with a, “Great job,” stress filled my blood. I was almost too scared to look now. As the teacher walked back to the front, Fox tapped my shoulder with his test.

His near perfect score was facing me as though in mockery, “Well Cinder? Time for the grand reveal.”

“…You won’t actually be disappointed in me if I fail right?” When he said nothing, I swallowed hard and reached for the paper. There was no reason to care what he thought, but I suddenly felt the same pressure as giving my report card to my parents. I flipped it over. “…I passed.”

He leaned forward, “Barely.”

“But I passed!” I spun around, so quick I nearly knocked my head against his. He fell back, looking about ready to say something but instead he shook his head and smiled.

“Congrats on the seventy-two. Give me your test.” Fox was on me about all the mistakes I made, with loud lamenting of how I’d forgotten his teachings. There was humor to his voice though, and I felt weirdly relieved.

“When I redo this, I’ll get a better score.” Fox paused mid question correction. “The next reset, I mean.”

He looked at a loss for what to say, “You can give up now.”

“I…” I could only shake my head. “Maybe I should. My failure is inevitable. But I…”

Abigail wouldn’t have given up. I know she wouldn’t have. She’d have seen it through until the bitter end. I moved through the test corrections, acutely aware of Fox’s eyes on me. He watched as I scribbled away, making notes on what it was I had done wrong along with reminders for myself on what to do in the future.

His gaze returned towards the window, all the teasing gone from his face. I kept my eyes down, feeling like I wasn’t supposed to see this. It was another side of Fox, and I decided to figure out the pieces of him later. For now, I kept working.

//

“Wells.” I stood in front of the drama room. After school rehearsals would start next week officially, and with a part so small I wouldn’t really need to make many of them. Mostly, I’d be working back stage as I usually did, helping out with props and costumes.

Wells stood in front of me, a tilt of his head the only indication of surprise I could find, “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“C-can we talk? Um, away from…everyone.” I glanced around at the still endless sea of students. I expected Wells to press further but he only nodded his head. I let my shoulders relax.

“Fine. Let’s go.” He moved ahead of me and I followed after him. I half expected him to go to the library, since that’s where he and Kade had talked prior. He walked fast, unlike Kade. I was forced to match my steps with his, a hard thing to do considering how much shorter I was compared to him.

We walked outside and we headed towards where the various sport fields were. We stopped a bit aways, but I could see the football team getting ready for practice, jogging around the track along with the actual cross-country runners. Kids were scattered along the bleachers and I watched them before returning my attention back to Wells. He’d been watching, too. I wondered if he missed sports. Kade spoke about him like he was one of the best.

“What did you want to talk about?”

“…It’s…about Kade.” He waited, probably having expected this. I shifted on my feet. “Well he…he has magic inside of him, right…?”

The flush of emotion on his face wasn’t one I had been expecting. I near staggered at the force of it. His hardened eyes, the way his eyebrows drew together so heavy. His full attention was on me now. I wrapped my arms around myself, as though to escape his intensity.

“He showed you?” A hint of urgency ran underneath his voice.

I gave a slow nod, “He said he…”

The words were lost. I wasn’t sure how to bring this up. If it hadn’t ruined their friendship beyond repair, then how bad had it been? I hadn’t considered it would bring a rise out of Wells, and I couldn’t find the words to speak. This was different than how Jen and Fable looked at me.

He was almost desperate, “He hurt me.”

“…Yeah, he mentioned.”

Wells took a breath. His expression calmed, but it didn’t quite ease back into its usual nonchalance. He tugged at his vest and the white dress shirt underneath and I felt heat spread down my neck in protest. When he lifted his shirt, all I could register was the white scars fracturing along the center of his torso.

“This is why I can’t play soccer anymore.”

“What—”

“It was as blue as his magic, when he did it.”

He pulled his clothes back down, not bothering to tuck them back in. My brain was going a million miles an hour, “If…if he did that to you, why were you so ok talking to him, still?”

“Maybe it was a gift in the end.” The sequence of events didn’t line up. Kade had said he’d lost it after Wells had quit, but Wells was saying it was Kade’s actions that forced his hand. When I only stared blankly, Wells managed to fully even out his expression. “Do you like Kade?”

“I don’t know him well.” Maybe I should have answered in another way. I was trying to extend the story as long as I could, after all. But I couldn’t bring myself to say it. “I know he…seems like he’s suffering. I can’t tell why, though.”

I glanced back at his stomach, holding the image of those scars in my mind. Kade had said not physically so why—

“Let’s rewind. What did he tell you?” I swallowed and recounted everything I could up to this point. Wells nodded along, and the more I talked the less bothered he seemed to be.

“I get the feeling not all of what he said was true.” I finished with, and Wells tilted his head.

“Not quite.” He smiled and I knew it was for my sake. Tension had entered every part of my body. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I didn’t want to know how much had been the truth and how much had been lies. “It’s like this. During the summer Kade lost control of his ‘magic’ for the first time. I hadn’t been aware he possessed it and neither had he. The panic only heightened its affects and it lashed out at everything around him. Including me.”

I swallowed, “…What caused it?”

“I’m sure it’s something he wishes to hide.” I knew, so I didn’t press the issue. “Afterwards, when I went to the doctor they said it’d be best to take the year off from sports. I didn’t say what had caused my injuries and the doctors couldn’t puzzle it out. Despite my parents concern I brushed them off. I think I resented Kade for the rest of the summer, until it dawned on me how I didn’t care about the sport at all. My parents had wanted me to do something and I went along with it. Now I had the excuse to do whatever I wished.”

“And that’s why you don’t hate him?”

Wells shrugged, “I don’t know what I feel towards him. He hurt me, whether he meant to or not. Just because the consequences made me realize something about myself doesn’t erase the scars he gave me.”

“I see.” I wasn’t sure what to feel. There was a sense of relief that Kade hadn’t meant for any of it to happen, but I didn’t know if I could face him again knowing he didn’t have control over himself. I knew that, to some degree. I’d felt his magic as it leaked out into the space around him. But when I’d managed to block it out the other day, I’d thought it would be simple to deal with after.

“You said you still don’t know what you feel towards Kade.” I nodded, still trying to find where to put all the information that I’d been given. “I think you should be careful from now on.”

“I know. I will. But Kade? Is it alright if I ask you one last thing?” The picture forming in my head was finally being put in place. There was just one last thing to confirm.

“Go ahead.”

“Did you not care for soccer because it wasn’t fun, or because you felt separate from the team?”

If I hadn’t been looking so closely I would have missed how his eyes widened a fraction. The twitch in his fingers before they returned to their relaxed position. I waited, and he turned away to look towards the field. I wondered if he saw his team instead during the winter frost.

“Not all teams are close.”

It was answer enough.

//

When I got home, the first thing I did was pull out my notes. They hadn’t been updated since my attempt during those first two weeks, but now I wrote everything down in a collection of circles and lines and highlights. All my mistakes up to this point had become glaringly obvious, and it was a wonder how I hadn’t failed this story yet. The fading marigold was proving my point.

Wells was the Prince. Kade was the Villain. The guardian space was woefully empty, and I assumed I wouldn’t get far enough to figure out who it was. The Headmaster had mentioned it was possible not to find them at all. They weren’t important. What was important was this;

In the dream I’d had in the beginning, Wells had been the boy on the bleachers. The people on the field had been symbolic of the soccer team. And Kade had been the one in the mask who’d ordered the others to drag him back. The one who I’d run towards in an attempt to reveal himself. I was still unclear why Kade wanted Wells back, other than his own guilt. Or maybe his own loneliness.

Even Kade had said he wasn’t close with the team.

The event that had caused Kade to lose control over his magic was unknown, but what I did know was he was genuine in his guilt. Even on the presumption Kade was ‘wearing a mask,’ I could feel his emotions because of his magic. Every thing he said had been true. He cared about Wells, but his heart was too messy to be able to deal with it.

Obviously I’d failed so quickly because I had been working under the idea of Kade being the Prince. While all my interactions with Wells up to this point had been fine, I’d made more of an effort towards Kade. My pencil tapped against the binder, looking at my hand writing.

Like this, the final piece I’d been given made sense. Fox’s paper show had consisted of a dragon devouring a heart, and the Prince defending his crown. Kade’s heart was a mess, and Wells was protecting himself from it. Fox had been warning me I’d gotten it wrong all along, but I’d been so preoccupied over his behavior I hadn’t stopped to think about it.

That left the issue of what to do.

I kept glancing at the flower, noting yet another petal had fallen. There wasn’t much time left before it was over. None of this mattered at this point, but I clutched my pen in my hand. Even if there was nothing I could do now, I got up.

Despite all my protests about using the journal I’d gotten, it felt wrong to throw away these notes. Without them, there was no proof I had ever existed in their lives, and them in mine. Maybe it was a selfish reason to pull out this journal, knowing full well the Headmaster may have access to whatever was in here. But as long as I remained vague, maybe it would be something only useful to me.

As I transferred my notes over, marking the section with a ‘one,’ I tried not to think about what I was doing. If the flower was dying, would it be alright to press it into the journal? The final reminder of these strange weeks.

Carefully, I lifted the marigold out of the vase and placed it inside my journal. I waited, as though the world would end in that very moment. But there was nothing. Only a looming sense of unease, as I wondered what I was going to do now.