Jacinta’s eye twitched. She scowled. Her brows furrowed, breath knotting once more. “I’m, uh…Jacinta?”

  “And? You some kind of famous thief or something? What the hell are you doing in my house?”

  Jacinta laughed, awkwardly, frantically. Maybe Olivia wasn’t there; maybe she was out with Aquaman, and the 911 text was some sick prank, and so was this, and—

  “I’m Jacinta. Olivia’s sister. You’re best friends with Olivia, Emmy—”

  Emmy’s expression only got more confused and concerned. “I don’t know any Olivias. My boyfriend’s three seconds from calling the cops. So leave, and if I ever see your face, my dad will shoot you, got it? How the heck do you know my name? I’m chill with you supernaturals but I don’t need any in my home. Uh, maybe SEE’s better to call.” Emmy’s pupils were dilated. Her voice was strangely distant.

  Magic? A forgetting spell? But—

  She didn’t have time to think through the logistics of the situation. She grabbed Olivia’s things and gestured the painted canvas in Emmy’s direction, pointing to it.

  “Olivia’s your best friend! She’s been staying with you for—”

  “Cool artwork…” Emmy frowned, as though she was having trouble with herself. She shook her head, sighing. “But I don’t care about your art friend. This some marketing scam? Robocalls, and now this? Just call the poli—”

  “No!” Silas laughed awkwardly, raising a hand. “No need. We’re good. We’re leaving now. Thanks.” He was trying a charming, easy smile; Emmy wasn’t impressed, and her boyfriend was starting to type in the numbers, clearly pointing each movement out for them as a warning.

  Jacinta shook her head, about to explain more, but Silas was nodding, one hand raised, and started to gently pull Jacinta to the exit. “I’m sorry for the—uh, the trouble. Have a good night. We got into the wrong house; she had a little—” he mimed a joint, and Emmy strode to the door, following after them; she glanced at her boyfriend, ready to protect him in case things got violent. Jacinta was dazed. Her hands were shaking. She shook her head, stumbling after him, Olivia’s art and bag still in her arms; the doors slammed shut behind, and Silas was pulling her ahead, rubbing his temples.

  “I’ll…this is a mess.” He pulled the glass SEE device up, angling it around the house. “Yes, Jacinta. Forgetting spell. A massive one. Effects are lingering—must’ve blasted the place, including the girl and her family, to make them forget about Olivia. We’re seeing this happen. I can tell the symptoms; it’s like everyone else who was taken, their people, and—"

  “Fuck!” Jacinta collapsed onto the porch, sobbing into her hands. “No. No—I told Olivia to stay. She said they were doing a movie night—Emmy had to be there! And—”

  Silas tucked the device away and stared down at Jacinta, reaching a hand, like he was going to pat her shoulder or help her up, before withdrawing it. He just sighed and faced away, staring up. Jacinta cursed again, sniffled, flipped through the sketchbook—

  But everything was too blurred from her tears. She grabbed her phone, tried to call Gregory on speed dial…

  “Hey you. Yeah, you. I’ve got such a busy, fantastic, wonderful—”

  Voicemail. Fuck. Jacinta shut it off, crumpling forward. The wind whistled in the distance. Her breaths were fast, grating.

  “I…need to get home.” Her voice wasn’t her own. It was gnarled, withered—a scratch along the back of her throat. She pulled a tissue from her bag and wiped at her eyes, shaking her head. Her body throbbed like she’d just run a marathon, or been punched again, again, again—

  It was gut-punch after gut-punch.

  Such a mess of the last few days, God…

  Olivia. Taken to another realm, reborn, twisted into a baby, and for what? Stolen magic? But Olivia was basically human…and what about Aquaman? She’d call up Olivia’s school, figure it out, all of it. Jacinta took out her phone and began typing.

* Check school system for memory; did they forget too?

* Look up Olivia on the internet

* Call Emmy’s parents

* Call Emmy later to see if it wore off

* Look around for Aquaman—tall Australian merman, ethnically Asian, probably over 6’, swim team star, in high school; same school? Maybe in papers

  “I can help you get back home, if you’d like.” Silas offered after an extended pause. Jacinta stared at the screen, the text; her vision was so blurry she could hardly make it out on her own. She looked at him for a few moments, panting.

  “I’m fine.”

  Silas’s jaw tightened. He looked back at the house, then down at her. “Don’t try that line with me. Look, I’ll get a taxi. Easier than walking all the way back to the subway and transferring God-knows-how-many-times. Alright? On my tab.”

  Jacinta hesitated. Trust—what a loaded word.

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  But she couldn’t walk all the way to the subway. They were all out by Oyster Bay. She’d need to transfer a few times, then get through City Terminal, then north, and…home. Eventually.

  “Thanks.” Her voice was smaller than she wanted, but she felt sick. Did they kill her sister there? Train her, harvest her magic, or, even, or additionally, do things to her, as a girl—

  “Silas—you’re telling me the truth, right? About the world and the time equivalent?”

  He was typing something into his phone—probably to get the taxi. He faced her and nodded, shoulders sinking. “It’s a fine world, from what we know. Relatively stable; clusters of kingdoms and different ruling groups, landmasses mostly like this world. Some small wars, but…it’s a world where time’s slow. So they’re just…taking their time. For something.” He set his phone back in his pocket, raking back his dark hair. “We’ll get her back. Or try. I promise you that.”

  Jacinta laughed; it was bitter, acrid. “We’re getting her back. There’s no other option.”

  Silas faced away, folding his arms across his chest. They said nothing for some time—he checked his phone. Jacinta stared at the grass, then up—lights. Car lights.

  Emmy’s parents were returning. Her dad exited the car, looking hostile—no sense of memory in his tight jaw, his narrowed eyes.

  “We should go…” Silas warned, offering her a hand. Jacinta tried to stand on her own—no luck. So she begrudgingly took his hand and staggered with him to the next house over, hidden under the shade of some trees, out of Emmy’s parents’ sight.. Jacinta folded her arms across her chest, back against the bark, eyes on the floor. A few leaves fell, curled and dry.

  Where the hell was the taxi?

  “Is there anyone else who knows Olivia well?” Silas asked, shifting his weight between his feet. “A, uh, parent, or aunt, or—”

  “No.” Jacinta cut in. “No family. I’m going to call her school and friends tomorrow…” She bit her lip. “With the other people who’ve been kidnapped…what happened?”

  “The others who lived with the kidnapped supernaturals, they forgot. Similar spells in the home. Other people who were close to them…depends. Sometimes they remember, sometimes they forget—usually forgetting. Those that slip through the cracks, that’s how we found out about this. They’re still in our government systems, sure; not fully erased. But—as for you not forgetting, I guess it’s hard to track you down, though…so you were spared.”

  “Thank fucking God. I’d never forget her anyway, though…they’d try me with a damn spell—as if that’d stop me.” Jacinta lifted her chin, shuddering. The benefits of living below the system…

  “You sound like you love her a lot.”

  Jacinta held back the sarcastic snap of her tongue, swallowed it, exhaled. No need to sass him out. He was trying to help. That was a compliment. “I do. More than anything…and anyway—she’s all I have.”

  The taxi slowed in the street. Good. The company had started to implement self-driving cars, albeit to an uproar of both people that hated technology, and the groups of people—mostly immigrants, minorities—that had taxis as their lifeblood. But they’d been pushed out.

  In this case, she was relieved to not have a person listening in. Cameras watched her and Silas, but no audio device; at least, it seemed so.

  Jacinta hurried in; Silas sat in the back with her. Between them was a screen, asking for a typed destination.

  Did she trust him enough?

  No. Jacinta typed in an apartment that was a few blocks away from her own, pressed enter, leaned back. The car rolled forward, humming.

  “You asked for an automated taxi, didn’t you?” Jacinta asked, twisting her head away from the camera, keeping her lips and face mostly hidden.

  “Yes. That okay?”

  Jacinta nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.”

  She watched the window—the skyscrapers, the too-tall buildings. When a city couldn’t build outward, it built up—the wealthiest stayed in apartments that went above the clouds, literally. Jacinta nearly pressed her forehead against the glass, glancing up. Gray clouds, the threat of rain. No stars, no moon—not even a sliver.

  Could she contact Olivia from afar? Jacinta couldn’t do magic, not there—not in the taxi. Her fingers burned—they were slightly swollen. She closed them into fists, released, returned. Red skin—blood, enflamed.

  She just needed to breathe. Silas told her that they had time…so they’d have time. They had to have time, dammit…

  “When you tell your buddies about what happened…will they go in?”

  “We have a few agents that are living there, and have been there—but only for a few months. It won’t be enough time. I mean…they’re babies.” Silas chuckled softly. “Albeit hyper-intelligent ones, considering they retain their previous mindset…but no. We’re working on technology that’ll transfer you over as you are—so…not a baby.”

  She could feel Silas’s gaze on her. His clean voice was somewhat muffled; he was talking into his hands, or his chest, maybe—good.

  He wouldn’t jeopardize her. If he wanted her dead, he would’ve left her with the damn monster in Verdance. Or he would’ve let her stay in Verdance, period—or not offered her a way out, but just gone after her, locked her up, inverted all of her truths as lies. She’d be voiceless.

  “Is your friend around?”

  Jacinta blinked away from the haze. She swallowed.

  “Sort of. He’s got moments of serious hyperfocus…” Did Gregory go off his ADHD medication? She hoped not…

  The thought went bilious. She didn’t want to be a bother. The other Coven members; she wasn’t so close to them. And her roommates were busy.

  Jacinta tried to think. Her friends in high school drifted away. College was now online, late-night; all awkward times, and—

  “So you’re basically alone, then.”

  She didn’t respond. Instead, her jaw wound tighter, body tensing.

  “Well…I need your info. And you need mine. So…”

  “What are you getting at? I can rely on you?” Jacinta snorted. “You put a gun against your knees just…yesterday.” She had to think through time. A day felt like a year…

  “No, I—”

  She felt the car slow. It beeped, message on the touchscreen between their seats. Destination achieved—said aloud, cutting off whatever Silas had to say—

  Good.

  Jacinta unbuckled, giving him a small nod, keeping him from saying anything else. “Well, thanks for helping me out tonight. I’m off tomorrow…so I expect updates. Plug the info into your database or whatever…but I’m working on this. Now.”

  With that, she shut the door and waited for the taxi to turn the corner before sucking in a sharp, pained breath, heading home.

  The streets were, for once, silent.