It turned out that the science trivia club wasn’t so bad after all. I was horrible at answering the actual questions, but the rest of the club members were the esteemed academic types. And, like Lily had suggested, all I really needed to do was hit the buzzer as fast as I could. Somehow they always knew the answer right off the top of their head, their physical reflexes were just lacking. The first day went by in kind of a blur as Lily introduced me to her nerd friends and I hit the buzzer a bunch of times. I hate meeting new people, but they seemed nice enough. At least they liked the snacks I brought. You can’t go wrong with sour cream and onion chips and soda.

After club practice was over, Lily and I exited the classroom and I let out a deep breath. She poked me in the stomach and smiled at me.

“See? Was that so bad?” She teased me, and twisted her face into a scowl. “I don’t like meeting new people. This club sounds dumb. I have important Adept work to do.” She shot me a smile. “See how silly that sounds? That’s what you sounded like.”

I laughed. It was too hard to keep the distance from Lily that I was supposed to maintain. “Okay, so it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Still, having meetings every day of the week—study sessions and fundraising count as meetings.” I emphasized as I saw her perking up to interrupt and correct me. She settled back down and grinned. “It’s just a big time investment is all.”

“Yeah, but you need hobbies. All you do is work on Adept stuff, and I’m not even allowed to be a part of that! That’s not fair, don’t you think?” She twirled around in a circle outside while we talked.

I grimaced. The “Adept stuff” I did wasn’t something she wanted to be a part of. On the orders of her parents, Lily wasn’t allowed to know the training regimen I was being put through. Knowing her, she’d object to it and demand something change. The beatings and floggings, while effective, weren’t a good look. As far as she knew, I just did normal martial training and was working on my magical abilities. And that was how things were going to stay.

“Wait.” My train of thought was interrupted as something she said just registered with me. “I need hobbies? Are you saying you joined this club for me?”

Lily beamed. “Of course!” I gaped at her, and she laughed again. “You don’t have any other friends, so why not start here? Good snacks, by the way.”

I was about to continue our banter when something felt off. My smile dropped and my senses went into overdrive as the air took on a biting cold. I looked over my shoulder and up into the sky, expecting the worst. Lily cocked her head at me and looked puzzled.

“We need to get going, now.” I moved past her and grabbed her arm, pulling her further outside. The last thing I wanted was to get trapped in close quarters with whatever this creature was, and open space would give us the best chance at avoiding that.

“Wait, my bag—”

“No time. We need to leave.” I pulled her with me and almost made it to the door leading to the field behind the school, when I saw it in the distance. In daylight, it almost looked normal for a moment. It stood off in the woods behind the school, the same woods connected to the manor. Its gleaming white skull picked up the sunlight and it had snow clinging to its antlers. It was taking shallow breaths, with only small puffs of mist escaping its nostrils beneath the skull, which I was now realizing was likely some kind of mask. It was standing stock still, watching the school with icy cold intent. I had no idea how long it had been there, but I was pretty sure I knew what it had been waiting for.

When I looked at the creature, I briefly made eye contact with its sunken empty eye sockets from across the field. That was all the cue it needed that it had been spotted, and it leapt into motion. It was fast, but it was still far away. I shoved Lily to the ground away from its charge while I dove in the opposite direction. I barely had enough time to clear the path before it came rocketing in, smashing the wall and door in the process. It let out a horrifying roar that rattled my bones. The monster swept its huge arms in a half circle during the charge, tearing up the hallway lockers. It skidded to a halt on the tile with a horrible screeching sound of nails on chalkboard. At this point I saw it had hooves, and it had left a skidmark the size of a minivan on the tile while it slid. I gulped.

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The monster flipped into the air, rotating around to face me and bellowed again, this time shaking its antlers and tearing up the ceiling in the process. My hand grasped the empty handle of my weapon at my waist. I’d learned my lesson since last time: never leave the manor empty-handed. I drew it and forced my will into the handle. The blade materialized with a popping noise and a puff of smoke, and I held it in front of myself in a defensive posture. I hadn’t wanted to engage this thing in close quarters, but there was little choice at this point. My top priority was ensuring Lily’s safe escape — even if that meant throwing my own life down as a distraction.

I spared a glance in Lily’s direction. Her eyes were wide with surprise and terror at the sight of the thing. Her body was shaking. I returned my focus to the creature. There wasn’t likely going to be any opportunity to grab Lily and run. She was going to have to get to her feet on her own. All I had to do was buy her time to get out of here.

The creature finished its tantrum and returned its empty eyes to me. Insulation foam stuck to its antlers where it had gouged the ceiling, and it huffed deep breaths. I could smell its sickening odor now, making my stomach lurch. I stayed still, waiting for it to move. It was faster than me, so I had to be prepared to react.

When it moved, I was ready. It swept an arm out to backhand me, but I ducked and slid on the tile to come up directly in front of its torso. I hacked away with my weapon, and the enchanted steel tore into its hide with a hideous gash. The beast recoiled with a startled groan and slammed its antlers down where I had been standing. I was watching for an attack from above, and tumbled to the side, raising my machete again to catch its follow-up punch. I knew if this kept going for long, I’d probably run out of stamina before the creature did. I had to do what I could to dissuade it from fighting altogether, by hurting it if it chose to attack me.

The monster slammed into me and hurled me backwards into some lockers, but the cutting edge of my weapon was directly in its path. It sliced up the creature’s knuckles, making it howl again, dark red blood flying through the air as it waved its hand in pain. I collided with the lockers with a thud, presenting them with a fresh dent in the cheap metal. It knocked the wind out of me and I felt my insides shuddering at the blunt force trauma, but I was able to keep it together for the time being. So much for dissuading it from fighting. At least this was still buying plenty of time for Lily to get away.

I peeled myself off the locker just in time to dive out of the way of the thing’s next charge. It barreled into the lockers and smashed them through the wall, its momentum carrying it well into the empty classroom. I stumbled back, struggling to regain my balance after the blow I’d taken. The display of power this thing was showing me here just reinforced what I already knew: a direct confrontation with it was suicide. I grit my teeth and stabilized my breathing. I widened my stance and regained my composure, taking advantage of this brief respite to collect my thoughts.

I looked back at where Lily had been; she was missing now. That was good. She was getting away, just like she was supposed to. She needed more time to clear out of this area, so I knew my job wasn’t done yet. I could worry about getting myself out of here after she was safe.

The creature screamed from the classroom and whirled around, throwing desks and tables aside to turn back to me. It crashed back through the hole it had just made and came swinging. I ducked its arms again, and preemptively rolled to the side to dodge the antlers that came plummeting down from above. The antlers shattered the tile with a thunderclap and it stomped its hooves in frustration. I rolled back to my feet and tried to get close for another slash, but this time it bounded away and snorted. It leveled its skull and antlers at me, and stamped its hooves, signaling another charge was incoming. I was beginning to catch on to its patterns now. I took a deep breath and got ready to sidestep the charge and follow-up attack, hoping this time I could keep close to it and deal some damage.

Sparks erupted around the eye sockets of the monster’s skull as it launched into motion. It screamed with an ear-splitting shriek. It careened off course into the wall. I dodged the opposite way. I slammed into the dented lockers again. More sparks shot off the creature’s hide and I snapped my head around to the source. I found Lily standing in the doorway of the club room, breathing heavily, her bag emptied out beside her, with a wooden wand in her hand. She bit her lip and her eyes focused as she swished the wand in the air. She hurled another set of sparks at the creature. It turned to face her just in time to get a face full of additional sparks. It yelped. It clutched its bleeding wound I’d given it earlier, looked between the two of us, and turned around. It charged out of the hole it had made when it first attacked, and raced off into the woods. I watched it gallop away. Lily and I looked at each other, silently feeling like this had been too easy.