I was starting to hate the forest. The other Adepts and I scoured the area for hours, looking for any traces of the creature I’d encountered while milking the pixies. Other than the wreckage it had left behind while it chased me, we found nothing. No tufts of fur, no blood, nothing that could be used in a spell to track it. At first, the others had joked that I’d imagined the whole thing, until they’d seen the signs of its attack. The toppled trees were one thing, the crater it had left when it had leapt into the air was another.

It was hardly the first monster to come near the manor. The last time, another mage family had conjured up a demon of their own design to infiltrate the family’s defenses and get to Lily. They’d almost succeeded, all because of my own incompetence. I’d resolved that nothing would ever get that close to her again, and I intended to see that promise through.

There was no telling what the situation was this time around. What I’d seen didn’t line up with anything the family knew about, and the creature hadn’t attacked the manor directly. What it was and what it wanted were mysteries for now. I kicked a loose stone and exhaled into the cold autumn air. Jane, the commander of the family’s Adepts, stepped up behind me and cleared her throat.

“This area’s clear. We’ve got people moving out to sweep more, but this thing left no tracks once you got clear.” The unstated question hung heavy in the air. How could the thing you described leave no tracks? I sighed, and turned around to face her. Talking to Jane was always difficult.

“There’s no point in searching too far out. We’d have to spread ourselves thin, and make ourselves more susceptible to another attack. We don’t know what it’s capable of, other than…” I gestured broadly to the scene of destruction around me.

Jane’s frown deepened. “That’s not going to cut it with the family.” Her words shot straight to the point, and I winced.

“I know, but what are we going to do? We’ve got no leads, and a thousand more things we need to secure before nightfall. We’ve established the manor’s security. There’s nothing more to be done here.” I met her eyes and tried to stand my ground beneath her wilting glare.

“The family is responsible for more than just its own security. If this creature is real, it’s a threat to the whole territory.” She crossed her arms.

“Oh it’s real, alright.” I huffed and looked up at the sky. It was cloudy, and looked like it might start snowing any second. “If it starts snowing, even something as sneaky as that thing can’t help but leave tracks. We can start the search anew then.”

Jane didn’t say anything to that, but gave a sharp whistle that pierced through the chilly air. The other Adepts gathered around from where they had been searching. There were thirteen of us together, counting myself and Jane. A full unit of Adepts were out in the woods chasing after a phantom. Jane barked the order to fall back to the manor and we trudged through the woods back to warm safety.

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I grumpily followed the order, and the gears inside my head were spinning. Jane might not think that the monster even existed, which meant she might think my powers had leaked out when I wasn’t under supervision. That would have been bad for me, and the agreement I’d made with the family. Taking my latent magical abilities out for a joyride in the middle of the night and then crying wolf would be grounds for severe punishment, and possibly even expulsion. I shook my head. There was no point in worrying about that. The creature was real. It had been flesh and blood in front of my own eyes, and it had wanted to kill me.

I chewed on my lip while I mulled over the facts, as scant as they were. It was fast, powerful, and attacked me while I was alone at night. It hadn’t exhibited any magical abilities during the chase. It was clearly some sort of supernatural creature, and that meant that it could have almost anything hidden up its sleeve. If it could take flight, or turn incorporeal, or even just jump long distances, it could easily throw off our search, leaving us with no way of knowing where it could go nor what it could do. I had a bad feeling that I was going to learn a lot more about this creature as the search continued.

Entering the manor, I ran face-first into Lily. She stumbled back, and broke into a huge smile when she saw me. I shook myself off and looked back at her. She had a twinkle in her eye that meant she was hatching another one of her schemes.

“I have good news!” This was usually the first sign that she had bad news. “We joined a club at school, so we’ll be staying late Mondays and Thursdays. How good are you at trivia? Well, you don’t have to be good at it, you just have to hit the buzzer fast. You have good reflexes right?”

I blinked at her. She couldn’t be serious. My mouth opened and closed like I was going to say something, but my brain couldn’t keep up enough to form any words. If Lily noticed, she didn’t seem to care.

“Anyway, it’s mostly like science trivia but there’s math too, so we’re also going to study sessions at the library Tuesdays and Wednesdays, oh and Fridays are club fundraising. Busy busy!”

I slowly raised my hand. She stopped talking, smiled even wider, and pointed at me. “Yes, Aster?”

“Um. Yeah. That’s great and all, but what do you mean we joined a club?” I started my questions at the top of the list.

“Well I joined a club, and since you have to be with me anyway, I signed you up too! Aren’t I so thoughtful?” She nodded to herself and gave herself a congratulatory shoulder pat.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “This isn’t going to fly. I have Adept duties and training, and I already don’t have time to get homework done—”

“—and that’s why I already talked to my parents about it. They’re adamant that you accompany me at all times outside, so it only makes sense that you have to come with me. And your duties and stuff is fine, this takes priority. And you’ll get to do lots of homework at the study sessions! See, it’s a win-win.” She grabbed my hands and looked into my eyes. “Please?”

She’d worn me down. I smiled back at her. “Okay. Fine. Not that I have much of a choice in the matter, apparently.”

“You sure don’t!” Lily released my hands and skipped down the hall. “First club meeting is tomorrow, it’s your turn to bring snacks!” She rounded the corner and went out of view before I could protest.

I rubbed my temples, where a brand new headache was already forming. A murderous monstrosity mauling me, and now a clueless club clamoring for my attention. And it was my turn to bring snacks.