“That was stupid. You could have been killed.”

“That’s an awfully strange way to say ‘thank you’.” Lily tapped her foot in frustration while I picked up her things and put them back in her bag. “You would have been killed if I hadn’t stepped in. ‘Thank you Lily, you’re so good at magic.’ There, say it just like that.”

“Maybe. But if that display hadn’t worked, it would have gotten both of us.” I glared up at her. She was glaring back at me. I sighed. “You don’t know what you’re getting into. You’re not supposed to get involved in any kind of life-or-death situations. That’s the whole point of having me around.”

“I’m not just going to leave you to die.” She stomped her foot down and I jumped, startled. “I know you have this whole death wish thing going on, but I’m your friend, Aster. I’m not just going to be a princess in her ivory tower while you fight all my battles for me.”

“That’s…exactly what you’re supposed to be.” I said through clenched teeth. “That’s what you are. The family—”

“My family can think and do whatever they want. And I can think and do whatever I want. It’s that simple.” She put a hand on my shoulder. “This wasn’t like last time. It was going to kill you. I can’t just sit by and watch that happen.”

“Again, you mean.” I shrugged her hand off my shoulder.

“I didn’t say that.” Her expression changed to something more worried than angry.

“You meant it, though. You did what you were told when Rowan tried to kill me, and I killed him instead. Now that you’ve lost him, you don’t want it to happen again. Am I getting close?” The frustration flowed out of me a little too easily.

She didn’t say anything in reply. Lily snatched her bag away from me and put it around her shoulders.

“I’m not Rowan. I’m not going to go off the deep end the instant you take your eyes off me. And if I have to die to protect you, I’m going to do it. But it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t protect yourself by running away from danger and letting me handle it.” My tone softened and I stood back up, brushing some of the dust off of myself.

“You’re right. You’re not my brother.” She said, her eyes distant. “I just want things to be different this time.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

I winced. “I don’t know what things were like between you two. I have a pretty…let’s go with biased opinion of Rowan and how things went. All I want is to keep you safe and fulfill my obligation to the family.”

“Is that really all you want?” She glared at me. “Just being an obedient servant is good enough for you? Is that really true? Nothing else matters, including what I think about it all?”

I opened and shut my mouth. I didn’t really have an answer to that. She sighed and stowed her wand back inside her bag. There were sirens closing in on the school as we stood among the wreckage. I cleared my throat.

“We should get going.” I stepped up beside her, avoiding eye contact.

“Yeah. We should.”

The walk home was silent. Evading the authorities was easy enough, and we made it back to the manor without any issues. When we arrived, a squad of Adepts surrounded us and ushered us inside, checking over Lily’s condition. She shrugged them off and turned to me before I could go and give my report.

“Remember, there’s a study session tomorrow.” She sounded sullen, but still jabbed a finger at me. “And it’s my turn to bring snacks, so pick something good for me.” She whirled away and went deeper into the manor, taking the Adepts with her and leaving me alone.

Just what had all that been about? Lily and I had never talked about Rowan before. I knew it was a sore topic, but I didn’t know how much she’d been holding her feelings back this whole time. And what did she mean about what I wanted? What I wanted wasn’t terribly relevant to our situation. Maybe it had something to do with what happened to Rowan. I’d have to step carefully around the topic if I wanted to get any answers. But until then, I had a report to give. I made my way to Jane’s office and pushed open the door.

“I told you to knock.” Her words were sharp and cut through the air. I winced again, and shut the door behind me.

“Sorry, but this is important. The creature attacked again, this time at the school. Lily got involved.” I stood upright with my hands clasped behind my back, and reported the events exactly as I recalled them to Jane. She nodded along and made notes as I reported.

“So Lily is unharmed?” She asked after I’d finished summarizing what happened.

“Affirmative.”

“Then you’ve done your job. You should rest up and—”

The door flung open and nearly whacked me. Another Adept strode in and handed a sheet of paper to Jane. She glanced at it and nodded, dismissing the Adept. They left just as abruptly as they’d arrived. I didn’t budge an inch, waiting to be dismissed myself.

“You’ve been reassigned.” Jane said casually, as if this had been expected. I flinched, and turned my head to look at the paper she’d been handed. “Another Adept will be watching after Lily now.”

“What?” I blurted out. “I don’t understand, I did what I could to—”

“This comes from the family.” Jane interrupted, and carried on as if I hadn’t said anything. “You’ve done your job well, and now you’re being promoted. You’ll be training full time now, and the rest of your duties will be passed on to someone else. You’re dismissed.”

I sputtered for a moment, but Jane’s eyes were hard and inscrutable. She wasn’t going to budge on anything that came directly from the family. I collected myself, nodded to her, and left her office.