“Okay, everyone hold on to your finished lemon curds,” Pomona said. “Let’s switch up partners again and make another batch. Someone new! I’ll come around and taste while you cook.”

The words didn’t register with Archie. He stood at the stove, unmoving, unhearing. Without a word, Akando volunteered himself to find a new partner at a new stove. The class bustled around as they switched partners.

“Hey Archie,” Sutton said as he took his spot at Archie’s stove and filled their pots with water. “Did you figure it out? I was having some trouble with…”

Sutton kept speaking, but Archie stopped listening.

He stared at Nori as she partnered up with Blanche. They were too far for Archie to hear, but he didn’t need to hear to know what they were saying. Nori said something. Blanche’s jaw dropped into a gaping smile and she grabbed Nori’s shoulders and jumped in a little celebration.

White hot envy burned a hole in Archie’s stomach, causing its acid to leak into his heart.

“Archie?”

Archie turned sharply, causing Sutton to flinch.

“You okay?” Sutton asked. “You look a little…unwell.”

“I’m fine,” Archie said.

“Is it your leg?” Sutton asked with a sort of perverse hopefulness. He wasn’t concerned. He was curious.

“I’m fine,” Archie hissed.

As Archie returned to watching Nori, Sutton snuck a few glances down at Archie’s mostly-recovered wound.

“Alright, let’s get started,” Pomona announced. “Really try to feel the essence as you stir.”

While the water simmered, Archie stewed.

Pomona started at the front of the class, dipping a little spoon into Nori’s lemon curd and tasting it. Pomona’s face lit up as she overflowed with praise.

The water and Archie both reached a boil.

Archie paid no attention to the finer measurements of his mixture, just throwing the ingredients together into a bowl over the heat. He stirred without any regard to Akando’s lesson, just dumping his essence carelessly through the whisk.

“Oh!” Sutton jumped and closed the damper, cutting off some of the air to the fire. “The water’s not supposed to still be boiling!”

But Archie didn’t care. He just whisked and watched Nori and felt rotten.

Why should she get to cook at Cafe Julienne? Aside from cooking seafood, she wasn’t any better than him. And she had enough advantages already. Her family was one of the most revered in the world. Her father owned a restaurant that rivaled Cafe Julienne. He was a White Jacket. And then there was her Black Jacket mother. And how many other Black Jackets were there in her family? She wasn’t even grateful for her family’s fortune. She had to audacity to feel burdened by it.

And who was Archie? What did he have? A forgotten name. Orange Jacket parents, the lowest of the low, operating a failing restaurant. Clinging on to some vestige of relevance. Of pride. He had never once felt ashamed of them.

Until now.

They had failed to gain a single rank. Maybe Archie would fail too. Maybe his dreams of being a White Jacket were too ambitious. Maybe he should just hope for a single color change. To not be a lowly Orange Jacket for his entire life. After all, he wasn’t a Harper like Nori. He was a lowly, lowly, nobody named Kent.

A rotten stench filled the kitchen.

Something changed in Archie’s whisk. The essence reversed its flow.

He should have been the one to cook at Cafe Julienne. He was the one that needed a break. Not Nori. Privileged, bratty Nori. She didn’t even care about becoming a Chef. She didn’t even care about legacy. Why her?

Sutton gagged so loudly that the entire class turned.

“Archie, what is that?” Pomona winced and held her nose shut as she approached.

Archie snapped out his spiteful, spiraling thoughts and looked down at his lemon curd.

At least, it should have been lemon curd.

The egg yolks had turned into black gelatin. The lemon juice had turned brown. The zest had turned green. The sugar had crystallized into brown goo. None of the ingredients had mixed, and none of them had any essence left in them.

Then the smell hit Archie. Death and decay strangling the air. Rotten tendrils worming their way into Archie’s nose, splashing down onto his tongue so that he could taste its acrid foulness. Saliva mixing with bile in his mouth.

He barely managed to turn away in time before half-digested ramen spewed from his mouth and onto the ground.

He couldn’t be there anymore. He ran out of the door and into the hallway, Sutton chasing close behind.

“Are you okay, Archie?” Sutton asked, firing off one question after another. “Is it your leg? How does your leg feel? Are you hungry?”

Archie couldn’t take it anymore. He had lost control of his life, his destiny, his stomach. He needed to feel in control. He needed to dominate.

And he was bigger than Sutton.

“Go! Away!” he yelled as he slammed his palms into Sutton’s shoulders.

Sutton’s glasses flew off of his face, hitting the ground a second after he did.

“I’m sick of your stupid questions!” Archie yelled.

Nori stood speechless in the doorway. Behind her, the entire class looked at Archie, then at Sutton, and put the pieces together.

Archie didn’t feel better. He felt much, much worse.

“Just…” Archie looked around the hallway. How had he gotten here? “I just need to lay down. I’ll be fine.”

Archie wiped the vomit from his chin as he stumbled down the hallway and into his room. Everything hurt. His body. His pride. Stress slammed into his brain like a club, knocking him out the moment he hit his bed.

A deer bumped its nose into Archie, waking him.

But he hadn’t been sleeping. He had been sitting. Sitting in the tranquil, flat grass of a forest glade, a ring of trees surrounding him. Sun shining down uninterrupted, warming his bones. Everything felt good.

The deer nudged him again, ever so softly.

He ripped a bundle of yellow flowers out of the ground and held it up so that the deer could eat them from his hand. Even as he lifted his hands, flowers regrew from where he had taken them. The deer took a bite and scampered back into the forest.

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A fox emerged from the bushes. Archie felt the grass around him, picking out fallen acorns which the fox ate. Then the fox left. A rabbit came and ate grass from his hand. Then a squirrel. They came one by one and then by groups, soft, gentle noses nuzzling and tickling his palm as they took his offerings.

And then the bush rustled again, and Archie knew that whatever was in that bush, it was hungry. He looked around, but the flowers had stopped regrowing. The grass had grown short and yellow. They had gotten too much sun, but that was alright, because the sun had almost set. Still seated, Archie found one last flower and held it out, his arm outstretched. He wondered what animal would come to take it. A badger? A raccoon?

The bush rustled again. Archie spotted a scaled tail slink between two bushes. A face emerged, a square reptilian face with a protruding underbite and teeth sticking out sideways.

Archie’s hand remained outstretched. He wanted to withdraw. He felt every muscle in his arm tense and contract, straining to pull his hand in. But his hand remained, compelled by some unheard voice.

As the creature moved across the glade, it left a trail of death. Brittle flowers that cracked in the breeze. Petrified wood. Black grass. These things would not rot. Their deaths would not become a source of nourishment. Their deaths were only death. The purest death.

The creature’s tongue tickled Archie’s palm as it danced around the petals, never taking them. It seemed to consider them, finding them unworthy. It looked Archie up and down, its gaze lingering on his leg. His wound had opened up, worse than ever before, gushing blood and pus.

The creature’s tongue flickered up a drop of blood, and slowly, ever so slowly, the creature lowered its mouth and closed its jaws around him.

Archie woke up, shaking the creature off of his leg before he even opened his eyes. But the creature didn’t relent, five teeth dug in deep. He sat up, kicking harder. He started to scream.

“Archie, relax! It’s me! It’s Nori!”

Archie tried to dispel the fog in his mind. He wasn’t in the forest. He was in his room. It wasn’t a licerte grabbing his ankle. It was Nori. The last time he had seen Nori, he had hated her. But why? She hadn’t done anything wrong.

“You slept through dinner,” Nori said. “And breakfast. Come on, let’s grab a quick bite and then get going. We’ve gotta get down to The Gift.”

Archie shed his blankets, but the blanket of drowsiness remained heavy on his body. “Yeah, let me just get dressed…”

Nori raised her eyebrows. Archie looked down. He had fallen asleep in his orange jacket, something he hadn’t done since his first month at the Academy when he had refused to take it off.

“Oh. Okay, uh.” Archie groaned as he got up. “Forget breakfast, let’s just go straight to Rowan.”

“No, come on. Let’s…let’s go to the lounge.” Nori nudged her head toward the door. “I’m sure…I’m sure someone has something we can steal real quick.”

Archie didn’t have the energy to argue. “Fine.”

Archie stumbled and swayed side to side as he followed Nori down the hallway, up the stairs, and into the lounge. It was emptier than usual, most of the students having already gone to work for their sponsors, but some first-years remained. Archie couldn’t look them in the eyes.

But one of them was waiting for him.

“Archie!” Julienne called out. He sat at a small circular table with Yarrow, who mildly scowled at Archie, and Mindy, who smiled. “Come over here.”

Archie looked around in confusion, wiped the sleep from his eyes, and walked over to the table. “Yeah?”

Julienne raised his eyebrows and tapped on the table with his middle finger. “So, I tried that lemon curd you made.”

“Oh.” Archie looked down at his feet.

Julienne stopped tapping and sat up, using his pinky to brush aside a curtain of black hair, revealing the porcelain skin of his forehead. “Oh, no! The uh, not that one. The good one. And it was. Good.”

“Oh,” Archie said again, this time with more spirit.

“I think I had mentioned it before, but my birthday is coming up at the end of the month, and I’m expected to prepare a feast for the royal family.”

Archie looked at Nori with a resigned smile.

Good for her.

“I was hoping you could give me a hand,” Julienne said.

“What?” Archie froze, no more able to move than he had been in his nightmare.

“Yeah, well I’m still finalizing the menu, but I’m thinking I need someone to make torrone. Have you ever made torrone?”

“No,” Archie said, everything but his tongue still petrified.

“Well, it requires constant stirring, so I need someone dedicated to that task.” Julienne spoke so nonchalantly. As if he weren’t making Archie’s dreams come true. “Honestly, the only lemon curds that were better than yours were Nori’s and Akando’s. But I need Nori to handle some lemon-heavy dishes. And Akando…well, you helped me with the soil, and you work well with Nori, so I figured I’d ask you first. If you don’t want to, that’s—”

“No!” Archie unfroze, his hands gripping the table as he leaned over it. “I’ll do it. Absolutely.”

“Oh, okay.” Julienne leaned back from Archie’s enthusiasm. Mindy giggled. Yarrow looked Archie up and down. “You’ll have to clear things with your sponsor. It’ll be in a few weeks. We’ll do a practice run before the actual day.”

“Yes, yes, absolutely. I’m sure Rowan will let us.” Archie turned to Nori. Her smile was even bigger than it had been when she found out she’d be cooking at Cafe Julienne. She nodded.

And of course, Rowan did.

“Cafe Julienne, huh?” he said. “That’s great. I’m proud of you two.”

Archie and Nori exchanged a warm smile. Both were in need of some fatherly approval, and Rowan did just fine. The feeling reminded Archie of his father and how Archie needed to respond to his latest letter. Archie’s parents were pushing him to come home for Winter’s Blossom. Apparently his mother had struggled the most with Archie leaving.

“Just promise me you won’t join them permanently,” Rowan said.

Once again, Archie’s thoughts of his parents were cut short by the hustle and bustle of Ambrosia City and its restaurants. There was never time to think about other things. Not without being left behind. City speed.

Archie and Nori smiled at each other again, this time their curled lips teeming with knowing. They had grown to enjoy their time at The Gift, but if given the opportunity, both would jump ship to the prestigious Cafe Julienne in a heartbeat.

“Of course,” Nori said as she stirred a twenty-gallon cast-iron cauldron.

“Of course,” Archie repeated, all but winking at Nori as he slid past her to dump in three pounds of chopped venison.

With their spirits revitalized by their impending opportunity, Archie and Nori stayed late, late into the night to keep serving the hungry people of the Roots. Rowan kept the restaurant open to accommodate their generosity. By the time Archie and Nori left, the nearby streets had emptied.

They had been chatterboxes at The Gift, talking about Cafe Julienne and Pomona’s class and the sugar cane they had grown in the greenhouse, but in the serenity of the moonlit night, they walked in comfortable silence. Archie savored the moment. A Kent cooking at Cafe Julienne. His dream—no, his destiny—jumpstarted.

And he had someone to share it with. He stole a glance at Nori. She looked back at him, causing him to turn away. His voluntary silence became involuntary as he hoped the dim street lamps wouldn’t reveal the red in his cheeks. He started to wonder—

A scream tore through the tranquil night.

Nori jumped and grabbed Archie’s arm. Adrenaline pumped through his body.

Another scream.

His heart pounded in his chest. Visions of the reptilian creatures plagued his mind. Had they gotten into Ambrosia City? He imagined them pouring through the streets, ripping people apart.

He pulled Nori toward the next intersection.

An unnaturally bright light splashed into the street. Far brighter than any lantern. Unflickering. Unnatural.

Another scream…

…and laughter.

They turned the corner to find a group of friends laughing as they spilled out of a tavern. A massive sign hung from the side of the building, the words Lifted Spirits spelled out by a looping glass tube full of a liquid that burned brighter than any fire.

A massive net stuck out of the building about three stories high.

A rooftop bar? Is the net for people that fall off?

Beyond Lifted Spirits, several other taverns had their signs lit boringly by lanterns. The street seemed as busy as any plaza during the day. Archie had heard about places like this—strips of nightlife. But having grown up in Sain, he never could have imagined the chaotic energy. The street itself was a party, a hundred drunken guests stumbling from one establishment to the next, all the while kissing and vomiting and hugging and laughing and crying. Archie had never seen so much life happen all at once.

“Let’s go around that way,” Archie said, eager to avoid pushing through the crowd.

“Are you kidding?” Nori looked back and forth between Lifted Spirits and Archie. “We’re getting a drink!”