Black Cat crossed his arms at me. “Well?” His slight black heel tapped against the dirt impatiently.

I glanced at Sinbad hesitantly, weighing how much I wanted to slap the poor man with.

Black Cat rolled his eyes. “Are you serious? He’s going to find out eventually anyway. They always do.”

“Find out what?” Sinbad asked. He sounded more curious than anything.

I sucked in a deep breath. “I’m not exactly–”

“Woah, there. I don’t want to hear the entire spiel.” He tilted his head in Sinbad’s direction. “He’ll tell you the full story later.”

My eyelid twitched. I hoped that in the future, I wouldn’t have to spend much time with Black Cat, though I had the unfortunate feeling I would.

Black Cat turned back to me. “Now, spill.”

“25 years ago–”

He waved his arms in front of his face. “No monologues. I draw the line at monologues.”

White Owl sighed again. At this point, I figured I’d heard her sigh more often than she’d spoken. “Black Cat…”

He pouted, exaggeratedly gesturing for me to proceed, motioning he was zipping his mouth shut.

Feeling slightly vindictive, I started where I’d left off. “25 years ago, the witch, Ava tried to steal magic from an entire universe. The mage, Jacob managed to stop her at the last second, but the universe fragmented, and the pieces scattered through the multiverse.” As I spoke, I recalled the vision I’d had of Elm. “We’ve been collecting the fragments in hopes of restoring the destroyed universe, but no one seems to know how, exactly, that will be done. You said the two of you can do anything.”

Their eyes revealed the shock the two felt at my words. “Ava…” Black Cat trailed off thoughtfully, his presence darkening as he moved through his thoughts. White Owl shook her head, and Black Cat clenched his fists at his side. “So that’s what happened,” he murmured, shaking his head. Then, with an inhuman level of venom, he spat, “Humans.”

“Not all humans,” White Owl said, taking his hand in hers.

“No,” he admitted, “but enough, clearly. What happened to us was bad enough, but this.”

White Owl went silent and moved to face me, still holding Black Cat’s hand. She stared at me for a moment, then said, “We’ve spotted the remnants of the scattered universe before, though we were not aware of the details. The universe is already trying to fix itself, and the fragments call each other. The more there are, the more powerful the call. If you can gather just enough in one place, the rest will follow, and the universe will be restored.”

Unabashed relief was enough to make my knees wobble. “Thank you,” I said, letting my sincerity seep into the air between us.

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White Owl shook her head, her long ponytail flittering in the wind and her earrings jangling with the movement. “There’s no need to thank us for this. This costs us nothing. You are putting in all the work. Our powers are limited outside of our own universe, and foreign magic quakes in our presence. The fragments would only run from us. We owe you a great debt, Hayden, for dedicating your life to fixing someone else’s mistake.”

I was already shaking my head at her words. “I never wanted to do this,” I admitted guiltily. “At first, I’ve only wanted to go home. Now, I’m only doing my job.”

Their hands separated, and Whtie Owl closed the distance between us, until her green eyes were less than a foot from mine. My feet were frozen to the ground, my eyes frozen to hers. I found myself unable to turn away.

“That’s not true. If it were, you would not be here now, speaking with us. Our favors must be earned and do not come cheap. Even upon our offering, you did not ask for a selfish favor. Your actions speak much better of you than you speak of yourself. Have a little more faith in yourself, Hayden. You’ll find you’re stronger than you think.”

Her words tugged at the dusty strands of memory in my mind, echoing words spoken to me by the cloaked flame in a dream.

But I knew I wasn’t the selfless and strong person they’d mistaken me for. Everything I’d done so far, even encouraging Cove to speak to Mattie, had been done out of self-preservation, not selflessness. Though I still didn’t know exactly how I’d ended up in Heirs, I hadn’t gone there of my own will. And I’d never been strong. Despite being younger, Ember had developed first and had to defend my younger self from bullies. Even after I’d grown to be taller than her, she’d always been the confrontational one, the go-getter, while I flowed through the river of life safely on my little raft, letting my path take me where it would. Now, Cove was the one who chose this position, throwing himself into danger to fix his parent’s mistakes. He had the strength to back it up, a strength I’d been shown and told time and time again that I could never match.

But I’d already said enough to Black Cat and White Owl. Any more, and I’d be risking the loss of their favor. It was something I knew would come in great handy later on my journey, and I couldn’t risk it.

The spell in her eyes broke, and suddenly I could move again. I tossed a learned smile over my face. “You’re too kind.”

Black Cat popped his head up over White Owl’s, straightening to his full height. His hand reached around her head to land on mine. He ruffled my hair, a patronizing gesture I hadn’t done to myself since I was a small child, and my mother used to run her fingers fondly through my hair as she spoke.

“Figure it out before you run into us again, alright? There’s a couple of kids that’ll need that strength of yours someday.”

I leaned away from his touch, and his fingers slid from my hair. From what little I could see of his face, he looked younger than me. His eyes caught on my earrings. “Oh, and by the way, you might want to grab another pair of those. They’ll come in handy, alter.”

I reached up to finger the stones.

White Owl shook her head fondly at his antics, and her ears moved back along her head as her cheeks pulled with a smile beneath her mask. “As we are now, you won’t find any fragments with us around. Remember, you can call in your favors anytime.”

“As long as they’re not boring.” Black Cat added. “I thrive on Chaos.”

White Owl shot another look at him, and he added “And no killing. We’re working on that.”

“I will.”

They threaded their fingers together and vanished in the blink of an eye. The immense pressure lifted from the air around us, and I took a deep breath.

“They were an odd couple,” Sinbad pointed out, appearing baffled by the whole fiasco. He’d stayed remarkably silent, which wasn’t something I thought I’d be able to claim in his position. There was no sign of impatience or irritation on his face. I got the feeling he had faith that I’d explain everything to him in due time.

“That they were.” Already, I was dreading calling in those favors.