Lexi

The ride down the elevator was a quiet one. No one so much as even breathed loudly. Thank god for the whirring of elevator cables or I might’ve developed a sudden case of claustrophobia. When the elevator doors, finally, opened, Mr. Huynh greeted us with a knowing look. No one stopped to say anything to him, but as we passed, Fox gave him a quick high-five.

Once out on the sidewalk, all three guardians turned to face each other with Sabine being the first to speak. “Okay, I swear I’m not trying to be a bitch by bringing this up but did my mother say you killed someone?” She asked directing the question to me.

Dorian cleared his throat. “In all fairness, I was a second away from bringing it up myself.”

My anxiety was still pretty raw. The information overload of the day seemed to be non-stop and I really hadn’t had a chance to calm down or catch my breath. Still, whatever was going on with me, they were the ones that were trying to help me. I owed them the truth. “Yesterday, after math class, I accidentally killed Mr. Caldwell.”

Their blank stares told me they were still adjusting just as much as I was. Even Fox seemed unsettled, but I continued on. “Then it happened again when Fox and I went to meet a new kid starting school on Monday. I accidentally killed him too. But I reversed time both times. So, they’re fine. I hope.”

It took a minute of everyone staring before Sabine finally broke the awkward silence. “Right, well, I guess that would explain the disruption in the timeline I felt yesterday and this morning.”

Dorian took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders. “Well, shit. At least we know what we’re dealing with now. I mean, definitely more than we knew yesterday.”

I turned to Fox, but his eyes were glued to his phone. Moving closer to take a peek, I saw his phone was on a social media page for the P.E. teacher. “Is that Mr. James windsurfing? I’ve always wanted to try that.”

Fox immediately put his phone to his chest before giving me a wide-eyed and nervous stare.

Dorian and Sabine both spoke at the same time. “Fox, no!”

Sabine did a sort of wave with her hand and suddenly she had Fox’s phone. Before Fox could do anything, Sabine used her free hand to clench her fist at his feet. As Fox struggled to move, it became apparent she was keeping him stuck where he was. Her head slowly shook as she searched through his phone. “Really, Fox? Stalk much? Oh, my god.” Sabine’s face contorted in what appeared to be a combination of disgust and horror. “Why do you have shirtless photos of Mr. James on your phone?”

Dorian quickly moved to Sabine's side. “Jesus, Fox. Did you learn nothing during our last incarnation?”

Incarnation? On the one hand, I agreed with Sabine and Dorian, but on the other, I felt for my friend. After all, he had basically been looking out for me since this all started. Thankfully, there was one thing that I could do. “Not to sound like a narcissist, but I feel like there should be more focus on my man-slaughter tendencies.”

It seemed to do the trick. Sabine raised her clenched fist, letting Fox move again before he snatched his phone out of her hand.

Dorian crossed his arms and regarded me. “You’re not wrong. I think the best course of action right now is to cover all our bases. I’m going to head back up to the archives and see if I can find anything useful in the records. Fox,” he said turning to my still blushing friend. “You should stay with Lexi. Take her back to her house. Keep her calm, but most of all, keep her safe. We’ll touch base in a few hours and if Aunt Felicity doesn’t have a Clock Keeper ready for Alexia, then we’ll need to come up with a plan.”

Sabine finished typing something on her phone before putting it away and turning her attention back to us. “I’m going to head back inside with you. I have something I have to take care of and then I can go through the grimoires to see if there’s anything that will help with this garbage fire.”

Did she just call me trash?

Fox abruptly linked his arm with mine. “Alrighty, looks like it’s time to meet the folks, princess.”

Before I could do anything, we were already heading down the sidewalk. “Uh, okay. Yeah, maybe I should call my parents first and let them know we’re coming. Also, maybe we should send for a ride or something because I have a feeling we are pretty far from home if you had to magic us here. I can’t go through that again.”

Fox stopped on the spot and slowly turned to me. The look of excited craze on his face disturbed me to my core. “You just gave me an amazing idea.”

The next thing I knew, we were walking down yet another alley. “I thought people generally tried to avoid alleyways because of all the muggings and danger and stuff?”

Fox just laughed and waved his hands back and forth like I was talking nonsense. “Hun, the only thing dangerous in this alley is you.”

I was one part shamed and one part offended. “That’s not fair. I didn’t mean to kill Mr. Caldwell or Cameron.”

Fox pulled me in for a light hug. “Oh, I’m just teasing, princess. Trust me. After some time, we’ll be able to laugh about this over some food. Like at hibachi. Or a buffet. Are you hungry? I’m starving. Oh, wait.” He closed his eyes for a minute while gently squeezing my arm. “Nice! Your mom is gonna serve Coq au vin. She’s got skills.”

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Now, I was thoroughly confused. “I mean, she’s alright. Most everything she makes comes from a box, and sometimes she’ll put a little spin on it. But she has never, and I mean never, made Coq au vin. Also, why the hell did you drag me here from the side—oh, god. Are you about to do some more magic? Please, no. I have nothing left in my stomach.”

Fox’s grin grew even wider. “It’s time to work your magic.”

I suddenly found myself laughing uncontrollably until I saw he was serious. “Are you insane? Do you have a death wish or something? In case you were somewhere else during that whole meeting, I have zero control over my magic.”

Fox gave me sympathetic eyes. “Oh, sweet, sweet little princess,” he said lightly patting my head. “Aunt Fee said your birth magic would be fairly easy for you to get a hang of. So, the sooner we get a jump on that, the sooner you can stop ending people’s lives.”

With a slap, I knocked his hand from patting my head anymore. “When you say it like that, it makes me sound like a serial killer or something. And I really don’t appreciate you making so many jokes at my expense.”

He took a deep breath and adjusted his face to a calmer one. “Sorry. I know it was very traumatic for you. This is kind of my defense mechanism. Whenever I’m nervous about something or unsure of what happens next, I make a lot of jokes to keep myself from freaking out. And unfortunately, those jokes are usually at the expense of someone else. It’s a flaw, but I’m working on it.”

Again, I reminded myself that Fox was actually doing me a favor. If he hadn’t been with me earlier and then taken me to see his Aunt, I would probably have had a psychotic break. After taking a deep breath, I gave him a lopsided smile. “You just had to take all the fun out of it. Fine.” I threw my hands up in defeat. “What’s this magic I’m doing?”

“Well, I could just speed us back to your apartment—calm down. We’re not doing that. Instead, I think it would be a good time for you to make a portal. They’re really straightforward. The only thing is, they put on a really big light show, and you never know if someone on either end might be seeing you without you seeing them. You know what I mean? But it’s a lot easier than teleporting. Especially teleporting two people your first time.”

I was following what he was saying, but there was a hole in his plan. “Okay, I’m all for doing something easy, but you just said it makes a big light show. And I’m not familiar enough with my apartment building yet to know where a good spot out of sight would be. Plus, I mean, cameras. We can’t do it on the roof because there are a bunch of people that can see from the other--.”

Fox started waving his hands to get my attention. “In this case, we won’t have to worry about that. All you need to do is focus on opening and maintaining the portal. I’ll work my own magic to keep us cloaked. We’ll just have to keep our hands touching at all times. However,” he exclaimed with wide eyes. “It is absolutely vital that we do not enter the portal at the same time. Have you ever seen a Cronenberg movie?” He asked to which I quickly shook my head. “Well, trust me when I say, it is best we do not enter at the same time.”

So far, this feat of magic was not sounding so simple. “I thought you said we had to keep our hands held the whole time?”

Fox pursed his lips for a moment. “That’s the tricky part. It’s not hard if we take it nice and slow. You’ll go in first but leave our linked hands for last. Then, we’ll adjust so we’re only touching fingertips. Once my hand goes all the way through, we can switch back to holding hands, and then I’ll just step through the portal. Easy peasy.”

There was a sinking in my stomach. Like how I usually felt before having to do some kind of public speaking. I was getting all of the usual symptoms. Dry mouth. Sweaty palms. And my personal favorite, uncontrollable shaking. “I--I don’t know about this, Fox. Maybe we should just get a ride or something. I’m not feeling too good about this.”

Fox took my hands into his and looked right into my eyes. “Lexi, trust me. You got this. Okay? I’ll be right here to help you. Now, just take a couple of deep breaths with me.”

Together, we breathed in and out. I was not a stranger to breathwork and knew it would, at least, help with the tremors. I nodded to Fox when I was ready.

He smiled before letting go of one hand but kept hold of the other. He took a moment to close his eyes and when he opened them again, I saw the familiar gold shining from his irises. “Alright, the cloak is up and running. Now, the key to making a portal is just imagining two places in your mind and then seeing them connected by the light of your magical marker. In your case, purple light. Concentrate on that, and we’ll be good to go.”

With another deep breath, I closed my eyes and thought of somewhere in my apartment building where there wouldn’t be a lot of people coming through. The only place that came to mind was the corridor outside my apartment. My floor didn’t have that many residents. In my mind, I conjured up an image of where Fox and I were along with the apartment corridor. As Fox instructed, I connected the two images by a stream of purple light.

Oh, whoa. Okay. There was a sudden sensation building in my chest. It was hard to describe. On the one hand, it was kind of pleasant, but on the other, it was really intense and building. It felt like it was going to explode. Or I was going to explode. The images in my head were pulsating as the light connecting them grew brighter and brighter. I couldn’t contain it. Oh, no. The pressure was still building. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my--. Boom.

It wasn’t a literal explosion. The feeling just erupted inside of me and coursed through my whole body like an intense shiver. I opened my eyes to find Fox holding me from falling over. After blinking my eyes a few times, he helped me to stand on my own. “Well, that was different. Is that how mag--.” The sound of people screaming stopped me. Wedged in between the two buildings that made up the alley was my apartment building. Half of it at least. A large ring of purple light was cutting vertically through the center. I couldn’t tell if the screams were coming from the people on the street or the ones trapped inside the building. Some of the windows were filled with the faces of terrified residents. I wanted to scream. Then, I realized, I already was.

Fox moved in front of me to block my view. “Lexi, look at me. Just concentrate.” His voice was calm but stern. “You can reverse this. Just focus.”

It didn’t happen. It didn’t happen. It didn’t happen.

***

It had been a fairly quiet car ride. Fox and I were in too much shock to do any talking. After coming to a stop and stepping out of the car, we both took a minute to look up at my apartment building safely standing where it belonged.

“Okay,” Fox said turning to me. “Let’s just file that one under learning experiences.”

The car ride had given me some time to calm down. “Maybe we should just start with something small. Like pulling a rabbit out of a hat.”

Fox groaned next to me. “I was thinking more like a card trick. Something not involving another living being.”

After processing his words, I nodded my head in agreement. “Well, I’m hungry. You?”

Fox let out a deep breath. “I think we both know the answer to that.”