"Crystal said this place didn't have too many rooms. It shouldn't be hard to find them." Cinza took the stairs as fast as she could, Natalie on her heels. The second floor landing they reached had an open door and an empty room, but at the third floor landing, they could hear a faint noise down the hall.

  Cinza held a finger to her lips, beckoning Natalie forward. They crept down the hallway as the noise grew louder, and much more distinct. Natalie tried to ignore the uncomfortable mixture of sounds, reminding herself over and over why she was there and what she needed to find.

  Cinza needs me. I can't leave. I have to get my bag back. I can't go home without it.

  They were only a few feet away when Cinza stopped, crouching low by the wall. The sounds and voices were getting louder. Natalie moved closer, though she could feel a twisting sensation in her throat as she did, like she were about to throw up but swallowing it back at the same time. She couldn't tell if it were because of what she imagined going on in the room, or because she was so close to Cinza, but she pretended it was the former because she was afraid of the alternative.

  "It's him," Cinza whispered.

  "How do you—"

  "Trust me, I know." Cinza's expression was so grim that Natalie didn't question her. "We can't wait for him to be done. I know you haven't been able to share magic with anyone before, and I can't imagine what you're feeling right now, but I need you to try, Natalie. If you can share your strength with me, I can make us invisible, and we can be in and out with the bag before he notices anything."

  Natalie hesitated. She held out her hands, shaking a little, but she forced herself to imagine the bag imploding and crushing every one of her precious possessions inside. Her mementos of her parents and Gwen, her books and all her things from home, everything she'd managed to save from her life before it all burned down. She couldn't lose them. They were all she had left.

  Her hands stopped shaking. Cinza took hold, and while Natalie felt sick and her instincts screamed at her to pull away, she managed to stay still.

  "Okay," said Cinza, as softly as she could manage. "That's good. Now reach for your magic, however you usually do so."

  "Doesn't everyone do the same thing?" Natalie whispered back.

  "Apparently not, but we don't have time to get into that theory."

  Natalie mentally reached for the magic dancing around her heart. To her, it felt like a glowing fire inside her chest, right next to her beating heart. It was a flame she could take small parts from, and if she tried to take too much, it got smaller until it became embers and coals, but always managed to light back into a dazzling bonfire again if she gave it time.

  The fire was her, powering her entire body and her mind, and the magical part of it was just her learning to use herself in a different way than before. She'd never felt like it was a new or separate part of her, but like it had always been there. She hadn't really recognized it until she'd read from the book, but as soon as she had, it wasn't new. It was a part of her, and always had been.

  "Once you've got it ready, you need to push it out to where my hands are holding yours. Then I'll take it and use it to make us invisible." Cinza interlocked their fingers and squeezed her hands slightly. "I'm right here, don't worry. You can do this."

  "...I don't know how." Natalie said fearfully, while the prospect of sending that was her out to such a remote and vulnerable place send waves of fear through her brain. "It's me, I can't just give it to you."

  "It's… I'm sorry, Natalie. It's just energy. It's okay."

  "No, you don't understand," she whispered, confused that Cinza didn't follow. "The magic is me."

  She tried to push magic out to her hands, like Cinza described. Every time it reached the edges of her hands, right up to the skin, it stopped dead, because to her, the magic filled her hands.

  "I can't just send it out of me, because it is me."

  "It is you?" Cinza whispered, and they both fell silent at a gap in the sounds emanating from the room. They picked up a moment later, letting the conversation resume. "...I don't understand, but I want to." She shook her head, her soft brown hair fluttering wide behind her. "We don't have time. If we can't become invisible though, we'll need another plan."

  Natalie let go of her hands, crouching back against the wall again. "We don't have time," she echoed. "I can't feel my bag from here. If he has it, it's probably almost empty."

  "If we go in there blindly, and he has some kind of weapon…"

  She shook her head. "You said my bag might blow up any minute. We gotta go."

  Cinza frowned. "All right. Give me three minutes, then come in. Count it out, okay? I'll set him up for you.."

  Her face got red. "No, you don't have to—"

  Cinza smiled. She took off her bag and handed it to Natalie. "That's kind of you, but I've no qualms about using every weapon at my disposal. Remember, three minutes."

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  Before Natalie could say another word, she turned and opened the door.

  "Who the fu—" The surprised voice was all too familiar to Natalie. It was the man with the melting face, the one who'd started her whole terrible night.

  "On the house from Niddles, just for his best customers," Cinza purred, strutting into the half-lit room. She carefully made sure the door didn't close behind her, so that Natalie could get in without the loud click of the knob again.

  "Is that Candy Pop?" asked the girl, gasping for breath a little. "Get in here! Where you been?"

  Natalie counted under her breath, both trying to ignore the sounds coming from the room and making sure she paid attention so she knew what to expect. Go for the man, before he can react. Knock him out, find your bag, run. It'll be easy.

  If he doesn't go down, you know what to do.

  With only thirty seconds to go, Cinza spoke up more loudly than before. "Melty baby, do us girls a favor and go to the nightstand? Special surprise in the bottom drawer…. No, the one by the door. Yeah, that one."

  Ten seconds. Natalie reached for the flame of magic inside her, letting the bonfire out. It raced along her arms, burning and filling her up with warmth and strength.

  "Keep lookin'," Cinza called.

  Time.

  Natalie burst into the room. Next to the door stood a handsome nightstand, and in front of it stood a naked man, with the same melting face and drooping eyes she'd seen earlier that night. He'd been leaning over the nightstand, but as the door swung open, he stood up quite suddenly. Before Natalie could get to him, he plunged his hand into the top drawer and pulled out a huge knife. In an instant, he snapped his wrist upright, metal flashing.

  Natalie froze. Sharp metal poked into her chest, just enough pressure that it wouldn't cut her dress. Cinza had obviously been trying to keep him near the door so Natalie could take him out, but she hadn't expected the knife.

  What do I do now? Sweat was beading on her neck, real sweat this time. The knife was real, she was sure. It looked sharp, and reflected the pale glow from the lamp atop the nightstand into Natalie's eyes.

  "Whas' goin' on?" asked the other nude girl in the room, rolling over on the bed to look up at them. She looked young and more than a little confused. Cinza had frozen at the sight of the knife, crouched on the bed atop her clothes, watching them both very carefully.

  Meltyface had the point right at Natalie's chest, tracing a circle around the front of her dress. "A freebie's one thing, but two freebies is a fuckin' scam." His eyes screwed up a little. "Don't I know you, cutie?"

  "Melty, just ignore her," called Cinza, sitting up slightly and striking a pose. "She's probably just lost. Come back and let's have some real fun."

  He wasn't taking the bait though, and didn't take an eye off Natalie. The other girl had finally realized what was going on and fallen silent, looking just as worried as Cinza. Neither of them dared move with the knife pressing into Natalie's dress.

  Cinza couldn't send her another message either, not with the other girl in the room. Natalie had to find a way out on her own.

  Do I do what Cinza does? Make him think I'm here for him? I don't think I can do that. I don't know how to.

  "I feel like I seen you before. I definitely seen that pretty dress before…"

  The knife slowly dragged up her dress, though thankfully not cutting it at all. Natalie held very still, as a plan began to form. She could do it. She started gathering magic, letting the flame roar through her and spread up to the skin around her shoulders. Suddenly, she was grateful for her dress, with how it exposed her shoulders so completely.

  Just keep going. Keep moving the knife up.

  The knife halted an inch away from the neckline of her dress. Natalie squirmed in place. No, he isn't supposed to stop. Keep going.

  She couldn't make magic go out without speaking, and if she spoke, he'd probably stab her before she could finish a spell. On the other hand, she could push and change energy through her own body without so much as a whisper, as long as it never left. Just a little bit higher.

  "You look real nice," he murmured, and finally, the knife slipped up past the fabric of her dress. The cold metal actually felt bizarrely nice on her skin for just a moment, contrasting just how hot and stressed she was, throwing her head for a loop.

  You have him. Do it.

  "Where's my bag?" she asked. She didn't wait for an answer.

  Releasing the pent up magic practically boiling underneath her skin, Natalie transformed it all to electricity in an instant, rocketing around on the surface of her skin in the same trick she'd used on the gang members. The electricity would have continued flowing in a loop until it burned out or hit Natalie herself, but it found another route—through the sharp metal touching the skin of her shoulder.

  A bright flash and a whip-crack, and both the knife and Meltyface flew a good dozen feet through the air toward the bed.

  "Holy shit!" screamed the girl, diving out of the way.

  Cinza ducked as he flew over her head, tumbling into a heap on the other side. She hopped off the bed and snatched up the knife, which was smoking slightly but was otherwise intact. Natalie stared dumbfounded. She'd expected it to melt completely, like the other metal things she'd hit with that much lightning.

  "As my friend said," said Cinza, holding it to the twitching man's neck. "Where's the bag?"

  "N-n-not tellin' you shit," he stuttered, still twitching.

  "Candy, it's in the closet," said the girl, moving to grab it. She looked afraid, and stayed well clear of Natalie, but in a few moments she'd dug it out of the dusty unused closet against the wall. The girl took a few steps toward Natalie, then stopped, nervously holding out the purse as far as she could. "This is what you want, right? He had it on him when we came in. Looked too girly for him."

  Natalie could already tell it was the right one as soon as the closet door opened, with the sudden draw of energy as it started to pull on her to keep it working. She plucked it from the girl's hand and strapped it over her shoulder with a huge sigh of relief.

  "What's going on?" asked the girl, glancing between Natalie and Cinza. "Candy?"

  "Retrieving some property," Cinza said calmly, staring down at Meltyface with a disgusted expression. "Could you pass me my bra?"

  As Cinza navigated the task of keeping the man in check while re-dressing herself, Natalie dug through her bag quickly to make sure everything was still there. As soon as she'd found the tuft of Gwen's fur, she finally felt a little bit of herself return, what she'd been missing ever since the sun went down and she'd gotten lost in this horrible city.

  "We should be leaving," Cinza reminded her.

  Natalie nodded. She took a step toward the man still twitching on the floor, but Cinza shook her head. "Leave him." She reached out and plucked her own bag from Natalie's other shoulder, causing her to wince.

  Cinza backed out of the room, and Natalie went with her. The girl on the bed watched them go, just as confused as when Natalie had first walked in. "Candy, what the hell am I supposed to do now? I got bills to pay!"

  Cinza sighed. Digging into her bag, she pulled out a loose stack of cash. "Get out of here, Kitty. Find a new town. I'm sorry." She tossed the cash onto the bed with a shrug. "Or find a new life. I did, and I'm a lot happier, believe me."

  "Fuck you, Candy!" Kitty shouted after them, as Cinza closed the door on the room.