Jessica had eggs in a pan when they walked in. She waved at them as Hailey took a seat and Stephanie instinctively went to pour a glass of orange juice for the both of them. Only a moment's hesitation, and she poured a third glass for Jessica.

  The rest of the morning was spent in a much happier state. To Hailey's relief, her mother took to communicating with Jessica with ease, and within minutes they were signing whole conversations back and forth. Jessica served up the eggs a minute later, scrambled, soft, salted and peppered just as Hailey loved them.

  "Delicious," Stephanie said approvingly, giving Jessica a thumbs-up. "I'd swear I made these. You gave her my recipe, didn't you?"

  "It's not exactly hard to make scrambled eggs, Mom."

  "It is to do it right."

  "Well, to be fair, Jess cheats a little."

  "Hm?"

  "She doesn't use the stove. She heats them using magic. Always the right temperature, perfectly even."

  "That's a neat trick." Stephanie grinned. "So, you didn't mention before. How did this all happen? Or were you always magical and I was too clueless to notice?"

  "No. It happened in Rallsburg."

  "I assumed so. There's no way you could keep a secret from me under my own roof."

  "Don't bet on it," Hailey grumbled.

  Before Hailey could start to explain, there was a knock at the door. Stephanie stood up very suddenly, pressing a finger to her lips. Hailey glanced over at Jessica and pressed a hand to her ear. Jessica nodded, then went back to her eggs.

  "Mom, no one can hear us outside of this room, no matter how loud."

  "Magic?"

  "Yes. Jess cast it as soon as we got here."

  "Okay." Stephanie glanced at the door again. "I was supposed to meet my assistant here this morning."

  "Daniel?"

  "How did you… nevermind. He's not going to go away, he's too good of an assistant for that." Stephanie shook her head. "You have to leave."

  Hailey glanced at Jessica, then ran her flat hand down across her face. Jessica grinned.

  In the blink of an eye, they vanished.

  "...Hailey?" Stephanie whispered, glancing around nervously.

  "Still here, Mom. Just invisible." Hailey tapped her mother on the shoulder, making her jump from fright.

  "God, Hailey. That was unnecessary," she muttered.

  "Sorry." They faded back in again, to a relieved sigh from Stephanie—and another insistent knock at the door.

  "Miss Winscombe?" he called through the solid wood.

  "I'm so sorr—" she started, but Hailey cut her off.

  "I'll see you later tonight, okay?" Stephanie nodded, and tears were starting to form in her eyes. Hailey shook her head. "No crying, Mom. It's a totally normal day, remember? You went for your workout and nothing else happened."

  "Right." Stephanie took a deep breath, dabbing at her eyes with a napkin. "Well, go on. Get out of here. I'll be home by eight."

  With one last, quick look around the place, Hailey and Jessica went back into the office, slid the window open, and left the way they'd come in. Jessica kept shooting the occasional knowing grin toward Hailey, and after the third or fourth time, Hailey finally returned it. She hugged her best friend tight, trying to express the sheer gratitude she felt. So much of her stress and fear had evaporated, simply by being able to talk to her mother again, tell her everything and get some of the weight off her chest.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Despite not understanding a single word of their conversation, or even knowing who they were following around, Jessica had known exactly what Hailey needed, and done it without a second thought. She couldn't ask for a better best friend.

  As they flew back through the alleyways of Seattle, the rain started to pick up again. Hailey swooped up to a rooftop with a fair-sized cover and set down. She didn't really mind flying in the rain, since it didn't affect her wings in the slightest, but it was already a cold day and neither of them really felt like swooping around town totally drenched. From the shape of the clouds, it was probably going to pass in only a few minutes anyway.

  Hailey sat down against the wall, and in an instant Jessica had taken a spot right up next to her.Soon their little corner of the roof was warm and comfortable, while the rain poured down all around them.

  "Jess," Hailey said suddenly. Her friend looked up expectantly.

  She hesitated, taking a moment to compose her thoughts. Signing things to Jessica got easier over time, but anything complex was still a real process. She wished she could just make images in midair like Jess could, but it was a skill forever beyond her, due to her diffinity.

  With a sigh, she resorted to using fire. Even water would have been better, but Makoto still hadn't worked out how to actually explain the method to her, and his Scrap was long since destroyed. Tiny licks of flame appeared in midair, hissing and spluttering steam from the raindrops passing through them. Painstakingly, she drew out a shape of a man and a girl, in bland stick figures. The man's arm was upright, holding a gun to her head.

  Hailey pulled out her phone and brought up the news story about the hostage crisis. The photo of the bar would be enough for her to connect it to the news story they'd watched. She pointed at the phone, then at the two steaming outlines floating in front of them.

  Jess frowned, tilting her head to the side. "Hmm?"

  Hailey pointed at the girl, then at herself.

  Her eyes widened. "Mmm!"

  Hailey nodded, a tear dropping out of her eye. "I'm so sorry," she muttered. "I shouldn't have left you."

  Jessica hugged her tight, but her eyes were still locked on the two outlines. She nudged Hailey, pointing at the man and asking again.

  Hailey pointed, far away, in the general direction of Rallsburg. She changed the shape of the man to remove his head and make him significantly larger — the image of the golems they'd fought in that town.

  Jessica's mouth fell open slightly. She conjured up a picture of Omega, which actually made Hailey flinch for a moment. She hadn't seen him since the ritual in the woods when they'd attempted to kill him — when they'd had to fight him off while Cinza barely clung to life, Kendra and Hector crouching over her unconscious body as Hailey and Jessica desperately drove him away.

  She shook her head, and quickly drew an X over the picture. "Not him."

  Jessica frowned. The image shifted, becoming a picture of Brian Hendricks as she remembered him. Short brown hair, a bit of stubble, middle-aged. In her picture, he didn't look anything like the insane, hate-fuelled man who'd tried to kill them all. This was a picture of Natalie's father, not their would-be murderer.

  Hailey nodded slowly. As she did, she dissipated her own flames and created a new image. A few small golems in front of Brian, and two stick-figure girls alone facing them. Hailey pointed at the two, then at herself and Jessica. She made the golems swarm and overwhelm them, becoming one large hissing flame.

  Jessica frowned. Hailey hoped she'd come up with something, because she had no idea how she was going to win against Brian on her own. Maybe if she hadn't been caught off guard in the bar, but there had been so many people around. She couldn't fight without getting them hurt.

  Even if she could, she'd have to find him. He was around, bringing the golems to bear, but she hadn't even seen him. Only his men, and she'd barely won against them. A bullet would kill her, just as surely as it killed Omega.

  "Mmm!" Hailey felt her pushing at the flames she'd left floating before them, and let them vanish. Instantly, Jessica renewed them, with the wall of golems in front of Brian, and the two of them facing against impossible odds.

  Then a third small figure appeared next to them. Then a fourth.

  Hailey frowned, but before she could ask, Jessica waved away everything and produced two images.

  Two people Hailey hadn't spoken in well over a year.

  She looked at Jessica, uncertain, but Jessica nodded emphatically. In a moment, their two images shifted to a rough outline of Ohio and California — where the two had gone home, long before the destruction of Rallsburg.

  Not a soul beyond Alden and Beverly knew they even existed. Hailey had thought about contacting them so many times, both before and after Rallsburg, but she could never bring herself to do it. They'd split on too many harsh words — words she felt she couldn't take back.

  Seeing her continued hesitation, Jessica grabbed her hands, nodding again. She smiled, but it was a sad smile. Once again, she conjured the image of Brian, and pointed at it. She shook her arm, emphasizing the point.

  Hailey nodded, her mind made up. It wasn't about their friendship. It was about survival. It was war; a secret, vicious and bloody war. They needed the best fighters they could find, and in terms of raw potential, there wasn't a single soul on the planet who could match them. As reluctant as Hailey might feel, she couldn't come up with a good reason not to try to reconnect with them.

  Ian Wong and Weston Davis. The other two natural awakened, to use Cinza's term. Her old best friends.

  She still had a few things left to resolve, and she wanted to check in on Alden before they set out. She'd need to make sure that Cinza's group didn't need anything, and Rupert deserved some explanation for why she was suddenly flying across the country. Hailey tapped on her watch once, then pointed at the sun. She repeated the cycle twice more, and Jessica nodded. Three days.

  In three days, they'd start building their army.