Jeremy walked in through the front door. His eyes scanned the whole restaurant in an instant, before Hailey had even gotten halfway out of her seat. He hurried back to their corner, taking the seat across from them.

  "Fast food? Really?"

  Hailey shrugged. "Jess grew up in Rallsburg. She never went out much, so she actually likes it."

  "That's Jessica Silverdale, then?"

  Jessica looked up, gave a little wave of greeting, and returned to her food. Hailey sighed. "Yeah, this is Jessica."

  "And she can't understand a word I'm sayin'..." Jeremy shook his head. "I'm sorry."

  Hailey had been ready to launch into the story for the umpteenth time. "How'd you know?"

  "I talk to a lot of people." He shrugged.

  "...You said you wanted to talk about something?" Hailey prompted.

  "Yeah— Jesus Christ…" Jeremy looked away as a gaggle of teenage kids appeared out of nowhere. They rushed up to the table, bags and backpacks in hand, notebooks out.

  "Oh my god, that's Hailey Winscombe."

  "Can you sign this?"

  "You're the coolest!"

  Well, I guess someone still likes me… Hailey put on a smile and turned to them, signing the offered picture—a press shot of her landing on the red carpet before the interview. "Thanks, guys."

  "Russell Wallace is a dick," added one of the girls.

  "Yeah, that was bullshit. Don't let it get you down, Hailey."

  "I won't." Hailey handed the pen back. "See ya around."

  They retreated, chattering away about how lucky they were.

  "How d'you pull that shit off?" asked Jeremy, as soon as they were gone. "Whenever some fucker calls me out in public, I just get shit on. Everybody loves you."

  Hailey shook her head. "It's not everybody, trust me."

  "Yeah." Jeremy took a sip of his drink. "I heard about your deal with the FBI. Not the specifics though."

  "...Okay?" Hailey frowned. "Is something wrong?"

  "I dunno. I just want to make sure you're not gettin' screwed over." Jeremy shrugged. "I'm tryin' to look out for my friends, here."

  Hailey smiled. "We're friends now?"

  Jeremy grinned. "Fuck you, 'course we are. You're the only fuckin' awakened I trust so far."

  She laughed. "Who have you been running into? You must have the worst luck."

  "Ever met a kid named Jonathan Hudson?"

  He met up with that guy? "The theater kid, right?" Hailey grinned. "When I first met him, he didn't know I could do magic too."

  After a few swapped stories at Jonathan's expense, Jeremy got back to the topic at hand. "Seriously, Hailey. When you went in, you brought a lawyer, right?"

  She nodded. "The best one my mom could find on short notice."

  "What did you agree to? You sign anything?"

  "Yeah." Hailey nodded. "It said I got pardoned for anything I might have done in Rallsburg, which wasn't really anything anyway, and made it more legal for me to fly around on my own. I agreed to help them out on anything that came up related to magic, but it's not compulsory. If I can't show up, there's no penalty."

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  "And they offered you a job?"

  She shrugged. "Expert magic consultant. Something fancier than that, I think. I said no."

  "Good."

  "Why's that?" Hailey frowned. "It didn't sound like the worst thing in the world. I could be helping them out."

  "Don't get trapped in that fuckin' machine, trust me." Jeremy sighed, sipping his drink. "The real work's gettin' done elsewhere. Keep yourself independent, you'll be way better off."

  "You work for them."

  "Yeah, and they fuckin' benched me for it." He frowned. "Can you email me a copy of your agreement? I want my sister's lawyer to go over it too, if that's all right."

  "Sure." Hailey pulled out her phone and dug through her emails for the copy Jefferson had sent her. "Your sister was in the news a couple days ago, wasn't she?" Maddie Ashe had been proposing a special commission to study and prepare new legal mechanisms for magical citizens, with a few high profile names on the ticket.

  "Yeah." Jeremy had his phone out now too, scrolling through something she couldn't see. She could almost read it in the window reflection behind him, but she didn't want to invade his privacy, especially after he'd been so nice to her. "You guys kinda moved our schedule up a bit."

  "Sorry about that."

  "Hell, it ain't your fault. It's that son of a bitch who stole the damn book, right?"

  "Yeah." And as soon as I find him…

  Jeremy frowned. "Speakin' of which… Cinza."

  "What about her?"

  "I want to meet her. I'm tryin' to get the whole picture here, you know? I've talked to a lot of interestin' people the last couple weeks, and I feel like I'm never gettin' to know the whole story unless I hear her side."

  Hailey hesitated. She didn't feel like it was her place to reveal even the slightest information about Cinza, no matter how much she might trust Jeremy. "...I can ask her."

  Jeremy nodded. "That's all I'm lookin' for— what the fuck?"

  A woman walking by their table stumbled. The full cups of soda on the front of the tray tumbled forward. A torrent of sticky brown liquid flew at Hailey — and stopped.

  Jessica's hand flew up. The soda hovered in mid-air, then swirled around and fled back into the cup as if nothing had happened. She smiled, and nodded to the woman.

  Her eyes widened. "Freaks," she cried.

  Hailey was on her feet instantly. "What did you just call her?"

  "I called all of you freaks," the woman snapped, not backing down. "Get out of here. Leave us alone."

  She tripped on purpose! Like a match onto kindling, fury burst into life inside Hailey. The tray in the woman's hand, food and all, flipped over and launched itself straight into the nearest trash can.

  "Sorry," Hailey growled through gritted teeth. "I think I missed your table."

  The woman backed away a few steps. "Child-kidnapping mass murdering freaks," she repeated, glancing around for support. Nobody else in the restaurant moved an inch. Everyone was frozen after the yell, watching the pair of them. An employee near the counter nervously reached for a phone.

  Jeremy got to his feet. He waved at the guy behind the counter. "Save it, kid, I got this."

  "Who are you?" snapped the angry woman.

  His voice was suddenly precise and official, way different from the casual tone Hailey was used to. He was way more imposing than she normally got to see. "Special Agent Jeremy Ashe, National Security Branch, Federal Bureau of Investigation. I'm here as part of an official investigation on behalf of the United States government, and Hailey Winscombe is here as my guest. You've just assaulted a key witness under federal protection."

  "But…" The woman floundered a bit. "But she's—"

  "If you leave, right now, I'll overlook any charges."

  She glanced between the seething Hailey, who wanted nothing more than to send the woman fleeing with a few choice words and a showy display of magic, and Jeremy, implacable and imposing. Muttering epithets, she retreated out the doors. The rest of the place kept staring, waiting to see if anything else would happen.

  Jeremy waved them off. "Show's over, folks. Move along."

  The bustle slowly returned, though they kept getting furtive glances all the way until they left. Nobody interrupted them again, though, to which Hailey was grateful.

  "'Everybody loves me', huh?" she repeated bitterly.

  "Welcome to my fuckin' world," Jeremy agreed.

  "Ever since that interview…"

  "How bad was it?"

  Hailey took her seat again. Jessica leaned against her, comforting her. She could tell Hailey was upset. It helped, but Hailey still felt anxious and uncomfortable remembering the event. "You didn't watch it?"

  "I was playin' bodyguard at the time." Jeremy shrugged. "I read some of it afterward. I don't think you were that bad."

  "But… I said some horrible things."

  He shook his head. "It'll blow over. You're still Hailey fuckin' Winscombe, first girl of magic in the country. In the whole damn world. Nobody's gonna remember that interview, as long as you don't make that the last thing you do. People are just milkin' it for headlines right now. You gotta give 'em new ones."

  Hailey was taken aback. She'd been so stuck on reading every single analysis and commentary on her supposed downfall. So many scathing critics, she'd felt like she could never come back.

  Jeremy smiled. "My family's political as fuck. This is just business as usual. You got unlucky, bein' news on a Monday, so you got the full week cycle. Take 'em by storm. Don't let it stick. Get out there again."

  "What should I do?"

  "Well, not playin' superhero in the shadows, for one. You need to do somethin' public. You've already got carte fuckin' blanche from the Bureau, right? Volunteer. Charity work, maybe. Good deeds and shit. Just don't step on people's toes."

  An idea popped back into Hailey's head, something she'd thought about on and off. It could work. It was a direct response to the interview, too, which appealed to her just as much. She had no idea where they were though… but Jeremy might.

  "...Can I ask you a favor?"