Another door, but this time, Natalie didn't bother to knock. This was Quinn's house, and even if Natalie knew she could never see it as a home, she still felt comfortable walking in unannounced.

  "Hello?" called Damian, leaning up from the couch.

  "Hi, Dad," said Quinn, sounding embarrassed.

  "...Q, what on earth…" Damian glanced over the whole group, trooping in behind Quinn and Natalie. "Did you start a rebellion?"

  "Natalie did," said Mitch from the back.

  "Uh… huh."

  "Tons of parents were taking their kids out of school, Mr. Kincaid," said Kelsey. "Everybody's freaking out because they think Natalie's dangerous. Which she's not," she added pointedly.

  Natalie winced. She wished nobody had even said the word dangerous. The Kincaids were already nervous around her—this certainly wasn't going to improve their relationship. Still, Damian looked more confused than concerned as his son's friends rolled into his home in the middle of the afternoon.

  "Nobody was gonna have a real class while we were there anyway," said Mitch, immediately heading into the kitchen and grabbing a bag of chips. "Too busy being obsessed over magic."

  "Oh, like you aren't too," said Kelsey.

  "Yeah, but not in that way."

  "Natalie, can we talk, please?" said Damian quietly, as Quinn's friends filtered through the apartment, taking up their usual hang-out spots.

  Natalie's heart sank, but she tried to stay optimistic as she followed him back into Quinn's room, Quinn right by her side. Damian sat down in the computer chair, while the pair of them took the bed. Damian nodded at the door, and Natalie swung it closed with her mind. Bad move, she realized, as Damian stared far too long before finally turning back to them.

  "I didn't want to say it in front of your friends, Natalie, but I've been doing a lot of reading this morning."

  "Who cares who her dad is?" Quinn asked abruptly.

  "...Quinn, it matters," said Damian, and using his full name set them both back on their heels a little. "I'm not saying Natalie's like her dad, but this is something you should have told us."

  "Why?" Quinn pressed, while Natalie wished he'd stay silent. "There's a lot of stuff she shouldn't be telling anybody. It's not safe stuff to tell."

  "She lives here," said Damian. "This sort of information puts us all in danger."

  "How?"

  "Because people might come after me," said Natalie quietly. "Because my dad killed a lot of people and they'll want revenge."

  Quinn faltered. Damian nodded gravely. "Yes."

  "Nobody knows I live here though," said Natalie desperately, even though she already knew it was likely futile. The world had shown her, piece by piece, that she wasn't welcome. This place, like so many others, wasn't for her. "It's okay."

  "I'm not saying you have to leave, Natalie," said Damian, though that was the only thing Natalie really heard. "But…"

  Natalie nodded. Damian left the room without finishing his thought, leaving them even more uncomfortable than before. Quinn didn't say a word, and Natalie couldn't imagine what was going through his head.

  They went back out to join the rest of the Gang, an unspoken agreement between them not to say anything about what had just happened. Mitch and Kelsey were playing a video game, while Tyler immediately challenged Natalie to a round of Conquest. Natalie pulled Linnethea out of her bag and sat down, letting Quinn recover from his own shock.

  His parents are disappointing him. You know what he is going through.

  I… I guess. I don't really think it's the same thing though. At least he gets to talk to them. I don't even know where my dad is.

  "I'll play Sir Tennenbaur," said Tyler excitedly, while he set up the territory decks for their draft.

  "Sure," said Natalie absent-mindedly, still watching Quinn watch the other two play their game. I hope he's okay.

  "You gonna play Linnethea again?"

  "Yeah." Natalie leaned in, bringing her mind back into focus. The game would help. She didn't have anything more to do right now. They weren't going anywhere else, and Natalie needed some time to relax. She leaned forward and plucked up a forest.

  I'm going to win today. I need this right now.

  You prepared a strategy. Execute it well.

  Yeah. We've got this.

  "Same thing every time, huh?" said Tyler. He took a moment, then grabbed a wizard tower and a fort.

  "Look who's talking," murmured Natalie, too quietly for Tyler to hear. She sent her signal out—a gust of wind the hawk would recognize—and Percy shot into the room a moment later through the window at the end of the hall. Natalie held up her arm, and he landed gently, much moreso than usual. Tyler looked suitably impressed and distracted, as she'd hoped. "Two castles."

  "...What?"

  This was way outside any strategy she'd ever used with Linnethea—in fact, it didn't make any sense with an elf draft. She was trying something new, something she hadn't even read about. It was an idea she'd gotten from the voice. Natalie picked up the cards, staring Tyler down with a small smile. "Your pick."

  "I…" Tyler hesitated. He's going to go for a fast deck. My castles are going to scare him into thinking I'm trying to play really slow.

  We can surprise him.

  Yeah.

  "A market and a metal mine," said Tyler finally, grabbing the respective cards.

  "Two more castles," said Natalie without hesitation.

  "What are you doing?" he asked nervously.

  Protecting my own. "Your pick."

  "Two metal mines," he said suspiciously.

  "Two forests," Natalie countered immediately. She didn't actually care what he drafted, but if he went fast, it would likely be easier to pull off. He couldn't actually burst through what she was planning, no matter how fast he went, and it would leave him vulnerable as soon as her strategy unfolded.

  "A farm and a village," said Tyler, diversifying a little. It slowed him down, but ensured he could play a few more valuable cards later in the game. Natalie wasn't quite as secure, but she still believed in her strategy.

  "Two wizard towers," she ended, the blindside to her draft. She hadn't picked up a single food-producing territory, or any upkeep whatsoever. Tyler had expected her to grab farms, or villages at the very least, in her final pick, but Natalie had opted for something entirely different.

  Tyler looked seriously concerned. "I don't get it."

  "Your pick," Natalie said calmly.

  Mitch glanced over, as the round of their fighting game had just ended. "Whoah, what the hell? Natalie, what is that?"

  Quinn looked over too. Seeing her strategy, a bit of life returned to his face. He'd been around for when she first came up with the idea, but he didn't know that she'd actually solved it. She smiled back, while Tyler finally picked up one last territory for himself—a castle. Perfect. Castles are totally useless against this. Wasted final card.

  They began to arrange their territories. As expected, Tyler laid out his in a T, with the castle guarding the border while the metal mines waited far in the rear. Since Natalie appeared to have no real forward offense, he actually used the two middle squares as well, leaving only his front corners empty while removing his fort and his village.

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  Natalie, in return, had played every single territory. Her front line was a wall of castles, while the three forests surrounded the spare castle in the center position. Finally, the wizard towers sat in the rear, twin pillars waiting to unleash their power. Magic. It's all about magic.

  Even Damian stopped by to watch as their game began. Tyler spent his first few turns hunkering down, trying to start the gold-and-cards loop of his metal mines and his market. Still, without any real support due to his confused draft, the engine was slow to kick up. Meanwhile, Natalie had already begun her assault by the second turn.

  "Linnethea ambushes," she said, flipping the card over and including the two bodyguards that accompanied her. "She takes your farm."

  "But… you have no army," said Tyler, even more confused than before. "What are you supposed to defend with now?"

  Natalie just smiled. Quinn broke out laughing up on the couch, which eased her heart to no end. She wasn't sure he'd actually figured out her strategy, but at least he was cheering up. Kelsey and Mitch were back to their video game, but Mitch was clearly distracted, interested in their unusual duel.

  "I…" Tyler looked around the field, then down at his cards, then back up. "I don't… What are you doing?"

  "Attacking your farm," said Natalie innocently. "I'm done, by the way."

  Tyler threw down cards onto his central market. "I build four knights," he said nervously. "Sir Tennenbaur moves onto the castle."

  Natalie nodded. "Anything else?"

  "Uhh…" Tyler wasn't used to this at all, and Natalie knew it. She was combining what she'd learned from Quinn's bluffing, the confidence she'd gained over the last few weeks, the events in Rallsburg, and the advice the voice had given her, coupled with magic itself. This strategy wasn't something any of them would ever come up with—strange combinations and effects that combined with terrifying potency, but could backfire disastrously. Just like rituals…

  He finally shook his head. Natalie nodded. "I create one elf wizard on each forest."

  "Huh?" This set Tyler back yet again. Natalie should have been making troops—the knights were sure to attack as soon as they cleaned up the relatively weak Linnethea.

  "Linnethea stays on your farm and pillages it. I use the food on my wizard towers." Tyler nodded. Natalie turned the towers so they were active, then drew two more cards. "Your turn."

  "That's… that's it?" Tyler asked, surprised.

  "Yeah."

  "Oh… okay." He fumbled a little, glancing over the field again. "My… my knights attack Linnethea."

  "I sacrifice a bodyguard to use her evade," said Natalie, moving Linnethea and the other bodyguard over to the wizard tower—where, in theory, Tyler shouldn't have been able to do anything anyway. After all, wizard towers this early were usually unmanned. Natalie just needed to make sure it stayed that way.

  "I build two more knights," he added, placing them on his front line. Natalie didn't care—her castles should delay them long enough even without any extra guards. "And I buy four more cards."

  Less cards to destroy. Cool. Just one more turn. Natalie drew her cards from her forests, and to her relief, she'd picked up more than enough to pull it off. "I play two more elf wizards and one elf harbinger."

  Tyler raised an eyebrow. The harbinger wasn't a commonly used card—it could sacrifice itself in a pinch to deal direct damage to a unit or player from any distance, but it was so weak that the effect generally only came into play for countering weak high-power magic users from a distance… or to cast one particular Elven spell.

  "Your turn," Natalie added.

  "I attack Linnethea," said Tyler, moving his four knights again. "And everyone else attacks your front castle."

  Natalie shrugged. "She sacrifices her other bodyguard and evades again," she said, moving Linnethea immediately to the farm. Since Tyler's army was too big and the farm was occupied, he couldn't make any wizards himself. That shouldn't matter since his army is already so big, but my strategy doesn't care how big his army is.

  "I draw four cards, buy two more and end my turn," Tyler added.

  Natalie drew one card. It didn't matter what it was, just so long as the math worked out. She grinned at Tyler, while Damian, Mitch, and Quinn watched from the sidelines. Kelsey, meanwhile, had wandered off into the kitchen again to find a snack. Anticipation was thick in the air, everyone waiting for Natalie to make her move.

  "I discard everything for Chant of Inspiration using my first wizard tower," said Natalie.

  Tyler frowned, as Natalie dropped her entire hand and drew the same number of cards. She didn't bother looking at them. "I sacrifice one elf wizard and pillage the forest to cast Renewal," and picked up every card she'd discarded that turn—which, of course, was all of them.

  His mouth fell open. He'd realized her trick.

  Natalie repeated the cycle twice more, drawing nearly her whole deck and leaving one spell left on the remaining wizard tower, without a single production territory left on the board. Tyler had no method to block her strike thanks to Linnethea—no wizards of his own, elf or otherwise, no magic on Sir Tennenbaur. He was already doomed.

  "I discard my entire hand and sacrifice my wizard," said Natalie with a flourish, sending the cards fluttering into her pile neatly with magic for extra flair, "to cast Curse of Knowledge. You take one damage for every card I just dropped."

  And, since he was already drawing his deck faster because he played a fast build… Natalie grinned. Tyler looked down at his deck, practically shell-shocked. In a single chained swoop, Natalie had just wiped out both their kingdoms—but Natalie's still had a few spare cards remaining. Tyler's was annihilated.

  She had won.

  Mitch whooped for her victory. Damian and Quinn applauded. Kelsey stuck her head back into the room, saw what had happened, and cheered Natalie on. She smiled, but in truth, she suddenly felt very empty. Sure, she'd finally beaten Tyler for the first time, but…

  I had to sacrifice everything to do it. I basically lifted that strategy right out of the ritual from home, when we tried to kill Omega… Is that what it's gonna be like again? Us losing everything to take them down?

  You have learned from the past. You were not a part of those decisions. We can find a better way.

  But as Natalie looked around the room, seeing the expression on Damian's face as Annette walked in the room, the silence that fell and the discomfort flooding through them, she wasn't so sure anymore.

  "Damian, we need to talk," she whispered, and only Natalie could have heard her. The rest of the group slowly went back to normal conversation, but Quinn's parents quickly retreated to their room. Reluctantly, while Tyler started raving about her clever strategy, Natalie used her magic to listen in once again, as she had so many times on the Kincaid family—and only to be disappointed one more time.

  "I just got a call from Claire, and another from the Lincolns."

  "Who?"

  "Kelsey's parents."

  "What about?"

  "About… her."

  "Natalie?"

  "They say she attacked Blake Sinclair at school. She's the daughter of that man, Brian Hendricks."

  "Oh…" Damian trailed off, and not in a way that spelled anything good for Natalie.

  "What are going to do, Damian?"

  "I… I don't know, Annie," he murmured.

  "She's living with us."

  "Maybe she's not like that." Natalie could hear the doubt in his voice though. She knew where this was going.

  "People are going to find out. Even if she doesn't do anything else. She's dangerous, and her father's a mass-murderer. They're already protesting to the school board. If they find out we've been harboring her—"

  "We took in a homeless kid and gave her shelter," said Damian. "Nothing wrong with that."

  "What are they going to say?"

  "I don't like this."

  "I don't either, but we have to think about Q, and ourselves. I don't think Natalie's a bad kid, but she might not be fully in control either. And she's got that mark."

  "What about it?"

  "You know what it means, right?"

  "Not… not exactly. She said she got it that night in Seattle, right? When she got lost and ran into some gang."

  "The mark means she's a member."

  "...No way."

  Please, don't do this, Natalie begged silently, wishing beyond anything she could barge in and get them to stop. But… she'd tried that already, more than once, and they'd still ended up here. If she revealed she'd been listening in, with magic, they'd never trust her again.

  "There's only two gangs crazy enough to mark their members like that, and one of them is the same one Claire's son joined up with. He's dead now."

  "I can't believe she'd join a gang."

  "Maybe they didn't give her a choice. It doesn't matter. She's got the mark, she's going to attract that kind of attention."

  "...This is getting more insane by the minute."

  "We've been saying that every day, Damian."

  "I just want it to all go away, you know?"

  "I know." A rustle of movement. "I love you."

  "I love you too, Annie."

  A tear dropped onto Natalie's neck. Quinn noticed, but everyone else had gotten deep into Kelsey and Mitch's latest round. She hurried to her room, and Quinn slipped in before she shut the door. Natalie wasn't entirely sure whether or not she'd meant to shut him out too, but now she was glad he'd joined her.

  She dabbed at her face, remembering Principal Talbot doing the same that afternoon. "I'm gonna have to go, Quinn," she muttered through her tears. "I'm sorry."

  "What?"

  "Your parents are going to kick me out soon. I don't know when, but I can't wait for that to happen."

  "But…" Quinn glanced around. "This is your home too."

  She shook her head sadly. "It never was."

  "I thought—"

  "My home's way out there," said Natalie, gesturing vaguely to the west. "It's time for me to go back."

  "...Right now?" asked Quinn.

  "I hadn't decided," said Natalie, but in truth she had. She'd been preparing all week, and far longer if she was honest with herself. She was finally ready to leave. It was time.

  "I…" Quinn shook his head. "You can't leave yet. You gotta say goodbye to everyone first, at least."

  Natalie hesitated.

  They will not kick you out tonight.

  You're actually telling me to stay?

  Leave in the morning. It is safer, and you will be rested. It is the best choice.

  I… I guess so. I didn't expect that from you though.

  The voice didn't answer. Natalie agreed with its logic though. She nodded to Quinn. "We can do that. Tell everybody to meet in here after dinner?"

  Quinn nodded. He left, and Natalie immediately set to gathering up her things. Magic made it easier—her bag snapped open, and clothes began to fly off their hangers and neatly fold themselves into their new pockets. Her books followed from the end-table, and her favorite blanket went along with it. Natalie took one pillow too, whispering an apology to the Kincaids for taking it, but it would help to have a spare out on her own—besides the few she'd already gathered, along with the piles of camping supplies and tools buried within her bag. There was so much there, way more than she remembered putting in. The bag seemed endless.

  This really is the best gift I ever got, Lily… I wish I'd gotten to know you two better. I wonder what happened to you.

  Natalie had never gotten a straight answer—Lily avoided her at the funeral (and it was Lily, though everyone else seemed to think it was Kendra), and they hadn't messaged each other once since. She knew something must have happened to them—and since Hailey flew off to London, where they were from, Natalie doubted it was anything good.

  I'll find them again someday. After… after I take care of everything else.