When Natalie awoke, Riley was back where she'd began—laid out on the bed, watching the street with a careful eye. However, something had changed. Natalie's gemstones were neatly piled in the closet, and a bedroll had appeared, on which Natalie now lay.

  "...What happened?" Natalie murmured.

  "Nothing," said Riley. "Nothing at all, apparently."

  "...Oh." Natalie frowned. "That's… that's good, I guess?"

  "Cinza called after you passed out. She said Brian was being protected by 'something', and that it might have been given to him by Jackson." Riley paused. "She was talking about you though, right? You stopped whatever they did?"

  "...I think so." Natalie started to get up, but a massive headache kept her down. "Everything hurts."

  "Here," said Riley, handing her a water bottle and a pill. "Water and a painkiller. It should help."

  "Does it work on… you know, magic?"

  She shrugged. "Always worked for Stefen."

  "Stefen's… Viper, right?"

  "Yes." Riley settled back into her watchful position. "From the sound of it, they aren't going to try again. They were already reluctant, and this apparent protection was enough to convince them it's not a good idea. Your father should be safe tonight."

  Natalie forced herself to sit up, taking a full minute to adjust as her vision blacked out immediately. She drank the water slowly, swallowing the pill after half of it was already gone. Finally, as some sensation returned to her limbs, Natalie opened her eyes again.

  "Cinza knew it was me," she murmured.

  "How?"

  "I… can't really explain it," said Natalie. There was no way she could come up with a way to explain essences and auras and everything she'd just experienced to Riley, especially with her still-pounding headache. "But I could tell it was her spell too. So… she knows I'm out here now."

  "Does that change anything?"

  "...My friends are still there," she murmured, leaning back on the bedroll again.

  "I'm sure they'll be fine."

  "Yeah… I just…" Natalie pulled one of the blankets up and wrapped up tight. She didn't use magic like she normally would—even reaching for the fire inside her chest hurt now. Natalie wondered if this was how Cinza felt after the original ritual. No wonder she couldn't do magic for so long… if it hurts this much after I was just blocking her spell, using tons of gemstones, and on such a smaller scale… How did she even survive?

  There was no answer, to Natalie's surprise.

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  Hello?

  Again, no answer. Natalie was curious, and a little hurt, but didn't have enough left in her brain to really focus on the new mystery. She felt around for a pillow, but with how hard it was to see, she had no luck—until one was placed gently into her hands.

  "Thanks…"

  "No problem," said Riley. Natalie heard her shuffle back into position again on the bed.

  Natalie tossed and turned for a while, but the headache proved too much distraction to fall asleep easily. On top of the pain, she was still worried about her father, no doubt sleeping only a few hundred feet away in the library, unaware how close he'd come to death that night.

  "Where's Lani?" she asked finally, as she gave up on sleeping.

  Riley didn't answer right away. Natalie peeked one eye open, and Riley was still awake, still scanning the street without budging an inch. Natalie let her eye slide closed again. Finally, after a few long minutes, just as Natalie was thinking of asking something else, Riley finally answered.

  "I told him to go back to our camp," said Riley finally.

  "...Was it so you could call Viper?"

  "No." Riley hesitated again. "It was to keep him safe."

  "Oh." Natalie cracked an eye open again, but Riley still hadn't shifted an inch. "What were you doing?"

  "Keeping him safe." Riley's voice cracked, ever so slightly—but still, not a single movement beyond her usual scan. "I was going to… I don't know, exactly. Turn myself in, I suppose."

  "Huh?"

  "It's complicated. I can answer their questions." Riley sighed. "I was on my way when Stefen called."

  "Are you guys partners?"

  "In a sense, yes." Riley shrugged. "It'd be more accurate to call him my brother. We're not related, but… he might as well be, you know?"

  "No… I never had any brothers or sisters."

  "No one even slightly similar?"

  Natalie started to shake her head, but it flared up her headache again, so she stayed still. "There wasn't anybody my age in Rallsburg, really. Just Jenny, and she was my best friend. Everybody else was… I dunno. Too old."

  "You might still find one. I didn't meet Stefen until I was much older than you."

  "And now you gotta go save him, right?"

  "That can wait," said Riley gently. "Stefen is trapped, but he is not in immediate danger. This is more urgent."

  "...Why are you helping me?"

  "Many reasons." Riley adjusted her position just slightly, brushing a hair out of her face which had strayed. "I know where you have been, and I know where your path currently leads."

  This sounds a lot like Cinza… and that didn't end well…

  Again, no response. Natalie was feeling oddly lonely without the voice to consider her ideas in her head.

  "So you think I should… stop?"

  "I don't know." Riley shrugged slightly. "I know my own decisions weren't good. I don't trust myself to make new ones right now. I wasn't smart, and I chose poor allies. I paid for it."

  "Do you mean Malton?"

  "Niin metsä vastaa, kuin sinne huudetaan."

  It took Natalie a second to figure out if she'd misheard Riley due to the headache and her exhaustion, or if Riley was actually speaking another language. "Was that more Finnish?"

  "Yes. It means 'the forest answers in the same way one shouts at it'. I thought it fitting," she added, nodding slightly toward the rolling hills of thick woods visible past the silhouette of the library. "Basically the same as the English saying 'what goes around, comes around'."

  "Oh…" A yawn quickly overtook Natalie. Her eyes slid closed again. "Do you have people to go back to? Family?"

  "I don't," said Riley quietly, as Natalie began to drift off. "I cut off the old world so I could find myself again. I gave up everything because I wasn't ready yet."

  "What does that mean?" she murmured.

  "It means I will protect you, Natalie," whispered Riley. "Go to sleep now."

  "...Okay…"

  "Hyvää yötä," Riley murmured, and as Natalie fell asleep, she swore a hand was tucking in the blanket around her tight, trapping in warmth. She wondered, again, what Riley meant—but with her brain gratefully shutting down, she had no thoughts left to spare. She slid into a quiet, dreamless sleep, surrounded by those three friends closest to her and one silent woman with a rifle, to whom she had never spoken until that day.

  The day Natalie saved her father's life.