They were done. It was just Alden, two soldiers, and the charge nurse who clambered into the humvee they'd pushed across the dividing line. The soldiers took the two front seats, while Alden and the nurse climbed into the back. The charge nurse fell against her seat and closed her eyes, utterly exhausted.

  "...the fuck is going on…" muttered one of the soldiers. He clicked his radio, but still got nothing, even though the vehicle had started. "Now what…"

  "Drive us to Olympia. St. Peter Hospital," said Alden. He was too tired to worry about whether or not the soldiers would listen to him—and so far, they'd been taking his every order without question, after noticing how the nurses were treating him with respect.

  "You got it, kid."

  "Hey, what's your name, anyway?" asked the guy in the passenger seat, twisting around to look at him as they rumbled away.

  "...Alden Bensen," he answered. I'm too tired to come up with a lie… and why bother? Meg was checked in under her real name. They'd be able to find out sooner or later.

  "Hell of a good job today, Alden," said the soldier. "Probably saved a lot of lives."

  "Thanks."

  Alden decided to emulate the charge nurse. He leaned back in his own seat and closed his eyes. The humvee wasn't exactly a comfortable ride, but with how tired he was—having cast so many spells on top of rushing back and forth out of the hospital a few dozen times—Alden could sleep anywhere.

  "Wake me up when we get there, please," he murmured as he drifted off.

  In what seemed like an instant, the soldier was gently shaking him awake.

  "Already?" he spluttered.

  "It's not that long a drive, kid," said the soldier, rolling his eyes. "Come on." He stepped aside, helping Alden out.

  "Thanks…"

  "What's here, anyway?"

  "My sister."

  "Shit…" The soldier looked taken aback. "Your sister was in that mess and you still stuck around?" He whistled. "Damn."

  "I gotta go."

  Alden started toward the hospital, and the guy followed him in. The driver shouted a farewell, but Alden was already walking straight into the emergency room. One of the nurses at the desk started to try and stop him, but Alden just walked past… and kept walking. A security guard reached him, but the soldier at Alden's side fobbed him off.

  Soon enough, Alden found her.

  Meg had been moved into a private room. Kelly was there, half-asleep in a chair next to the bed. She spluttered awake as Alden walked in, a soldier in full gear right behind him.

  "I wasn't— the hell?"

  "Where are my parents?" asked Alden, not bothering to explain anything.

  Kelly took a minute to tear her eyes off Alden's escort. Finally, she shrugged. "They went to get something to eat in the cafeteria. I'm sure they'll be back soon."

  Alden nodded. "Okay." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something—a speck out of the sky, approaching fast. "Kelly, can you leave for a bit?"

  "Huh?"

  "Leave me and Meg alone, please."

  "...Okay." She looked confused, but shrugged it off and left. The soldier hesitated. He seemed to have attached himself to Alden like a bodyguard. Alden waved him off.

  "You sure, kid?"

  "I'll be fine. Thanks for helping."

  He nodded and left. Alden closed the door, then walked across the room and opened the window.

  Hailey dove in a few seconds later.

  Alden shut the window behind her.

  "Hey," he sighed. He collapsed into the nearest chair, still exhausted even with the nap in the humvee. "How'd it go?"

  Hailey shook her head. "I didn't… it didn't work."

  Alden nodded. "Well… that's that, I guess."

  "We can still try…" Hailey reached into her bag for a moment, digging around. Alden wondered again what it was like to have a bag like that. He'd have to ask Kendra or Lily about getting one sometime. "There we go."

  She pulled it out. It was exactly the same ancient yellow parchment as every single Scrap, but without the frayed edges, the burned portions… pristine. A full page of the book, something that could grant incredible power—so long as one wasn't already awakened.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  Alden had read it once, months ago in Rallsburg. It hadn't done anything for him—it hadn't even taught him any new magic, since it was just the introduction page to the book, nothing more. But… it was now the only way to awaken, if Grey-eyes was truly gone.

  "Please," he whispered.

  Hailey nodded. She got up and walked over to Meg's bed, taking the seat next to it where Kelly had just been sitting. Hailey sat, leaned forward, and hesitated.

  "Can you help?" she asked.

  Alden got up and walked to the other side. He took the page. Hailey forced Meg's eyes open… and they were lifeless, empty things. Alden felt his throat thick and raw just from the sight, but… they had a chance. Any chance, no matter how slim… he had to take it.

  He held up the page in front of her eyes.

  Nothing happened.

  He held it slightly closer.

  Meg's eyes didn't react in the slightest.

  They held that position for minutes, but a sudden noise from the hallway spooked him. Alden shoved the page under the covers… but it was nothing. Just noise.

  As he sat up, Alden saw the wet spots covering the sheets—and they weren't from his parents. He touched a hand to his face, and he felt the tears rolling down his cheeks.

  "...Meg," he whispered.

  "Maybe…" said Hailey. "Maybe there's another…"

  Alden shook his head. "It's not working."

  Hailey sighed. "I'm so sorry, Alden."

  "I… I really thought this would—" He cut off.

  "I think it's the same thing as the rest of magic," said Hailey quietly. "You have to want to do something. It can't be forced on anyone. You gotta intend it. Josh talked about it a lot. Meg can't intend to read the page like we all did, because she's… she's not there right now."

  Alden choked up even more. He felt like he couldn't breathe. Hailey rushed around to his side of the bed and grabbed hold of him. Alden fell against her, sobbing, weeping openly.

  She held him, rocking him back and forth slightly, whispering into his hair, endless sympathetic words to soothe his pain.

  Finally, Alden nudged her slightly, and Hailey let go.

  "There'll be something else," said Hailey softly. "She's not gone. We'll find a way."

  "...Yeah," said Alden, though he didn't feel anything like the same confidence she obviously did. "What about… what about you?"

  "Don't worry about me," said Hailey, smiling slightly. "We're on you right now."

  Alden shook his head. "You broke out of jail and flew away. Doesn't that mean—"

  "I'll be okay," she said—and it was so serene, so full of acceptance, Alden didn't bother asking her again. Hailey was… content. At peace.

  "What will you do now?"

  She shrugged. "Travel the world? I dunno, really. I can't stay still too long, I think, and there's no way I'm going back to prison."

  "And then what?"

  "Help people," Hailey said simply. Before Alden could ask, she went on. "I'm not doing what we used to. I'm doing what Jessica actually wanted to do. Not fighting, just… you know, helping. I'll go somewhere out of the way, and I'll do what I can. And I can do a lot," she added with a grin. "Might have to invent a few new spells to do it, but… it's something, right?"

  "The goddess of Kent," said Alden with a grin.

  She rolled her eyes. "Not that again. A guy just called me that…"

  "Better than the one we had," said Alden bitterly.

  Hailey looked suddenly uncomfortable. Alden spoke quickly, before it got worse.

   "It sounds like a good plan. They need you. Stay in touch, though?"

  "Oh!" She winced. "Yeah, uhh… they shut off my phone. I guess international fugitives can't have phone plans."

  A brief, tiny burst of air made it through Alden's nostrils. It wasn't exactly a laugh, but even that bit of mirth was a huge improvement from how awful and hopeless he'd been feeling.

  "Yeah," said Hailey, grinning again. "So uhh… can I get you to buy me a phone?"

  "Me?" asked Alden, surprised.

  "Well… I don't think Cinza's very happy with me right now, and I don't want to get Jeremy in trouble by contacting him," said Hailey slowly. "Then there's all the Laushires, who are tied up in a bunch of lawsuits about my case, so yeah, same idea. You aren't really connected to me in any public way," she added with a shrug. "Since you left before we went public, and we weren't friends yet before Cinza wrote her diaries."

  "And I didn't even make your witness list," Alden added with a faint smile.

  Hailey grinned. "Serves you right for lying to the FBI. How could you?" she added in mock outrage. "But yeah… the only people who really know we're close are people who wouldn't ever rat us out. It works."

  Alden shrugged. "Sure, why not. I'll be your cover."

  "Thanks," said Hailey. "On that note…" She glanced nervously at the hospital door.

  "Go," said Alden. "I'll be okay."

  "You sure?"

  Alden grinned. "My turn to tell you to get out of here."

  Hailey smirked. "Oh, now look who's showing off?" She got to her feet and pulled the window open. "I still owe you that drink."

  "Isn't it like a whole bar's worth of drinks by now?"

  She laughed, and to Alden, it was more comforting than any sound he could ever remember.

  "Go save the world, Hailey."

  Hailey nodded. She pulled her scarf tight, adjusted her fight jacket just a touch, and then—without so much as a word of warning—hurled herself out the window. A moment later, Alden watched as she soared up high, soon a speck against the deep blue sky, dancing among the huge puffy white clouds, right where she belonged.

----------------------------------------

  Here.

  We want to build it here?

  Why not? There are plenty of materials ready made, and foundations waiting to be constructed upon.

  It's gonna take a lot of work…

  We have time, and we have magic.

  At the ruined town of Rallsburg, with the sniper and the grocer at her side, the young woman began to work. With magic drawn from the trees and from deep within her, she shifted stone and brick, shaped wood and clay. The buildings were cleared away, one by one, until only one remained—the great stone library.

  She left it as it was, a monument to the past—a gravestone to the town she'd once called home.

  In place of Rallsburg, a new home began to grow. What took engineers of old months or years was completed in mere days—yet her design had none of their craft, their goals and their vision. Her additions were haphazard, placed where her sensibility told her rather than by any architectural logic.

  She raised new structures, one after another, linking them, drawing them together, building a whole web of stone and wood buildings.

  In time, the world began to notice what she'd done. Though no aircraft would ever cross her home, nor any vehicle come within many miles, they had other ways. She heard about it from the whispers of her sniper, who traveled out into the world in absolute secrecy with the grocer to gather supplies for her new world.

  In the town formerly known as Rallsburg, deep within the Olympic Forest, the castle began to rise. The wolf howled at her side, the hawk screeched upon her shoulder, the cat purred at her feet, and the queen sat upon her throne for the first time.

  Queen Linnethea of Castle Hendricks.