Of course, it was only a single day later that Josh's unwanted responsibilities reared their head once more.

  He was in his room, listening to music, catching up on the world online, and just generally getting back into his old flow. The world hadn't stopped turning during the blackout, after all—the courts were preparing to handle Brian Hendricks, Felix Wieczorek, and all the others captured back at the beginning of December. Beyond public information, he still had lines of contact to the sources he'd established before the blackout, including the Governor of Washington's office, Senator Ashe in D.C., and of course the Laushires in London. Josh had all the sources he needed to stay informed.

  Even if Josh was staying home, he still planned to stay involved. His position had never exactly required him to be on the front lines anyway, but after the last few months—and the speech Cinza had given him back in September—Josh had trained his magic every day, as part of his workout routine. It was just another piece, like cardio or strength.

  Just in case.

  His involvement was supposed to stay in the background though, at his pace. Not like this, with yet another phone call. He was already to two calls in the two days since Christmas.

  "Josh?"

  This time, Josh wasn't sitting next to any of his family members. He swung the door shut with a spell before answering though, just in case. "So what's it like working with the President?"

  "I've only spoken to him a few times so far. Most of the time, I'm working with Wesley Gatiss or Ioannis Miklos."

  "So, just one step away from the President. Still," said Josh, "I think we can say you made it, Rachel."

  "...Thank you, I guess."

  "How'd you even know to call me?"

  "Kendra let me know you were back on the grid."

  "Ah."

  "I assumed you still wanted to stay in touch…"

  "Yeah, Rachel, I'm still in this," said Josh with a sigh. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "Easier to stay global outside the Greywood anyway."

  "Are you working for Cinza?"

  "Hell no. I'm not working for anyone."

  "Okay."

  Rachel sounded oddly relieved. Josh frowned. Well, that's something. Cinza practically worshipped Rachel. Guess it's not mutual… or something else is lurking in their relationship. Gotta keep an eye on that. "So what's up?"

  "It's been four weeks. I think we can assume Grey-eyes isn't coming back."

  "Yeah." Josh leaned forward and grabbed a handful of chips from the bag on his desk, munching away happily. There's something I've been missing. Cinza's garden was nice and all, but man, junk food is something special. "Guess that solves my fears."

  "I'm sorry?"

  "Old arguments. They don't matter anymore if nobody's getting awakened." Josh sat forward again. "Are you thinking we need a change of policy then?"

  "Well, a lot of our original strategy centered around a growing population of awakened in the Northwest which would spread across the country. The legislation was all written with projected statistics modeled after the best growth estimates we had available. Obviously, all of those are useless now."

  "Obviously." Josh scrolled down one of the pages on his screen, suddenly wishing he had the multi-monitor setup Cinza had provided him back in his cabin. Makes comparing stories and tracing sources a hell of a lot easier. "Does the DTA have an estimated awakened population yet?"

  "...Somewhere between three and five thousand. It's hard to say, since only Grey-eyes would know for sure, and nobody has the first clue how to get in touch with her, but those are our best estimates based on sampling and magical surveying."

  Two hundred days between Rallsburg and December 1st… He did the math on his computer while Rachel spoke. "At least fifteen a day since Rallsburg." Josh leaned back again. "And who knows how much effort that takes?"

  "I have no idea."

  "Probably wasn't nice and even, either," muttered Josh. "No wonder she looked fucking exhausted." He hesitated. "How'd you survey, anyway?"

  "The stones."

  Josh sat straight up in his chair, nearly knocking over his drink. "...Goddammit, Rachel," he snapped. "You realize how much that's gonna blow up if it gets out?"

  "They're just tools."

  "Tools created by one mass-murdering genocidal psychopath which fueled another mass-murdering genocidal psychopath's insane crusade." Josh shook his head, though of course, Rachel was on the other side of the country and couldn't see him. "Study them if you have to, but don't use them."

  "We took the necessary precautions to ensure their security and return. They're in the first DTA lab in Seattle now."

  "This is the same as Courtney's registry," said Josh wearily. "If you guys create a database, it's going to get out."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "After consideration, we canceled that project."

  "Because Cinza and I shot you down," he pointed out. "And Jeremy, and I heard the President wasn't exactly happy either."

  "This was just to get a sampling. Statistics. No identification. Not even demographics."

  "There were better ways." Josh sighed. "Fuck it, you already did it anyway. Let's move on. What did you actually call me about?"

  "We think the new year is the perfect time to start turning public opinion our way. The sympathetic victim angle's gone thanks to the chaos Natalie created, but there's something else we can still try."

  "Yeah, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes or live without electricity wasn't exactly the best PR move for magic." Josh snorted. "So what's the new plan?"

  "The original plan. Show people what magic can offer to the world."

  "So what, put on a show for the audience?" Josh heard the garage door open downstairs, and movement in the house. People were home. He didn't exactly want to spend his whole day on the phone with Rachel, not when he had brothers and parents to reconnect with, friends to hang out with, a life to get back to. "Sounds pretty lackluster."

  "Not exactly, though I guess Cinza plans on doing something for New Year's in the Greywood."

  "Yeah, I've seen them rehearsing."

  "Well, we're going to announce new blue-ribbon panels starting next week to begin applying magic to existing projects. Energy, climate, pollution, recycling. Things where we could really jumpstart the world and recover lost ground."

  "Be careful about that," said Josh.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Giving the awakened a savior complex. It's bad enough already with Hailey, no matter how much good she's doing." He closed his eyes, trying to organize his thoughts properly. "We're not superheroes, we're still just normal people."

  "Not exactly."

  "Yes, exactly," said Josh irritably. "The same flaws and faults, the same dreams and drives. Yeah, we lucked across something cool as fuck, but we're all human, no matter what stupid Hailey soundbite they throw at us. If the world's going to benefit, we need the space same as any other new discovery, to research and develop it properly, understand how it works, and then apply it successfully to real-world problems. It's not a panacea."

  "So what we're already doing… but slower."

  "Something like that," said Josh, feeling distinct déjà vu from a conversation he'd had with Cinza not too long ago. "Just don't make us out to be the heroes. That'll just break us apart even further. We need to create unity, not impress them with how amazing and useful we are."

  "...I see."

  Time to change the subject. She's got everything she needs from that conversation, and it's not like I need to belabor the point with Rachel. Her memory means she's going to go over every single word a dozen times by the end of the day. "How's D.C., anyway?" he asked.

  "Very cold. Norwalk?"

  "After that damn forest? It's summer here."

  Rachel laughed. "Your family?"

  "Well, after freaking them out a bit, they're just happy I'm home. So am I."

  "Me too. I'm glad you went home."

  He snorted. "So you could finally call me again, right?"

  "I'm not going to deny that was part of it."

  "Kendra's gotta find a better way to communicate than your relationship trick."

  "We're working on it." Rachel paused. "About Rika…"

  Another voice piped up in the background, a harsh feminine voice he didn't recognize. "Hey Rachel, the men in black are here."

  Rachel sighed. "I've got to go. Let's talk again soon."

  "Sure."

  Josh hung up, cleared out his screen, and turned on some highlight reels of the season. He needed to empty his mind, relax, refresh, recharge. Sure, he'd gotten a normal amount of sleep most nights—nightmares notwithstanding—but there was a general sense of exhaustion that finally surfaced once he got home.

  Now that he wasn't in the thick of it, an immense weariness had settled on him, like a heavy blanket he couldn't quite shrug off. He could still move, do pretty much anything he wanted, but it kept pressing him down, encouraging him to just stop trying and stop, be comfortable, let the rest of the world keep going around him.

  Except, sitting on the couch the next morning with his family, watching the news—his little brothers nowhere to be found, of course—Josh was reminded yet again why he wouldn't stop. There was an addicting feeling to influence, to seeing his effect on the world stage from the sidelines, and the news gave him yet another dose of endorphins that very next day.

  "...pleased to announce the development of a new Thaumaturgical Research Center in Seattle. This center will be the focus of magical research and development in the coming months and years to come.

  "The world has been graced with a new kind of power, and though many of us might never experience it firsthand, we are nonetheless poised to benefit from its potency. We will be working with the awakened population here in Washington State to understand how magic works and apply it successfully to real world problems."

  Stafford paused, and his smile vanished as his tone dropped. "However, I want to remind the nation that the awakened are human, just like me and you. Magic is not the panacea we might have imagined, but it does carry the potential for greatness. In America, our greatest accomplishments have come about when we fostered an environment for ideas to grow and flourish, for new technologies to be explored and developed, and for science to work its magic."

  The President smiled. "I'd like to thank Secretary Gatiss and Rachel DuValle for their hard work establishing this new initiative, and I think I express the hopes of all Americans and many more around the globe for your success in this great mission."

  Applause rumbled through the crowd, and the handshakes began. Josh nearly laughed aloud at Rachel on the screen, towering over both the President and Secretary Gatiss, shaking their hands, filling the screen on international television as the new face of the magical science movement—a group facing its own growing discontentment among Cinza's followers.

  If Cinza doesn't stamp that out soon… we're gonna start fighting with each other again. We lost our enemy, and people are still angry. They're going to want a new one.

  "You know her, don't you?" asked Violet, glancing at her son.

  Josh shrugged. "Yeah." His parents exchanged a look, but neither spoke another word. Josh sighed. "This is gonna get really awkward if you don't just ask me what's up."

  "...I overheard you yesterday on the phone," said Violet slowly. "I was putting away Luke's laundry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I didn't think it was private…" She glanced at the TV again. "Stafford's speech sounded just like what you said yesterday."

  He nodded. "Yeah."

  "Son, that's the President of the United States," said Brandon, as if Josh somehow didn't know. "That's…"

  "I think I'm gonna try to sign up for classes," said Josh, desperate to change the subject. "I got into Whittier."

  "...How?" asked Violet. "Weren't you… umm…"

  "Considered dead until like a month ago, yeah." Josh shrugged. "Their due date for applications was a couple weeks ago. I got it through in time." He stood up, stretching his arms and trying to slow down his pounding heart—a useful skill he'd picked up over the years, helping him stay calm when his body was in full flight mode. "I'm gonna go get some breakfast."

  His parents didn't say a word as he left. Josh was relieved—if he was being honest, the idea that the President had just echoed his words back at him from an internationally-viewed broadcast was both thrilling and seriously unsettling. He hadn't expected Rachel to be on screen, nor that she already seemed to have such significant influence within the political sphere.

  Well… that could end badly.