Trevor and Betty walked to Tanya's house together the next day.

They walked...close. Not arm in arm, not touching, but...close.

This was because Trevor had discovered Betty possessed exactly two modes. Either she was showing no obvious affection at all, or she was climbing all over him like a crazed wild animal.

Not that the wild animal thing hadn't been fun. But Trevor was also hesitant to let it go to far, which is why he'd gently put a stop to it the night before. Betty had just shrugged, and gone back to sitting a few inches from him on the couch. He'd known from the start that going out with Betty would be different, from going out with a normal girl. That's kind of what he'd been counting on. But that meant he wasn't exactly sure what to expect.

Also, he wasn't sure what a crazed Betty might be willing to do in public. He'd have to ask Kyle or Evan to be sure, but he had a sneaking suspicion the answer was “anything.”

“Crawling all over,” Betty said.

“What?” Trevor came up short.

“Sorry, I said part of a thought out loud.” Betty gestured to the street ahead of them, where some utility people were digging up the ground. “They are crawling all over the place.”

“The gas company people?”

“No,” Betty shook her head. “The Shades.”

Trevor looked at the utility people again. They did seem to have the same air as the guys in the black SUV's who'd rolled into town to make the Danny incident go away. Had something else happened?

“Maybe we shouldn't talk to them,” Trevor said.

“Excuse me!” Betty said, walking up to the disguised agents with her hand raised high in the air.

“Or, you know, never mind,” Trevor sighed with a soft smile.

“Well hello there,” the “utility worker” said. “Just some regularly scheduled maintenance, nothing to be concerned about.”

“No this is definitely some top secret magical government business,” Betty said. “And as someone involved in the most recent magical altercation, it would be useful to know what the circumstances were.”

A pained expression crossed the agent's face.

“Well little lady I'm not sure what you're talking about exactly,” he said. “But it occurs to me that if this were some kind of government secret, somebody might want you not to talk about it in public like that.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Yes,” the agent forced a smile. “It might make a lot of people's day a lot harder if you did.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Betty said thoughtfully. “Is there a phone number I can call, or...”

Trevor decided it was time to come to the man's rescue. He walked up behind her, put an arm around her shoulder, and immediately made things worse.

“Is that a giant footprint?” Trevor sputtered. “A giant duck footprint? Is there a giant duck running around here someplace?”

“Alright now you kids move along!” the agent's voice was starting to break. “We've got a lot of work to do!”

“I am also curious about the giant duck,” Betty said.

“No he's right,” Trevor guided her away. “Maybe Tanya will know what's going on.”

“The duck is named Philbin,” Tanya sighed. “He's a summoned beast, just like Betty's cat. And he belongs to my father.”

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“Your father is back?” Trevor said. “I thought they were away on business.”

“He came back just long enough to scoop Jenny and Kyle and leave,” Tanya said.

“Why did he take Jenny and Kyle?” Betty asked. “You're his daughter, wouldn't you be the more logical choice?”

“Not according to him,” Tanya said through thin, tight lips. “He's not wrong, I don't have the experience to train Kyle myself. Not at his level of power. And I really don't have any idea what's going on with his constellation. He left lesson plans for everyone, including me. Training regimens we can follow while he's away.”

“Are they very different from what we've been doing?” Trevor asked.

“Not for you,” Tanya said. “Your powers are nice and simple. He wrote down a few explanations you might find more helpful than what I said. Here, Betty. I had you focusing on control, but he wants you to focus on elemental attunement.”

“I see,” Betty said, taking the folder Betty offered her and looking over the stack. “But I do not understand. If each of these folders is a lesson plan, but Kyle and Jenny are being taught directly by your father, then there are too many of them.”

“One of them is for Goldie,” Tanya said. “And one is for me.”

“Okay,” Trevor said. “But while we're doing this here, what are they up to...wherever they are?”

“We can only guess,” Tanya said.

Kyle had a duck on his head.

He sat cross-legged on the ground, hands in his lap, with Jenny doing the same across from him. Kyle was shirtless, Jenny was not, which Kyle considered was probably for the best. He didn't need any more distractions.

Because, you know. There was a freaking duck on his head.

They were sitting in the most boring basement Kyle had ever seen, a simple cube of dirt with a big straw mat in the middle. Dr. Myrden stood over them with his arms crossed, the duck-hanlded cane tucked in his elbow. And there were ducks on their heads, glowing energy ducks the good doctor had conjured which were supposed to help them sense their internal energy.

As far as Kyle could tell, he just had a freaking duck on his head.

“A genie is one of the most powerful individual beings in existence,” Dr. Myrden said. “So powerful that in the early days of the universe, their out of control power was bound, because rampaging genies threatened to destroy everything else that lived. That binding resulted in the mechanism of lamps and wishes. So despite their ability to manipulate the fabric of reality itsef, on their own they are capable of only minor magical manipulation.”

“We know all this,” Kyle said. Well most of it. Kyle was very curious about what had happened eons ago that had resulted in the genies getting their power bound. He wondered if Jenny knew?

“But Jenny is not alone,” Dr. Myrden ignored him. “She is bound to you. In a very real way, there is no difference between her power and yours.”

“She's in the room,” Kyle pointed out from under his duck.

“Yes but I'm talking to you,” Dr. Myrden said. “Because youare the one who needs to unlock the link between your powers. You must have felt the connection between your energies before. Focus on that.”

Well he'd definitely done that at least once. He flushed as he remembered the feel of his hands on her skin, from both his senses and hers, how their minds had mingled while their bodies rolled together, his...

“QUACK!!!!!” The ducks on their heads pecked them both repeatedly in the face.

“Ahh ahh ahh!” Kyle said, smacking the duck away. Jenny yelped similarly, batting at the duck assaulting her own face. After a few minutes the pecking subsided.

“Why does that hurt me?” Kyle said. “Bullets don't even hurt me!”

“It's a magic duck,” Dr. Myrden said. “It's magic. What concerns me is why it happened. You were both thinking about something horny, weren't you?”

Kyle flushed again, catching Jenny's eye. She was doing the same.

“Well stop it!” Dr. Myrden snapped. “Yes, connections like that get particularly strong during sex. But that's not the kind of connection we're looking for, and it's not reliable enough to use in combat. You do not unlock your powers through boinking. This isn't a porno.”

“Nope!” Jenny said cheerfully. “Our sex scenes are infrequent and narratively justified!”

“You formed a familiar bond with each other,” The old wizard said. “Focus on that.”

I was barely conscious though, Kyle thought. I was almost dead. I only noticed anything was happening when...

When I heard Jenny's voice, calling me back. And the sense of her was all around me.

He focused on that. The first moment he noticed their mind's touching. A moment both less sexual and more intimate than making love, sensual and warm and caring as two souls touched in a way that had nothing to do with bodies. And as he remembered he felt it again, not as strong but omnipresent, a swirling heat floating at the back of his mind.

“Oh!” Jenny said, perking up. “Oh hey!”

Kyle opened his eyes. Jenny's body crackled with soft pink flames, like a fireplace burning low. She laughed, and began to hover a few inches above the ground.

“I'm levitating!” She said happily. “I can levitate again!”

“There we go,” Dr. Myrden said. “By the time we're done training you, you'll be able to keep that link open all the time. Jenny should be able to use more of her powers now, even without a wish.”

“I mean I've already made my wishes,” Kyle shrugged. “Probably how all of this started. Hey, will this help us learn what my wish was exactly?”

“No,” Dr. Myrden shook his head. “No it won't. But now we can start the real work.”

“What real work is that?” Kyle asked.

“First things first,” Dr. Myrden said, conjuring an enormous bird behind him. “Fight my duck.”