ia's

uettes crawling up the trunks around us. For the first time

in instead of burro

in my hand, a white sugar cube or what they

turn golden in the heat

tate it," Jasmia teased, her

elt strange in

overwhelmingly sweet and cloying enough to make

not every human deserved the mons

ned forward, chin

r magic seems... different. What

dled into something heavier. I stared at my hands

really know,

reful," Lori said, hi

potential. Ours feels like stepping into a river you can ride. Hers... it's like star

altered. "Is it

spered before I could stop myself, the cr

my surroundings

d was the only thing between us and a si

breaking t

loom. Wat

the firelight wi

own-they bent and slithered li

rd him and curling across his skin as if it belonged th

d, pride in her voice as she briefly rested a hand o

of envy knif

cer. I moved with mine like I was chained to s

d, the glow in his eyes fad

revealed a house mostly sunk into the ear

me, Tsukia!" he announc

om

hadn't realized I was missing. My chest t

pacious but warm, the kind of shelter

aranoid, trained to distr

e softness of real blan

alized. I closed my eyes and drifted off

in a single di

lace where I was-the dream of a man named Lori and a gi

s brushed unfa

hit me: I wasn't

mach f

certainty settled in that this wasn't a dre

through the windo

tangled into a mess as I

cowl. Skin even pale

hing cold water over my fac

like coffee. Jasmia was alread

! Want some coffee

ur

made heat ris

st sat in quiet morning stillness, letti

fee and that usual breathless energy th

We need supplies-and Tsukia definitely needs clothes that

money?" Jasmia

. "I borrowed it from peop

snapped, equal parts exaspe

ne looking into a sunlit

ughed, then

ranky because I friend-z

ce turning the same shade as his fla

y by 1:00 pm, Tsukia. W

d retreated

tillness. The kindness from the mornin

lity was

to get

g slowly, focusing on the sc

Keep the leak

ed until it was a

through paper. A black haze gathered at my fingert

e of blood slipped from

on the nightstand, brig

i

atmosphere thickened, turning dense and cold around the ceramic. It d

alized I was holding, a small,

wor

erythin

, sharp, unbearable. I tried to rel

f

turning gray and brittle before collapsing into dust. The vase

a white flash explod

t, I wasn't

wings stretching across the sky like thunder given f

the so

ard-it was felt. Pr

h my skull as I

he vase shattered into a thou

room spinning in jagged fr

ned like a cu

ained... and the faint tink

?" I whispered in