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“Beating yourself up about what might have happened is a waste of energy. I need you here and focused, Harlow. Stay with me, alright?”

I forced myself to shove the shame aside and turn my attention to Typhon.

“Let’s start again, from the top. I need you to throw one of the runes you actually know how to do the correct way. Ready?”

“Ready.”

At first, my fingers felt clumsy like always as I tried to replicate a rune I’d been taught during my first, short stint at Neverthorn. But I pushed through and tried again. And again. And again.

“Look at my fingers, and try again,” Typhon urged, a sharp edge to his voice this time.

I turned to face him. “I don’t know what to say. I’m doing my best. Maybe it’s just going to take a little time.”

“We don’t have time!” he growled.

I shot him a glance, suddenly full of apprehension as I glanced at the sky again. The moon that had been hidden behind the clouds was now visible, and very, very full. The first of three before the prophesied attack.

“You aren’t wrong,” I muttered.

“Someone told you, then?” Typhon said, eyes locked on me as I tugged my gaze from the sky. “About the full moons and the solstice? Liam, was it?”

“I know you’re trying to protect us or whatever, but not knowing is way worse, Typhon.”

“The pressure is already almost insurmountable, Harlow. Some of you would crumble under more.”

He wasn’t wrong. But weeks had passed, and we were still moving at a snail’s pace. The solstice was inching closer. Something had to give ...

Ignoring the gentle tug of the river at my ankles. Ignoring the heavy weight of Typhon’s stare. Ignoring everything inside me that said I was going to fail once again, I tried again. For Typhon. For Opie. For myself.

This was life or death. I had to do this. I poured my energy into what I was doing, holding nothing back for maybe ... maybe the first time in my life.

There had always been something holding me back. Fear at the top of the list.

But this time, the runes and the magic felt different.

I let the fear go and cast a proper rune for manipulating water.

The result was instantaneous. A tiny droplet of water rose from the river, shimmering in the moonlight as it floated a few feet in front of my face.

I let it fall and lifted another, then another.

Soon, I was plucking drops out so quickly that my fingers were a blur, and the sound of the drops falling was like a symphony.

Drip.

Drip.

Dripdripdripdripdrip.

Bigger droplets rose and fell like gems glittering in the night sky, faster and faster.

Joy spread through me as the magic shimmered from my fingers in a crimson flash and seemed to well up inside me in a rush.

I embraced the feeling and lifted my hand higher, going on instinct, without fear, as I flung the runes in controlled abandon.

The droplets fell as the river itself crested before me, a massive wave, tall as a two-story building.

So much water that some of the rocky bottom of the river came into view, littered by the wreckage of an ill-fated rowboat, some of Charon’s treasure, and a few wide-eyed fish.

It was only when I heard Typhon gasp behind me that I let my hand fall to my side.

“Harlow!”

The massive wave crested over me just as Typhon gripped my wrist and yanked.

I pitched forward, letting out a squeal as we both toppled over, him into the ground, me onto him.

I sucked in a breath, shocked from the chilly water.

I shuddered as I realized that, without Typhon there, the wave could’ve hit me and dragged me into the river when it retreated, setting Charon off on a murderous path.

Then I realized I was fully sprawled on top of Typhon. Both of us soaked through, pressed together, chest to chest, hip to hip.

I stared down at him, so full of all the feels that I could barely form the words to explain it.

“It was so beautiful,” I whispered, knowing I should be embarrassed of the tears stinging my eyes, but weirdly not caring. “Typhon, it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I wasn’t doing magic. I ... I was magic.”

He released my wrist and lifted his hand to my face, gently brushing a damp lock of hair from my cheek.

“That was perfect.”

For a second, we just stared at each other. Then he rolled me off him and stood, pulling me to my feet.

He stepped back and dropped my hand, his expression blank again.

“I should’ve stopped you sooner, but I wanted to see just how good you could be, and you were ...” He shook his head and then cleared his throat. “Mission accomplished.”

This. This was what it was supposed to feel like all along when we were casting runes.

I’d felt a hint of it when I managed to create a rune that actually worked properly, and the promise of it when I’d been trying to activate some latent Quirk.

In the Unlit world, I’d always had to be careful, holding back just in case, and I mostly used my own runes, not something that was sanctioned.

But even then, it hadn’t quite clicked, and I thought I knew why.

I’d always been afraid of just what could happen. Of being found out.

Of having everything taken away from me, again.

And now that I’d had a taste of what the magic was meant to be, without the fear, surely nothing else would do.

So, I was thrilled with Typhon’s next words.

“I’ll be setting up another covert field trip. Be prepared to lose some more sleep.”

“When?” I asked, wrapping my arms around myself and shivering.

He absently whipped off a quick rune that had us both dry in an instant, then held my bracer out to me, and slid it back onto my arm.

It latched on smoothly, as if it had never been taken off.

“As soon as I can arrange it. The two of us were easy enough to conceal. The next time, I want all of you ... the whole of House Phoenix, to join. It’s going to take some doing. ”

My heart sank a little. Something about it being just the two of us, a shared experience that was like no other, had made it even more special.

I shoved those feelings aside in a rush as I realized that Fable, Zeed, Marina .

.. all of my friends would finally get to experience what magic should truly be and hadn’t been for any of us.

I frowned as some of the euphoria faded.

“Wait ... why?” I shook my head. “Why did I have to be away from Neverthorn for that to happen?”

He looked off into the distance, and I could almost hear his mental gears grinding.

“Trying to decide how much to tell me, huh?”

His lips twitched and I knew I’d hit the nail on the head. When he faced me again, it was with no hint of a smile.

“I think that the powers that be – Tarquinius or the Senate ... maybe both – intentionally dulled your magic. All of you in House Phoenix.”

His words were like a gut punch, and I weaved on my feet.

“That doesn’t make sense,” I whispered. “They brought us here to prepare for Nocta. How can we –”

“Not now,” he cut in quickly. “When you were all here the first time around. They were afraid of your power after Nocta’s attack on his fellow students all those years ago, and they placed muting spells on anyone destined for House Phoenix – I think they would have been imbued in your bracers.”

That made a wicked sort of sense. The bracers went on our dominant hand, the one for casting runes.

A perfect place for a muting spell. And it made even more sense when I thought about how not just me, but all of House Phoenix had the same experience.

Not great in school, better once they graduated, and now, sheety again.

“They were designed to bring you down to the level of the other students, both for their safety and yours. But some worked better than others, and after a few mishaps, they erred on the side of over ... overcorrecting.”

The fact that he looked sick himself saying it didn’t make me any less furious.

“ Overcorrecting ?” I demanded, nauseous at the thought of what had been kept from me. “I thought I was useless. My classmates treated me like worthless trash. My life here was a living hell, and you brought me ... all of us, back for more of the same?”

“I approached Tarquinius about it yesterday after something I read in the book Fable found. It all but confirmed my theory. He insisted that they’d removed the spells when you came back.

He swore to me that was over and done with.

And, to your point about Nocta, it only makes sense that it’s the truth.

Why wouldn’t they want you at your strongest?

My guess is that there is something else going on.

I think that this could be something Tarquinius is doing, to try and force your Quirks out.

But it would explain why neither you nor Zeed could quite trigger your Quirk. ”

“Wait a second, we don’t even know if we have one –”

“And we might never know until we leave school grounds, where Tarquinius can’t see what we’re doing. Where we can take off your bracers.”

Which was why he brought me here. By the river. So no one could sense that my bracer was off.

My head was spinning. To go from the highest high, crashing to the lowest of lows, had left me feeling raw and hollow inside.

I’d had to hide my magic except under the most controlled circumstances in the Unlit world so I couldn’t be tracked. I was muted here because they wanted to dull my powers. I’ve literally never gotten to truly explore my potential.

Until tonight. And like it or not, Typhon had given me that.

“Did you truly not know until now?” I asked, trying to pretend that his answer didn’t matter.

To his credit, he didn’t play stupid.

“No. And as for Nikita ...” he paused and raked an agitated hand over his face.

“I had an inkling she had it out for you pretty quickly as she hasn’t changed since school, she’s still a bully.

But I have no proof. Nothing that I can bring to Tarquinius.

But I’m working on it. She knows I suspected she led you to the wishing well, so she has to tread lightly, and now that you and I are bonded, you should be safe. ”

I let his words marinate and then nodded. I might be a fool, but I believed him. The vice grip on my chest loosened just a little as I turned away.

“Alright then. I’m sure I’ll have a thousand more questions once all this sinks in, but we should get back before I’m missed.”

And before I burst into exhausted, confused tears.

I trudged back toward the school, brain buzzing with a thousand thoughts as I tried to process everything that had happened.

What did this mean for me? For all of us in House Phoenix?

My goal from the start had been to get out of this place as soon as possible.

But the future that had seemed like the most precious jewel, sparkling just out of reach, suddenly dimmed.

Once we left, I’d never be able to do it again.

They wouldn’t allow me to do magic like that out in the Unlit world.

I’d never be able to let go like that. Be free.

Be magic.

And the thought made me want to vomit.

We made the rest of the walk in silence. When Typhon left me at my dorm, he touched my hand briefly, making the bond between us flare.

“One other thing, Harlow. Tarquinius has his eye on one of you, but he won’t say which. He thinks ... he thinks he knows who is going to be the one to take Heronius’s place.”

I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to say to that. “Won’t be me. I think we can both agree on that. I’m too unpredictable, remember?”

Typhon’s eyes darkened. “Zeed and the others, they look to you. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this, but don’t do anything like what you did tonight without me there. Is that clear?”

I swallowed the knot in my throat and nodded.

“Crystal.”

Because even though he’d given me my first taste of freedom, nothing had changed. He was my warden, and I was his prisoner. No matter how attracted to him I was, no matter how much I stupidly wanted him, I couldn’t let myself forget that.

Not ever.