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“ I f something was really wrong, would you tell me?”

I jerked back and blinked over at Opie, who was staring at me, face full of worry.

“It depends,” I answered honestly. She was sharp as a tack. She knew I wasn’t myself, same as I knew she wasn’t exactly jumping for joy lately, either.

“On what?”

I shrugged and popped a cherry tomato in my mouth before replying.

“On whether I thought it was something you needed to know.”

She glared at me, but I ignored her and continued.

“Sometimes, grown-up problems are exactly that. For grown-ups. Kids should be able to focus on being kids. Learning, having fun, navigating friendships,” I added with a pointed look. “Sheet like that.”

For the past two days, she’d been eating lunch with me and House Phoenix instead of with Phoebe and Krishna after the whole debacle with the boy she liked. No great loss as far as I was concerned, but she was clearly upset.

“Fine,” Opie said, pushing her lunch tray away. “Have your secrets. But don’t be surprised when I have mine, too.”

Refusing to take the bait from a moody child, I dragged the tray close again and nudged at her uneaten sandwich. “It’s testing day for Hand-to-Hand Combat,” I reminded her gently. “You should eat something. You might need your strength.”

She snorted. “Yeah, right. Like I’m going to get picked to fight anyway.”

Hand-to-Hand Combat Day was second only to the Solstice Games as far as events the students most looked forward to.

It was a fight to submission, zero magic allowed.

First up was determined by the roll of a die.

Whichever house crest was cast got to select a single fighter to represent them, and that fighter would select their opponent.

As a first year with average non-magical combat skills, there was almost no chance Opie was getting picked by her own team.

But another team might pick her as a weaker fighter.

“What do I always say, Opie?”

She cocked her head and shrugged. “Never pass up a free meal?”

“The other thing.”

She thought a moment longer. “Mmmmm ... Screw the Golden Rule? Treat people how they treat you?”

I sighed and pressed two fingers to my temples.

“No. I say that it’s better to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”

She scowled at me. “So even you think picking me to represent House Unicorna would be the worst.”

“Don’t twist my words. You know exactly what I’m –”

“Sorry I’m late,” Fable said breathlessly as she took the empty seat next to me. “I wanted to get another letter off to Zeed.”

I raised my brows at her, grateful for the change in topic. “What’s that, like number four? He hasn’t been gone that long.”

“Yeah, but regular mail must be moving super slow right now because he still hasn’t responded to my first one.

” She glanced around and leaned in close, dropping her voice to a whisper.

“I tucked this one in with the second half of the year’s tuition request letters.

I’m sure those will go out high priority. ”

I let out a low whistle of approval. “Pretty slick.”

I wasn’t sure if her cheeks were pink at the compliment, or because we were talking about Zeed.

Zeed. Fruck, it had been awful seeing him like that – even if he had gained his Quirk.

A wave of guilt, fresh and hot, rolled over me and I pushed it away. Nope. What’s done is done . There was nothing I could do about that now. I just hoped he was the same old Zeed when he returned to Neverthorn as when he’d left.

Plus, a new skillset, whatever it was he’d gained.

“Are you going to eat that?” Fable asked Opie, poking at her sandwich.

“Help yourself.”

“I’m only going to eat half, though.” Fable snatched up one of the triangles stuffed with meat, cheese and veggies. “I’m saving room for cake.”

Opie’s lips twitched and she rolled her eyes. “Feeling pretty confident, huh?”

She grinned. “We have a ringer, kid. Harlow fights dirty.”

I snorted. “I survive. There’s a difference.”

Mind you, fighting for cake was a new one, even for me. But the added incentive only made me want it more.

Aida Wickersham had announced an additional prize to the Hand-to-Hand Combat Day.

“You need more than glory to get you through a battle.” She’d stood at the front of the dining hall, flour dusted across her cheeks.

“You need good food. So, I have decided that I will make cakes for the victors of each battle in a flavor of their choice. They will be big enough to share with every member of the winning houses. You may put in your requests after breakfast.”

And when I say cheers went up from most of the students? It was deafening.

Tarquinius had stood after she left. “For the losers? No dessert, and certainly no cake.”

“What flavor did you request from the list she gave us?” Fable asked Opie, eyes lit with excitement.

“Banana peanut butter,” Opie admitted, her mood seeming to lift a little. “You?”

“Dark chocolate cake with a blood-orange curd.”

“Blueberry and lavender sponge with lemon buttercream,” I replied.

“Oooh, that sounds sooo good. Let’s pinky swear on Hecate’s heart that we share if either of our houses wins. Deal?” Fable asked.

Opie looked the most hopeful I’d seen her in days as she nodded and extended her little finger. “Deal.”

“What are we swearing to?” Bandit interjected as he leapt onto my lap and snatched a crust of bread from my tray.

“That we will share if we win the big cake.”

“In.” He lifted his paw, and we all interlaced fingers.

Solemn vow made, I gently lifted the trash panda from my lap and set him on the floor.

“I’m going to head out to the courtyard now. I want to get there a couple minutes early in case any of the teams are openly discussing strategy. We need every advantage we can get.”

“Yes! Good idea. I’ll come with,” Fable said, pausing to polish off the last of Opie’s lunch. “I don’t want to brag, but I’ve got pretty good lip-reading skills.”

“Guess I’ll see you guys there,” Opie said, shooting a wistful glance at the table where the rest of her housemates sat.

It took everything I had not to walk over and threaten Krishna and Phoebe with dismemberment. There was no leaving now, that dream had fled. With Zeed gone, I could feel Tarquinius’s eyes on me at every turn.

Typhon’s words ... “ You are the strongest Dwimmer in your house.” I had more than an inkling that he’d shared his thoughts with Tarquinius.

Which meant that until I saw this through to whatever end waited, I just had to remind myself that Opie wasn’t special when it came to this type of thing.

Teenage girls were capable of cruelty beyond measure.

If she could learn to navigate these shark-infested waters, she would only be stronger for it.

But damn, I hated every second of sitting back and letting her figure it out on her own.

“Come with us,” I said, already knowing what her response would be.

“I’m never going to make any of my own friends if I spend all my time following you and yours around. Just go. I’ll be okay.”

She looked less than sure on that front.

“Fine, but Bandit will hang here with you so you can walk over together, if that’s alright?”

He waddled over toward Opie and climbed into her lap as she shot me a wobbly smile.

“Thanks.”

When Fable and I got to the courtyard a few minutes later, there were only a handful of other students present, all from House Kirinash. While they were a force when it came to casting runes, they weren’t known for their combat prowess.

They looked up when we walked in and pressed closer together, dropping their voices to a murmur.

“Good call,” Fable said with a curt nod. “They are definitely here early strategizing.” She squinted hard, her face a mask of concentration. “Okay, so Renata is talking now.”

I whipped off a quick sound amplifying rune, but it fizzled into nothing but a shower of golden sparks. With a frown, I tried it again.

Nada.

What the hell?

“We’ve placed wards to prevent the students from using magic throughout the courtyard until our winners are declared,” a low voice intoned from behind me.

Don’t think about kissing him. Don’t think about kissing him.

I’d been avoiding him as best I could since the incident , but that didn’t mean I’d stopped thinking about him. In fact, since our bond had been reestablished, I couldn’t get him off my mind. I turned to face him and forced a tight smile to my lips.

“Perfect. That shouldn’t affect House Phoenix at all, since that’s pretty much how we lived the first three months here due to Tarquinius’s muting runes.”

He shook his head in a subtle warning as several of the other professors came to stand beside him.

“Moreno,” Liam murmured, flicking an icy glance Typhon’s way.

“O’Connor,” Typhon replied, jaw flexed so tight, I wondered if we might hear a tooth crack.

Whatever happened when Typhon went back to free him the other night, it clearly hadn’t included kissing and making up. I guess anything short of murder was a win, though. There was and never would be love lost between these two, I feared.

Still, I couldn’t shake the gut-deep feeling that I needed both of them if I was going to give myself and my housemates the best possible chance of defeating Nocta. The question was, how did I convince them of that?

Because as it stood, I was still Quirkless and bound.

“Let’s take our seats on the dais while the students work out their strategies, shall we, gentlemen?” Nikita said, slipping between the men and hooking her arms through theirs.

She leaned in close and pulled them away as Fable and I looked on.

I was still staring holes through her retreating back when the rest of my housemates poured into the courtyard led by a pale-faced Phyllis.

“What’s wrong?” Fable asked, eyeing the others. “Did something else happen?”

Marina shrugged helplessly over Phyllis’s shoulder.

“Phyllis thinks that, given the heightened threat coming from Nocta this year, we shouldn’t be –”