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A cool sensation on my forehead had my eyelids fluttering open and I winced at the bright light.

“Sorry about that,” a soft voice said.

The lights dimmed and my pupils adjusted; I realized it was Ellie standing over my bed in the infirmary, concern written all over her pretty face.

“Man, have I got a headache,” I muttered. Then I jerked upright. “Is everyone okay?”

“Everyone is okay. As the rune bomb landed, Gary and Ross managed to shield us from the worst of it. I mean, it still hit us, but no one was killed.”

I sat back. “Thank fruck.”

Her lips tipped into a smile, and she let out a sigh.

“You lost a ton of blood but not an ounce of that winning personality, I see.”

It took a few seconds to process her words but when I did, my stomach bottomed out as I struggled to sit up and looked around.

Where was everyone else?

Oh, Gods –

“Did we ... is anyone ... ?” The rest of that sentence stuck in my throat, but she was already shaking her head.

“No. I sent them all away once they knew you would be okay. It was a zoo in here, and you needed to sleep. Everyone else fared alright. We were very lucky. We’ve got some broken bones in House Felinita that the administration has opted to handle with potions and plaster.

I kept everything I did quiet, like we talked about.

They just think the people I was working on weren’t injured that badly to begin with .

.. they don’t know I was using healing runes . ..” she trailed off with a shrug.

“And Opie?”

“She’s fine. As soon as I stemmed your bleeding, I treated her first in spite of Tarquinius’s objections. I just –” she chewed nervously on her lower lip, “well, that was what I thought you’d have wanted me to do. She’s family too. It doesn’t matter what house she’s in.”

A fresh rush of affection for the quietest, most unassuming member of our crew swamped me and I reached out to squeeze her hand.

“You did exactly right.” The truth was my world would be nothing without Opie in it. But Ellie wasn’t the only one with a hand in saving my little sis. “Did ... did anyone see Nocta flee?”

Her brow knitted as she lowered herself to sit on the bed beside me.

“No. And frankly, I’m not even sure why he did.

It seemed like he and his creatures were putting up a pretty good fight.

The outcome was still very much up in the air when the arena went dark.

And then next thing I saw, he was calling them off, retreating into the shadows again.

Do you remember what happened behind the shadow shield he put up? Did you fight him?”

As much as I hated lying to her, I sure as hell couldn’t tell her the truth.

How did I explain that he’d saved me, and told me that I needed to flee?

I swallowed hard, trying to push down the pulse of anxiety as it spread through me.

“I didn’t. I think I took a pretty big knock on the head, and things are sort of scrambled. ”

She shrugged and then stood. “Completely normal. And I guess it doesn’t really matter why he aborted his mission. I’m just glad he did. It could’ve been so, so much worse. All the Runecoats were in trouble. Very few of them were left standing.”

I knew she was right, but somehow, I couldn’t seem to shake the building dread inside me.

There are some you trust who do not deserve it. Their lies are poison. You must flee .

My father’s words replayed in my mind on a loop, but I couldn’t dwell on them right now. My head already ached, and I needed to see the rest of my team with my own eyes.

I glanced out the window beside my bed and frowned at how dark it was.

“How long was I out?”

“About six hours, give or take. We kept you sedated so your body could finish healing. I think after a couple aspirin and a good meal, you’ll feel a lot better.

If you want to try to stand up, make sure you keep a hand on the wall, for balance.

Maybe take a hot shower before you head back to our dorm, you’ve got a lot of blood on you. ”

I looked down under the sheet. She was not wrong. I was coated in blood.

Ellie stood and stretched. “They’ve canceled classes for the next two days so everyone can recover from the scare, and the doyens can focus on shoring up the wards around the school.”

Typhon would be busy all day. Which meant if I wanted to talk to him in private – and I did – I would need to do it tonight.

A sense of urgency pulsed through me, and I stood, probably a little too quickly.

“Easy, I got you.” Ellie grabbed my forearms and steadied me. “You lost a lot of blood so let’s take it easy until you’ve eaten, alright?”

I nodded and thanked her. “You really are a gem. I don’t know what we would’ve done without you the past couple of days.”

She let out a low chuckle. “I guess that means I’d better stay close then. You and trouble seem to find each other on the regular, don’t you?”

“You have no idea,” I grumbled.

But as I took a quick shower in the infirmary bathroom to get the blood off, my whole body started buzzing with adrenaline, and my headache faded. Despite how difficult and scary the games were, we’d learned a lot that we didn’t know before. But some new mysteries had also come to light ...

I needed to talk to Fable, stat. Maybe she could help me decode my father’s cryptic words and warnings.

Flee .

Refreshed and healed thanks to Ellie, I was just about to open the infirmary door and head out when it swung open.

Fable stood there, pale as a ghost on laundry day. “Harlow ... bad sheet ... we gotta hurry.”

She reached out and took my hand, her fingers cold.

“Tarquinius is coming to speak with us all.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. But ... I have a bad feeling, Harlow. Worse than usual.”

She dragged me to the seventh floor where the others were waiting for us in the dorm. Fable shut the door behind us and leaned against it.

“He’ll be here in a few minutes,” Marina said quietly. She had a bruise on her cheek, her eyes looked as fatigued as I felt.

I pushed off the door and went to my bed, where Bandit lay curled on the pillow. He reached for me with grabby hands, and I scooped him up.

“Hey kid, you made it.” He butted his head under my chin. “I never doubted you for a minute.”

The silence was heavy, and Phyllis cleared her throat.

“Maybe he is just coming to congratulate you all. You did well.”

“We all did,” I tipped my head at her.

Behind us the door opened, and I turned to see Tarquinius step through the doorway, Typhon on his left, looking pale and furious as the door shut with a resounding click.

Tarquinius folded his hands at his back and smiled at us.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t going to be so bad ...

“House Phoenix, you have outdone yourselves this day. Not only in the games, which you won, but on the field of battle. You moved without hesitation to protect the students from Nocta’s men. You have our thanks.”

Whatever fear Fable had handed out to us, started to fade. He was just here to thank us, that was it.

The Sage cleared his throat.

“Harlow, I do apologize for not seeing how serious Mortan Blackstone’s issues had gotten.

His jealousy had built to an obsession, and he did his best to sabotage you any way he could.

He’s been sent to a mental health facility and will be punished for his crimes.

I hope you trust that something like that will never happen again. ”

I wasn’t sure ‘trust” was the right word, but I was glad to have him out of Neverthorn.

Tarquinius wasn’t big on apologies and swept a hand in the air as if to delete it from his memory.

“Now, final order of business. I was very pleased to find that several of you have shown to have Quirks of considerable strength. Marina, with your control of the water, Ellie with your healing abilities, and of course, Harlow with the power of ten Dwimmers at your fingertips.”

I had to fight not to look at the others.

The jig was up.

I’d hoped to keep some of our Quirks under our hats for a little longer, but clearly, we’d outed ourselves in the Coliseum and Tarquinius knew them all.

Still, despite this new information, none of us spoke, and Tarquinius seemed encouraged by our silence.

“With abilities like those you’ve displayed, you will each be deployed to a Runecoat division to work directly with a cadre of fighters.

By spreading you out, there will be less chance of Nocta attacking you all at once. ”

“That ... that is a terrible idea.” I barely managed to get the words out through clenched teeth. “We work as a team.”

The others murmured their agreement.

His smile was tight. “And you will again ... when we see fit. You need to trust that we know what’s best.”

Too bad I was fresh out of trust.

“When will you be sending us out?” Ross asked, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

When would he split up the family we’d created, the bonds we’d made ...

“First thing tomorrow morning.”