As usual, I was getting my ass kicked in class. I’d managed a couple hours of sleep before it started, but it clearly hadn’t been enough to prepare me for what was to come.

Not that I did much better when I was fully rested.

Today, I lay on my back, head spinning as I stared up at the enormous rafters overhead. Tweety birds flew in circles in the air above me.

I blinked.

Okay, that was my imagination.

Pain flared as I tried to stand. Lavender had really hit me with a big one. She was a telekinetic, and we were skirmishing. Unfortunately, she’d chosen to throw a huge wooden bench at me at the exact same time my shield magic faltered.

My core magical skill was really giving me hell these days, flickering in and out like an old lightbulb. It meant my Dragon God powers were coming to the surface— Maybe.

Aching, I dragged myself to my feet. On either side of me, two other pairs of students faced off.

But I only had eyes for Lavender.

Her dark hair gleamed in the light as she snickered at me. “I thought you were supposed to be someone special?”

I just scowled at her and tried to call on the magic inside me, begging my Dragon God side to come up with a new power. According to Bree, when she’d gone through the transition, new magic had just appeared out of the blue whenever she needed it. Times of strife called on gifts that could help. The Norse gods had heard her in her hour of need and delivered.

Whoever my gods were…they were clearly on lunch break.

All I had was a shoddy power of premonition and possibly some kind of light power that did…light. Honestly, I barely knew how to describe it, just that it had once appeared and driven off sickness wraiths.

“You really shouldn’t be here,” Lavender said under her breath, purple eyes glittering with pure donkey meanness.

“Matching your contacts to your name is a bit much, don’t you think?” She was just a mean person, the type who liked to pick on the lowest one on the totem pole.

Unfortunately for me, that was my spot.

“You and your sisters shouldn’t be here. Bree is a freak, and Rowan is worthless. No magic at all.”

Hot tar seemed to fill my chest, spilling out at the mention of my sisters. It was fine if she wanted to be a bitch to me. But my sisters?

“Oh, no you don’t,” I said.

“What? You going to hit me with your practice sword?”

I growled at her. In skirmishes, I was allowed to use whatever I wanted to fight with. Since I had no offensive magic, that meant weapons. Unfortunately, Jude insisted on ones with no sharp edges.

“That’s what I thought,” Lavender said. “You’re just as worthless as your sister Rowan.”

Rage like I’d never known welled in my chest. It bubbled and boiled like a witch’s cauldron, flaring out of me in a burst of light so bright that it slammed Lavender off her feet, throwing her into the wall behind her.

I felt like I’d been hit by a truck. All the wind was knocked out of me, and I stood there, my mouth open like a gasping fish.

Stunned silence surrounded me.

Lavender was still on her back, and everyone rushed toward her. Hesitantly, I stepped closer.

Angus, Lavender’s friend, held up one hand, eyes flashing. “Don’t.”

I raised my palms. “All right.”

I squinted at Lavender. Did she have no hair?

Oh shit.

My light had blasted her hair away. And her clothes were singed, black and dotted with holes. What the hell kind of magic had I just thrown at her?

Jude rushed to Lavender’s side and dropped to her knees by the girl.

Is she okay?

I wanted to speak the words out loud, but it was super obvious that no one wanted to hear from me. Half the other students looked at Lavender, concern on their faces. The other half glared at me.

Jude looked up, then pointed a finger at me. “You and I need to talk. Later.”

I nodded. “Yep.”

Jude turned back to Lavender, who was trying to sit up, but failing.

A low meow caught my ear, and I turned.

Muffin sat in the doorway, his skinny, hairless body as dark as shadow. His green eyes gleamed, complementing the ruby in his tattered ear. Frazzled whiskers twitched. Behind him, Bojangles rolled by, chasing his orange tail.

Come on, failed hunter.

I glanced back at Jude and the rest of the group, torn. Did I stay here and wait for my talk? Or find out what Muffin wanted?

Since I didn’t like getting yelled at, it was an easy choice.

I hurried toward Muffin on silent feet, slipping from the training room. Lachlan waited out in the stone-walled hallway, a fluffy Princess Snowflake III draped over his shoulders.

“I have no idea how she got up here.” He pointed to the cat, bemused. “One second she was on the ground, then she was here.”

She rubbed her face against his, white fur sticking to the dark stubble on his cheeks.

“Hey, Princess,” I said.

She turned to me, blue eyes glinting, and hissed.

“I love you, too.” I grinned. “Don’t forget that dead mouse painting you made me. Maybe you did it in a moment of weakness, but I know you like me.”

“Dead mouse painting?” Lachlan asked.

“Yeah, I’ll show you sometime.” I looked back at the door. “Let’s get out of here. Did you find Torlock?”

If he had, and we could get a good clue, I could bring that to Jude. Maybe it would smooth over the hair-loss incident with Lavender. Not that Lavender would ever forgive me—that was a lost cause. But I needed to get on Jude’s good side.

“Yes, I found her. She’s hiding in a realm of shadows and mystery.”

“Of course she is. What’s it like?”

“It’s a place that takes myths and fairy tales and twists them.”

I frowned. “Is there a difference?”

“I’m not sure. But it’s going to be dangerous. You need contacts and an invitation to find her. We have neither.”

“But we have our wits.”

He smiled at me. “That we do. And also some moderately reliable directions.”

“Moderately reliable? I can deal with that.” Then I frowned. Caro, Ali, and Haris were on the trail of this too. If we were hunting something as big as this, shouldn’t I give them a heads-up? We’d lose our lead—and I really wanted to be the one to bring this info—but this was bigger than me. Anyway, working as a team had helped us save Connor last week. It was always the smart way to go. “I think we should give the others a heads-up.”

“Agreed. Are they here?”

“Maybe.” I touched the comms charm at my throat. “Rowan? You here?”

Bree was off hunting that demon in Ireland, but Rowan should still be here. I’d called her when I’d gotten back earlier this morning, just to make sure she wasn’t on lockdown.

“Hey! Yeah, I’m in the kitchen with Hans and some other folks.”

“Caro, Ali, or Haris part of that gang?”

“You’re in luck. They stopped by real quick to pick up sandwiches to go from Hans. They’re on the hunt for a clue.”

“Good. We’ll be there in a sec. I want to talk to them.”

“I’ll tell them to hang on.”

Lachlan and I hurried through the hallway, heading toward Hans’s kitchen on the bottom floor of the castle. Princess Snowflake III rode on his shoulders the whole way, and though he looked slightly uncomfortable and weirded out, he didn’t boot her off.

It was a smart decision, since she might claw his eyes out. Muffin stalked alongside, while Bojangles rolled like a tumbleweed, chasing his tail.

“How does he not turn his brain to mush, doing that all the time?” I asked.

“Meow,” Muffin said. You’ve seen his eyes, right?

“True.” The little orange cat was so cross-eyed I was surprised he could walk straight.

We entered the main entryway and took the stairs down to the kitchen.

Hans took one look at us and shouted, “Juice!”

I caught the juice box that he hurled at me, and Lachlan did the same.

“Do I look that bad, Hans?” For whatever reason, the head cook at the castle was convinced that juice solved all ills.

Hans shrugged, mustache quivering. “You could always use juice.”

I stuck the straw into the little box. “Thanks.”

He nodded. Boris sat on top of his chef’s hat, the little brown rat snacking on a piece of cheese. He eyed Princess Snowflake III, but didn’t so much as twitch a whisker. Boris was a tough rat.

Caro, Ali, and Haris stood near the table, each with a brown paper sack in hand. Rowan sat with a big bowl of soup.

“Thanks for not turning my sister in,” I said to them. Rowan had briefed me this morning, saying that Caro, Ali, and Haris had kept her appearance in the caverns a secret from Jude.

“No problem.” Caro’s platinum hair gleamed in the light, complementing her silver jacket and gray jeans. “But we can’t do it often. Jude would kill us.”

“Made a judgment call, though,” Ali said, flashing a quick smile. “Rowan’s good people.”

She grinned. “Thanks, Ali.”

“Why’d you want to see us?” Haris asked.

“I’m hunting for the same thing you are,” I said.

“An extracurricular activity?” Caro grinned.

“Pretty much. But I didn’t want to keep any info I found a secret, since I want to find Arach’s magic.”

“More than you want credit, you mean.” Ali bit into an apple, his white teeth gleaming.

“Credit won’t do me much good if we lose our friends and the Protectorate loses its magic.”

“True.” Caro nodded. “So spill.”

I told her about the potion and Torlock, along with our plan to hunt her.

Caro nodded, clever eyes keen. “Good, I like the direction you’re going. We’re headed a similar way, but we’re after another potion maker.”

“Melevakan?” Lachlan asked.

“The very same,” Haris said.

“Who’s that?” I asked.

“The only other potion maker besides Torlock who could make the Sylthian Potion. We were going to find him if it didn’t pan out with Torlock.”

“We’ll take care of Melevakan,” Caro said. “You try Torlock. One of us will be right.” Her gaze turned to me. “But don’t tell Jude what you’re doing. I think it’s great, but she’ll be uber mad.”

“I don’t want that.” Still, I didn’t consider quitting this. Not now that we were on the trail of something.

“No, you don’t. So we’ll find some info, and if you’re successful, then we’ll tell her. If you fail, we’ll pretend it never happened.”

“Thanks, Caro. You rock.”

I hadn’t known her long, only a few months. Same for Ali and Haris. But they were awesome. Rowan caught my eye and grinned. I knew she was thinking the same thing that I was—it was good to have friends. We hadn’t had many in our lives, but I could get used to it.

Ali frowned. “But she’ll find out, you know. Jude sees all. So you’d better find something.”

“And it better be good,” Haris added.

Caro scowled at them. “I can always count on you guys to be buzzkills.”

“But we’re right, aren’t we?” Ali asked.

“You are.” Caro turned to me. “I hope you find something big. Big enough to make Jude forget she’s pissed that you broke the rules.”

I swallowed hard and nodded. “Roger.”

We grabbed a couple sandwiches, then wished the other team good luck.

“Be careful,” Rowan said.

“I promise.” I hugged her, then followed Lachlan from the room.

We hurried up the stairs and through the main entry hall, then out onto the main courtyard.

I turned to Lachlan. “So, where is this land of fairy tales and myths?”

“Bavaria.”

“Of course it is.” I didn’t know where exactly the Brothers Grimm were from, but it was somewhere in Germany.

Lachlan raised his hand, his magic swelling on the air. Sneakily—or at least, I hoped I was sneaky—I sucked in a whiff of his intoxicating forest and leather scent.

Then the portal appeared, and I stepped through. The ether sucked me in and spun me around, then spat me out at the edge of a forest. Though the sun was high in the sky, it was shadowed here. The trees were as gnarled and ancient as those in the Enchanted Forest at the Protectorate, but somehow much, much darker. There were no fairy lights floating between the trees, for one.

Lachlan appeared next to me, nearly bowling me over.

“Sorry.” I stepped aside, realizing that I’d forgotten to get out of the way of the portal exit. “The forest just…”

“Distracted you?” Lachlan studied the trees that were about ten feet away from us, but somehow, they felt miles. “I can see why.”

“What is it about this place?” I sniffed the air, trying to get a sense for the type of magic that surrounded me.

All I caught was the rich scent of dirt and the fresh scent of leaves. The air was completely still, though, with an eerie quality that suggested we were being watched.

“I have no idea.” Lachlan stepped toward the trees. “It’s a strange magic, though.”

“No kidding. Which way do we go?”

“We head east through the forest, to start.”

“All right, then.” I shivered as I followed him, inspecting the twisting trunks and branches of the little trees. The bark was pitch-black, and the leaves a dark green. White specs nestled within the leaves, and I squinted upward at them.

We were about a dozen feet inside the forest when I realized what the white specs were.

‘They’re eyes.” A chill raced over my skin.

Lachlan just grinned.

I kept my gaze on the eyes that followed us. The air was still unnaturally still, as if we were sealed in some kind of fancy space chamber. Leaves crunched underfoot, and the eyes seemed to glare.

I drew a dagger from the ether. Just in case.

“Nervous?” Lachlan asked.

“Smart.”

“Aye, you’re that.”

A little gray rabbit peeked out from beneath a bush. It wore a tiny top hat perched jauntily over its long ears.

“And who might you be?” I asked, charmed.

The rabbit bared its teeth, which turned out to be long fangs that had been sharpened into a point. They dripped blood.

I cringed back. “All right, all right.”

“Let’s keep moving,” Lachlan said.

I skirted around the rabbit quickly. “What, you’re afraid of a bunny?”

“You bet your arse I’m afraid of that bunny. He can probably clean a corpse in minutes.”

“He eats the dead?”

“Well, I assume he eats them once they’re dead. Whether or not he makes them dead, I have no idea.”

“This place is officially nuts.”

“I think that devil rabbit is going to be the least of it.”

We walked in silence for nearly an hour, our senses ever alert. The Cats of Catastrophe appeared out of the blue, somehow having made their way to us. I almost asked Muffin, but it seemed like he could read my mind when he shot me a look that clearly said, Magic, dummy.

The Cat Sìth had a lot of tricks up his sleeve.

He and Princess Snowflake III stalked quietly through the leaves, their movements lithe and graceful despite Princess’s bulk and Muffin’s little belly.

Bojangles, on the other hand, was the opposite of stealth. He bounced off the tree trunks like a bouncy ball on steroids, keeping himself entertained as he followed along.

“How do you rob banks with that guy blowing your cover?” I asked.

Muffin looked at me. Bojangles has skills you can’t even imagine.

I stifled a laugh, barely holding it in.

Muffin gave me a look that was entirely unimpressed. You’ll see. If you’re lucky.

I nodded, not wanting to piss off my sidekick. But I definitely didn’t tell him he was my sidekick. That would get my butt kicked. By Princess Snowflake III, if not by him. She wouldn’t even be a sidekick by association.

As we walked, snow began to appear on the ground. Weirdly, it wasn’t falling from the sky, and nothing else about our surroundings changed besides the air growing colder. It was the fastest regional temperature change I’d ever experienced.

The snow became thicker quickly, until I was crunching on top of the semi-frozen crust. Bojangles ran and slid along the top of it, sending it spraying, while Princess Snowflake III minced her way through it. Muffin just plowed forward, head low and determined.

I looked down to check his hairless body, sure to see him shivering, and realized that he was wearing little boots.

“Where’d you get those?” I asked.

Always be prepared. I was a Cat Scout.

“Really?”

Oh, you sweet summer child.

“So, there are no Cat Scouts?”

He just shook his head like I was a moron.

I scowled at him, and he grinned toothily back at me.

Then a drop of red blood landed on the snow in front of his paws. It spread outward, red and bright. He stopped abruptly, back arched, and I stepped back. Dark magic rose on the air, prickly and sharp.

“What the hell—”