“It should be starting soon,” Anastasia smiled, doing her best to try and see the stage.

Gregory returned the smile. “Yes.”

With schools out, the room was getting more and more crowded with teenagers. She didn’t even turn around when she felt someone bump into her.

“Ana?” a voice come from behind her.

She turned to see Pietro. He looked back at her with wide eyes, like he was surprised to see her there. He looked so shocked, it was almost looked like he was terrified.

“Hey,” she gasped. “What are you doing here? Don’t tell me you’re actually a big Sadie Quasar fan or something.” She added a mocking tone at the end. She didn’t actually think there was anything wrong with it, but he just didn’t seem the ‘pop star fan’ type.

Pietro opened his mouth, but the sound of people bursting into applause kept her from understanding what he said.

“Huh?” Anastasia moved her ear closer to him. “I can’t hear you.”

“Hellooo Portland!” Sadie’s voice came from the stage. Anastasia tried to look back at it, but Pietro grabbed her by the shoulder.

“You have to get out of here!”

“What are you talking about?” Anastasia cocked her head.

“Thank you all so much for coming out to see me today!” Sadie yelled. “I wanted to surprise you all with a performance, but I guess the stage gave it away, huh?”

The crowd laughed. When they stopped, Pietro spoke again.

“The concert isn’t happening!” he yelled. Gregory was looking over at him now too. “The murderer’s here!”

“Murderer?”

“Let’s get right into it then!” Sadie’s voice rang out again. “Magic Kiss!”

Just then, something red lit up in the air behind them. It looked like someone in the audience shot off a flare.

“Fuck!” Pietro screamed. The look on his face was pure terror. Just seeing it made her heart sink. What was going on?

And the next thing she knew, she was on top of a building being carried by a teenage girl. The change was so disorienting, it felt like someone had just smacked her in the back of the head with a hunk of metal. When Gregory tried to get them to leave without explaining what was going on, she finally snapped. She needed to know the truth.

The truth confirmed her worst fears.

“She’s the closest I’ve come to liberating us,” Gregory said, pointing down at the girl sitting at their feet.

“I don’t get it,” Sadie’s voice started to shake. “This is just a familiar, right? You… didn’t actually experiment on someone, right?”

Gregory didn’t answer. His expression said it all.

Anastasia stared daggers at him. “What did you do to her, Gregory?”

Gregory looked over to the girl, and then back to her. “Anastasia,” he let out a deep sigh. “I promise, I never meant to deceive you.”

“Then…” she didn’t take her eyes off of him. “What the hell is this?”

No one talked for a moment, but it was anything by quiet. Down below, they heard people yelling and honking the horns of their cars. Something was going on, but Anastasia wasn’t about to look away from Gregory and check for herself.

“Do you remember when I told you about the Salem Witch Trials?” Gregory asked. “You asked me why we didn’t solve all our problems with violence.”

“And you said that violence wasn’t the answer,” Anastasia cut him off.

“No, I said that there was a time to use magic and a time not to,” Gregory adjusted his glasses. “I meant it when I said that. But unlike my father, I wasn’t going to just lie down and let things continue as they have been.”

“Answer me,” Anastasia bit her lip to keep herself from yelling. “What did you do to her?”

“Magicians lost their way of life long ago,” Gregory replied. “I thought and thought, hoping that I could come up with some way that we could live with peacefully with humans. A way we could reclaim our identity and push the boundaries of what’s possible.”

Anastasia’s eyes were burning. It felt like her throat was on fire.

“I spent years trying to work with the government,” Gregory went on. “After the incident in California three years ago, I spent day after day trying to get them to agree to allow the association to carry out an investigation. They refused.”

“But…” she tried to speak, but he continued.

“It was only after that that I realized the truth,” he said. “It’s impossible, Anastasia. We have progressed to a point where reconciliation is completely out of the question.”

The pain in her head was getting even worse. All she could do was stand dumbfounded, staring at the strange creature in front of her that had, up until a few minutes earlier, been her trusted friend. Was this really happening? She didn’t want to believe it.

“But with that realization came a new understanding,” Gregory almost looked like he was smiling. “I came to the conclusion that if we couldn’t live with them, I would make them like us. I would find a way to transform everyone into a magician. A way to make a world where we could live in peace.”

“And so you experimented on this girl?” Anastasia burst out. “I know about all the other people you killed. The people that ‘expired’.”

“I’m only continuing what people like your teacher started,” not even a hint of hostility came through in Gregory’s voice. “I can only imagine how many failures Deanna Shore must have gone through before she succeeded in changing you.”

“No… she didn’t,” Anastasia trembled. “She wasn’t like that. She would never do that to someone.”

“She did it to you, a child,” Gregory said. “Even if she asked you, there was no way you grasped what she was really going to attempt to do to you.”

Anastasia felt the blood drain from her face. Was that really possible? Could Ms. Shore have killed and mutilated people, aiming to do the same thing Gregory was? Was she just the result of a successful experiment?

“Some of the biggest medical breakthroughs have resulted from studies and experiments that would no longer be considered ethical to perform,” Gregory turned his eyes back to the girl kneeling before them. “This girl is the first in my study to survive the magic injection and keep her human form.” He looked back up at them, his determination almost palpable. “She represents the hope of every magician. All of us.”

Sadie knelt down and buried her face into her knees. “Gregory,” she whimpered. “How could you do something like this?”

“I wish you hadn’t hid all of this from me,” a tear fell from Anastasia’s cheek. “If I had known you were doing this… I would have never started caring about you.”

“I expected this from Sadie,” Gregory lowered his eyes, looking at the ground. “But not you. I thought… you more than anyone would understand the importance of my work.”

“Stop calling it ‘work’!” Anastasia shouted, making him look back up at her. “Playing with people’s life isn’t a job. You aren’t a researcher. You’re a murderer, Gregory.”

Her words echoed, hanging in the air for a moment.

“I see,” Gregory’s faint smile disappeared completely. “It seems… I have misjudged you.”

Sadie cried louder. Just hearing it made Anastasia want to join her. Every second that passed made her heart feel heavier.

“You need to turn yourself into the association,” Anastasia said, pulling herself together. “This has to stop.”

She took a deep breath, calming her nerves. She wasn’t going to shed another tear for this man. Not ever.

“It can’t stop. Not anymore,” Gregory said. “And… I think we both know what has to happen now.”

Sadie suddenly stood back up, her hands extended in front of her. “Ana,” Sadie said. “We have to run.”

“You would… kill your sister?” Anastasia felt her breath leave her.

“I’m prepared to throw away everything,” Gregory lifted his hand up so that it was next to his face. “I’ve already killed my mother and father, Anastasia.”

It was like he had shot her. Suddenly, everything seemed to fall in place in her mind. His father always in his study, his mother out of the house on business. The two of them had already figured out what he was doing, and he murdered them to keep them quiet.

She couldn’t believe she had been alone in a room with this monster. The feeling was enough to make her want to collapse.

“Watch out!” Sadie’s voice brought her back in time to see the figure jumping at her.

She stumbled back as something sliced the ground where she had just stood. By instinct, she used her hands to shoot a blast of wind behind her. The force was enough to keep her from falling down.

Walter stood in front of her holding a gigantic scythe in the shape of a crescent. Before she could even understand what was happening, he readied his weapon again for another swing.

Sadie waved her arm, and she felt her body fly back again. Somehow, it was enough for her to dodge his second attack.

“Walter!” Anastasia shouted. “Why are you doing this?”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Harrow,” Walter’s voice was as calm and collected as ever. “I’m afraid… I don’t have a choice in the matter.” He lifted up the scythe again, and for an instant, Anastasia saw something she thought impossible. Walter was crying.

A ball of water slammed into the side of Walter’s head, almost making him lose his balance. Sadie stood with her hand outstretched toward them.

“I’ll distract him,” Sadie yelled. “Get out of here!”

Everything seemed to go slow motion as she saw Sadie’s eyes. Sadie must have been in unimaginable pain compared to her. She had just learned about her parent’s death and she was keeping her head level. This was life or death.

Yes. It was life and death, so why was Sadie telling her to go on without her? Was she really intending on fighting Gregory and Walter by herself? It was impossible. Sadie was going to die if she left her here alone.

It was like a fire started inside of Anastasia, and a burst of strength coursed through her veins. She wasn’t going to keep losing people she cared about. She refused to.

Just as Walter regained his footing, Anastasia took a leap toward him. She pushed him with all her might, shoving as much of her mana as she could through the gate. Walter went flying back, slamming into the neighboring building. The impact was so strong, it destroyed a part of the roof. Below, people started screaming.

Sadie’s voice came from her left side. “Why… won’t you run?”

“I’m not leaving you,” Anastasia wanted to look over at her, but she kept her eyes focused on Gregory and the building she had sent Walter to. “We’re getting out of here together. You… have a concert, remember?”

“Ana…”

“You have so much potential,” Gregory hadn’t taken a step from where he was. “But you’re fighting a losing battle.”

Anastasia started rubbing her hands together. She didn’t have much, but her fire attack was probably the strongest magic she had managed to create. She desperately tried to make it light up, but it wasn’t working.

“When that man at the convention center told you that you were in danger, I sent out a message to all of my familiars to come here,” Gregory pointed down at the girl, and she shot up like he had hit the power switch on a machine. “Please. Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

Walter was back on their building now, standing behind Gregory. She had sent him flying with enough strength to break concrete, but there wasn’t even a scratch on him.

Sadie rushed to her side. “Alright,” she said, grabbing her arm. “Then we’re running together.”

Just like the first time Sadie had grabbed her arm when they met in front of the train station, Anastasia felt her body get lighter, like she was being carried. Sadie must have been using some kind of wind magic on her. With this, they might actually be able to get away. They turned around and started running.

Suddenly, the girl with glasses was in front of them, her body crackling with electricity. Just being near her made all the hair on Anastasia’s body stand up. The girl’s appearance stopped them in their tracks.

Anastasia realized the danger right away. They weren’t moving. Their backs were wide open.

The sound of an explosion reverberated through her body, and something wet splattered over her. Was… this blood?

No. It was water. Why was she covered in water?

Before she could even react, there was another explosion. Something bright went rocketing past her head, slamming into the girl in front of them. The girl went down to the ground in a ball of flames, screeching and rolling around violently.

“Oh no!” a feminine voice said. “Why did you attack her?”

“That was payback for earlier,” this voice was deeper, but female as well.

“Vi!”

“Shut up, she’s fine.”

Anastasia turned around. The first thing she noticed was Walter collapsed nearby, soaked and surrounded by a puddle of water. Gregory had finally moved, but his attention wasn’t on her and Sadie anymore. Instead, he was looking up.

Three women floated above them. Were they flying? Two of them had brightly colored hair, and seemed to be talking to each other. The third woman was completely different. Something was off. Looking at her was like looking at darkness itself.

The woman’s eyes were fixed on Gregory. “You’ve been bad,” her face was covered with a twisted smile. “Looks like your little demon girl led us right to you.”

“I’m afraid that we haven’t been introduced,” Gregory yelled back up at her. “But I can say with some confidence… that I know what you are.”

“Then we can skip the formalities,” the woman put her hand up, and a swirling ball of purple and black energy formed in it.

“Yes,” Gregory snapped his fingers, and Lem appeared above his. “We can.”

Dozens of black figures appeared from the edges of the building, climbing up onto the roof with them. Both the girl and Walter were standing again. All of them had their attention on the women.

It was the perfect time for them to run, but her legs wouldn’t move. Something inside her told her that if she moved, she would be killed.

The other two women had stopped talking. Everyone had. She couldn’t even hear the people below anymore.

A countdown started. The city was about to explode.