I walked to the gateway in Geist's shop, sending up a silent prayer of thanks to whoever was looking out for me.

Geist had just killed someone, so not only was I escaping a murder scene but, from what he’d led me to believe, I'd still be able to stay in the magick world. Sure, I’d probably given up a valuable witchstone, but right then the only thing that mattered to me was staying where I was: treading water in my new world.

Every bone in my body rebelled against the idea of leaving the magick world.

It suited me. It felt like I belonged. It felt natural even though it was unfamiliar. I couldn’t leave.

You don't belong. You have horns now. So many things about you have changed. You don’t even act like yourself anymore. Who have you become?

I pushed these thoughts away and walked through the gateway. When I got to the other side, I frowned.

I’d exited Geist’s shop, but I wasn't in Bristlebloom. I wasn't in class. I was standing on a sidewalk in the Night Market. Frowning, I looked around.

“This seems bad,” Silvy whispered from inside my hood.

“Shut up, Silvy,” I hissed. A man in a cloak who happened to be walking by at the time glanced in my general direction and gave me an annoyed look.

“What about him?” Silvy asked, nodding in the direction of the man who’d just passed. “He was rude to you. Maybe I could just taste his blood? Just a little?”

“No,” I said. “You've had your fill.”

“Lady,” Silvy said, “you don't even know what my fill is.”

It was a good point, a scary point. One I didn't want to delve into at the moment.

“Why am I here?” I asked instead.

“Oh. You’re an existentialist now? I’ll go down this wormhole with you. Why are any of us here? What is this world and why?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. Silvy was distracting me and I had stay focused.

“I mean why am I here? In the Night Market, and not in Bristlebloom?”

“Huh,” Silvy grunted.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing. I think you're gonna find out though.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I'm surprised you trust Geist.”

“Why shouldn't I trust Geist? He works for the Austerium.”

“You think that makes a difference?” Silvy cackled so loudly in my hood that I had to squeeze my eyes shut. “You think that if someone belongs to an organization, they’re automatically good? That the belonging part is what makes them good?”

“I don't know,” I turned around to face the gateway I’d come through. It was a black door with a silver knob. I reached out and tried to twist the knob, tried to go back through. I figured if I was supposed to be in class, it would open and allow me to go through to Bristlebloom.

That didn't happen. The door didn't budge. The knob didn't even move.

“Oh no,” Silvy said with faux concern. “If you can't get a gateway to open, what does that say about your future prospects of leaving this place?”

“Shut up.”

“I've got a feeling you're gonna need to find some vitamin D. This place never sees sun and, lady, if you're stuck here, neither will you.”

“Shut up, Silvy.”

“Hey, I'm just trying to be helpful.”

“You’re not being helpful.”

“I think I'm being a little helpful.”

“You're not.”

“Okay,” Silvy said. “Suit yourself.”

I felt the weight around my neck vanish and suddenly I was alone in the Night Market.

Finally.

I took a moment to sort out my bearings, but once I did, I headed straight towards Coffee and Content, hoping that Flin was inside. He could help me. He was a teacher at Bristlebloom, so he had to have some idea of what was happening and why I’d ended up here.

But even as I walked toward the coffee shop, I knew he wouldn't be there. He'd be in class, the class I was supposed to be in. And as soon as I opened the door to the coffee shop, I could see that he wasn't there. The barista from before glanced up from behind the counter. She raised a single eyebrow and stared.

I held my hand up in a sign of no thanks. She held both her hands up in a sign of what the fuck are you here for then?

I closed the door and stood on the street, not really sure where I was going next.

I just started walking, allowing my feet to lead me, allowing my subconscious to take over and direct me where it thought I should go. As I walked, I couldn't help but think about what Silvy had said.

Did I really give a stranger complete access to Blackhart? Did I really just—

Something else clicked in that moment.

It was a thing Silvy had said when I’d first met her. The store portion of Blackhart was at least partially in the Shadow Vaile.

And from what Flin had said the Shadow Vaile altered people, corrupted them. So, what was it going to do to Geist? If he entered Blackhart, what would happen to him? What would it turn him into? I got a sick feeling in my stomach, a sick twisting, and started heading in the opposite direction I’d been going. I started heading back to Blackhart. I needed to see if he was okay. I needed to warn him at least and, if I could supervise what he was doing, so much the better. I could also have him figure out what had happened with the gateway in his shop.

As I rounded the corner of the side street where Blackhart was located, I saw a group of people at the far end of the street. They were clustered around the new shop that sat where the destroyed building had been. I saw Lebec standing off to one side, gesticulating at the building. I saw the back of a taller person with sandy blonde hair and a scratchy tweed jacket. I breathed a sigh of relief. Flin.

I’d found my class. In fact, when I'd walked through the gateway, it had deposited me exactly where I needed to be, I just hadn't realized that I needed to do some walking to get there.

I walked up to the group, but my eyes kept darting to the right, to Blackhart, and I wondered where Geist was, if he’d already entered, and if he had, what was taking so long. I stood next to Flin, who looked down at me and then quickly averted his eyes back to Lebec.

So that’s weird.

Every other time I'd seen him, he’d been welcoming. In fact, not too long ago, he'd given me his phone number.

Is this some sort of weird magick boy shyness? Is he embarrassed he gave a stick his number?

I didn't know, didn't want to know, was worried that something deeper was going on.

Lebec eventually noticed me standing beside Flin and gestured for me to step forward.

“So glad you could join us,” he said with a look of severe disapproval. I started to say something, started to give the man an excuse, but he continued before I could. “I'm not exactly sure why you would've shown up, though.”

“What?” I asked. My mouth fell open. He was talking to me as though I didn't belong in the class, as though this class wasn't the one I'd attended the previous day.

“Well,” Lebec said, a disappointed look on his face. “Do you want to tell the entire class what happened? Or do you want to talk about this in private?”

Oh my God he knows. He knows that I’m a half-witch now. He knows about the witchstone, about the horns, about Silvy.

Silvy chose that moment to reappear around my neck.

“Did you miss me?” she asked in a quiet voice. She caught sight of Flin. “Oh. Cute boy is back. Nice.”

I did everything in my power to ignore her. I kept my focus on Lebec, on his strange statement.

“I don't understand,” I said. “This is my class. Why wouldn't I be here?”

Lebec took a deep breath and let it out. “I took a risk on you. I wasn't sure that you belonged in the magick world and I wasn't sure that you belonged in Bristlebloom. There was something about your past, something about your father, which gave me a bit of reservation. Unfortunately, you delivered tenfold on that reservation.”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” I said. “I don't know what you mean.”

“Don't you?” he asked. “I would think a good scammer would know when they're caught.”

Scammer? What the hell is he talking about? I've never scammed anyone in my life. Stolen? Sure. Lots. But scammed? Never.

“I think there's been a mistake,” I said. “I think you're thinking of someone else?”

“Yeah,” Lebec said, nodding his head. “I'm sure that I am. I'm sure that I’m completely thinking of someone else. Geist just made a mistake. Geist just accidentally got the name wrong, a name like Hexana attached to a name like Covington.”

Geist told Lebec that I scammed him? What…

I could see all the pieces before me, but they hadn't snapped together yet, they hadn't come into focus. I was still grasping.

Silvy seemed to understand exactly what had happened and started giggling from around my neck.

“I don't get it,” I said. “What did Geist tell you?”

Lebec sighed. “He told me what you did, how you lied to him.”

“What did I lie to him about?”

“About being a stonebreaker? About your father teaching you stonebreaking.”

“No,” I said. “It wasn't like that at all. He gave me a witchstone to stonebreak, sure, but I never scammed him.”

“Really? Because he said that you went back to him and told him that the witchstone he'd given you was the Builder’s Stone. He said that you told him you wanted an unfathomable amount of money in exchange for the return of the Builder’s Stone.”

Several of my classmates gasped. I don't know why they gasped, but even Flin seemed to be looking at me out of the corner of his eye, confused. Shocked. Something else.

“No,” I said. “I never told him it was the Builder’s Stone. He thought it was the Builder’s Stone. He told me that.”

Did he actually tell you that? Or did you read it somewhere?

Things were getting confused.

“Hexana.” Lebec spat the word out in pure disgust. “The Builder’s Stone is in the possession of the Lord Wizard of Nidema. He is the keeper of the Builder’s Stone. Everyone in the magick world knows exactly where it is.”

The pieces slowly started to shift and click together. The things Geist had told me, the things Silvy had warned me about. If Geist had given me a witchstone with the distinct appearance of the Builder’s Stone, knowing that I was a new student and a stick, he probably knew that I would believe it was the Builder’s Stone and I might try to use it. That I would end up getting cursed.

But why you? Why would he do this to you? Why would he allow you to get close to him?

My gaze slowly shifted to Blackhart and everything clicked into place.

The stonebreaking of the fake Builder’s Stone was never the real job.

Cursing me was never the real goal.

Gaining access to Blackhart was.

I had just allowed a complete stranger, someone who'd lied to Lebec about me, someone who’d taken advantage of me, into Blackhart.

I started moving towards Blackhart, but the building erupted before I even made it two steps. The black bricks shot straight up into the sky in a swirling vortex, a blazing beam of red light at the center.

“Pretty,” Silvy purred.

Before I knew what was happening the bricks were falling onto the street, hitting the cobblestones, and exploding in sprays of sharp rock. Several of my classmates screamed, ducking and covering their heads while others ran. Lebec traced shapes in the air and a green, curved seal enveloped the students who stood near him.

Once all the bricks had fallen, Lebec dissolved the seal and jumped into action. He barked orders to my classmates, telling them to lock parts of the street down, to not allow anyone to enter or exit. He sent other classmates to the neighboring streets, and then he locked eyes with Flin.

“Flin,” he said, “escort Hexana from the Night Market. Escort her out of the magick world and back to Nightsbridge.”

“Wait,” I said, staring at the empty place on the street where Blackhart had once stood. It was the destruction of my father's legacy, the Covington's legacy. It was all gone. My place in the magick world. My father’s place here. It was over.

“Please,” I said when no other words came to mind.

“She's expelled from Bristlebloom,” Lebec said, ignoring me completely. “And her invitation to this world is rescinded.”

Told you not to get your hopes up…

In all the commotion, I didn’t feel the bracelet Geist had given me fall to the cobblestones.