Cami avoided looking at Rainbow's outstretched hand. She gingerly crawled out from under Helena’s body, which had gone eerily still, save for the gentle rise and fall of her chest.

Still breathing. That was good.

“Well?” Rainbow prompted.

Cami’s shielded herself. “Please don’t kill me,” she squeaked out.

Rainbow’s face fell, and their mysterious bravado went with it. “Gosh, did you think I was going to kill you?”

“You knocked someone unconscious,” Cami pointed out, “and then really forebodingly told me we need to talk.”

"I just want to talk.”

“People aren’t literal about those things most of the time.”

“Humans aren’t,” Rainbow corrected. “I might not be a fey, but where I’m from, exact wording is important. Plus, I just don't like lying.”

Against all common sense, Cami relaxed. “And what are we talking about?” At last, she took Rainbow’s hand and stood.

“I wanted to learn about the rogue factions,” Rainbow said, “from someone involved. And you’re their fey rep, right?”

Cami shrugged. “I guess so.”

“Have you taken your vow yet?”

Cami shook her head. “Apparently I need a full moon or something. Feels like an excuse.” It felt wrong, even saying that out loud. “I’m sure they mean well, and it's not like they can lie...”

Rainbow considered this, stroking their chin thoughtfully. “Okay, the fey can’t lie. But they can play with the truth. Maybe a full moon helps, but isn’t needed. Fey are sneaky like that. How do you think they’re always tricking people?”

Cami considered this. In some horrible way, it made sense: of course, someone like Trintio would do that. And of course, Helena had been right. “But why trick me?"

“You’re asking the wrong witch,” Rainbow said with a laugh. It was a short-lived, humourless sound. “I was actually hoping Helena would bring you here, because I want you to know things might not be as they seem.”

On instinct, Cami took a step back. This is what someone bad would say, she thought. Someone who wants to isolate me. Someone who wants to hurt the people I care about.

Rainbow willfully ignored this. “I’m sure these people make you feel really special, but don't forget your autonomy. Don't forget that you can stand up for yourself.”

“I haven’t taken my vow,” Cami reminded them. “How am I supposed to stand up when I'm out of control?”

Rainbow grimaced. “Shit. Right. Uh.” You could almost hear the gears turning in their head. “Okay, listen. I don’t know what these people are planning, but if things get bad..."

Cami scoffed. “And why would they get bad?” she shot back. “You realize how suspicious you sound right now, right?”

Before Rainbow could respond, they were interrupted by a low, bleary, “Do I have superpowers now?”

“Helena?” Cami whirled around to see, sure enough, the other girl had awoken. She stared at the darkening sky with wide, glassy eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Never better,” Helena slurred out. “Feels like…” She paused, mulling it over. “Feels like I’ve been plugged in to charge.”

Rainbow groaned, pinching the bridge of their nose. “Okay, I now have to deal with a baby witch.” They brought a hand down on Cami’s shoulder, and she tried not to flinch at their vicelike grip. “Stand up for yourself, kid. Somehow. Some way. Before you’re in too deep.”

Cami managed the tiniest nod. “Okay, Rainbow.”

“Just call me Bow,” they said, grinning. “It’s a little less goofy. You know how it is, with hippie parents. Anyways.” Without missing a beat, Bow dropped to one knee and lifted Helena’s head, brushing a lock of hair out of her face.

Cami felt a twinge of envy. Problem was, she didn’t know who she envied.

“How do I make my powers happen?” Helena asked. She raised a hand. “Do I, like, snap my fingers?”

Bow’s eyes went wide. “Uh, I wouldn’t--”

Helena snapped her fingers.

A ring of light came to life around her, autumn leaves hissing as they sizzled into nothingness. Cami took a step back as the ring grew wider. Smoke rose up at its edges, forming a border between her and the others.

Helena squinted at the spectacle before her. “Okay, cool.” She looked back to Bow. “Um, how do I turn this off? Do I just snap again?”

“Please don’t.”

Helena chuckled. She looked to Cami, and gave a giddy wave. “Cami! I can, like, do magic now!” She untangled herself from Bow, and as she stood, the ring of light rose with her, like a fountain.

“Um,” Cami looked around. “Great thing we chose a creepy abandoned barn, huh?”

“This would be hard to explain to onlookers,” Bow agreed.

Helena took in the ring of light, nodding as if it all made perfect sense. “Okay, so now I just have to turn it off, right?” She looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers. “Yeah. Uh. How do I do that?”

Bow looked at her, at the light, and then back at her. “I… forgot a step. In giving you your powers.”

“Did you forget to tattoo my off switch?” Helena laughed, but it was high and jittery. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a bookmark. “Because, like…” She crept to the ring’s edge, sticking the thing into its glow. The paper blackened and hissed before dissolving. “I don’t want that to be me, you know?” She stepped back, sucking in a breath. “Are the walls closing in? The walls made of vaporizing light? It feels like the walls of vaporizing light are closing in.”

From Cami’s view, they weren’t, but just hearing Helena talk like that made her heart skip a beat. “Bow, is there anything you can do to make this stop happening?”

Bow threw their hands up. “I’m thinking, okay? Unless you have any ideas, can you please not talk right now?”

Cami’s head spun. There had to be something she could do, here and now. She’d said she would protect Helena if things went wrong, and things had gone wrong.

Think. There’s got to be a way to get in there, get them, and get out.

Fuck.

Her hands twitched at her sides. Something beneath the skin, beneath the bones, had heard her panic.

And it knew just what to do.

Cami leapt up, and up, and up. As if gravity itself had let go.

She slowed to a stop about ten feet up. Only there did she feel the new weight on her back: wings. They kept her afloat with a low buzz, though the sheer size meant it sounded less like a hummingbird and more like a weed whacker.

“Huh,” Cami said. She looked down at her hands which, sure enough, had changed. Her fingers were longer, and ended in claws. Tufts of moss-green fur tickled her skin.

“Huh,” Bow said.

Helena grinned. “That’s cool as fuck.”

“What?” Cami shouted. She could barely hear herself think, let alone speak. Her wings were too loud, roaring right by her ears.

“It’s cool as fuck!” Helena shouted back.

“Would be cooler if I knew what I was doing!”

“What?”

“This is useless.” Cami floated down, the wings on her back easing to a hum. She landed in the ring of light, right next to Helena and Bow. “I’m breaking us out.” It was dizzying, the way she towered over them. She’d never get used to being tall.

Helena looked her up and down. “Can you carry people? Like, sure, you’re seven feet tall now, but…” She pinched Cami’s arm. “You’ve got, like, twig arms. Long, but twigs.”

“I wouldn’t worry,” Bow said. “Fey can be strong, when they know what they’re doing.”

“Right, because she knows what she’s doing.”

“I can hear you,” Cami cut in. “Do you want me to get you out of here, or not?”

Helena snickered. “Riiiiight,” she said again, really dragging it out. “Because you’re the type to leave people for dead.”

And she had her there. Cami rolled her eyes and offered Helena her hand. “Someone else would’ve, y’know. You should be glad it’s me.”

“Oh, I am.” Helena batted her eyelashes playfully, and Cami hoped the other girl couldn’t see the blush creeping up her face in the dark. “Should we go one at a time?”

“Probably,” Rainbow said.

“Well in that case, ladies first. And how should we be carried?” Helena sidled up to Cami, grinning. “Like, bridal style?”

Cami looked to her hands, then to the girl in front of her. “Um, I’ve never...”

“It’s not that hard,” Helena assured her. “I used to carry my friends all the time. Just, like, stick one arm under my legs and one under my chest, and, y’know, don’t drop me.”

“Um.” Cami stooped down, so the two of them were at eye level. Helena had never looked so small before. It felt wrong.

Cami picked her up. Helena was light, so light Cami almost dropped her at first. Like she was all hollow on the inside.

What was it that had hollow bones? Birds? Why was she remembering that now?

“Um,” Cami said again. She wasn’t sure how she’d gotten this far.

Fortunately, Helena had a higher tolerance for the evening’s strangeness. “Up, up, and away, right?” she prompted.

Cami’s wings twitched. She willed them to move, and soon her feet left the ground. They glided over the ring of light with utter ease, and landed on the other side. At some point the moon had risen, and it shone off the lake's surface clear as a mirror, dyeing the scene silver. It was incredible in that dreamy, all-consuming way, so much so that Cami startled herself when they landed on starving ground.

“Done,” Cami said. “Well, kinda done.” She looked to Bow, who gave her a thumbs-up.

Helena looked up at Cami, an easy grin on her face. “Oh, Camilla Wilde, you are my hero.”

And Cami, who already had been quite overwhelmed by the night’s events, found her brain short-circuiting and dropped Helena like a bundle of sticks.

Helena, for her part, cursed like a sailor.

“Sorry,” Cami sputtered out. “Uh, I’m not used to. You know. Being anyone’s hero.”

“Yeah, I can fucking tell!" Helena shot back.

“Hey,” Bow called, “You two done? I’d, like, really appreciate some help right now.”

Cami leapt up and took flight again. Her wings roared.

“There’s a way to fix this, right?” Cami shouted, clapping her hands over her ears.

Bow shrugged. “Fey magic isn’t my department."

Cami drifted down, tucking her arms under Rainbow’s shoulders. "Up we go.” This wasn’t too bad. She plucked Bow off the ground with ease.

“Gotcha.”

It was easier, the second time around. Probably because Cami knew what she was doing. Up, over, down.

Also, it wasn't Helena in her arms.

She let Bow go, and they smoothed out their coat, sighing in relief.

Helena, meanwhile, had the good manners to wait until everyone was situated to ask, “So, how are we going to get rid of the giant circle of searing light?”

Bow’s head shot up, and they looked past her, at the ring. “I have a plan.” They looked back to Helena, and then to Cami. “Have either of you heard of grounding items?”

“Like for mindfulness and meditation stuff?” Helena asked.

“Like for coming down from meltdowns?” Cami asked.

Bow beamed. “Yeah, sure. In magic, grounding items can be a great way to reign your powers in on the occasion that they get out of control.”

“Like right now,” Helena said.

“Exactly” Bow agreed. “For example, Helena…” They looked her up and down, eyes narrowed. “How about your rose quartz pendant?”

“What about it?”

They took a step closer, grabbing the stone between two fingers. “Well, it’s something you always wear, I’ve seen you fidget with it when you’re antsy, and it obviously means a lot to you. It’d be a great grounding item.”

“I should get one of those,” Cami murmured.

“Yeah, probably.” Bow laughed. “I mean, your Vow might calm things down a bit, but it’s good to have.”

Helena fiddled with her pendant, rolling it up and down her palm. “I’m not going to have to, like, do anything to it, am I? I’ve had this thing for years.”

Bow gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “I’ll just jumpstart it, and then you’ll be good to go. There won’t be any major change. Not physically, at least.”

Cami’s hands scrabbled about her coat pockets. If she had to make a grounding item, what would she use? She didn’t really have a signature item like an amulet she wore every day.

Maybe I’ll make something when I get home.

Bow, meanwhile, had picked up Helena’s pendant, their hands alight with a pale glow.

“If you so much as chip this thing,” Helena began, but her voice petered out as the light grew brighter.

The ring of light disappeared like mist under the morning sun, leaving the three of them in the dark.

“Whenever you want your magic to stop doing something,” Bow said, “just grab your rose quartz and take in a breath.”

“Cool,” Helena murmured, rolling the gemstone around in her palm. She looked up to Cami. “Is there anything you think you could use for this?”

Cami shrugged. “I was thinking I’d go home and scrounge around,” she said. “I mean, I have a lot of little trinkets from over the years.”

Bow looked between the two, nodding. “I feel like, overall, this was a success. Minus the ring of searing light, but we fixed that." They chuckled. "One more thing.” They pulled a scrap of paper from one of their many coat pockets and handed it to Helena.

“Is this your phone number?” she asked, a mischievous glimmer in her eye.

“Close enough,” Bow said. “It’s another sigil. If you draw that, it’ll open a line of communication with me. As in, it'll reveal my phone number.”

Again, Cami felt a twinge of jealousy in her gut. Enough of one that she couldn’t push it down. So, she turned to Helena and asked, “Do you wanna come home with me?” Her heart smacked against her ribs with every word. “I know you live on the other side of town, and it’s pretty dark, and the bus stops running after-”

“Sure,” Helena said, cutting her off. “Your mom won’t mind, right?”

“Nah. I have Jane over all the time.”

“You two have fun,” Bow said, and maybe Cami was just imagining things, but she swore they said it with a teasing lilt. “And get home safe.” Then they looked to Cami. “Remember what I said, alright?” They gave her a pat on the head that was equal parts friendly and patronizing. Without another word, they spun on their heel and strode off into the woods, whistling as they went.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Cami asked, “What the fuck just happened?”

“Not sure,” Helena replied, splaying her hand out in front of her. “But I have superpowers, so I’d call it a success.” Sure enough, beams of light danced between her fingertips. “What’d you talk about while I was, y'know, surrendering my humanity??"

Cami shrugged. “Bow told me to, like, stand up for myself more. Because supernatural creatures can be jerks, or something.”

“They weren’t wrong.” Helena’s hand dropped, and when she looked at Cami, her gaze was sharp. Piercing. “You have a lot of power, and that’s something people could try taking advantage of. I’m definitely gonna take less shit from Trintio and the vampires, after this.”

“Really?”

“Why not?” She tilted her head back, up to the night sky. Cami followed her gaze: even just outside town, there were so many stars.

Cami didn’t want to ruin the mood. Instead, she asked, “Do you know any constellations?”

Helena scoffed. “Absolutely not.” When Cami’s eyes widened, she asked, “Did you expect me to?”

“You just seemed like someone who’d know.”

“I have my birth chart memorized,” Helena admitted, “but I just used an app. Anyways!” She clapped her hands together. “I might have superpowers now, but I still need to take the bus. Let's go."

Helena offered her hand. Cami grinned and took it.