The dance music stopped and the DJ didn't even bother with a new song. She just sat in her place and stared at the banners while the rest of the students drifted in circles. Their mouths moved, but no words came out. Everything one could hear was shoes stepping on the polished ground.

It was only now that I noticed the black mist on the dance floor.

I ran through the crowd, pushing unconscious students aside together with Jaclyn, as we sought Isa, Rose, Blossom, and Simon. Isa and Rose pretended to engage in the same mindless, wordless conversation as everyone else. The mist rippled from their dresses and covered the ground to the point that I didn't see their shadows anymore. Isa laughed, but it wasn't harmless giggling. More like the rasping laughter of someone whose throat had been slit.

"Have you ever considered joining the dark side?" Isa asked me like a normal person. "Did you ever consider just letting go? Escaping your bad feelings and looking for what's on the other side of life?"

"You aren't-" I answered. "No. Tell me you're joking!"

"I'm so useless," a girl behind me said.

I couldn't trace the voice back. It got drowned out by the murmurs of other students and even teachers.

"There's no place for me in this world."

"It was my fault that my team lost."

"I'm gonna fail this grade."

"I'm never going to have someone love me."

"Wizard Magnus just said that help will arrive at Summer Hill in 40 minutes," Jaclyn said behind me. "The Blood Covenant mobilized a whole barrage of Grief Eaters and mercenaries they'll have to mow through first."

Too late! People needed help now. Pushing Isa aside, I noticed Simon didn't have it as bad as her. He had a horseshoe necklace worn under his robe and took out a second for extra protection.

"Simon!" I yelled. "Iron nails!"

"Got it!" he said and dropped his bag. "Gonna distribute the nails in my backpack into plastic bags and give everyone one of them. Problem's that we're three people and need to cover four walls, so someone must cover two!"

"I'm all for it!" I said.

"Hey, are you the Night Witch?" Isa said behind me.

I wasn't wearing any mask, yet I was unrecognizable to Isa.

Her eyes were green and lacked the blank-faced look the others worse. Her iron pentacle protected her from outright possession, but from the subtler forces. The Wild Hunt's glamour made her see what she wanted to see. This situation reminded her of her plight in the basement. And my stance, my confidence, and my readiness resembled the person who saved her back then.

And I needed to play that way.

"Is it true what they say?" Isa asked. "That you're responsible for all this weird stuff."

I put on my ski mask before I changed my voice to make it sound older, raspier, and witchier. "People say all kinds of weird rumors about me."

"Yeah, my parents even think that God will throw you in the lake of fire on the day of judgment for your witchcraft. But why do you wear this mask?"

"She's buying it?" Jaclyn said behind me.

Animated by Jaclyn's voice, Isa looked around and became more aware of her surroundings. "What happened to the others? They look mind-controlled. And are these two members of your Weird Sisters coven?"

"Listen," I interrupted her. "This is a time-sensitive issue and I am old. A practitioner in the Dark Arts has used the forces of darkness to sow despair in the hearts of your fellow students. I need to form a ward around you for protection."

Simon, by now, had all four plastic bags prepared. It wasn't going to be the most elegant protection circle, more like a rectangle, but having all the iron nails on the walls should still provide protection. Especially since the entire school stood crowded in this room. Most wards were hard to maintain in the absence of whoever set them up, but if we completed the iron nail circle here, the crowd's combined life energy could flow through it and stop the Wild Hunt from harming anyone.

The difficulty, however, was getting to the walls, especially with how restless everyone was. Simon and Jaclyn had no trouble. But Isa couldn't think clearly. I held her by the hand, hoping she'd follow my guidance through the swarm of bodies. Ever since I accepted that demon into me, I became so much more perceptive of people's auras. I felt the negative emotions around me and how they nourished that demon hogging my soul.

I didn't listen to her demands to use her. As I walked towards the wall, I only heard Isa's footsteps next to me and Siris' voice in my head.

"I think it's time to tell her, boss," he said.

Not necessary. As long as she doesn't like to think her shy online-then-offline friend was anyone special, I'll let her in that belief.

"Oh, you learned how to talk to me without speaking?" Siris said. "Not bad!"

I led Isa into a corner and handed her a bag.

"And I can do this spell without any training?" she asked.

"Anyone can!" I said in a raspy voice. "Now move, spread them over the floor, we don't have much time."

Isa grinned. Like a volcano full of energy, she hurried from one corner of the gym to the next. I wasn't nearly as athletic as her – or as awake. I was still bone-tired from failed nocturnality potion and without the adrenaline and pressure of the imminent Wild Hunt, I wasn't sure if I'd even have completed covering my wall. When I ran to the next corner and met Simon, our rectangle was complete.

Now, the magical energy released by these people's fear didn't leave the room anymore. The iron nails soaked it up and stored it like the bars of a cage meant to keep any Unseelie nasties out. Simon even added salt to his nails for another layer of protection against ghosts. Good. I already felt much safer.

But the pendant of mine glowing like a torch did not. I felt the desperate energies of the tortured monsters breaking into our school through the basement. There were so many of them and they held so much vengeful power that any ward I and Simon could have conjured up would have captured them for maybe a few seconds. Thanks for tricking me out of the basement, demon. Here, I could protect the people better.

Simon and Jaclyn came closer. Simon had fished his backpack from the crowd and given Jaclyn a frying pan while he took an iron-coated baseball bat for himself. I was given a crowbar for further proceedings.

"Your boyfriend is fine?" I asked Jaclyn.

"More or less," she said. "He works for the Blood Covenant and I might have to fight him at some point."

"What?"

"Hey, he's at least hot and better than, well, whatever you got," she said.

I tried to talk to Siris via thought as I needed him now. Siris, what type of creatures might have caused this mind attack on everyone else?

"Well, given that the Wild Hunt is about to start, my money's on the Sluagh!" he said. "Darcy already told you about them and you already googled them"

I did. Scottish Gaelic mythology had it that the Sluagh accompanied the Wild Hunt. They were the ghosts of the dead and spirited humans who saw them away. Many such humans returned days later, exhausted and not remembering where they were. Others were found dead having been dropped from great heights. But most just joined their flocks for all eternity. I didn't know if this was true, but they were among the nastier bits of the Hunt. At least the iron nails should protect the students so long as they remained here.

My classmates had stopped walking like zombies and looked each other in the eyes instead of at the ground. Some of the more lucid people here already called the police. Even Isa might come to her senses soon. I would finally tell her everything. I totally would. But it was risky. She wasn't under a Geas like Simon and terrible at keeping secrets. Whatever happened here was bound to attract attention. Isa might blurt out information that'd spread my True Name and face in supernatural circles while I was still an apprentice.

Was that my real concern? Or was I simply worried about severing my last tie to my normal life if I introduced her to this? No, I was gonna tell her. But I needed to find her first.

"Where is Isa?" I asked Simon.

He shrugged.

"Where is she?" I repeated.

"You could try the hallway," Jaclyn suggested. "Not like there are many other exits."

I grunted at the quip and looked at the two. "You two stay here!"

I headed towards the exit and opened the door to the hallways a slit-wide. The lamp closest to the gym still worked, but besides it, the electric circuits began to flicker and died. Nonetheless, I could see Isa kneeling down near an orange light.

She petted a fox with fire-red fur. Its two tails flickered like twin flames before it wagged them like a happy dog when Isa scratched it under its chin. Despite the fur coloration, it wasn't a red fox. It recognized those big, fennek-like ears and guessed it must have been one of those kit foxes one could find in the southeastern US. Its large, ember eyes were mischievous, cunning, and irresistible. Yet it was a predator at heart and I had no idea why Isa left the safety of the circle, no matter how cute it was.

"It appears like the Sluagh brought familiars with them," Siris said in my head. "Probably those of practitioners they killed or whose souls they ripped out."

I drank a potion. It was that one for transfiguration which would change my posture, the length of my limbs, my voice, and my jawline so that Isa might not recognize me despite the robe. I stood a chance of speaking to her under a mask of confidence, authority, and anonymity.

Isa was so hypnotized by the gentle orange glow of the cute creature she was petting that she only noticed me as I opened the door wider.

"Oh, hello!" she said. "Was sleepwalking somewhere in the gym and then I saw this cutie. Have we seen each other before?"

"Come back!" I said, my voice firm.

"Can I take this fox with me?" Isa asked. "It seems to be hurt."

"It will be safer with us. Come back!"

"Relax. I'll bring that sweetie to safety. I've definitely seen you before, but my mind wasn't working right."

"Come back!" I said a third time, my voice harsh.

Isa stood up, the fox in her hand. Whips of wind drummed against the windows in the hallway. Those were the last sounds the windows made before they burst into pieces.

I swallowed my Unseelie Repellant potion.