Falling to my doom from a broom and being targetedby a headless death god knocked me out. Assuming I survived at all. Was this what the afterlife felt like?

No-one knew what happened to those who perished. Ghosts were a thing, but they were more like imprints of people than real people. Our teachers said that the Underworld, Helheim, or Yomi were real, too, but their inhabitants were a mystery.

This place felt so warm and soft. My last memories were of hitting the water surface of the Hudson River. Water wasn't soft, no matter what anyone told you. I should have broken every bone in my body.

Yet, when I moved my hands, moved my feet, I was met with the startling realization that I was in one piece.

Where was I? It was hard to see. If there was any light source except those few torches. Besides my bed, the room I woke up in was empty and featureless. No windows, no wall paint, and no furniture other than a table with multiple glasses of water.

Those walls were made of marble. They reminded me of the Academy or the Council's Headquarters.

Which might have been where I landed, given the people around me.

Once my vision cleared, I realized I wasn't dead. Dad was by my bedside, as were my friends and Nathan and projections of Cornelius, holding Melas' picture frame, and strangely enough Jaclyn. These people couldn't be all dead. Many of them didn't even fight. They were alive and so was I.

Everyone, even those who weren't practitioners, was dressed in formal black robes. Nathan leaned against the wall with his arms crossed while Dad beamed with joy. Simon supported his sister who cried silent tears while Isa had her usual, uncomplicated smile on her lips.

"You're awake!" Isa said.

I cracked a smile. "Beauty sleep's over."

Jaclyn crossed her arms. "No 'thank you' for having pulled your excuse of a body out of the water?"

"Typical," Cornelius said. "no gratitude to me and the Hunters who slowed down your fall either. We were forced to levitate you without making your fall look unnatural to the helicopters."

"Thank you," I said. "Both of you. I'd have never thought you'd pull me to my feet while I was knocked out."

"Do not mistake an act of duty for an act of charity. As the Council's Disciplinarian and Executioner, it is my duty to punish those who violate our law and protect those who do not."

I stood up and sat on my bedside, my head still aching from the impact. Technically, I was one of the rule-breakers. I had broken the rule about not seeking bargains with beings from the Otherworld. And Cornelius knew it. He saw the Primordial, whatever those things were, in my head and tried to exorcise it even.

Yet, he saved me. He made it sound as though I hadn't broken my Oath. As though I deserved my protection. "Thank you," I said without thinking. "I-I guess you don't like it when I say that. I'm just surprised you helped."

"As am I," he said. "When I saw you fall to your death with the Book of Samael in your hand, I was certain you would be tempted to use it to your advantage. I was proven wrong."

That was it. He was harsh to those who walked the wrong path, but he gave people a chance to turn around.

I picked up a bonbon and a glass of water from the bedside table and swallowed both. I wiped my mouth and looked at everyone else, glad that they survived.

"So, what happened?" I asked.

Isa jumped and raised her hands. "Saved the whole world, that happened!"

"Well, technically, others did most of the work and it was just a few American states and a bit of Canada, but you still did an awesome job," Simon corrected her.

"It was our Hunters who contained the Horseman," Cornelius said. "Although I will admit that you contributed your share. The Horseman was protected from bargains through the Book of Samael. After you released it from your grip, I merely needed to cross out the names in the book and part of his protection broke. We trapped him in a ward of gold and he is sealed away in the October Mountain State Forest where he will never harm anyone again!"

"All while providing us with rich opportunities for research into Otherworlders, of course," Melas added. "He is another potential deterrent we can release if the Enlightened want total war with us."

Please not. I wondered what they did to Weber, but I'm guessing they turned him into a frog or anything.

I looked past my circle of friends at Nathan, Melas, Cornelius, and Jaclyn.

"You are here?" I asked Nathan.

"Yeah," Nathan said. "Godmommy thinks I'm big enough to fend for myself. I can still call her, but I'm not her errand boy anymore."

"No, I mean, they let you here."

"Oh, don't you want him here?" Melas said. "He saved you. Without his help, you couldn't have given us the book. Although for an apprentice, your flying skills were impressive already."

They give him amnesty. "And your godmother doesn't want me anymore?" I asked Nathan.

"No. You already did everything she wanted from you. She divined this would happen."

I now understood her parable of the wind and the Sun better. She wanted the wind broken, but gently. As I did it with my broom. The implication that she predicted I'd pick up the Book of Samael wasn't lost on me and it was frightening.

Drinking another glass of water, I tried to stand up.

"Careful," Isa said and helped me up.

I felt my heart beat into my arteries as she touched my hand. Halloween had to be the most hectic night of my entire life. As tired as I was, I couldn't wait until school started again. I didn't want to do this for the rest of my life. It was gonna drive me insane if I didn't take a break of at least three hundred years starting now. Which might have been how long I slept since this place gave me zero sense of time. "Where are we?" I asked.

"A provisional bunker," Melas explained. "The public interest in your identity is great, to put it mildly, even if the Horseman's activities overshadowed it."

There was some kind of table with an audio recording device that picked up news reports.

"Experts estimate the Headless Storm's property damage to be comparable to Hurricane Katrina. There are hundreds of confirmed fatalities, thousands of people rendered homeless, and an equal amount with insufficient access to electricity and fresh water. Meteorologists are debating the storm's causes, why they couldn't predict it, and why large cities like New York City were relatively unaffected. Thousands of people reported ghosts, rhinoceros-sized unidentified canines, and a ghostly creature similar to the Headless Horseman from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The military reported encountering the creature and being unable to harm it through conventional weaponry. Researchers believe it might be a holographic image created by extraterrestrials knowledgeable of folklore for the sake of psychological warfare. Considering the lack of apparent meteorological causes for the storm, the extraterrestrial hypothesis cannot be discounted.

"Large sections of the population do not trust this story. Religious groups preach that the Horseman of Conquest had arrived and that the Biblical apocalypse as described in the Book of Revelation is near. People from all around the world are raiding supermarkets, spending all their money, and locking themselves into their houses out of fear of the apocalypse.

"At the same time, miracles occurred near the St. Phelps Church in Summer Hill. A small girl learned how to fly into the church's ground when monstrous black dogs were about to eat her. Many of the churchgoers believed it was a miracle of God. Many, however, cite it as further evidence that we are living in the End Times.

"A perhaps even greater miracle was a literal witch flying on a broomstick in the outskirts of Summer Hill. Many even believe she might have been the Witch of Summer Hill who destroyed Whateley High and was spotted near the PPE Research Facility. She flew without a propeller or other assistive devices and has been seen encountering the Headless Horseman above the Hudson River. After she dropped a pouch of gold coins and fell into the river, many citizens of Sleepy Hollow dropped any golden items in her houses onto the streets, citing the Dullahan's weakness to gold in Irish mythology. The Horseman faded away and the storm disappeared. It is still not clear if the videos are authentic. The FBI points to the witch's past activities, including property damage and fleeing crime scenes. Since biometric software currently yields no results, unsolved disappearances are currently considered a greater priority.

"Meanwhile, President Jackson has announced that he will increase the United States' defense budget in case an extraterrestrial attack like this happens again."

Well, at least they didn't blame me anymore. Or, maybe they did, but the reporter didn't bother to mention it between all this death and bloodshed. Death and bloodshed that happened while we hid in our bunkers like cowards.

"The Enlightened have been informed that we know about their involvement in this crisis," Melas said. "They might think the fact that you informed the mundanes about the Horseman's weakness constitutes a violation of our rules about not swaying collective human belief into a specific direction. If they think so and want to declare war, we will inform the other supernatural societies about what they have done."

I nodded wordlessly. "Woo-hoo. Guess we'll just keep lying to people and hope everything goes back to normal. Am I right?"

"You spent enough time playing the hero," Jaclyn said. "It's not our job to solve all problems in the world."

"No, it's not," I said. "Not like this mass panic's gonna mass produce monster food or anything."

"We will not interfere!" Cornelius said. "Most supernatural societies prefer the current system, not only the Enlightened. Soon, the mundanes will research myths and figure out weaknesses of even more obscure monsters by themselves."

"Cornelius is right," Nathan said, his arms folded. "They'll find out. The Veil will break apart all by itself and the Apocalypse will start."

"Which doesn't make it any less illegal!" Dad said. "What you are doing violates the Right to know. People must be allowed to participate in an informed way in decisions that affect them-"

"-while also holding governments and others accountable, I am already familiar with the technicalities, Mr. Carter," Melas answered.

Dad took a glass of water himself. "Yes. You're very familiar with the law. I'm sure those photoshop experts cost precious dollars. Dollars which you surely acquired legally."

"I'm afraid our finances are none of your business, officer."

"As long as they are acquired in my jurisdiction, they are!"

"Who cares for money?" I yelled. "I don't care how understaffed you are. All this could've been prevented if more people knew about monsters and could be hired."

For a brief moment, Melas' silhouette in the frame tensed. "We were not understaffed, Apprentice Carter. Do not make assumptions about us."

She sounded harsher than before. As the Archmage, I didn't know what she was capable of. I only had Cornelius to gauge. Normally, I didn't worry about her too much, as she was far more relaxed than her executioner. Which made all these moments when she narrowed her nose or glared at me stick out all the more.

"I am willing to tell you about the other problem tying our hands," she said. "Provided everyone else is willing to leave."

My throat was a little sore from having raised my voice. I looked at Melas' picture frame in surprise and at the others to see their reactions.

Nathan and Jaclyn were the first to leave this dungeon room behind. They were here for little reason other than formality. Isa, Darcy, and Simon gave me an anxious look before they left, too.

Dad glared at the two Councillors. He opened his mouth and wanted to say something as if he already knew where this was going, but, ultimately, he headed for the door, too.

Now that I was alone with Melas and Cornelius, alone under six eyes, I stood up from my bed. I didn't bother with a chair, even though my ribs ached and it'd have been more comfortable I expected them to drop critical secrets now. Cornelius being my grandfather in disguise or anything like that. What could be so important that I was allowed to hear it, but nobody else?

The two were unreadable. The projection of Cornelius stood with his feet shoulder-width apart and his mouth in a thin line. The projection of Melas' picture frame had the silhouette of her mouth in a grin. Those were just default moods. They told me nothing about what they wanted to say.

"Archmage Melas," I said. "What did I do to deserve this confidential information?"

She smiled and lowered her voice compared to before. "You passed my test."

"Your test?"

"Yes. There was a reason I did not help you. I was not sure if I could trust you. Or those I might have sent to you."

"Why?"

Melas laughed. "We've got a traitor among us. We saw it during our border wars that the Enlightened somehow always knew what we would do before we even did. They don't know that I know, but you do."

I sat down on my bed, my stomach aching. "There has to be some cost. You wouldn't tell me this if there wasn't any cost attached."

"No," Melas said. "There is no cost attached. I just thought since we know your secret, you have the right to know ours."

My secret. They meant my Primordial. I wondered how many people in their inner circles had Primordials, too, but felt afraid to ask. There was something else burning at the tip of my tongue, something I felt more comfortable asking.

"Will you punish me?" I asked.

"By all accounts, I should," Cornelius said. "And if you give in to your Primordial one more time, I will. But this will not be today. You showed strength during the fight. A strength that your mother did not possess."

A while ago, I'd have taken this as an insult. With what Weber revealed about her, I became curious. "Weber said he was the one who made her sign her name in that book. Why? Why did she do this?"

"Does the name 'White Cloak' ring a bell, young apprentice?" Melas asked.

Not as much as it should have if I was being honest.

"Your mother fought him when you were young," Melas said. "Very hard opponent for anyone short of a wizard. She needed to become stronger. The only way for her to beat him was to beat him at his game."

"His game?"

"Yes. Your mother wanted to protect you. Even though he kept a low profile, the White Cloak had bargained with a Primordial. Your mother did the same and as a result, she lost her humanity. We did not banish her. She left you voluntarily. Had she stayed with your family, she might have killed you and your father."

I felt a nauseating stench in my throat and stomach. I had been through a lot in the past few days, both physically and emotionally, but this bit of information took time to process. "W-what did she do?" I asked.

"Other than turning herself into a vampire, you mean?" Melas asked.