The room was the same as before. Innocuous. Tight walls, glass mirror. When Jacinta stared at her reflection—her tired, dark-ringed eyes; her messy, curly black hair; her acne-scarred, deep tan skin—she averted her gaze and tugged on her shirt, scowling.

  She decided not to check her own stats. Maybe she had some kind of terminal illness she wasn’t aware of, or maybe her charisma was depressingly low. No; she focused on the room, the mirror, back again.

  “Alright…what do you sense? I traveled through the mirror before; it opened up to some weird…spirit realm. Doña Francesca’s family was all there—do we go back in?”

  She eyed her reflection once more, briefly. Her eyes were so dark that they were nearly black. The image rippled and warped like a stone hitting water; yes—the portal was still active.

  Once she was done, she’d need to shatter it. Or take it…

  “We go in. There’s nothing too fancy here. Your family won’t…kill us if we go in, right? I—”

  A forceful knock downstairs. Jacinta’s eyes widened, body locking up. She cursed under her breath in Spanish, then glared at Gregory. “Is anybody looking for you?”

  “No! Is anybody looking for you?”

  “No—I mean, yeah, I h—”

  The knock graduated to an explosion. Jacinta and Gregory were both knocked to their feet from the force, the entire house swaying. Smoke filled the air. Voices—static, men calling at each other.

  She saw a sliver of them through the open door—the suits. Camo, heavy; iron plates ingrained within. A shimmered sheen. Shit—anti-magic gear. The Supernatural and Enchanted Enforcement, SEE.

  “So this fuckin’ old hag just went poof?” One guy called from downstairs in a thick Bronx accent. “She’s been there for years and now—”

  “Shh! Carlo, we got two more signatures here…witches. Probably her killer or something. Them gangs…”

  Jacinta grabbed Gregory and strode into the glass, having no other option. The air shifted, tickled, as though they were blasted with a sudden gust—and they were through. She stared around, up. This wasn’t the portal she was in before…or perhaps, without Doña Francesca, it wasn’t active in the same way.

  Regardless…it was strange.

  They were now in what looked like a strange cobblestone hallway, full of misshapen and whimsical storefronts. Physics and dimensions were all off. The sky was a strange shade of orange.

  Oh, huh. That was actually pretty convenient. She blinked away the notification.

  “You feel okay?” She asked Gregory, who nodded. There was graffiti written onto the wall, shifting and writhing like every letter-swoop was a living snake. Storefronts made of strange materials—wood, glass, vinyl—shaped oddly, twisted. Colors bloomed and ebbed, alive. People left their names, some designs; there—a sign. Good.

  Francesca’s House – next left -->

  Magical Mysteries & More – next right <--

  Chinatown – right <--

  Sedgwicks ’s Runed Ink – right -->

  Love Potion #9th Street – right <--

  Homeopathic Magic – right <--

  Even the arrows were…backwards? Weird. Still, Jacinta glanced down at herself, then the nearest store. The sign's lettering kept changing, shifting around. Within, books, wands, fabrics—the mannequins twitched, faceless fiberglass heads turning to stare right back at Jacinta. She jumped a little.

  “Uh—we should leave, right? Or would the SEE guards come in after us?” She asked her friend, raising a brow.

  Gregory smirked. “Eh, we’ll be fast. Let’s grab a few things and go.” He took three strides, threw open the glass door, rushed to the wands. There was…jewelry? Where were the clerks? What was this place?

  And why was this right in Doña Francesca’s home?

  “Hello? We’re totally not stealing anything…just window-shopping…” She called, ducking her head. No cameras, but that meant nothing; magic was everywhere. Invisible cameras, people waiting in the shadows—she wasn’t sure. Jacinta slowed, staring down at a jewelry box. Rings, pendants, bracelets, ranging from minimalist and modern to things she’d see at a renaissance fair. She lifted up a ring—small, simple, but wide enough to slip onto one of her short and chubby fingers. A symbol of a water droplet. She slid it on.

  She didn’t want to become a fish out of water…literally. So Jacinta slid the ring off and set it down. A notification came that the ring was off.

  “Gee, thanks. I didn’t notice…” she mumbled under her breath. Another caught her eye—a ring of carved amethyst, like purple ink suspended in glass.

  That was useful. She paused, looked for Gregory. “Hey, this Atlas thing’s amazing! I feel like I’m in some kind of video game…”

  From the sound of it, he was too busy stuffing items into his bag to notice her. Jacinta adjusted the ring and glanced around again. It looked like a standard department store; off-white racks and walls, rounded lightbulbs above. Nobody lurking in the shadows. Alright.

  Another pendant, now—a heart, just of it—

  She slid it off. Nope…

  Jacinta swiped a gold ring off the counter—if all else, it’d sell for good money. Wand section; she stared down, lips curled. Witches didn’t need wands, but they often boosted magical performance and focused spellcasting. They were extremely expensive and hard to construct, though; these ranged from fancy to rustic. She lifted a gnarled, small thing—

  She frowned. Whatever; it looked ugly, but it was ugly-cute. Like a pug. And the wand was, for now, hers.

“Gore, y—”

  Glass shatter, splinter. They just broke through the portal. They weren’t supposed to, but they did—how? No, no…She cursed and crouched, seeing three SEE guards stride forward, faceless beneath their flat iron plate-masks. They had guns raised. They strode through the walkway…but stopped in front of their store.

  Shit.

  “Get back here!” Gregory called in a fierce whisper. Jacinta dropped to all fours and crawled back, sweat beading down her forehead. She saw him near some boxes that were impossibly shaped, distorted. “There has to be something useful here…”

  She joined him, panting, ducked beneath the table. He was reaching up with his longer arms, grabbing items at random. The three guards entered the store. Jacinta heard their footsteps, their whispers.

  “They’re here.” One of the SEE agents called.

  Gregory sighed. “We got 'gRATifying Candies'…which turn the person that eats them into a rat…and some useless stuff. We both cast some spells to blind them and smoke the space, we eat a candy, and scamper off? Sound good?”

  “We’ll be leaving everything here then. I don’t want to turn back to normal in the middle of the street! I’ll be naked!”

  Gregory laughed. “We’re all born naked…c’mon. We’ll make it back. You only have—”

  “Literally everything…that the officers will trace us back with. You leave your wallet here, what’ll you think will happen? They don't give supernaturals a chance, even if we do nothing wrong. Your charisma can't get us out of this. Can’t you teleport us out of here?”

  His expression fell to a flat glare. “I can’t teleport more than once a day; that spell takes all the energy out of me. Plus, when I’m stressed—too much of a risk. We’ll teleport straight inside a concrete wall. So fine. We fight. Scan one of the agents—it’ll give you info.”

  Jacinta twisted and lifted her eyes just above the table. Three of them were tall, broad-shouldered, regardless of their uniforms. Men, she assumed. The masks, the gray Kevlar, the iron panels along their bodies. There were glowing panels along the uniform, too—she’d never seen one so close up, but she assumed it was scanners they were talking about.

  Something beeped in her left ear. Text flickered in her vision, suspended above one of the soldiers.

  Great. Magic resistance; she wasn’t terribly surprised. She had to get that gun out of their hands…

  “We both just aim some spells their way and run?” Jacinta asked, mentally praying to any god that’d hear her.

  Gregory nodded. “They look like they’re splitting up. I got the two to the left; you get the one on the right.”

  Their footsteps echoed through the space. The two SEE officers were the ones that spoke before; she recognized their accents. Gregory counted down with his fingers. Three, two, one.

  They both bolted out from behind the table. Jacinta pointed the wand and cast a blowback spell. Pressure built in her skull, snapped—the air shuddered. Gale-force wind, growing, rippling, there. The officer was flung back, slamming into the wall. He fired aimlessly, cursing. His voice was definitely smoother, more refined—Upper East Side, probably. Jacinta ducked behind a shelf. She yelped, bullet flying through the metal, just inches from her face.

  Jacinta panted, shoulders sinking. More gunfire in the opposite end of the store. Sizzle of fire. Someone was screaming.

  Gregory was a damn good witch, that was for sure.

  “You seriously think I’ll be stopped by a little wind, witch?” the officer called out with a laugh. Jacinta turned her head just out from behind the shelves—he was back on his feet. Staggering, adjusting the guns in his hands, but fine. The mask was a jagged panel—rounded atop, sharpened bottom, like an upside-down teardrop or a fang—with four small, horizontal holes for the eyes, nose, and mouth. She couldn’t see anything behind it, though. Just shadows and steel.

  The agent saw her face and began to shoot. Jacinta yelped and rolled away; several cans fell out of her bag; she grabbed one—black beans—and threw it to her right, the clothing section. Fabrics and hangers clinked, shuddered; the agent fired wildly there. Jacinta re-readied her wand and jumped out, casting a smoke spell.

  She coughed and plugged her nose. The thick haze bloomed from the wand like a smoke bomb; it was gray, dense, but smelled of nothing at all. Within a minute, the space around her was covered. The smoke petered out from the wand, but it was everywhere. She could hardly see beyond a few feet in front of her.

  More gunfire, more spells—one guy was calling for backup. Bad, very bad. Jacinta’s gaze rose—

  As the SEE agent ran towards her, gun raised. He slammed the hilt of it right into her nose.

  She toppled backwards, vision going as gray as the smoke around them. Still, the vision flashed in her sight.

  It faded, as did she.