Emery stretched her arms up to the ceiling, trying to pop her back. She’d been staying with Marisol for almost a week now. Honestly, she was feeling pretty good. Her injuries were mostly healed. But her relationship with Carina hadn’t much improved. The two were on opposite sides of the room while every other girl’s pixie was by their side.

Amira had called for another meeting, but was the last person to show up. Caroline and Jada were sitting together on the couch. Liv was leaning up against the wall inspecting her nails, and Marisol was talking quietly with Wolf.

The front door opened and Amira stepped in, Nellie flying in after her. She was still in her magical girl outfit, which was torn and bloody. Exposed skin was still cut up and bruised. Amira didn’t look at anyone as she entered, instead just grabbing at her hijab before glancing at Birch and Wolf and leaving it in place.

“What happened?” Linette asked for Liv.

“I cornered her,” Amira said, folding her arms and looking down. “She was trying to connect something to the city power grid. But… She was waiting for me.”

“How?” Caroline asked, sitting up straight.

“It was insane!” Nellie cried, waving her hands. “Amira was going to sneak up on her, but then the shadows sprang to life and caught us both! Cynthia didn’t even turn around!”

“She knew who I was,” Amira added. “Said that she was happy that it was me who decided to come. She wanted to test her skills against the best.”

“I guess it’s not too surprising,” Jada said. “She would know all about us. And after Emery attacked her, she was probably waiting for someone else.”

“I don’t think that’s it,” Emery admitted, her stomach churning.

She felt so stupid. How could she have forgotten? Just because she hadn’t heard from it since she got to Marisol’s house didn’t mean Night Terror wasn’t listening in!

She explained the nightmares, and how she had learned that it was Night Terror responsible. Emery kept her gaze in her lap as she relayed everything. That didn’t stop the heat of their gazes boring into her.

“With everything going on, I must have—”

“You idiot!” Amira started walking toward her. “You utterly reckless, stupid girl! I could have been killed because of you!”

“Hey!” Carina flew between Amira and the cowering Emery. “You don’t get to talk to her like that!”

“Amira, please!” Nellie pleaded, tugging on her sleeve. “Please don’t do this!”

Amira stared down Carina, her face twitching in rage. Then she closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath. She turned around and stepped away.

“There’s nothing to be done about it, now,” she said, folding her arms. “But we have to get that creature out of Emery’s head before we try anything else.”

Everyone seemed to take a collective sigh of relief before Jada asked, “Is that even something we know how to do?”

“Perhaps,” Linette said, exchanging glances with the other pixies. “The bureau has gone up against magical pathogens before. If anyone would know, it would be them.”

Jada’s pixie, Thunder, nodded and agreed, “I studied ritual magic briefly before joining the program. There’s bound to be something useful.”

“I’ll send a request for info right away,” Wolf declared, darting out of the room.

“So,” Caroline began, “what should we do with Emery in the meantime?”

Amira sighed.

“As much as I don’t like the situation we’re in,” she admitted, “Emery’s knowledge of Night Terror and Cynthia’s powers are going to be instrumental in stopping them. Our first priority has to be helping her.”

Thunder explained, “The ritual will probably require some of you to contribute your magic.”

“I’ll do it,” Jada said. “Emery is my friend and I’m not going to let her go through this on her own.”

“I’ll help, too,” Coraline added, though her pixie Birch rolled his eyes.

“I owe Emery for all the help I’ve received for her,” Linette translated for Liv, before adding, “Not that we needed her help or anything.”

Emery’s vision was blurry. She sniffed and wiped a few tears from her eyes.

“Thank you, all of you,” she said. “I’ve… I’ve been dealing with this alone for so long.”

“Not anymore,” Amira declared. “You’re too valuable to be left out of this. For now, though, we should minimize contact between ourselves. Any information that Night Terror can get through Emery is something that can be used against us. Wolf!” Wolf peaked his head back into the room. “Send me the information as soon as you have it. I’ll coordinate things from there.”

There was a quick round of goodbyes and everyone departed. Once it was just her, Marisol, and the pixies, Emery collapsed onto the couch and groaned. Just her luck that she had been inadvertently making things worse the entire time.

She didn’t have a long time to sulk, though. In just an hour, Keaton was done with school and on his way. He’d been coming over every day to spend time with her. They mostly just sat in the bedroom and watched videos on their phones, but on other days Keaton would smuggle in a game system and they’d take over the living room while Marisol worked.

While she waited, Emery sat in the bedroom holding a dress. She hadn’t started wearing many really feminine clothes, yet. Would Keaton like to see her in one of these? Or would she just make herself look silly? Sure, her magical girl outfit was a dress, but it was another thing entirely to wear one voluntarily while she still looked… like a boy.

Emery sighed and shoved the dress back into her bag. That would just make things more awkward around Keaton, probably. Best to stick with jeans and tee shirts.

Today, they sat in Emery’s room with Wolf sitting on Keaton’s shoulder. Emery and Keaton were showing him some videos of video game exploits. They were deep into a series on a roguelike that Emery had never heard of which featured a bunch of small rodent characters.

“Oh, that was amazing!” Wolf cried. “I didn’t know you could get into the ceiling like that.”

“Oh, yeah, it’s so cool.” Keaton grinned. “Hold on. The next video has some really awesome boss fight stuff.”

Emery smiled, but her heart was aching a little. Carina still wasn’t talking to her, even after a week. They barely spared each other more than a passing glance. What good was Emery going to be if she didn’t have a pixie companion who would speak to her? She’d never be able to return to being a normal magical girl.

“I’m gonna go grab a drink,” she announced, climbing off the bed.

“Sure.”

“Alright.”

They didn’t even look up from the phone as she closed the door behind her. Emery sighed and trudged her way to the kitchen. Carina was in there, standing on the windowsill and staring down a hungry cat on the other side.

“Hi,” Emery said, turning to the fridge.

“Hey,” Carina replied, not looking away from the cat.

Emery didn’t open the fridge. After a moment, Carina turned to face her and the cat pounced at the window pane. The girls stared at each other for a few moments.

“What?” Carina asked.

“Nothing,” Emery replied, shaking her head and opening the fridge. She grabbed a bottle of juice and closed the door. “Bye.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Carina turned back to the window and sat down. Emery watched her for a little bit. She wanted to say something. Surely there was something more to say. They were supposed to be close friends. They were supposed to be partners.

Emery left without another word and returned to her bedroom. When she opened the door, Keaton and Wolf stopped talking and glanced over toward her. The phone was lying on the bed, turned off. Clearly they had been deep in a serious conversation.

“Don’t let me interrupt,” she said, wringing the bottle awkwardly in her hands.

“It’s nothing,” Keaton said. “We’ll pick it up later.”

Wolf nodded, adding, “Yeah, there’s no rush.”

“What were you talking about?” she asked, sitting down beside them.

“It’s not important,” Keaton insisted, picking up his phone. “Where were we?”

Emery frowned, but didn’t press. They returned to watching videos and the boys, at least, got sucked in really quickly. Emery couldn’t help but feel like there was something she was missing out on, though.

Keaton couldn’t stay for too long; he had to get home for dinner. Emery followed him to the front door. It was already getting dark. That’s right: winter was coming, wasn’t it? Without school, it was hard to tell sometimes.

“I’ll return for the ritual,” Keaton promised. “You’ll need all the emotional support you can get.”

“I appreciate that,” she replied.

All Emery wanted to do was give him a long kiss goodbye. Instead, she settled for a firm hug. It was the best she was going to get for now. Emery tried to make it last as long as possible.

It was a few more days before everyone returned for the ritual. The furniture in the living room was all pushed against the wall. The various pixies were gathered on the couch to watch while the other magical girls milled about. An old, cheap rug had been spread out over the carpet and a large runic circle spray-painted across it.

Marisol was there to supervise, as were several pixies from the bureau who chittered among themselves. Amira, though, was going to actually perform the ceremony. She was pacing around in the dining room, muttering quietly to herself and checking her notes.

“How do you feel?” Jada asked Emery, who was fidgeting from her seat up against the wall.

“Physically healed,” she said, “but really nervous.”

“You’ll have all of us,” Coraline promised.

“We’re here for you,” Keaton assured Emery, placing his hand on hers.

She gulped and nodded.

“Alright,” Amira said, stepping back into the room. “I’m ready. Emery, lay down in the spell circle. Carina, lay parallel to her in the opposite direction.”

Emery lied down like she’d been instructed. Carina followed suit. All the other girls knelt down on the outside of the circle, with Amira standing at Emery’s feet. She cleared her throat and began reciting from her notes.

The words were in English it was in a drawl that was hard for Emery to focus on. Besides, her eyes were getting heavy. So were her limbs. Emery yawned and her vision became blurry. What exactly was this spell supposed to—?

The halls of her apartment building stretched on forever. She was walking with Carina on her shoulder, turning corners seemingly at random. There were no doors, though. That was odd. The layout felt all wrong, too, but Emery wasn’t able to put a finger on why.

“What are we doing here?” Emery asked, sticking her hands in her pockets.

“How did we get here?” Carina replied.

“I don’t remember.”

Hallways stretched on. Emery turned another corner. Water was leaking from the ceiling here, running down the walls and pooling at the edges of the hallway. The ground was a little damp under her feet.

Further down, the lights gave out and the walls turned to stone. The floor beneath her feet dried out and became sandy. Emery kept walking. The light gave way to complete darkness. Her head started to pound. What was going on?

“Emery…”

She stopped and looked around. In the darkness, Emery could see the faintest hint of shapes moving around her. They were in the center of a group of concentric rings moving sluggishly in various directions. Each ring was criss-crossed with reflective squares. It was like they had stepped in the center of a biblical angel built out of a solar array. Hanging from the rings, in the faint glimmer of light available, were long vines covered in teeth, some sharp and others flat. All were writhing.

“This is it,” she whispered. “I think this is Night Terror.”

A piercing ring shot through Emery’s skull, causing her to scream and collapse to the ground. Her body was being pulled in every direction, across multiple dimensions. It was going to rip her apart and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Vines were wrapped around all her limbs. Around her head and neck. Teeth bore into her soft flesh.

Emery tried to retreat into herself. Deep inside herself was an inner light. It flickered faintly. She tried to grab onto it, to breathe a bit more life into it, and it grew just the slightest bit brighter. The vines wrapped around her slackened just a little, but then tightened their grip. All Emery could do was cry out. Her inner light started to dim.

“Emery!” Carina was calling, pulling at the toothy vines. “Hold on! I’m going to protect you!”

She was glowing faintly, but it was getting stronger. Emery tried to pry her own arms free, just to give Carina a firm hug, but she was well and truly stuck. Slowly, though, Emery’s own light flickered back to life.

The pain increased and Emery screamed until her voice was hoarse.

“I’m not giving up on you, Emery!” Carina cried. “But I need you to fight back! I can’t do this for you! You have to find the strength to keep fighting!”

Emery nodded and squeezed her eyes shut. Her own light grew stronger and blended with Carina’s. It grew bigger than the two of them. Far from being illuminated, the structure around them began to fade as the darkness receded. The vines went slack and Emery wrapped her arms around Carina.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

Carina said nothing as the light filled the empty space, leaving them alone again.

Finally, she said, “Emery… I cam within seconds of asking to be removed as your pixie companion. But at the last moment, I couldn’t go through with it. I demanded that I be allowed to stay. So I could help you.”

Emery sniffled, but said nothing.

“I forgive you,” Carina said. “For everything.”

Emery nodded, tears streaming down her face. She woke up with a gasp, sitting up straight and drenched in sweat.