When I woke up, there was a lingering sense of doom in the air. Like something wasn't quite right. I was looking up at the glass ceiling of the healer wing, which considering what I last remembered, wasn't shocking.

"Hey, you're up!"

Jarec?

"How long was I out?" I asked groggily.

"Long enough to miss every other event. And your mother is just outside having some kind of argument with our grandmother."

Oh no.

"I don't know the specifics, no one tells me anything until last minute." His tone was pointed as he said it. Like he was hinting at something but I had no idea what.

"What?"

"What do you mean 'what'?" Jarec asked, he sounded more upset than I could recall him being. Had I hurt his feelings? When? What did I do?

"Did I do something wrong?" I asked him.

"Why didn't you tell me you knew Fae Fire?" His tone was highly accusatory.

Oh. "Is it that a big deal?" I scrambled to recall what I did know. Something about it being a hard spell?

I couldn't decipher the look on his face. Some strange blend of frustration, anger and exasperation all vying for dominance.

"You have no idea," Jarec said. Somehow he settled on amazed. "You have absolutely no idea."

"Please explain what we're talking about. I'm very confused."

"Fae Fire is like…the Hearth Coven fire spell. Invented by Malcarg and passed down for generations. Notoriously difficult to cast. You managed it, barely, and I missed it! Is that what you've been learning on those training sessions in the woods?"

"No? Mostly it's just poking at the curse and mana management."

"Your mom taught you Fae Fire, but didn't mention that she had a sister?"

"She didn't teach me it either."

"Then where in the hells-"

"I don't know."

The thing about Jarec, I had come to notice, was that he was as expressive as Mom was. He just hadn't developed the habit to overexaggerate or cover up his feelings. It was nice most of the time. "What-. How-. Why-" he kept cutting himself off before settling on, "What were you doing for the ten years before you got here?"

"I think we both know my magic doesn't behave. And it was the same spell I cast with the spiders."

He covered his face and groaned loudly. "And you had the gall to complain about us."

"I don't intend to stop doing that."

"Did you plan on using Fae Fire from the start?" Jarec demanded.

"No, I hadn't picked a spell. I was just…trying whatever I thought would work." It hadn't but I was still proud of myself for trying. Trying was always the hard part.

"You are…something else, you know that?"

"I'm aware." He didn't need to know how aware of that I truly was. But if nothing else I had done what I had wanted to do. I might not be like everyone else, but that didn't mean I didn't have a place here.

I just needed to figure out what that place looked like. All I knew was that it was going to involve a lot of red.

"Serafina! You're awake!" Mom's voice cried out.

I turned to face her. She looked worried. I should probably apologize to her.

"Jarec, thank you for keeping an eye on her while Mother and I talked. Why don't you run along for a bit?" She asked it like it was a question, but even I could tell she wanted him gone so we could talk without an audience.

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Welp. I was in trouble.

Jarec glanced between the two of us and, like the smart person he was, left.

"Hi," I greeted her.

Mom took a deep breath and her expression was serious. "You know, I really don't have anyone to blame but myself for this."

What? "I fail to see how."

"I signed you up, and I forgot the number one rule of using direct and clear communication. I should have just told you outright to not use Fae Fire."

I mean… she wasn't wrong. "It…wasn't something I did consciously. It just kind of…happened."

"Both times?"

"Yeah."

"I was like that too," Mom said and sat down on the cot next to my feet. "Always casting with my heart, not my head. It got me out of trouble just as often as it got me into it."

"Jarec said Fae Fire was pretty important."

"Infamously dangerous and impossibly difficult."

"And my first spell ever."

"I always imagined this would be a moment of pride for me. Seeing you learn it. When I was still pregnant with you I had all these fantasies of you and I going through the Hearth Grimoire one by one and you mastering them all."

This…was the first I heard of it. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize Serafina, it's hardly your fault. But…you know something? When I was sitting there looking at you out there today and I was terrified."

What?

"I kind of figured Mother wasn't telling me everything about the curse. And somehow the old man always finds a new low to sink to."

"I'm sorry for not telling you."

"It's not your fault, and in any case you've been more helpful."

"Ask me anything."

"See? More helpful. But more important than all of that, how are you feeling?"

How was I feeling?

"I…don't know."

She reached over to hold up my left wrist. Wrapped and bandages and sore when she touched it. "My brave little fire ember."

"Not that brave, I was scared the whole time."

"And yet you still did it. You could have run or forfeit before it even began. But you stood your ground. Mother seems to think I overestimated you, but I think a more accurate statement would be that I underestimated you."

"The others were counting on me too," I told her.

"The others? How so?"

"Dragon Tower only has five people. They don't want…we're a Tower in our own right and…" I stopped to try and gather my thoughts. "I don't want anyone trying to tell me and my friends what to do or thinking our autonomy doesn't matter."

Mom didn't react, I think she could tell that wasn't the full reason.

"I belong here. I…I wanted to prove it to myself. I'm never going to prove it to other people, but…I liked being able to at least try. I probably failed."

"If anyone failed here, it was me. I miscalculated."

"What were you hoping for?"

"Information. I hate not knowing everything. It's hard enough to plan." She was pouting a little, an imitation of a petulant child. "And how am I supposed to protect you if I don't fully know what we're dealing with?"

"You can't protect me from everything forever."

"I can try!" She cried and then let out a huff of breath.

I needed to change subject. "How bad did I do?"

"It wasn't…that bad for a second attempt at casting Fae Fire. On the small side, but that might be for the best. Control's going to be a hard thing to learn."

"Was it that small?"

"One flame barely two feet tall is pretty sad by Fae Fire terms."

"What were you able to do at my age?"

"I wasn't casting Fae Fire at your age. If I could my first meeting with the old man would have gone pretty different."

"Oh."

"The first time I cast it I was seventeen. It's supposed to be a ring of pillars, I got half a ring and they were about my height." Mom sighed, "And I was a prodigy. Not really a good benchmark for anyone. Ruby only got two her first try."

Oh.

"But still, you really shouldn't try it. Not unless Vivian or I are there to work you through it. Definitely above your weight class."

"We can start with Flare or something."

That made her brighten up. "Of course!"

"So I'm not in trouble?"

"Eh. Maybe. I haven't decided yet. Mother might lecture you later. That's more frightening than any grounding I could do." Mom shrugged, "And in any case, after this everyone's gonna know you're part Hearth for sure."

"Is that a problem?"

"We'll see. Nothing for it now."

"If you're up to something, the sooner you tell me the better." Which she should already know, but that answer was too suspicious.

"Did you know they never caught the person responsible for my kidnapping?"

I was confused.

Mom thankfully continued, "Not the old man. I mean the person who either brought us to him or him to us. We were taken right off campus and he had no reason to be there. I've always suspected he had someone inside the school help him. Couldn't prove it. As far I was concerned, I could only trust my inner circle and family."

"That was thirty years ago."

"I know. Whoever they are might not even be alive anymore. Or at the school. I know I would have ran and hidden if my boss's plan blew up in his face. Whoever it is must not have very good self-preservation instincts."

"You almost sound paranoid."

"Ruby told me the same thing once. But she saw where I was coming from. We were snatched right off campus. Sealed off in detention. If he hadn't been killed I probably would have put the Basilisk Head at the top of my list."

"What?"

"He was supposed to monitor our detention. He never showed up. I learned later it was because someone had stabbed him in the heart with Death's Echo. You can guess what happened next."

I remembered Death's Echo. The knife that glowed Echo Blue. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say Jantres Blue.

"All I know is that Mother won't let anything happen to you or Jarec. As much as she's able, anyway. She's always been a bit overprotective."

"Considering everything I've learned? Not surprising." I wasn't sure anything could surprise me at that point. It had felt a bit like I had seen it all.

"Don't get too cocky, this school always has something up its sleeve."

"Oh I know. There's at least one more surprise inside Dragon Tower that I'm going to find. Just as soon as I figure out how."

She poked me on the nose. "Just don't let the big bad secrets distract you too much."

"I'm doing just fine in class thank you."

"That's my baby," she cooed.

"I'm sixteen!"

"That changes nothing."

"Mom," I complained.

I missed this.

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