Saying goodbye was strange. Though was it even a goodbye? I would be seeing two of them in less than three weeks. More like see you soon. Ish.

"Don't get into trouble until school starts up again," Jarec reminded me. Like I got in trouble by myself. Rude. Nothing happened at home. It was quiet and peaceful and…and dreadfully boring and kinda lonely now.

But no one needed to know that. I could handle a few weeks. It's fine. I handled sixteen years of it. And yet…

And yet…

This was ridiculous. I'd barely known these people for a few months and now I was getting all sappy being away from them? What was I? Some mother going away on a business trip without her family?

What was Dragon Tower doing to me?

"It would be a great help if you got all of the trouble out of your system before school starts up again," I teased him back instead of letting the sappiness overcome me.

He laughed. "Imagine how bored you would be if we didn't give you paperwork?"

Vivian rolled her eyes, "I'm going to pretend I heard none of this."

"We haven't done anything, we can't be in trouble yet," I defended. "Not that we're going to do anything, right?"

"This is why you're the responsible one."

"Gross."

"Don't forget Serafina," Vivian interrupted, "You need to be at the school a day early. The first."

I sighed. Wonderful. "Yep. I'll be there."

Jarec didn't say anything, but he was trying and failing to hide a smug smile.

I wondered if this was what having siblings was supposed to be like. I was suddenly very, very, glad I was an only child.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"And don't forget the twenty-third, Celica will skin you alive if you miss her birthday call."

"I won't! I'll be there, I don't exactly have anything better going on that day."

I was a little offended that he thought I needed a reminder. It wasn't that hard to remember things. Unless you were Mom, I supposed.

Mom wasn't crying this time. Which was good because the display in November had been mortifying. She looked…relaxed. Calm, even. Not even in the 'I know something that means everything will be okay but I'm not telling you' kind of way. Maybe whatever talk they'd had without Jarec and me had gone well enough that she wasn't worried anymore. Or maybe they'd found a plan. If they did, I'd love to know it.

And if they hadn't…well maybe we could.

Information was its own kind of power. It was all about how to use it and when. There was no guarantees right now. We had an advantage, because there was no way our thief knew that we knew.

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The biggest question was what could we do? What could I do? If they were right, I would have to do something.

But there was nothing for it right now.

"I'll see you at school," I told Jarec one last time as he waved with his grin in place. In his other hand was resting the white origami frog.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as the familiar yellow enveloped the three of us.

(********)

Back home. Back to the real world. The sun long set as I settled into bed for the night. My weighted blanket solid and comfortable around me.

And yet. The dream lingered. The icy pain of the curse was still in my wrist. Still pulsing in time with the rush of blood in my veins. It was just as real as the lock on the front door.

It was grounding, the realness of it. The two worlds were finally bleeding over. Maybe it was time I bled over too. It was pretty clear I wasn't going to be able to hide anymore. I hadn't hid since I got there.

A new semester was as good a chance for a change of pace as any.

And who knows? Maybe the knife wasn't going to be at school anymore and all of the worrying we're doing is for nothing.

Then I remembered Red and her fate. There was a very small chance that had nothing to do with what was happening now.

Red. The Wraith. Death's Echo. Dragon Tower.

Red knew me. Seemed to know what was going to happen to me. A friend? Someone I trusted, clearly. Not our thief. She was a student, and an enchanted object like that would be noticed too quickly. And plus, Red couldn't be at the school yet. That didn't make sense. A future Dragon, had to be. One who hasn't started yet.

There was a chance of new Dragons with every class of first years. No matter how slim. So. Maybe not even this year then, assuming it was all connected.

Ugh. I sounded like a conspiracy theorist. I had so many pieces but I couldn't puzzle them together. A box with no picture, full of interlocking parts that might be half-empty for all I knew. I wouldn't know until I completed it. But what if I couldn't do that? What if…

Six students in Dragon Tower. The five of us plus Red. Numbers didn't lie. So, The Wraith's attack on Red couldn't happen as long as there were only the five of us. As long as there was only five, everyone was safe.

So whatever plan was in motion had to still be in the early stages. We had time. It was impossible to tell how much time right now, but we had it. Time to get stronger. To get smarter. To gather more information.

I wanted to save her, if we could. I wanted to at least try. If she really was one of us, then she deserved the effort. Maybe by the time we finally met for real we would know how.

A particularly sharp pulse from the curse. A flash of it spreading halfway down my arm. Rude. At least let me dream in peace. It lingered, the sharpness of it unfading and unfeeling.

I needed to relax and get some sleep. I hid my curse under the blanket and closed my eyes. The thoughts didn't leave me, but the exhaustion from the day weighed more than the blanket.

I was drowning. I was so deep in the dark water no light poked through from the world above. Bubble rose from around me. Little spots of pink motion in the colorless depths. The only bits of warmth in the overwhelming cold. It might have been peaceful, this near perfect stillness.

But it couldn't be. I couldn't be at peace like this. Not for long. It was making my skin crawl.

I reached out for a bubble. The tiny little speck of warmth and light trying and failing to either keep me company or show me the way out of here.

I couldn't swim with it, but I could hold it.

But when I tried, it popped.

A cloud of green, somehow darker than the ocean rushed towards my hand. I couldn't pull back fast enough. It wrapped around me, constricting like a snake. What air I did have escaped in a cascade of bubbles of colors. Blue, green, purple, and orange.

I struggled against the constraints. No matter how useless it was. I refused to just give up here. More bubbles rose around me, pink and reds in swarms. I dug my nails into the limb around my throat. Dark green blood from the creature floated up, I got only a glimpse of my own hand a flash of pink claws.

I gasped as I opened my eyes. I could breathe. I wrapped my arms around my middle and focused on the warm feeling in my chest. The sharp icy coldness had retreated to just where the curse's mark was.

As my breathing settled I shifted to face the window. Little bits of moonlight filtered in from the closed blinds. The rocks on my shelf reflected and refracted the light around the room.

I was still tired, but I didn't trust my brain to get anymore sleep that night.

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