Mirta Story by Cupcakedoll. Characters belong to Mr. Straffi, Rainbow, Nickelodeon, and whoever else.

Part 21

A week and a half after Midwinter day, light snow was falling in the courtyard of Alfea.

Mirta opened the window while she unpacked, spreading magic over the opening to keep the heat inside. Whenever snowflakes blew in, Hexen batted at them with apparent fascination.

"You saw snow at home, you strange animal."

"Mrrt!"

It had been a good trip home. Witches' Sphere didn't have weather spells and there was four feet of snow on the ground. Mirta and Lucy had built a snow fort the size of a garden shed, and spent a whole day trying out the broomstick Lucy got from her parents.

"Halloo Mirta!" Katy bounded into the room, snowflakes still white on her coat and scarf.

Hexen meowed hello. Mirta said, "Have some soap. Mom made a batch."

Katy looked at Mirta's suitcase, laughed, and counted out bars. "One for everyone?"

"The green ones are for the boys. I spent three days stirring a cauldron of soap, while Mom told me all about how not to have a baby. I shouldn't have admitted I have a boyfriend."

Katy laughed long and loud.

Mirta shook her head. "We are so not to that point."

"Your poor mother. Mine... I introduced Tabby to the family, but they have enough kids. And the foundling hospital back home was... full. It was really full."

"Tabby came back with you huh?"

Katy nodded. "I tried to explain, and Tabby says she'd rather live with me, but who knows if she even understands."

Mirta shook her head. She didn't know. She couldn't have taken care of a child, especially one like Tabby who didn't know how to talk or act like a person. But maybe Katy could. But what would really be the best thing for Tabby? "If you can figure out what to do I'll help. Or at least babysit. I like Tabby, even if she doesn't make a lot of sense."

Katy nodded, "Thank you. Hey, have you talked to Selene? I guess Sterling's dad started making some changes to the lower city. Selene's over the moon, even with how much she misses Kimmy."

"It's going to be weird without her."

"Oh—we got you something. Happy late present."

Mirta opened the package. It was a belt with a rhinestone buckle in the shape of a pumpkin. She squealed happily.

"What is it with you and pumpkins?" Katy laughed.

"I like pumpkins." Mirta said, trying on her new belt. "They're cute, they taste good in cake, and if you put a light in one it keeps away bad ghosts. Want to help me deliver the rest of this soap?"

The school year started. The teachers seemed to be getting serious now that graduation was only a few months away. Professor Palladium was getting into complex potions and obscure and dangerous creatures. After spending the day in the desert watching wyverns, practicing curtseys and bows—apparently anyone wearing pants should bow—in Miss DuFour's class was a relief.

Katy and Tabby moved into Alice's empty room. Katy was kept busy transporting her charge too and from elementary school and helping her with homework and her speech therapy. Tabby was talking more, and remembering that she had to be dressed when in human form. And like a normal child she spent a lot of her time running around and doing whatever she felt like: playing with her toys, climbing on the building, and chasing the pixie animals around.

Between school and babysitting, Mirta lost track of time until suddenly she realized Keith hadn't called in three weeks.

She stopped and counted it again in her mind. They'd gone to the ice sculpture contest together, then later he'd called to say he was getting busy with school too, then... nothing. Fear flooded in. Was he bored with her? Had he met someone else? Was she a terrible girlfriend for not noticing just because she had a lot of homework? Should she call? When? She was already up past bedtime, finishing an essay on the five different ways people could be turned to stone and how to turn them back. She couldn't call at midnight.

The next day Jess called her. "Mirta, can you do something about him?"

"Keith? What's wrong? I haven't seen him in weeks."

"That's the problem, neither have the teachers. He's locked himself in with his books like—if I didn't know the guy I'd think he was going to the dark, plotting to break the world in half or something." Jess sighed. "And I think he spelled us not to notice."

Mirta cringed. Skipping class would get you a bad grade, but casting spells on people's brains could get you arrested. "I'll come over. Tell the gargoyles to let me in."

"Oh thank you! Please rescue my roommate from himself. Or whatever."

While she grabbed her coat and purse, Mirta tried to worry about all the possibilities at once. She shouldn't have let Keith get away with being 'mysterious,' she should have asked more...

Jess met her in the courtyard of his school, looking angry. "Professor B said this was a student matter and he'd stay out of it."

Mirta wasn't surprised. "Teachers do that, Miss F does it. So what's..?"

"Yesterday I suddenly realized it's weird that I was the only one going to class and meals. And—well, you'd better see it, come in."

Upstairs, Jess' side of the room was a bigger mess than ever, with Midwinter presents on top and nothing interesting happening in the other half of the room.

Mirta blinked, trying to remember why they'd come when there was nothing she needed to do in here. She turned to leave—

"Hey!" Mirta spun back. Her gaze seemed to skip the whole side of the room, insisting only that it was boring. It was the strongest don't-look-at-me she'd ever felt. "Keith, take that down or I'll walk through it!"

"You can't, I already tried."

Mirta summoned her gloomix and started a breeze around the room. Jess yelped and dived to rescue his homework. Mirta pushed on more power, making the wind rise. If a hurricane was what it took, she could make one.

After a minute the spell dropped and Keith looked at them from his desk chair. "All right, all right. Hi you two." He looked tired. There was a ball of glittering magic tucked into a corner of the ceiling.

Jess set hands on hips and raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to get arrested or just thrown out? When was the last time you went to class? As for putting spells on us, your girlfriend—remember her? She can yell at you about it." He bowed politely to Mirta and stepped aside.

Mirta was too stunned to yell properly. "Did you really put spells on us? What's that?"

"Yes I did, yes I'm sorry, and it's a simulation. It's the third one I made, and if it works then I don't have to worry about classes to graduate."

Jess grabbed the simulation and pulled it down to get a look at it. It glittered gold lights on his face. "You think the teachers'll pass you if you invent a spell to tear a hole in the sky? More likely they'll send you to the Omega Dimension."

"That's not what it's for—don't touch it! I don't want to have to make another one."

Hearing the real worry in his friend's voice, Jess sighed and let go of the spell, which bobbed upwards.

Keith continued, "That's why I spelled everyone, I didn't have time to run those and go to class. Just a little trick to make people think it wasn't strange that they hadn't seen me. It was supposed to wear off after I was done."

"And it never worked on some of us." Said a cheerful voice from the door.

Keith groaned. "Professor? You knew."

"Of course I knew." Said Professor Balthazar, joining them. "I came to see how it turns out. You must be Mirta. I'm Balthazar the Eighth, nice to meet you."

Mirta only had time to nod hello because the golden cloud of the spell began to spark and crackle. Keith quit frowning at everyone to pull the simulation down in front of him. It opened like a flower, swarming sparks flashing, moving and connecting lines of light. Mirta couldn't make heads or tails of it but Jess whistled appreciatively. Keith started smiling, his tense face relaxing.

"That's an elegant piece of magic."

Keith looked sideways at the headmaster. "Well, since you obviously know everything, any chance you'll help?"

"You saw the simulation. The bond between all of you is your power, more than anything I could add. There's nothing I can do to help that you haven't already figured out how to do better."

Keith nodded.

Jess said, "And when are you going to tell us what's going on? You could've, you know, instead of enchanting us."

Keith flinched, seeming to remember suddenly that people were mad at him.

Mirta wasn't sure what she felt. She wanted an explanation, wasn't sure what explanation would be good enough, but at the same time didn't feel like yelling. Jess was doing a fine job of that anyway.

Keith said, "Tomorrow. I'll tell you tomorrow, when everyone can be there. Where are Hans and Sterling anyway?"

"Racing around town on rented levibikes."

"Look, just—everything you want to know. Tomorrow. I don't want to do this more than once. It'll be—you'll understand. I need your help."

It should have been the exact wrong thing to say, but Mirta's heart thudded. "Ok. I'll see you tomorrow then. But if you ever put a spell on me again we're through." And she went home, to try to do homework while being too upset to concentrate.

She told the others what had happened, to the predictable reaction of anger and confusion.

"He'd better have a really good explanation." Selene grumbled.

"It doesn't matter how good it is, you don't mess with your friends. That's worse than wrong, it's dumb!" Katy said. Tabby, sitting next to her with dolls, made both dolls nod.

Keith had sent everyone a message to meet the next afternoon at a little cafe in the city. They had three tables and everyone was there: The fairies, the three boys, Sterling's roommate Hans and Jess' boyfriend Donovan, and Lucy. There were pots of tea but nobody was eating, except for Tabby who had a little cake to keep her busy.

Mirta was the last to arrive. She sat down, noticing Hexen had followed her and was sitting alertly under her chair.

Silence fell. Keith fiddled with the papers he'd brought. He looked... scared, Mirta realized. Scared, which looked a lot like angry.

After a minute Jess said, "We're probably all wondering why you called us here today..."

Keith gave his friend a look. He stood up, flicked a shield over them so nobody could eavesdrop, stopped again like he wasn't sure how to say it, then shrugged and said, "I'm from a sealed realm. My people have been slaves to a demon for the last thousand years or so. It's... a bad place, worse than the medieval realm we visited. The only person who could get out was a seventh son, that's why I was born. I came to Magix to learn how to unseal the realm, get everybody out and destroy the demon, and I found a way. Wrote a spell. I'm sure it'll work. But I need your help."

Keith hadn't been looking at them while he spoke. Now he glanced around, his face set as if he was afraid of what he'd see.

People had gasped, started to say things. Katy was shaking her head like she didn't believe it. Jess was cursing under his breath and Hans signed something and scowled.

Sterling's mouth was actually hanging open. He closed it and said mildly, "Well that explains some things."

And it did. No wonder he'd never said where he was from, or anything about his family... Mirta felt sick.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Selene demanded.

"Didn't want to scare anyone away. I really liked having friends."

"And you needed someone to help with your spell." Jess said, his face tight with something like rage.

Sterling held out his hand, Keith passed him a scroll and everyone leaned over to look. It was an elaborate spell diagram, more complex than Mirta could read. The sorcerers, who could, started pointing things out and all talking at once.

Mirta glanced at Keith and he shot her a frightened little smile. He looked exhausted, just from the last few minutes. Mirta's tumbling emotions settled on pity. She had a hundred things she wanted to say, but not in front of everyone.

Hans signed and Sterling translated, "You think this'll work?"

"Yes. So does professor B, he looked everything over. It won't be fun, but it will work. It'll get them out."

"You want to explain this spell?" Lolina asked, "I'm in, but I can't read the squiggles."

Keith's set face relaxed into a wry smile. "Well it won't be fun. We really—to tear open the sky, we need more power than is possible with just us, so we have to do it the hard way, an ordeal."

"Ah crud." Priscilla said, "A 'face your worst fears and darkest secrets' kind of thing? That was on my list of stuff to not do."

"Trust me, I tried everything else I could think of, but there's no other way. It'll be more like a dream, it can't hurt us. Just... everything else, to convince us to give in and give up our powers."

Mirta's stomach shrank with fear. Darkest secrets... she was a witch, she had some pretty dark ones, not stuff she'd actually done but stuff she'd thought and knew... the spell to steal a fairy's wings swam to the front of her mind.

Keith was going on, "And then, since none of us will have failed and lost our powers, I do the spell to bring the realms together and then we all blast it open. And it'll take everything we've got."

Lolina made an unhappy sound. "I hate magic burnout, it hurts!"

Sterling traced a line on the diagram. "Yeah, it'll hurt. But a major working... always wanted to try one."

Hans signed something.

Keith answered, "Unless everyone completely blows it, we'll be fine even if we fail. Even me, and I'm doing the really dangerous stuff."

Mirta opened her mouth to ask how dangerous that was.

Priscilla bat her to it, "Count me in."

"We're fairies, we can't let people suffer."

Keith said, "It only needs two of you—it'd work better if everyone helps but you don't all have to. Katy, you've got Tabby to look after now..."

Katy growled, "I'm a fairy, I'm in."

"Mirta?"

"I'll help. But if you need two witches..."

"Lucy and I made a deal."

"He bribed me." Lucy said cheerfully, flashing a bright blue jewel between her fingers.

Everyone looked at her.

"I'm a witch, I don't have to do everything out of the goodness of my heart. And I really want to go to Madame Glissade's ballet academy after graduation." Lucy smiled through the curtain of her new hair, unashamed. The fairies frowned, but nobody argued with her.

Jess looked around at them and said flatly, "You're all out of your minds. And you—we're a bunch of students you seem to have mistaken for the legendary Company of Light!"

Donovan started to say something, looked apologetic, and shrugged. "I'm not magical, but I'll hang around and call the ambulance after you all fall over. This is one of those 'use up your energy and fall over' spells, right?"

"Is it ever." Sterling said, making a face.

Selene said, "Where are we doing this? I don't know how sealed space work but I don't think we should put it in the middle of the city."

"I'm going to put it in the crater, on the other side of Blackmud swamp. The area's the same and nothing lives there since whatever-it-was blew up."

"It was a witch. Messed up a spell, but it was a spell to blow up the city so nobody was too sad." Lucy said.

Keith nodded, "We can portal out there Sunday morning and be back—well, carried back, probably, but back—in time for dinner."

People nodded. There were no more questions. Sterling and Selene said they were in. Jess still looked mad. Hans was signing something, managing to look sarcastic with every movement. Keith didn't bother to translate, just answered, "Your choice. You decide if you want to help or not, I won't blame you."

Hans said something else and Keith nodded. "Well, I'm going home. You can all call and yell at me separately." He got up and left. Everyone else started talking.

Keith looked back and smiled when he realized Mirta was following him.

"Well that went... as well as I expected. Are you mad too?"

"Yes. You should have told me. If you're going to kiss someone you should tell them things like that! You're a jerk."

"I know. I'm sorry."

Done yelling Mirta said, "We'll help you, the fairies will. And Lucy. I don't know about..."

"Jess thinks we're only friends because I needed him for this. Which isn't true. I just hope he'll believe me."

"But you do need him for this."

"I..." Keith turned, grabbed Mirta and pulled her against him, not saying anything, just holding on. Mirta leaned into his warmth, but couldn't quite feel comfortable.

Saturday night, Mirta was writing letters. They were going to do something dangerous, well, Keith said it wasn't but just in case something went wrong she wanted people to know. She'd called her parents already. They'd warned her to be careful and said they were very proud she wanted to help people.

Now she was writing to Orion, so he'd know what was going on. ...so that's what we're doing. I've got nervous butterflies. Professor Avalon told us about his ordeal to become a paladin and it sounds terrifying—'face your inner darkness and overcome it' which means everything you're scared of and everything you want enough to do something bad to get it. Paladins are nuts to sign up for this!

I really wish I could use fairy dust and heal people. I like being a witch but I'm jealous of my friends. I wish there was such a thing as an enchantix witch. So if I get all evil, maybe the demon promised to invent a witch enchantix. I still don't think I'd fall for it, but if you get back next week and I've gone all evil, I want you to know it wasn't for something dumb or greedy.

I can't list my worst fears without running out of paper. Look in your monster book, I'm scared of all those monsters, and the upperclassmen at Cloud Tower, and every bad thing that might happen. I'm scared Keith got something wrong. Or lied about how much danger he'll be in.

Well, we'll manage. And I guess I'll be telling you about it in person. It'll be cool to see you again.

Mirta twiddled her pen for a minute and decided to end the letter there. She was addressing the envelope, grateful the pixies could deliver with just a name, when something tapped her window. She looked out.

Keith was standing in the garden, his long uniform coat blowing in the breeze. Mirta waved, and Keith walked up the air to her window. "Hey. I know I can't come in, want to go up on the roof?"

"Sure."

It was chilly, and Keith wrapped his coat around both of them as they sat on the edge of the roof. "Wonder if this is the reason for the big coats. Maybe Balthazar the first had a girlfriend."

Mirta, snuggled against him and deliciously warm, laughed. "Why did you come? Please don't say you suddenly realized it won't work, or something?"

"No, nothing like that." Keith said, looking up at the night sky. "I was just thinking that tomorrow everything's going to change, and I wanted to see you again before that."

"I guess it will. You'll have your family back."

"And my friends from there, and the responsibility of keeping my sisters out of trouble. I miss them so much, but it's been fun being a student with nobody to worry about. I really liked having a normal life."
"What's your world like?" Mirta asked, because she had to ask.

Hexen had followed them up, and draped himself across their laps. Keith adjusted his coat to keep the cat warm too. "It's... bad. Like the medieval realm. Worse than that. Never enough food. No books, no music, nothing beautiful. Anyone who tried to create anything would lose a hand, or their sight or something. No place to go, just the town and the fields and the forest. And sometimes the ground would open up and eat someone, thought not since I was born. We're running out of people, most of the babies are born sick. My sister Dawn has... her face isn't right, she looks kind of like Hex."

Mirta had seen a picture of kids like that, in a textbook about developing realms. "They can fix it at the hospital. For kids anyway, I don't know about a grownup. Hey, you said a name!"

"Dawn, Ember, Skye and Springtime. And Tana and me. I wonder if any of them will be fairies. Back there—there's no magic either, except for mine. Not just no fairies, no flowers or sunsets or any of that 'magic of nature' stuff Hans rambles on about after he's been reading about druids."

Mirta tried to imagine, and shivered. "That's... no wonder you were afraid to tell us. That's important."

"It's everything. It's the only reason I'm here, or it was supposed to be. Then I got to school and it got more complicated."

"How did you learn... to read?" Mirta finished, choosing one of the hundred things someone would have to know about the modern world.

"Magic. Professor Balthazar smacked me with a spell. And then Jess dragged me around town and laughed whenever I did something dumb. It was very educational."

It sounded terrible. Mirta smiled for a moment then, "We'll get them out. We can do it. Only—you're sure you'll be all right?"

Keith looked down at her and smiled, "You're worried about me."

"I don't believe you'd put us in danger without telling us, but you might put yourself in danger. You won't—die, or turn into something awful?"

"I won't die. I want to come home after, and graduate, and see what my family thinks of this amazing realm, and see what comes next."

And then it was time, and they were standing in a ballroom-sized magic circle in the middle of nowhere outside the city.

Lolina was pacing and Katy's tail lashed under her skirt. Mirta guessed she wasn't the only one with nervous butterflies. Jess and Donovan were talking quietly. Selene and Sterling were holding hands, which was sweet. Mirta wanted to go to Keith, see if he needed someone to hold hands with, but he was looking away from them and doing some magic that made light flicker along the ground.

It was cloudy. Mirta hoped they wouldn't get rained on. She hoped they'd get back before Hexen got tired of staying home or Tabby drove Miss Grizelda crazy. She hoped they'd all get back at all.

Lucy's eyes sparkled behind the screen of her hair. She looked more excited than scared. "Don't look like that Mirta, we can do this."

"I know..." Mirta said. The sorcerers' assurance that this wasn't dangerous only made her a little less scared.

Keith turned to face them. He looked distant, stern, and very impressive with his robe blowing around him. He summoned his staff and leaned on it. "Ready?"

Selene and Sterling nodded sharply. Priscilla said, "Let's rescue some people!"

Keith looked around, meeting everyone's eyes. Finally he said, "Donovan, it'll be pretty obvious when to call for help, they may see the fireworks back at school. Guys... see you on the other side."

The light faded.

Mirta found herself on a path that vanished ahead and behind into a sort of unfinished foggyness, as if going from nowhere to nowhere. Mirta thought about calling for her friends but decided not to. She transformed, in case anything jumped out at her, and started walking.

Nothing happened. There was nothing to see but the rocky, ordinary-looking path bordered by vagueness, nothing to hear but her boots scritching on the ground. At first she expected something awful to happen any minute, but time went on and on and nothing did. That was the point, wasn't it? Awful things had to happen or it didn't count.

Unless it already didn't count because someone had failed. Hours had gone by, maybe everyone else had been tested already and someone had given in. Keith hadn't actually said what would happen, only that it would mess up the spell. There would be no reason for anything to happen to her if the spell had already failed.

It was probably Lucy.

Of course it was Lucy, the one who hadn't really been on an adventure like this before, and the one who... wanted something.

"You could be beautiful." it had said and Lucy had given in. How could she not? Anyone would want to be beautiful and admired and special.

Mirta certainly did. Her wings made her special, but she'd rather be special like Bloom or Flora who could do anything without being afraid and who lit up the whole room just by being in it.

The fog around the path was getting thicker, grayer, almost silver. Mirta could see herself reflected, a smear of color on the cloud that slowly, impossibly, cleared. Mirta stepped back and stared. Her reflection was... brighter. Its skin was flawless, its hair wasn't rusty but copper and gold, and its emerald eyes sparkled. Mirta's pink outfit looked good on her double, and it had gotten fancier, decorated with rows of black pearls and rubies. She glowed like sunset. She looked—like Bloom.

"You could be an enchantix fairy."

And Mirta realized it had been talking to her for a while, without words or a voice, but talking. She felt a little sick, but also relieved. Maybe all the things she'd been thinking weren't true after all. Of course Lucy wouldn't have given in—Mirta couldn't believe she'd doubted it.

"You'll lose." Mirta said aloud, "You had me for a minute but it won't work again."

"Really?" her reflection laughed, a beautiful haughty sound. "You think nothing can defeat you? But so many things already have!"

Mirta jumped when it spoke, but held her ground as her other, prettier self stalked around her.

"The Trix defeated you, you're still afraid if them. Your family, your world, you'll never fit in now. You don't even know what you are. Your friends are getting stronger and you can't keep up. And these aren't even the friends you really wanted! The people you'd really like to be with are farther above you than the clouds in the sky!" It turned into Flora and laughed and laughed.

Mirta had flinched at every accusation, but now shook her head. "That's all true but you still don't win." Her voice was shaking. She didn't know what she was talking to, some spirit of the spell or the demon itself? And she wasn't really sure it couldn't hurt her. Still, she turned her back and kept walking up the hill. It followed, silently.

"So what would you be, if someone could fix you? Because I could. A witch or a fairy? Rule people or..." It sniggered, "Help them?" Don't you wonder what kind of witch you would have been?"

Mirta glanced sideways to see a new version of herself, wearing a skimpy black leather dress and lots of eye makeup and looking impressive and scary.

"No? Not even to do to Icy everything she likes doing to the first-years?"

It would have been tempting, if she forgot where she was and what she was talking to. A demon with the power to seal a realm could probably turn her into anything it wanted. Probably only the terms of the spell saved her from being a newt right now.

"No. I'm here to rescue those people. I don't matter right now."

The thing looked at her and its eyes went red for a moment. Mirta jumped back. But it just—disappeared. Suddenly. Mirta looked around quickly, sure it was somewhere nearby... but it wasn't.

Then the mist at the sides of the path began to clear. Maybe everything was over.

The land revealed was rocky and dead looking, without much green or much color at all. There was a little creek at the bottom of the valley, with dusty-looking trees on either side.

The air changed and Mirta looked up. There was no sky. A gray dome lay over everything, not clouds, just... a limit. Suddenly the world was crushingly small.

There were two people walking by the stream. Their clothes were brown and shapeless, and they looked shrunken as if they didn't know how to stand up straight.

It was Keith, of course it was, arm in arm with a girl whose hair gleamed golden in this dead place. Her head was bowed, her face hidden, but Mirta was sure she was beautiful. And this felt real, like a memory not an illusion.

Keith's deep voice said, "...don't know how long... going to be hard..."

"But you will come back?" the girl's voice was high and breathy, and she didn't look up, "You won't just disappear forever?"

Keith laughed a tired little chuckle and helped his friend around a rock in the path. "I promise I'll come back. It's my destiny. I'll find a way. So you wait, and no more pictures!"

Mirta stepped forward, calling out—and stumbled back into the circle with the others in the real world.

Her friends looked just as rattled as Mirta felt. Selene and Sterling were hanging onto each other, and she seemed to be comforting him. Priscilla was surrounded by an aura of ghostly fire she couldn't calm down enough to banish, and Lolina had clearly been crying. She wiped her eyes and growled, "It thinks it knows about me—it got everything wrong!"

Lucy grabbed Mirta's arm and hung on. "You're all right!"

"I'm fine—what did you see?" Mirta asked in alarm, but Lucy shook her head and didn't say.

Mirta wasn't really fine. The choice was pretty clear: do the spell and your kind, charming, perfect boyfriend gets his other girl back. Or don't help. Sacrifice hundreds of people for your love.

Katy, busily smoothing the fur on her tail, joked, "I'm going to have way more respect for Professor Avalon now, he did three of those to become a paladin!"

"Did it work?" Jess asked.

Keith was leaning on his staff, trying to look cool but actually looking scared. He glanced at Mirta, smiled at her. then turned away. Behind him where there had been nothing but lifeless ground, something was appearing. It looked like a dirty gray bubble, like the blank not-sky in Mirta's vision. Through it, fuzzily, she could see the shapes of buildings.

And people.

They came and pressed against the wall, vague blurs of brown with pale blobs of faces and hands.

"Hard part's over. Now all we have to do is break that open."

"Ah, something to hit!" Selene looked cheered at the prospect.

Mirta's magical senses told her they'd have to hit it pretty hard to do any damage. It wasn't really a wall, more like a thought or a distance, that only looked like a thing.

"Well then!" Priscilla held out her hands. Katy and Lolina took her hands and Selene came over to complete the chain. "Ready for convergence!"

Mirta nodded to Lucy, who smiled back. "Ready!"

Keith raised his staff in a grand gesture and cast a wedge of blue lightning at the barrier. The ground shook from the force of it. All sound was buried in the roar of the lightning but Mirta saw the boys join in with their power. The fairies' energy looked like a rainbow of light and Lucy's like dark green fire. Mirta summoned all her strength, cast it from her hands—and met a solid wall.

They weren't strong enough.

"We are!" Mirta yelled, unheard in the din.

It wouldn't work.

"It will!"

She wasn't even sure she wanted-

Keith's voice whispered, "Sorry-" And then the spell turned, reached inside her, and took everything and there was a great cracking sound like thunder splitting the sky.

The next thing Mirta was aware of was how awful she felt. Hot and shivery at once, and her head was spinning, and she really wanted to lie down.

The others already were, Selene and Priscilla leaning on each other, Lolina lying passed out on the ground, Sterling sitting holding his head like he wanted to get up but couldn't. Katy had reverted to her little cat form and Jess was holding her carefully in one arm. Donovan, still on his feet, stood next to them talking on his phone.

Keith lay very still, crumpled where he'd fallen.

Mirta heard herself make a frightened little sound.

"He's all right—well, breathing, anyway." Donovan said quickly. "Can you do anything? No?" He turned back to his phone, telling whoever was sending ambulances to send them faster.

Mirta realized her gloomix had appeared and was glowing steadily. Her patron, saving her from passing out, though right now passing out didn't sound so bad. She took one step, stumbled, and decided not to try more. "Lucy?"

"M'all'right." Lucy mumbled. "Did we win?"

Mirta looked up and managed. "Yes..."

The village was real. It was a dump, houses looking like they were barely standing up. The people were inside, looking out through window-holes and doors. In a minute they'd get curious enough to come out.

They didn't just need ambulances, they needed buses to bring everyone back, and where were they going to put everyone, Mirta wondered, giddy with the pain in her head. The ground was nice clean dirt, and holding still, and maybe if she lay down here next to Lucy her head would stop spinning. She took another step and dropped to her knees. Keith... had to be all right, he said he would be...

Suddenly Donovan dropped his phone and drew a sword. "Something's coming!"

The air went stinking and foul and something flew at them, too quickly to be seen and vanishing as it came. It was just a body, just arms, just hands—Mirta couldn't dodge the fading claws that grabbed her wing and ripped it from top to bottom before disappearing forever.