Frustratedly, Orion erased his third attempt at a text message to his mom, then flopped backward on the leather seat of the car. He had a strong and persistent gut feeling that things weren't going well. It had been over two weeks since she and Goliath had left for the research center in St. Louis. At first, she had called several times a day to let Orion know about the hotel where she was staying, the hospital, and what the doctor's had said. The clan had all gotten a group text after her first course of treatment, telling them that the procedure had gone as planned and she was in recovery. But since then, he'd gotten only a few, short texts from her, and occasionally a longer text from Goliath, promising that she was in good hands.

Orion knew better. If his mom was doing well, she would be responding to his messages and wanting to speak with him on a Zoom call, like she had when she had first arrived and she had shown him the view from her room's balcony of a massive, green park. She had said that if the treatments went well, she would be able to return home between them, but there had been no talk of her returning yet, and the clan's grownups snuck one another lost, anxious looks whenever the children brought it up. Orion knew that the adults didn't want the hatchlings to worry, but their secrecy on the matter only served to frighten him more.

Orion glanced up at the drivers' seat. Since his mom could no longer pick him up from school and he was too young to ride the subway by himself, without even another kid as a companion, Owen had begun sending one of Xanatos' private chauffeurs to drive him home each day. Today's driver was Shawn, who was not Orion's favorite. Energetic Cesar would talk and joke with him and matronly Kelly often brought him a soda and some kind of Hostess cake for an after-school snack. But Shawn barely even looked at him as he hustled him into the backseat and then closed the window between them so he could crank up his music, which Orion suspected was meant to drown out all the profanity he would constantly bellow at the other drivers. It was not an effective method. But Orion was a big boy and could handle crass language and didn't really need to be molly-coddled by anyone. That wasn't the real reason he disliked Shawn.

It was more the way he spoke about him as if he wasn't even there. Or worse, as if Orion was merely freight he was delivering and not a real person at all. Once, when Shawn was coldly escorting Orion through the Xanatos family's private garage toward the car, they had encountered one of Xanatos Enterprises' valets, with whom Shawn seemed friendly. Ignoring Orion completely, Shawn had grumbled to his buddy about his job and how he wasn't paid enough to be a babysitter.

Orion had been forced to snort indignantly at this remark. After all, he was hardly a baby and he and Shawn had reached an understanding from the getgo of their association that Shawn didn't talk to kids or answer their questions. Orion had sat, still and silent, in the back seat and had been as much trouble or irritation to Shawn as a package that needed delivering. Less so, in fact, as a package could hardly let itself out of the car door and walk itself inside.

But Shawn apparently harbored no sense of appreciation regarding Orion's attempts to be as little trouble as possible and he let loose his general disdain for the assignment on his friend who laughed wickedly as he risked making Orion late for class by offering Shawn a cigarette.

"Just a quick one, Bro!" Shawn had insisted with a snicker, "I gotta take care of the little 'friend of the family'."

"Yeah, right!" the valet had replied with a sneer, "His mama's a friend of someone around here, but I bet it ain't Miss Fox!"

Shawn had crowed enthusiastically at this innuendo and Orion glowered. Though the men spoke openly over his head, the young boy was not expected to understand their inside jokes and mean-spirited laughter, but Orion knew what they implied. Neither Shawn, nor the valet, had the red star on their Xanatos Enterprises ID card that indicated to members of the clan, as well as the security team, that they were among the privileged employees who knew of the gargoyles' ongoing presence in the castle above the tower. They had no idea who Orion actually was, much less his clan's relationship to the Xanatos family, but they had heard the rumors that had been circulated in the tabloids for years. It was bad enough that they were indulging in such calumnies in the first place, but doing so right in Orion's presence, as if he wasn't there or they thought him too stupid to understand, was infuriating to him. He had finally had to break his agreement with Shawn to be as close to invisible as possible and he loudly and impudently reminded the discourteous chauffeur that Owen would not be pleased to hear that Orion was late to class and that smoking on the job, even in the parking garage, was prohibited, as Mr. Xanatos didn't appreciate his company's cars smelling like ashtrays.

The encounter seemed to remind Shawn that every preppy, shirt-collared school boy had a snarky, conniving little snitch lurking just below the surface. Shawn was not about to demean himself to suck up to the entitled brat of some rich businessman's side-chick, but since that day, he had managed to keep it professional, saying nothing short of "Hurry up, kid! I got things to do!"

Traffic was thick this evening, as there was a lot of construction, and it was making Orion quite anxious. The sun set early this time of year and the sky was already becoming dark behind the silhouettes of the tall towers. The highway stretched and curled before them like a white and red ribbon of frustrated headlamps and tail lights. Orion's entire body was beginning to tense up as he caught the sight of flashing emergency lights ahead of them.

"Shawn?" he called, pressing the button for the intercom, "Is there a faster way home?"

"Sure, kid," Shawn rolled down the little window and replied with a snort, "I'm just taking this way for the hell of it. Tryna get more time to kick back and listen to NPR."

"I just meant…"

"Shut up and sit tight! I'm-a get you there as fast as I can frickin' go!"

Orion sighed, and tried not to squirm too obviously. His transformations at sunrise and sunset happened naturally with little discomfort. He had discovered at a young age that he could easily keep his gargoyle form, particularly if he was very tired, and turn to stone with the rest of the clan at daybreak, if he wished. Keeping the human form past sunset was another story. He had managed it before, though it was painful, stressful, and exhausting. He'd practiced this power for some time, in the hope that he might get better at it to the point that he could control it and possibly join the intramural basketball team at some point, but it was still very taxing for him and he didn't know how long he could keep it up. Judging by the traffic nightmare before him, he suspected he would be in the car at least another hour. Orion squirmed impatiently, drawing a sharp breath through his teeth as he sensed the sun descending below the horizon.

"Boy! Don't you pee on my seat!" Shawn ordered in an outraged tone as he watched him anxiously through the rearview mirror.

"I don't have to pee," Orion grumbled, looking out the window in dismay as they slowly edged around a corner into more bumper-to-bumper traffic. The sidewalk beside the car was crammed full of pedestrians, whose ability to walk freely Orion observed with envy.

"Actually, I do have to pee!" Orion shouted suddenly.

"Well, you gonna have to hold it," Shawn told him obviously.

"I can't," Orion insisted, "I have to go now. Let me out up here."

"Let you out where?" he demanded, "There ain't no place around here to use it!"

"I'll find a Walgreens…Or a McDonalds."

"They ain't gonna let you unless you buy something," he informed him.

"Then I will. You want a soda?"

"Boy, you are not getting out of this car! I can't just stop here in the middle of the street!"

"Well, pull over there by the park!" Orion yelled impatiently at the man, "I gotta go right now!"

"Ain't no way I'm gonna pull over and turn you loose to look for a john in some random park after dark. You gonna get kidnapped for ransom or eaten by a gargoyle and my boss is gonna blame me!"

"LET ME OUT, NOW!" Orion bellowed, transforming into full-blown tantrum mode.

"What you doin', boy?!" Shawn cried in helpless consternation as Orion grabbed his backpack, kicked the door open, and bounced out of the car right in front of a surprised, but thankfully stationary truck driver. He hen disappeared into a wooded area of a neighborhood park while Shawn yelled out the window for him to come back.

Orion ran through the leaf-littered grass until he found two large evergreen trees with weepy branches that almost touched the ground, under which he ducked under for cover. There, among the layers of of soft, sweet-smelling pine needles, he frantically kicked off his shoes and let himself transform back into his natural form with relief. Drenched in sweat and grateful for the cool autumn night air, he caught his breath. Then he gathered up his backpack and shoes, and peeled away the front of his destroyed school shirt, which his wings had torn apart as they'd burst from his shoulders.

"Hey! Hey, boy! Where are you?" he heard Shawn calling as he drew closer, apparently having abandoned the car to come find him. Orion backed up as flat as he could against the trunk of the tree.

"Come on, kid!" Shawn whined, "I'm gonna get towed! Get back in the car!"

Unsure of what to do, Orion slowly stood up, still leaning against the trunk. The tree branches were soft and droopy, but appeared easy to climb. He could possibly get high enough that he could glide away without Shawn seeing him. Slowly and quietly, Orion strapped his backpack across his chest, then reached for the thickest branch he could.

"What did you do? Pee yourself or something?" Shawn asked the deserted park trail, "Look. I won't tell nobody. Let's just get goin'!"

The branch Orion was gripping cracked under his weight and he slid down onto the pile of pine needles, his backpack catching on a branch and tearing open as he fell.

"Come on, boy! I ain't got time for no-"

Shawn stopped in horror as he pulled aside a pine branch and beheld the small gargoyle, crouched beneath the branches among the boy's spilled backpack contents, a shredded school shirt, and a single, lonely school shoe.

"Oh, Lord! He DID get eaten by a gargoyle!" Shawn screamed, and he tripped on his own feet as he scrambled to escape the same fate. Orion couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the disagreeable man as he watched him flee in terror. He hadn't meant to get him in trouble with his manager, and it wasn't his fault there was traffic. Thoughtfully, Orion picked up his school books, papers, and shoes, and wrapped them in his school hoodie, then wrapped that in the remnants of the backpack. The shredded shirt, he tossed into a trashcan, before finding an updraft that could carry him into the sky.

When Orion arrived at the castle, he found the clan quite alarmed to have discovered that he hadn't returned home on time from school. Brooklyn was questioning Owen frantically, while Owen, with one ear covered, was trying to talk to the manager of the garage on his phone. Sister stood among the grownups, looking anxious, but knowing better than to talk or ask questions, lest they send her down to the rookery and she would have no way of knowing what had happened to her brother.

"Sorry I'm late," Orion told them and they all looked up in surprise and relief, "We ran into traffic."

Brooklyn sighed.

"Too close a call," he muttered, "But at least you got yourself home safely. What in the world did you do to the driver?"

"Nothing!" Orion insisted defensively, then added, "He thinks I ate myself."

Sister giggled at this strange explanation and Brooklyn looked down at her in surprise, clearly having forgotten she was there.

"Well, let's eat breakfast," Brooklyn replied, apparently feeling that any further explanation was unnecessary.

They were finishing up with breakfast and Orion was helping to clear the table when Brooklyn announced that Goliath and Elisa wanted a Zoom call. The clan quickly assembled in the common room under the north tower, where Lexington had already set up his laptop and mirrored the image onto the large television screen on the wall. The hatchlings leaped around excitedly at the sight of their clan leader and beloved rookery mother, waving and all shouting at once. Elisa smiled broadly as she looked out at an odd angle. She was wrapped in a heavy blanket and a clear tube dangled from her arm. Behind them, Orion saw mostly blackness punctuated by a few flashing lights like those on the top of a tower.

"Are you outside?" Orion asked incredulously as a gust of wind seemed to blow their hair around and made a strange wailing sound in the microphone.

"We're on a rooftop," Goliath explained. There's a rooftop garden here where patients can visit. It seems the best place for us to meet right now, as the windows in Elisa's hospital room aren't meant to be opened."
"I thought you said you were staying in a hotel a few blocks from the hospital?" Sister questioned suspiciously.

"Yes, well," Elisa explained, "My team of doctors felt it was best that I stay in the hospital for the time being."

"But why?" Orion asked, but if either Elisa or Goliath heard his question among the cacophony of excited voices, they chose not to answer.

Eventually, Brooklyn suggested that each of the clan members take turns in front of the camera so they could all get the chance to talk properly. Orion had to be behind Bonnie, who was rather long-winded. She had compiled an extensive list of things she wanted to tell them about. Orion had many things as well, both that he needed to ask and wished to tell them, but when his turn came, he found the only thing he could get out was that he loved them and missed them and would do his best to help the clan until they came home. Goliath and Elisa had smiled at him proudly and told him that they loved and missed him as well. Orion's heart ached to say more, but he couldn't do it in front of the rest of the clan.

After Orion's brief turn at the camera, he made his way to the rookery. To his surprise, Sister had beat him there, and was crouched on the floor of the library, engrossed in an iPad.

"Didn't you want to talk to Mom and Goliath?" Orion asked her.

"Not with everyone else in there listening," Sister replied irritably, and Orion, feeling more or less the same way, didn't have the heart to chastise her for not at least staying to give a formal greeting. Not sure if he wanted to flop down on a bean bag in despair, or go find a grappling dummy to punish for his frustration, he settled on the tetherball, which he sent sailing with a single, aggressive kick. The ball made its rotation and Orion leapt into the air to send it back with a satisfying thud!

"Wanna play?" he asked Sister hopefully.

"Why do you think Elisa is staying in the hospital now?" she asked, ignoring the invitation entirely.

For several long moments, Orion concentrated on his punches, trying with each blow, to send the ball away faster and higher than he himself could catch it.

"Ori?"

"I…don't…know…" he replied with each blow.

"It can't mean anything good," she pressed, but Ori ignored her further, still concentrating on the leather ball, spinning round and round on the metal cord.

"Ori!" she pleaded, "Don't you care?"

The typical lifespan of a tetherball in the Manhattan clan's rookery was not particularly good. Even the highest quality balls with the thickest leather and the sturdiest internal cages seemed to constantly go flat. This particular ball, however, was spared that fate, as Orion's next blow tore it from its tether entirely and sent it sailing into the training course with a crash.

"Of course I care!' he growled, "But we're just kids, not doctors! There's nothing we can do about it!"

Sister rose up urgently, letting the iPad fall to the carpet.

"But what if there IS something we can do?" she asked him urgently.

"You're going to get us in so much trouble," Orion groaned as he and Sister glided toward the eastern section of the castle, which was the location of the Xanatos' private residence. The two hatchlings landed on a balcony with a window that opened into what had once been Alexander's playroom. It wasn't the room they needed, but it was one room they knew they might be able to get into. The stone balustrade that defined the edge of the balcony was decorated with whimsical iron sculptures of different animals. There was a playful bear cub, a raven with a long ribbon in its beak, a collection of turtles and lizards, basking in the moonlight, and a graceful fox that looked as if it was up to mischief. It was the fox that Sister approached, and gently reached into its open mouth to draw out a small card.

"It's still here!" she exclaimed, clearly pleased that their dear friend, despite having grown so old and important, had not forsaken his former playmates. The keycard opened the lock on the French doors with a click and they entered the playroom, which was illuminated solely by moonglow through four large windows on a curving stone wall.

The moonbeams reflected on the smooth, shiny cherry floorboards, where Orion recalled having spent hour after lovely hour inventing games and adventures with Alexander. But the rest of the room was in shadow, for all of Alexander's glorious toys and playthings had long since been packed up and sent away. The shelves on his walls now contained a shrine of mementos; trophies and photographs, as well as such horridly mundane and 'adult' decorative items as books no one had ever read and silk house plants. The carpet and tables that had once contained a creative world of plastic and cardboard cities, was swept perfectly clean of every last crayon wrapper and Lego, and now contained a plain, white, wooden coffee table and two leather chairs with a single throw pillow, embroidered with the words, "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." A comically enormous television screen still hung on the wall, but all of Alexander's vast collection of DVDs and video games had disappeared, no longer of any use and considered obsolete by modern technology. The once welcoming, joyful haven now seemed cold and barren.

"I miss him," Sister complained bitterly. "Why did he have to go to stupid Chicago?"

"It's not his fault," Orion reasoned, "Human kids grow up faster."

Sister sighed, giving a brief moment of silence for their lost companion, before opening the door and peeking stealthily into the corridor.

"Come on, " she whispered eagerly, and they hurried in the darkness toward the corner where a short flight of stairs led them to a mezzanine that overlooked the Xanatos' massive sitting room, where Orion presumed the family retreated to spend time together. The tall, arched doorway before them led to the master suite, which they knew was empty as the couple had left on another trip the night before. The opposite stairs led them down to the sitting room below, and they crept quietly past large, comfortable-looking sofas and a kitchenette with a bar where the staff could prepare drinks and snacks, to a heavy door that required a keycard to enter. Sister scanned Alexander's keycard hopefully and, to her glee, the lock on the library door clicked open.

The two young gargoyles glanced around the room where they had never been before. A formidable wall of bookshelves stood behind Xanatos' equally formidable desk.

"Where do you think he keeps the spell books?" Sister asked and Orion shrugged.

They spent an entire hour looking through Xanatos' collection, not finding anything that even looked like a spell book.

"We should have brought Lyra," Sister grumbled, "She would have known where to look!"

'Why would she?" Orion asked. He wasn't aware that Lyra had ever been in Xanatos' library.

"Alexander gave her a keycard," Sister explained, "She says that she and Adelpha have been trying to learn more about the spell that's on you guys. Didn't they tell you that?"

"Not exactly," Orion replied with a shrug, "They must have been working on it while I was in school."

"I wish they would do it at night so I could help," Sister said glumly as she carefully examined spine after spine of the books on the shelf.

Orion didn't reply at first. He wasn't certain why Adelpha and Lyra were working on controlling their transformation spell by day, but he had his suspicions. They had learned when Orion was very small that the spell interacted with the children differently than it did with Adelpha. Her transformations always took place at every sunrise and sunset whether she willed it or not, and were accompanied by convulsions of agonizing pain that she had simply learned to tolerate. Her biological children had inherited the spell through her, but for them, it was far more a gift than a curse. The stretching sensations were strange, but not painful to any of them. This had come as a great relief to Adelpha when she realized that her little son would live free of the torment that Puck had meant as a punishment when he had first placed the curse on her.

But a lack of pain was not the only difference. When Orion had been very small, he had suffered a horrible accident. Without any of the adults seeing, he had pried open the bottom of an electronic toy which contained disk batteries. He had accidentally swallowed these, and before anyone had noticed, they had burned quarter-sized holes through the lining of his esophagus. The adults had been so distracted by his cries of pain and fear, that they hadn't noticed the broken toy at first. It was Lexington that first discovered the shattered battery compartment and realized with horror what must have happened.

By the time Xanatos had gotten a doctor upstairs, briefed him on the fact that he was treating a baby gargoyle, and the x ray confirmed the batteries were lodged inside him, the damage had been severe. The surgeon removed the batteries themselves, but the chemical reaction inside continued to burn, less than half a centimeter from his carotid artery. Orion was in great danger of bleeding out and there was little the clan could do but wait and hope for the reaction to stop. The doctor had told the clan that human children who survived such an injury took many long weeks to heal. Heartbroken and helpless the clan had faced the dawn, leaving Adelpha, Elisa, and Xanatos alone with the critically injured hatchling who would change into a human child with the sunrise and may not make it until the next sunset.

But that was not what happened. As Adelpha had cradled her sleeping son, expecting him to transform with her as he typically did, she was surprised as the hatchling instead, took a stone form for the first time in his life. The doctor had been horrified, but the three other humans had gasped with relief. Whether by Orion's own will, or by his great physical need, the spell had allowed him to keep his gargoyle form and heal his injuries from the light of the sun. Not only had he survived the incident, but he had healed in one day and required no further surgeries.

Since that day, all three of Adelpha's biological children had occasionally unintentionally retained their gargoyle form at sunrise. This was usually in order to heal from an injury, illness, or just recover from great fatigue. Though surprised, the clan had accepted this as the natural way the spell worked witht he children. But Bonnie had surprised them even further, for she not only remained a gargoyle when she needed to heal, but seemed to be able to change back into a gargoyle whenever she was stressed or overexcited. Because she was so young, it was unclear if she did this of her own will or if she couldn't control it at all, but they were soon surprised by another revelation. Bonnie could also stop herself from taking her gargoyle form at sunset. Or at least, she could postpone it.

It was when this was discovered that Adelpha had begun asking Orion and Lyra to train themselves to do the same. She wanted them to test their abilities and determine if they too could postpone or stop the transformations. Orion found this task to his liking. If he could control his ability to shapeshift back and forth, it would open so many doors for him. He could participate in normal human activities. He could visit his friends' homes and meet their families. He could maybe even go on the 8th grade trip to the Grand Tetons which the class was already busy planning! He realized, of course, that this dream was a bit extreme. The clan would never be comfortable with him going off into the woods with friends for a two-week camping trip, even if he could prove he was able to hold the spell off that long. But perhaps he could go on the day trip to Washington DC, which only required him to ride home on the bus for two hours after sunset. He was certain that with enough practice, he could hold off the transformation that long!

Lyra had been far less enthusiastic about the assignment.

"Do I have to, Mother?" she had asked almost tearfully, "I'm not like Ori. I don't want to go to school and spend the day with humans, not even to learn or make new friends."

"My dear one, this isn't about making friends or spending time among humans, but learning what you are truly capable of doing with your powers."

"But I don't feel right in my human form," Lyra had protested, "I don't want to be in it any longer than I have to be. It's like…my body is telling a lie."

"It is a great burden for such young warriors," Adelpha had admitted with a sigh and Orion had felt a pain in his heart as he realized how much Adelpha had wished she could give them a normal gargoyle childhood, "But this is a fearfully important assignment. Perhaps the safety and future of our clan depends on our understanding how this spell works and how to control it. Do you understand, my children?"

"Yes," Lyra had responded softly, "Well…No, not exactly. But I want to help keep my clan safe! I'll do anything!"

"I know you will, my brave little one," Adelpha had replied, sweeping the girl into the shelter of her warm wings and holding them both tightly, "And once you have learned what you can do, you will be free to choose what you will do."

This promise had comforted Lyra and she had begun practicing along with Orion, each sunset. Apparently, she and Adelpha had been looking for helpful information during the day as well. Orion realized, however, that such research was probably in direct violation of Goliath's rule against outside media, and the knowledge that they were not only keeping it from the clan, but also from him, didn't sit well with him at all.

"Adelpha has her reasons," he explained, trying to convince himself as much as Sister, "We need to find out as much as we can about how our spell works, and it really isn't anything someone else can help us with."

"You're so lucky," Sister grumbled, "I wish it was me instead of Lyra."

"I think Lyra does too."

"It would be so cool if we could go to school together!" Sister said enthusiastically.

"Is that all you think about?" Orion said with a laugh. He lifted up an imaginary microphone and recited in a booming announcer voice,

"This girl has won the prize of a lifetime! A whole day as a human! Sister, what's the first thing you're going to do?"

Sister rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the shelf while Orion batted his eyes and imitated a squeaky girl's voice.

"Ooooh! I've always dreamed of attending one of Mr. Wardenburg's Civics lessons. I find the basics of constitutional law absolutely thrilling!"

"You're right," she replied, "I'll skip the classes and just go ice skating instead!"

"Ice skating?"

"Yeah, like the people do at Rockefeller Center. I always wanted to try it!"

"Or if it's summer, you can go to a water park!" Orion suggested enthusiastically.

"Or go on some crazy big adventure with my friends! Or I could get myself invited to a big dance party! Or better yet, go to one of those school dances you see on TV!"

"But those are always at night," he pointed out.

"It's my fantasy and I'll do as I see fit!" she clapped back and Orion giggled, imagining his sister in an elegant ball gown with a tiara on her ridge, dancing with an exceptionally cool human teenager while she tried not to take anyone out with her tail.

"It'd be nice for a minute, wouldn't it?" she asked, her voice grown soft and thoughtful.

"Just for a minute," Orion agreed, "Being like a normal kid for once."

They both imagined in silence for some time.

"Then what?" Sister asked and Orion shrugged.

"Then we'd come home and protect our city."

Sister raised a brow, thinking this over.

"Yeah," she said finally, "I suppose I'm better off, not knowing what I'm missing. Huh?"

Orion shrugged again.

"It is what it is, Sis."

They searched in silence for a while longer, finding nothing that looked like it contained any kind of sorcery.

"Sister? We've got to go soon. The clan will be coming back from patrol. And Brooklyn said we would have training right away. He'll be looking for us."

Sister sighed as she slid down from a library ladder and they made their way to the door. She pulled at the door knob, but it wouldn't turn.

"What's wrong?" Orion asked.

"It's stuck!" she exclaimed anxiously.

"What do you mean?" he demanded, pulling and twisting on the knob with his claws. The knob made a clicking noise as it turned, but would not open the door.

"Now what?" Orion asked fretfully.