Alexandra woke up still lying on the couch. A blanket had been put over her.

She rubbed her eyes. Archie was sitting in the easy chair opposite the couch, still in sweat pants and a t-shirt, with his holstered revolver sitting next to the lamp at his elbow. He'd fallen asleep also, but he grunted and stirred when Alexandra sat up.

The two of them looked at each other for a long moment, neither of them saying anything. Alexandra had no idea what her brother-in-law was thinking. Probably that she'd turned out to be exactly the sort of juvenile delinquent he expected.

They'd never been close. Alexandra vaguely remembered when Claudia had started dating him, just after they came to Larkin Mills. They'd married when she was six. The wedding was small; she had been a flower girl, and she'd managed to make the flowers disappear. None of Claudia's relations had been there. Archie had a younger sister she only met the one time, and parents who watched the entire ceremony as if it bored them. She didn't think either Archie or Claudia got along with his parents.

She knew so little about him, considering he'd been the closest thing she had to a father for most of her life.

In hindsight, Alexandra realized that he'd made a few attempts at bonding over the years, attempts that she had rebuffed or simply not recognized. She had been a difficult child even before she became a witch, and once she went away to Charmbridge, she had treated Archie the way she'd treated… everyone else she'd left behind in Larkin Mills. She hung her head, not sure what to say or how to begin this conversation.

"I just helped cover up two homicides," Archie said.

Alexandra didn't look up.

"I tried calling Claudia, but only got her voicemail," he said.

Alexandra nodded, and lifted her head. "If she's at Lucilla and Drucilla's house, her phone won't work. Magic and electronics don't mix."

Archie didn't roll his eyes or make a disgusted sound when she mentioned magic, just frowned. "So how does she get in touch with us?"

"Lucy and Dru will probably take her to town, where she can use her phone. But maybe not right away. Like I said, there's a wizard war on, and they'll be safer staying in their house."

"And these wizards… they might come here, looking for you."

Alexandra nodded. "There are spells on the house. We're probably safe while we stay inside. Outside, though… I can't guarantee what will happen."

"Then why didn't you go with Claudia?"

Alexandra took a deep breath. "Because there's something I have to do here, in Larkin Mills, before I go. But I'm a witch, Archie. I can defend myself against magic. You… well, one of the wizards who was after me just cast a spell that made you give him your gun and your uniform and go inside and sleep. That's what wizards can do. Please, Archie. If you stay here, I have to watch over you, too. I know you don't like hearing this, and it probably offends your big male ego, but this isn't something cops with guns can deal with. They mostly leave Mug—non-magical people alone. Mostly. But you might be targeted just because you're Claudia's husband. It would be better for all of us if you joined her and the Whites."

"So, because you're a witch, you can defend yourself," he said. "No other witches can hurt you, because your spells are better than theirs, is that how it works?"

Alexandra frowned, not sure if he was making fun of her.

"Claudia told me your father is some sort of revolutionary," Archie said. "So did he start this wizard war?"

"Kind of." In a way, I did. But she was not going to try to explain the Deathly Regiment and everything that had happened in New Amsterdam a few months ago.

"I'm a cop," Archie said. "You know I just got promoted?"

Alexandra hadn't known that.

"I'm hoping to take over as Chief next year." Archie leaned back in his chair. "So how do you figure I'm going to run off on an indefinite leave of absence to hide in some magical house with Claudia and her sisters? Are there jobs for non-magical cops in this wizard world?"

"Not really."

"It's not your job to watch over me. It's my job to watch over you, and Claudia." Alexandra opened her mouth, and he held up his hand. "Yeah, I got it. Wizards and magic wands. You can hypnotize people and turn them into snakes." He scowled. "Is that how it works in your world, wizards just do whatever they want and us ordinary folks get out of their way or else?"

This was not the conversation Alexandra had wanted to have. "Usually there are wizard cops, called Aurors, who keep other wizards from doing things to… ordinary people. But since there's a war on, they're kind of busy." And working for the wrong side.

"How come we don't hear anything about this war?"

"Because even during a war, they try to keep it a secret. Mostly." Archie probably had heard some things, she thought.

"What is it you have to do here in Larkin Mills?"

"Protect you, apparently. Dammit, Archie, do you want to see me cast some spells? Is that what it will take to convince you that you can't protect yourself from wizards?"

"How did that wizard who was going to kill you die, again? Not the one who was pretending to be me. The other one."

Alexandra hesitated. "Claudia shot him."

"Right. So wizards aren't bulletproof."

"Claudia was only able to do that because he was an idiot who assumed…" Her voice trailed off.

"That non-magical people can't defend themselves?"

"What will you do when someone uses an Imperius Curse or a Sleep Charm on you again?"

"Funny thing, I saw him draw a wand, and I was thinking, that looks like the stupid wand I've seen Alex holding… Guess if I'd taken him seriously, he might not have gotten the drop on me."

"That's not how it works, Archie. Next time, a wizard could just cast a spell on you from across the street. You'd never even see it."

"If someone wants to take me out, they can also shoot me from across the street."

Alexandra found his indifference maddening. "If you knew someone was going to try to shoot you, you wouldn't just go to work like normal and not worry about it!"

"Who says I'm not worrying about it? But I'm mostly worrying about Claudia, who's a thousand miles away, and you, who for some reason thinks you're immune to all these wizard assassins."

Alexandra sighed. "I'm going to leave Larkin Mills, once I've… I have to do some magic, first."

Archie frowned at her. "And then where are you going to go? To join Claudia and your sisters?"

"I don't know yet."

"So you don't even have a plan, but you want me to run away." Archie stood up. "I need to take a shower, and then go into the station. I'll need to take Claudia's car, since you wrecked my truck. I don't suppose you can cast a spell to fix it?"

"Not really," Alexandra said, feeling defeated.

"Will you stay in the house today?"

"I can't. I told you, I have to do some things."

"I'd ground you if I could." Archie shook his head. "So I guess we're past telling each other what to do. I'm just hoping I don't have to have a conversation with Claudia about what happened to you."

"Me too." Alexandra watched as her brother-in-law walked into the bedroom he shared with Claudia. With a lump in her throat, she trudged upstairs to her room.

She needed a shower, before she went back out. She plugged her cell phone into a charger, and when she got out of the shower, it was buzzing with texts and voicemails.

Claudia and Archie had both tried to reach her while she was in Dinétah, though she had called them occasionally from one of the rare pay phones at truck stops and convenience stores that Henry had stopped at on their long drives through remote deserts and mountains.

David and Anna had also left many messages. Anna could only call her when she stepped outside the wizarding enclave of Little Wuyi in San Francisco, but David had been texting her a lot, sounding almost as worried as Anna.

She sent him her first text in weeks:

Hi. I'm alive. How r u?

To her surprise, he answered immediately, with a string of symbols and emojis that she assumed represented expletives, followed by:

Are u #$%*ing kidding me? Im alive is all u have to say?

She learned then that her friends had believed her dead or imprisoned. David actually called her then, to berate her until she finally snapped at him and hung up, and then she texted an apology.

He texted back:

This isn't u running off cause ur upset & 14. we aren't trying to stay in touch just cause we miss u and we're having a boring summer.

She replied:

yeah I get it. I really didn't have cell where I was. But I couldve called or sent an owl. my bad I'll do better, but let it go. There is SO MUCH happening right now which Ill tell you about but not like this.

… jerk

Dork.

Stay in touch. Seriously. Everyon's scared. Not just for u.

So am I. Not just for myself.

She knocked on Mrs. Wilborough's door. The old woman answered as if she'd been expecting her.

"Did you get Claudia bundled off safely to New England?" Mrs. Wilborough asked.

"Yes," Alexandra said. "But I couldn't make Archie leave."

"Not surprising." Mrs. Wilborough opened the door further for her, and Alexandra stepped inside.

She hadn't been in Mrs. Wilborough's house in years. It looked much the way she remembered: lots of old books, china cabinets, furniture that had once been elegant but now looked shabby, a drab carpet. Mrs. Wilborough had a cat, too. It rubbed against Alexandra's ankles, then let Mrs. Wilborough pick it up.

"That cat isn't somebody transformed, is it?" Alexandra asked.

Mrs. Wilborough looked at her as if she'd said something extraordinarily stupid. "Somebody transformed? What are you nattering about? Who do you think I am, Circe? I've had Tiger since he was a kitten."

Alexandra wasn't sure where to begin. It occurred to her that she had never heard Mrs. Wilborough mention Mr. Wilborough. As a child, she'd assumed the old woman was a widow, but as she looked around now, she didn't see any photographs of any family members, or people, at all. Just a few rather boring landscapes, and Tiger.

"I'm not sure I can keep Archie safe," she said. "I mean, I can cast some protective and Warning Charms on him, but I don't know how to create a Circle of Protection like my father did, or anything nearly that potent—" She paused as Mrs. Wilborough walked over to a particularly tall cabinet and opened it, revealing a grandfather clock with three hands and a list of locations where times should be. Alexandra stepped closer.

Her name was on one of the hands, Claudia's on another, and Archie's on the third. The hand labeled "Alexandra" was pointed at "Larkin Mills." Claudia's was pointed at "Out of Town," and Archie's: "Work." Some of the other spaces on the clock said: "School, Hospital, Prison, Home, The Lands Below, Dead," and "Mortal Peril."

"Seriously?" Alexandra said. "This clock told you when I was in the Lands Below?"

"Yes. It kept moving back and forth between Lands Below and Mortal Peril. Not exactly a precision instrument. But it will warn me if Archie is in danger."

"How will that help, if someone ambushes him before either of us can do anything?"

Mrs. Wilborough shrugged. "There's only so much anyone can do. But really, there's not much reason for either the Confederation or the Dark Convention to be interested in Archie."

Alexandra frowned. "All this time, you've been watching us, reporting on everything you see to my father. So what are you supposed to do, now that the war has started and we might not even be around much longer?"

"Oh, probably not much. What can a Squib do during a wizard war, after all?" She stroked Tiger.

"Does the Office of Special Inquisitions know about you? Since now they know who all the members of the Thorn Circle are."

Mrs. Wilborough smiled. "They know who all the original members of the Thorn Circle were. But my name wasn't Wilborough back then. That's the thing about Squibs, you see. We can just… disappear, into Muggle society. The Confederation doesn't even try very hard to keep track of us, unless you happen to be the daughter of the Enemy. The only reason we're recorded in the Census at all is so pureblood families can make sure they don't accidentally marry one of us."

Alexandra shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"Spare me." Mrs. Wilborough waved a hand. "I don't need a teenager's pity. So what's your plan?"

"I don't really have one, after I do what I came here to do. Except now I have to protect Archie until I can convince him to go into hiding. Mrs. Wilborough, what did you mean by 'G-men'? I mean, Muggle—that is, federal agents. Why would they be coming for me, and how did you know that's who Witch-Colonel Shirtliffe was going to hand me over to?"

"Muggles aren't all as stupid as you think they are—"

"I don't think Muggles are stupid," Alexandra objected.

The old woman gave her a sour look. Alexandra wondered why she was so bitter and angry, and then thought about a life spent living alone, waiting for orders from Abraham Thorn. Had she ever actually been married? And had the Confederation done to Mrs. Wilborough what they'd done to Claudia—inflicted the Barrenness Curse on her?

"All your magical shenanigans do get noticed," Mrs. Wilborough continued. "Especially when you let dragons loose in Times Square. Very nicely done, by the way. All those people with camera phones definitely got your good side, and your bad side, and your backside—filmed you from every angle. I've even heard the neighbors say, 'Goodness, that girl in that dragon video looks like Alexandra Quick.' Wonder how many times a week Claudia has to say, oh ha ha ha, it almost does look a little like her, doesn't it?"

Alexandra just listened. Mrs. Wilborough liked talking—Alexandra remembered she'd been like that as a babysitter, too, always going on about things Alexandra wasn't interested in, in that same acerbic, complaining tone.

"So," Mrs. Wilborough went on, "the government has known for a long time that wizards exist. I assume that's probably true all over the world. There must have always been people who know."

"How do you know this?" Alexandra asked.

"Because your father talks to them."

Alexandra blinked. "My father is talking to the Muggle government?"

"He hasn't shared the details with me. I just know that's part of his plan. A lot easier hiding a wizard war if the feds are helping you keep it secret, I imagine, though who knows which side they're really on."

Alexandra was growing impatient. "This is very interesting, but it's not answering my question."

"Well, only your father can answer it, I'm afraid, but he's the one who told me to look out for 'G-men' attempting to abduct you when you came home. I was actually surprised to find wizards in that van." Mrs. Wilborough smirked at her, still stroking Tiger's fur. The cat gave Alexandra a bored look. "So, now you're hunted by the Confederation and the feds. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Alexandra said. It sounded like she really needed to talk to her father. "But right now, I'm stuck here in Larkin Mills. I can't abandon Archie. Will you call me if that clock tells you Archie is in danger, Mrs. Wilborough? Or Claudia?"

"What about you?"

"Oh, I'm kind of surprised it's not already saying 'Mortal Peril' for me," Alexandra said. "But when it does, I'll probably know before you do."

Alexandra sat cross-legged on the ground in front of Old Larkin Pond. She'd conjured a blanket to lay down over the muddy grass, and now she was in a meditative posture, or what she imagined a meditative posture to be. She sometimes wondered if meditation might be useful, but it seemed like a lot of time sitting still trying to think about nothing.

Right now, she was not thinking about nothing. She was thinking about the crack in the world that ran beneath her, here at Old Larkin Pond.

The crack in the world was a fissure that could be opened to another world. A world away. She could see these cracks, now; she had been able to since the end of her Solemn Quest last year in the Ozarks, culminating in the Ozarkers' great Unworking. They were places where magic sometimes bubbled close to the surface of this world. It was, Alexandra thought, one reason why Old Larkin Pond had so often been the locus of magical events for her when she was here in Larkin Mills.

She'd cast spells all around it today to ward off Muggles, and to clean up what traces she could of the battle with the Dark Convention. She'd done as much as she could to get ready. There were several jars in front of her with magical ingredients she'd been brewing since before she left Dinétah. Now, she waited for the one last thing she needed.

Someone came walking along the same path where she'd stood facing Witch-Colonel Shirtliffe the previous night. She'd weakened her Muggle-Repelling Charms for just one person.

"Hello, Alexandra," he said, sounding surprised.

Alexandra smiled and opened her eyes. She rose smoothly to her feet, and turned to face him.

"Hello, Brian."

Brian Seabury, her childhood friend since she'd first moved to Larkin Mills, was the same age as her, but he'd grown considerably over the past year. He was taller, his shoulders were broader, his eyes were harder.

Harder? Yes. Alexandra could see the seriousness that had always been there, but sadness and worry had prematurely settled into his features. His tousled blond hair still gave him a boyish look, but he was becoming a young man. A young man carrying a burden of grief and loss that Alexandra had been unable to help him with, because Brian Seabury had been Obliviated. His memories of their time spent together—anything that involved magic, which was most of the last few years, including the months in which a tentative more-than-friends relationship had blossomed—had been erased.

Now he looked befuddled, as if he weren't sure why he was here. It was very similar to the look he'd worn just before the last conversation they'd had, when Alexandra had discovered he'd been Obliviated. He turned and looked over his shoulder at the torn earth and large crater blown in the field just off the footpath, and the burnt circle of grass visible from where he stood. There had only been so much Alexandra could do to hide the damage, especially damage done by Dark magic.

"What are you doing here?" Brian asked.

"Waiting for you." Alexandra smiled at him, but didn't move closer.

Brian frowned. "I just decided to take a walk. Kind of felt like seeing the pond again, but I'm not even sure why. How could you have been waiting for me when I didn't know I was coming here myself until a little while ago?"

Alexandra took a deep breath, knowing that her words had to count now. "Because I called you here."

Brian just looked more confused. He reached for his phone, but she said, "I don't mean on the phone. I used magic."

His expression transformed, from confusion to surprise, then irritation.

"It wasn't a command," Alexandra said quickly. "I didn't make you come. It was just a spell to put the idea in your head; sort of a nudge, you could say. A request. Like I asked you to come without actually speaking to you. And you did. I'm glad. Thank you."

Brian shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak, but Alexandra interrupted. "Before you say what you're going to say, can I show you something?"

Brian let out a breath and spread his hands. "Okay." His resigned tone was bittersweet in its familiarity.

Alexandra was wearing a short-sleeved peasant blouse that she'd chosen for the ease with which she could slide it off her shoulder. She did this now, exposing most of her right collar and upper arm, and the raven tattoo inked into her skin.

Brian's eyebrows went up. "You got a tattoo." Then his eyes went to her left arm, where her other tattoo, the brown snake wrapped around her wrist, was visible.

"Yes," Alexandra said, and she called forth Charlie.

Charlie emerged from her skin, springing to life from the ink drawing with fluttering feathers and a raucous caw. Charlie never objected to returning to tattooed form, but Alexandra knew the raven preferred being flesh and blood. Now her familiar sat on her shoulder, and looked at Brian with beady black eyes. Brian's eyes were wide. He stared back at the raven. "How… how did you do that?"

"Charlie is my familiar."

"Charlie," said Charlie. Brian's eyes widened further.

"Go sit in that tree and behave now, Charlie," Alexandra whispered. "We're going to be nice to Brian, because this is going to be hard for him." And me. Charlie had not always been particularly tolerant of her Muggle boyfriend, who had not really appreciated her being a witch, but the raven obeyed her now, fluttering to the low-hanging branch of a small buckeye tree without any sassy remarks.

Alexandra took a few steps toward Brian, and held out her left wrist. "Watch this," she said, "but don't come too close."

Her other tattoo writhed and came to life. Nigel twined around her lower arm, lifted his head, tasted the air with his tongue, and for a moment, seemed to stare at Brian.

Brian stared at the snake and at Alexandra's bare arm, which a moment ago had been tattooed. "What kind of trick is this?"

Alexandra ran one finger gently over the top of Nigel's head. The snake could sometimes be ornery, so she had to be careful about letting excitable boys too near, but like Charlie, Nigel seemed to be in an unusually docile mood. Alexandra let the snake sink back into her skin, transforming into a tattoo once more.

"Wow," Brian said. "That's…"

"Magic." Alexandra drew her wand. "I want to show you more."

She pointed her wand over the pond and said, "Vermillious Tria!" A great shower of red sparks erupted from the end of it, spraying all the way across Old Larkin Pond like a miniature fireworks display. While Brian was still watching, Alexandra cast another spell, shaping water and causing it to rise from the surface of the pond in a spinning column before bulging and flattening out into a face-shape that regarded her and Brian with brackish-green, watery eyes, before dissolving back into the pond.

"Frigia!" she said, and a chunk of Old Larkin Pond froze over instantly. Brian's mouth fell open at the sudden appearance of ice in July.

Alexandra pointed her wand at the ground and cast another Charm: this time, a giant green fern sprouted from the damp earth and grew three feet tall in a matter of seconds. Alexandra waved her wand over it and transformed it into glass. She tapped it, and the glass shattered. She cast a Transfiguration on the shards and they became a great swarm of ladybugs, which took off in a red and black cloud, surrounding her and Brian for a moment before flying off over the fields.

When she looked up to meet Brian's eyes again, his expression was one of shock.

"You," he said. "You're… you're a…"

"I'm a witch, Brian. All that magic I talked about when we were kids? It was real. It was always real." She held up a hand. "Let me show you one more thing, okay?"

He nodded.

Alexandra Apparated across Old Larkin Pond. She saw him jump. She waved at him from the other side of the pond, and he lifted his hand and waved nervously back.

She pointed her wand in his general direction, thought about all their best times together—when she hadn't been mean to him, when he hadn't been upset with her or worried about her latest shenanigans, when the two of them had been best friends, riding through town on their bikes, and later, when they had been a couple, pawing each other awkwardly with their clothes mostly staying on.

Before Brian's sister Bonnie had disappeared, and he had been Obliviated.

She said, "Expecto Patronum!" and a silver stormcrow, brilliant even in full daylight, streamed out of her wand.

She let her Patronus fly around a bit, as Brian's eyes followed it. It circled him, close enough to touch, though he didn't try. Finally, Alexandra Apparated back directly in front of him. He jumped again. Her Patronus floated just past her shoulder.

Brian was breathing rapidly now. His eyes had become very wide, and she feared she really might have scared him.

"Why are you showing me this?" he asked.

"Because I really, really need you to believe me, Brian. When I tell you I'm a witch, and magic is real, I want you to know I'm telling the truth, and I'm not exaggerating or making up stories."

She let her Patronus disappear, and she put her wand back in its sheath. She held up both hands, as if to show him she was unarmed.

"I also need you to believe me when I say I won't hurt you. I want you to trust me. I don't want you to be afraid of me. I'm sorry if I showed you too much, too quickly, but, well, people can tell themselves almost anything isn't real if they don't want to believe it hard enough. And I want you to believe. But please don't run away." Her carefully rehearsed speech was starting to fall apart. She couldn't read Brian's mind and she really didn't know what effect her demonstration had had on him, and everything she'd done to prepare for this moment all depended on him being willing to hear her out, and then, to go along with her plan. And for once, she needed him to be completely willing, without any coercion or manipulating him into doing something against his better judgment.

She reached her hands out. "Please, Brian? If you want to go, I won't stop you. I swear. I'll leave you alone and never bother you again if you ask me to. But please say you believe me? And hear me out?"

Brian looked down at the ground, which had just produced a giant fern unlike anything growing next to Old Larkin Pond, which had become glass and then ladybugs. He looked at the frozen pond, then over at Charlie, and then at Alexandra. His brow furrowed at her outstretched hands. Then, slowly, he reached for them and took them in his own. He turned one wrist over, and she didn't resist as he studied her snake tattoo.

"Okay," he said at last. "I believe you. But I don't understand—why are you showing me all this now?"

Alexandra gently squeezed his hands.

"Because you used to remember," she said. "You knew everything I just told you."

The furrows in his brow deepened. He made a sound that was not quite a laugh. "No, I'm pretty sure I'd remember if you'd ever shown me anything like that, Alex."

She shook her head slowly. "I did show you things like that," she said softly. "But… other wizards took those memories away. I wasn't supposed to let you know about me, and so they cast a spell to make you forget. Everything. They Obliviated you."

Brian's expression remained confusing and unreadable. She couldn't even guess what he was thinking as he tried to take this in.

"And… why are you telling me now? Won't they do it again?" She didn't think he had quite absorbed the reality of having his memories erased—having years of their history together Obliviated—but he was at least listening.

"Not if I can help it," she said. "But I'll be honest, I don't know what they're going to do, or who they'll send. Only that I'm going to stay here and try to defend…" She gulped, as she realized why she'd stayed in Larkin Mills. "All of you."

Brian still seemed to be a little bit in shock. "That's… a lot to absorb. Even if I believe everything you say—I'm not saying I think you're making this up, just that… it's a lot." He paused, and Alexandra waited. "You're saying I had all these memories, and now they're gone, and you're going to try to keep… wizards from doing this to me again…" He shook his head. "Why tell me?" His voice had a plaintive note in it. "What good does it do me to know that I used to know things that were magically erased from my head?"

"Because," she said, "I want to restore your memories."