Holly bumped into her. “What’re you—”

Esadora pushed her back until they were “hiding” between a shelf and the wall. “There are guards coming.”

Holly scoffed. “We’re invisible! They won’t see us.”

“What are they going to think when they see the door open and no one come out of it?”

“I get that, but why are we hiding?”

Esadora froze, a sheepish smile forming on her face. “I panicked.”

“Of course you did.”

“What is that supposed to—”

The door opened, and a finger pressed against Esadora’s lips.

Even as two pairs of footsteps filled the room, Esadora couldn’t help but notice her proximity to Holly. They were invisible, but that didn’t make body heat disappear. Holly’s finger left her lips.

“Why are we here?” Esadora heard one of the guards say.

“I saw the door open,” the other guard said.

“It must’ve been your imagination. There’s no one here.”

The second one sighed. “Guess your right.”

When they left, Esadora hastily backed away from Holly, cheeks red. She took a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

She stalked out of the room, feeling immensely uncomfortable. When she got to their room, Allecky wasn’t there. “Allecky?”

“Here!” A voice said directly to her right.

Esadora whipped her head to see her, but she also wasn’t there.

Allecky’s giggle sounded. “I put that spell on me too. It’ll help us get out easier. Now, where’s Holly?”

“Also here!” came Holly’s voice from behind.

Esadora jumped. “If you guys could just… not do that, that would be great. Thank you!”

Holly laughed. “So… let’s go?”

“Whenever you’re ready, Holly,” Allecky said.

A few footsteps later, Esadora heard shuffling at the window sill, then a distant thud. She hurried to look out the window.

“Jump!” she heard from down below. She hesitated. Holly couldn’t even see her. How would she catch her?

Well, she’d rather break her ankles than stay in this house.

She jumped.

She felt the urge to scream as she fell through the cool air, but her panic was brief as she smashed into Holly, pain blasting every part of her body—especially her stomach.

She was pretty sure her stomach had landed on Holly face.

Holly groaned beneath her, and she fumbled to get off of her. She only heard the low whoosh before Allecky slammed into her, knocking her back onto Holly.

They all laid there for a moment before Allecky finally got up, whispering, “We have to go!”

Esadora slowly stood up, shaking off the reverberation in her limbs. She held out an unsteady hand to Holly, then remembered she couldn’t see her. She found her hand in the grass and yanked her up.

Glancing around, she was surprised to find that the guards hadn’t noticed them. Granted, the house was wide. A hand gripped her free one.

“I have a feeling that if I don’t hold your hand, I’m going to lose you here,” Allecky said. “Are you holding Holly’s hand?”

“Yeah,” Esadora said, choosing to ignore her belittling.

“Then let’s go.”

She pulled Esadora along. They went around to the front of the house and continued, silently walking through the streets, waiting until they came across the barrier.

Sadly, it was an hour before they found it.

When they did, Esadora nearly cried.

Esadora heard Allecky rummaging through her satchel. “I’m going to turn us all back to normal, okay? The longer we stay like this, the more I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

A moment of silence, and then, “Vislin!”

Esadora breathed a sigh of relief as they all reappeared.

“Now can we please get out of here?” Holly said. She seemed anxious and excited all at the same time.

“Of course,” Allecky said, and instead of pressing her wand to the barrier like Holly had, she pressed her hand to it.

What the—

And the barrier began to disappear. They all stepped through it, Esadora and Holly exchanging astonished glances

Allecky smirked. “Thaumaturgy. What pure magic can destroy, it can also create.”

Esadora nodded slowly. She’d heard of thaumaturgy, but only in tandem with wizards.

“Anyway,” Holly said, a grin on her face, “We’re finally out!”

We’re finally out.