The morning was exhausting. I wanted to keep on sleeping until this whole mess was over. I found myself missing home more than ever now. Colin decided that we would go to the Charliegn house today to see if what Dr. Maize said was true.

Most of my bruises were closed to healed. The few punches the warlocks got in were disappearing fast and the pain along with them. Colin, on the other hand, was still a mess.

He complained about his ankle all night. Saying it was “too uncomfortable” and that it was “painful to move away from me”. He was just getting back at me for running away after Eos jumped in between us. I have never loved a bird as much as I had in that moment. And I had never run so fast in my life. I wasn’t ready for everything to change like that. I was a dragon, and he was a rider. There shouldn’t be anything else besides that. Right?

“I don’t want to get up,” Colin groaned in a whining child’s voice. I tried my best not to indulge him.

“Come on. We have to go to The Charliegn House today.” I didn’t know anything about the house, or its history. But if Carmen Kunji was being kept there, that’s where we were headed. This war between the witches and warlocks could be stopped if only I could find Carmen.

After some serious leg work, I managed to drag Colin to the foot of the bed. There was no way I was going to carry him all the way to the breakfast counter though. I had neither the strength or patience for that. I was grateful when Master Wei walked in with a pair of crutches. I was less grateful when he walked in with a scowl on his face. Oh no.

“Colin, get up. You boys have a lot of explaining to do.” Master Wei basically dropped the crutches at Colin’s feet and walked out. He didn’t look happy. My heart sagged in my chest. We were in so much trouble. Colin leans over and grabs the crutches off the ground. He secures them under his armpits and I held the bedroom door open until he passed by. Colin didn’t look afraid of what Master Wei was going to do to us at all. I, on the other hand, was a sweaty mess.

He swung himself out into the hall and I followed behind. Entering the kitchen was like entering an active war zone. No one said a word as we made our way to our seats at the counter. There was no food cooking on the stove. Master Wei angrily sipped at his hot tea, and Jac, who sat beside the coffee mug. I knew that they were angry about what happened. Even though it was completely out of our hands in how we handled the situation.

“I can’t believe you two went on your own! What were you thinking?” He yelled angrily. Colin opened his mouth like a gulping fish. He didn’t get a single word out before Jac silenced him with his own angry words.

“You knew they were still looking for you. You knew it wasn’t safe, especially for the Zodiac. How could you put your dragon at risk like that? How could you put a Zodiac’s life as risk like that?.” Jac growled at Colin. Why were they blaming Colin for this mess?

“This isn’t Colin’s fault-”

“It is his job to protect you. And even so, he should have known better than to go alone!” Master Wei threw his mug down on to the counter with a grunt. Master Wei and Jac were barely holding it together.

“Either way we found out where Carmen might be. We are headed to Charliegn House today whether you like it or not.” Colin said. That was not the way I would have put it. The two adults looked about ready to rip someone’s head off.

Before anyone could say anything, Alalai came into the room.

“You found my sister? Where is she?” Alalai grasped onto Colin’s shoulders and shook him desperately. Master Wei’s face hardened with solidified anger. I felt like I used to when my mom was about to rip me a new one.

“Dr. Maize said she is at the Charliegn House. But we don’t know for sure.” I told Alalai. He nodded slowly. For a moment, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But then he met my eyes and straightened his shoulders.

“I’m going with you.” Alalai held back angry tears. “We are going to find my sister.”

Master Wei and Jac sat quietly. They were thinking over what to do. They refused to put the Zodiac in harm's way again. But I was determined to get Carmen back, just like I said I was. Standing, I looked Master Wei in the eye.

“I’m the Zodiac, right? It’s my decision what we do, right?” This was something I had yet to do. Taking control and leading wasn’t my style. I preferred to stand back, and do what I was told. But not this time. Not when hundreds of people’s lives depended on me. Master Wei gave me the smallest nod of acknowledgement.

“Then we go to Charliegn House as soon as possible. We leave immediately and don’t stop until we find Carmen.” I felt suddenly, that I was abusing my power. I didn’t have the right to tell this old man who was letting me stay in his apartment rent-free what we were going to do. Expecting to hear arguments against my plan, I was surprised to find Master Wei nodding again. He was staring at this cup of tea.

“We have no right to tell you what to do, Zodiac. But don’t go alone. Colin isn’t strong enough to fight off whoever took Carmen. Not in his current state anyway.” Jac spoke for both himself and for Master Wei. I couldn’t tell if he was made at me or not.

“We’ll take Alalai with us.” Colin sai. He grabbed his crutches and started swinging his way back to his room to pack. I followed quickly behind.

Alalai sat down in Colin’s seat and took a drink of his own tea. I knew he wasn’t sure about coming with us. He wanted desperately to find his sister, but that didn’t make him any less scared to do so. We didn’t know if it was Warlocks behind the Charliegn House doors, or if it was something else entirely.

Colin walked into his bedroom and peeled off his old t-shirt. He was walking over the closet bare chested.

My eyes fell on his back, where faded bruises still graced his skin. They were purple, and green, and warped his skin unevenly. I hated looking at them because all it did was remind me of what happened. The guilt grew in the pit of my stomach because I knew we would be heading into danger again and I wasn’t sure if I could protect him or not.

“What if you stayed behind?” The words tumbled out of my mouth. He turned to face me on one leg. My eyes drifted down to his bruised and swollen ankle. He wouldn’t be much help limping like this.

“Stop staring at me ankle,” He pulled on a clean shirt. “And stop treating me like I’m weak. I’m going and you can’t stop me.” Colin didn’t grab the crutches again as he limped over to where I was standing. The pain was clearly visible on his stone cold expression.

One more hobble and he was standing a foot away from me. He grabbed my forearms and pulled me into a hug. His scent was overpowering for the few seconds that I was that close. Then he pushed me back to look into my eyes.

“Would you be able to stay here while I go risk me life?”

“What? Of course not! You’re hurt-” I sputtered.

“Then don’t ask that of me. I’m going and there’s nothing you can do about it.” He let go of my arms and walked- rather limped- back to his closet. He threw me a pair of clothes to change into as we were roughly the same size. He shoved a few more clothes into a backpack and slung it over his shoulder.

I got changed into a fresh t-shirt and we walked back out to the kitchen. Alalai was wearing what he always wore: brown pants with a red scarf. His tail swished from side to side as he walked over to us.

“So how exactly do we get to Charliegn House?” I asked. I was just used to being clueless now. There was no need to try and hide the fact that I didn’t know literally anything. Alalai pulled a pocket out of his pants pocket and unfolded it on the counter in front of us.

“The Charliegn House. And we get there by flight.” Colin was all too happy to correct me. I had to retort ready beyond the usual “shut up”. Alalai pointed at a small town on the zoomed in map of North Carolina. At least it wasn’t very far from us. Maybe a two hour flight by dragon.

“The Charliegn House is located in the outskirts of a town called Lake Lure. It’s invisible unless it wants to be seen.” Alalai told us. The house could want to be seen? Like it had its own thoughts and desires?

“The house is alive, Sam. It can choose who sees it. That is probably why they chose it as a base of operations.” Colin explained impatiently. Who was They, was my question of the day. It didn’t make sense for the warlocks to do it because they didn’t really want the war with the witches. The witches didn’t do it because they blamed the warlocks. It didn’t make any sense to me. I was missing a piece of the puzzle that prevent me from putting it all together.

Alalai folded his map up and we prepared to go. Alalai didn’t have a bag with him but it wasn’t like he had anything to carry anyways. Master Wei walked into the room beside the large sliding glass window with money in his hand. I didn’t know magical money all that well, but I knew Master Wei was not being cheap.

“Take this,” Master Wei pushed the money into my hand. “Go down to the Square and make sure no one is empty handed. I refuse to let you go without any weapons a second time.” Weapons? He wanted us to buy weapons with this money? I had wrongfully assumed this was food money.

My mind traveled back to the last time I had gone to Ms. Agnes’ shop. The invisibility potion! That could come in handy!

I sprinted back to Colin’s room and scooped the potion off his nightstand. I ran back into the room and bowed to Master Wei as a thank you for the money and the reminder. I deposited the money and the potion bottle into Colin’s bag.

“Are we ready to go?” I gulped at the window. Why did we have to be so high up? Colin noticed my hesitation and limped up to the window. He slid it open and looked expectantly at me.

“You’re our ride. Hurry it up.” Colin beckoned me forward. Alalai stood to the other side of the window as they waited for me to jump through. My mind went to Maria and her rider. The way the she dove head first and changed just before she hit the ground. If she could do that, then I could change safely before I hit the ground, right? Probably not a safe bet to make.

I took a running start out the window and hurled myself out. Two weeks ago, I would have laughed if someone told me that I was jumping willingly head first out a six story window. It was just too crazy. I felt as my skin hardened and my claws sharpened. My wings popped out and I caught myself far before I hit the ground.

I flew back up and tried to stay as still as possible. Alalai jumped first, and grasped on tight when he stuck the landing. Perhaps I was not the only one that was not okay with heights. Colin made his way unsteadily up to the window. He was leaning to his right and used the window sill as support. I tried to get as close as I could but my wings were just a little bit too long. If he didn’t make the jump, I wasn’t confident I could catch him.

I almost backed out from letting him jump, but before I could move away from the window, Colin jumped. He yelped in pain when he pushed up the ledge with both feet. It seemed to move in slow motion as he landed on my neck and held on for dear life. There has got to be an easier way down than this.

We gently floated down to the Square. There was no breeze or downdrafts within the Colony so I could go as fast or as slow as I wanted. I chose to go incredibly slow for the sake of keeping us all alive.

Landing took little effort. When Colin basically dislodged and fell on his face, I couldn’t help but laugh a little. He looked like me when I rode a dragon. What a weird thing to think. I can’t believe I’ve ridden a dragon. I can’t believe I am a dragon.

“Laugh it up while you can. When this is over, I’m going to get you proper flight lessons.” Colin growled at me with a mocking tone. After Alalai dismounted, I changed back quickly to respond to Colin’s poke at my dignity.

“I know how to fly just fine, thank you very much!”

Eos landed on my shoulder with a shudder of his large wings. Where he had been, I couldn’t ask. He was clutching a folded piece of paper in his beak. I grabbed the note and waited for Eos to let it go. He was reluctant to let me have it. I unfolded the paper and read.

‘I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Mia and her mother were tried and killed for conspiring to hide a slave from the warlocks. Please pass this note on to Alalai when next you see him. I’m so sorry, there was nothing I could do for them.

-Dr. Maize’

I stared at the note in total silence. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. She’s dead? How could this happen? I just spoke with Mia yesterday. She- she was alive and so happy. All she did was talk to me. Why? How could they do this to a little girl?

My heart hammered in my chest. My lungs were frozen because if I breathed out I knew it would be a scream.

I gripped the note so hard it started to rip down the middle. My throat closed up with the attempt to keep the sob contained. This was because she talked to me. Because I told her that Alalai was safe and that he would be okay. It was my fault.

My heart hurt. Everything hurt. In the span of a few seconds I found that I couldn’t breathe. If I didn’t breathe, I was going to hit the ground. The black spots in my eyes clued me in. Colin took the note from my shaking hands and read it. He didn’t meet her though. He wouldn’t understand.

She was dead, and it was all my fault.