Tabitha and Edwin sprawled over the large sofa in Ashley’s basement, half-listening to the news Edwin had put on the TV. The winter was supposed to be another cold one, but lighter than last year’s stormy mess. Tabitha looked back to the stairs, sighing. “How long does it take someone to find a snack in their own home?”

“Maybe Cecilia caught her,” Edwin chuckled, imagining what pointless argument they’d get into this time.

“Think we can get a song done on Guitar Hero before she’s back?” Tabitha grinned, flipping over to sit up on the sofa.

“Never know until we’ll try.” Edwin smiled back. “Where does she keep the guitars?” Tabitha quickly crossed the room in response, opening up one of the cabinets surrounding the television and retrieving two plastic guitars. Edwin hopped up to meet her, and the pair began setting up the game.

“Hey, guys, guess what I found!” Ashley announced, running down the carpeted stairs to the basement. “Fudge!” Seeing Ashley return, Edwin and Tabitha groaned, putting down their guitars. “Thanks guys.” Ashley sarcastically responded.

“Guess its time for this serious discussion.” Tabitha flopped down on the sofa, air quoting “serious.” “What do you want to tell me about Mateo?”

“You can have some fudge first if you want…” Ashley said, sitting down as she popped a piece of chocolate in her mouth. Edwin sat on the floor in front of them, stealing a piece of fudge for himself.

“So…” Ashley wanted to have this conversation for a while, but now that it had come up, she wasn’t sure where to begin. “When you weren’t with us on Sunday, some stuff happened.”

Edwin added on to the story. “My brother says there are some more Soul Warriors at his school, but Mateo hasn’t told us about anyone else. And when Jake tried to ask Mateo about it, he glared at him and put some weird magic circle on his hand. It disappeared after he coughed up a black blob, which evaporated.”

“Which is a really creepy thing for him to do on its own, but there’s a lot of secrets Mateo is keeping. Like, we’re fighting these monsters, but why? We never had an explanation.”

“And why wouldn’t he answer our question if he wasn’t hiding something? Just say, ‘yes, there are others!’ I don’t understand why he’d be angry, let alone try and hurt Jake.”

Tabitha thought for a few moments before responding to her friends. “It doesn’t seem like he’s working against you guys. And he is a little mean, but I thought that was just his personality. Maybe there’s a reason for him to be keeping secrets? I just can’t imagine him doing something like that…”

Edwin and Ashley looked to each other, rethinking the past few days. Was there some good reason for Mateo’s mysterious actions? It was possible, but Ashley couldn’t shake the feeling that Mateo was guilty of something.

“We may have made some assumptions, but I’m still going to be wary of Mateo," said Edwin. “He almost killed my brother. I think we all should be careful moving forward.”

“We’re also trying to find out about the other Soul Warriors.” Ashley added. “Sarah is looking into them for us.”

“What!? Her?!” Tabitha shouted. “Why Sarah, of all people?”

“She’s good at researching, with all the articles she’s writing for the newspaper. She also owes us for the interview we’re giving her.” Edwin calmly replied.

“Of course you’d defend her, lover boy.” Tabitha rolled her eyes, and Edwin almost shot back at her. “But I can see where you’re coming from. Keep me updated on the hot gossip.” Tabitha smiled.

“Guess we’re done here.” Ashley said. “Wanna get back to your game?” she pointed to the guitars, still lying beside the TV. “I call the loser’s guitar next song.”

-----

Ashley was uncomfortable. There wasn’t any reason for it, but she still felt gross and it was terribly distracting. She had tried to start on her report for Mr. Lewis at least five times, but each time she ended up zoning out and wanting to lie in bed and do nothing. She rocked on the back legs of her chair, trying to force some motivation into herself. Maybe there was something else in her backpack, some other homework she could do…

She ended up fiddling with her keychain, watching the ruby catch the light and dance with the tassel’s strands of red string. It was probably one of the nicest things she owned. Which made sense, it being a magical artifact and all. She braided some strands of the tassel, before running her fingers through it and returning the strands to their free state. Still no motivation. Maybe she could try transforming…

No. That was a bad thought. Ashley hated transforming. It was weird and unnecessary and she had started to associate it with getting hit by strange creatures. But there was no harm in trying… She got up from her desk, keychain in hand. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad. It wasn’t like she had to keep it a secret from her family anymore. She closed her eyes and whispered the incantation to herself.

No! This wasn’t right! She cut the magic short, throwing the keychain on to her bed. But the magic had already taken effect. Ashley realized she was in her halfway form. They could do that? She walked over to the floor-length mirror by her closet, taking inventory of the situation. She’d never actually seen what she looked in this form, having dodged her reflection during the weekend’s ordeal. There was something final, and embarrassing about seeing herself like this. Maybe, if she never saw herself, she could still pass the past week off as a strange nightmare.

But it was too late. Ashley made eye contact with her reflection and her breath hitched. She hadn’t seen this face clearly, only reflected in the river that first day. She brushed her hand through her hair, noticing how much shorter and, well, redder it had become. Her face hadn’t changed much, and she could still recognize herself in it. A few inches had been added to her height, and her clothes became ill fitting. The main difference between this form and Ruby Fire was the lack of costume. She still had magic like this, as she had used it on Sunday. Wait… did she always have magic? She’d have to turn back to normal and check.

Except, she really didn’t want to. What harm was there in staying in this form for a little longer? Ashley looked to Edwin’s clothes in the bottom of her closet. It would be better to get comfortable, right? She pulled out a long-sleeve shirt and sweat pants, and turned away from the mirror. She’d changed her clothes like this before, but that didn’t stop it from being embarrassing. There was always an inkling of wrongness in the back of her head, forcing her to close her eyes.

But it didn’t feel wrong this time. She could have stopped at any time and turned back to normal. But for some strange reason, standing alone in her room wearing her friend’s (was she calling Edwin a friend now?) clothes, she felt the most comfortable she had all day. Ashley folded her clothes, laying them on her bed for when she changed back. Moving about the room, she caught a glance of herself in the mirror. To a stranger, she would have looked like any normal boy.

Ashley sat down on her bed at the thought, her heart pounding and her face flushed with embarrassment. Something very wrong was happening to her, and she was absolutely terrified. She lay down, grabbed one of her pillows, and squeezed it. She felt betrayed by her own thoughts, and wanted to immediately wipe them from her memory. For Ashley Reading had just felt happiness from the idea that someone might see her as a boy. And that was not okay.

“Rise and shine, darling!” Ashley jumped from the sudden sound of Mateo’s voice booming behind her. She shot up, turning to face the fox that now stood on her bed. “Good to see you’re doing nothing important, because its time for more training. Now get up and get yourself ready.”

Ashley was happy for any distraction from her current predicament. “Okay, let me just change back here,” she said, grabbing her keychain from where it had been sitting underneath her.

“No time!” Mateo responded. “Besides, you’re going to be transforming anyway for training. Just grab your things. We have to pick up Edwin.”

Ashley grabbed a hoodie from her closet and the tennis shoes Edwin leant her, quickly tying them. She had to meet Edwin like this? Being alone in her room was mortifying enough. But she didn’t want to argue with Mateo, as he could probably hurt her in a million ways with his advanced magic. And after all his lying, she couldn’t trust him in the slightest.

Mateo jumped onto Ashley’s shoulder, and the pair walked down to the first floor of Ashley’s home. “Mom!” Ashley yelled as she reached the front door. “I’m heading out with Mateo.” She didn’t bother to wait for a response, not wanting to explain her current form. Ashley slipped out of the house unnoticed.