The man remained silent… standing a few feet from his targets, atop the telephone line. A smirk had sat on his face for the duration of the time that the fledgling magi had aimlessly wandered around his trap. But the Miami night temperature grew warm, and he was forced to remove his hood. He lowered it to get some circulation. The wind brushed over his slicked back hair, that came to a bun on the top, rear of his head, he felt the breeze flutter against the shaved sides of his head, and inhaled slowly, smiling. His brown eyes remained locked in on his targets, through his wooden mask, as he crouched, atop the pole. He slid the fabric of the tan cloak on his right arm up, revealing a tattooed sleeve that covered his whole caramel colored arm, with an extravagant time piece resting over his wrist. He returned focus to the two fledglings, and chuckled softly. 

“The sands of time wind down my friends…” he muttered quietly. He had found it weird that the duo had gone to a grocery store in search of a jacket… but maybe they had just changed their minds and were hoping to find clothes inside this store. He watched them frantically move about the store collecting some times, and picking up a jacket, before they continued on. They now slowly made their way to the register with the items they had. And just as the man was about to manifest a cashier… everything froze. “Hmm?” He rose a brow. Suddenly he noticed a dim orange light emanating from behind him. He cocked his head back slightly, and a smile grew across his face. 

“Funs over creep.” I said smiling, a finger gun with a flame at the end of my pointer finger, was centimeters from the back of his head. Luke stood behind me, a large demon's fist, had engulfed his hand. He shrugged to the man, smirking. The man rose his hands in surrender, and stood up slowly, turning to us slowly. “Who are you?” I asked.

“Nestos Carvalho… but please… my friends call me Nest.”

“Nestos?”

“It’s Brazilian…” Luke said… “so’s Lucas.” Nest smiled. 

“Indeed… aren’t you perceptive…” 

“I try sometimes.” Luke shrugged. 

“What do you want Nestos!?” I yelled, pointing my flame closer to him, he leaned back. 

“Well… my goal here was to simply observe…” Nestos shrugged. 

“Why?” I asked firmly.

“That’s for me to know, and you to find out… faaaaar later.” A smile grew across Nests face. 

“Can I kill this asshole now?” Luke growled. 

“Oh… quite touchy hmm? That’s quite enough of that, we haven’t the time for anger.” Nest glanced at the moon, then back to us, smiling softly. “Well…time ticks on.” With that, he lowered his hands to his waist, then rose them upward, an upsurge of sand covered, and veiled him, I gritted my teeth and fired a shot. The fireball hurtled through the wall of sand, and shot off into the distance. In a few seconds the sand collapsed to the ground. 

“He got away…” Luke muttered. Suddenly the cloak turned to sand, and trickled off my body.

“That explains why I was able to disguise my spell so similarly… it seems his was an almost an identical spell… just composed of sand and not heat…” I muttered. “We should get back to the others…” I said. Luke nodded, then rose a brow, glancing down at his stomach.

“What about dinner?” He smiled nervously, we laughed. 

“We’ll stop somewhere on the way.” I said, hopping down from the telephone pole, Luke followed. We began our trek toward the hotel, keeping our eyes peeled.

“So…” I began, Luke turned to me. “What’s it like being Theodore Kaine’s son?” Luke turned his head forward again. 

“I’m not… really… his son.” 

“Well… yeah everyone knows that… it was all over the news when he decided to take you in. All over the world it was broadcasted… one of the richest men in the world, created a specially designed school for magi, and his daughter, and you were the first students.”

“His daughter and an Orphaned Mutt…”

“What?”

“That’s what the headline read…” Luke said quietly. His fists clenched. 

“Luke…” i rose a brow, and suddenly Luke turned to me, a huge smile across his face. 

“Ah well… I’m gonna show them, right?” He laughed taking a few steps ahead of me.  He was quiet for a long time, but then returned to my side. “Anyway there’s a burger place up ahead it looks like.” He said pointing. 

“Hope it’s not fake.” I laughed hoping to lighten the mood. Luke smiled and nodded, chuckling a little. The shop wasn’t very busy, but certainly not fake. As we entered an old man sat at a table in the corner eating a burger, he was dressed in a tank top, and had a truckers hat on. He went in for a bite of his burger and stopped. He shook his head in dismay, and his hands illuminated an orange color. In moments his burger began steaming, and he took a bite out of it. 

“Hey there.” A girl at the counter said. She seemed to be about seventeen, and like she very much so did NOT want to be there. I smiled and greeted her. “Whaddya want?” She asked chewing loudly on her gum.

“You are just embracing that teenage girl stereotype huh?” Luke chuckled.

“What are you like thirty?” She groaned in response to Luke.

“Wh- thirty!? He roared. I’ll have you know I’m twenty you ignorant little-“

“Oook.” I said, butting in. “Let’s not commit a crime here…” Luke pouted and crossed his arms.

“She started it.” 

“Just 6 burgers and fries please.”

“Uh huh.” The girl muttered, tapping the screen. “Sixteen eighty.” She said flatly. I handed her a twenty. She took it, then gave me my change. “Like the outfit.” The girl said to me, literally zero emotion in her voice. I glanced down at my black t shirt, ripped jeans, and black boots, and laughed. 

“Thanks” I laughed. 

“Like your boyfriends too.”

“Wh- he's not.”

“I know right!!! The leather jacket’s sweet isn’t it!” Luke yelled a huge smile across his face. The girl just nodded.

“Your mood changed fast.” I laughed

“The girls got taste what can I say.” Luke shrugged. We laughed, and Luke managed a small chuckle from the girl.

“Here you go.” She said, sliding a bag to us. Luke picked it up. 

“Thank you so much.” I smiled. 

“Yeah yeah.” The girl waved, as we exited the small store. 

“She was nice.” Luke said, his mouth full of fries. 

“You didn’t think so earlier.”

“I’m entitled to my opinion.” He said, glancing away from me, we shared a laugh. It didn’t take us long to reach the hotel again. Sabrina met us out front and we brought the food to our room. The room was… different  than I thought, one main room where everyone was sitting in a circle, around a coffee table, around which there was a futon. Then there was a kitchen directly to the right, going across the wall and a doorway that led to a bedroom on the right. It was more like an apartment…

“About time.” Caleb groaned. I glanced at Luke, and he nodded. 

“We have bad news.” I said.

“Yeah I’ll say, you got fast food… you don’t cook with this.” Caleb continued. 

“Just listen.” I said firmly. Everyone glanced at me. “Luke and I… were attacked.” 

“What?” Sabrina called jumping up, she examined us for damage over and over again. 

“We’re fine crazy.” Luke said grabbing her shoulders and holding her still. “The guy didn’t seem to be threatening himself… but his magic…” Luke muttered. 

“He cast an illusion spell on us made of sand, made us think we were in a grocery store. He told us he was just observing us.”

“You talked to him??” Lauren asked nervously. 

“Eh… kinda…” Luke returned. “The guy's name was Nest. But he seemed to be thin and not very combat oriented… my guess is he’s a spy, or some kind of mental magi that screws with his opponents heads. He didn’t really give us information though… just really his name.”

“What was he wearing?” Harry said firmly, I rose a brow… that’s an odd question… 

“Why?” I asked. Harry and Lauren exchanged glances. The two sighed, and finally Lauren spoke up. 

“The night of the power outage. Harry and I were… Attacked.” The group dawned a mixed bag of confusion and worry on their faces. 

“More like they had come to Lauren’s door, and were waiting for her, and we had to fight them off…” Harry clarified.

“Wait…” Luke muttered. “... why were you in Lauren’s dorm?”

“I-“ Harry stopped himself.

“Don’t get the wrong idea… it was just to sleep…”

“Holy shit! Way to go Har!” Luke exploded into laughter. I punched Luke’s arm. “Alright… ow…”

“It’s not important.” I said.

“Just a joke….” Luke mumbled, waving his hands defensively.

“What’s important is who these people are…. You fought them off Harry? See anything telling?” I asked.

“Eeeehh… not really… I pinned one up against the wall… then he melted away into the floorboards…”

“Melted?” Sabrina asked, Harry nodded. 

“He felt light I guess… maybe it was this Nest guy?” He shrugged. 

“Ugh… ooooh my god it’s so late can we just… go to sleep.” Caleb groaned. 

“You’re not curious?” I asked.

“Of course I am… but what are we gonna sort out now? Besides what we just talked about we have no more leads. We’re gonna worry ourselves sick trying to beat the game already, and we aren’t even playing with all the pieces.” The room fell silent.

“I hate it when hes right.” Luke groaned, flopping down on the futon. “Guess we should get some actual sleep then?”

“Girls in the bedroom, boys out here.” Sabrina smiled, walking toward the bedroom. The guys gave a collective groan and wave, before we went into the bedroom. 

“You alright April?” Sabrina asked changing into softer clothing. 

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine… a little rattled still but it’s nothing awful.”

“Guess out of the six of us, you and Luke are really the only ones to experience an encounter with a real evil magi.” Lauren muttered, taking her shirt off. 

“Yeah…” I said quietly. Lauren cocked her head, and sat on the bed in front of me. 

“Whats up?”

“I… what?”

“Your whole vibes like… waaaay negative. So what’s up?”

“Lauren she might not want to talk about it…” Sabrina  chimed in.

“No… no it’s ok…” I waved. “Again… I’m just a little rattled… in the end everything was ok, I had Luke with me so it was fine.” I laughed. Lauren rose a brow at me, and a large smirk came across her face. 

“Mmm Luke was there Huh…” 

“Y-yeah…” I muttered, feeling my face heat up. Sabrina remained silent… I cleared my throat, and stood up… obviously flustered. “I uh… I’ll take the floor…” I said smiling.

“No, no April… you don’t have to!” Sabrina spoke up, I waved her off. 

“I prefer firm to soft anyway helps the back.” I smiled, grabbing a pillow off the bed and tossing it on the floor. “Plus it only looks like two can fit on that bed, and I’m willing to be the odd man out.” I laughed. The others nodded and we all climbed into bed…