After the meeting, Lola and I head to the Wildcat study hall.

"Do you think Kalsae, I mean, Ceres is going to be better than Darrell? It's hard to think that Darrell just..." I trail off.

"Died." Lola says in a flat tone, finishing my sentence. "It was so dramatic."

"And sad, not to mention," I add.

"Ceres was controlled by Darrell, isn't that what Raea said?" I say.

Glumly, Lola says, "Darrell died. So maybe she isn't controlled by what the potion in the herbal tea made her be like. And also, who knows? How do we know we can even trust Raea? For all we know, she's just the Offense Magic teacher at Changers Academy."

We sit down at one of the tables.

"What about that Grey guy? Is he human or not?" I wonder aloud.

"Human, I think. Darrell, I mean, Avery taught Grey at Changers Academy, so he must be."

"What did Avery mean, manipulation? How do you manipulate things or even people?"

Even the thought sounded scary.

***

"Will Elfred Nelt, Sadie Carlyn, and Lola Desmo please report to Professor Clore's office? Thank you."

Lola and I look up at the loudspeaker.

"You are excused." says an almost angry voice. It sounds wrong on Pro. Sage, she usually is calm and sometimes, sad.

We hurry down the stairs, discussing along the way in almost silent whispers.

"What do you- why do think Raea needs us?" I say for the fifth time.

Lola shrugs. "I don't know, Sadie, I know as much as you do." she sounds a little exasperated, so I stop.

We both pause at the door. For some reason, the sign doesn't seem, maybe as happy before Darrell, I mean, Avery was killed.

Tentatively, Lola knocks.

"Hi." El opens the door. "Raea isn't here, she left a note on the table, we're supposed to..." he trailed off, meaning that whatever Raea had written, it wasn't to be shared with everyone.

We go in, locking the door.

We read the note, which is short but scares me to the core.

Hello El, Sadie, and Lola,

Today we're going to go somewhere. I'm outside Holes in Walls, waiting for you guys. Ceres will let you out, I told her and swore her to secrecy. Please don't tell anyone else about this. Also, GO AS A TEAM.

Destroy this as soon as you can, students aren't supposed to be outside of the Academy.

Raea Clore

"What are we doing?" I cry, panicked. "I didn't join this team to risk my li-," I correct myself- "actually, I did." I say. I'm doing something forbidden. 

El is calm. "Let's go, girls. We have to. We are a team, like Calix said. A team."

Slowly, Lola agrees. "El is right. Let's go."

Without telling anyone, we race to Ceres' office. We've got to do something important and we're gonna do it good. 

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