The moment I felt the mental pressure of the Realm disappear, I yanked us back into the nex line. Just like Alexie had done to lose a stalker, I zig-zagged us through the nex lines randomly, twisting around corners and looping around large cities. By the time I let us fall back into the normal world, we both felt sick.

   Tate didn't let go of my arm, but he was green. We both stood in the middle of a playground, the sun having already set. He coughed and covered his mouth. "W-We're out, but I think I'm going to throw up."

   "I would if there was anything in my stomach to throw up," I agreed, groaning. The humidity in the air made my clothes stick back against my skin and my hair against my neck. The familiar skyline of Memphis gleamed through the night, towers blinking merrily in the faint moonlight. 

   The aching all across my body became apparent as the adrenaline from the escape seeped away. I looked down, trying to count the wounds. The punctures in my foot and back, the claw slashes through my forearm, the bite across my calf, the broken ribs, and not to mention, the millions of small scratches and bruises.

   Tate seemed to be doing the same. His arm had rebroken at some point, and I could see his shoulder was dislocated. His side was covered in slash marks. His eye was swollen. His leg bled, and blood steadily dripped from his temple. In other words, we looked as if we had escaped several disasters. 

   "Please tell me there's somewhere we can go to get healed?" I muttered.

   Tate nodded. "Any magick hospital."

   "Where's the closest one to Memphis?"

   "Just the normal hospital. There's a concealed magick entrance."

   "And, say, I can just move us directly inside?"

   "I think so. I've seen mages Linewalk directly in."

   Linewalk? You know, I'm too tired to ask. "Good. Hold on." I closed my eyes, focusing in the nex line. Tate held my elbow. I stepped into the current and the playground disappeared from around us. I moved us slowly so as not to lose my location. As the city passed by, I was able to somewhat direct us toward the main hospital. Tate had said the magick entrance was concealed . . . probably by magic, then.

   Sure enough, I found a smaller line that seemed to have a door to it. Magic wavered around my hazy vision of the real world. I pulled us through the door. Bright green magic immediately caught my wrist, stabbing into the skin painlessly, and jerked me out of the nex line.

   Tate and I were forcibly thrown from the nex gate and both of us stumbled, caught off guard. I slipped and almost fell down, cursing at my aching leg. "Shit! Why the hell did you have a spell on that?! Only hurt people would use that gate, dammit!" I wasn't happy with their decision to booby-trap the door. We stood in the lobby of an ER, chairs lining the walls with a single desk that was empty of receptionist.

   A nurse that had been walking past yelped and dropped her stuff. She fumbled with her things, muttering, before raising her voice. "It's a precaution against attackers, ma'am." The nurse straightened and adjusted her staff in the straps across her back. "If you need attention, sign those papers and we'll call you back soon."

   I snatched a clipboard after shooting her a glare. I held the board, looked at the information it wanted, and hesitated. It wanted my home address . . . if Dani was going to come after me, if she found that I'd been here, she'd find this paper. It would lead her straight to my dad. I clenched my jaw and wrote my name honestly, but lied on every other form.

   Tate glanced over my shoulder after filling out his own absurdly-long form. "I thought you said you lived in Memphis?"

   "I'm not leaving a paper trail for Dani to follow to my dad." I rang the bell on the desk. The nurse reappeared and took the board. Her eyebrows furrowed at the sight of the box where I'd written my injuries. "Major lacerations, broken ribs... What exactly were you doing to sustain these?"

   "Fighting wild animals and drowning murderous men," I snapped. "When can we see a doctor? These hurt like hell."

   The nurse shook her head. "I'll take you back right now."

   Tate and I had been put into separate rooms. The one I was guided into had cream-colored walls, a stretcher bed, a counter, and a wheelie-chair. I sunk into the wheelie-chair and leaned back, my ribs feeling like they were on fire. It didn't take long for an aging woman with silver-streaked brunette hair to enter. Her nametag read Dr. Louisa Gerald. 

   She was reading my clipboard with an odd look. "Miss Reilly?"

   "That's me."

   She finally looked up and stopped short, her eyes wide. Dr. Gerald looked back down and up, stunned. "I thought my nurse was exaggerating when she said you were torn up."

   "Nope."

   Dr. Gerald didn't waste time. She grabbed a flashlight and hurried over to me, taking my arm and lifting it up to examine the slashes. Her whole body locked when she saw the black mark. My spine tensed a little.

   Her gloved finger touched it, very gently. "I knew I recognized that name and face," Dr. Gerald said softly. "This mark . . ." She looked up at me. I frowned, confused. "You recognize me?"

   "Of course I do." She blinked. "You only just got out of the Ghost Realm, didn't you? Just now?"

   My hackles raised and my eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"

   "Because of what I'm about to show you." She poked her head out the door. "Nina! Bring me the one on top of the stack on the break room table! Just slide it under the door." She closed said door and turned around. "I need you up on the bed. Can you do it yourself?"

   I still didn't understand, but I got no red flags. She didn't seem to be hiding anything. I got up, leaning heavily on my good leg, and got onto the bed. She sat in the wheelie-chair and lifted my arm again, flashing the light into it. Dr. Gerald began to talk. "These are so cleanly cut . . . I've never seen anything like it. It'll be easy to heal. What did this?"

   "A crythal."

   She nodded, lowering her hand to check my calf. "And this?"

   "A different crythal. Just as mean, though."

   "The holes in your foot?"

   "A wolf shifter"

   "And back, too?"

   "Yup."

   Dr. Gerald shook her head. "And the lines around your wrists?"

   "Zipties."

   "Broken ribs?"

   "CPR."

   "Dear Lord, you're lucky to be alive," she muttered. I had slightly enjoyed watching her face get more and more stunned and cracked a crooked smile. She reached back and pulled her staff from the clasps. "I'm going to take care of your ribs first. Then I've got to clean out the wounds everywhere else."

   I didn't complain. She stood up and placed one hand on my shoulder. The top of her staff softly pressed on my ribcage. Faint gold lines appeared in the cracks of the wood staff and dripped off of it, seeping into my skin. The relief was immediate. My ribs warmed a little uncomfortably, but I actually felt the ribs seal back together and the inflamed muscles begin to deflate.

   My shoulders slumped as one of the two most painful injuries quit hurting. Dr. Gerald noticed but didn't say anything, because there was a knock on the door and something was slipped under it. "Thank you, Nina." Dr. Gerald got up and picked up the item.

   It was a magazine. The name of it was the Anchorage Anchor. I wasn't all impressed with the pun. I could hear my best friend complaining at the laziness of it. My attention was drawn away from the title by the picture on the cover. It was very obviously me. I was wearing the dress from the party. It had been taken from the side, only showing half of my face, but my face wasn't the main subject. The image had been snapped just as I had brought my arms up a little and conjured the crimson wave. 

   Scarlet flames were rising from the floor. It looked as if I was being eaten by dark red fire, all while it flickered from my hands and gold sparks flew from my fingers. My eyes were drawn to my face. My expression was focused. I remembered feeling desperate in that moment, because Dani had been whooping my ass. 

   The adjoined headline read, "Roxie Reilly: Dani Darhk's End?"

   The accidental alliteration of our names made me snort. I accepted the magazine from Dr. Gerald's hand. "Well, the reporter listened. It seems that she got pictures from the camera I smashed after all."

   "You smashed Jen Kill's camera?"

   "She was there illegally. What else was I supposed to do?"

   Dr. Gerald shook her head, amused. "Well, she did a spot-on description of you. Go ahead and read it while I clean out your arm." She pulled over a rolling table and set my arm on it. I relaxed it the best I could while flipping to the article page.

   "Dani Darhk may have made a fatal mistake, at long last. Two years ago, Darhk was the first recorded mage to have been caught using dark magic in decades. She had been on the run since until she was apprehended by Marrok the alpha wolf, Calida the fire fae chief, and Alexie Albers, the White Mage himself. 

   "Now, it is clear that Darhk evaded exile to the Ghost Realm, as had been ordered by the Council. She was not imprisoned, safely away from us. She made her appearance last night in a commerce building, just miles away from the U.S.-Canadian border. 

   "But Darhk's escape is not the biggest piece of news. She was after the celebratory party of someone the magick world has never seen. While she disappeared for five months, it appears that Alexie Albers took on an apprentice. The White Mage is especially known for his part in the Cleansing several years ago. He is distant, and his reputation cold. And yet, the White Mage took on an apprentice: a young woman by the name of Roxie Reilly.

   "This woman has appeared from no where. She has no past in the magick world, no records of life in our way of life. She reached the third stage of training and it was her party that Darhk was after. Reilly and her friends were participating in a game when the roof caved and Darhk dropped inside, knocking out half of the attendees.

   "As Reilly and Darhk engaged, it became evidently clear to me that Reilly may not have finished her training, but she was formidable. No one has stood up for so long against Dani Darhk -- no one except Alexie Albers.

   "While Reilly fended off Darhk's assaults, no Albers appeared. He was missing all while Darhk began to corner the apprentice. He only appeared at the last second, taking a spell meant for Reilly. The nature of the spell is unknown, but the moment it touched his skin, I witnessed as his flesh turned as black as a source's mark.

   "He and Darhk vanished seconds afterwards. They never reappeared. Reilly got back to her feet and vowed vengeance. I had not made my presence known until I accidentally took a flash image. Reilly apprehended me. Instead of kicking me out, she dared me to write this piece. She knew that I could do nothing to hurt her. She had just survived Darhk's attack and proven that her magic is nearly as dangerous as Alexie Albers'. 

   "Who is Roxie Reilly? I attempted to find her family to ask, and tried to interview her friends, but all was for naught. So I must draw a conclusion from what I was able to witness. She faced Dani Darhk with unwavering focus. When her own master was taken by her enemy, she didn't cower. She swore to take Dani's life in revenge. "I was going to stay out of it," she'd said. "Not anymore. You're going to pay. I'm going to make sure of it. Start running, Dani Darhk. Your days are numbered, and I'm the one counting."

   "And, strangely enough, I believe her."