He didn't let his mind dwell on what had happened Friday night or the fact that the nightmares had stopped immediately after the strange encounter. He spent the entire weekend sleeping to make up for the five days of sleeplessness he had endured. By Monday, the bags under his eyes had almost completely receded and his Circadian clock was back on track. Just in time, too, because on Monday, all the schools of Magix were assigned their first joint mission. Classes were canceled and the whole day would be devoted to the mission that was sent to their dorms that morning.

"What's it say?" Aidan asked as he walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist.

Electro looked up from the mission report and answered, "It's called the Jewel of Elegy."

"Sounds princess-y," Ray said with a disgusted look on his face.

"So I'm guessing it was Alfea's turn to come up with the mission?" Thorn suggested.

"Actually," Electro corrected, "Cloudtower came up with this one."

"Yes!" Marin cheered, pumping a fist in the air as he bounced on his bed. "Theirs are the best. That Griffin chick knows how to plan a cool mission."

"That 'Griffin chick'," Aidan said, walking over to the Androsian prince and pushing him off of his bed, "is more powerful than you will ever be. Try showing some respect."

Marin rubbed his head where it had hit the ground.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Don't get all in a fuss. I was just messin'."

Rolling his dark eyes at his friend's antics, Reed asked, "So where is it?"

"The woods outside of Magix," Electro answered. "By the fence, where all the druggies go."

"I can't wait to see the look on the fairies' faces when they have to fly through the Dark Woods," Ray said excitedly.

"Let's get going now. I don't want those fairies getting a headstart," Aidan said, now fully clothed.

All six boys walked to the center of the room and in a swirl of dark smoke, they all six disappeared only to reappear moments later in a shady grove surrounded by twisted trees. Before they could take stock of their location, a loud cackle preluded the entrance of the Coven Grimm.

"Lookie, lookie," a voice drawled seductively. Three figures stepped out of the shadows and into the dim light of the grove. "It's been a while, Cabal Knights."

Aidan smiled at the brunette witch with the wicked grin and ruby lips who had spoken. She strutted forward, color-changing eyes flashing coyly as she draped herself over Marin's shoulders. Planting a welcoming kiss on his cheek, she moved through the boys and did the same for each.

"Alexandra, to what do we owe the pleasure?"

"We're working together on this one," a screechy voice answered lowly, obviously trying to mimic Alexandra's drawl. This witch stood in the middle of the two others, decked out in dark blue and too much makeup, even for a Cloudtower girl.

"Janus," Aidan acknowledged, nodding stiffly.

"I've told you a million times," the blonde whined playfully, "just call me Jan."

"Whatever. Let's get to beating those pixies," the third witch grunted, punching her fist into her palm threateningly. She was dressed entirely in black to match the color of her hair, eyes, and powers. A silver C hung from a chain around her neck similar to the silver initials hanging from the other two witches' necks.

"Charybdis," Aidan acknowledged, this time with a smile. "How was your summer?"

"Boring," the powerful witch groaned. "We went on vacation to some stupid spa resort and Scylla made schedules for everything. It was awful."

Ray laughed obnoxiously.

"I was just happy to see you both out of the castle."

Charybdis walked over to slug him in the shoulder and the two got into a mock-wrestling match. Alexandra joined Thorn and Aidan in a conversation on how their summers went, and Jan tried to flirt with Marin. Reed and Electro looked over the mission assignment as the warlocks and witches caught up.

The camaraderie and socializing, of course, disappeared with the arrival of the Magix Club and their hero lackeys. Such things weren't meant for those aligned with such dark arts. With careful practice, the witches and warlocks switched the conversation into one of a much angrier, much nastier variety.

"Already fighting, I see," Winter announced upon his arrival to the shady grove. The colorless hero stood with his chest puffed out and his feet set widely apart, but his darting blue eyes revealed his unease. Actually, Aidan noticed, all of the fairies and heroes looked uncomfortable. Ray nudged Aidan in the ribs.

"What took you so long?" Aidan teased. "Was there a sale on panties at the mall?"

Skye whispered none too quietly to Nell, "Girl, I wish."

Winter rolled his eyes and took a challenging step forward. Aidan stepped forward as well.

"Let's just get this mission over with," Snow said before a fight could break out.

When he made eye contact with her, it felt like all of his strength was sapped out of him. By the hardened look in her eyes, Snow didn't remember any of last night.

Clearing her throat, she asked. "What does your mission folder say?"

Electro pulled out his folder and flipped to the mission outline. Reed peered over his shoulder as he read aloud.

"Find half the gem of requiem planted with the trees. At Genesis you shall find the Jewel of Elegy."

"Ooo, a riddle," Charbydis crooned followed by an awful cackle. "Griffy's stepping up her game."

"Griffin," Alexandra corrected, forcefully taking the witches' mission folder from the Solarian's hands. "Let's see what ours has to say."

Janus took the paper from Alexandra and cleared her throat obnoxiously. Aidan shared an exasperated look with Snow before they both remembered they were on opposing sides. He took a sudden interest in the forest canopy, trying to ignore the heat on his cheeks.

"Bro, you good?" Ray whispered. "You're turning redder than me."

"Redder than you?" Marin said, leaning forward. "He's turning redder than his hair."

Luckily, his joke distracted them from Aidan's blush and they quickly forgot about it in favor of laughing quietly to themselves. Janus cleared her throat more violently, looking pointedly at the two boys doubling over in their laughter. Aidan spared a glance at Snow who was glaring at the two interrupting teens, but the blush on her face gave her away. He couldn't hold back his smirk.

Janus began in a shrill voice:

"Destroy the half of epitaph granted unto thee. Foil them in their quest to find the Jewel of Elegy."

She finished with an accomplished smile. Alexandra looked in the folder and found a quarter of purple crystal, raw on one side and flat on the other sides. Electro took it from her and scanned it with one of his gadgets.

"It's a chthonian crystal- or, at least, half of one. It has a special connection with death and is commonly used to communicate with or locate the dead. Cloudtower's senior finals require the witches to make one to pass, among other things, so Magix has them in bulk. They're sort of faulty and potions tend to work better, which is why the gems are now normally used as decoration."

"It is very pretty," Skye said, leaning forward to get a closer look when Electro pulled it away from her. She glared and stepped back to stand by the fairies.

Scylla opened Alfea's folder and said, "It's the same riddle the Knights had."

"Ours is the same as the Coven's," Reese added as he pulled an identical quarter-gem from Red Fountain's folder. His darting brown eyes looked it over quickly before tossing it to Kody. "Are we supposed to work together?"

The gem made its way through the ranks of the Heroes, passing from hand to hand to hand.

"Ew, I don't want to work with heroes," Charybdis complained.

"Yeah, we aren't happy about working with warlocks either," Ruby said, crossing her arms.

Snow took the gem piece from her brother and said with resignation, "It looks like we have to. Let's just get this over with."

"Wait."

Everyone looked towards Alexandra.

"So... we have to destroy the pieces of that gem so that you can't form the whole Jewel of Elegy?" she asked, pointing to the gem Electro was holding. Electro and Snow looked down at the hunks of purple crystal in their hands.

"Uh... yes?"

There was silence in the clearing before the witches' hands started glowing. A wicked grin spread across Charbydis's face. The heroes unsheathed their weapons.

"We should probably go, right?" Nell asked, looking to Snow. The winter fairy nodded.

"Yeah, we should probably go."

The six fairies took to the air and shot off into the forest with the witches hot on their heels. The heroes took offensive stances. The warlocks shared a look.

"Just- just hand over the gem," Winter said, holding his sword to Aidan's neck. Aidan grinned.

"Make me," he laughed, taking a step back before spinning and running into the forest. The Cabal Knights followed with the heroes in hot pursuit.

"So, uh... where are we going?" Ray asked as he dodged the plasma gun one of the heroes was firing after them.

Aidan vaulted over a fallen log and stumbled on a root, narrowly avoiding crashing into a tree thanks to Thorn pulling him out of harm's way. Signaling at the warlocks to duck behind an upcoming boulder, he let the heroes pass by as he whispered, "The file said something about a tree."

"Not at all helpful," Marin deadpanned.

Electro pulled out the folder and read, "At Genesis, you shall find the Jewel of Elegy."

"That doesn't say anything about trees."

"The first half was about trees," Aidan argued, whacking Marin in the arm.

"Whatever."

"Guys, focus," Electro said, rolling his eyes. "We have to find Genesis to find the jewel."

"We already have the jewel," Marin said, holding up the two quarters they had started with.

"That must be where we'll combine the jewels with the Magix Club's quarters," Electro explained.

"I hate that we have to work with the Magix Club," Reed grumbled, peering out from behind the boulder.

"Yeah, well, we still get to defeat those heroes," Aidan said. "Electro, look up any place called Genesis in the Dark Woods."

"I already did. There's nothing."

"Maybe it's a riddle," Reed offered.

"Obviously it's a riddle, dipshit," Marin said, knocking Reed upside the head.

"No, I meant that Genesis is a riddle," the youngest warlock grumbled, rubbing the blossoming bruise on his head. "Maybe it means beginning."

"So, like, the beginning of the forest?" Ray suggested.

Thorn asked, "The entrance? That's where we started."

"No, the root of the forest."

"A forest has lots of roots," Marin said.

"Can you shut up for, like, two minutes?" Reed groaned. "I mean, the first tree. My mom took us there on a field trip once. It's near downtown Magix. It's the beginning of the forest. Great Dragon, you guys never let me talk."

"Sorry, little guy," Aidan said, ruffling Reed's dark hair. "That was some clever sleuthing. Let's go check it out."

Reed grumbled something else under his breath, but when he looked up, the Cabal Knights were already a few yards away. He hurried to catch up with them, grumbling under his breath the whole way.

Snow huffed in frustration as she watched another fairy team zip past them with a group of nasty-looking witches hot on their heels. Looking over her shoulder, she felt relief wash over her at the sight of a clear sky. At least they had lost the Coven Grimm.

"I'm ready to shriek," Skye groaned, landing on a nearby tree branch. "We've been flying around in circles, no closer to solving this riddle than we were when we started."

"I'm not finding anything on Genesis," Scylla said, scrolling through her phone as she stopped at a different branch.

"That's because there is no Genesis," Ruby complained, floating down to sit cross-legged on the same branch as Skye. She crossed her arms and whined, "Cloudtower just sent us on a wild goose chase."

"I don't even care about beating the witches," Snow groaned. She and Nell sat on an adjacent tree's branches and Bonnie continued to hover in the air. "I wouldn't be able to stand it if the Cabal Knights got there first though."

Just then, the sound of leaves being trampled alerted them to the Heroes hurtling through the underbrush below. They watched them zip by and then a second later, two bright green eyes peered out from a bush. A tall, menacing figure rose from the shrubbery and cast out his hands. Five nearby bushes opened up and five more teenage boys tumbled out. They quickly went in the opposite direction the heroes had gone, but not before Snow heard Reed mention that it was only a few more minutes away.

"Was that Thorn?"

"They know where it is."

Ruby gasped, "They're going to get there before us!"

"Not if we follow them," Snow said, flying up from the branch. "Come on, girls. We're going to win this thing."

She darted off into the woods with her team close behind, hovering close enough that they wouldn't lose the Cabal Knights but far enough that they wouldn't be spotted. True to his word, they arrived at the Mother Tree in only a few minutes.

"Oh my Dragon, we're idiots," Nell groaned quietly, facepalming herself.

"Don't worry," Bonnie reassured her by patting her on the shoulder. "It looks like everyone else is too, because we're the only ones here yet."

The Cabal Knights tentatively approached the tree and surveyed the tourist signs.

"What now?" Ray asked.

"Follow my lead," Snow whispered to the other fairies as they touched down on the clearing. She declared loudly, "Finally, you're here."

"Don't even," Marin said. "We were here first."

"Whatever you say," Skye said with a smirk. "Let's just get this over with."

"You fairies are so infuriating," Marin grunted in response. Skye only winked and turned to Snow.

"How was that?"

"Perfect," the leader answered quietly. Turning to address the group, she said, "So let's get to the bonding."

"Ew, bonding?" Reed spat.

"Bonding of the gems, idiot," Snow answered with just as much spite.

"Watch it," Aidan threatened. He took a step forward between Reed and Snow. Snow turned up her nose and pulled out Alfea's gem quarter as well as Red Fountain's quarter. Electro did the same with their quarters.

"So how are we gonna do this?" Thorn asked as he strode over to the group once he surveyed the perimeter.

"A simple bonding spell should do the trick," Ruby replied, rubbing her hands together as she summoned her magic.

"Wait."

Snow held up a hand to stop her and then pointed to the tree.

"The sap."

"What sap?"

"The tree sap. Duh," Electro replied, shooting Nell an irritated look for her stupid question.

"Hey, you didn't guess it either."

"Guys, oh my Dragon, shut up," Aidan groaned. Looking to Snow, he cued her to continue.

"We're supposed to use the sap of the Mother Tree to bind the gem together," Snow said. "I remember this lesson from Palladium's class last year. It can bring together anything, even two warring nations."

"Great. Thorn, get the sap," Ray commanded, pointing him towards the tree.

"Why me?"

"You're the nature guy."

"That's a magic tree," Thorn explained. "I can't just open it up. It requires trust, a bond."

"Ooh! Use the sap to bond with the tree!"

"Ray, I would need the SAP for that," Thorn huffed, crossing his arms.

"I say we just blast it," Skye said, holding up her hands and calling on her magic.

"No, Skye!"

But it was too late. The blast hit the tree and the shockwave reverberated through the forest, throwing the fairies and warlocks backwards.

"Great. Now everybody knows where we are," Aidan grunted as he sat up, gingerly rubbing his shoulder.

"What are you doing?!" a squeaky voice cried. "What did you do to the Mother Tree?!"

Aidan waited for the world and the floating green ball to come back into focus. That's when he saw the pixie. She was small- obviously- with green hair, slanted pink eyes, and an outfit just as frilly and ridiculous as the Magix Club's winx transformation. Her cherubic face was screwed up in contempt in a way that sickeningly reminded him of Snow.

A baby pixie floated out after her, this one sporting a reverse hair and eye color scheme and a cowboy hat.

"Poota pa toota?" the baby asked.

"No, everything's fine, little sis," the older pixie said, brandishing a wand threateningly at the group of teenagers still lying on the floor after that shockwave. "Go back inside."

Marin rubbed his head tenderly as he sat up.

"Great. As if Alfea pixies weren't bad enough, now we have to deal with actual pixies."

Snow sat up but the second she laid eyes on the pixies, all the pain of the blast disappeared from her face.

"Oh my Dragon, you're so cute!"

The pixie flew over to Snow and fluttered in front of her.

"Are you okay? That shockwave didn't hurt you, did it?" the pixie asked worriedly. Aidan looked at Thorn, who looked just as confused as he felt.

"No, no. I'm fine," Snow assured her. "I'm Snow, Fairy of Ice."

"I'm Vignette, Pixie of Springtime," the green-haired fairy replied with a smile.

The two were enveloped in a blinding light. Aidan and the others looked away or shielded their eyes from it. When it finally died down, Snow was standing and talking to Vignette. At this point, the baby pixie flew over.

"Oh, Snow, this is my little sister Villanelle," Vignette introduced.

"Wait, Snow," Bonnie said in a low voice. "Did you just bond to a pixie?"

"I guess I did."

"Congratulations!"

They all started chattering excitedly. Aidan saw Electro roll his eyes and Ray groaned loudly.

"Ladies!" Ray called, making them all shut up. "The mission?"

The girls all glared at him before Snow turned to her pixie and asked, "Is there any way you could help us get sap from the Mother Tree?"

"Anything for you," Vignette replied, zipping back to the tree. "Be right back!"

They stood around awkwardly for a few minutes, some of them wandering off and others talking about who knows what. Some of the fairies started playing with the baby pixie that Aidan had already forgotten the name of. Snow was standing at the base of the tree, staring up at its impossibly tall canopy.

Thorn came up to Aidan with that look on his face like he was about to say something the pyromancer would not want to hear. He braced himself, but that didn't stop him from feeling uncomfortable when the brooding warlock finally spoke.

"Talk to her. You've been staring at her this whole time and you've obviously got something to say."

"I have not and I do not."

"Aidan."

"Fine. Whatever."

He trudged over to the winter fairy, who jumped and spun around when she saw his shadow looming over her.

"What do you want?" she spat, craning her neck to look up at him with those giant blue eyes.

"Nothing. Congrats on the pixie or whatever."

She looked surprised.

"Oh, thanks."

"Do you think we're going to win?"

"I'm surprised we even got this far."

He nodded in agreement, surprised at his ability to be civil with her for that long. Of course, it wouldn't last because he couldn't ruin his reputation.

"I'm surprised you guys even found your way to the tree."

Her nose scrunched up and her pale cheeks started turning red, but then she took a deep breath and blinked up at him, throwing him for a loop.

"Me too, considering that we followed you guys here."

He chuckled despite himself.

"Why, Snow, was that an insult?"

She shrugged and replied, "I guess you're just a bad influence."

Now, crucify him for thinking this, but he liked the way that sounded on her lips. Thorn called them over and broke the awkward staring contest the two were having. Aidan coughed and hurried over to the group. Immediately, he sensed something was wrong.

"Oh my-"

Skye gagged and turned away from the huddle. Aidan and Snow shoved their way to the middle, only to gasp in shock. On the floor in front of them was another dead body. The witch was slit at the throat and had tears streaming from her open, glassy eyes.

"No," Scylla whispered, shaking her head and backing up into Reed. He caught her by the shoulders, but she just jumped and pulled away.

"When did this get here?" Aidan asked, looking around at the twice-traumatized group of teens. Bonnie was straight up bawling and Ruby was trying to comfort her while fighting back tears of her own.

"I don't know, man. It's just here," Marin answered.

"We need to call the police," Snow said, taking a step back from the group.

"Are you crazy?" Aidan said, rounding on her. "We'd be caught twice in a week with a dead body. Let's just fix the gem and get out of here."

"Are you kidding?" Nell asked, looking near tears. "That is a girl who was on the very same mission as us. That very well could have been one of us. We can't just leave her."

"So you'd choose a random witch's dead body over your own?" Electro said with a derisive snort.

"Yes."

He fell silent. Nell sniffled.

"You guys can go, if you want. But I'm not leaving," Snow said, standing her ground. Aidan rolled his eyes.

"They could still be out here, Snow."

"Who?"

"The murderer."

A visible chill ran up her spine at his words.

"It's a big forest," Electro added, looking at Nell pointedly. "He could be hiding a few feet away and we would never know."

"Guys."

Everyone looked to Scylla, who was frantically tugging on Reed's sleeve and staring at the ground in abject horror.

"It's happening again."

Tears started streaming fresh from the witch's dead eyes. It flooded onto the floor, forcing them all to back up. The body was encased in its own tears. This time, instead of shrinking, it started dissolving, melting into the grass.

"Holy shit," Thorn muttered, taking another step back and knocking into Ray, who all-in-all looked unfazed.

"Dude, that's sick," the sunburnt warlock said, pulling a disgusted face. Then the body was gone.

"I don't care about the mission anymore," Ruby muttered, dropping the gem fragment on the ground. She backed up and fluttered above the ground. "I just want to go home."

"No, Ruby, we can't just-"

"Who cares?! Let the police take care of it!" she cried, flying away. Snow sighed and looked at her friends.

"I'll go," Nell suggested, shooting a scathing look at Electro before shooting off into the sky.

"Dude, you really got under her skin this time," Ray said, raising his hand into the air for a high-five. Electro glared and Ray slowly lowered his hand.

"Okay, I can't take this anymore," Skye said, covering her mouth. She looked a little green in the face. Bonnie gave her a sympathetic look and came up under her cousin's shoulder.

"Come on. I'll take you back, Skye."

"Wait, Bonnie," Scylla said, reaching out for the tiny girl's shoulder. "The body-"

"Is gone," the fairy of darkness finished. "Let's focus on what we can change."

She flew away with Skye..

"Bonnie's right," Snow said. "Scylla, grab the gems."

Scylla reluctantly collected the gem fragments. Suddenly, the witches burst into the clearing.

"Release the gems!" Janus cried, pointing a finger threateningly.

"Not now, Jan," Aidan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What's going on?" Alexandra asked at the same time Janus announced loudly, "You don't tell me what to do, Aidan!"

"There... we had- it was another murder," he explained, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

"Oh my dragon, are you serious?" she asked, taking a step forward.

"Yes, I'm serious," he snapped. She flinched back. "Jan, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"No, it's fine," she assured him, visibly deflating. "I just... so where's the body?"

"Disappeared," Scylla muttered.

The witches' eyes snapped to the crumpled looking fairy.

"And what are they still doing here?" Charybdis asked accusingly, glaring at the two fairies left behind.

"The mission," Snow explained, holding up the gems in her hand. Just then, a boy pixie with a shock of red hair and pale skin flew down from the tree with a vial in his arms.

"Are you the fairies 'Nette was talking about?" he asked. His eyes were a cold black and his clothes were hidden by a darkly shimmering cloak, like oil on water. "Here's the sap."

He gave the vial to Snow and that's when his eyes connected to Scylla's.

"Hi," she said as he flew over. "I'm Scylla, Fairy of Constellations."

"You have stars in your eyes," he said in awe. Clearing his throat and blushing, he said, "I'm Mercury, Pixie of Astronomy."

A light enveloped them and as they turned away from Scylla and Mercury's bonding, Aidan saw Marin laugh and nudge Reed, teasing, "Looks like you have some competition."

Reed told him to shut up and then the light died down. Another pixie flew out of the tree, hollering for somebody to stop.

"Oh my dragon, more pixies?" Alexandra said in exasperation.

"This is a lot," Electro muttered, rubbing his fingers to his forehead.

The dark-skinned pixie skidded to a stop in front of Snow, sending her intricate blue twist into a mess. She reached up to fix her hair before she jumped, seemingly remembering what she had flown down for.

"Oh, the spell! Mercury, you can't expect them to use this without the spell, can you?" she chastised. Waving her arms and chanting something strange, the vial flowed blue and then returned to an orange color. With a contented sigh, she said, "There. Now pour it on the gem."

"Hold up," Janus said as Snow opened the vial. "You can't just expect us to let you win without a fight."

"Are you kidding me, Jan?" Aidan asked incredulously. "We've been through a lot today. Let's just bind the gem and head back."

"No way. Coven Grimm, form up!" she said in that shrill voice. Alexandra and Charybdis shared a reserved look before reluctantly drawing up their hands. "Moretzi sevil!"

At the words of the spell, the ground disappeared from under Scylla's feet and the fairy was already so tired and afraid that she didn't even fly as she fell into the ditch below.

"Scyl!" Snow cried. She tossed the gems and vial to Electro and flew down to her friend, who was out cold with Mercury tending to her.

"Is she- is she-"

"She's okay," Mercury said. "Just unconscious. She hit her head."

Snow nodded and flew under Scylla's arm, fluttering with all her might to get her topside again, but she wasn't strong enough to carry the fairy's deadweight.

"Take my hand!" she heard as she was halfway up. She looked up and saw Reed's face and outstretched arm as the flashes and bangs of magical battle raged in the sky above. She gave him a skeptical look.

"Come on, Snow. She needs to get out of here. Fast."

Snow reached up and took the small warlock's outstretched hand and fluttered with all her might as they worked together to pull Scylla up. Even Mercury and that blue pixie helped by tugging on Scylla's shirt sleeve as hard as they could. Eventually, they managed to drag her onto the grass. Reed and Snow fell back, panting and exhausted, on either side of her.

"Thanks," she said after sort of regaining her breath.

"Any time," he wheezed.

An explosion to their left made them sit bolt upright and scramble away from the battle. The witches were losing against the five warlocks, but they were putting up a good fight and leaving a fair amount of damage to the clearing as they did. A crowd of other fairies, heroes, witches, and warlocks had started to gather as they watched the fight. As she and Reed half-carried/half-dragged Scylla to the treeline, Snow looked for her brother and the other heroes, but she didn't see him anywhere.

Snow and Reed sat Scylla behind a tree.

"Stay with her," Snow ordered. "I'm finishing this."

"Wait, but I-"

His protest was cut off as a stray spell flew their way and he reflexively put up a shield to stop it from hitting Scylla's reclining form. He nodded at Snow and she took that as her go-ahead to charge into battle.

"Electro, where are the crystals?"

He pointed to the sky where Mercury and the blue pixie were fending off spells to protect a green orb. Inside the orb were the gem quarters and the vial.

She flew up and called out, "Heads up!"

Taking the orb, she hurled it at Electro.

"What am I supposed to do with this?!"

"Figure it out!"

He hugged the orb to his chest and ran to the treeline on his comically lanky legs, nearly colliding into two onlooking fairies as he did so. Apparently, a crowd had begun to gather, but Snow didn't dwell on that. She didn't dwell on much of anything anymore.

Flying fists first into battle, Snow fired off spells at the Coven Grimm. Somehow, she ended up alongside Aidan.

"Are they always like this?" she asked him between blasts.

He looked surprised to see her come up beside him, but he shot off a fireball at Charybdis and replied, "It's pretty much just Janus."

Alexandra's spell nearly took off Snow's head as she screeched and ducked. Aidan blasted a fireball at Alexandra in return.

"Why do they put up with her?" Snow groaned. Aidan just shrugged. Snow rolled her eyes and shot ice crystals at the witches in rapidfire succession. Suddenly, she was being shoved to the ground. Aidan's weight settled on top of her. His chest was heaving which made her hyper-aware of how close he was. His red bangs brushed against her forehead. He was that close.

"Wha-"

"Stray sunblast," Aidan panted. He didn't move. Snow didn't tell him to move.

He caught his breath, but still neither of them moved.

"Thanks."

That broke whatever spell was over him as he rolled off of her with a mumbled "Whatever." Jumping back up to his feet, he charged back into the battle, but Snow waited a second to catch her breath for other reasons.

"I figured it out!" Electro called from the treeline. He held up the whole gem and the Knights cheered. Snow felt weird to be cheering with them, but it was kind of cool to have Marin clap her on the shoulder. Come to think of it, she had never fought alongside the Cabal Knights before. Probably because they were usually the evil force the Magix Club was fighting against.

The witches groaned and retreated, leaving the clearing at the applause of all the bystanders.

Reed helped Scylla walk back to the group with Electro, who was proudly brandishing the gem. Snow somehow found herself back at Aidan's side. He wasn't cheering.

"Who do you think it is?" Snow asked.

Aidan sighed, knowing what she meant.

"I don't know. And why do we keep finding them?"

Snow just sighed and looked up at him. He didn't look back at her. Carding a hand through his hair, he ordered, "Come on, guys. Let's get that back to Magix."

The Knights started walking back to Magix City, but Snow grabbed Aidan's sleeve to hold him behind.

"Seriously, thanks for the save today."

He clenched his jaw and Snow tried not to stare at his jawline for too long.

"Whatever. I don't know what I would have done if Ray had knocked you out. I'm saving that one for graduation," he finished with a smirk, despite his tired eyes.

"Ha, ha," Snow said witheringly, rolling her eyes again, but she was smiling fondly up at him. Everything about the last hour felt totally surreal. "Scylla and I are going to head back to Alfea to get her checked out."

He nodded and watched as she shot off into the sky holding hands with Scylla. Reed jogged over to catch up with him.

"Aidan?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you think is happening?"

"I don't know, Reed. I really don't know."

I'm sorry that this took forever to post. My apologies to the three of you reading this story lol. I've gotten swept up in a lot of other things and I can't promise you another chapter.

Love, Ru