Kayden was glad she had grabbed the passenger seat of the taxi leaving Le Lieu.

After their adrenaline-fueled sprint out of the conference room, they had nabbed the first cab they had seen: a small thing loitering in the front parking lot. Kayden had instinctively gone to the front, leaving Blaze, Helio, and Lexi in the back. The problem was that Lexi and Helio had clearly made up from their earlier fight; they were nestled against each other in the backseat, whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears and giggling like school children. Blaze, meanwhile, kept sending Kayden uncomfortable glares through the overhead mirror. She could almost hear his voice in her head: Why did you leave me back here by myself?

Kayden hid her smirk and ran her hand over the cover of her pocket-sized copy of A Progressive Book of Magic.

She couldn't believe that she had forgotten about the book; the fear of losing her family had driven all rational thoughts out of her head. This book—this specific copy that Blaze had almost tossed into the sewer—had been their savior.

And now they were going to the author to beg him to pull it from the presses. It felt a bit hypocritical. Kayden rubbed the mark on her wrist self-consciously. But it's the only way.

Tilting the book away from the cab driver, she watched the capital letters in the title bloom into bright flowers and then withdraw into pointed green buds; it reminded her of the morning glories that crawled up a lattice on the side of her house. Once the letters had re-bloomed, Kayden opened the book and landed on the dedication page. It was just a few lines long and framed by a small circle of inked flowers:

To my loving wife, Elise.

Even now, after this shift, you are with me,

my lovely flower.

Kayden's heart twinged, but she moved onwards, flipping a few more pages until she reached the book's foreword. It was only a few pages long, but she skimmed through the first half; most of it addressed the failures of the original edition after predicting the wrong shift date and then it lightly touched on the consequent death of Walter's wife; that section was simply too painful to linger on. But she slowed when she saw the words "global warming."

Walter mentioned that earlier, she thought, remembering how once he had said it, Helio had begun to taunt the old man. Kayden glanced up at the overview mirror. She watched as Helio—unaware of her gaze—placed a kiss on Lexi's pink cheek. Kayden looked away, her stomach roiling, and bent her head to read the passage.

The slow evolution of magic is normal, but this sudden shift is anything but. Reliable statistics haven't been compiled yet, but news reports on television have told us all about the deaths and other disasters because of the shift.

Why has magic shifted so dramatically? Consider an analogy:

Global warming.

Before my wife and I began compiling the first edition of this book, we were members of an organization devoted to halting the rapid evolution of magic. Everyone knows about global warming in relevance to the environment. When it comes to magic, we believe a similar thing is going on, a sort of speed-up of unhealthy magical residue lingering in the world. We wanted to stage a global spell to cleanse the world, but we were not successful. And now the shift that we fought to prevent has occurred.

What this means is that it might not be very long until there is another shift, and then another. As a reader of this book and as a member of the potestas community, I beg you to do your part to stop the vicious cycle. If you are a man or woman of science, look into the matter and try to determine why the world is behaving like this. And if you are just a normal civilian, be respectful of magic and the environment. Think before you cast. Help make it so that a sudden shift will never happen again. If not for me, then for my late wife.

"Here we are," the cabbie said, snapping Kayden out of her reading. Voyle Publishing looked the same as it had earlier in the day: its boarded up windows, crumbling brick exterior, and peeling paint were all the same. However, now the street in front of the building was far from deserted. A crowd of roughly fifty individuals in suits were lingering on the property. The cabbie raised an eyebrow at the crowd, but did not comment.

Blaze shoved some cash into his hand and yanked the door open. His face lit up as soon as he had escaped the small confines of the cab. Kayden watched as he arched his back, soaking up the sun like a cat.

Helio whistled under his breath as he surveyed the crowd. There were mostly men, though there also were a few women in sharp suits and sleek black pumps. Some were standing in front of the warehouse, talking. Others were trying to make their way into the building, pressing against the tide of people leaving.

"Siege!" Helio cried, suddenly grabbing onto Lexi's hand and pulling her into the crowd. Lexi giggled before disappearing among the suits. Blaze vanished into the fray as well, determined to make his way to the front door. But Kayden had a harder time maneuvering; she mumbled apologies as she jostled against men and women, slow and clumsy. One woman even stepped on her toe with her high heel and Kayden did her best not to curse aloud. She finally pushed her way up the narrow set of steps and through the front door—which was a miracle considering that she still could not see through the glamour that hid the doorknob.

The inside of the publishing house was not quite as packed as the outside, but it was still a tight squeeze. Mostly it was full of men and women grumbling to one another as they waited in some sort of line. It took Kayden a second to realize that the large printing press, which had been cranking out volumes of books earlier, was silent and still. After squinting at it for a few moments, she finally made out a note tacked onto one of its wooden supports.

A Progressive Book of Magic is SOLD OUT

At this time, Voyle Publishing is unable to produce enough books to meet the demand. Mass production is currently being discussed and the matter will be resolved in the next few hours following a meeting with the Congregation. In the meantime, if you would like to reserve a copy and keep up-to-date with the latest news, please leave your name and e-mail address in the book below.

Thank You

Walter Voyle

            "You may want to hide that," a voice floated into her ear.

Kayden turned around, expecting to see Blaze or even Helio at her side. Instead, she had to bite down on her tongue to stop herself from saying something stupid. There was a boy behind her—perhaps her age—but his face was fine, chiseled, and rather handsome. Kayden was vaguely reminded of Michelangelo's David. He had olive skin, curling black hair, and toned arms poking out of a graphic T-shirt. And his eyes were the brightest of blues, like a pair of sapphires had been set into his skull.

"What?" Kayden asked, finally realizing that the boy had said something and still finding herself confused.

The boy pointed to the copy of A Progressive Book of Magic in her hands. "The book is sold out and you're one of the lucky ones with a copy. You probably should hide it. Never know what sort of crazies are in here."

"Oh thanks...?" She trailed off, unsure of his name.

"Vincent," he introduced with a charming smile.

Kayden found herself grinning back at him despite herself. "Kayden," she said.

"Nice to meet you," Vincent said. Then he shifted his gaze to the front door. "So if you already have a copy of the book, where were you planning on heading next? I don't know a lot of people out here in Los Angeles. Maybe we could grab a bite to eat somewhere and chat?"

Kayden's face flushed despite her attempt to stay calm. "Actually, I didn't come here to get the book. I'm here to speak with..."

Right on cue, Blaze appeared, having pushed himself through the crowd of people. But he wasn't alone. Walter Voyle appeared at his side and, with a kind sort of grin, waved at Kayden. "Hello there! Nice to see you again, young lady!"

Blaze looked profoundly annoyed and staunchly ignored Walter. "I found him," he told her, "and I told him we need to talk."

"Which I'd be happy to do!" Walter said with yet another grin. But he held up his hand and brandished a wrench. "Just give me a few minutes. I just want to tinker with the press for a moment, see if I can figure out what's clogging her up. Maybe even run a spell check." He gestured to the other side of the room. "You guys can wait in my office, and I promise to join you in a few. Now if you excuse me..."

And with that, Walter extricated himself from their little group and wove his way to the printing press.

Vincent's jaw dropped open and he looked at Blaze as if he was a celebrity. "You know Walter Voyle? He's a legend!"

"He's... something," Blaze said, somewhat half-heartedly, and started crossing the room. As Kayden went to follow him, Blaze turned to look at Vincent. "Sorry, you are...?"

"Vincent," he introduced. He slipped his hands into his jean pockets. "I'm from Boston; my family flew into town for the Congregation meetings and then sent me and my sister over here to grab a copy of that new book as soon as they found out about it. Sadly, I think we may have gotten here too late."

"Sister?" Kayden asked. "She's here?"

Vincent grinned. "Yeah, actually. She's right over there. You can't miss her curls."

Kayden followed his gaze and was surprised to see that he was looking at Lexi and Helio. The two were huddled near the far wall, but they weren't by themselves. They were chatting with a girl. Kayden couldn't see her face, but she had beautiful light brown hair that fell in thick curls down past her shoulders.

Helio seemed to notice them approaching first. "Hey!" he said, flagging them down. "Almost lost you guys."

"I could say the same to you," Blaze said. "Thanks for just running off into the crowd."

Before Helio could make a sharp retort, Vincent's sister turned around and Kayden had to bite her tongue yet again. The girl was gorgeous. She was small and thin, with thick hair and bright blue eyes that mirrored her brother's.

Lexi caught Kayden's gaze and made the introduction. "This is Marie," she said. Kayden could tell that Lexi was trying to change her intonation of her voice, make it sound casual. But Kayden knew that tone of voice: Lexi did not like Marie. Kayden supposed it was due to her looks; it wasn't hard to dislike a girl that pretty. And Lexi was staring at the girl a bit too much, her arm wrapped protectively around the crook of Helio's elbow as she did so. But the girl didn't seem to notice.

"Hey bro," Marie said with a wave to her brother.

"Hi pain in the ass," Vincent said with a smirk, and Marie smacked his arm playfully.

"So," Lexi said, locking her eyes with Blaze; Kayden knew she was doing her best not to stare at Marie anymore. "Did you guys find Voyle?"

"He told us to wait in his office," Blaze said, turning to look at the wall with a frown. "But I can't seem to find it. The door was definitely over here somewhere, but now I can't seem to find it..."

"It's glamoured," Vincent and Marie said in unison.

Blaze blinked. "What?"

"It's glamoured," Vincent repeated. "A strong one, but glamoured nonetheless." Vincent reached out to the blank wall and flexed his hand, as if gripping something that wasn't visible. Then, pulling back, a door materialized, which he pulled on further to reveal an office.

Kayden felt a bit impressed by this, and Blaze frowned. "God, that was a strong one then. I couldn't see through it at all."

"Me neither," Helio added, squinting his eyes at the door as if he couldn't quite believe it was there.

"Our parents work in a glamoured book store in Boston," Marie explained quickly. "We've gotten pretty good at seeing through them."

"That must be handy," Blaze said, taking a single step into the room before turning around. "You two should stick around with us. Maybe you guys can help us see through Walter's bullshit."

"Blaze," Kayden said in warning.

Blaze rolled his eyes. "Sorry."

- - -

So this is the infamous chapter whose pacing drove me insane! So much happens that I'm worried certain bits still don't flow well. So please let me know if anything sounds strange! Also, please let me know if you find any grammatical errors. I rewrote a lot of this chapter so I'm sure some mistakes are lurking in the deep...

Let me know what you think of this chapter! How do you like our new characters, Vincent and Marie? Please vote if you enjoyed this part. And if you super like this story, feel free to share it with your friends and followers.

As usual, thanks for all the support and for continuing on this adventure with me. You guys are amazing!

~Bdicocco