Time always had a way of slipping away from Blaze. It hadn't been uncommon for him to miss assignment deadlines at Sir Mallard's, and he had often complained to Helio about it when he was younger: What's the point of keeping track of the time? Why keep track of the days when life continues relentlessly, no matter if it's a Tuesday or a Thursday?

Of course, it was this mindset that made him all the more confused when his father woke him up one morning, barking at him in a deep voice that was indecipherable to Blaze at such an early hour.

"What did he say?" he mumbled over to Kayden, who had rolled over in her own bed once Silas Merg had left the room. Her hair was sticking up at odd angles and her eyes were closed with the remnants of sleep.

"We're shopping today," she said. "For tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"The casting. The spell is tomorrow."

And that was when Blaze realized that, once again, he had lost track of time.

* * *

Shopping took many more hours than Blaze would have thought possible. The Congregation suggested formalwear for the event as there was going to be a brunch before the casting and a dinner party afterwards if things went according to plan. While he and his father were able to find acceptable suits within a half hour, Mrs. Lee, Lexi, and Kayden spent a lot more time perusing through the long racks of dresses and then trying each and every option on. Even Kayden, who Blaze assumed did not care much for dresses, took her time deciding. She finally chose an emerald green gown, which Blaze silently agreed was the right choice; his heart had sped up when he had first seen her emerge from the dressing room in it.

After dinner, a smiling Lexi dragged Kayden off into her bedroom, and Kayden looked like she didn't mind. As they disappeared behind the bedroom door, Blaze wondered if they were going to have some sort of girl talk. I wonder if it's about me, he thought with amusement.

As his father and Mrs. Lee settled on the couch to watch some television, Blaze reached into his pocket to pull out the illusion rune he had been working on. He had spent the past few days tinkering with it with Lexi, and now the humanoid had acquired extra digits as well as a Nigerian accent.

Just as Blaze was clearing up space on the floor to place the spell threads, Silas glanced over at his son. "What is that?" he asked.

"An illusion spell," Blaze answered. "I was going to work on it."

"Right now? What about the spell for tomorrow? Have you learned it yet?"

Blaze hesitated. "Did we... receive the copy?"

His father narrowed his eyes. "It's been on the side table in your room for the past three days. Have you not even looked at it?"

Blaze slipped the illusion rune circle back in his pocket; he hadn't realized that the spell packet had arrived. Somehow he had lost track of that as well. "Sorry. I'll go do that now."

"Please," Silas said, his eyes flicking back to the television screen. "This isn't something to be treated lightly. There's only so much fervor that can be swept up by performing something this large. You need to be prepared."

Blaze knew exactly what he was talking about. Teachers often had young students cast spells in a group, knowing that the combined power and sense of community would aid students who lacked both confidence and experience in casting spells on their own. But it was not foolproof. Blaze had been a part of several group spells ruined by a single individual. And sometimes, he had been that individual.

"Got it," Blaze said, and headed straight for his bedroom.

It was odd being inside the room by himself. Blaze had grown accustomed to almost always having Kayden a few feet away; she was like a tangible shadow that liked to make sarcastic jokes. But the room was empty, and so neat that Blaze could have almost forgotten that Kayden shared it with him at all. Both of the beds were made, and housekeeping had left a small piece of chocolate on each of their pillows.

Blaze found the spell on his side table, just as his father had said. His stomach rolled when he saw how thick the stack of papers was.

Blaze flipped open to the first page. The words and symbols swam before his eyes, begging to be read, but he hesitated before opening his mouth. The spell was littered with Latin phrases and strange symbols Blaze had never seen before.

An infinity loop in the middle of a sentence? A ckarik with a dash through it? Blaze felt his palms gather sweat.

At Sir Mallard's, whenever he and Jake Miller cast a spell that went terribly wrong, they would laugh along with their classmates. It happened so often that they managed to convince everyone that they were just fooling around. But it was all a façade; inside, Blaze had been mortified, and he knew Jake felt the same. He even cheated on the written portion of his graduation exam, and he had barely passed.

The icing on the cake was when his father had spent the entirety of his graduation dinner talking about how Helio was sure to go on to great things; after all, Helio had graduated second in their class.

Blaze drummed his fingers on the stack of papers. Would it just be better to sit out the spell, like Lexi and Kayden and Mrs. Lee, and let the hundreds of other volunteers cast it without him?

I'd be a joke, he thought, feeling his cheeks redden. And they need everyone who can participate to cast this. I have to learn this spell.

He flipped to the first line of incantation and reached for a pen and pad of paper emblazoned with the Le Lieu logo. He began copying the symbols and writing out the Latin he didn't know.

He refused to ask his father for help; Silas would only harass him. I can run over to Walter's and ask him, Blaze rationalized, scribbling frantically. And I'll stay up until I have everything down—

"What's that?"

Kayden's voice made him jump and the symbol he had been copying suddenly had a black pen line going through it.

He turned to look at her. She seemed to have escaped Lexi unharmed, save for the tight French braids that sewed her hair to her scalp. She leaned over the table and reached for the spell packet, but Blaze pulled it away with a sudden jerk.

"Don't touch it."

"Why not?" she said, looking at him dumbfounded.

"Just don't touch it."

"Why not? It's just a packet of papers."

"It's the incantation for the spell tomorrow."

She raised an eyebrow. "It looks more like an owner's manual for a car."

"Yeah, I get it. It's long."

Kayden made a sudden grab for the papers, her hand darting past his face like a pale bird. Stunned, Blaze yanked the stack back. With a ziiiip, the front few pages tore in half.

Blaze heard Kayden gasp. "Ow!" she yelled. There was a long thin paper cut on her palm, with red blood slowly seeping out from beneath her skin. She looked at him, but Blaze had already begun to hastily pluck the ripped sheets of the spell off the floor. Four pages of incantations had been torn, slashed by a white jagged line. Symbols had been split mid-curve; Latin words had been chopped unceremoniously in half.

"Look what you've done!" Blaze said. He was surprised by how upset he was. Adrenaline was hot in his veins and his hands were shaking.

Kayden stared at him in shock. "What I've done? You cut me!" She put her hand to her mouth and sucked on the cut, wincing. "Why did you pull that away from me?"

"I didn't want you looking at it. I told you not to touch it and you didn't listen."

"It's just a piece of paper," Kayden said, putting extra emphasis on each word. "You can just grab a piece of tape and—"

"I wouldn't need tape if you had just listened to me for once!"

"I'm sorry!" Kayden clenched her hand. "I'm sorry I ripped your stupid paper. But you don't need to overreact. I just wanted to look at it."

"Is it so hard to understand that maybe I didn't want you to?"

Kayden narrowed her eyebrows. "Can you please tell me why can't I look at it?" Her jaw was clenched. "I'm as involved in this whole mess as you are!"

Blaze looked at her in disbelief, his skin hot and angry. Kayden wasn't as involved. Tomorrow morning she would wake up, put on her green dress, and wait in the wings. The weight of the spell wasn't on her shoulders. It was on his.

He stood up. He saw her eyes flicker as she noted he was taller than her. But when she opened her mouth to speak, he cut her off.

"You are not involved with this." His voice was a low hiss. "You are a non-er, okay? A fucking non-er."

Kayden froze, her green eyes widening. It was as if all sound had been sucked out of the room with Blaze's last word hanging in the air like poison.

In an instant, Blaze felt his anger drain out of him, leaving his body numb. I sound like Helio, he realized, mortified.

"Kayden, I—" he started.

"Stop!" she growled. Her eyes were red, rimmed with the threat of tears, but her words were as sharp as diamonds. She jabbed at his chest with her finger. "You are nothing but an arrogant, bigoted asshole." Each word was dripping with venom. "Just because you can cast spells doesn't mean you're better than the rest of us. If anything, it just emphasizes how pathetic you are."

And with that, Kayden stormed out of the room. The door slammed behind her, a sharp snap that made the frame shudder.

Blaze stared at the closed door and then sunk into his chair. His limbs felt heavy, as if someone had replaced his blood with mercury.

There was a voice in his head pressing him to follow her and apologize, but he stifled the urge and remained in his chair, clenching and unclenching his fists.

Blaze hated himself for thinking it, but the spell was more important than Kayden.

He pieced together the four ripped papers on the table like a puzzle. He tried to ignore the large feathered gashes, but it was near impossible to read. All he could think of was the way Kayden had looked at him. The room was tainted with the argument and the symbols swam before his eyes without sinking in.

He looked at his watch; it was 8:23. "I guess now is as good as any time to pay Walter a visit," he murmured, standing up. As he re-clipped the spell papers together, he realized that he had completely forgotten to ask Walter about the emotional side effect of the Bonding Oath. He had planned to ask him weeks ago, but it had slipped his mind.

Well at least I don't need to worry about that anymore, Blaze thought, feeling strangely upset. I doubt Kayden will ever want to talk to me again, let alone do any of that.