Kayden immediately recognized Room 132 as she drew nearer; it was the conference room next door to the janitor's closet, the one they had escaped into after using the transparency spell on the wall. She shuddered as a sharp memory flashed through her mind and she took a deep breath before entering.

She had almost expected the room to be empty, that the note had been some stupid prank, but Helio was there all right, his thin frame just the wisp of a shadow in the dark corner. The fluorescent lights were off, but ambient lighting from the parking lot filtered in through the windows, painting the conference room in an odd orange-yellow light.

Helio's eyes were wide, white orbs in the darkness. "Shut the door," he said in a harsh whisper, gesturing with his hand. He was sitting at the large conference table in the corner, the seat farthest from the door.

Kayden shut the door and walked over to him, sitting in the chair beside him. She pulled out the note, crumpled and warm, and handed it to Helio. "What's going on?"

"Were you followed?" Helio asked. His voice was serious, with no hint of sarcasm.

Kayden felt her heart speed up, just for a moment. Followed? "Why would I have been followed? And no, I don't think so. I didn't bring Blaze or Lexi, if that's what you mean."

Helio let out a slow breath. Kayden half expected to see him lounge back in his usual nonchalant fashion, but he didn't move. His back was set a little too straight, and his eyes were locked on the table, as if he were trying to burn a hole through the wood with his mind.

"I'm not sure if this is going to work," he finally said.

Kayden stared at him. This was beginning to sound like a breakup, she thought. Not that she had ever experienced one. And not that she and Helio had ever been romantically involved. "Are you sure you don't want to talk to Lexi about this?"

"No!" Helio's eyes locked onto Kayden's. "Not to Lexi. Not to Blaze. You're the only one I can tell... and even that I'm not so sure about."

Kayden could feel her impatience rising. She tapped the table with her index finger. "Well then, tell me. Try it. I want to get to bed soon."

Helio looked like he was in pain. His neck was crooked oddly and he kept clenching and unclenching his hands, grasping at air. He finally turned towards Kayden and took a deep breath. "I... I've been under a spell."

Kayden blinked. "What?"

Helio held up a finger to silence her. His eyes widened and his left hand fluttered to his chest, gripping the wrinkled button-down tightly. She thought for a moment that he was having a heart attack, but after a second, he lowered his fingers.

And then he grinned, a manic smile that frightened Kayden. "I said it!" he said in victory, the smile widening. "I said it! Thank God!"

"Helio, what is going on?" Kayden demanded. "You've been under a spell?"

"Not just one spell. A couple," Helio explained. "And one of the spells was that I couldn't tell anyone about the spells... but I can tell you. Because you're a non-er!"

Kayden was growing to hate that word. "I've been called a non-er enough for one day," she muttered darkly.

"No, it's a good thing," Helio said, and for once, he sounded sincere. "I should start from the beginning."

"Yes. And please go slowly."

Helio nodded, pressing his hands down on the table. "It started a few months ago," he said. His voice was low. "My father thought it would be a good idea for me to get an internship with the Congregation right after graduation; he works for them and wanted me to get my foot in the industry as quickly as I could. I sent in the application, did a few interviews, and in the beginning of July I found out that I had gotten it." He frowned. "I also found out that when you become an intern for the Congregation, you are assigned to one of them. And I was assigned to Naven.

"Did Blaze ever tell you about us volunteering at Sir Mallard's?"

"Yeah," she said, straining her memory. "That was the day I was transported to his apartment."

"Blaze had to volunteer because he stole his father's spell book and blew up that building," Helio explained. "I had to volunteer because I hadn't been too... eager my first day at work. I was shadowing my father, learning how things worked in the New York building. But I got bored and slipped away for a bit. When my father finally found me, he was furious. He told me that if I didn't get my act together, I'd never get a proper job. Unfortunately for me, Naven was walking down the hall and overheard him. He told me to come into a room with him, to talk." Helio's eyes were dark.

"What did he do to you?" Kayden asked, scared of the answer.

"He cast a tracking spell on me." Helio's dark hair fell over his face. "He said, 'You like to wander? Well now I won't be able to lose you.' It's not the nicest thing to do to someone, but it's not unheard of, especially with interns.

"And then my father sent me to Sir Mallard's. I ran into Mr. Fairden while I was there and told him about Naven, but he didn't really offer me too much advice; he just told me to try my best. Of course, then magic shifted and the Congregation moved to California and everything got screwed up with you and everything."

"Thanks," Kayden murmured, not even trying to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

"You're welcome." Helio shifted. "You know most of the rest. But when we went to talk to Naven a few weeks ago, he recognized me." Helio shook his head. "And then, when we escaped from that closet, he was able to send Marie and Vincent after us because of me. Illusions can't just find people; it was because of the tracking spell. I had initially thought that his spell wouldn't work anymore because of the shift, but I was wrong."

Kayden swallowed uncomfortably; her throat felt dry. "Go on."

Helio looked like he was chewing on the inside of his cheek. "And then my internship started. That's when he cast two other spells. One where I couldn't say anything negative about him, and the other one where I couldn't tell anyone that he had cast spells on me. Combined, they made it so that I couldn't talk about the things he's been doing..."

"What things?" Kayden asked, eyes widening.

"Shh!" Helio hissed, grabbing her arm in panic. This paranoia wasn't new, Kayden realized. It had been with him a while. She could see it in the pale tint of his skin and in the dark circles under his eyes.

"That's why I called you here," Helio murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. "I needed to tell someone."

"Why me?" Kayden asked. "Why not Blaze?"

"Blaze is a potestas," he said, exasperation creeping into his voice. "The spell wouldn't let me utter a word to him; why else do you think I avoided him like crazy this past month? But when I saw you in the field and was able to say that Naven was having me run difficult errands, that was when I started to figure out that the spell only prevented me from talking to potestas."

"Then what about Lexi? Your note said not to bring her, but she's a non-er. You should be able to talk to her."

Helio's face flushed red and his grip on her arm lessened. "I... didn't want to get her involved. I didn't want her to get hurt."

Kayden felt a pang in her chest. Maybe this is what Lexi sees in him, she thought. Someone who cares for her.

She ran her hands up and down her arms, trying to settle the goose bumps that had risen up on her skin. "So then tell me," Kayden said. "What is Naven up to?"

"He's..." Helio struggled to speak, his eyes closing slightly as he focused on the words. Kayden wondered if it was causing him pain to disobey the spell even though she was a non-er. Finally, the words slipped out: "He's sabotaging the shift spell."

Kayden blinked and didn't say anything for a moment. "Why would he do that?" she finally asked.

"Those articles, about how he illegally locked us up in that closet... his public opinion polls are plummeting," Helio said. "And next year is an election year."

"He's sabotaging the spell for the election?" Kayden repeated in disbelief. "Helio, that makes no sense! Who'd vote for him if he sabotages the spell?"

"No one is supposed to know he's sabotaging the spell," Helio said, looking miserable. "He's trying to turn his skepticism about the spell into something that could help his campaign next year. That's why he's been on TV talking about how the spell is unsafe if we rush into it. That way, after things go wrong, he can say that he knew it all along."

Kayden's stomach was throbbing; she couldn't tell if it was because Blaze was upstairs or because of Helio's words. "If this spell goes wrong, people can die."

"He says they won't," Helio said. "He thinks that his alteration will just prevent the spell from working, maybe result in a few injuries. But I think that's crap. The potion component has already been compromised, and that can be the most crucial part of a big spell like this."

"He already altered it?"

Helio couldn't look at her. "I already altered it."

Kayden stared at him; she could not believe the words that had just come out of his mouth. "Helio, how could you do that?"

"I couldn't disobey him!" Helio said. "He could do whatever he wanted—hurt people I love, torture me—and I wouldn't be able to tell anyone. Believe me, I've been trying to find a way around that spell for the past month. But now that I have, we can stop him."

"How? It's the night before the spell." Kayden's voice felt tight. This was too much for her to deal with so close to the casting. "What did you even add to the potion, Helio?" she demanded. "Arsenic? Rat poison?"

"Huckleberry leaves," he said. "I picked them the day I bumped into you at the farm. Naven sent me because the bushes were growing next to the jasmine fields and he thought I could get the leaves without drawing too much attention."

"Will they really alter the spell that much?"

"Enough to screw things up, yes."

"Well then what do you want me to do? Take the leaves out of the mixture? I don't even know what huckleberry leaves look like!"

"That won't work," Helio said. "The potion has already been brewing for a few days; the huckleberry leaves are already incorporated."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

Helio leaned forward. His face was hidden by shadows, but his words were clear. "You need to tell Walter what's been going on. He's the only one we know with access to the Congregation; he may be the only one who can figure out how to reverse this thing, or at least know how to postpone the casting."

Kayden stared at him for a moment. That could work. "All right," she said after a moment. "I can do that. I can tell him for you."

Helio's face brightened. "Thank you so much Kayden. You don't know how much this means to me. I...I've been going crazy these past few weeks."

She stood up. "I can see that."

He nodded and stood up himself. "Walter usually sleeps in that workshop of his, Room 109."

"Yeah, I know." Kayden slipped her hand into her pocket; the little metal counter Walter had given her was nestled against her thigh. She looked down at it, at the flashing "11" on its face. It was counting hours now; eleven seemed so few. Would Walter be able to stop everything in time? I guess I'll find out when I ask him.

"I'll tell him right now," Kayden said, slipping the sphere back into her pocket and heading for the door. "Are you coming with?"

Helio shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea. I don't know how this spell on me will work if I'm around a potestas. I think I'm going to walk around the grounds, get some air. Try to kill time until the morning."

"Sounds good," Kayden said, thinking of how she had wanted to do the exact same thing a few hours earlier. She wondered briefly how Blaze was doing; he was probably fast asleep by now, oblivious to the turmoil that was erupting around all of them.

Kayden shook her head, dispelling thoughts of Blaze from her head. "I'll see you later then, Helio. Thanks for telling me."

"Well, thanks for being a non-er," he said, but this time his smirk was almost a smile.

They both slipped into the hallway without another word. Helio turned right to head towards the lobby, and Kayden went left to find Walter's room.

She and Helio had sat in the meeting room in near darkness, but the hallways were flooded with intense fluorescent light that made Kayden blink her eyes. As she walked down the hall, she could hear the stumbling fall of footsteps in the distance, some late-goer either heading out for a night of fun or wandering back to his room.

I hope Walter doesn't mind me waking him this late, she thought, eyes jumping from door-to-door, reading the little number plaques as she counted down to room 109: 127... 125... 123... 121... Yet again, he's probably still awake. Maybe he's like Edison and doesn't believe in sleep...

Partway through that thought, Kayden felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. She turned, expecting to see Helio behind her, but it was the man she had heard in the hallway. Except it wasn't the drunk she had been expecting.

She went to shove him away, but she was too slow. Even as she pried his fingers off her skin, she could feel a piece of chalk brush against her shoulder, her bare skin screaming as if she had been branded with an iron. And indeed, when she looked down, she saw a new mark on her shoulder: a glowing red rune that looked as if it had been hacked out of her skin with a blade.

She tried to scream, but the mark pulsed, an insistent pull, and suddenly she couldn't open her mouth. She stepped backwards, poised to run, but the mark pulsed a second time and she couldn't move. Her muscles had seized up. All she could do was stand and stare terrified at the man leering down at her, his hands pressed down on her shoulders and his nails digging into her skin.

Russ Naven leaned in towards her face with the stench of stale coffee on his breath. "Oh Kayden," he muttered. "Look what you've done now."

Pressing his fingers against the small of her back, Kayden began to walk. She tried to dig her heels into the carpet, but her body was no longer under her own control; her feet obeyed Naven's gentle prods. He steered her down the hall, away from Walter's room, and they stopped in front of the all-too-familiar door to the janitor's closet.

"In," Naven hissed, yanking the door open. Kayden's feet propelled her eagerly inside the small room, almost tripping over each other in their haste.

She expected Naven to leave her there alone in the darkness, but he didn't. Instead, he stepped over the threshold, shutting himself inside with her.

Kayden's heart pounded wildly in her chest as Naven carefully flicked on the light switch. Orange light flooded the closet, exposing the tall shelf lined with paper towels and the yellow rolling mop bucket. But Kayden could only focus on Naven as he turned towards her slowly, his brows narrowed sharply over his furious black eyes.

"So Miss Lee," he said, "what are you doing wandering about so late at night?"

Kayden couldn't open her mouth to speak, but Naven wasn't expecting an answer.

"I'm not sure if you realize what time it is, but just a few minutes ago, I was about to go to bed when I noticed something strange." His tone was conversational, his words slow and deliberate. "My tracking spell on Helio alerted me that he wasn't at his father's condo. He was in this very building. I thought, 'It's a late hour for him to be wandering around Le Lieu, isn't it? Shouldn't he be sleeping?' And who do I see him talking with? You." His voice had dropped to a whisper, a mere hiss of air. "A non-er." He rolled the chalk between his fingers. "So he's outsmarted my silence spell, then. He told you about my plan. Correct?"

Kayden tried to shake her head, but her neck was paralyzed. All she could do was stare at Naven's mouth as he leaned in to her. His lip was twitching in what she knew was suppressed anger.

"And this," he shouted, slamming his hand against the wall beside her, "this is why non-ers shouldn't get involved with our affairs! Do you realize what you have done to me? What a laughingstock you've made of me? Do you realize? Answer me!"

The symbol pulsed, and Kayden felt her jaw unlock, her tongue free from the constraints of the spell. She hadn't realized how frightened she was, how helpless she felt trapped in a room with a crazy man and unable to defend herself. Words spilled from her mouth, mad babblings. "I didn't know," she managed to say, trying to stop herself from slipping into hysterics. "I didn't know! I'm sorry!"

Naven pulled back his hand and slapped her across the face. Kayden's head slammed against the wall and she screamed. She had never been hit before. Her vision blurred for a moment, tears welling up along with the shock. She wished she could move her hand to touch the tender red skin, but she couldn't. She hadn't even been able to pull away or raise her hand to block the blow.

Naven leered at her for a moment, his face red, his hands balled into fists. And then he turned to face the closet door. Pulling a piece of chalk out his pocket, he began to draw on the wood.

Kayden gasped for air, straining to move her body, but the mark on her shoulder held her still. "Wh-What are you writing?" she finally choked out.

Naven didn't respond at first. Instead, he waited until he had finished writing the rune before turning to face her, his face glowing in the fluorescent light like a mad jack-o-lantern. "A silence rune," he said carefully. "I don't want your screams to wake up the hotel guests."

Kayden couldn't help it. With those words, she opened her mouth and started yelling, crying, filling her lungs with air, hoping she could overpower the spell on the door with sheer volume and will.

Naven shook his head, chalk held lazily in his right hand. "You have ruined things for the last time, Miss Lee." His voice was quiet, barely audible above her cries. "It's time you learned your lesson."

Deliberately, he pressed the chalk against the skin on her neck and began to write.

White-hot pain erupted from the point where he touched her, spreading throughout her entire body. Kayden screamed. It was as if her synapses were on fire. "Stop!" she cried, hardly feeling the tears sliding down her face. "Stop! Stop please!"

But Naven didn't stop; he acted as if he didn't hear her screams at all. "You shouldn't have crossed me, Miss Lee." His voice was a soft murmur. "This is your punishment. When I'm done, you will remember to never mess with me again."