*Trigger warning for a mild panic attack*

I went to bed in shock. How could Mam not understand? How could she not see how horrible the Head Man was—how horrible the punishments he threatened for Blesseds were?

When I finally found my way to sleep, I rested uneasily.

The next day, as soon as Mam took her eyes off me, I rushed to Lark's house. I found her in the back, tending to the garden.

She looked up as she saw me arrive. Her peaceful expression quickly turned to one of concern. "What's wrong, Fyra?"

"Your sister," I said. "Mam knows about her. She knows she's a Blessed."

"She saw the flowers before I got rid of them?"

"No."

"Then how did she..." Lark looked at me with no small measure of confusion in her eyes. "I don't understand. How would she know Wren's a Blessed if she didn't see the flowers?"

I hesitated. Lark had always been kind to me, and I couldn't help but be afraid that when she learned the truth, she'd turn on me. But she deserved to know. It wasn't right for me to keep it from her. If I didn't tell her, she'd be all the more suspicious of me.

"I told her," I whispered.

All the color left Lark's face. "You... you..."

I shook my head. Tears pricked at my eyes, but for some reason, they refused to come. "I'm sorry. I thought I could trust her."

Lark finally found her voice, and as she spoke, her words tore through me like ice-cold daggers, numbing me with their painful accuracy.

"She sent you on a stupid quest with us just because you were a Blessed," she snapped. "You really thought this would be different? You thought that now you're back having succeeded—having killed the Magician and saved our ridiculous, prejudiced town—she would accept you with open arms?" She shook her head. "If she didn't accept you before, she never will now. Not if you continue to use magic. Not if you continue to be Blessed. Not if you stand by us. And now you've-"

Her voice broke, and she shook her head angrily for a moment. She reached down and brutally tore a weed out of the garden plot.

"Now you've dragged my sister into this mess. She's only ten. When the Head Man finds out, what do you think he'll do? Let her off with a pat on the back, just because she's young?"

"I didn't think at all!" I screamed. "I just thought I could trust her, since she was my mam. I thought she knew what to do. I thought she was right."

"You shouldn't have trusted anyone," said Lark. "Not with that. Not with my sister's life."

The sound of a door opening brought us out of our argument, and we turned to see Lark's mam coming out of the house.

"I thought I heard shouting," she said. Her eyes grew wide as she saw us, Lark's face red and teary. "Is everything all right?"

"Fyra told her mom about Wren," said Lark, "and her mom's going to tell the Head Man."

"We knew it was going to happen sooner or later."

"We didn't think it was going to happen because of a friend! We didn't think anyone would betray her!"

At that, I crumbled, my emotions crashing in on me. Tears blurred my vision. I hadn't expected my breath to catch the way it did. I choked on my own tears, spiraled downward into a horrible mix of sobbing and gasping for air.

I jumped as I felt arms around me.

"Oh, child," said Lark's mam. "It's going to be all right."

"No," I sobbed between gasps. "No, it won't. I messed up."

"We all make mistakes," she said softly. "Mine was not noticing my children's powers early enough. I could have done so much. I could have tried to train them. But I didn't. If anything, it's partially my fault that we're here today. If I'd taught Wren control, this wouldn't be a problem."

"But I'm the reason the Head Man is going to find out about her."

"And I'm the reason she's Blessed in the first place."

I looked up, the information briefly shocking me out of my attack. "What?"

She lifted her hand, and for a moment, it changed into a butterfly and flapped around my head. "Illusions. Beauty and strangeness. That is my Blessing. It's always been easy enough to hide."

"So you're saying..."

"It's hereditary, yes." Sadly, she smiled. "It's my fault my children have been cursed in this way."

"Cursed?" I asked. "Don't you think they're Blessings?"

She thought for a moment. "It's a blessing to be a Blessed. But the way the world treats you when you are... that's more of a curse."

"The curse of the Blessed," I said, unable to keep the small smile out of my voice at the irony of the name.

"Yes," Lark's mam agreed. "It's almost as bad as the Magician's curse. Maybe it's part of it. Maybe he wove the loathing for the Blesseds into his magic, in the hopes that they would come join him, and he'd be able to overthrow the village at some point. Either way, we have to make the best of it."

She began gently rubbing my back, and I relaxed. "It's going to be okay, Fyra. We'll figure it out."

I stayed there on the ground for a while, with her arms around me, still fighting off the remnants of the panic attack that had seized me.

Grass rustled beneath Lark's feet as she came over to kneel beside me.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I overreacted. I was worried for my sister."

I shook my head. "You didn't overreact at all. I'm sure I would have done the same thing if I'd had a sister in the same position. And I was stupid. It was a stupid mistake."

"No, you weren't. It wasn't."

"Yes," I retorted, "it was. I knew how she felt about Blesseds. She'd made it very clear to me before. I should have seen it."

"We can't predict the future," said Lark's mam. "If we could, life would be a whole lot simpler."

"I should have known," I repeated.

Lark's eyes met mine. "You couldn't have."

Rushed footsteps pulled us out of the moment. Bran turned the corner of the house, sprinting hard, breathing heavily, doing his best to get to us as quickly as he could. Lark's mam stood.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"It's Reed," panted Bran. "The Head Man... At the green..."

Fear sparked in Lark's eyes, and she sprinted away from us. Lark's mam and Bran and I followed at a significantly slower pace.

The green was full of people when we arrived. The stage had been set up again, and the Head Man stood on top of it, Reed beside him, hands in chains.

Chains? Why was he in chains?

"Oh Reed," said Lark's mam, "what have you done?"

I wanted to echo her words, but instead I simply stared at the stage in horror.

"I don't understand," said Lark. She'd stopped abruptly as soon as she'd seen the stage and the people on it. "Why is he in chains? What's going on?"

Bran nodded at the stage, where the Head Man was beginning to speak.

"I'm sure you have heard—from your friends or your family—about how Lark's violin was confiscated when she worked forbidden magic at her little sister's birthday party. This was a regrettable incident, and Lark herself has told me it was an accident. However. Another incident happened today—this one entirely intentional—and I regret to inform you that my own son was the instigator."

Noise exploded in the green. People were shouting questions at the Head Man, talking to each other, practically screaming to be heard above everyone else.

"Silence!" the Head Man shouted. "I know, Reed is the last person anyone would have expected to go against these laws. He's my son. We're close, and I thought that he shared my support of our new laws."

He looked down at his feet, a perfect picture of an ashamed, disappointed father. "I was wrong. Today, Reed broke into the town hall. He stole the confiscated violin. He did all this using magic."

Beside me, Lark gasped, her hands going to her mouth. "No. That idiot. No, he couldn't have."

"Thankfully," continued the Head Man, "a few townspeople noticed what he was doing and brought him to me before he could use any more magic, and potentially bring us closer to the re-cursing of our town." He sighed. "Because he used his Blessing at least twice during this incident, Reed will be spending  the next two days in the town jail."

The Head Man turned, and his eyes met mine—I couldn't tell whether it was by accident or on purpose.

"Hopefully," he said, "this will serve as a lesson to the other Blesseds who live in this town. Magic is dangerous. Its use must be avoided at all costs, and punished when it occurs. Those who do use it risk destroying our entire town."

He put his hand against Reed's back and led him from the stage, handing him off to a group of townspeople. "Take him to the jail."

Yikes... that escalated quickly. The other Blesseds are really going to have to watch their step from now on, huh? Vote if you're beginning to get a bit worried. I know I am.