There is a faint beeping noise in the back of my skull when I open my eyes to see that a white expanse is stretched out in front of me. It doesn't take long for me to realize that it's actually a ceiling as I start to sit up.

"Kara? Don't move too much-," a voice begins to say and I gasp in a sharp breath when pain prickles up my spine.

I fall back against a pillow as my mother's face flickers into view, "Mom?"

"You're safe, sweetheart, but you need to sleep for just a little longer," she explains as she puts a gentle palm on my forehead and everything winks out of existence.

                                                                 ****

When I come to the next time, I'm lying on a bed in a room that is painted white. Sigils are drawn on the walls in shades of blue, ones that I recognize for healing and protection. I turn my head to see that my mother is sitting next to my bed in a chair.

She looks pale and small and overall too worried for me to handle as she stares at me for a long moment, tears gathering in her eyes before she lurches forward and wraps me in a tight hug.

"My baby, oh I was so worried," she whispers as she strokes the top of my head.

"I'm okay mom," I reassure her as I hug her back.

"They told me that you would wake up soon, but," she leans back and shakes her head as she pushes her glasses out of the way and wipes at her tears, "I couldn't See, I felt so...useless."

"Mom, I'm okay now," I tell her as I sit up, only to stop and wince.

"The doctor said that you may be in pain for a while, a few days at the most due to the spell that was cast on you by Eleanora," she explains when she sees the agony in my expression.

"How long have I been unconscious?" I wonder aloud and she frowns.

"Since early this morning, it's almost evening now, are you hungry? I'm going to go get you something to eat," she says as she quickly gets to her feet.

She reaches over and squeezes my hand before she leaves the room, her footsteps rapidly fading down the hallway. I glance around and realize then that there's a window, one that gives me a view of a parking lot below. I don't recognize this part of Boston, but I can almost think that there are special hospitals for witches that are invisible to the mortal eye, especially since there are sigils on the walls.

There's a sudden knock at the door frame and I turn my head to see that Diana is standing at the threshold. There is a line of black stitches crossing her temple along her hairline and the bruise on her cheek is swollen and painful looking but her eyes are bright with what I can guess is relief.

"Hey," she greets me in a low voice.

"Hi," I rasp.

"Mind if I come in?" she inquires as she pauses in the doorway.

I nod and she smiles as she enters the room.

"How are you feeling?" she asks as she sits down in the chair next to my bed.

"Everything still hurts," I mutter as I shift so I'm sitting up, my muscles aching in the process.

"You're lucky that Eleanora's spell was messy and slow, it could have done some serious damage," she murmurs.

"Sorry that I wasn't fast enough to get away," I grunt.

Diana laughs, a harsh, reluctant noise that catches in her throat, "I'm just glad that you're still breathing."

"Yeah, Eleanora and the headmaster will be disappointed about that," I mutter before I pause, "what's going to happen to them?"

"The headmaster is going to be put away for a long time and Eleanora is going to the juvenile equivalent," she explains as she sits back in her seat and crosses her heels, "along with Luke and the other students, they're not going to get out or away from our radar anytime soon."

"Good," I sigh and relax back into the pillows.

"Yes, Clayton has been...unusually helpful," she tilts her head and narrows her eyes, "almost like he's been enchanted."

I mull over her words for a moment and think about the strange feeling I had felt in the graveyard and how he had willingly reversed the curse on Astrid, "I didn't...I didn't cast a spell on him."

"Not intentionally, but Kara, I think it may be your ability," she reveals to me as a smile quirks the edge of her lip.

"Enchanting people?"

"Influencing," she elaborates before she looks down at her hands and clasps them, "But I'm not here to talk to you about them," she says and I focus on her face as she sets her jaw.

"Okay...?"

"I want you to make a statement to the press," she explains.

"What do you want me to say?" I ask as I eye her cautiously.

"How this was wrong," she says firmly, "Unfamiliars are fellow witches and people need to act like it."

"Diana...I, I don't know about thi-."

"You'll be illusioned, just in case," she assures me quickly, "but I really would like it if you would say something to the magic community."

I lick my lips nervously as I think about her words, "I'll have to think about it."

There's a light tap at the door frame and we look up in unison to see that Tessa and Indigo are walking into the room. There are a couple of bruises on Tessa's forehead and Indigo has a few delicate stitches threaded along her cheekbone as my stomach twists with sympathy.

"Where's Astrid?" I wonder aloud as Indigo pauses halfway across the room.

"She's still asleep, the killing curse did a number on her so she's going to need some time to recover," Indigo explains as Diana gets to her feet and lets her take her chair.

"So what's going to happen to Eleanora and Headmaster Hallewell?" Tessa inquires as she looks to Diana expectantly and limps into the room.

"Headmaster Hallewell is set to have his powers surrendered, Eleanora will be attending a juvenile detention center along with the other students that were involved, including Luke," Diana shakes her head slowly. "It's amazing what hate can make people do, but we can't let them think that what they did was okay."

"Powers can be taken away?" I interrupt.

"Yes, runic tattoos can be put in place to stifle and banish the magic in a person's veins and after what he did? He's lucky that that's all he's getting," Diana explains.

I nod in agreement as there's a sudden crash in the hall, followed by muffled voices before Astrid pokes her head into the room a few moments later. Now that we're in daylight, I notice that half of her face is swollen along with her eye, which has swelled completely shut. Her lip is split and has a few stitches in place as she shambles into the room and sits on the floor by the doorway.

"Hey," she mumbles, a grimace clouding her expression as the stitches in her lip stress under the pressure of her talking.

"You're awake," I say as I try to sit up, only to stop due to the pain that buries itself deeply into the base of my spine.

"I am," she confirms as Indigo gets out of the chair and offers it to her.

"Sit, you need-," Indigo starts to say, but Astrid holds up a hand and waves her off.

"I'm fine," she assures her from her place on the floor, though she shivers since she's only wearing a hospital gown.

I can sense that something has changed between them, Indigo isn't looking at her like she's a threat or a suspect...but instead like she respects her. But if it hadn't been for Astrid, I would have been the one who had gotten cursed by her uncle.

"Who hit you?" I find myself asking before I can stop, but deep down I want to know who had attacked her so viciously as I stare at the bruises on her face.

"My uncle," she mutters as she looks away, her eyes darkening.

"He's going away for a long time," Diana suddenly promises in a low voice.

Astrid looks down at the tile in front of her as her jaw sets and she manages a grim smile, "Good."