Lief’s voice trembled as he took a step back.

  “W-what’s… happening?” he whispered, watching the men close in.

  Audree exhaled sharply through his nose, more irritated than afraid.

  “What does it look like, Lief? Some idiots trying to be dramatic.”

  He crossed his arms. “We don’t have time to deal with this right now.”

  The men barked out rough, mocking laughter.

  “Ohhh, the witches’ kid doesn’t have time for a chat?” one jeered.

  “Too busy makin’ trouble? Too busy makin’ people disappear?”

  Audree blinked.

  What is this guy even talking about?

  He shot Lief a bewildered glance, but before he could speak—

  “That has nothing to do with Audree’s family,” Lief snapped, stepping slightly forward.

  Audree stared at Lief in disbelief.

  Two seconds ago you were yelling at me for the exact same thing, he thought bitterly.

  Now he was defending him?

  His irritation simmered—at Lief, at these miners, at this whole stupid town and its stupid assumptions.

  One of the men—a younger one with uneven stubble, a chipped front tooth, and hair slicked back with sweat and soot—squinted at Lief.

  “Hold on… Aren’t you Percy’s little brother?”

  Lief stiffened. “Yes…?”

  The young miner scoffed.

  “Then what the hell are you doing with him? Bet your brother warned you not to mess around with people like this.”

  Audree’s jaw clenched.

  Gods above, these people all suck.

  Lief, more confident this time, stepped closer to Audree.

  “Audree’s not what the rumors say. It’s all just town gossip.”

  “Hilarious,” Audree muttered under his breath, “coming from the guy who was yelling the same nonsense five minutes ago.”

  But the miners weren’t listening. They were focused on him.

  Another man stepped forward—older, with a jagged scar running down his forearm, soot smeared across his face, and broad shoulders thick from mine work. His eyes were bloodshot with exhaustion and rage.

  “Don’t play dumb with us, boy,” he growled.

  “We KNOW what your family gets up to.”

  Audree’s stomach twisted.

  “Ever since you freaks moved here, this town’s gotten stranger. Darker. More dangerous.”

  The man jabbed a finger toward him.

  “We KNOW you’ve been snatchin’ up people for your… monstrous experiments. Whatever happens in that cursed house of yours.”

  He spat on the ground at Audree’s feet.

  “Families torn apart. And now my sister has gone missing too.”

  His voice cracked, anger and grief tangled together.

  “We’ve all had our suspicions. But we stayed quiet. Too quiet.

  Not anymore. You and your little coven have taken too much from us—and now you’re gonna pay.”

  The chipped-tooth miner, the one who recognized Lief, touched the older man’s shoulder.

  “We can’t touch the kid with the brown hair,” he said quietly, nodding toward Lief. “Families have lost enough from… them.”

  The older man scoffed, but didn’t argue.

  Then another voice—raspy and unfriendly—called out, “Hey, kid. What’s your name?”

  Lief swallowed.

  “…Lief.”

  “Alright, Lief,” the man said, pointing at him with the tip of a rusted pipe. “You go home. We have no business with you.”

  Lief hesitated, glancing between the men and Audree.

  Audree stood rigid, eyes down, fist clenched tight. His thoughts were distant—dark—like something inside him was stirring.

  Lief looked back at the miners.

  “I’m not leaving,” he said quietly.

  The men tensed.

  Lief took a step closer to Audree, voice trembling but steady:

  “He’s my friend. And I’m not running home while you do gods-knows-what to him.”

  The clearing went silent. Only the distant hum of smogged wind moved.

  The scarred older man sneered. “He must’ve tricked this kid. Poor, unfortunate, but manageable.”

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  He jerked his chin. “Get the rope. Grab the brown-haired one.”

  “What—?!” Lief barely had time to yelp before two miners lunged.

  Lief tried—tried so hard—to fight back.

  He kicked, twisted, clawed at their arms, even sunk his teeth into one man’s sleeve, but he was small and they were grown, angry, and half-drunk.

  “Stop squirming, brat!” one barked, wrenching his arms behind him.

  Another looped the rope around Lief’s wrists and chest, pulling until he gasped.

  Within seconds Lief was hauled back, pinned, tied so tightly he could hardly breathe.

  The older man nodded in satisfaction.

  “Now that that’s handled…”

  His eyes slid to Audree, cold and furious.

  “…let’s get this done.”

  Audree’s stomach dropped.

  Up close he could tell—the way they swayed, the way their eyes unfocused—that at least half of them were drunk.

  Sloppy. Unpredictable. Dangerous.

  Maybe… maybe I can use that.

  He scanned the ground. His bag. His potions. The terrain. Their stances.

  If I can get one to trip into the other… then maybe—

  A heavy pipe slammed into his gut.

  The air shot out of his lungs in a strangled choke.

  He crumpled forward, knees hitting dirt hard.

  Another blow struck his shoulder. Another across his back.

  The pain was blinding—hot, dizzying—filling his vision with sparks.

  “STOP—!” Lief screamed, thrashing uselessly against the rope as two miners held him back. “STOP IT! LEAVE HIM AL—”

  “Shut him up,” someone muttered.

  A hand clamped over Lief’s mouth.

  Audree reached desperately for his bag—

  Another kick caught his jaw, knocking the world sideways.

  His potions spilled across the ground. Glass shattered. Liquids soaked into gravel and mud, hissing, mixing into useless sludge.

  “No, no, no—” he wheezed.

  His slime fell from the bag—Bubbles—

  the little creature squeaked, wobbling forward, trying with all its tiny might to reach him.

  A boot came down hard.

  The slime was kicked like a stone, sent rolling across the dirt.

  “BUBBLES—!” Audree tried to crawl, but a hand twisted his hair, yanking his head back.

  The older man crouched in front of him, breath reeking of ale and bitterness.

  “For years,” he growled, “we’ve swallowed the fear of your family. Of your tricks. Of people vanishing.”

  Audree’s arm prickled—no, ached—wanting to take, to draw in mana it didn’t have access to.

  Nothing in the air. Nothing to feed on.

  Useless. Completely useless.

  For the first time since gaining his power…

  he felt helpless.

  His breath stuttered.

  His vision blurred.

  His chest burned where the pipe had struck.

  Despite everything—despite keywords, soul-spaces, all the strange changes—

  out here, in this empty, mana-starved place…

  Audree was just a kid getting beaten in the dirt.

  And no plan—

  not a single clever idea—

  meant anything now.

  —------------------------------------

  In the haze of pain and dirt, Audree’s vision blurred—

  until something shifted at the edge of his sight.

  Lief.

  He wasn’t tied anymore.

  For a heartbeat Audree thought he was hallucinating, but then—

  something snapped inside Lief.

  A pressure in the air pulsed. A warmth. A stir of life.

  Mana.

  Not from Audree.

  Not from Bubbles.

  From Lief.

  All this time… he had been hiding it.

  The ground trembled.

  A thin green vine shot from the soil like a whip, coiling around a miner’s ankle.

  The drunken man shrieked, stumbling as the vine yanked him flat.

  “What the—?!” another slurred, kicking wildly as another vine snagged his boot.

  The vines weren’t strong, but the men were drunk, confused, off-balance—

  and that was enough.

  One miner tore the vine from his leg and lunged for Lief again.

  Lief scrambled backward, heart hammering.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  His breath shook as he forced himself to remember—

  the breathing exercises,

  the focus,

  the channeling he’d watched Audree do so many evenings.

  He thrust his palm out, willing something to happen, anything—

  maybe a mana burst like Audree’s, maybe a spark, a flash—

  Instead a short vine sprouted from his wrist, coated in little flowers…

  and thorns.

  It wiggled uncertainly.

  Then went limp.

  “What the hell?” the miner muttered.

  Lief panicked—

  then improvised.

  He wrapped the vine around his fist, gripping it tight like a barbed glove.

  The miner grabbed for him—

  Lief swung wildly.

  The punch was sloppy, desperate—

  but the thorns did the work.

  The man yelped, stumbling back with a bleeding cheek, clutching his face.

  Across the clearing, the miner with the chipped tooth stared wide-eyed.

  “What in gods’ names… did that boy do to you?!”

  And there it was—

  the fear.

  The exact fear Lief had spent his whole life avoiding.

  The reason he never told anyone.

  The reason he stayed hidden, stayed quiet, stayed small.

  He was different.

  And now everyone knew or soon were.

  “Shit, shit, shit—!” Lief stomped the dirt, panic rising in his chest.

  The older man turned away from the beaten Audree at last, eyes narrowing.

  “So that’s it…” he snarled.

  “You’ve been helping this witch’s brat all along, huh?”

  He stepped toward Lief, pipe dragging in the dirt.

  “It’s always the ones you least expect.”

  Audree, barely conscious, could only see flashes:

  Lief trembling,

  miners regrouping,

  the older man looming.

  Lief sprinted toward the small wobbling shape on the ground—

  Bubbles.

  He reached the slime just before one of the miners could grab him, scooping the creature into his arms.

  “Are you okay, little guy?” Lief panted.

  The slime trembled, clearly shaken, but unharmed.

  Lief held him close.

  “We’ve gotta help Audree, okay?”

  Bubbles turned his whole body toward him—

  listening?

  Could the slime actually understand him?

  The creature paused, then sprang onto Lief’s shoulder.

  A faint hum vibrated through Lief’s skin—

  pressure gathering, mana coiling.

  “Bubbles…?”

  With a sudden whip-crack of force, the slime fired a jet of water so strong it sent miners sprawling backward into the dirt.

  Lief blinked, stunned.

  “You can do that?!”

  Bubbles drooped, wobbling tiredly.

  The blast had taken a lot out of him.

  “Thank you,” Lief whispered, brushing a hand over the slime’s cool surface.

  He reached Audree’s side just as the boy’s head lolled to the dirt, barely conscious.

  “Audree—Audree, wake up!” Lief shook him gently.

  Audree’s eyes flickered, unfocused.

  He wasn’t getting up.

  The miners were regrouping, cursing, dragging themselves upright.

  They were coming again.

  Lief’s heart hammered.

  He had nothing left that could hurt anyone really.

  Bubbles was exhausted.

  Audree was half conscious.

  There was only one thing left to do—

  the one thing he had tried to avoid for as long as he’d known about his arm.

  Lief swallowed hard, reached for Audree’s bandaged arm—

  —and tore the wrappings off.

  Golden runes pulsed beneath the cloth, glowing faintly.

  Lief hesitated only a second.

  Then he grabbed Audree’s marked arm with both hands.

  And everything changed.