Adah had never been so glad to get into a car in her life.

  She was back in her normal clothes—black sweatpants and a hoodie, an outfit deliberately chosen to be easy to change in and out of while also maximizing comfort for the drive to and from the studio. She had wiped off most of her makeup from the shoot and cleansed her face with the help of Colette. Her hair was still styled as it had been during the shoot, but she no longer gave any care to maintaining it. She tossed up her hood and rolled her head against the car seat headrest haphazardly, searching for the most comfortable position to fall asleep.

  “You sure you’re all right?” Rika asked her, now sitting in the spot directly behind Adah.

  “Yeah,” Adah said after a yawn. “There wasn’t anything wrong. I just… got overwhelmed for a second, I guess. But I’m totally fine.”

  That was the truth. She hadn’t broken into full tears during her solo portion of the shoot. Just a few drops had fallen down her face, but once Adah had realized what was happening, she’d snapped out of it. Neil had been concerned over whether to keep the photos he’d taken of her while she’d been crying, but there had been no question in Adah’s mind.

  The girl in the photographs was too precious. Even though she knew she was looking at herself, Adah still felt compelled to reach out and wipe away the tears. This was a side of Heartbreak that needed to be shared.

  And now that she was sitting down—warm, comfortable, and away from the lights and noise of the studio—Adah felt as normal as always.

  “Still, maybe you should take a break,” Rika suggested. “Maybe go home for a few days and reset?”

  “But we are going home?” Adah said.

  “I mean home,” Rika said. “To your parents’ place.”

  “That might not be as relaxing of a break as you’d think.”

  Over the past four years since moving out, Adah had only ever visited her parents during the holidays. She didn’t necessarily have a damaged relationship with them, but perhaps “strained” was the right word. Her mother and father were intense people and, being their only child, she’d gotten to bear the full brunt of their intensity for eighteen years. For that reason, the idea of returning home was about as far from relaxing as a vacation could get.

  “Well, you and I should do something fun then,” Rika said. “We can let Ami handle talking to Seliah—they seemed like they got along great.”

  At that moment, Ami and Emi climbed into Grace’s car themselves and overheard the last bit of Adah and Rika’s conversation.

  “Yeah, leave it to me!” Ami said. “I won’t say anything about joining our team either. I’ll just tell her we’re bringing some teams together for a carnival.”

  “I’ll hold Ami’s leash,” Emi added.

  “Maybe that’s okay,” Adah said, though her brain was too fried to think through whether there would be any downsides to not meeting with Seliah herself. “But it’s supposed to be a concert, not a carnival.”

  That was the bigger problem.

  An event like that would need a lot of planning. They’d need a venue, of course. They’d have to rent a bunch of material to build and decorate a stage and equipment to play the music. Marketing the event would be a larger ordeal than any promotion Adah had ever managed for her own team. Then there was the issue of the music itself. Maybe the other teams didn’t need to get involved in the concert part of the event, but the Last Light would have to prep enough songs for at least a thirty-minute set. If they added a spoken intro and interlude, maybe they could get away with singing only five or six songs. Adah and Rika had one finished, so that left four or five, which would need to start including the twins. Performing live necessitated some kind of choreography as well, or at least some plan of how they’d move when they were on stage. They could have one of Michel’s contacts help with that. In that case, that left…

  Adah’s head hurt too much to think about it any further.

  Maybe Rika was right—Adah needed a break. What was the point in thinking her plans through if her brain was filled with fog and she wandered around aimlessly, passing the same mental landmark again and again? A date sounded like the perfect way to reset herself. That and a good night’s sleep.

  “You all got everything?” Grace said, climbing into the driver’s seat after all the girls had settled themselves. “Phones, bags, whatever else?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  The four magical girls answered in unison, but then Adah realized something was missing.

  “What about the costumes?” she asked. “What happens with those now?”

  “Lina is going to hold onto them for the time being,” Grace explained as she started the car. “She said they’re ours to keep, but there’s no way they’d fit in here. Not to mention, I have no idea where we’d store them at the office either. Lina poured her heart into those, we can’t just shove them in your closets. Knowing you four, we’d probably never find them again.”

  “My room is spotless!” Rika objected.

  “You’re the outlier,” Grace said.

  “What are you talking about?” Adah said. “My room’s clean, too.”

  “You have a teenager’s sense of ‘clean,’” Grace said. “Just because you moved all your clutter from the floor to your desk and closet doesn’t mean your room’s any less messy. Regardless, it’s better if Lina holds onto the clothes for now. She knows how to care for them better than we could, and she told me that if you ever did want to perform in them, she’d want to make some more alterations first. From the sound of it, though, she’s already thinking up new ideas for you girls.”

  “We’ve become her muses,” Emi said, shaking her head. “It was inevitable.”

  Having a designer like Lina obsess over them was a lucky problem to have. The woman was talented beyond a doubt, so if she was intent on building a reputation for herself among magical girls, it would only be a matter of time before her services were in high demand. Being her favorite client would come in handy once her schedule started filling up.

  “When do we get the photos back?” Ami asked. “I wanna post some ones with Emi and me. Anyone who guesses wrong which of us is wearing which outfit will get labeled a fake fan for life!”

  “Your clothes still had your colors on them, you know,” Rika reminded her.

  “Shit. Still, I wanna share ‘em!”

  “Neil should have edits for us by the end of the week,” Grace said, glancing at Ami through the rear view mirror. “But before you go sharing anything, we should come up with a plan for how we want to use the photos. We have an open agreement with Lina, which means she’s going to use the photos to promote herself how she likes, and we can do the same for ourselves. We agreed to coordinate on a reveal post, but that’s the extent of our obligation at this point.”

  With no magazine or fashion house involved, this photoshoot offered a flexibility that could be both a benefit and a liability. The turnaround on sharing the photos would be quicker, and the Last Light wouldn’t be restricted in how they used them. If they wanted to make posters, digital wallpapers, or any other kind of merch or promotional materials using these photos, that was their prerogative.

  At the same time, the photos would only reach as far as their agency pushed them. Adah and her teammates wouldn’t be tapping into the audience of a popular publication or big name brand. Landing your face on the cover of a magazine was up there with appearing on primetime national TV as far as boosting your popularity. However, the only other exposure these photos would get would be through Lina’s own marketing.

  Adah was sure the photos—and outfits—would capture the hearts of anyone who saw them. The question was how to get them in front of the most eyes possible. And to what end?

  “At any rate,” Grace continued, “I’m sure one of you already has a plan in mind.”

  “I’m on it,” Adah said through another yawn.

  Maybe that plan would come to her while she slept.

  Adah’s teammates all seemed to sense that she needed some quiet for this drive home. Perhaps they were all still worried from seeing her tears earlier. Whatever the reason, they kept their conversation to a minimum and spoke in soft voices when they did have something to say.

  Between the gentle rumble of Grace’s car and the warmth of her casual clothes, Adah rapidly fell into a transient sleep. It was an odd state of being. She was aware of traveling the whole journey home, but equally aware of being asleep. What was it called? Lucid dreaming? Except her dream in this case was just a one-to-one recreation of reality. Adah felt she could still hear her teammate’s voices even as she was sure she had fallen asleep.

  This dream went on for an indeterminable stretch of time before a noise reached Adah’s ears that was undeniably from reality.

  It was a gasp from one of her teammates, followed by a bunch of hushed voices speaking over one another. Then someone shushing, followed by yet more voices. Finally, Adah’s body swayed back and forth, and she slowly awoke.

  “Sorry, Adah,” Rika said, her voice as gentle as the hand that shook Adah awake. “I know you’re trying to sleep, but I think you’re going to want to see this.”

  Rika slipped her phone over Adah’s shoulder, which Adah grabbed with both hands still tucked into her sweatshirt sleeves. She held the phone in front of her face and blinked hard a few times until she managed to focus on the image on the screen.

  A boy with tousled brown hair was reclining in a hospital bed, his body only slightly upright. He held an arm out to the camera—his left arm—and gave a thumbs up. He looked even skinnier than when Adah had seen him in person, but there was no doubt about it.

  Ekki had woken up.

  One of the knots in Adah’s chest untangled, and she released a breath she hadn’t even known she’d been holding. She realized she had let go of a tension she’d been carrying ever since their battle with the hydra.

  The picture of Ekki was attached to a post from Iris’s social media, with the caption: You can’t keep a good knight down! Thank you everyone for your support, you have the gratitude of everyone at DreamRise for helping Ekki recover. I will pamper him until he is back in tip-top shape!

  “That guy’s tougher than he looks,” Ami said.

  “A real knight,” Emi agreed.

  “I guess Iris’s feelings weren’t just for show,” Rika said. “She was rallying for him every day. Who knows if he would’ve made it through this without her.”

  Adah handed Rika back her phone and let her head fall back against her headrest again. Tired as she was, she still had to smile. How had she ever doubted him?

  “She worked hard for him,” Adah said, “but he would’ve come through no matter what. After all, if there’s anyone who wants to see Thibault fall more than I do, it’s him.”

  Adah owed him an apology, but that wasn’t all she had to say to him.

  While he was asleep, Adah had been setting the stage for him to take his first real step toward his goal. And she hadn’t even realized it.