"Stop pulling." I leaned back from Kyton. He let go, and I fell back into the water. I propped myself up against the fountain's spout. If I had to wait for Eva's iffy rescue, I would rather wait in the cooling water. My skin still stung when the air touched it.

"Fine, stay. Whatever." Kyton turned and flicked his wings in my direction. "Have fun when someone shows up and freaks out because of that silver protection spell you put on yourself." He took a few steps away, obviously expecting me to beg him to come back.

Silver protection spell? He must've been talking about my half-formed scales. "I told Eva-" I swallowed, trying to smooth my sore throat. It was like swallowing broken glass. "-to bring Grandma."

He turned back to me. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Thank goodness." He collapsed on the grass. "I don't think there are any payphones around here, and I lost my cell phone somewhere between here and the exploded restaurant. It's probably in pieces."

"Same." I should probably get out of the water. If I drifted off to sleep without Kyton to keep my head up, I could drown. Then again, I'd rather take that risk than expose my burning skin to the open air.

A few minutes later, a flaming ball of feathers plopped into the grass next to Kyton. Apparently she'd been taking advantage of her new flight feathers. Squawking and shaking off her wings, Eva hopped on Kyton's chest.

He chuckled. "No, I won't hold you over the fountain. If you want to see her, you'll have to hop in."

Eva hissed. She was worse than a cat when it came to hating water.

Don't worry. I'm coming out. I gathered all of what little strength I had, and I scooted to the fountain's rim. How close is Grandma?

Close. Come, come fast. I see you.

I'm coming, I swear. I dragged myself onto the fountain's rim. Panting from the effort and gritting my teeth against the pain, I laid on my back there for a while before rolling off into the grass. The impact sent jarring stabs of pain through every bone in my body. Something was probably broken. Or sprained, at least.

"You okay?" Kyton asked without sitting up.

"Fine."

Eva hopped to my side and ruffled her feathers at my obvious dampness. Wet bad. Bad bad. Dry now. Hissing with obvious annoyance, she jumped on my chest.

What are you-

She jumped up and down, flapping her wings until flames licked the edges of her feathers.

The heat had been comforting the last time she healed me, but this time, it was unbearable. Every stinging cut, bruise, and iron burn seared with the heat of a bonfire.

I screamed. The noise ripped itself from my raw throat. Pain swarmed me like angry wasps, jabbing every inch of skin. Through a haze of tears, I saw Kyton nearly jump on me in his haste to help.

After what felt like an age, the fire died down. Eva turned into a glowing red egg in the middle of a pile of ash. It took me a minute to realize that I didn't feel as bad as I had before. I still felt like I'd been hit by a truck, but at least it hadn't been a flaming truck covered in broken glass. And I was definitely dry.

"Lilly, say something." Kyton patted my cheek, harder than a touch but softer than a slap. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." As okay as I could be after tonight. We needed to get Eva in a fire. I needed to track down some iron-burn herbs. And a shovel to dig my own grave after my parents laid into me. Staying out half the night with a boy was probably the second worst sin on Mom's list, right after using magic--which I'd also done--or being an Otherworlder--which both me and the boy were.

A car's brakes screeched nearby. I was pretty sure there weren't any roads leading this deep in the park, but I wasn't about to report my grandparents for driving in the grass. Grandma and Grandpa ran over to me, followed by my parents. Oh no.

"Get away from her," Mom shouted. She charged at Kyton, swinging her handbag like a lethal weapon.

I tried to sit up as Kyton scrambled back. "Stop. He-"

"What happened?" Dad completely ignored Kyton and rushed to my side. He picked up Eva's egg. "What is this?"

"Mine." I took the egg back and put it in my pocket.

Grandma marched up with her potion kit in hand. "Treatment first, questions later. Ky, there are iron herbs in my bag and bandages. Help yourself. I'll check you out in a minute."

Giving Mom a wide berth, Kyton edged around her to Grandma's bag. Mom opened her mouth--no doubt to argue--just as Grandpa climbed out of the car.

"Keep quiet and let my wife work, Celest," he said.

Ten minutes later, I was covered in bandages and stuffed in the backseat of a pickup truck between my parents. Grandpa was driving, with Grandma next to him and Kyton sqeezed next to her. It was a good thing Alice and the familiars hadn't come, or else we would squeeze each other to death.

As soon as we were out of the park and on an actual road, the questioning began.

"Where were you? What happened?"

"Are you okay?"

"Is your familiar okay?"

"What were you doing with an Otherworlder? And a familiar?"

That last question was from Mom. She glared at the back of Kyton's head.

"Don't be angry at him." Grandma had given me some nasty-tasting cough syrup when her cough potion didn't work well. The syrup had helped my throat a little, enough so that I could talk without too much pain. "He's my friend. I took him to a restaurant, and we were attacked by witch hunters. I used magic to cast a silver-skin protection spell."

That last claim seemed to make Grandma suspicious. She turned around to raise her eyebrows at me.

I swallowed and kept going. "I've had the familiar for a while, since before the compromise. I bonded by accident. But I did the compromise. Until tonight, I didn't do magic. I didn't even read about it. I went to that stupid school. Every witch hunter here tonight was one of my classmates. I'm not going back to school tomorrow. That's it."

Instead of apologizing for sending me to a school full of specists or feeling sorry for me being attacked by witch hunters, Mom managed to find something else to blame me for. Twisting the strap of her handbag like she wanted to strangle someone with it, she jabbed her finger at Kyton.

"If you hadn't been with an Otherworlder-"

"This has nothing to do with him," I shouted.

The car went silent.

Trying to keep a level tone, I focused on the seat right in front of me. "Magic is in my blood. They knew it from the moment I walked into Rothworth's. They were betting on how long I would last, the director's daughter said it herself."

"Is that so?" Her voice was strained, and her handbag's straps were looking bedraggled. "Was that before or after they saw your familiar?"

I shook my head. There wasn't any point in arguing. I could've died tonight, and all she would've said at my eulogy would've been "She should've stayed away from magic."

"Mom, I'm tired, and I feel like crap. Can we put off arguing until tomorrow?"

"Fine, fine. Why argue about the things ruining your life when we can put it off until tomorrow?"

Dad reached across my lap to place a hand on Mom's. "She gave up magic to the best of her ability for three weeks. Leo hasn't tracked her going into the forest or using magic this whole time. We agreed to let her make her own decision about magic."

"But she's been running around with an Other-"

"She didn't know," Kyton said from the front seat. He twisted around to meet Mom's gaze. "I never told her what I was. She couldn't have known."

Grandma patted his shoulder. "Defending Lilly is noble of you, but the compromise was for her to not use magic. She fulfilled it, no matter whether she knew about your magic or not. Don't lie."

"Okay." He sent me a comforting look before turning back around to face the front.

Mom huffed. "She didn't fulfill the compromise. She was supposed to go to a whole week of Rothworth's classes. It's only Thursday."

"You-" Grandma stiffened in her seat, obviously on the verge of saying something argumentative.

Dad jumped in before she could. "Celest, that's out of her control. She would be in danger if she went to school tomorrow. Going to Rothworth's this week is probably why she was targeted in the first place. They don't like witches on their turf."

"But-"

"Lilly turns eighteen tomorrow. It's obvious she'll be choosing magic. If she's careful, it won't be any more dangerous than operating heavy machinery in a factory, using carpentry tools, or any other dangerous job." He nodded at me. "I felt the same way you do when I was your age. I don't regret giving up magic, but I would've regretted if I never tried it in the first place."

We pulled into the driveway of the mansion, and Mom jumped out before the car even stopped moving.

Dad lowered his voice as the car rolled to a stop. "I'll talk to your mother. Know that we're both happy you're safe, even if she doesn't show it. But-" He raised his bushy eyebrows. "No more secrets, okay? Keeping secrets in this family can be dangerous."

I wished I didn't have to lie. I still wasn't sure what would happen to me after I transformed tomorrow or fledged some time in the future. By this time next week, I could be a blood-thirsty monster. Secrets wouldn't matter then. Or maybe I would stay in control, and I would have to keep my secret for the rest of my life.

Either way, I wished I could stay in this moment forever. But every moment has to end.

"Okay. No more secrets."