When I came back Lily was still sleeping. But as I took off my coat she woke up.

"What'd you find out?"

I look at her. "Thought you were asleep."

"Nope. Was awake for most of the night. Heard you get up and pretended to be asleep. Thought you might want to be alone. Think about stuff." I don't reply, but she doesn't give up. "What happened?"

"Well, I met this girl Aideen." Lily's nostrils flared but didn't say anything. I give her a strange look. 

So I explained to her what Aideen had said and about her sister. Lily nodded but seemed unhappy, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't about Aideen's sister.

"Do you know her?"

"Aideen? No. I had no idea she would be there."

Lily nodded and looked out our small window, her cheeks a little red. "You can go to breakfast. I'll be right there."

"Uh, okay." It was what, seven? "What time is it?"

"Eight." Huh. must've gone out later than I thought.

I got dressed and left the room. It was still really cold.

"Odila!" Ugh. Emma. I was not in the mood for her sunshine attitude. I was trying to figure out why my friend was being so distant. But I smiled and said a faint hi. I could still see her look at me with concern. Wonder if she's gonna ask what's wrong with me.

"You going to breakfast?" I nod. "I'll go with you!"

Goodie.

Like, I appreciate you and all that, but what do you want? There's no way to get out of this without saying something rude, so I let her chat her way downstairs with me and her twin. 

"Where's Lily?" 

"Uh, back at our room. She'll come later." Emma's face frowned for a little bit before going all happy again.

"She does know not to be too late, right? The mistresses will get her in trouble for that. I remember once I was late-" Her face went blank and she gazed at the floor for a second before smiling at me again. "She'll be fine."

UM.

What just happened??

Now I'm concerned but I walk to the dining hall and assure Emma Lily won't be too late. I hope. Cause whatever happened to Emma, she doesn't remember.

Will.

I turn to him. Raise my eyebrows and dart my eyes at Emma. His eyebrows came down and he shook his head.

"Hey Odila," I turn back to Emma. We were almost at the hall. "What's um, what's up with.." She waved her hand to gesture at my skin.

Ha. Knew it was coming. They don't wait more than a day before bringing it up. Out of instinct I look at my arm, where I have a spot shaped like a star. I like that spot. "Vitiligo. Had it since..." I try to remember. "I was seven, I think."

"Oh okay." She looked relieved. Maybe she thought I was gonna get mad at her.  We found a seat at one of the tables. I was next to the grunge girl, who opened the door for us when we came. She used to be scary but now I had a lot more memories to be scared by. 

Lily was dragged in by the ear. 

This little

fire

started inside me. Boiling like when that girl had pointed at me in the corner store, but a thousand times worse. I lept up and went to Lily's side. The woman who held her ear was unfamiliar. She looked older than Aster but younger than Marelyn. She had high cheekbones and long silver hair. Her eyes were black and cold. 

"What are you doing?!" I almost shouted. What was wrong with me?

The woman stopped and held Lily by the wrist instead. She looked at me, scared.

Freaking,

scared.

"She's late." The woman's voice was strident, loud and unpleasent. 

"So? You're hurting her!"

Marelyn came up to us. "Odila, stop shouting. Lily is fine. We're just going to take her to learn some discipline." Lily looked at her, then me, shaking her head. 

"She can't talk! What did you do to her?!" 

"It's a simple spell." The woman twirled her hand and Lily seemed to let out a breath. 

"Odila, please, I-" She twirled her hand again and Lily stopped talking. 

"Stop it! What did she do?"

"She was late." Marelyn looked at me sternly. "I know you're going to try and take her from us. Don't. You won't be able to get her to talk." 

"I-" Pleadingly, I looked from the woman to Marelyn to Lily, who looked back at me with deep eyes. She shook her head again, slower. I think it was a 'don't bother'. 

Which made the little fire worse. But the woman was done talking and took Lily somewhere, inside a wooden door that led to a dark room.

And I watched, helpless, as my best friend was taken.