Happy. Sam wanted me to be happy. That was the best news I’d heard in a long time. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no idea what was going to make me happy.But I did know I had some mages to talk to. So after my discussion with the pack, I went out to the compound Mage Ostrich had sprung up on my property and had a look around. It was definitely nothing like the School for Mages I’d built by myself in a couple of hours, but it wasn’t bad. I supposed the individual mages could change things to be more suitable to each of them if they so desired.It didn’t take long for me to find my friends, or for them to find me, as the case may be. Kayla, Lluvia, Sean, and Liz were sitting on lawn furniture chatting while Liam and Leo played basketball, or something that resembled basketball, nearby. The ball they were using didn’t quite look sol

School. The place I both dreaded going back to and was happy to see. I walked through the doors of Whispering Hollow High School feeling like I hadn’t been there for ages. The students were even staring at me like they wondered where I’d been. I knew I was way behind and probably in danger of having missed too many days that semester. The same could be said for all of my packmates who had been out fighting evil and hiding from dragons for just as many days as I had been. So we all walked together to the principal’s office to find out if Mr. Short was going to require us to do anything other than to make up our missing work. “Well, well, well,” he began folding his arms and looking at me like he was my father and he’d caught me sneaking in past curfew. “If it isn’t Harlow Nightingale.” “Hello, Mr. Short, sir,” I said. “We are back.”

I didn’t think I’d sleep that night. I was exhausted, but then I usually am. I figured I’d stay awake thinking about what the pack was finding out on their trip to the forest over by the river. Would they be able to figure out what was going on with the pink trees without me, or would this require my mage powers to solve?I only spent a few minutes staring at the ceiling before I fell into a deep sleep. I knew I was either dreaming or had fallen into another realm because I was in a forest where all of the colors were messed up, much like the one Fionna and Cody had made, but this one was different. The trees weren’t brown and green like they were supposed to be, but the trunks weren’t pink either. They were all different colors. It was like a rainbow forest. And it was beautiful.I wandered aro

I had no idea what to do about Melanie’s disappearance or the new revelation that there are apparently such a thing as wood nymphs, which I thought perhaps someone should’ve told me about prior to me being introduced to one. Standing there in the middle of the forest, in the middle of the night, on a school night, mind you, I was growing more and more frustrated by the second.I finally decided I needed help with this, so I materialized a cell phone and called Maggie. She was the only person I could think of who might be able to help me, and I figured it was the middle of the day in France so at least I wouldn’t be waking her up.She answered pretty quickly, probably recognizing that it had to be urgent for me to be calling her at that time. “Hi, Harlow. What’s going on?” she asked, a tinge of nervousness in her voice.

The portal was closed, but I didn’t know for how long. Part of me wanted the monster to just come right on through now so that I could deal with him and have it over with. But I knew I wasn’t anywhere near full strength at the moment, so I wouldn’t be able to defeat him that easily, and there was no one else around with the power to help stop him. Except for Francis and the hell if I was ever going to ask her to help me with anything ever again.“Melanie, how are you?” Joshua was asking as he sat on the ground with her, his arms around her.“I’m okay,” she said. “Just scared. And my leg is sore.” She was shaking, her hair messy, and sweat at her hairline. She was also covered in some sort of a light dusting of green powder. The green was the same pukish color as the wood nymph.