Marie slammed the door so hard the entire front of the house shook, the windows clattering angrily as she stomped away. Her feet carried her away from the house and into the gardens behind it without thinking, vision turned red in anger.

  Why couldn’t her father understand that this was her choice?

  It was undeniable that he’d done a lot for her. He’d given her a life and opportunities she couldn’t ignore. But she was also her own person, and more than just a magical girl and potential mage at that. She was doing what he wanted. She was going to Mage Academy in the fall, she’d already received her letter of admittance. What more did he want from her?

  She stopped walking when her feet fell upon uneven pebbles, crunching underfoot. Marie blinked, eyes focusing on the small garden alcove that was her mother’s. Or would have been her mother’s.

  She’d died before her father had been able to build any of this, and the garden set in her memory sometime when Marie was a child. She could still remember the week they planted everything, only perennials that would last year after year, no temporary things. Her father had taken off work, and together they’d planted everything. He’d told stories of her mother, a woman who’d died too early, a mage who never truly saw her own potential.

  It was the reason her father pushed so hard, she knew. The more powerful a mage was, the more they knew about magic, the less likely they were to die from things like illness.

  Marie walked into the garden, through a small maze of raised beds, until she reached a stone bench in the middle. The concrete was cold beneath her when she sat down, sending a shiver up her spine despite the rising temperature.

  Wind rustled over the garden, leaving flowers waving and leaves rustling, as if saying hi. Scents filled the air, fresh and floral, waxy and tart, all layered together as Marie breathed in deep through her nose. Something in her body resisted as she strained to relax, to calm down and release the anger knotted up inside her. She closed her eyes, letting the warm summer sun on her skin and wind and flowers become the only thing she was aware of.

  What would her mother say to her today?

  Marie shut her eyes, trying to imagine and coming up blank. She’d never met her mother, not as anything other than a baby, and had no memories of her. There were pictures, of course, pictures all over the house and her father’s office, but that didn’t make it any easier for Marie to imagine her. It was like trying to recreate a painting from memory; she had the general idea, but not the details.

  Stones crunched behind her and Marie let out a sigh, back straight as she waited. The footsteps stopped, and silence followed.

  “I can’t help but try to think of what your mother might say to the two of us today,” her father said, his voice strained.

  “Funny,” Marie said, the word dry. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

  “I don’t think she’d want us fighting.”

  “I think she’d be proud of me for knowing what I want from my own life,” Marie fired back. I hope. She knew so much about her mother but at the same time, she may as well have been a stranger. She couldn’t say what her mother would have thought or said in this moment. If her mother was still around, there was every possibility Marie wouldn’t be here now, at least not the Marie she was today.

  Silence stretched on before gravel crunched again. Her father walked around the side of the bench and sat down, staring straight ahead.

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  “I don’t know what I would do if I lost you too.”

  Marie glanced over at her father. He wasn’t an old man, but his hair had already started to gray, lines forming around his eyes and the corners of his mouth. “You’re not going to lose me,” she said. “It’s just one summer. And then I’ll be a mage and I’ll learn everything I need to to keep myself safe and healthy.”

  He sucked in a breath, and Marie thought he was going to protest before he nodded. “So long as you stay out of trouble. Those friends are yours…”

  “Know how important it is that they stay out of trouble,” Marie said. “And if they do start something, I’ll stay out of it. Believe me, I want to be a mage more than anything. I’m not losing my admission to the academy.”

  “That’s good,” her father said, rising from the bench. “When you first debuted, I was worried you’d fall in love with being a magical girl and not want to leave it. So many people do. I’m honestly surprised your girlfriend decided to leave it behind.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Most people who’ve been magical girls for as long as she have never leave it,” he said. “And I didn’t think she was the type. But I was wrong.”

  Marie nodded even as her eyebrows scrunched together. It was a little hard to imagine Luc as a mage. Not in the sense that Luc didn’t have the drive and potential, but in the way she grew restless every time there was a monster to slay or a community to save. Mages didn’t do that sort of thing, not on the small scale the way magical girls did. Would Luc be able to live with that, when she realized it?

  Marie shook the worry from her mind and stood. “I’m going to say goodbye to Nice now. Will you help me load up the car?”

  With a bit of effort, her father put a smile on his face and nodded. “Of course I will.”

  The knot of tension that had grown so tight between her shoulder blades began to relax as she walked side by side with her father out of her mother’s garden. Even if he didn’t understand, at least he was willing to accept what she wanted to do and support her in it.

  ******

  “This thing’s heavy,” Tobias commented as he adjusted the magical watch-like device on his wrist as they stood around the truck.

  “You’ll get used to it,” Luc said, pulling her own out of the box. It lit something inside of her as she strapped it on, a buzzing warmth stemming in her chest as it clipped into place. For years, this device had sat on her wrist, a constant reminder of the work she needed to do. Not having it had been like losing a friend. Now that she had it back, she wanted to transform into her outfit and start chasing down imps and magical pests.

  Hopefully, she’d get to do something like that at camp.

  “I wish it was cuter,” Maisey said with a sigh. Her head tilted back, landing on the truck running and waiting for them. “Luc, do you want the middle or the door?”

  “Door,” Luc said without hesitation. They all climbed in, Tobias behind the wheel and Maisey in the middle, sandwiched between him and Luc. She slammed the door shut and shifted in the little space they had and settled in for the long drive.

  The familiar weight of the magical monitoring device on her wrist was like a comforting blanket as Luc settled into the truck alongside Tobias and Maisey. The front bench of the truck wasn’t quite large enough for the three of them but they made it work, even if it meant Luc was shoved up against the door for their five hour drive.

  She leaned against the door, forehead pressed against the window as Tobias put the truck into gear and pulled out of the commission’s parking lot. Her fingers danced over the wristband on the monitor as the town passed by on either side, heat like panic and quiet peace warring inside her blood and bones.

  It drummed in her ears and filled her head, the rhythm of leaving. It wasn’t that she was never coming back to Coleshill—all of her belongings were still here, packed away into boxes at the Barnes’ farm—but it did feel like an end. She would never live her again, and it would never be the same.

  Whenever she returned to Coleshill, things would be different. There would be new magical girls to fill the gaps they were leaving behind. New businesses, or familiar ones gone. The people would be different, because Luc wouldn’t be there to witness changes in real time in a way that made it seem like everything was the same as it had always been.

  She couldn’t look away as they drove, drinking it all in as it was, settling into the detached feeling filling her body. All her years of dreaming of leaving, running away and escaping this life, came rushing in on a tide of regret and excitement.

  A smile broke her lips.

  “What are you smiling about?” Maisey asked, giving her a nudge.

  “Nothing,” Luc answered, feeling the word curve with her smile. “I’m just excited for whatever happens next.”