The sun has yet to rise as I march across campus early the next morning with Astrid, Tessa, and Indigo in tow, the world around us a dusky blue as the sky slowly lightens into faint shades of gray. The air is cool and crisp and there is a thick layer of frost coating everything, which makes the world glitter in a way that almost makes it look like it has snowed as the frost collects on my shoes.

  At this point, I don't care if I'm caught, I have something that I need to figure out for myself and no one is going to get in my way now.

  I make it to a side door on the lecture hall and try the handle, only to find that it's locked. Astrid steps past me without a word, her hand hovering over the lock as there's a rattling click and I reach forward to tug the door open. The hallways are abandoned and cold as I walk for the gallery, the door on it being unlocked as I nudge my way inside.

  There's a brief pressure on the back of my arm and I look up to see that Tessa is a step behind me.

  "You're sure about this?" she asks softly.

  The question isn't posed as a way that she doesn't believe me, but more as a 'there's no going back once we figure out what secrets the founder is hiding' type of way.

  Though I'm not sure which would be worse, if she didn't believe me or what the secrets are.

  I've yet to visit the gallery for myself, though I only pause for a moment to look around before I spot a glass case toward the back of the room. I can almost feel that the wand is there before I even see it as I pause beside the case and look up. On the wall above the case is a massive, oil painting of Lilith sitting on a chair, her hands folded in her lap as her eyes gleam in such a way that it almost looks like she's alive as she looks out of the painting, her posture regal yet relaxed. I could almost imagine that if I watch the painting long enough, she would blink as I look down at the case and shake my head.

  The stories say that she had died in a terrible accident, the details fuzzy at best.

  Somehow, I feel that's not the what happened.

  Inside of the case is a wooden wand that has been carved in such a way that it is coiled like a horn. The wand is a reddish shade, like cherry wood and it instantly feels familiar even though I've never seen it.

  I touch the glass and, to my surprise, the lock on the case clicks as it unlocks itself. I glance at the others, who are now staring at me in shock.

  "Did you-?" Indigo starts to say, but I interrupt her.

  "No," I shake my head a few times as her face pales.

  "Well, touch it then," Astrid says in a low voice and Indigo shoots her an irritated glance.

  I ignore them and open the case before I hesitate for a second longer and grab for the wand.

  Though I don't even think that I feel the wood before everything abruptly disappears.

  ****

  I can smell smoke, the heavy, overbearing odor filling my lungs to the point that I feel suffocated. I would cough, but at the same time, the smoke doesn't feel like it's quite there either. I open my eyes to find myself in the alchemy lab once again, like I hadn't even left the memory from before as the cauldron continues to billow smoke, the book still burning.

  Lilith is still standing by her cauldron, the flames rising from it as she turns and looks directly at me.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "If you've come this far then I trust that you are helping, rather than harming the Unfamiliars," she smiles sadly and I notice then that the door to the alchemy lab is open.

  A man is in the doorway but he isn't moving, almost like he's been paused in time as his eyes are locked onto Lilith. She glances at him for a brief second before she looks back to me.

  "Time is running out, I know that it may sound morbid, but this wand is connected to my energy and will be able to show you where my final resting place is, wherever that may be. Once you are close, you will see the rest of my memories and whatever happened to me," Lilith's voice strains at the end as she blinks, "please be careful, for what you see will not...it will likely not be pleasant."

  ****

  I open my eyes and feel much like I've been locked in a freezer due to a chill that has gripped my body. I'm on my back on the floor and the others are gathered around me, their faces warped into different degrees of concern as I start to shakily sit up. Astrid quickly offers a hand, her eyes bright with worry as she steadies me.

  "Are you okay?" Indigo asks, her voice strong but the underlying tone gives away the fact that she's been genuinely frightened.

  "Yeah, what happened?" I murmur as I sit up fully, my elbow throbbing dully like I've hit it.

  "You passed out," Tessa explains as she helps me get to my feet.

  I snort softly as I notice that my palm is abnormally warm and I glance at it to see that the wand is gripped in my hand. It almost feels like I'm holding a small, living creature, like a bird, the faint feeling of a pulse coming from within the wood of the wand as I stare at it.

  "I need to go," I tell her as I start out of the gallery.

  Something has changed since I've held the wand and I can feel it in my heart and hands, a burning pull, like I'm needed somewhere and I let the sudden sensation guide me. I walk out of the lecture hall and onto the sidewalk as I start down the main driveway, unafraid of being seen. I feel like I'm walking home, the same sensation that would guide me to my house guiding me elsewhere.

  "Do you know where you're going?" Indigo asks as she pulls me to a stop and I shrug as I look around, curious as to where the wand is going to lead me.

  "Maybe," I tell her honestly and she frowns.

  "What do you say we borrow a few horse familiars that I know of?" she inquires as Astrid and Tessa catch up to us.

  "That would make things easier," Astrid agrees as she pauses to catch her breath and Indigo nods and starts to conjure.

  Two, equine forms begin to shimmer a few paces away as Indigo looks in their direction and takes a few even breaths. The two creatures have no riding tack to speak of as they come into full existence, one of them being gray while the other is a dark, chestnut that paws anxiously at the ground.

  I feel a rush of anxiety at the thought of riding a horse with no saddle or bridle, but we don't have much of a choice as I quickly clamber onto the back of the gray one, the horse kneeling slightly so I can get on its back easier.

  Tessa climbs on behind me and I can see a flash of irritation cloud Indigo's face as she reluctantly gets onto the other horse as Astrid climbs on behind her. I don't give her much of a chance to complain as I quickly turn my horse away and goad it forward.

  ****

  I cut across another dark golf course at a brisk walk, my borrowed familiar snorting as it tromps across the grass before we finally make it to a shoreline where I ease the horse forward as it clambers down a thick bed of large rocks to a dingy strip of sand where the waves are lapping. I urge it to trot as I tangle my fingers into its mane, its hooves slapping against the wet sand as Tessa holds on behind me. Astrid and Indigo's horse shadow us, a welcoming presence.

  I can see the faint flicker of headlights on the road bordering the shoreline as a few cars pass by here and there. My horse keeps an easy pace as dark houses flash past on one side while a lighthouse turns its light out on a rocky shoreline ahead of us. A few, sleeping seagulls startle awake as we bear down on them from where they are nesting on the sand, their cries harsh and frightened as they burst into flight and wheel about in the sky, the lighting still gray as the sun has yet to rise.

  I feel a sudden pull before I can get too far down the shoreline as I urge my horse back up the embankment and onto a small road that is bleached gray from the salty, ocean air. The houses here are tiny and painted in shades of white that eventually become brick houses the further into town we ride. Halloween decorations are draped across the classic, colonial homes as I take a narrow street that is lined with houses and cars on either side, the neighborhood silent and dark save the clop of the horses' hooves.

  The trees above us have begun to change colors and the leaves rustle and rattle in the faint breeze that is coming off the harbor as the crash of the waves act as an undertone. I slow my horse as we reach what I feel is our destination and I urge my horse to stop.

  "This is the place," I tell them as we pause at the edge of the open field that looks innocent and vacant.

  But it doesn't take long for me to spot the headstones that are dotted among the grass.