The day after my eventful meeting with Evangeline, I found myself waiting on the field behind St. Cirelia High after classes—just as the pink haired girl had asked.

  True to her word, Eva had wiped away any record of my detention or my brief fight with that jerk that shoved Mizuki. As a result, I was able to return home without fear of being assassinated by mom. The tradeoff was that my parents had apparently eaten the last of the pudding cups on their respective lunch breaks. And since Eva had stolen mine during her insane, sudden assault on me, I was still without the delicious treat I had been craving for days.

  I sighed at the thought of the pudding-shaped hole in my heart and turned my gaze skyward. Clouds drifted sluggishly across a tangerine canvas. I wished for their softness to envelope my form but settled for the hard bench beneath me.

  Though my body was tethered by gravity, my mind was soaring high above the ground. My winged brain plummeted back to me, however, when my phone began to rumble in my pocket. My heart skipped a beat when I checked the caller ID.

  Cynthia?! Since when did her number get in my phone?

  I answered with a dry, “why do I have your number?”

  A voice I didn’t expect replied.

  “It’s Helena. The Princess asked me to add her number to your phone when we had it in our custody.”

  “Right, okay. Why are you calling me from her phone, exactly?”

  “The Princess is currently taking a bath. She wanted me to ask if you were preparing for the gauntlet. She said you wouldn’t pick up if you didn’t recognize the number calling you.”

  I wasn’t sure what annoyed me more: the fact that Cynthia couldn’t be bothered to call me herself, or the fact that she was already hounding me about the stupid gauntlet after only two days.

  I ground my teeth. “I see. Tell the Princess I met a wiseman under a bridge and he’s teaching me all I need to know. Bye.”

  “Wai—”

  CLICK

  I slid my phone back into my pocket and groaned. Well, it was more of a growl.

  “Hey, I’m back and I brought drinks,” said Mizuki, handing me a can of juice and taking a seat on the bench.

  “Thanks.”

  As promised, I brought my best friend along for whatever Eva had planned. She was still unaware of the events of the previous day, but I thought it would be much easier to explain if she met the camouflage-clad girl herself.

  “What was that about?” Mizuki asked, cracking open her can of cherry soda.

  “Cynthia had her servant call and ask if I was preparing for the gauntlet.”

  She scoffed and rolled her sleepy eyes. “Of course, she couldn’t call you herself. Too good for that, I guess.”

  “That’s what I thought, too.”

  “Honestly, who cares?” She paused to take a sip of her drink. “At least she spared you the sound of her shrill voice. Blonde vermin.”

  Mizuki never had a high opinion of many people, let alone anyone in the royal family. But I had never heard her talk about anyone besides her own mother with as much disdain as she did when she spoke about Cynthia. As my best friend, I knew she felt angry on my behalf for the crummy situation I had fallen into, but her hatred of Cynthia seemed to go beyond even that. Ever since her brief meeting with the princess, she hadn’t missed a single opportunity to badmouth her whenever the regal blonde had appeared on television or social media.

  “Anyway,” she continued. “Enough about her. Where is that girl you mentioned? Didn’t you say she would be here at this time?”

  “Yeah, but it seems like she’s late.”

  Funny, considering she warned me not to be late.

  “That’s fine, it gives us time to talk. I was hoping you could tell me what happened to you yesterday.”

  I cracked open my can of strawberry juice and took a swig. I was going to need it to recount the beating I incurred.

  “Here’s the short version…”

  I told Mizuki all about Evangeline’s surprise appearance, our “fight”, and her decision to train me for the gauntlet. Listening to myself recount it only reinforced how insane it was.

  “She did what to you?!” Mizuki asked, incensed.

  I was about to respond when another, familiar voice cut in.

  “Heyoo!”

  As if on cue, Evangeline Dioli had appeared wearing a big white grin.

  “There you are,” I said. “You’re late to your own…whatever this is.”

  She laughed and rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, I had something I had to take care of. But anyway! I see you brought someone with you. Who is this?”

  I waited for Mizuki to introduce herself, but she only folded her arms and raised a brow at Eva.

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  “This is my best friend, Mizuki Wada.”

  “Ah, okay! I’m Evangeline Dioli, I’m sure you’ve heard of me~”

  “Never.”

  “What?! Man, what is going on with you two? Anyway, the pleasure is mine, Mizuki!”

  “Sure,” Mizuki deadpanned.

  “So, what is this about?” I asked.

  “Oh, right! I hope you’re ready for this, Shinsuke. Because today is the first day of boot camp for you!”

  “Boot camp? Does that mean you’re going to beat me up again?”

  “That’s for a different day!” she chirped. Mizuki seemed less than enthused by that response which Eva seemed to pick up on right away. “Oh, Mizuki, I know we just met, but I want your help with this.”

  My childhood friend and I traded a puzzled glance before she replied. “You do?”

  “Yes, because today we’re going to have a Morning Dew fight!” Eva declared.

  I couldn’t believe my ears. I was facing down the barrel of a gauntlet comprised of eight of the world’s most dangerous individuals, and yet, the supposed combat and magical prodigy was suggesting that we play a children’s playground game.

  “I fail to see how running around spraying each other with water like kids is going to prepare me for the gauntlet.”

  “Well, Shinsuke,” Eva started. “You also failed to execute a children’s level spell yesterday. So, I think a children’s game is a good place to start with you.”

  I’ve never been the self-conscious type, but I felt a wave of humiliation wash over me. Years of unpleasant talks with my parents over my poor magic grades had branded spellcasting a bit of a sore spot in my brain, so Eva’s words felt a little like being chewed out by my mother. She was right, though, and that was the worst part.

  I must have zoned out in my shame, because Eva had approached me, and I didn’t even realize it. She slid her hand onto my face and pinched my cheek. “Aww. Don’t worry, sensei Dioli is going to make it all better. You know, you made that expression yesterday, too. It’s kinda becoming my favorite face~”

  With anyone else, the moment would have descended into an awkward hell very quickly, I imagined. But there was something about the confidence in her smile that felt warm and earnest despite a strange anxiety building within me. If nothing else, she had committed to the bit quite well.

  “…”

  The silence paved the way for the buzzing of cicadas and the soft whistle of a gentle midday breeze to command the air. It felt increasingly wrong to disturb Mother Nature’s soliloquy, so I didn’t. My eyes drowned in her blue pools, and I felt a nagging tingle vibrate in my cheeks. After a few seconds that resembled an eternity, Mizuki finally spoke up.

  “Are we going to do this? Or…”

  “Yes!” Eva replied, bouncing away from me. “Can you perform the spell, Mizuki?”

  “I can.” She fired a stream of water from the tip of her finger pistol in demonstration.

  “Perfect. We’ll play the game just like anyone else would. The goal here is to get Shinsuke to learn how to perform the spell under pressure…or to perform it at all!” Eva added with a worried chuckle.

  Mizuki turned to me and flashed a half smile. “I apologize in advance, but let’s have fun, okay? You can do it; I know you can.”

  I readied my finger pistol and returned her smile. “Thanks, I might as well try.”

  “Annnnd, go!”

  With an energetic declaration, Eva kicked off the game.

  Mizuki immediately trained her gaze on Evangeline. Wasting no time, she closed the distance between them, the tip of her finger locked on her pink haired target. Eva remained still; a grin plastered on her face despite her fast approaching opponent. Mizuki shot a stream of Morning Dew, but Eva dove forward and rolled behind Mizuki. Unable to turn in time, Mizuki found her legs swept from beneath her by the swift prodigy. Eva mounted Mizuki and doused her face with a relentless stream of water.

  “Not me! Go after him!” Eva beseeched. She leapt off my best friend and began to dash towards me like a charging bull.

  Crap!

  I planted my feet into a stance shoulder width apart. Grasping my right wrist with my left hand, I took aim and centered the girl in my crosshairs. She was closing the gap between us quickly as I tried to visualize the magic circle for Morning Dew. It wasn’t a hard circle to imagine, but, for some reason, I kept recalling the drawing Eva scribbled on the whiteboard the previous day. In my mind, all I could see was Eva standing in front of it, her face obscuring the design and rendering me unable to process the image properly.

  “Gotcha!” Eva shouted.

  Defenseless, all I could do was shut my eyes tightly as I felt a stream of water blast my face.

  “Gods damn it…” I whined, unsticking my wet fringe from my face.

  “Sensei Dioli takes round one! You gotta do better than that, young one.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “She’s good…” Mizuki noted, smacking the dirt off her body.

  “Yeah, I figured that out yesterday.”

  “All right, that’s enough talking. It’s time for round two!” Eva announced.

  Round two wasn’t that different from round one. Mizuki focused her attention on me instead of Eva and eliminated me easily as I struggled to channel my magical energy into my finger. Quickly after my elimination, Eva drenched Mizuki with a powerful stream of Morning Dew from a distance quite unfair.

  In round three, Eva twisted me into a pretzel and blasted me in the eyes. In round four, Eva dual wielded finger pistols and blasted Mizuki in the chest and me in the eyes. In round five, I slipped on a wet patch of dirt and Eva blasted me in the eyes. The remaining rounds weren’t all that different. By the time the game was over, Mizuki and I were soaked. Eva was perfectly dry, though. Not a single droplet of water or sweat could be found on her skin.

  “Well, that was fun! But you, um, found a way to be worse today than yesterday…” Eva observed with a nervous laugh.

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “I’m not picking on you!” she insisted. “Seriously, I wouldn’t do that to you. But I do think that maybe this was a bit much too soon. I’ll rethink this and we can come back to this again in two days. Remember, failure is fine. We won’t stop till you get this.”

  If I can’t even be competitive in a game for kids, how the hell am I supposed to win this gauntlet?

  Eva withdrew her phone from her pocket. “Hey, you two. Bring your phones over here, I want to trade numbers with you guys.”

  We complied and handed her our phones. When she returned them to us, Mizuki and I held our phones together and compared contact lists. Eva listed herself as “Big Sis Eva” on Mizuki’s phone and “Sensei Dioli” on mine. We once again shared confused glances.

  “Anyway,” I started. “I’m going home.”

  “You don’t want to shower before we walk back?” Mizuki asked.

  “Actually, I think I want to head back alone today. I’ll just shower at home. Sorry, Mizuki.”

  She frowned and twirled a damp curl on her finger. “Oh, okay…”

  “That’s fine, give him some time to himself. You and I can shower here and then walk back to your place together!” Eva declared, throwing her arm around her. “That way we can get to know each other a little better!”

  Mizuki looked taken off guard but sheepishly blurted, “o-okay?”

  I waved them off and charted a course for home. Being “that guy who rejected the Princess” already earned me enough stares, but my long, dripping hair wasn’t doing me any favors. I didn’t care, though. The thought of being completely unable to compete in a game meant for little kids was what frustrated me to my core. In truth, the shame of that fact made me want to avoid being around Mizuki. I knew she would want to comfort me but knowing that I could provide a better future for us, my parents, and her father if I won the gauntlet made me even more angry at myself for my magical ineptitude.

  I have to get better at this. At this rate…

  BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ

  My phone rumbled, severing my thoughts. I activated the screen to find a text message from none other than Cynthia.

  Helena delivered your ridiculous little message to me. I’m not laughing. I’m heading to Valport tomorrow. Meet me at Crystal Park after classes end. We need to talk.