"I'll get it!" I called as soon as I heard someone at our front door. I raced down the stairs from my bedroom and swung the door open, expecting to find Harper and Ellie out there on the front step.

  It was the holiday Monday, and even though only three days had passed since our st date night I was looking forward to seeing them both again. Plus there was a lot we needed to talk about. Except instead of my friends, I was surprised to find some stranger standing there outside the door.

  He was tall and athletic, with short messy brown hair. He looked to be in his te teens, and seemed vaguely familiar although I couldn't remember his name. I probably knew him from school, but odds were he wasn't in any of my csses or I'd have had a better idea who he was.

  My cheeks started to heat up as the two of us stared at each other, then he grinned and made a show of checking me out. His eyes slowly slid up and down over my figure, which left me feeling even more exposed than I actually was. I'd been in the middle of getting changed after work, which meant I was barefoot and had nothing on but a pair of tights and a loose oversized top.

  After another second or two the guy finally asked, "Is Amelia here?"

  "Hey Jayden," my sister replied from right behind me.

  As soon as I heard the name I knew who he was. Jayden was a year younger than me, he'd be going into grade twelve next month. And like my boyfriend, he was another sporty athletic type. In fact I was pretty sure he was on a few of the same teams that Harper used to be captain of.

  "Hey babe," he addressed my sister with a casual smile. "You ready to go?"

  Amelia pushed past me as she nodded, "Yeah. Let's get out of here."

  "I'll be back before mom's off work," she told me over her shoulder while she followed her new boyfriend towards his rusty old Civic at the end of our driveway.

  As the two of them climbed into the car I heard Jayden comment, "I didn't know you had a little sister. She's cute, what's her name? What grade's she in?"

  Amelia closed her door so I couldn't hear her reply. Then they pulled out and drove off, with me still standing there in the doorway feeling equal parts shocked and embarrassed.

  I was just about to swing the door closed when I spotted Harper's pickup approaching, so I ended up waiting there for him and Ellie. I waved as the two of them emerged from the vehicle, but from the looks on their faces I could tell I wasn't the only one with news.

  We exchanged hugs when they got to the door, then I welcomed them in and closed the door behind them. Like usual Harper was in his favourite jeans sneakers and a t-shirt. And my girlfriend was in combat boots and cargo pants again, and another t-shirt with an indecipherable heavy-metal logo across the front. Her thick bck-rimmed gsses were back too, and so was the scar over her left eye.

  That surprised both Harper and I on Friday night, when our girlfriend deactivated her ring. I thought the transformation would have healed her forehead, since mine patched me up after those guys jumped me at the gas station. I wasn't so sure about her eyesight, but I figured there was a chance. Then Harper suggested Ellie's transformation might not have healed her scar since that was a pre-existing thing.

  The tomboy pretty much ended that discussion when she stated she didn't care, she didn't mind the scar since she said it made her look tough. And she was fine with the gsses too, she said she'd worn them for so long they felt like part of her and she wouldn't want to give them up. In fact she was almost disappointed they vanished when she transformed into Onyx.

  "I need to finish getting dressed if we're going out," I said once they were both inside. "You can wait in the living-room if you like, or you're welcome to come hang out in my room with me while I figure out what to wear."

  Then I added, "Or I can just stay like this if you're ok hanging out here tonight? We've got the house to ourselves until ten o'clock at least, maybe till eleven."

  "I take it Amelia's out?" Harper asked.

  I nodded, "You just missed her and Jayden. And my mom's already at work."

  Ellie shrugged, "We may as well stay here then. We can talk in private anyways."

  With the decision made, my girlfriend and I headed into the living-room and sat down together on the sofa. Meanwhile our boyfriend ducked into the kitchen for a moment, then joined us after grabbing all three of us some soda from the fridge.

  After thanking him I looked to Ellie and asked, "So what's going on? You look like you have more bad news."

  "Two more missing students," she stated bluntly. "Tina from up north and another of Judith's students, a girl named Sasha both went missing at the same time. They were st seen on Thursday, but the disappearances weren't reported until Saturday."

  "Oh no," I sighed.

  I didn't know Glen and Tina very well, but I helped save their lives. They spent two days with us waiting for rescue, and two more days on the navy ship. We weren't friends, but there was a sort of bond after going through that survival situation together. Now after surviving crazy cultists and horrific monsters, both of them had gone missing under mysterious circumstances. Along with two other students in the same program.

  Harper grimaced, "Apparently the cops out there haven't got any leads or anything. It's like four students just vanished off the face of the Earth or something."

  "They're not actually saying much," Ellie added with a scowl. "The cops, I mean? They haven't said anything about the missing students all being from the same css, they haven't said anything about suspects or leads or whatever."

  I sighed again, but I didn't know what else to say about that.

  Then our boyfriend asked, "How about you Bke, have you heard anything else? From the magical girls, or your mom? Or your aunt?"

  "I talked to my mom Saturday morning," I replied. "I told her about the disappearances, and asked if she could do anything. She said she'd get in touch with her sister, but as far as I know she hasn't heard back from aunt Leslie yet."

  After a gulp of my co I continued, "I also texted the magical girls that morning. I told them about the first two disappearances, but I haven't said anything yet about you two getting rings. I uh, wasn't sure how to break it to them."

  "I guess I'm kind of hoping Cel will handle that announcement," I added quietly.

  Ellie asked impatiently, "So what did they say? Don't tell me they're ignoring this!"

  I grimaced, "Obviously they're all worried. But like we figured, nobody is in a big hurry to fly back to Canada. Or at least, Lily and Azura aren't. Violet said she'd come if she had to, but her leg's still healing. Ivy said she'd come too if we needed her."

  "Could they at least confirm whether or not the disappearances are reted to Judith's dark magic stuff?" Harper asked. "Like is this magical girl business, or something else?"

  "They don't know for sure," I admitted with a sigh as I picked up my phone and opened the messaging app.

  I cringed slightly after rereading the messages in question, "Lily seems to think my aunt Leslie's behind it? She suggested that Leslie faked the burgry, to try and throw suspicion off herself. I don't think the magical girls have any proof or anything, it's all just circumstantial. Like my aunt went to Judith's house, then we were told some occult stuff was stolen, then some of Judith's students went missing? But there's nothing here that sounds like Lily or even Cel knows for sure."

  My girlfriend frowned, "I'm kind of on board with Lily, in terms of thinking the timing's suspicious. But like you said Bke, it's all just circumstantial. And as much as I don't trust Leslie, even I know we don't have enough evidence to go after her."

  "We don't even know if the disappearances are reted to Judith's occult stuff. It's possible they're just pin old everyday human evil," Harper pointed out.

  "We don't even know enough to justify taking time off work to go out there ourselves and look into it," he added with a sigh. "It sucks, I hope the missing students are ok, but as far as we know this really isn't magical girl business. Is it?"

  That made me cringe again as I admitted, "It might be? I got another message from Lily this morning that's..."

  By that point my friends were both staring at me, with expressions that were equal parts curiosity and worry. And maybe a little angst.

  "What did she say?" my girlfriend finally asked.

  I gnced at those st messages again then sighed, "Apparently Cel says there's 'more darkness looming'. Lily still thinks my aunt is to bme, but the seer couldn't or wouldn't confirm that yet. In fact from what Lily said in her message, I'm not even sure this 'darkness' has anything to do with the missing students? It uh, it might be reted to something else entirely."

  "Like more Outsiders," Ellie stated softly. "Maybe some escaped out into the ocean after all."

  "Maybe," I nodded slowly.

  After a few seconds of silence Harper summed up what all three of us were thinking, "So we're less than four weeks away from moving into residence and starting college. Except we might be facing a wave of Outsider attacks, potentially anywhere along the coast of the Arctic and Atntic oceans. Meanwhile out west someone's stolen some of Judith's occult stuff, and possibly a bunch of her notes too. Four of Judith's students have also gone missing, two of whom were present at the rift st month and nearly sacrificed up there."

  "And the three of us are the only magical girls anywhere near any of this stuff," Ellie added with another frown. "Except Harper and I are both complete noobs, and even Bke's only been at it for less than two months."

  We were all quiet again for a bit after that, just sipping our drinks as everything slowly sank in. I was the first to speak up this time, after thinking it all through.

  "Unless Cel can give us something more concrete then I think we need to deal with the situation in Saskatoon," I stated quietly.

  "If someone's using Judith's dark magic then we have a responsibility to stop them," I expined. "Me personally because as much as I hate the idea, she was my grandmother. And the magical girls collectively, since our team was originally formed to fight that same dark magic. I think that makes it part of our legacy or something."

  "Yeah," Harper nodded slowly. Then he pointed out, "It's not like anyone else can deal with that stuff, right? I mean, dark magic? Cops won't know anything about it."

  "Neither do we," Ellie stated bluntly. "I got teleportation magic and you got healing magic, but neither of us have had much chance to use it yet. And that's it, we don't know any other magic. We don't even know how to find it, or who's using it."

  She looked at me and added, "That's the sort of thing your mom might be able to do though, right?"

  "My mom swore she'd never use that magic anymore," I reminded her.

  Ellie sighed, "Well maybe she can teach us then? Or what about Cel? I'm sure they know how to do that sort of thing. If they don't want to help then maybe they can teach us how to do it ourselves?"

  Harper asked, "What about training? I remember the other magical girls said you needed training, when they came out here to interview you before they all took off for Resolute. Is there some kind of special magical girl lessons you can share with Ellie and I? Since you're the veteran and we're the noobs, I figure there must be more tips and knowledge you can pass on to us?"

  Despite the low mood Ellie teased, "Are you already looking for excuses to turn yourself into a girl again? Or have you been doing some experimenting on your own since Friday night?"

  Our boyfriend just rolled his eyes then looked to me for a serious answer.

  "They used that as an excuse," I sighed. "There was no training. You know that, we went straight from the pne crash to battling Outsiders in like the span of fifteen minutes. The only real training I had was fighting with Violet in that Burger Queen parking lot."

  After a gulp of soda I added, "The other magical girls shared some bits and pieces of wisdom afterwards. And I already passed some of that on to you on Friday night, after you got your rings."

  Harper nodded slowly, "I figured as much. I was hoping maybe I was remembering things wrong. So I guess the same goes for Ellie and I then? They say experience is the best teacher..."

  "So what are you suggesting?" our tomboy asked with a frown. "We should magic-up and go looking for trouble?"

  I wasn't sure that was a good idea, but before I could say anything all three of us were distracted when my phone started ringing. I had a quick look at the call dispy, and when I saw Anahera's name on there I couldn't help worrying something else was wrong. So I swiped the screen to answer, and found myself listening in on a call that was already in progress.

  "Are you telling me we missed some Outsiders?!" the Māori woman asked impatiently. "Last month you assured me that the rift was closed, the job was done. There can't be another rift, can there?"

  Hearing that left my heart racing, but I quietly tapped the speakerphone option so the others could listen in as well.

  We all heard Cel's voice as they calmly responded, "The darkness I am sensing is diffuse Lily, I do not see it concentrated in any one location at this time. This does not feel like another rift, so it is possible that the concerns Rosa voiced earlier were correct. Some Outsiders may have slipped away during the battle st month."

  Anahera sounded angry as she muttered, "Damn it Cel! I'm still trying to get caught up on my work from st time. Do you have any idea how disruptive it is to drop everything and rush half-way around the world on a moment's notice? Why couldn't you have given us this information back when we were still in Iqaluit?!"

  "Because I did not have the information to give Lily," they responded in the same calm level voice.

  Cel continued, "I have already made arrangements so you and the others may respond more quickly to these emergencies. Onyx is on the call now, she can get all of you to the disturbance quickly. And return you home again afterwards."

  "Who the hell is Onyx?" our self-appointed team leader demanded.

  Ellie grimaced and fidgeted with her gsses as she spoke up, "Um, that would be me. I got a ring a couple days ago."

  "Now that all seven of you are listening it is time to act," our enigmatic seer stated. "There has been another Outsider attack. Activate your rings girls, then Onyx will take you where you need to be."

  My gut lurched at the thought of fighting more Outsiders, and from the way everyone else on the call was quiet I had a feeling they all felt the same as me. Then Fiona's voice broke the silence.

  "Seven? Who's the other noob?" the Welsh girl asked. "Wait don't tell me its -"

  Harper looked and sounded embarrassed as he nodded, "Yeah it's me. Call me Ruby. And I guess we'll be seeing all of you very soon."

  PurpleCatGirl