Elodie decided that this autumn was chillier than past ones in Massachusetts. Not because of the physical temperature, however. Elodie had quickly removed her sweater when pinning up cobwebs and cartoonish pumpkin decorations to the front porch.

The Oakley Speech and Debate tournament was this coming weekend, and for once, Elodie was not going with friends. Just people who happened to be on the team. For all that her newfound sisterhood had granted, it was easy to forget about what she'd lost. But with the tournament looming ahead of her, Elodie was starting to remember.

She wrinkled her nose at the slightly-lopsided decorations, and decided to straighten them out— before deciding that it wasn't worth her time or breaking her leg. She carefully descended the rickety old home-improvement ladder, and set the box down on the ground just in time to see Brad exit.

"Why are we throwing a Halloween party?" Elodie asked. "We're Hindu."

"It's not a religious holiday," Brad reminded her. "And anyway, I want everything to go right with Hayden."

Elodie raised her eyebrows. "Is that her name?"

Brad looked away. "Look, you can bring your friends if you want— you just all need to be in costume, okay?"

"Does Hello Kitty count?"

"Like, a real costume," Brad said. "Go as Katniss or something, you've got the bows and arrows."

"Those are not toys," Elodie seethed. "Those are real, and dangerous—"

"Spare me the lecture." Brad rolled his eyes. "Just try not to mess this up for me."

"Wait, is this the same girl as the one you ditched me for on my birthday?" Elodie asked. 

Brad nodded.

"Three weeks is a long time for you." There was a solemnity that protruded from her light teasing. "I won't mess this up, I promise. And neither will my friends— if it means this much to you."

"Thank you." He met her eyes. "What ever happened to your Speech and Debate friends?"

Elodie blushed. "Just not getting along like we used to."

"I can understand that," Brad said in a moment of unexpected introspection. "I just waited until college for all of my relationships to self-destruct."

Elodie avoided his eyes. The light-hearted jab felt a lot colder than he'd meant. 

She picked up the box of decorations and thrust it in his arms. "I've got to get my homework done. Then I need to figure out what I'm going to wear."

"Oh, okay—"

She stormed past him to where her room was, directly to the left of the entryway staircase, and slammed the door behind her. She picked up a bow on her rack, trying to think of something that would make a good costume. 

She set the bow back down, and flopped onto her bed, pulling out her cellphone. At least she could call in backup. 

"What are we doing again?" Galileo glanced at the door that had been propped open.

"Helping me figure out a costume for tomorrow," Kira explained as she flung open the door to her walk-in closet. "I haven't been shopping, so I'll have to reuse bits from my previous costumes."

She knelt down and pulled out a bin labeled HALLOWEEN in her neat, yet large handwriting. She dragged it out to where Galileo could see, from where he sat on her favorite beanbag chair. 

"That's a lot of costumes."

"We take Halloween rather seriously in this house," Kira said. "And some of these are my little costumes, from when I was a little girl. Sentimental reasons."

Galileo nodded, although there was a flicker of unease over his features. "Jenna always purges anything that's not needed with clothes and stuff. She's a big fan of the minimalist style." He looked to the door again. "Are you sure your dads are okay with me being in here?"

"As long as we keep the door open," Kira said with a casual wave of the hand. "Besides, they like you."

"Your one dad keeps looking like he wants to snap my neck." 

"Dad's just a little overprotective, but he likes you," she assured him. "Especially because you're one of Abba's favorites of all my friends." 

"Abba's Dr. Gershwin, right?"

"Yep." Kira held up an elaborate pointed hat decorated with stars. "Maybe I could go as a witch?"

"It's a cute hat." Galileo's tone was otherwise non-committed. 

"What, can't see me as a witch?" Kira put on the hat and gave what she meant to be a suggestive wink. Of course, it came out rather awkward and cheesy, making Galileo laughed. But she found herself laughing too. 

"Okay, maybe not." Kira set the hat aside. She held up a pale blue dress with a dragon Beanie baby sewn to the top.

"Is that a Khaleesi costume?" He pushed up his apple-red glasses. "I didn't know you watched Game of Thrones."

"I don't." Kira stood up, holding the dress against herself. "But I liked the idea of being a dragon queen two years ago."

"Well, it does get chilly on Halloween here—"

"I don't really want to be Daenarys Targaryen anyway," Kira decided. And I think it would be a little too on the nose, she said to herself as she tossed the blue dress on the bed. She then pulled out a dress she'd made the previous year. With a shimmering green skirt with a scale texture, and a sleeveless purple top, it had a similar problem to the dragon queen dress. And now being a mermaid felt wrong. 

Galileo didn't even question it as she buried it back down beneath the costumes that were far too small. 

"Well, I guess we could try to make something out of all of these costume pieces," Galileo said. He ducked into her closet, and immediately pulled out one of Kira's favorite things to wear when she was alone in her room. 

"You're a Ravenclaw?" Galileo asked as he held up a full Hogwarts uniform that was bronze and blue. 

"Yeah." She took the hanger from him. "Which House are you?"

"Slytherin."

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed."

His dark brown eyes glinted a brighter color, amused. "What House would you put me in, then?"

"Ravenclaw, too." She shrugged. "I just don't see the sneaky Slytherin."

He looked down at his Buzzfeed Unsolved shirt, tugging it down to his ripped jeans, ignoring the red blazer with patches on the elbow in his impromptu re-arranging of clothes.

"Everyone has a dark side, Kira," he said finally.

Kira swallowed. Just two days prior, she had breathed fire at that Paladin girl. "Believe me, I know."

Amber-brown to coffee-brown met, and despite not knowing the facts of what the other spoke of, they both just knew exactly the emotions of the other. 

Of not belonging. 

Of the fears that came with the opening of a relationship. 

Fears of opening up to one another, and not wanting to be too eager, too cold, too anything. 

They were joined by fear. Later, Kira would reflect on that as the moment that made her first fall in love with him. 

Because while the fear that pounded against Kira's heart and mind was unpleasant, to say the least, knowing that Galileo in some part felt the same way too, and that he might also have a darkness similar to her own, made her feel relief.

But she still wasn't ready to tell him about her being a dragon yet, she decided. But she would open her heart just a little further.

"Elodie said I could bring a friend," Kira said. "I think Dad's got Slytherin robes you could borrow—"

"I have my own," Galileo said, suddenly grinning. "You sure Elodie will be okay with it?"

"I can show you the texts—"

"Just wanted to check." He then bent down and picked up the wizard hat and plopped it on Kira's head. "Changed my mind. You look cuter with the hat on."

Kira grinned. "Even though it doesn't match the Harry Potter stuff?"

"Even though it doesn't match."

While it took time for Kira to realize that one eye-gaze was the beginning of her falling, she knew in the moment that he said those words that she could never go back, and that a part of her would always love Galileo Schuyler.

Elodie shut her locker closed as Penny scurried up, glancing left and right nervously.

"What do you want?" Elodie couldn't help her own snapping. She'd stayed up late, and with the threat of the Paladins still hanging over her head, she hadn't exactly been getting a lot of sleep lately. 

"I just wanted to say good luck at Oakley on Saturday," Penny whispered. "Adelaide said not to talk to you, but I just thought—"

"Adelaide?" Elodie raised an eyebrow as she started down the hallway. "We're nearly grown-adults, Adelaide doesn't have to tell you anything—"

"Look, just because you finally got the guts to break free doesn't mean that the rest of us have," Penny said, glancing over her shoulder to double-check for the Debate Queen's presence.

"It's your life, and you're the one who has control," Elodie said. Never mind that she felt even less in control now than when she was still friends with Adelaide and Penny and Renee. "And I hated how you were to Kira. She doesn't deserve what others think of her, you know that?"

Penny wrinkled her nose. "She still is pretty weird, Elodie."

"And this conversation is over," Elodie decided. "Goodbye, Penny, Happy Halloween, and thanks for the good wishes. Shouldn't need them, though."

Perhaps, she thought after, she was too petty with Penny. But any time she'd tried to remember the time before the secret as a much more rose-colored time than it was, the veil came crashing back down.

Penny was still shallow and afraid.

And, Elodie was realizing, she was once, too. She could never go back to that ever again. 

Aideen looked through her closet. Usually for Halloween stuff, she went as a dragon. Partially because Felecia found it funny, but also because it was an easy thing, and had become routine. Aideen gave a sigh of frustration.

Traditions were important, and so was routine— she understood that. She still liked having everything organized. But since her birthday, there was a part of her that wanted to loosen up a little.

Where she could change things up a little, have some more variety. Still enough routine and tradition to thrive. But there could be something new, too, to add a little something that had been missing all this time, Aideen was starting to realize.

For how she'd resisted some changes, like other heirs being added to the Trials, she was finding herself wanting them.

Aideen glanced at her wrist-watch, then grabbed her purse. A quick trip to the antiques shop could do her some good. And she could find a costume that would be just perfect for a year of breaking traditions