Julian's eyes narrowed. He, slowly, deliberately, shifted his gaze. They moved past Reimi, past Alfie, past Val and Linda - and landed on me.

  And in that moment, I could see they definitely weren't the eyes of my goofy best friend.

  I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He looked serious, like he was about to jump up and pick a fight with Reimi right then and there.

  And then it was gone. All the creepy energy that'd been building up.

  He blinked, and they were just his eyes again. A little dazed, a little confused.

  "What... what happened?" he rasped, his voice a dry, croaky whisper. "Where... am I? Maya? Why am I lying on a workbench? And why do I feel like I just got hit by a bus that was also on fire?"

  "Jules!" I shrieked, rushing to his side. Alfie opened a girl-sized hole in the dome and I threw my arms around his neck, my own problems temporarily forgotten. "You're okay! You're talking!"

  "Of course I'm talking," he said, trying to sit up, but the golden bubble held him in place. "Why wouldn't I be? And why is there a giant golden disco ball around me? Did I miss a party?"

  But I wasn't listening. Something felt wrong.

  The hairs on my neck prickled on their ends, and I immediately glanced up at Reimi.

  She was frozen, her face a mask of pure shock. Her red eyes were wide, her lips slightly parted, tremoring. It was a spectrum of emotions I wasn't used to seeing on her.

  Pure, undiluted disbelief.

  Maybe even... terror?

  And then, just as quickly, it was gone. Her face hardened, her expression shuttering closed, the ice queen slamming the door shut with a vengeance. She ripped her wrist free of Julian's grasp. She scowled, her face twisting into a familiar, angry mask.

  "Fucking idiot," she snarled, her knuckles white as she flexed her wrist. "Don't ever touch me like that if you want to stay in one piece."

  She turned her back on him, her shoulders rigid. She stalked to the far corner of the garage, her back to all of us, her fists clenched so tightly at her sides I thought her knuckles would bleed.

  The rest of us just stared at each other. The silence was deafening, broken only by the sound of Julian's confused breathing.

  "What... was that?" Valentina finally asked, her voice a hushed whisper.

  "I... I don't know," I said, my mind a complete and total mess. "He just... grabbed her."

  Julian blinked, taking in the matching frilly dresses and the weird golden bubble. He looked at Reimi's rigid back. He looked at my tear-streaked face.

  Then, he looked down at his own hands, a strange, confused expression on his face.

  "I... had the weirdest dream," he said, his voice still raspy. "There was a... nevermind. But why are you all looking at me like I'm a ghost?"

  "You don't remember? The Railyard? The giant robot? The diving through a dimensional rift?" I asked, my heart thumping against my ribs.

  He shook his head slowly. "I... remember being sick. Really, really sick. And yeah. I kinda remember that. My head felt like it was full of... static. And then... I don't know. It's all... fuzzy. Like one of those dreams you can't fully remember when you wake up,. you know?"

  He looked at me, a small, apologetic smile on his face. "Sorry, err. Mai Mai. I think I made a scene, didn't I? Classic me..."

  I shook my head. "Julian. Yinran. Kwong. What the hell were you thinking?! Seriously? Tailing us with a baseball bat?! You are, like, a million flavors of lucky to not be a grease stain right now."

  He winced, the apology in his eyes warring with a flicker of defensiveness. "I know, okay? I just... I saw you get in that car with... her."

  He pointed a thumb over his shoulder at Reimi's rigid back. "Not gonna lie. She looks and feels like she collects human souls for a living, Mai. What was I supposed to do? Just let you get recruited into a weird goth cult? I figured if I could feel it then so could Mr. Hoshino. And if your parents weren't doing anything..."

  He sat up, the golden bubble finally dissolving as Althea slumped against a workbench, exhausted. "And then I felt... I don't know, weird. The air got... heavy. And I was so scared, but I knew I couldn't let you go alone. Every cell in my body was screaming you were running further and further into danger. I had to do something."

  "Well, you did something, all right," Valentina grumbled, flopping into a rickety office chair. "You got us a multi-thousand-point magical medical bill and a front-row seat to Reimi's psychotic break."

  Julian's brow furrowed.

  His gaze, now clear and focused, drifted back to Reimi. He was still scared, I could see it.

  "Who is she?" he asked, his voice low. "For real. Not the 'cousin from Canada' story. That was about as believable as my sperm donor claiming he 'found' a suitcase full of cash in the laundry."

  He pushed himself off the cot, standing a little wobbly but on his own two feet. "You guys are... you're magical. I get that now. Sentinels, I see. But she's... something else." His eyes narrowed.

  Julian was right. The tension in the garage was so thick you could've spread it on a bagel.

  The silence from Reimi's corner weighed on us as she stared at the wall away from us, tapping her fingers on her other hand. It was like a black hole sucking all the warmth out of the room. She hadn't moved an inch, but it felt like she was coiled, ready to spring.

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  "Look, Jules," I said, trying to keep my voice level. "It's complicated. She's... new. And she's got a metric ton of baggage. She saved us. Really. I'll tell you later. And then she basically spent enough on a down payment on a house in Points to save you. So maybe we could, you know, not poke the bear with the crazy tragic insane backstory I can't even begin to explain for, like, five minutes?"

  "I'm not trying to poke her," Julian said, his own frustration mounting. "I'm trying to... understand. I followed you because I was worried. I'm still worried. I mean, my brain shut off for a minute. And then you're all in these crazy outfits, fighting things I can't even describe, and your... backup I guess... is a girl who looks at me like I'm a bug she's about to step on."

  He took a hesitant step forward. "I don't know what happened to me. I don't remember anything but just raw primal terror. I vaguely remember... a robot or being in a weird ghost station. But beyond that fear, all I remember is being scared out of my mind for you." He looked directly at me, then back at the sulking figure in the corner.

  "And her," Julian said, jabbing a finger at the scowling Reimi. "Her energy is… wrong. The feeling I got from her? It wasn't just 'stay away' scary. It was a void. It's like being next to a black hole."

  He was right. She was a walking, talking void of angst and trauma.

  And I, for some insane reason, had decided that maybe, just maybe, we could help her and she could help us.

  Stupid. So, so stupid.

  But the way Julian looked at her… he wasn't just being a protective friend. His posture was upright, and he was trying oh so hard not to poop his pants right now.

  The way he stood, he looked like… a hunter. He saw a threat.

  And for the life of me, I couldn't find it in myself to argue with him.

  I looked at the girls.

  Valentina just looked tired of all the drama. Althea was chewing on her thumbnail, a nervous habit she thought she'd kicked in seventh grade but came up when she wasn't thinking about it.

  And Linda… Linda just watched, her mind clearly whirring, processing the data points and putting it all together: one traumatized magical girl, one overly protective civilian, and a whole lot of unresolved, supernatural baggage.

  It was a recipe for disaster.

  "Jules, just… trust me on this one," I pleaded. "She's on our side. Mostly. I think."

  He shook his head, his expression unyielding. "I can't, Mai. Not until I know for sure she's not going to hurt you. Or get you killed. And given what I ran into, I'm not so sure of either."

  I felt a lump form in my throat. This wasn't going away.

  Julian was a real... knucklehead.

  Even with no powers, no magic, no nothing, he was still trying to protect me.

  And it was the sweetest, most frustrating, most ridiculously Julian thing in the world.

  And it was going to get him killed at this rate. It almost did.

  Reimi finally spoke. Her back was still to us.

  "You should listen to her, trash bag," she said, her voice flat and cold. "You're out of your depth. You don't belong here. Go home."

  Julian's jaw tightened. "I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers. Seriously. Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from? What are you doing with Maya?"

  Reimi turned around.

  Her face was a perfect mask of contempt. Her red eyes burned in the dim light of the garage.

  "I'm the one who saved her life, from horrors you barely understand," she snarled. "And I saved yours, for that matter. But look at you. Skin and bones. A barking dog with no teeth. The only thing you'd save her from is a spare donut. Now, get out of my sight before I decide to see what color your insides are."

  The threat was tinged with a tangible spike of killing intent. It was so visceral, so absolute, that it sucked all the air out of the room. Althea made a small, choked noise. I took an involuntary step back, my heart hammering against my ribs.

  This was it. This was the end.

  He was going to push, she was going to snap, and my dad's old team garage was going to become a super-murder crime scene.

  But Julian... he didn't flinch or quip at Reimi.

  He stood his ground, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, but he didn't raise them.

  He didn't even look angry. He looked... calm?

  "Okay. Let's say you're right," he said, his voice quiet but steady. "You saved her. I get that. Given I'm still here, and so's she. I guess I have to say... thank you. I'm... I'm grateful. I am. Even if you did it while being a world-class jerk the entire time."

  Reimi's eye twitched. She looked like she was about to lunge.

  "But you don't get it," Julian continued, his gaze unwavering. "This isn't about me being some tough guy. I know I'm not. You could probably, like, blink at me and I'd break in half or something. This isn't about me. This is about the fact that I am not, and will never be, okay with standing by while someone I care about is in a situation that feels this..."

  He struggled for the word.

  "...this wrong."

  He took a deep breath, and the whole atmosphere of the room shifted.

  "So, here's the deal," he said, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. It was a truce. "I'm not your enemy. I don't want to be. I'm just the guy who's always going to be worried about these girls. It's my full-time job, and it doesn't pay well."

  He looked at Reimi, his expression earnest.

  "I don't trust you. Not even a little bit. Everything in my gut is screaming that you are bad news with a capital 'B'. But... Maya trusts you. For some, like, incredibly insane reason that I cannot begin to fathom. She sees something in you."

  He finally looked at me, a small, sad smile on his face. "And she's usually a scarily good judge of character. Even if she trips over her own feet a lot."

  Jules turned back to Reimi, slowly walking in to meet her eye to eye as she quirked an eyebrow.

  "So. I will back off. I'll go home. I'll try and... process whatever the hell just happened to my brain. But know this: I'm watching. Always. If I even think you're putting them in danger, if I get so much as a twitch of my Spidey-sense that you're going to get one of them hurt... I don't care if you have fireballs and shadow magic and a shotgun that shoots angry bees. I will find a way to stop you. That's a promise."

  He held her gaze for a long, silent moment while invading her personal space. It was the most ballsy, stupid, courageous, and completely, utterly insane thing I had ever seen him do.

  Julian sucked in another breath.

  "You need someone on the outside, someone who can, you know, call for help if things go sideways. Someone to... look out for her when you can't, or won't. I just wanted to say that I'll be there."

  He lowered his hands. The offer hung in the air between them, a fragile, impossible thing.

  Reimi stared at him. Her expression was unreadable, a perfect, blank slate. She didn't say anything. She didn't move.

  The silence stretched on, long and tense, before she finally broke it with a single, disgusted "Tch."

  Then, she turned her back on him again, dismissing him completely, and went back to staring at the wall.

  Julian let out a long, shaky breath.

  He turned to me. "I'm heading out. Call me when... you know. When you guys need to talk or some help or something. And please try not to get eaten by a tentacle monster before breakfast. Mom would hate that."

  And with that, he walked out of the garage, leaving the door swinging open behind him.

  The silence that followed was deafening.

  I looked at Reimi.

  Her mask of anger was gone, replaced by a look of bewilderment that almost looked like pain. She stared at the empty doorway.

  And then, she did the last thing I expected.

  She sat down on the floor, right there in the middle of the dusty concrete, and put her head in her hand.

  She didn't say a word. She just... sighed and sat there, looking like she had a migraine that could kill a blue whale.

  I glanced at Alfie and Val and Linda.

  Valentina just shrugged.

  And I knew, with a certainty that settled deep in me, that everything had just changed. I didn't know how, but it did.

  ...

  SLAM

  Suddenly, the door to the garage swung open again, interrupting the heavy, world-altering silence.

  Julian's head poked back in, a look of sheepish annoyance on his face.

  "Whoops! Hey uh, hate to break up the whole super-intense afterglow thing, but..."

  He gestured vaguely outside.

  "Did, uh... did anyone happen to drive my car back from the... wherever that was? The place with the murder-robot or whatever? Because I'm pretty sure I left it running."