“It can see everything,” Prue says with a laugh. She punches a few buttons, stirs something into a pot below the mirror, and the screen splits into four scenes—Olivina’s empty office, the dining halls, and the girls’ dorm hall, in addition to the Royal Underground. Raina gasps.

“There’s Hazel!” Raina points to the top left image. “I bet she’s about to give out the superlatives for the week.” She sighs. “I wonder if I would have won if I was there. Do you guys mind if I watch?” she says hopefully. “Please? Just for a moment? This is fascinating…”

I look angrily at Tara. “Wait a minute! If you can see everything going on at Royal Academy, then you must have seen us in Olivina’s office when she banished us!”

We all look at Tara. Prue and Corden appear guilty. I’m more angry than a porcupine that has lost some spikes.

“I can’t believe this! You knew we were innocent, and you came after us anyway?”

“Innocent?” Tara counters. “You’re dangerous!”

“Dangerous?” I repeat, offended.

“Yes,” Tara says emphatically. “We may not get to live in the real world with everyone else, but at least we’re safe here. If Olivina was mad enough to banish you all, she’ll put all of her firepower into finding you. And if she finds you, she finds us. There’s no way we’ll be able to evade her forever.” Tara sits down on a barrel in defeat. “She’s much more dangerous than any of us realized,” she says almost to herself as much as to us. “I didn’t even get to go to Royal Academy the way the rest of you did.”

“Wait, you didn’t go to RA?” Sasha asks. “Because we’ve heard of a Tara who was at RA who had our dorm room before us. I assumed it was you.”

“I never went to class. I was tutored privately,” Tara explains. “Olivina said it was because she had big plans for me that no one else could know about. She kept saying I was a chosen one.”

“That’s what she said to me too,” I whisper, and Tara and I look at one another.

“She said I was meant to help her lead Enchantasia into a new era of harmony where all villains were banished from the kingdom and we could live without fear.” Tara looks at us worriedly. “But when I realized what her vision for Enchantasia meant, I ran.”

“What was her vision?” Sasha presses.

“It doesn’t matter.” Tara’s face hardens. “I wouldn’t let her win, so I got out of there as quickly as I could and came to the Hollow Woods and made my own family.” She smiles at Prue and Corden. “If I stay in the shadows, she can’t use me to hurt anyone.”

“But that’s not true anymore. Olivina is hurting people now,” I argue. “If she’s really in league with villains, she’s put the entire kingdom at danger. You hiding out here won’t stop that.”

Tara shakes her head. “You don’t get it.”