After reading that portion again and again, I think she's talking about a tooth.’

'A tooth?'

'The tooth of the beast. I think that could be the ingredient High Priestess Darin's talking about.'

'Okay, the tooth of... which... beast?'

'That, I'm not sure. She didn't give any clear clues but this part about the beast grabbing us by the nape, sounds as though it has claws, or talons, probably some kind of bird. Of course, we all know birds don't have teeth so it's likely a hybrid with the body of a bird and the head of something else. I was sifting through a few ideas last night and I thought of a few possibilities like the alkonost, gamayun, sirin, harpy, peryton, et cetera. There are way too many. It’s just like Jess said, we need to find a way to cut the lists.’

‘It’d be so much faster if we could just ask the Draquiles directly. I’m sure they'd know at least a little bit of what we need in this concoction, can’t we do a locator spell to find them?’ Jessica stabbed a piece of bitter gourd with her fork.

‘If you had something that belongs to them, sure.’ Tiffany reminded.

‘The Council probably has something. They’ve got to, I mean, remember our bonding ceremony? They took a strand of hair from each of us specifically so we’d never be out of reach. The Draquiles are old, but not that old. I bet they had to do the same thing at their ceremony.’

Sooyoung thought deeply as the girls awaited her response. ‘It’d be quite an infringement of privacy… But if it means solving the poem and stopping the demons, I think we should give it a shot.’

‘Yes! Great, maybe they’ll agree to help us if we explain our circumstance. I’m sure they’re perfectly reasonable people.’ Sunny grinned.

‘Okay, it’s settled then. I’ll ask The Council after school. The rest of you, continue searching and trying to solve the riddles. We can’t assume the Draquiles will definitely come to the rescue. Even if we’re on our own, there must be more hidden clues in there that we’re missing. Find them. Understood?’ 

‘Yes Soo,’ the witches chimed.

Time flew by quickly and soon enough, it was time to gather back in the hall for dismissal. The witches took a deep breath as they walked across the school yard, ahead of the group. After that incident with Caleb, not even Sooyoung could bear to stand near him. So much for 'blending in'. They could hear the whispers from their orientation group mates, spouting nonsense about how exclusive they were and how they refused to integrate into the group. Jessica scoffed. Humans are so petty, don't they have better things to talk about? As soon as the call for dismissal was given by Ms Crushaw, the witches bolted.

'Be on time tomorrow, please! See you all bright and early!' Ms Crushaw's voice rang out over the speakers positioned throughout the hall.

Taeyeon looked over to where Tiffany and her friends were sitting only to find empty seats. She spun round, puzzled at how they had managed to get out so quickly. As her eyes scanned over the exit, she caught a glimpse of pink cloth fluttering amidst the crowd of students gathered at the now packed doorway. She's gone, Taeyeon sighed. Guess I'll talk to her tomorrow.

The witches' brisk march out of the school compound broke into a leisurely stroll once they hit the pavement outside. Sunny pouted, unhappy she wasn't allowed to stick around to mingle because of the 'antisocial' tendencies of the rest. Despite her displeasure, she kept quiet, remembering what happened the last time she demanded for time to socialise and prioritised it above her responsibilities as an Azura witch. She trudged alongside her friends, up the mountains and back to the cave.

'Ugh,' Jessica groaned and threw herself on the couch. 'I'll never get used to schedules and long days.'

Sooyoung rolled her eyes. 'You're just lazy. Look at Seo, she's already got her phone out to start researching on the poem.'

'She's young.' Jessica rolled over onto her side and shut her eyes to nap.

'Good god! Guys, look!' Seohyun, the only one who actually keeped up with news on the humans, turned her phone to face the rest. Splat across the screen was the unsightly image of six college students dead in the woods, on the beach and in the fields. Jessica jolted upright at Seohyun's sudden outburst and everyone looked over.

'Oh god..