Kendis was used to hard work and often found solace in it during the hardest times of her life. But today, it only added to her frustration.

She was working on the carburetor of the 2008 Kawasaki Ninja 250 whose engine wouldn’t idle. Kendis had been working on it for a few days, and she only needed to check over a few things before she was ready to give it back to the owner.

And then, she would get started on working on restoring a sweet 1966 Honda CB450 SuperSport that had just come into the garage.

The owner of the bike was due to pick it up later that day, and she was nowhere near done. Kendis removed the carburetor so she could take it apart and repair it.

The moment Tony left, she had written a letter to her attorney and rented an owl to send it to him. Draco Malfoy was still a massive git, but he was one of the best barristers in England and a shark in the courtroom. Also, he had protected her from the Ministry when her life had imploded all around her.

And now Chester Coil was sending her letters again, and she wanted to know how. Kendis could be overreacting. It could be someone’s idea of a sick joke, and she didn’t want to alert her friends and family back home until she had concrete proof. Besides, they would go into overprotective mode and demand that she return to England.

Draco would get to the bottom of it, and Kendis could trust that he wouldn’t sugarcoat the severity of the situation.

“Buggering fuck!” Kendis swore as she scratched her hand against a carburetor that she was working on. She dropped her wrench and cradled her bleeding finger.

“Dis?”

Kendis turned to see Isiah hurrying over to her, and she sighed.

“I’m fine,” Kendis snapped. “Just a scratch.”

A wave of guilt hit Kendis when she saw Isiah’s frown. Despite his big burly physique, Isiah was the most easygoing of the three of them, a trait that caught most people off guard. He was a bit taller than Kendis’s 5’6″ height, with dark brown skin, a bald head, and a short, neat beard.

And Kendis hated that his usual happy smile was replaced with a frown. She suddenly felt as if she had just kicked a puppy.

Kendis sighed. “I’m sorry, Isiah.”

Isiah didn’t respond and summoned his wand instead. He quickly muttered a healing spell, and Kendis watched as her skin re-knit back together.

“Hey, remember, no magic during work hours.” Kendis chided him. “Muggles come in and out of here all the time. The last thing we need is MACUSA on our backs.”

Isiah looked pointedly around the empty garage. “I think we’ll be alright,” he replied drily, then a beat of awkward silence fell between them. “Anything you want to talk about, Dis?”

Kendis bit their lip as they considered it. Isiah was a muggle-born wizard, but unlike Kendis and Hortense, he was American. They had met at a trans-meet up at the LGBT center and bonded over being the only two Black people there. Isiah, being a wizard, had just been another pleasant surprise.

And while Hortense had gotten to see Kendis’s drama splashed all over the front page of The Prophet every day for ten months, Isiah hadn’t. The only thing Isiah knew about her past was that something bad had happened to Kendis.

Isiah clicked his fingers in front of her. “Earth to Kendis.”

Kendis shook her head and gave him a sad smile. “Sorry, Isiah.”

“What’s wrong?”

A vision of Josefa lying in a pool of blood flashed through her mind. Kendis pushed the memory away and shook her head. “I’m just having a bad day.”

Isiah put his hands on her shoulder. “You know you can tell me anything.”

Kendis patted his hand. “I swear, I’m fine.”

“Do I need to kick Tony Stark’s ass?”

Kendis snorted. “I can take that white boy.” And then she winced at her choice of words because a few days ago, he had been the one to take her against her office door. She felt her cheeks flush, and Isiah wiggled his eyebrows at her. “It’s like that, is it?”

“Boy, stop playing.” Kendis slapped him playfully on the shoulder and went back to work.

The rest of the week passed slowly as she waited for Malfoy’s response. Kendis tried her best to bury her growing anxiety and doubts with work but by the time she saw the brown and white feathers of Malfoy’s eagle owl, Ulysses on Friday—she was near ready to tear out her own hair in frustration.

The owl flew through her living room window, clutching a scroll in its claws. Kendis took the letter before she gave him a few owl treats.

Alke trotted up to the owl and sniffed his tail feathers. Ulysses gave her a scandalized squawk and turned up his nose at her before flying away. Kendis shook her head and patted Alke’s head. The dog’s nails clicked against the hardwood floor as she followed Kendis over to the sofa. They plopped down on her large burnt orange leather couch. Kendis giggled as Alke jumped up, resting her big black head on her lap.

Kendis rubbed Alke’s head a few times as she tried to gather the courage to open the letter. ‘You will never know if you don’t open it,’ Kendis thought to herself, and with shaking fingers, she tore open the envelope.

Black,

They released Chester Coil from Azkaban last week. As your barrister, I was supposed to be notified of any recent developments related to Coil. Yet your letter was the first time I heard that there might even be a possibility of his release.

Upon further investigation, I discovered a technicality led to Coil’s release last week. I’ll skip the legal jargon: the prosecution messed up the case.

The Ministry is doing its best to keep it hush-hush, with the election for Minister around the corner, they do not need another blunder.

Unfortunately, a few days ago, someone got past my wards and broke into my office. They took nothing, but we both know how easy it is to copy documents by magic. Be careful. One lordship is quite enough for me to handle, and I don’t want to inherit the Black family seat.

Sincerely,

Draco Malfoy ESQ.

The paper slipped from Kendis’s fingers and fell to the ground. They closed their eyes and took a deep breath. She couldn’t hear anything beyond the blood pounding in her ears.

Chester Coil was out of Azkaban and walking free. Kendis had watched that man murder someone she loved right in front of her with zero remorse, and the Ministry had simply released him with no warning. An icy shiver went down her spine as she remembered his wide delighted grin after he slit Josefa’s throat.

Alke whined and nudged her head against her, but Kendis couldn’t move. She just sat there, looking at her shaking fingers.

The Ministry had let him go, and Coil was coming for her.

She absently scratched Alke’s ears while inside she was screaming “Run!” But as scared as Kendis was, she couldn’t. That would make her friends and family even more of a target.

Kendis hadn’t told Ron, Hermione, or the Weasleys yet because she didn’t want to alarm them without proof, but now she had no choice.

She would not gamble with their lives. Her eyes trailed to the frame of a photo of Isiah, Hortense, and herself at the opening of Enchanted Engines sitting on the end table. She would have to close the shop for a while and make sure Hortense and Isiah took a nice paid holiday somewhere far away.

Kendis was wealthy enough that they could cover that easily.

Then she thought of Tony, and how he was determined to intrude on her life. Kendis had signed the annulment papers, and she hoped he would go back to his high-class playboy lifestyle. Because though he was an arrogant prat, Tony didn’t deserve to die.

Kendis had learned the hard way that anyone close to her would end up dead. Her parents, Sirius, Cedrick, Remus, Tonks, Fred, and her beloved Josefa had all met the same fate.

And Chester Coil had cut them down like it was nothing.

Alke sat up, her short, pointy ears perked as she let out a low, menacing growl.

Kendis shivered again, but this time it was because the room had suddenly gotten ice cold, and she could smell the sharp, acidic smell of brimstone in the air.

Alke jumped off the sofa and hurried over to the corner, where there was a brief flicker of a shadow.

She spun around, wand smacking into her palm, to face the shadow but there was nothing there.

Kendis got up and walked around the living room, dining room, then the kitchen, then down the hallway to her bedroom, study, and the room she used to practice experimental magic, but all were clear.

Alke silently followed her as she made her rounds around the house and then went outside to double-check the wards.

There was nothing.

Her phone rang, and Kendis hurried back into the living room, where a red old-fashioned rotary phone sat on an end table. All her muggle friends teased her about still having a landline, but she had learned the hard way that technology and magic didn’t mix. In the past, Kendis had to dampen down her power to be around even a cell phone or a laptop.

She felt weighed down and awkward, as if she had a heavy blanket draped over her.

Kendis hated having to deal with it when she didn’t have to.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Kendis,” a male voice said. “It’s Richie.”

Richie had just moved down here from Seacouver five months ago and was one of her favorite new customers. They had a lot in common and one of those things was their mutual interest in Los Angeles’s illegal street racing scene.

Kendis glanced around the quiet house and then at Alke beside her, whose short snubbed tail gave a slow, careful wag.  

“Yeah,” Kendis said. “What’s up?”

Richie quickly gave her the details about a race that was about to go down in South Los Angeles near Crenshaw Boulevard. Kendis knew she should stay home. Her life was already in danger, but this was the type of danger Kendis could control. Everything in her life right now was a chaotic whirlwind, and she couldn’t resist the temptation.

“I’ll be there,” Kendis said, and then they exchanged a brief goodbye before she hung up. She looked down at Alke, who stared at her with big dark eyes.

“Don’t judge me.”