I paced back and forth in the living room, phone pressed to my ear as Willow's panicked voice poured out.
"Hazel, it's absolute chaos here! People are either losing their minds in terror or joining impromptu cult gatherings in the streets. Some students are actually praying to pictures of Magnus fucking Sterling!"
"How bad is it exactly?" I asked, though from the tremor in her voice, I already knew.
"Bad. Really bad. They're setting up those 'Centers of Enlightenment' he mentioned, and people are lining up around blocks to get in. It's like... I don't know, like the whole world just collectively lost its mind overnight."
I sank onto the couch, my free hand automatically resting on my barely-there baby bump. "And now the entire planet sees us as the villains."
"Not everyone," Willow insisted. "Some people are skeptical. Online forums are blowing up with conspiracy theories. Not everyone's buying Magnus's savior act."