Which Trouble First?
The council is split, one vote to one vote, which is the trouble with two-person councils. Sera, asked to break the tie, declines with maddening unicorn serenity: “It's your world, loves. I'm just hiding in it.”
Finn's case: the grey first. It's eating the town whistle by whistle, they know how to fight it now — brightness, applied hard — and if every kid in Maple Hollow got recruited, they'd be an army. The new kid can wait; weird is not a crime.
Your case: the new kid first. If he's what you think he is, then every day he searches, he gets closer to the cellar — and if the wolves learn where Sera sleeps, no amount of harmonica will matter. Find out what he is. Follow him. Maybe he's just a weird kid. Maybe he's the whole storm wearing sneakers.
Outside, the afternoon light is going gold. Somewhere in town, a marigold is forgetting orange; somewhere on the road, polite grey eyes are asking their question at another door.
The tie is yours to break, Madison.