A mixture of emotions was still plaguing Brent as he worked through a plan to free Skylar from the cage and get her to safety as quickly as possible. He still wanted to kick the cage or blast it to a million and one tiny little pieces, but he knew that wasn't possible. It was only the anger and hurt talking. Besides that, the cage seemed to be immune to magic, seeing as none of his spells had worked. He paused as a thought occurred to him. The cage was immune to magic, but what about ---...

Brent had already protected himself enough from the weather. He hadn't felt its effects since shortly after he'd turned up in the arctic. He didn't need his socks. He quickly removed his shoe and one sock then quickly put the shoe back on. He laid the sock out before him and pointed his wand toward it. "Inanimatus Conjurus Blanket!" he exclaimed. He had no idea if this would work, but when he was finished with the spell, he pushed the material through the cage and toward her.

He wiped the teardrops from his cheeks and turned his full and undivided attention to the piece of parchment he'd received from her.

"Thank you," he said, because he knew politeness was one of the only things he could do for her at the moment. He just wished she could speak to him...to tell him how she felt and what he could do to help her. "I'm so sorry," he continued. "I'm going to get you out there. I am. I'm going to figure this out, and I'm going to get you to safety." He literally felt like the worst failure of a boyfriend ever. A part of him even wondered if she'd still want to be with him after this. He shook off that feeling the very second it came, though. This was not about him right now. It was about her.

He reached out and gripped her icy hand, hoping to give it some warmth, before finally letting it go to look down at something written on the parchment.

285 6995 19751

Numbers. That was it. Simply numbers. "Excellent," he muttered, a hint of sarcasm in his tone. "They just had to put Divination and Arithmancy together in the same challenge." He looked from the parchment to the star pattern and back again. At least they'd thrown a little bit of Astronomy in the mix, as well. "Arithmancy," he said again. Great. He really should start paying more attention in class...

He started with 2-8-5. As he thought about the numbers, he began thinking about The Pythagorean Number System in his mind. These numbers stood for letters, and if he could spell out a word, he might work his way toward a clue. In the end, Brent came up with:

285 = THE

Seemed legit.

Next was 6995. He needed a four letter word, so he mentally referred back to the numbers-to-letters system to see if he could spell a second word. O-I-R-W? No. That didn't make sense. F-R-I-E? Nope. Wait---FIRE! The Fire...?

So what did he have now?

285 = THE
6995 = FIRE

Finally, he'd been given 19751, which would result in a five-letter-word. Again, he mentally reviewed the numbers-to-letters system. He was almost ashamed to admit the whole 19751 code took him way longer than it probably should. He ended up having to make up random words using the whole numbers-to-letters system, until he was finally able to come up with...

THE FIRE SIGNS.

Was it the answer? He seriously hoped so, because if it wasn't, he was all out of ideas. So were there any fire sign constellations on that star map? "I think I have an idea, Skylar," he said. "Stay with me." Please. "I think I need to trace the fire signs." He moved toward the map of stars to get a better look. The fire signs... What were they?! "Aries, Leo, and ..." WHAT WAS THE LAST ONE?! He couldn't afford to lose time here! There was A LOT at stake! "Aries, Leo, and ...Sagittarius!"

With a hopeful beat to his heart, Brent raised his wand toward the metal lock and began tracing the constellations he spoke of. First Aries, then Leo, and finally Sagittarius. With an unintentional hold of his breath as he anticipated the results, Brent stood back and waited.