Breaking Even

MAGICAL PRISON BOOK THREE

NICOLE ZOLTACK

Copyright 2020 by Nicole Zoltack

Cover Artist: Taurus Colosseum

ISBN: 9798672664200

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Contents

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Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Epilogue

Other Books By Nicole Zoltack

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Author’s Note

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Chapter

One

I can’t believe it. I just can’t.

After everything we’ve faced together from that terrible premonition, things are finally going right.

Kind of. Somewhat.

Maybe a little.

Maybe not.

And maybe not ever.

I sigh and run a hand through my hair. That premonition… Whenever I think about it, I want to cry. Seeing paranormal creatures fighting and killing humans… the humans fighting back and killing paranormal beings… It would have been a terrible war that would have cost millions if not billions of lives.

And through that premonition, I uncovered who the mastermind behind that war would have been.

Jaidos, the headmaster of Magical Hunters Academy

A dragon shifter.

A dead dragon shifter.

Killed by my hand so that those billions could be saved.

Sophie, my twin, took the fall for me.

She had been locked away in Magical Prison.

I broke in to break her out.

Now, we’re free but not completely.

There’s still work to be done.

My gaze lands on Magical Prison is the near distance. Zas hadn’t been lying. There is a fire burning from one of the floors. I can see smoke billowing out. The eighth floor? The ninth? I’m too far away to distinguish that.

The attack on the prison had been orchestrated by a group who wanted to release a prisoner, not to freedom, though. No. I’m certain they’re after Sophie because they think she’s responsible for their leader’s death.

She’s not safe, and she won’t be—neither of us will be—unless we root out all who fell under Jaidos’ sway.

Because my work isn’t done.

Jaidos hadn’t been working alone.

My gaze falls on Sophie. She’s looking all around us, flying slightly. Both of us are hurt. The battle we fought to leave is a blur, but I think she hurt her ankle. My one wrist is broken.

But we’re alive. That’s the most important thing.

Sophie’s almost frantic as she glances around.

“What’s wrong?”

“That demon,” she murmurs. “Where did he go?”

“I have no idea, but he’s the least of our problems.”

Her eyes—bright blue, the surrounding area purple instead of the normal white—are so beautiful to see. My own eyes have looked emerald ever since I took over the life of Sequoia Magicbloom. Sequoia had been a guard at the prison, and I used her as my way of entering the prison.

Breaking in to break out.

But now, it’s time to settle the score, to right wrongs, to even prevent wrongs from happening in the first place.

It’s time to break even.

I touch my hair, my strands finally my true color. Instead of brown with a single green strand, my hair matches Sophie’s, black with purple streaks.

Reaching out, I pull Sophie to me, and we tightly embrace. I kiss her cheek, and she smiles faintly as she brushes a hand on my cheek.

“Why are you crying, Jessa?”

I laugh. “I didn’t realize I was. As for why… I’m happy, and I haven’t felt happy in such a long time, Soph.”

“Since before,” she murmurs sadly.

“I am so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

“I know.”

I shift to stare at the prison again, my arm around my twin’s waist. It’s a dark and dreary place, Magical Prison, and I’m glad to be away from it, yet I also feel drawn to the place. Sequoia had been the guard, and I had been a guard through her, but my experience there changed me.

Honestly, I’m a bit confused as to who I am, where Sequoia stopped and where I started, but if anyone can help me to truly find myself again, it’s Sophie.

She’s trembling so much that I’m shaking too as a result.

“Sophie, what are you thinking about?”

“My time there.”

“Talk to me,” I plead, shifting to face her, my hands on her shoulders. “Please.”

She turns her head to the side.

“It might help,” I prod.

But she maintains her silence.

“Come on. Don’t shut me out. We’re all each other has.”

Sophie eyes me and lifts an eyebrow. “It’s not fair to play that card,” she mutters.

I wince. “Even though it’s true?”

“Next, you’ll be saying that Mom wouldn’t want us to keep secrets from each other.”

“Well, since you mention it…”

She rolls her eyes. “What would she think?”

My head falls, and my shoulders slump. “She would not be happy with me at all. She would want my head to roll.”

“Yes, but if she were alive, you would’ve talked to her before running off and…”

“She might not have been able to convince me not to,” I point out.

“Um, whatever Mom wanted from us, we did,” she counters.

“For the most part,” I concede.

Sophie’s smile is genuine and large, but then she shakes her head. “I was terrified,” she murmurs, her voice so soft that I almost didn’t catch her words.

“When?”

“When the guards came. I thought they might… I thought they might be paranormal slayers or executioners.”

“Then why did you use the vines on me? And poison me? I couldn’t do anything!”

“I wanted to keep you safe. I knew you would have tried to fight them if you had the strength in you to fight, and if I went willingly, maybe they wouldn’t kill me. And they didn’t.”

“But you were locked up for a crime you didn’t commit!”

“To save you.” Sophie’s smile turns wan, her cheeks pale. “I did what I had to do, right after you did what you felt you had to do.”

“You’re amazing, and I don’t deserve you.”

“No, you really don’t.” She laughs slightly.

“Tell me what it was like for you. Druiz…” I scowl. “Berserkmongrel.”

“You really hate the hellhounds, don’t you?”

“He and Bloodbite ganged up on me! They brought me closer to death than that group attacking the prison right now.”

“Do you think they’ll succeed?” Sophie nibbles on her bottom lip.

I’m a little surprised that she seems anxious. Wouldn’t she want that place to go down?

“Unless they’re a part of a much larger group, I don’t see how they have the manpower to win, but if they let loose some of the prisoners to create more chaos… I don’t know. I mean, they’ve set a fire in there, and I wouldn’t have thought that would be possible with all of the protection spells the place has to have.”

“Well, the hellhounds are dogs that literally have fire all over them.”

“And there’s a phoenix, but I never did get to see him flame on,” I say ruefully. “Do you think he did during the battle?”

“He might have turned into the fiery bird right now,” Sophie says. “And you missed out. What a shame.”

“Are you mocking me?”

“Not exactly.” She smiles slightly.

I knock my shoulder into hers and suck in a breath as the movement causes a jolt of pain from my wrist. “You really don’t want to talk about what happened to you there, do you?”

“Not particularly.”

“You will, though, right?” I ask desperately.

“Why do you want to know so badly? You’re already beating yourself up over everything else that’s happened. I chose this route. It’s on me what happened.”

“Yes, but—”

“No buts,” she says firmly.

I wrinkle my nose. “I don’t want there to be any secrets between us.”

“And there won’t be. I’ll tell you, but on my time, okay? Not… Not right now.”

That doesn’t make me feel much better. If she has to work up the nerve to tell me, that means that something bad happened, something awful. I can’t handle it if something really bad happened to her.

And she had been in the infirmary. I don’t know what exactly caused her to land there, but I can’t help worrying that she hurt herself to stay in there longer. It had been smart, though for her to go there. At one point, I told her that if she was told to go to solitary, that she should go. I thought I might be able to spring her from there, but it took me a long time to even locate the route to solitary. It wasn’t on one of the main floors but three stories underground. The prison held many secrets.

I don’t know all of them.

But Sophie had been smart, so smart, smarter than me. By being in the infirmary, it had been so very easy for me to sneak her up to the warden’s office. As much as I would’ve liked to just fly out the front door on the same floor as the infirmary, we couldn’t risk it. There was a protection task force outside meant to keep any attackers out.

Spoiler alert: they failed.

I wish that meant the hellhounds had fallen, but they almost got us right before we escaped.

That demon Zas escaped too.

But who knows? Maybe Sophie wouldn’t have been able to leave out the front door of the prison anyhow. Up in the warden’s office, a window had been broken. I tried to get her to fly through it, but she couldn’t pass her arm through the opening. A barrier prevented her. Thankfully, that barrier didn’t keep her from entering the chute that led to the tunnel that we just exited.

“Fine,” I say with a nod. “We’ll talk later. For now, we need to fly.”

“Do we have to?” She fights back a yawn and fails.

“I know you’re tired. I’m exhausted. And we’re both weak, but we’re too close to the prison. Once they discover that we’re gone…”

“They’ll come looking for us. Well, for me and for that guard whose face you took.” She eyes me curiously.

“Yes, we’ll talk about that,” I mumble. “After you tell me about your stint.”

Sophie purses her lips and tilts her head upward. “We’re going to need cover. It’s going to rain.”

She’s right. I can feel the heaviness in the air, the change in the pressure. I don’t even need to see the dark clouds forming in the distance.

“Let’s go.”

Sophie takes up at a slow pace. Honestly, we should probably move faster, and I go to shoot past her to lead the way, but I can’t. My wrist hurts to much even with my holding it tight to my body so it doesn’t move. Tears prickle my eyes, and I let them fall. There’s no point in keeping them in.

There’s so much to do, so much to undo.

Each of my actions so far have changed lives.

Ruined lives.

I’ve stolen time from Sophie and possibly forced her to endure terrible things.

I’ve stolen Sequoia’s face and job, tampering with her mind and sending her to live down south.

I’ve stolen Jaidos from his wife and daughter.

All in an attempt to stop a war from happening, a war that might still happen.

Every action has ramifications, and the consequences of those action may demand a price that’s so very high.

It could well demand my life.

And I’m fine with it. I’ll die to stop the war.

I just don’t want anyone else to die. Not one more person. Not even Zas or Rall the warden of the prison or Castiel, an angel guard who definitely has his own demons.

But that’s naïve to think that only one more will die before everything is said and done.

And I might’ve been naïve before all of this, but I’m not naïve now.

More will die, but that war cannot happen.

Whatever it takes, I will do it.

I just have to hope that it’ll be enough.

Chapter

Two

We end up flying for a good hour, but the amount of ground that we go over is not nearly the length we would’ve covered if we were healthy. Under normal conditions, we would’ve traveled double if not triple the distance, but I’m laboring. Sophie is laboring, and when she points to a tiny natural alcove from trees in a forest almost hugging each other with their tall branches, we nestle underneath.

“Let me check your wrist,” Sophie says.

But I shake my head. “You first,” I insist.

Her ankle isn’t broken as far as I can tell, but I’m no doctor. I’ll just have to do the best I can.

It’s not easy to get out the small vials of herbs I have on me. I’m just glad I always have a varied stash on me at all times. If I hadn’t, things could’ve turned out very differently in the prison and in a bad way.

A very bad way.

Finally, I have the assortment in front of me. Only using one hand makes everything take longer. Sophie reaches forward to help, but my glower has her lifting her hands in quiet surrender.

I’m injured, but I’m still capable.

Then again, opening the vials isn’t easy. Still, I manage, and I find a decent-sized rock. With a bit of magic, I force the rock to shift and change size, to dip in the middle until it becomes hollowed out, a makeshift bowl. Another rock I adjust to be almost like a hammer. Combined, they’ll be my mortar and pestle.

The herbs I have with me aren’t going to help broken bones any, so it’s a relief she doesn’t have one. The collection I have will help mask pain and reduce swelling, but they won’t speed up the healing process any.

It takes a great deal of patience to collect the herbs I need in the right amounts, but finally, I’m ready to start grinding them. Each time I twist the pestle-rock, my wrist aches. I’m doing my best not to jerk it, but it’s hard. At least situating the hollowed-out rock in the middle of my crossed legs holds it in place firmly enough that I don’t have to worry about it tipping over and spilling the contents. Still, this isn’t easy, not at all.

With a sigh, Sophie leans against one of the trees. The rain begins to fall, lightly at first and then much harder, faster. The rhythmic sound sets me at ease… somewhat. It’s not easy for me to relax, and my guard isn’t down entirely. I only realize that as I notice that I’m looking all around every few seconds so that no one can sneak up on us.

“Can you start talking?” Sophie murmurs.

“About what?”

“About what you did after we, ah, parted ways.”

I purse my lips and stop grinding the herbs. “That’s hardly fair when you won’t talk.”

Her lips twitch, but she looks so utterly pale. We both have porcelain skin, but hers has turned completely white. I know humans use the expression as white as a ghost, but that’s only because humans haven’t actually seen a ghost. Ghosts aren’t white. They’re almost translucent. Sophie is as white as freshly fallen snow before its marred by some kind of outside force that mars its ugliness. Then again, the dark circles beneath Sophie’s eyes mars her beauty and makes it appear as if she has been in a fight.

Which she has, but that is beside the point.

She’s asking for a distraction. Clearly, she’s injured far more than just her ankle.

Talking is the least I can do, so I continue to grind but start to talk.

“I was beside myself when you were gone, and I was lost. For a bit, I didn’t know what to do, how to fix everything. I wanted to turn myself in, but I didn’t want your sacrifice to go in vain, and then I had a vision.”

“A vision?” She shifts, clearly trying to get more comfortable, but I spy her slight wince.

I grind harder, faster. Well, as hard and as fast as I can without causing too much pain. Some of the herbs don’t like to grind down to dust.

“I’ve always wondered if there’s a difference between a vision and a premonition,” she says.

Even her voice is growing faint.

“There is. At least, I think there is. For my purposes, a vision is of the past. It’s an actual event that happened. A premonition is from the future.”

“And all of your previous premonitions have come true.”

Her words are a statement, not a question.

“Yes,” I admit, “but all of my other premonitions have been with something small, something good.”

“Pulling my hair isn’t good!”

I can’t help giggling. “Fun, though.”

“For you!”

I beam, hating that her ghost of a smile seems to be too much for her.

My grin fades, though. I don’t know if my assessment of either is accurate. Mom had premonitions too, but she never had the chance to talk to me about them in-depth. Maybe it’s impossible to stop a premonition from coming true. What if they are as set in stone as visions are? What if my attempts to stop the war actually help to cause it to occur?

No. No, that can’t be the case. If I just try hard enough, if I am willing to do whatever it takes, that war won’t happen.

I’ll stop at nothing to ensure there is peace.

Instead of talking more, I scoot over to the edge of the natural alcove and hold up the rock to catch some water. I use a rock to mix the herb dust and the water until a paste form. As gently as I can, I apply it to her ankles. Then, taking a wing out of Sequoia’s life, I have some vines wrap around Sophie’s foot to hold the paste in place as well as for decorative purposes. I think I might keep the vine ankle bracelets myself. Maybe add some to my wrists too.

“Where else hurts you?” I ask.

Sophie shakes her head. “Your wrist.”

“But—”

“Watching you refuse to let me help you help me… No. You wouldn’t let me grind the herbs down even though I easily could’ve done that.”

“Could you have?”

“My hands are fine!”

“What about the rest of you?” I ask sharply.

Sophie glances away.

“Please, tell me what else you need.”

“I need… I have a concussion.”

“You do? From what?”

“The effects come and go.”

“How did you get it?”

“That doesn’t matter, and please don’t shout.”

I wince. “Soph, I’m not shouting.”

“I… I just need to rest.”

I bite my lower lip. “What else do you have?”

I honestly don’t know if she has any other ailments, but I need to know. If she needs help, I will help her.

“Please?” I ask. “If you need me to beg, I’ll beg. I’ll get down on my hands and knees—”

“You will not,” she says, aghast, her voice a little stronger.

“Don’t push me. You know I will.”

“Jessa!”

I shift onto my knees and bring my good hand down. My gaze is fixed on Sophie as I—

“Fine! There’s… There’s this.”

Sophie lifts her shirt to reveal a bandage. It’s discolored and smells a bit.

“What is that and why didn’t Pervinca heal it completely?”

“Maybe she didn’t have the herbs too.”

I narrow my eyes. “She should’ve gotten whatever you needed.” I start to reach for the bandage.

Sophie slaps my hand away. “Your wrist.”

“No.”

Before she can stop me, I start to remove the bandage. She hisses but doesn’t stop me, and I gape at the wound that’s revealed.

A black, mess, chewed skin, seeping pus and blood.

“A bite?” I cry.

I eye the wound closer and notice faint burn marks.

“A hellhound did this. Berserkmongrel. Didn’t he?” I stare up at her, daring her to lie, not that she could even if she wanted to.

“Yes. He bit me.”

“If I see any one of those hellhounds ever again, I’m going to kill them,” I spit out through gritted teeth. “I will hunt them down and—”

“Jessa?”

“Yes?”

“Stop.”

“But he hurt you!” I cry.

“Are you going to hunt down and kill everyone who hurts me?” she asks. “Where does the line end? Are you going to hurt or kill Cody because he fancies another? What about Eloise Graysong, his girlfriend? Please, don’t. Stop. I don’t like this path we’re on.”

I set my jaw. “The path I’m on,” I correct.

She shakes her head, her eyes sad. “We’re on,” she says softly.

“And no, to answer your question, I wouldn’t hurt Cody or Eloise. That’s… No.”

“So what is the deciding factor as to who you seek revenge against and who you don’t?”

“Sophie, stop.”

“No, I really want to know. What—”

“Please! I need to think.”

“About?”

“How to heal you.”

“Oh.” She hesitates. “Do you really think you can heal it entirely?”

“When Pervinca couldn’t? Or just didn’t because it was an excuse to keep you out of your cell?” I watch Sophie’s expression closely, but she ducks her head. Hmm. “Just how much did the sprite know?”

“I don’t know, but I think she suspected a fair amount.”

“And you trust her?”

“I do.” Sophie’s response is immediate.

I exhale a sigh of relief. “I trust her too, but I don’t know. Leaving this wound like that… I mean, Sophie, I don’t mean to offend you, but it smells.”

“It didn’t smell before because it was getting treated,” Sophie says defensively.

“And you want to worry about my silly little break. No. No way. Um… It’s too bad I can’t trust Illumine enough. A single tear from him would cure this no problem.”

“Illumine?”

“The phoenix guard.”

“Ah.”

“Something else powerful enough to heal you…” I close my eyes and try to remember what Mom used to say about when we got hurt. “A unicorn horn.”

“Do you know of any unicorns?”

“No, but… I’m just thinking out loud.”

“Can you think in your head?”

She’s looking pale again. Her eyes are closed, and her head is tilted back against the tree trunk. As much as she looks peaceful, every few minutes, her lips twitch into a slight grimace.

“I can remove the pus. That might help with the pain.”

Sophie nods quickly.

It’s an unpleasant experience for both of us, but I work as quickly as I can while also trying my best not to hurt her further. Once the pus is removed, the wound starts to bleed again, but at least the terrible smell is gone.

“Progress,” she murmurs, smiling slightly.

“Not enough. You stay here and rest a little. I’m going to scout a little.”

“You aren’t going to head back to the prison, are you?” she asks suspiciously.

“You just rest.”

“Jessa, you look like yourself,” she hisses.

I grin and snap my fingers as I change my appearance. And then I snap my fingers again to alter my appearance a second time because I realized I changed to look like the fairy that the group had attacked. I’m not sure where I’ll go exactly, but I don’t want to risk being recognized by one of them.

Sophie just shakes her head. “You’re getting too good at that,” she says, “and don’t forget. You still have to tell me what that vision was about!”

“I will.” I kiss her forehead and then take off.

There has to be something nearby to heal that wound entirely. No way am I going to allow Sophie to suffer longer than she has to. She’s already been through too much because of me.

I will take her pain away, and I will do right by her.

And right by the entire world.

Chapter

Three

As much as I am tempted to return to the prison, either as Sequoia or as myself to take Sophie’s place because I should’ve been there already, I don’t think it would be a good idea. Even if that means I can’t see Illumine and ask for a tear. I’m not sure if word has gotten out about the escaped prisoners. I’m not even sure if more have escaped than just Sophie and Zas. It’s not something I want to think about.

I’m not even sure that Illumine would give me a tear even if I asked as Sequoia. Phoenix tears are so very powerful. Legend says that a phoenix can only cry right at death, and that is how they are reborn. If that’s the case, he couldn’t help us even if he wanted to.

So I just fly, keeping an eye out for all of the flowers and plants I see. Bronze stickweed, phantom hellebore, cursed belladonna…

But then I see it.

Blood moon vita.

A perfectly beautiful purple-blue flower with a yellow and white center.

Blood moon vita is a potent source of magic. It’s not typically used for healing, but I can take its magic and use that to seal the wound, to make it as if she had never been bitten.

To do that would mean to draw all of the blood moon vita’s magic.

I don’t hesitate. It’s against the laws of magic, and I’m playing with fire by doing this. Nature has treated me so kindly, and this is how I return the favor? But what am I going to do to right the wrongs I’ve committed?

Anything and everything.

I will go to any lengths.

I might not have intended to make any wrongs, but I have. There’s no denying that. What I did to Sequoia… She’ll never forgive me. When all of this is said and done, I will be locked up in Magical Prison. I deserve it for so many reasons.

My hands caress the beautiful petals of the blood moon vita. Its magic flows through me as the petals curls, whither, and decay, turning to dust before my eyes.

Without delay, I rush back to Sophie. Her eyes widen as she stares at my hands, which are the same purple-blue as the flower.

I place both hands on her wound, and just like that, the wound closes and heals within a few seconds. That’s how potent the magic is.

Sophie gapes at me. “What did you do?”

“I just did what needed to be done.”

“At what cost?” she murmurs as her shaking fingers touch her perfectly healed skin.

“I have a handle on things.”

“Do you?” she asks quietly. “Are you so sure about that?”

I just beam at her. “You’re fine and—”

“Your wrist.”

I glance down. Oh. The plant’s magic must’ve healed my wrist too. I didn’t even realize because I had been that focused on Sophie.

She grabs my wrist, looking as if she has been healed from head to toe, Looking better than ever.

Looking like she’s ready to kill me.

“Jessa, tell me everything,” she says through gritted teeth, “starting with your vision.”

I shake my head. “Later.”

“Later? Why?” She narrows her eyes. “You want us to fly off to safety. We’re fine! We can take on anyone now! There’s nature all around us and—”

“I’m ready for the next step.”

“Next step?”

“We need to prove our innocence.”

Sophie’s shoulder slumps. “Jessa…”

“We have to. We can’t live our lives until—”

“That’s just it, Jessa. I don’t think I want any part of that. Yes, I realize they might come for me, that they’re going to realize I’m gone and want to put me back in a cell. For now, for as long as I have freedom, I just want to go home.”

“Don’t you see, Sophie? If we can prove that what I did was warranted, if I can expose Jaidos and his plans, and bring down his allies, you won’t have to worry about going back to Magical Prison. You’ll be free for the rest of your life! It won’t be for ‘as long as you have freedom.’ You’ll be free forever!”

“I just want to go home,” she says stubbornly.

“That’s… That’s not a good idea.”

Sophie turned away from me as I spoke, but maybe something in my tone has her turning back around. “Why not?”

“The fairies… They don’t exactly want me around.”

“Why not?” she asks suspiciously.

“Soph…”

“What are you hiding from me? We can’t keep secrets from each other. Not now.”

She’s right. Sophie deserves the truth, and she’ll find out eventually.

I rub the back of my neck, my wings twitching nervous. “Soph, the treehouse, it was broken into. Ransacked. I don’t think anything was taken, and I don’t know who did it, but…”

She closes her eyes a long moment. When she opens them, their wet, but no tears fall.

“What else?” she asks, her voice strangled. “Because there is more, isn’t there?”

I swallow hard and nod. “I, ah, I went to ask some of the other fairies for help, but they basically turned into a mob, and, well, I’m not exactly welcomed back to Roseshield Grove. I even tried to talk to the king and queen about everything, about the premonition, but they didn’t care. They don’t want to get involved. They want the fairies to survive, and I understand that, I do, to some extent at least, but… War is coming unless we stop it.”

“Can it be stopped?” Sophie asks, her words harsh. “Has anything you’ve done helped?”

“I got you out of prison,” I protest.

“Yeah, and I’m not free. Our home was broken into. We can’t even go and see our friends!”

“Well, Aiden might be willing—”

“Are you for real right now?” she explodes. “It’s not enough that I just found out that Cody is dating someone else right before you go off and kill someone and I take the fall for it, but you and Aiden are what exactly? Are you two together now?”

“Ah…” I can feel my cheeks turn red, heating up to the point of being on fire.

“My life is a nightmare!” Sophie cries, throwing up her hands.

She whirls around, her back to me. After a few seconds, her shoulders slumps, and she falls to the ground, on her knees and then in a tight ball. She’s bawling, broken.

I did this to her.

I hurt her.

And I don’t know if I can make things right.

Slowly, I fly over to her and touch her shoulder, ready to flinch, for her to knock me away, but she doesn’t. Sophie allows me to hug her, to basically hug her like a cocoon.

I’m not sure how long we stay here, but I can’t stand to hear her ragged breathing form crying so hard. Her entire body is trembling from the force of her sorrow, and I can’t help it. I break down too.

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out, my words coming out hoarse, my breathing jagged. “Every time I try to do something to help, I’m afraid I’m making things worse. All I wanted was to save people, but I’ve hurt so many in the process too. Maybe… Maybe I’m wrong. Why should I get involved? Maybe I’m just a stupid fairy who doesn’t know how to interpret premonitions. I know it’s a rare gift, and I don’t know who else has it, so I can’t… I can’t ask for help. I’m stuck. I hurt you. I killed… I stole… I basically got as close to lying as a fairy can. Sophie, I’m losing myself. I’m turning dark, but… but… is it okay? Is it okay to turn dark to try to save people? To save lives? I don’t want there to be a war, but I don’t know if I can stop it. Maybe I’m not strong enough. Maybe premonitions have to come true. Maybe I’ve made people suffer for no reason, and I… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I suck in air every few words. Can she even understand what I’m saying?

Sophie sniffs and wipes her face before sitting up and basically pushing me away without touching me. “All I thought about while I was in prison was about us being in the treehouse, having our friends over, talking, laughing, being happy. Cody was there. Aiden. All of our friends. And it was going to be so perfect. So perfect. And you know what? I even thought about that one friend of Mom and Dad’s. Um… Alaneo. Alaneo Icewings. Do you remember him?”

I flinch.

Sophie’s eyes grow wide.

“I… I had to bury him. We were attacked and… I had to bury him.”

Her shoulders slump. “Cody, is he alive? What about Freesia? Adriata? Poppy? Crystal? Florian? Trevan? Are they all okay? Or are our friends all falling because everything you touch dies?”

“That’s not true!” I protest. “And they’re all fine! At least, as far as I know…”

“That’s where you’re heading,” Sophie says. “Didn’t they say that the darkest fairy who ever flew would cause the grass beneath him to wither and decay? I can’t imagine what would’ve happened to the earth if he had walked on it. The Dark King, isn’t that when he was called? Do you want to become the Dark Queen? Because that’s what’s going to happen.”

“You have premonitions now?” I ask bitterly. “Besides, the Dark King is just a myth. He wasn’t real.”

“Are you sure about that?” Sophie asks coolly. “And even if he was, you can’t deny that you’re destroying everything. I don’t even know who you are anymore. You stole a person’s face! You stole her life!”

“To break you out of prison! You never should’ve been in there in the first place!”

“So now everything is my fault?”

“I never said that!”

I try to calm my breathing and even think about meditating, but there’s no way I can do that. Not with Sophie staring at me like I’m a stranger.

Maybe with her help…

I start to reach for her hand, but she jerks it away.

“Sophie, if we can meditate—”

“Now you want to meditate? Now? You used to always act like you couldn’t. You just want to take everything from everyone, don’t you? Why can’t you just leave everything alone before you burn the entire world to the ground?”

I exhale and throw up my hands. “Ask me anything. I’ll tell you what you want to know. If you want to wash your hands of me and this mess afterward, fine. I’ll just go to prison, turn myself in, and be done with it. How does that sound?”

She scowls but says nothing, just turning her head to the side as if she can’t stand to look at me, and maybe she can’t.

“The vision. I saw Jaidos. You know how HEX Unite goes after paranormal creatures, evil ones? Well, Jaidos was giving out an assignment to a guy, only the target… Sophie, the target was a human. I had another vision and learned that several humans were hunted. Or killed. Sophie, that’s what Jaidos was doing. He was hunting humans. It doesn’t matter if the humans were evil or not. He had no business overstepping like that! He was going to expose us to the humans, and that’s how the war was going to start.”

She says nothing.

“Jaidos wasn’t working alone. I’m not even certain he was the one in charge. He spoke with a woman on the phone. I don’t know who she is, but she might have been giving him orders. Or maybe they’re partners, but I think if I can just find her, we’ll be able to stop all of this once and for all.”

“Or maybe it’s a hydra. Maybe we’ll kill one head and two more will pop up. You’ll find her, kill her, and have another vision. When will your reign of terror end?”

My heart skips a beat. Sophie has completely lost faith in me, and if she doesn’t believe in me, how can I possibly believe in myself?

Chapter

Four

I can’t. I can’t do this without Sophie. As it is, I’ve already been wondering if I’m making the right choices. If Sophie thinks I’m a lost cause, then I have to be one.

“I don’t care if the fairies kicked you out and don’t want you around,” Sophie says, her head held up high. “I’m going back anyhow.”

“Fine,” I spit out. “I’ll go it alone. I’ll head back to the prison and—”

“The prison? Why?”

Good question. I’m not sure why I want to go back there. It just came out of me without thought.

Nature? Or just my spitting out words to spit out words?

I wearily rub my forehead and then slump to the ground. All of a sudden, I don’t feel well.

“What is it?” Sophie asks.

I blink several times. My vision is fading in and out. My mouth opens, but I don’t think any words come out. What’s happening to me? The last thing I see is Sophie’s worried expression as she hovers above me.

And then, she’s gone.

In her place, I see Sequoia. She’s in her treehouse, reading a book when her phone rings. She goes to answer her sister’s call when she drops her phone.

Somehow, I’m inside Sequoia’s mind now. I can see that she’s having a premonition.

And I can see me. My sneaking into her house. My taking over her body. My sending her away.

Sequoia knew what I was going to do.

The vision wavers, but it’s not over yet. Now I see Sequoia down in the other fairy kingdom. She’s thriving and happy, but is she really? Is this truly real?

Have I ruined everything for her?

With a start, the vision ends, and I stare up at Sophie.

“A premonition?” she asks coolly.

“A vision. I saw… I saw Sequoia.”

Her eyebrows lift.

“I need to go to her. I have to… I need to set her free. I can’t just keep her away from her life. What I’ve done has consequences, and I need to do and try to make them right.” A single tear trickles down my cheek. “If I even can,” I mumble.

“How did it… How did it go when you sought her out to take over her life?”

“We, ah, we fought,” I admit.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“I… I would love that, but I won’t ask that of you. I’ve asked too much—”

“That’s just it,” Sophie cuts in. “You don’t ask. You try to do everything yourself instead of asking for help.”

“You’re right. I did that with you, and I did that with Aiden. He wanted to help me, and I wouldn’t let him. I didn’t want him to get hurt. I mean, Alaneo died. You were in prison… I didn’t want to risk his life too. I’m selfish.”

“By trying to do everything yourself, you aren’t selfish. Stupid and egotistical maybe, but not selfish.”

“Desperate too.”

“Yeah, well, desperation isn’t a good look on you.” Sophie offers a hand and helps me to stand. “I’m going to ask one last time. Do you want me to come with you?”

“Yes,” I blurt out before I can stop myself.

“Then I’ll come along, but do not dare ask me to go to the prison again. I won’t.”

“Okay. Let’s…” I start to reach for fairy dust but then hesitate.

“What is it?”

“A vision. I didn’t have any the entire time I was in the prison. No premonitions either.”

“Maybe their spells prevented them,” Sophie suggests. “Think about it. If a guard has a premonition of her death at the hands of a prisoner…”

“Yeah, it could be bad. You’re right.” My stomach twists. “I wonder if I’ll have more now to make up for it. I had a few after the premonition. They’re happening more often now. Well, they were until I was in prison.”

My hand trembles as I secure the fairy dust.

Sophie touches my wrist. “You saw Sequoia. What all did you see?”

“She had a premonition about me. She knew I was coming.”

Sophie’s eyes widen.

“And then I saw her in Winternora Territory.”

“You sent her there?”

“Where else? I couldn’t risk anyone in the grove seeing her and becoming suspicious.”

“Ah, true…” Sophie makes a face.

“Let’s go and make one of my wrongs right.”

Holding Sophie’s hand, I sprinkle us with fairy dust. Instantly, we’re whisked away to a much colder land. It’s beautiful here, and a lot of the structures are carved out of ice rather than made from trees and mud. It’s a regular winter wonderland, right out of a fairy tale.

“Does this remind you of some of your stories?” I ask Sophie.

Her eyes are wide. “I’ve always wanted to come here,” she admits.

“Come on. Let’s see if we can find her.”

Sophie releases my hand and flies over toward a little girl who is playing with the snow. “Hello. Do you happen to know of a Sequoia? Sequoia…”

“Dina,” I correct softly as I join them. “Dina Lightshine.”

The girl glances from me to Sophie and then flies off.

“Are we supposed to follow her?” Sophie asks.

“I don’t know.”

We hesitate, and then there’s a soft cough behind us.

I turn and gape.

Dina Lightshine has blond hair and brown eyes.

But the fairy in front of me has brown hair with a single strand the same color green as her eyes, the white tinged a faint blue.

I’m staring at Sequoia.

Who looks like Sequoia.

My jaw drops, and I can’t find it in me to talk.

“Jessa?” she asks. “Or are you Jessa?” Her gaze shifts to Sophie.

“I…” I shake my head to clear it and point to myself. “I’m Jessa. This is Sophie.”

“Come. Let’s talk.”

Sequoia waves for us to follow, and she leads us to a beautiful treehouse. The tree is frozen, covered entirely in ice except for the windows and doors. It’s breathtaking.

Once we’re inside, Sequoia flies over to the kitchen and whips up some tea. I almost don’t know if I can trust to drink it, but Sequoia drinks some, so I do too.

“Delicious,” I say, but my stomach is in knots, and I can’t drink anymore. “Sequoia…”

“You did it to break your twin out I suppose?”

“Yes. I was the one who should have been—”

Sequoia holds up a hand. “I don’t need to know all of the details.”

“The spell, it didn’t work!” I exclaim. “Why did you stay here?”

Sequoia eyes me before addressing Sophie. “How were you treated at the prison? Druiz…”

“I survived.”

“So I see,” Sequoia says dryly, “but surviving is not the goal.”

“I managed well enough.”

“Hmm.”

“Why didn’t you come back? Out me?” I ask.

“I knew you were going to come and wear my face. I saw it in a premonition. I didn’t know why you needed me to be gone, but I have to admit that I was angry at first. I didn’t know or even want to know why you would do that to me. But then I realized that everything happens for a reason.”

“Is that so?” Sophie snorts.

“Yes,” Sequoia says almost eagerly. “There’s an action and a reaction. A counter. A deflection. Each choice someone makes has consequences. There’s a snowball effect, but the underlying reason for all of those choices never changes. A person’s life is made up of choices, of actions, reactions, and consequences. How we react influences our lives, changes who we are, affects our personalities. I could have returned to the prison. I could’ve stopped Jessa from doing whatever it was that she took my face for.”

“Stole,” I correct. “I stole—”

“I knew you were coming,” Sequoia says calmly. “I could have stopped you if I really wanted to.”

I inhale sharply. “Does that mean that premonitions can be changed? Can they be altered?”

“Not easily.”

“Are you certain?”

“It is hard, so very difficult to the point of almost being impossible.”

“Almost,” I stress.

“The choices, the consequences… The more people involved in any given result, the harder it would be to change the events leading up to the event until it is a foregone conclusion that the event will transpire.”

“No. No, that can’t be. I won’t let it!” I jump to my feet. Some of the tea sloshes over the side of the cup.

But Sequoia’s fast and powerful. With a wave of her hand, she stops the tea from falling toward the ground and collects it back into my teacup.

She really could have stopped me if she wanted to.

“I woke from you spell when I was halfway to Winternora Territory. I’ve always wanted to go here, and honestly, after everything that happened…”

“With the siren?” I ask gently.

Sequoia nods and blows out a breath. “I needed a break.”

“And?”

“And I don’t think I want to go back there,” she says. “I know that what happened wasn’t my fault, but that place, it changes a person. There’s a reason why guards don’t last long there.”

“There’s a huge fight going on,” Sophie says. “There’s a fire and everything.”

Sequoia twirls the green strand around her finger. “That’s a shame,” she murmurs.

“What about Druiz?” I ask. “You and him…”

The fairy laughs. “You really didn’t know what you were getting into when you flew through the front door, did you? Things were complicated with him, and I never should’ve kissed him. How’s Nora?”

“Not necessarily your biggest fan at the moment,” I mumble. “And everyone’s going to think you flew away during the fight.”

“I’ll call up Porta and square things away,” Sequoia says with a wave of her hand. “I’m not too worried about what they think. I should’ve been allowed to have time off after, and they offered two days. Two days! As if that would’ve been enough! You really did give me a chance to start over, and I’m taking it. As for Nora… sometimes we were friends. Sometimes we weren’t. Don’t worry about her. She can be a little judgmental at times.”

I shake my head three, four, five times. “I just…”

“How?” Sophie blurts out. “How can it be that this worked out for you, Sequoia? For Jessa? That she lived your life for you, did your job, and you’re okay with it? How does that happen?”

“Easily.” Sequoia grins. “Premonitions and visions aren’t always evil. They aren’t always about bad things. This gave me a chance to start over fresh, and now, I can decide all over again what I want to do with my life, and I think I’m happier here. Not just because it’s as far away from the prison as a fairy can get. I’ve made new friends. I’ve been thinking about becoming a healer. I would love to see if I can’t try to get potions to work harder than normal, to get the herbs to do more. Play around and see if I can’t get more juice from them, you know? Nature is all around us, and we can try to manipulate it in ways to improve the world. It’s a way to pay nature back because nature has been so good to me.”

The fairy wipes at her eyes.

“Honestly, it was a blessing. I thank nature for everything she has done for me. She knew I needed a second chance at life. Because of you, I got that, and you were able to get your sister out of prison. Nature clearly wanted you two back together. We’re all that much better because of it.”

My heart feels so much lighter, and I want to hug her. I don’t, though. We don’t really know each other, not really. Only a little. Actually, after living as Sequoia for a while, it does seem to me that I know her fairly well. Still, I don’t want to overstep any boundaries more than I already have.

Just then, the door opens and in flies a rather handsome fairy. He eyes us and does a double take.

“Ollie,” Sequoia says warmly.

Sophie begins to snicker. “Of course you think everything that Jessa did is fine and dandy. You found him!”

“I don’t know much about what any Jessa did,” Ollie says, flying over to be beside Sequoia. He wraps an arm around her waist. “I do know that when we were younger, I loved Sequoia from the very first time I laid eyes on her.”

“We were three. You did not love me then. You kept flicking my wings!”

“Because I liked you.”

“I hated you,” she retorted.

“I was young and immature, but I grew up.”

“You certainly did,” she murmurs. “He moved down here when he was ten, and we hadn’t talked or seen each other since.”

“Not until this angel of a fairy came down to Winternora Territory. I saw her and fell in love all over again.”

“Nature has a way of righting wrongs,” Sequoia says softly.

My heart swells with pride and love. If Sequoia is right, then maybe I can fix everything. Maybe the war can be stopped!

But there have been wars in the past that nature didn’t stop. Plus, nature might not stay on my side for long.

I swallow hard. If I have to fight Jaidos’ allies and nature, I am going to end up six feet under.

Chapter

Five

Sequoia and Ollie insist on feeding us. Sophie and I don’t talk much, but we don’t have to. The love birds do more than enough talking, finishing each other sentences, talking over each other, laughing. They’re so very much in love, and I want the very best for them. I really do.

Finally, Sophie and I say goodbye and leave the frozen treehouse.

We make it to the edge of Winternora Territory when my twin abruptly stops flying. Honestly, I’m not sure why we flew through the kingdom instead of using fairy dust immediately to return, but the sight had been majestic. I would love to return here one day even if it is freezing. We’ll have to make sure to wear much warmer clothes next time.

But this is a place of peace. I don’t want to even contemplate about a war ever touching this place. It truly is a winter wonderland. I don’t think I could possibly live here, though, only a visit. There are some plants and bushes and flowers to blossom in the colder temperatures, but I miss the lush green scenery already.

Sophie’s a bit stiff as she eyes me. “Don’t think that just because everything worked out so perfectly for her means that what you did was right.”

“Of course not,” I murmur. “I understand that.”

“You’re playing a very dangerous game.”

“I know, which is why I need you by my side, to pull me back if I’m going in too deep. If I… I don’t want the darkness to drown me, but I have to believe that I had the premonition for a reason. Why else would I have been shown it if I weren’t supposed to stop it? I mean… Soph… if you saw what I saw…”

“Can I?”

My eyebrows lift. “What do you mean?”

“Can you open your mind and telepathically let me see it?”

“I don’t know. I can try.” My hands shake as I reach to touch her temples.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

“Not a thing,” I say quickly.

“Don’t even try to pretend. I know you, and you can’t lie.”

I heave a sigh. “I don’t want to see it again.”

She’s quiet a moment. “Is it that bad?”

“It’s worse. It’s so much worse. If you really want to, we can try.”

“No. I… I never doubted that you saw something terrible. I know war is evil, but…”

“You think what I did was wrong.”

Sophie’s silence is confirmation enough.

“What else was I supposed to do?” I murmur.

“Talk to me! Not run off and go ahead and, and…” She glances around. No one is near us. Sophie leans in close and drops her voice. “…murder someone.”

“One life versus billions. Yes, it’s a hard choice, and—”

“He produced some wonderful paranormal hunters, slayers, and executioners!”

“No, not him. The professors there, the mentors and masters,” I counter. “He might’ve just been a figurehead.”

“Might? You’re still guessing.”

“I know, and I don’t want to be. I want to find the truth. Soph, I know he’s working with others, and humans are going to die by such huge numbers. We’ll all be dragged into the war as a matter of survival, and the humans… Can we blame them for wanting to hurt us once they learn that some of our kind hurt them?”

“The fairies—”

“Don’t you dare say that we shouldn’t get involved!” I spit out. “You sound just like King Jarrah and Queen Camelia. They want us to ignore everything. They already knew about the coming war. I’m not the only fair—Sophie, I’m not the only fairy to have a premonition about the war! There has to be a reason why so many of us have!”

“Yet, you’re the only one willing to try to stop it.”

I grit my teeth as fury races through me, almost a second life force. “The rest should have their wings removed. How can it be dark to want to save other’s lives? There’s nothing more light about it!”

“It’s… I don’t know. I just don’t know.” Sophie blinks a few times. “A part of me knew that if I went to prison for you, that you wouldn’t let this go. Maybe I even wanted you to dig deeper.”

“So what changed? Why are you so angry with me?”

Sophie won’t look at me.

“Because of what you experienced there. Sophie, please, talk to me. Tell me.”

She shakes her head emphatically. “Don’t ask me to tell you again,” she says, her tone sharp, her eyes bright.

My twin’s never taken such a harsh tone with me before.

I lower my head. “I won’t. I promise.”

Thankfully, that’s good enough for her, but it makes my stomach churn. Something terrible happened to her, and she doesn’t want me to feel guilty about it.

But I do. I don’t have to know the specifics. Something hurt her, and she blames me for it.

As she should.

“I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to make up for the sacrifice you did,” I tell her.

Sophie just shakes her head. “You don’t even know—”

“I don’t need to know.”

Her head tilts back, and she stares at the sun. “I can’t believe I’m free.”

“You could’ve been all along.”

“Hmm. And if you had been imprisoned…”

“I would still be in there.” I shrug. “And that would’ve been fine.”

“I don’t know.”

“You wouldn’t have broken me out.”

“Maybe.” She shorts. “Just because I wouldn’t have stolen someone else’s life doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have looked into it.”

“Nah, you wouldn’t have because you think what I did was wrong.”

“I have never forgotten why you did it. Saving billions of lives is worthwhile. I just don’t agree with your methods, but that doesn’t mean I want the war to happen.”

“Does that mean you’ll help me?” I ask, trying to hide my eagerness.

“Maybe. That depends.”

“On what?”

“On how exactly we’re going to move forward.”

I grin. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”

Sophie just shakes her head. “Out with it. I need to know more about what you did in the time I was imprison before you became Sequoia.”

“Want to fly as we talk?” I ask. “Once we’ve talked enough, we can use fairy dust to head on back.”

“Head on back where? If we can’t return to Roseshield Grove… We shouldn’t even if the fairies wanted us, should we? So we can keep them safe.”

I nod. “The fewer the number of people involved, the better.”

“To stop a war?” she asks doubtfully.

“We can figure out a select few to join us, maybe, if it becomes necessary. Until then—”

“It’s just you and me.” Sophie grins and loops our arms together. “I’m sorry I got so mad and freaked out.”

“It’s completely understandable,” I assure her.

“Let’s go back to that spot where you healed us,” she suggests. “We can talk there.”

“Good idea. I don’t like being so far away from the prison.” I hesitate. “Do you think it’s still standing? That the fight is over?”

“I don’t know. We’ll have to be careful.”

I nod, and then I sprinkle fairy dust over us to bring us to the natural alcove. It’s so pretty and warm here, the sight of the greenery all around us bringing a smile to my face. Purple and pink flowers are in bloom, and my heart is happy, if only for a few seconds.

Quickly, I tell Sophie about going to Magical Hunters Academy and not getting anywhere, including the threat from the one professor. She wrinkles her nose at that.

“Do you think he’s involved?” she asks.

“Master Gaian Wraith… I don’t know. I think maybe he doesn’t like fairies. That might be it. Or maybe he is involved, and he’s afraid I would reveal his dark secret. Unfortuantely, I just don’t see any way to try to go there and get any real answers.”

“Maybe not as a fairy,” Sophie muses quietly.

I lift my eyebrows and grin. “I like how you’re thinking!”

“It’s a lot harder to glamor as anything other than a fairy, though,” she says. “It wouldn’t be easy to do it for long.”

I wave my hand airily. “You’re talking to someone who was glamored for—”

“Glamored as a fairy,” she reminds me.

“Yes. Fine. What are you thinking? What could we pose as?”

“I don’t know. I’m not even sure the school is the best place to start. Where else did you go?”

“I went to Jaidos’ house and talked to his wife and daughter. She seemed really nice, the daughter, not the mom. Well, no. Nice isn’t the word. Well, nicer than her mom, yes, but not nice nice.”

“You’re rambling, Jessa.” Sophie shakes her head.

“I just can’t forget something Rae told me. ‘People try to hide their darkness until they can’t anymore.’ She said that’s all I need to know about her dad.”

“So she does know something.”

“Or at least suspects it. Maybe we can go back and try to talk to her again.”

Sophie eyes me critically. “You don’t want to.”

“I already bothered them once, and I killed her dad. It doesn’t seem right to keep interfering with her life.”

“You’re trying to give her family a chance to not be known as the ones to destroy the world as we know it. That’s a good thing.”

I grin despite feeling like a terrible person. “You really are on my side.”

“I’ve always been. Even when I’m mad at you, even if I think you’re rash and impulsive, I will always be here for you. I got your wings.”

Giggling, we hug each other, but then I hear something.

A twig snapping.

Instantly, I’m on high alert. I press a finger to my lips and I peer out of the natural alcove.

And that’s when I see her.

The woman with a scar down the side of her face.

From the gang who wanted to break a prisoner out.

Chapter

Six

The woman can’t see us, and she’s holding a knife and a gun. The barrel is smoking, and the tip of the knife is covered in blood. She’s glancing all around, clearly anxious, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone else around.

Sophie’s hovering just behind me. I pat her hand.

She’s one of the group who attacked the prison, I tell my twin telepathically.

Why is she out here alone? Sophie asks.

I don’t know. Maybe she got separated from the others. Maybe she’s the only one to get out.

Or maybe they have a place to meet up at.

Do you think we should follow her? I ask.

Yes.

I go to move, but Sophie yanks on my arm.

What is she? Sophie asks.

I don’t know. I don’t think I ever did figure it out.

She doesn’t have wings.

She didn’t use any magic against me back then, but we should be wary, just in case it does come to battle.

Sophie nods and releases my hand.

The scarred woman doesn’t really seem all that scared. She also doesn’t appear to be wounded either, which makes me wonder if her bloodstained clothes have the lifeforce of another on her.

She does look around quite a bit, which means we can only fly after her when there’s suitable coverage to hide behind—a bush, a tree. She’s sticking toward the wilderness instead of heading toward any nearby town. Just where is she going and why? Where are the others? Did they all perish in the fight? Are they locked up?

Why do I care so much about the prison? I shouldn’t. I didn’t truly work there, except I did. The duties required of a guard, I did, and I became one. It’s not any easy position, but I can’t help thinking of Ciro, the vampire I spoke to and may have made some progress with. If I had talked to him more, had been able to get to the bottom of why he would feed until the human died, would he have been able to stop? He had shown signs of being possessive, though, so would he have wanted to drink my blood? To kill me? I don’t think so, but his wanting me to be his guard… No, maybe that’s not so strange after all. I gave him a chance. I talked to him as if he mattered.

Like he was a person.

Rather than a prisoner.

And isn’t that what they need most? The bars, the cells, all of that reinforces their position as inmates. Can’t the guards help them? Or if not the guards, someone else? Counselors?

Maybe that’s what I want to be, not so much a guard to help lock them away, but someone who can help them so that they can be set free from not only physical prisons, but ones that they feel trapped behind within their identity. How many vampires aren’t willing to even try to control themselves, believing themselves to be bloodthirsty monsters? There are vampires who can control themselves and even live among the humans, hidden. Some vampires are paranormal hunters, slayers, or executioners. They’re willing to lock up any evil paranormal being, even those of their own kind. They will do what is right.

No one species is evil.

Not even demons.

That said, I don’t know where exactly Zas falls. He tried to say that he had been framed for the crime that landed him in a cell in the prison, and maybe that had been the truth. Castiel is a corrupt angel. Is he still locked in the cell I put him in? How will the other guards react to learn that Sequoia went ahead and did that without authority?

But even if Zas had been innocent of that particular crime, that doesn’t mean he’s entirely blameless.

Then again, who am I to judge? I have done so many dark deeds lately that I should be behind bars as well.

Zas, wherever he is, I hope he’s not hurting anyone.

I go to move from behind a tree, but Sophie grabs me. My thoughts have made me careless, and I almost moved right when the woman is looking behind her, near us.

Holding my breath, I don’t dare to move, and I wait, hoping she won’t see us, willing her to reach her destination already. Or should we confront her before then? We need answers.

I’m ready to touch Sophie and ask her if we should just approach her instead of follow because I am growing weary of this chase when the woman darts forward. She’s moving fast for once, but, oh. She caught a hare. Now she’s building a fire. She’s sitting on a rock, skinning her prize, ready to cook a meal.

She’s going to be here a bit.

We should approach her now, while she’s distracted, I tell Sophie directly into her mind.

I don’t know, Sophie says, her mental words conveying her heavy doubt. She’s armed. She’s fast yet. I don’t know if she’ll talk any.

But if the others in her group are going to join her here or elsewhere, we won’t be able to approach at all!

No, but we’ll be able to eavesdrop and be safe from a distance, Sophie points out. Wouldn’t that be better?

I grunt, the noise hardly audible. Whatever creature this woman is, she can’t be a shifter. She would’ve been able to smell us by now.

Speaking of smells, the scent of that cooking hare makes my stomach rumble. I’m starving. When did I last eat? When I was with Sophie and Pervinca in the infirmary, before the battle. Or did I ate in the Winternora Territory? I can’t even be sure anymore.

The woman takes her time cooking the food. She’s stopped looking around to see if anyone is following her. In fact, she seems rather content. Leisurely almost.

I don’t think anyone else is coming.

I think you’re right, Jessa.

Should we try to talk to her now?

Sophie makes a face. I don’t think she’ll be up for just idle conversation.

Nah. We’ll have to be persuasive.

I don’t think she’ll be forthcoming.

Probably not. I shrug. If it comes down to it, I’ll force her to talk.

You mean you’ll threaten her.

I say nothing.

With a weapon.

Whatever it takes, I say telepathically, the words firm.

I think I’m going to hate that phrase. Sophie’s words are more muted, like they would be if she muttered them aloud.

Before she can convince me to wait, I start forward toward the woman, walking, not bothering to change my appearance. It’s so freeing to wear my face again that I don’t want to glamor and wear someone else’s.

The woman eyes me as she takes a bite of her hare. She chews slowly, but she doesn’t seem alarmed by my presence. She also doesn’t seem to be that shocked either.

Did she realize we were following her all along?

“Do you mind if I have a bite?” I ask.

“Do you think you’re going to waste my time with idle chat?” she snaps.

“I—”

“I don’t care who the two of you are,” she says. “I can smell the magic on you.” She sniffs. “In fact…” Her eyes narrow. “You smell familiar.”

I cross my arms, trying not to think about something Master Gaian Wraith. He said something about fairies leaking magic all the time. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I don’t want to have to deal with her already. She’s on edge, and I don’t trust her.

“You are just looking for a fight, aren’t you?” I ask. “Is it all right if I just use your fire, then? I’ll catch my own meal.”

“You’ll catch whatever I give you,” she says idly, but I get the feeling she’s only trying to appear cool and collected. “Where’s your friend?”

I refuse to flinch and school my features. “What friend?”

“Nice deflection since fairies can’t lie. We’ve met before, didn’t we? But you wore a different face. It always struck me as false, that fairies can change their appearance and lie about who they are, but they can’t tell a lie with their lips.”

“I wouldn’t say that a glamor is lying,” I protest.

“No? But you have used a glamor around me before, haven’t you?” She laughs. “You’re the one we beat up, the one near the prison, the one who tossed herself over the ledge. I wanted to go after you and slice your throat, but the others wouldn’t let me. You’re why we attacked when we did. It’s a shame you got out.”

I swallow hard. “You aren’t looking to worse for wear. How are your friends?”

She eyes me and then flickers her gaze over to the tree I came out behind. “How are yours?”

Sophie shrieks, and I whirl around. Fire burns my backside. The scarred woman kicked embers at me.

Without hesitating, I start to fly after the woman, who is running away. Sophie, are you okay?

Yes.

What happened?

A bear.

A bear?

A real one? A shifter? I don’t know, but the woman has turned toward me, fallen to one knee, and is lining up a crossbow shot.

What in the world? Where had she been hiding that?

I jerk to the side to avoid an arrow and spy a cluster of leaves in a massive pile.

She was leading us to a trap.

The woman lines up another attempt, but I’m right on top of her. I reach to grab her, but she jerks the crossbow up, hitting my wrists and hands with the weapon. Quickly, she releases it, and I let out a shriek. The pain is terrible, but it’s off to the side, having clipped me more than pierced me through and through.

Now, I yank the weapon from her, but she’s already racing away. Blood gushes from the wound, and I press my hands there as I land.

Seriously? What am I doing? All I need is to use a little chlorokinesis, and she’ll be stopped in her tracks.

So I feel the grass ahead of her, nurture it a little, and coax the grass to grow long enough to serve as ropes.

Only she uses the same blade she used to deskin the hare to slice through the grass. Pain even worse than the arrow shot sears through me from my connection to the grass, and I close my eyes to hold back tears as I attempt to grow more grass to disarm her.

Only this time, I can make the connection to the grass.

The grass isn’t complying with my magic.

Is this it? Is nature turning her back on me?

No! I can’t! I can’t have that. Nature is tied so heavily in every part of a fairy’s life. I don’t know if I could handle being separated from magic for a long period of time.

And what if it’s forever? What if nature has decided I’m too dark to ever be allowed to influence any of her creatures? I might never have another vision or premonition again. Grass, moss, vines, flowers… they might not react to me at all.

Or worse. What if Sophie’s right, and grass, plants, trees, bushes, flowers… What if they all wither and die beneath my feet? Beneath my wings?

I don’t want to even contemplate that.

Something flies up fast, on my left. Sophie. Seeing her gives me the strength I need to keep on going. She’s above me as we chase down the scarred woman.

Sophie’s use of chlorokinesis is a thing of beauty. She uses a vine hanging from a nearby tree to slap the blade from the woman’s hand, and then that vine and another snatch the woman’s wrists, pulling her upward so that her feet don’t touch the ground.

Just like that, we’ve caught her.

Well, Sophie did, and I? Maybe the woman cutting the grass and hurting nature because of my use of chlorokinesis was enough to severe my bond to nature entirely.

Chapter

Seven

As much as I hate the idea that I’m dark and possibly growing darker by the second, I can’t worry about that now. Right now, all that matters is the woman in front of her.

As I walk around to face the woman, she glowers at me and then Sophie up in the air. The woman’s face is bright red except for her scar, the skin around it all puckered.

“Let me go!” she shouts.

“Why would we do that when we have a few questions for you?” I ask.

Sophie lands beside me. Her gaze flickers to me and then the wound.

“I’m fine.”

My twin sighs, and I eye her. She looks to be fine despite her encounter with a bear, but I don’t know if bears—the animal—would be around here. Did she have to take down one of the gang?

“I’m not going to tell you anything!” the woman says. “I’m going to get down from here, and I’m going to destroy that pretty face of yours. Both of you. I’ll take out one of your eyes and scar the left side of your face.” She juts her chin toward me. “As for you…” Her gaze shifts over to Sophie. “Your nose. It’s so perfect. Can’t have that, can we? That way, you too won’t match anymore, and, even better, you’ll both be ugly.”

“Ugly and beauty? What is that?” I ask.

“It’s—”

“Don’t you dare say it’s in the eye of the beholder,” the woman says with a groan. She rolls her eyes.

“I was going to say that it’s more of a reflection of you and your soul that you want to mar beauty,” Sophie says calmly, her voice oddly unemotional.

“Or maybe her face reflects the scarred nature of her heart. Did someone hurt you? I mean, besides when you got the scar?”

The woman’s smile is chilling. “Who says that someone else gave me the scar?”

“Oh,” I say faintly. The thought never occurred to me.

Sophie flies up high and stares down the woman. “You and your gang wanted to attack the prison to break someone out, isn’t that right?”

“We did. She got out, though, it seems.”

Sophie and I exchange a glance.

“Yes, you,” the woman snaps, staring at Sophie.

“How do you know she’s—” I start, but she cuts me off.

“Because you were the one we fought,” she snaps. “How did you get out of there? You sneak her out when the fighting started?” She directs the question as me.

I shift uncomfortably, which makes my wound ooze more blood. A grimace crosses my face. As much as I don’t want her to know anything, I have a sinking feeling she’s learning a lot more about us than the opposite.

“You need to not worry about us,” Sophie says.

“Now you see here, killer,” the woman says. “You have a lot to be worried about because I’m going to kill you. If I don’t, one of the others will. You’re a walking or flying dead fairy, you got that?”

“Why?” I ask. “Why did you want to break her out of the prison just to kill her?”

“Because of what she did,” the woman snaps, her face growing bright red again.

“Then you want me dead, not her,” I say smugly. “You’re upset that your little boss bit the big one?”

Her eyes narrow, and she looks back and forth between us, her chin falling to her chest as she looks down at me before tipping up to gaze up at Sophie.

“So you killed him?” she asks, staring me down before lifting her chin again. “And you took the fall. Clever.”

“Why do you want me dead?” I ask.

“Killing him isn’t motivation enough?” she asks. She tries to jerk against the vines, but Sophie merely smiles as she adds more to grab the woman’s ankles. “Let me go!”

“So you can kill my sister? I don’t think so.” Sophie looks down at me and winks.

I blow out a breath, trying to figure out which question to ask next. “How did you know who killed him?”

“Ah.” The woman smiles. “Not answering that.”

“Here’s a simple one,” Sophie says. “All I want is your name.”

“Not answering that either.”

“Hmm.” Sophie taps a finger to her cheek. “All I have to do is peek into your mind to learn that. Want me to do that? Root around your mind? See your memories? Understand what makes you tick? Find out what your worst fear is and use it against you?”

“You’re bluffing,” the woman says, a slight quiver to her chin the only hint that she’s affected by Sophie’s words. “You can’t do that.”

“Do you want to test that theory of yours?” Sophie asks, sounding amused. She holds up a hand. “People like to underestimate fairies, and we let them. Makes our targets easier prey.”

“Is that how you got so close to him?” the woman hisses. “You tricked him and then killed him. Why? What he wanted—”

“Will never happen,” I say as smoothly as I can. The longer I stand here, the woozier I feel. The pressure against my wound has caused it to stop bleeding, but I’m still weak and growing weaker. I can’t ignore it forever.

By the breeze, I need some herbs, but I can’t help being afraid. What if herbs won’t even affect me? What if all of nature has been closed off from me? A door slammed shut in my face, a wall I erected because of my hubris?

My devotion to my cause and my desire to save the only family I have left may have killed me in a sense, the only sense that matters.

If nature has turned her back on me, that doesn’t change anything. It complicates matters, yes, but I will not give up. I will fight this war until the bitter end. If it requires my life, so be it.

I lift my chin to stare up at the woman. The scar along the side of her face begins to dance, and I blink several times. Abruptly, black specks dot my vision, growing wider until they engulf my entire vision.

It’s quite possible I’ve fallen down and slumped to my knees. I’m not even sure. I’m not connected to my body anymore.

The blackness turns to a blinding white, and then I can see. All around me, fairies are fighting werewolves and vampires. Sirens and selkies are battling. Witches are flinging the elements as if they seek to destroy the earth itself.

Everywhere I turn, people are fighting, but not one of the people is human. Everyone has magic.

Orcs, goblins, trolls… barbarians, berserkers… phoenixes, dragons, wyverns… brownies, sprites, pixies… Everywhere there are paranormal creatures, and they are all fighting each other.

Even their own brethren.

It’s a war, but it’s not the war I saw previously.

As much as I can see countless paranormal beings, I can’t find any I care about. Sophie, where is she in this sea of madness? Aiden? Fitch? Our friends?

Fairies fall, their wings ripped from their backs. Werewolves howl as they attempt to save each other. Sirens sing, causing those around them to turn against their friends.

Everywhere is destruction, and the ground is drenched in blood.

Where is this? When? I try to find some kind of hint as to when this terrible atrocity will happen, but I do not recognize the location, and I cannot see the stars or the sky to discern the time of day. The brightness of the fire from salamanders, phoenixes, and fire-wielding witches is more than enough to provide illumination on the destruction even if it were the dead of night.

The more I watch, the more I can hear. People are calling out for their mothers, their loved ones. Death shrills echo in my ears. The threats and vile phrases they hurl at each other churn my stomach. There’s even the clang of metal on metal as some opt to use weapons. Are paranormal hunters, slayers, and executioners entering the fray?

“Sophie!” I try to call out, but I can’t hear myself over the din. “Aiden! Anyone?”

I can’t control the premonition. I can’t move myself. It’s not as if I even have my body to be able to move, to run, to fly above the attackers to try to locate my friends.

I’m stuck, forced to witness the most horrible of atrocities.

I wish I had eyes so I could close them, but no, I have no choice but to watch as a vampire has her fangs ripped out of her mouth. A werewolf has his tail stomped on, and someone else hacks the wolf shifter as a ghost goes around, phasing here and there, moving weapons, adjusting them, causing a few to backfire.

Where am I? Why aren’t I trying to stop this?

Or does this war mean that I failed? That I’m dead?

Maybe that’s why I can’t find my friends, why Sophie and the others aren’t around.

We’re all dead.

And the fairies, they’re fighting. The king and queen made it very clear that they wouldn’t rise up to help the paranormal beings against the humans. Would the king and queen think differently and attack our fellow paranormal beings?

Or does this mean that someone killed the king and queen?

Would I do that? If it were the only way that I saw to unite the fairies and have us rallied together to save us from an outside threat, would I?

I killed to stop a war. There’s no telling what I will and won’t do.

If I could talk, I would cry out. If I could, tears would stream down my face. I long to be able to clap my hands over my ears, to stop hearing the terrible din of the fighting, the slaughter. There’s no rhyme or reason to any of it. Vampires are killing their fanged sisters and brothers. All kinds of shifters are attacking each other. There’s no sense of loyalty, just fighting.

It’s chaos and anarchy.

It’s destruction for the sake of destruction.

Why? Why are they doing this?

What could possibly be the catalyst to cause all of this to start?

As I did with the premonition about the first war, I force myself to focus enough to conjure not the reasoning behind the fighting but to locate Sophie.

She’s here. Fighting. One of her wings is gone, and she has a scar on her face, her neck, down her arm. Her clothes are bloodstained, but she’s fighting. As I watch, it quickly becomes evident that her aim is to wound, not kill, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.

Next, I seek out Aiden. He’s rather similar to Sophie in that he’s fighting hard and not killing, but his laboring. He’s dying. There’s a huge gash in his side, ironically in the same spot where the woman’s arrow nicked me. His attacks are slow, his hands barely moving as he swings his arms. The grass and vines react far quicker than his body would suggest, doing his bidding.

But then someone sneaks up behind him. I don’t see anything more than a shadow, and then a blade pierces through his back all the way to his stomach. He’s impaled.

Still, he fights, bringing down three more before the fire of life dies from his eyes.

No! I shriek. No, no, no!

The chaos descends on me from all around. Aiden’s trampled, and I can’t see him anymore. I can barely register what’s going on. In my grief, I can’t focus.

Until I force myself to. I must know who or what causes this so I can bring them down.

Slowly, the fighting stops, the beings and creatures all fading away as if they’re all wisps.

In its place, I see the one responsible for all of this.

I see me.

Chapter

Eight

With a start, I cough and gasp, and cry out. My hands and knees are digging into the ground. Not the grass. Dirt. Had this patch always been dirt, or did the grass draw away from my touch on the soil? I don’t know, but the first sound I hear other than my gasping for air and the fierce pounding of my heart is that of the plip plop of my blood splattering against the ground.

“What is it?” Sophie calls from above me.

I manage to lift my head. She is above me, but not flying high above as she had been. No, she’s on the ground here with me, and she eases me onto my backside and then to a sitting position.

“Talk to me,” she says gently as she brushes my hair from my forehead. It’s sticky, my hair, matted down by sweat, but I don’t feel hot. If anything, I feel far too cold. In fact, my teeth are chattering.

I can’t, though. As I stare at Sophie, at her sweet face, all I can see is her features twisting and turning, her scar forming, the fierceness she possessed in the premonition. She had been on a mission, and I hated to see her like that, fighting so hard, trying to stay alive even while keeping those who wished to harm, hurt, maim, and kill her alive too.

“What did you do?” Sophie asks the woman.

“I did nothing.” She stares down at us with contempt.

Sophie glances around, and she brushes her fingers along the grass.

“Don’t,” I mumble, but I should’ve known better than to be worried. Sophie just channels the life of the grass into me, into my wound, drawing from a wider spread area than I ever had, so that none of the grass or plants had to die, but my wound healed just the same.

Could I have done the same for Sophie’s wound?

No. That wound had been too far gone. I needed death to assure her of life.

Talk to me, Sophie says, this time in my mind.

I had a…

Another vision?

Another premonition.

And? Was it the same one?

No.

That’s wonderful! You changed the future!

Yes. I did. And do you want to know about the new future?

Sophie doesn’t say anything, but I can see her fear and worry in her eyes.

My actions have caused a new war. I didn’t really change the future. I just altered it. The war isn’t stopped. It’s just a new war.

My twin says nothing, and I can’t bear to see her, so I fly on up to hover before the woman.

“You are going to start talking, and you’re going to start talking now,” I say in a tone that demands compliance.

“I have nothing to say to you.”

“How did you know that Sophie killed Jaidos? Did you want to kill her for revenge?”

The woman presses her lips into a thin line.

“Do you want me to risk your sanity by taking the answers from your mind?” I snap. “Because in case it’s not clear to you, I am willing to do whatever is necessary. Don’t forget what I did.”

“I don’t care. You might as well kill me. You could’ve killed me immediately. It won’t change anything.”

“Answers,” I press.

She just shakes her head. Anything with her head is about all she can do as far as moving. Her arms and legs have her stuck in the air. She looks like a star if you count her head as one of the points. A scowling star.

“Did you witness the attack?” I ask. “Did you see Sophie get taken away? Did it upset you that she wasn’t executed on the spot? What about his office being set on fire? The entire building was dismantled and taken apart, hidden away! Who was it that wiped him from the supernatural internet servers?”

The woman continues to bite her tongue, her lips now curling into a wicked smile. She’s enjoying playing with us.

“How many are there of you?” I ask.

She eyes me, her eyes widening slightly, a muscle in her neck twitching.

Ah. So that’s a question she doesn’t want answered.

“How many of you are guards?” I ask slowly.

The woman purses her lips.

“How many of them just dressed as guards? Did you and your people hand over Sophie to the authorities? Did you think they would kill her? Are you the ones who set the fire in the first place? Destroyed any evidence that you could about Jaidos and what he was truly up to? Is that it?”

The woman yawns loudly. “I’m sorry I didn’t cover my mouth, but I couldn’t, seeing as you have my tied up in a most barbaric way.”

“There isn’t any way to tie up a person that isn’t barbaric,” Sophie counters.

The woman laughs. “Sure.”

I shake my head. “You can decide not to answer all you like, but I think I know for certain that you all set the fire at the very least. You’re angry that Jaidos is dead, so you all wanted to lash out and attack his killer. I get that. You attacked the prison. Who all died? What happened? Did you release some of the prisoners?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” The woman snorts. “You aren’t going to get anything out of me, so you might as well just let me go or kill me. Be done with it either way.”

“You’re the only one here. Did the others all die? Or were they captured? Did you abandon your allies? Seems to me that that wouldn’t be something they would take too lightly. They might see that as a betrayal and my killing Jaidos betrayed your goals, and they want me dead, so if you betrayed them… Wouldn’t they want you dead too?”

“I didn’t betray anyone,”? she snaps, her face reddening again.

“No? What about the humans you want to hunt? The ones you want to dominate and kill?”

She says nothing.

Sophie flies up beside me. “She’s not going to tell us anything.”

“Oh, she will.”

“No. She won’t. Not unless…”

Sophie turns so she’s facing the woman. My twin holds out her hand. A flower flies up to land in Sophie’s palm. A rose complete with a long stem.

With a flick of her finger, Sophie cuts off each of the thorns. A wave of her hand has the thorns flying straight toward the woman. One halts right in front of her eye, the others forming a necklace near her throat, the thorns a breath away from touching her skin.

“I suggest you start talking,” Sophie says patiently, sounding as if she has all of the time in the world. “Tell us what we need to know.”

“No.”

“No?” Sophie grins and presses down with a finger.

One of the thorns by the woman’s neck presses down firmly into her skin, a scarlet ribbon of blood trickling down her throat.

The woman gasps and hisses through her teeth.

“Let’s try again. Jessa, ask a question.”

I swallow hard. “Your name.”

“Stri.”

“Stri what?” I ask even though it’s an unusual enough name that I might be able to look her up on supes.com. Then again, if my theory is correct, and they wiped out Jaidos, they very well could’ve wiped out themselves as well.

“Stri Ironclaw.”

“And you are a…”

Stri grits her teeth, the skin around her scar raising slightly.

I glance at Sophie.

Another flick of Sophie’s finger downward and another thorn digs into her skin.

Stir grimaces but doesn’t say anything.

Sophie flicks two fingers this time. They pierce the skin, but Sophie isn’t done. She waves her hand, and another rose comes up to her. This one has even more thorns on the stem than the first.

My twin eyes the woman. I’ve never seen such a blank expression on Sophie’s face before.

“I’m half-kobold, half-elf,” Stri mutters, hanging her head.

Hmm. Kobolds are a kind of sprite. They’re typically nasty, vicious, and more than a bit self-serving. Some are just downright ignorant, and they don’t tend to be all that smart. They also are often ugly. The elf part of her must be helping in that regard and in her intelligence.

“Was that so hard?” Sophie asks mockingly. “Go on and answer the rest.”

I start to open my mouth, but Sophie continues for me.

“The bit about the fire. Was that you and your friends?”

Stri shakes her head. “I won’t tell you more.”

“You won’t cooperate?” Sophie asks. “Are you certain about that? Because if you don’t… I can give you another scar.”

The woman starts to breathe heavier. She’s frightened. Sophie is getting under her skin.

Honestly, Sophie’s frightening me a bit too. I’ve never seen her like this before, and I don’t like what she’s doing to the woman. Stri needs to talk to us, yes, but torturing her… I can see myself threatening her, yes, but actually hurting her? I don’t know. Maybe. I just don’t like the glint in Sophie’s eyes. She’s never had that glint before.

Before being imprisoned.

Before I killed someone.

Before that premonition.

Not even after we learned that our parents died.

I forced Sophie to change to become this darker, twisted version of herself, and I hate myself for it.

“Sophie,” I murmur. “We don’t need—”

“We do need answers.” Sophie inhales through her nose and exhales slowly through her mouth. “Well, Stri, what do you say? Are you going to start talking?”

“I…” Stri bites her lower lip.

“Is that a no?” Sophie asks.

“Give her a moment. She’s thinking!” I plead.

“More like thinking up a lie. Elves lie. You know that.”

I grimace. Personally, we don’t know any elves, but yes, as far as I know, the only kind of beings who are barred from lying are fairies. I’m not sure if sprites can, if kobolds can, but just by virtue of being part elf, Stri can lie.

“I can’t tell you more,” Stri says bitterly.

“Nothing at all?” I press, moving to position myself between the two of them.

Stri says nothing, just hangs her head.

“Maybe you can’t tell us about your plans for the future, but you can maybe talk about what you all did in the past. Do you know who wiped Jaidos from supes.com? Did you or one of your friends? Why? People knew him. His wife, his daughter… the students at Hunters Magical Academy… Why would someone go to those lengths to try to pretend he never existed?”

Stri doesn’t move at all, doesn’t lift her head, doesn’t say anything.

“She’s not going to talk,” Sophie says. “She’s wasting our time.”

I shiver. Sophie doesn’t sound like herself at all. What happened to the fairy who was crying because she realized we can’t go home yet? She’s not acting like herself at all. It’s almost like there’s been some kind of switch that was flicked, and now she’s a whole new person.

Someone who isn’t like my twin at all.

“You need to talk,” I tell Stri desperately. “Just tell us something. Anything. Please.”

Stri lifts her head and gives me a wry smile. “I’ve never liked being told what to do,” she says. “That’s why I was telling the others what to do to you. I did want to give you a scar, though. Seems that one has one on the inside.”

“Don’t you talk about her,” I snap.

“Oh, did I hit a nerve? You wanted me to talk, so I’m talking. Just because I’m not saying something you don’t want to hear doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

Stri has somehow managed to worm a wrist free. The vines fall away. Sophie reacts immediately, having them sling back to grab Stri’s wrist again, but it’s too late.

Now I see why her surname is Ironclaw.

Her fingers have turned into claws.

And she slices her throat the rest of the way.

Bleeding out.

Dying.

Refusing to talk until the bitter end.

Chapter

Nine

The sight of Stri’s dead body hanging there like that dead star, her head down and bobbing with the slight breeze, her blood coating her clothes and slowly dripping down her and onto the ground far below makes me want to gag. Tears burn my eyes.

Why? Why am I so sorry to see her dead?

Because she killed herself.

Just because she didn’t want to talk to us and betray her people.

And because she was being tortured.

“Sophie…”

“Oh, don’t,” Sophie snaps. “I didn’t kill her, and I didn’t intend to either. If she was going to persist in not talking, we would’ve used her to try to force her friends to talk. Maybe hold her for ransom. I had ideas.”

“Ideas you didn’t share with me,” I say mildly.

Sophie snorts. “When has that ever stopped you. You do whatever you want, and it’s okay. Steal someone’s life. Steal their face. Steal a father, a husband. All that jazz is okay because you did it, but if I do anything, you freak out? No way. Not fair. By the breeze, Jessa, get off my wings.”

“Sophie, I won’t.”

“Won’t what?”

“I won’t get off your wings. Look!”

I hold out my hand, trying to connect with the grass beneath us. It doesn’t react to me, but the puddle of blood forming beneath Stri’s body does. The blood congeals together in a ball.

“And?” Sophie asks dryly.

“The grass isn’t responding to me!”

“It does to me,” she says, as smug as can be. “If you’re going to read into that, then it’s a pretty clear message. Nature approves of what I’m doing and disapproves of you. So if you think you can get me to stop, you’re wrong.”

I hang my head. “Sophie, I don’t want to fight.”

“Good. Because we aren’t.”

“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice says.

My skin crawls, and my stomach falls to the ground. The bloody ball splatters onto the ground, and I slowly drop down to the ground myself considering the newcomer has his feet on the ground.

Zas grins at me. I’ve always thought he looks more like a vampire than a demon. It’s his black hair combined with his pale white skin. Plus, in his cell and out here, he’s hiding his wings from view. His eyes are as fiery as ever, and I can barely see his twin horns, his hair combed over to hide them almost entirely. If I didn’t know to look for them, I wouldn’t see them. His horned shoulders are covered by a black t-shirt, and his jeans hang low on him. Normally, his nails are clawed, but for the moment, they look normal.

He could almost pass for a human if not for his eyes.

But there’s no mistaking the raw power and magic his form possesses. Maybe Master Gaian Wraith is right, and beings can leak magic. I’ve never noticed it before, but I can sense it with Zas.

“What do you want, Zas?” I snap, gauging the distance between him and Sophie and flying up to be able equally distanced between them.

“Now, now. You’re looking a little different, aren’t you, Sequoia? But then, I knew from the start you weren’t her.” Zas grins and shifts his gaze up above my shoulder. “And you, you must be why she came to the prison. She, what, broke in to break you out?”

“Can it,” Sophie snaps. “I was with you in the prison when we all broke out. You don’t have to act like we just met.”

“Hmm.” Zas eyes me. “Why don’t you come down here so we can talk?”

“I don’t want to be near you.”

“You don’t trust me?” He places a hand on his chest as if he’s hurt. “I can hardly see why you wouldn’t. We all got out, didn’t we? And besides, you did ask what I wanted, and I didn’t answer yet. Do you still want the answer?”

“No. You can move along.” I jerk my head to the side.

“I don’t think so.” His gaze shifts to the corpse. “Who did that?”

“She killed herself,” I mumble.

“Hmm.” Without making his wings visible, Zas flies up and eases himself between me and Stri. “The thorns wasn’t her.”

I wince. Sophie seems unfazed, though.

“You wanted answers from her, I take it, but she didn’t want to give them. Is that going to be a recurring theme with you? Asking nosy questions to the point of driving people to commit suicide?”

“Maybe you should go,” I say coldly, “unless you want to test that theory. That can be arranged.”

Zas turns about to face me, throws back his head, and laughs. I hate that it’s actually a nice, pleasant-sounding laugh. It’s not like the laugh he gave before. Why the change? I don’t buy that he has had a change in heart. He’s evil through and through.

Maybe. At least I think he is. I don’t know what to believe about him. I’m not even sure what to believe about myself. Can a person be both light and dark, good and bad? Am I evil? What makes a person evil? I know about the concept of the ends and the means, but is that true? If a person wants to halt a war and save billions, is killing one person so bad? Killing two? Three? What’s the cutoff point?

It’s a slippery slope, paved not only with ice and shards and bullets and holes, but it comes at the cost of your soul.

I barely turn my head and glance at Sophie out of the corner of my eye. Not just the cost of my soul.

“You want to know why I’m here,” Zas says.

“Maybe that’s what we want,” Sophie pipes up, “but we definitely don’t want you to waste our time. We don’t want lies or games. The truth please or go on your merry way.”

“A merry demon.” Zas winks at her. “I actually like the sound of that. What do you think… I don’t know your actual name.”

“Nope. I’m not telling you my real name or hers.”

“Ah, but I know hers,” Zas says. “Sophie, yes?”

I stiffen.

“Yes. Just because I wasn’t in the office with you when you said her name last didn’t mean I didn’t overhear. The door was open. You thought you were being so careful to not say her name aloud, but it was for naught. Don’t worry, Sophie. I don’t mean to hurt you any.”

“But you do me.” I cross my arms and glower at him.

Zas looks me up and down. “Now, why would I want to do that? You intrigue me. You might be—”

“What? The darkest fairy you’ve ever met?” I ask bitterly.

“Not the darkest,” he murmurs. “The most intriguing yes. I do like you with dark hair. The purple is a nice touch, and you do have stunning eyes.”

I burst out laughing. “Are you flirting with me? Nice try, but no thank you. Not interested. You can just go now. Whatever you want, we aren’t willing to give you, so you can just go on your merry way, like my twin said.”

Zas shifts his gaze from me to Sophie. “What’s your twin’s name?”

Sophie inhales.

I glower at her.

My twin shrugs. “It’s up to her to tell you her real name.”

“What can I do to get you to trust me?” Zas asks.

“Nothing,” I say coldly.

“Nothing? Oh, I doubt that very much. I know you most likely are loath to admit this, but you and I are a lot alike.”

“Hardly!”

“Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

I frown, not understanding.

Sophie sighs and shakes her head. “I’m the one who reads Shakespeare, not her.”

“Don’t you agree with my assessment?” Zas asks her.

I cross my arms and glare at them both. “I don’t appreciate you two talking about me as if I’m not here.”

“I find it rather interesting that you don’t mind talking with a dead body so close to you,” he counters, acting very much like a fairy by changing the subject.

“Yes, well, you are probably even more comfortable than I am,” I retort.

Zas’ smile only grows and grows.

I wince and hang my head. “And this all goes back to you saying we’re alike. The lady protest bit, that’s saying that I’m protesting loudly because I don’t want it to be true but it is? Something like that?”

“Basically,” Sophie murmurs.

She’s smiling slightly, and I wrinkle my nose at her. Her grin goes full-bore, and I can’t be too upset, not now, not when she’s back to acting like her old self again with her teasing me about my ignorance.

“You asked what I want. The answer is simple,” Zas says.

“Then lay it on me.” I wave my hand, motioning for him to continue.

“I want to help,” he says simply.

I laugh and laugh. “As if I can believe that.”

“Ah, but I can prove it.” Zas grins as he traces his finger along the cut Stri made. His fingertip is covered in her blood, and he promptly licks it.

Immediately, his eyes dim, the fire burning so bright that his eyes glow and then turn completely white.

“What is he doing?” Sophie asks, coming up close behind me, grabbing my arm.

She’s frightened? I’m not. That’s not to say I trust the demon, but if he’s playing a game, I won’t have it. I’m done being a pawn. He once lied for me, and he acts as if that binds us together, as if I owe him. If that’s the case, then his getting out dissolves that bond, but the bond shouldn’t even have been counted considering I never agreed to help him. The demon likes to make assumptions, but I prefer absolutes.

Which is why Jaidos is dead.

And I accomplished my goal in ensuring the war between paranormal beings and humans doesn’t happen.

And also why there is now a threat of a war brewing among the paranormal beings themselves.

Does it step from Magical Prison? What if the inmates are all back in the open? What if this spells the doom of HEX Unite and Magical Hunters Academy? I might not agree with their methods, but the paranormal beings do need to be kept in check somehow. So long as there is a measure in place to ensure that HEX Unite and Magical Hunters Academy are not corrupt, then I suppose I do not have as much of an issue with them as I once thought I did.

But that’s a big if. The chances are high that others among the staff of Magical Hunters Academy had to have been in league with the headmaster, right? But then, that’s an assumption that is not based on any conclusive evidence, just a hunch, and hunches are worthless.

I already tried to see if I could get anywhere with Magical Hunters Academy, but I haven’t tried HEX Unite yet. Honestly, the thought terrifies me. They aren’t going to be easily blindsided. They’re going to be smart, and any kind of a glamor probably won’t work on them. They’ll recognize me, recognize us, and we’ll end up back in Magical Prison, this time with us both behind bars.

And there’s still the matter of the unknown woman’s voice I heard during one of my visions concerning Jaidos and his plan for the humans.

With a sudden jerk, Zas lifts his head, his eyes back to normal.

“What did you just do?” Sophie asks sarcastically. “Hold a séance with her?”

“Nothing at all like that,” Zas says, a triumphant, haughty tone cutting his words. “I used her blood to see a vision of her past.” His gaze flicks to me, and I stiffen at the look of sympathy in his eyes.

Sympathy mixed with hellfire. It’s a strange mix and not something I enjoy seeing now and never want to see again.

I hate sympathy. I had more than my fair share of pity after my parents were killed.

“Did you see anything that might make us trust you?” I ask dryly.

“That depends on if you believe the intel I have,” he says smoothly.

“And?”

“I know the location of her and her friends’ hideout, if you’re interested.”

I am, but I don’t want to admit it or at least not seem overly eager.

“I suppose that might be a good thing to know,” I remark offhandedly.

“Well, then, they have a small place in a motel in Cragburn.”

“Cragburn?” Sophie repeats.

“Do you know the place?” Zas asks. “I can bring you to the exact location.”

“Thanks but no thanks. I know where it is. It’s a ghost town, though. Why are there motels there?” I wonder aloud.

“Almost every town or city needs outsiders to survive for the revenue they provide. A lot of people are curious about ghosts and ghouls, even among the paranormal community,” Zas says.

“Hmm. Do you have any friends there?” I ask. “Anyone you killed who has shown up as a ghost?”

Zas smirks. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“No, actually, I don’t.”

“Then why bother to ask?”

“To show that I don’t trust you.”

“Yet, you’re going to head to Cragburn, aren’t you?” He looks from me to Sophie before eyeing me again. “Keep your name, Not-Sequoia, and keep your distrust of others. May it serve you well.”

I tilt my head to the side. “Are you telling me not to trust you?”

“I’m trying to give you a warning. Cragburn is not just a ghost town. It’s an area teeming with all kinds of… unsavory characters.”

“Then you would fit right in, I suppose.” I hesitate. “Have you been there before?”

“Yes. How do you think I know about the character of those who frequent there?” He winks before turning more serious. “Do watch your back, your sides, your front, each other. That town is not a good place. After all, you already know the likes of the ones you seek.”

Yes, that is definitely the truth.

Chapter

Ten

I don’t know what to say to Zas, how to get him to leave, but I also have to admit that I am a bit nervous about going to Cragburn. As much as I don’t want to appear weak in front of Zas, he’s right. It’s not the best of places. I’m certain that’s why the gang decided to have their hideout there in the first place.

“What’s the name of the motel?” Sophie asks.

He winks at her. “Ancient Shroud Motel.”

“Did you happen to see a room number?” I ask.

“I’ll give you a guess.” His grin stretches from ear to ear.

“It’s not 666.” I roll my eyes.

“No. It’s 123.”

I nod slowly. “I suppose I should thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, and just so you know, I wouldn’t suggest you do what I did.”

“The licking the blood thing? Yeah, I didn’t need you to tell me to not do it. No thanks.”

Zas laughs. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

My heart starts to pound. Why is he being like this? Why is he back to being helpful? When we had been in the warden’s office, Zas had been like a true demon, downright nasty and cruel. He hadn’t cared at all if we all made it out, only that he did. Now, he’s being nice again. It’s enough to give my whiplash, and I want to ask why the sudden change, but I also don’t think he’ll give me a straight answer.

“There you are,” a familiar voice calls out.

I’m shocked, and I lower onto the ground just as my friend and fellow guard from the prison shows up.

“Azorra!” I cry out and then wince. The gargoyle isn’t going to know that I’m Sequoia. Wait. Is she looking for Sophia?

Zas nods to me. “And that’s my cue to leave.”

With that, the demon lifts his hands and snaps his fingers. He disappears in a puff of swirling black and red smoke that reminds me of a djinn.

But if Zas is going to make any dreams come true, they’re going to be nightmares.

Confused, I stare at Azorra. “Why didn’t you arrest him?” I blurt out.

“I’m not here for him,” Azorra says simply. “I’m here for you.”

“You mean me,” Sophie says, landing on the ground between Azorra and me.

I stomp to stand beside her.

Azorra laughs. “I’m here for Jessa.”

I gape at my friend. How does she know my real name?

But then her features begin to shift and change. She grows taller, and the gargoyle is soon no longer a gargoyle but a fellow fairy.

He looks as handsome as ever, his wavy black hair almost chin length, brushed back so it doesn’t conceal his chiseled jaw. His amber eyes sparkle with amusement, and his dark wings flutter behind him even though he’s not flying either.

“By the breeze, you really didn’t know it was me, did you?” he asks.

“No!” I gasp, my hands covering my mouth. “Wait! You asked me about my boyfriend!”

Aiden smirks. “Did you have anyone else in mind when you answered?”

I march up to him and slap his shoulder. “That’s… You’re so rude!”

He laughs and laughs. “Really? Me? Why? Because I—”

“You were a girl! Why was I going to think it might be you?”

“Why else do you think I brought up your boyfriend?”

“We never… ah…” I rub the back of my neck and glance over at Sophie.

My twin has an amused expression on her face. Somehow, she has some acorns, and she’s eating them as she watches us. It’s a bit unnerving, actually.

“I wanted to help you,” Aiden explains.

“But you could’ve told me!”

“And risk blowing both of our covers?” he retorts. “No. Not after the lengths we took to break in.”

“And you had to break out.” I gasp. “How is the prison? Who all is okay? I don’t even want to know what all happened.”

A pang hits me as I recall Honorox, the minotaur. He had been one of the good ones, but Zas got to him.

Zas killed him.

The demon hadn’t had to do that.

Except, he probably did. If Honorox hadn’t been killed, he would’ve stopped Zas… but he also would’ve stopped Sophie and I too.

I grit my teeth, hating that the demon may have done us a favor by killing the guard.

Aiden chuckles and reaches out toward me. Without hesitating, I clasp his hand, and he pulls me closer. His lips press to my forehead, and then he stares down at me. His eyes truly are lovely, and they ground me as he leans down and kisses me on the lips. My heart begins to flutter too fast, and when I draw back to end the sweet kiss, I realize we’re hovering above the ground.

I giggle and press my forehead to his shoulder. It almost doesn’t feel right for me to have this moment of happiness. It’s almost a stolen moment, but I will cherish it always.

“You came to help,” I murmur, “and all I did was use you to babysit the vampires.”

“I was willing to help you in any way I could. Babysitting vampires wasn’t an issue.”

“So what was then?”

“Ah, well, let’s just say that I thought it would be easier to be a girl to get you to trust me,” he says in a rush, “but I ah, didn’t quit think that through all the way.”

“No?” I ask curiously.

“No,” he says flatly, and I know I’m not about to get more out of him.

“The prison,” I remind him. “The battle?”

“Ah, yes. Let’s see. The hellhounds are ready to sniff down any and all who left the grounds, but the prison is in such disarray that they can’t be unleashed.”

“Rall?” I ask, thinking about the barbarian warden.

“He was injured, but the doctor was healing him when I snuck out.”

“That’s it? You’re done there?” I ask.

“There’s no reason to be there any longer. I only stuck around as long as I did to make sure you were both out.”

“So sweet,” Sophie mutters.

I glance over my shoulder at her. She’s still eating acorns, and she blushes slightly.

“Don’t mind me. Keep talking.”

“We aren’t a book,” I tell her.

“Of course not. You’re like a play. Go on.”

I shake my head. “Don’t mind her.”

“Exactly!” Sophie calls. “Don’t mind me. Pretend I’m not even here.”

“You’re being creepy,” I inform her.

“Am not. I’m just being honest with my eavesdropping, that’s all.”

I sigh and shake my head. Aiden just grins at me, clearly finding this all amusing, but as much as he likes me, he won’t once he learns the truth.

And he’s going to learn it now.

“You asked me once about what crime Sophie committed,” I say slowly. “The answer is simply. Sophie didn’t commit any crime. She took the fall for me. I’m the criminal. I… I killed Jaidos, the headmaster of Magical Hunters Academy.”

Aiden’s face is impossible to read. “Why?”

“That’s not the reaction you should have! You should be telling me I’m a terrible person. You should be upset that you went to such great lengths to help me, a killer! You should—”

“I know you well enough to know that you would only do something as major as that for a good reason, so out with it.”

I blow out a breath. “You’re impossible, do you know that?”

“So you’ve told me. Go on, Jessa.”

“I had a premonition that Jaidos was going to cause a war between paranormal beings and the humans. I thought his death would prevent the war.”

“And?”

“And it seems like I have prevented that war,” I say slowly.

His eyes narrow, but he says nothing, trusting that I would fill him in on the rest of the details.

I blow out a breath. “I didn’t have any visions or premonitions while inside the prison. Maybe their spells prevented them, I don’t know, but shortly after I got out… I had another premonition. This time, the war is my fault. It’s because of me.”

“Another war? A different one?”

I nod. “Between the paranormal beings.”

Aiden lets loose a whistle. “Okay. So, how do we stop this war?”

“I don’t know, but the thing is… that attack…” I eye him. “Can’t you tell me who else got hurt? If any other guards died? Zas says—”

“You’ve been talking to that demon an awful lot,” Aiden grumbles.

I burst out laughing. “Are you jealous?”

He just scowls at me.

“He does have dark hair too,” Sophie calls out.

“You aren’t helping any,” I call over my shoulder.

“Just pointing out the obvious.”

“What’s obvious?” I ask. “Zas is a demon. He—”

“He helped us,” Sophie says. “Like it or not, but without him, we wouldn’t have made it out of there.”

“Oh, you would’ve,” Aiden counters. “I would’ve helped you, but it wasn’t easy trying to fight my way from the second floor on up to the tenth.”

“How is Ciro?” I ask.

His scowl is even deeper now.

“Well?” I prompt.

“You really do like the bad boys, don’t you?” he asks darkly.

“Green isn’t your color.”

“I’m not jealous,” he protests. “I’m not.”

“You’re what? Concerned?”

“I don’t think you have feelings for either of them, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings for you. Ir maybe they just want to use you, abuse your friendship, and then discard you after they get what they want.”

“Oh, and I’m just naïve enough to not see through their tactics?” I cross my arms.

Aiden blows out a breath and rubs his hands up and down my arms. “I don’t want to fight.”

“We aren’t.”

“Good.”

“But we will be if you don’t start talking.”

Aiden says nothing.

My stomach twists. “Nora?”

“She’s fine.”

“Illumine has to be, right?”

“Yes. Obviously. What gave that away?”

I snort. Illumine is a phoenix after all.

My gaze shifts to Sophie. “Druiz?” I ask, referring to the ogre guard who had been assigned to her floor.

“Injured but recovering.”

“Are you really going to make me name—”

“Erasos broke two of his legs before he succumbed.”

I close my eyes. I hadn’t been close to the centaur, but that didn’t mean I wanted him dead.

“Castiel… I don’t know what happened to him.”

“He had been placed in a cell.”

Aiden lifts his eyebrows.

“Courtesy of yours truly.”

“Huh.”

“Samuel?”

“Severely injured. He might not make it.”

“No! He’s supposed to get out of there!” I hang my head. “I ruined so many lives.”

“You did not.”

“I did,” I mumble.

“Orinea the siren said that Baltic had been killed.”

The battle made it all the way underground?” I ask. Baltic was a merman. He and Orinea were in charge of the marine prison located on the first and second floors underground, beneath Magical Prison.

“How many prisoners were freed?”

“I don’t know the exact number but I think only three or four.”

“That’s not terrible. And the attackers?”

“Almost all if not all of them got away.”

“How is that possible?”

“They opened a lot of cells to slow us down,” he says grimly. “We had to defend ourselves from them and the inmates. It hadn’t been easy.”

“I’m sure,” I murmur.

“But enough about the prison. What’s our next step?”

“Honestly, I have no idea how to stop the war between the paranormal beings, but the gang who attacked the prison, they wanted Sophie.”

“She’s not safe then.”

“No, which is why we’re going to go to their hideout.”

“With me, yes?”

I grin. “Yes, with you, so long as you don’t mind being with a killer.”

Aiden purses his lips and heaves a sigh. “You aren’t the only one to kill.”

“But you did it in self-defense,” I protest.

“Yes, and you did it in self-defense.” When I raise my eyebrows, he adds, “Defending the world counts.”

My heart soars. Having Aiden on our side, knowing he’s been there all along, lifts my spirits. Maybe we can get through this together.

Chapter

Eleven

It’s late, so we quickly release Stri from the vines, lower her to the ground, and bury her. There’s no way we’re going to let her body be exposed to the elements or animals.

Once that’s done, we move to a wooded area, and Aiden hunts down a small deer. We clean and prepare the meat before cooking it. All the while, we talk about nothing important. It’s as if we’re all pretending that everything is normal, that we’re all fine, but that isn’t anywhere close to the truth.

By that point, I’m so exhausted that I can barely stay awake. Sophie’s already asleep.

“Go to sleep,” Aiden urges.

“But what about you?”

“I’ll keep watch.”

“You have to be exhausted too,” I protest. “Did you get hurt at all?”

“I’m fine”

“That’s a perfect fairy response. A non-answer if ever there was one. Come on, Aiden, please. Talk to me.”

“I was injured. I’m not anymore.”

“Who did it? Who hurt you?”

“You don’t need to worry.”

“But I do worry,” I murmur.

“I know. Why do you think I’m telling you not to?”

“But then you should also know it’s pointless to tell me that.”

“Oh, I do recognize that it’s pointless. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to say it though.” He tweaks my nose. “Rest. I’ll keep us safe.”

“I can stay up a little longer.”

Aiden shakes his head. “Sleep. We’re going to be running off tomorrow so that you can keep the world safe, remember?”

“So all of us can,” I say, doing my best not to recall what I saw happen to him in my second premonition.

I lie down near Sophie, beneath the shade of a towering oak. Sleep comes easily, almost as soon as I close my eyes. No dreams come to entertain me tonight, and when I wake, I feel as if I’m ready to go.

Sophie’s awake and putting out the fire. Did Aiden have it burn all night? Someone could’ve seen. Someone could’ve come, and the fire would’ve blinded us, but we’re alive, and we’re safe, so I shouldn’t complain. The temperature hadn’t meant that a fire was needed all night long, not like down south, and I wonder if Sequoia’s had time to call the prison yet.

“Where are we off to?” Aiden asks.

“Your favorite demon gave us the locale,” Sophie teases.

I grunt.

“Sleepyhead’s awake.” Aiden crosses over to me, bends down, and kisses my forehead before hauling me up to my feet.

“You have a favorite demon?” I tease.

“I’m allowed to. You aren’t.”

“Now that’s a double standard. I hate double standards.”

“Do you have a favorite demon?” Aiden asks.

“Yes,” I say without hesitation.

“And?”

“Brokon.”

“Who is that?” Sophie asks.

“Isn’t that the demon who has been locked up in solitary for forever?” Aiden asks.

“Yep!”

“So your favorite demon is one who’s locked up. Got it.” Aiden nods.

“Do you like to be locked up or tied up under any circumstances, Jessa?” Sophie asks.

I ignore her. “We’re off to Ancient Shroud Motel in Cragburn, room 123.”

“Cragburn?” Aiden lets loose a whistle. “You ladies don’t play around, do you?”

“We like to hang with a dangerous crowd.” I shrug one shoulder.

Aiden passes out some berries, and Sophie must’ve found some nuts because she gives us some as well. I feel bad that I can’t contribute to breakfast items, but I do manage to gather some willow bark that can help with fever and reducing pain. Of course, I hope that none of us have to make use of it.

My boyfriend—Aiden is my boyfriend, right?—uses fairy dust to whisk us to the outskirts of Cragburn. As we walk inside, our wings hidden so we can hide our being fairies, I can’t shake the feeling that we’re being watched. Most likely, we are being watched.

The main street is covered in dust, grass trying to grow despite the large amount of rocks everywhere. The buildings look worn. None of them are pained, and the grass grows high alongside the fronts and sides. It’s as if nature is trying to reclaim the town. Any paints on the signs have long since been bleached by the sun, and there are several abandoned cars. One has tall grass peeking from beneath the hood.

Sophie’s the one to point to our destination. Ancient Shroud Motel isn’t on the main drag, but off the beaten path. The upper floors had been painted what might’ve been a blue color, but the sun has faded the color almost entirely. The bottom floor is just plain wood, untreated and beginning to rot. I trace my fingers along some of the worst parts while the others walk ahead.

“Room 123,” Aiden murmurs. “Do we want to knock or…”

“They might not be here,” Sophie says.

“Too bad there isn’t a window,” I remark. Half of the windows in the place had been busted, most likely from the rocks littering the dirty path. I just can’t call it a road.

“We didn’t come here to wait until nightfall to make a move,” Aiden says. He lifts his hand to knock on the door.

The door busts open, slamming straight into him, the door half coming off the hinges. Aiden lands on the ground hard.

Before I can do anything, see who opened the door or help Aiden up, others come around from the sides of the motel. Without turning to look behind us, I’m certain there are more lined up along that path.

It’s an ambush.

A trap.

Did Zas know the others were here? Did he intentionally tell us to go here so they could finish us off? No, I don’t see that happening, but maybe he came here and notified them last night, before we made our appearance.

“No, look here,” I say, holding up my hands. “We don’t want any trouble.”

“Oh, ho!” says a voice coming from inside the room. “Is that so-oh? Because I don’t think you be telling the truth.”

“Of course I’m telling the truth,” I snap. “I’m a—”

“The lot of them are fairies,” a man says from behind us. His voice is familiar, especially the way he’s drawing out his s’s.

I glance at him. He’s the man from the gang who is missing teeth, only he’s missing more than I recall.

The man runs his tongue along his few teeth. “Yeah, you knocked some teeth out when you kneed me in the mouth.”

“You grabbed my legs!”

“You deserved everything you got and more,” he hisses.

“So you say,” I retort coolly. “We don’t want any trouble. I swear it. Wait…” I swallow hard. “He recognized me,” I murmur to Sophie and Aiden. “I looked different then—”

“Yes, well, maybe you should’ve realized that you should’ve masked your scent,” the man says with a sniff.

I eye him. A shifter of some kind?

As if he’s reading my mind, the man shifts into that of a horse. One of the others climbs onto his back and holds up a bow and arrow.

Okay, seriously? This is turning this ghost town into some kind of wild west showdown type deal. Even I know about the wild west. I don’t know that Shakespeare guy, though. I’ll have to ask Sophie about him later.

Much later.

Because all of them are rushing toward us. I’m not sure what I hoped to find here, maybe one or two of them, much better odds, and hopefully a chance for us to get some more intel. Or maybe they would’ve all been cleared out, and we could’ve investigated inside the room and found some proof inside there, either of their wrongdoing or a connection to Jaidos.

But no. We have to fight for our lives.

The guy from inside the room is a ghost. He tries to fly straight on at Aiden, but he ducks beneath a blade and then jabs the foe in the eye with a dagger. It’s insane how close he came to being hit and also how seamless the move had been on him ducking and then weaving back to stab.

The ghost keeps heading toward Aiden, and I can’t use plants yet, not that there are many here, at least as far as grass. Some of the buildings are covered in vine, and Sophie’s working on making makeshift handcuffs for the goons.

But the ghost is almost touching Aiden. What will happen if that occurs?

I don’t want to know.

And I refuse to find out.

With my knife, I slice at the ghost, expecting the knife to go through it. At first, it does. It seems as if the knife just cuts through the ghost without causing any effect on the ghost.

But then, drops of dark blood drip from his side.

The ghost twists, trying to see the wound, and I yank back my blade, ready to strike again when the moment is right.

Arrows fly all around me, and the horse is almost on us. In fact, the horse leaps and clears the top fence. He lands directly in front of us, rearing back onto his hind legs, pawing at the air, almost striking me in the head.

“There are too many of them,” Sophie cries.

Before I can react, she grabs Aiden and me, and then, she uses fairy dust on us, and we’re whisked away.

Chapter

Twelve

To say I’m shaken by what just happened would be an understatement. I’m literally shaking as we arrive in an alley.

“Why are we here?” I ask Sophie.

“I wanted us to be in a public place. Blend in. We’re in a human town now.”

Oh, great. Just what I need, to have humans in danger again.

My face must reflect my thoughts because Sophie shrugs apologetically.

I make sure my ears are covered, but don’t bother to pinken my skin any. So what if my skin is porcelain? I’m tired of using a glamor all of the time.

“Now what?” Aiden asks.

“Is everyone okay?” I ask.

No one has more than a few bruises, no nicks or cuts at all, so there’s that, but I still can’t get over the ambush.

“Do you think your demonic pal set you up?” Aiden murmurs out of the corner of his mouth as we leave the alley behind.

“No, I don’t.”

“How can you be so sure?” he asks.

“It’s a hunch. I don’t know. I just…” A wave of dizziness washes over me, and I walk unsteady over to a bench. I collapse on it.

“What’s wrong?” Aiden asks.

“I just need to sit a moment—”

My visions fades, and I see Magical Hunters Academy. There’s a building on fire, and there’s a massive storm brewing. Even the wind and the water from the storm can’t touch the fire consuming the building, the flames licking eagerly, ready to jump to the next building. Soon, no less than six buildings are on fire. It’s hard to see through the haze of smoke, but I think they might be cottages.

People rush out of the buildings. They look to be teenagers. The buildings must be where the students live. I hate seeing the panic in their eyes. Some of them are trying to use magic, but the elements aren’t their only enemy. I can’t make out who is sending a lightning blast, but it’s traveling from east to west instead of from the storm cloud to the ground.

It’s a massive battle, the likes of which I’ve seen before.

This is the kind of battle that could very well help to ensure that there is a war between the paranormal creatures.

How many foes are there? How can I recognize who to attack and who is good if I go there?

Or is this battle already over and done with? Maybe there had been an attack at the academy while the prison had been under siege. Does that mean that the headmaster had been working alone? But I would assume the attackers have to be on his side.

If that’s the case, does that mean that the war between paranormal beings and humans is still a possibility?

To be honest, I don’t know how much more of this I can handle.

But when is this happening? I can’t tell. There’s something that makes me think this is very close to the present, but I can’t certain. That feeling might just be because I’ve never heard of there being a battle of this magnitude happening at the academy. Then again, when I had posed as a possible student, didn’t the man working at the front office say that there had been a recent student who had stirred up trouble? Still, trouble and a battle like this aren’t nearly the same thing.

Who is fighting the students? How many are there? The cloud of smoke from the burning building makes it impossible for me to discern much else, and the vision slowly fades.

Eventually, as my senses return, I realize there’s a hand on my lower back, and I blink, noticing the concern on Aiden’s face.

“What is it?” he asks.

“She saw something,” Sophie says.

Tears prickle my eyes. Either I’m entire wrong about the source of visions and premonitions, or else nature isn’t done with me yet. Still, to show me such a sight… I almost wish I hadn’t seen what I had.

“Was it about the war?” Sophie asks gently.

“I… I don’t know, but I think we should go to the academy.”

“Magical Hunters Academy?” Aiden asks to clarify.

I nod.

“Are you sure we’ll be welcomed there?” Sophie asks, a hint of doubt coloring her words.

“I don’t care if we are or aren’t. We’re going,” I say firmly.

A sprinkle of fairy dust brings us to just outside the boundary line of the academy. I fly forward, figuring we’re far enough away that no humans should be nearby to see, and then I stop short.

The gate is open. Worse, I can smell the bitter, harsh scent of smoke and burning wood, even the stench of burnt hair and possibly flesh too.

My stomach churns as I force myself forward. The vision of the battle had been from moments after it occurred. The battle is still happening. It’s hard to distinguish who is who—students, mentors, or masters—but so many are fighting.

Just who is fighting them? And why?

Aiden grabs my shoulder. Maybe he’s afraid I’m going to jump into the fight, but honestly, I’m not sure which side we should join. I mean, the students have to be innocent, right? Then again, they are being trained to one day become paranormal hunters, slayers, and executioners. They aren’t exactly peace lovers.

“Who started the battle?” Sophie asks, her lips close to my ear so I can hear her over the roar of the battle and the sizzle of the fires.

“I think the outsiders did,” I say with a shrug. “I don’t know.”

Just watching the fighting makes me want to do something, anything, but what can one fairy do? What can three fairies do?

Over to the right, I spy a banshee. She’s shrieking at a small group of ogres and orcs. They have to be students. Their hands are clasped over their ears, and I don’t blame them. I can hear her shrieking from here, and it’s not pleasant.

I point in their direction, and we head over. One of the ogres is on her knees, her hands over her ears, blood tricking down the sides of her face. She’s crying.

Why don’t they leave if the banshee’s shriek is hurting them so much?

And then I feel it. There’s magic within that shriek, and it’s washing over me. The sound of the shriek is magnified, and I can’t do much of anything but listen as the sound rattles inside me, forcing me to touch my feet to the ground.

Aiden’s wincing too, affected just as much as I am, but Sophie isn’t. She appears just fine as she has the grass reach up like a vine and gag the banshee.

At once, everyone recovers, and the ogres and orcs start to run off, but Sophie’s not done. She ignores most of the students, but she bounds both the female ogre and the banshee, using the grass to keep them in place, wrapping the blades around their ankles.

“Let me go,” the ogre says, reaching for a small scythe.

“I don’t think so,” Sophie says smoothly. “We’ll deal with you in a moment,” she adds, staring down the banshee. “Tell us what you know, ogre.”

The ogre scowls. Her pink skin is now red, and she looks absolutely furious. “Who are you? You aren’t students here! Are you more interlopers?”

Aiden begins to snicker.

She glowers at him. “What’s so funny?”

“We came because we want to help,” Aiden says, “and for you to assume we’re interlopers…”

“You don’t attend here, so you’re an invader,” she insists. “Now leave before—”

“Before what?” Sophie asks dryly. “Are you threatening us?”

“If you mean us harm—”

“So you didn’t start the attack,” I say slowly.

“Of course we didn’t! We were sleeping in our cottages when some were set on fire! Do you think we would do that to ourselves? Do you have any common sense, or have you flown up too high toward the sun so your judgment is clouded?”

Sophie opens her mouth, but I cut her off. “Who are they?”

“I have no idea.” The ogre glowers at the banshee. “We saw her by herself, so we thought we could take her, but, ah, banshees are a little harder to take down than we thought. We are just first-years,” she admits, hanging her head as if ashamed.

My mind raises. A banshee won’t easily give up information. Can they even talk without shrieking?

I nudge Sophie. “Let her go.”

“But she—”

“She isn’t the one we want.”

“But—”

I glower at her. “Soph, she’s defending her academy.”

“An academy whose headmaster…” Sophie falls silent.

Ah, good point.

My gaze falls back on the ogre. It feels so surreal for us to be off to the side like this while there’s so much chaos and tiny skirmish everywhere, but for the moment at least, we’re isolated and away from the thick of it.

“Tell us what you know about Jaidos,” I murmur.

The ogre shakes her head. “I don’t know him.”

“Your headmaster?” Sophie asks dryly.

“He’s a busy man,” the ogre protests. “It’s not as if he meets every student personally.”

“So he does some?” Aiden asks.

“I don’t know. Not me. I know that much.” The ogre shrugs.

“Have you ever seen him? From afar?” I inquire.

She shakes her head. “I heard that no one has seen him in a long while, though. There’s some rumors that he’s sick, but that doesn’t make any sense to me. He’s a dragon shifter, one of the most powerful ones in the world. He’s the headmaster. We have so many masters here. Someone would be able to cure him if he’s sick.”

“He’s not defending the academy, is he?” Aiden asks dryly.

I glance at him. He’s being way too accepting of what I’ve done. Maybe it has sunk in yet.

Or maybe he does understand why I did what I did.

“I…” The ogre glances around, her gaze upward. There’s no dragon flying about. “Maybe he’s not here?”

“And no one told him to come?” Sophie asks. “No one notified him that his academy is burning to the ground?”

“It won’t burn to the ground!” the ogre shouts. “The marine beings, the witches with water elemental powers, they’re going to save the buildings, and we’re defending our school. Now, will let you me go so I can do that? Or are you working for their side?”

“Let her go,” I murmur.

Sophie sighs. She clearly wants to let the ogre and the others all know that Jaidos is dead, but what good would that serve? Especially now when they’re fighting for their lives?

My twin finally complies, and the ogre doesn’t hesitate. She takes her small scythe, and she rushes the banshee, slicing the banshee’s throat before rushing off.

I wince, but the wound is already healing. Sophie is using plant life to keep the banshee alive, closing up the slit.

Sophie kneels in front of the banshee, who is still gagged.

“I’m going to remove this,” Sophie says, touching the grassy vine. “You’re going to talk. Not shriek. Not hurt us in any fashion, do you understand? I just saved your life, but I am more than willing to end it if you opt not to cooperate.”

The banshee’s black hair falls limply forward as she nods. Her eyes are blank, almost looking soulless. I don’t know if a banshee can be born or only created. They face terrible pain and suffer great loss in order to become a being like the one before me.

“Who are you in league with?” I ask the moment Sophie has the vine withdraw. It’s hanging like a necklace around the banshee’s neck, a constant reminder that she can be gagged once again.

Sophie nods.

The banshee hangs her head and says nothing.

“Who told you to come here and fight?” I press.

“You spoke of him,” the banshee hisses in a low whisper.

“Jaidos?” I ask, surprised.

“He’s dead,” Aiden blurts out.

The banshee lifts her head and howls for only a moment, sliding back a pace away from Sophie.

“Yes, he’s dead, and it seems his goal will not be realized. The others are not ready to dominate the world. A pity. We could own it all, but so many are not worthy. So many will not join us. In this war, you join us, or you die.”

Sophie rolls her eyes. She squeezes her fist, and the vine rises up, not to gag the banshee, but to choke her. Before I can react, the banshee suffocates to death.

“Sophie!” I gasp.

“She told us what she knew,” Sophie says. “Why leave her alive? If we hadn’t interfered, she would have killed those students. If we allowed her to go, she would have killed others. What choice did we have?”

“There’s always a choice!”

“When you make the choice to kill, it’s acceptable. When I do the same, I’m the villain. So be it, Jessa. I’ll be the villain. Villains get results.”

Chapter

Thirteen

I gape at my twin. She’s back to not acting like herself at all.

Sophie turns around to watch the chaos, but she makes no move to interfere at all, which makes me breathe in silent relief.

Aiden catches my gaze and holds up his hands. He’s behind Sophie, so she can’t see the gesture, and I shrug in response. She has a point. The banshee most likely would’ve killed if we had allowed her to go free, but she might have had more information we could’ve pressed from her first.

When did Jaidos order the attack on his academy? Or are they merely using his name and platform to push their own agenda?

I’m not sure, but I do have a theory.

Jaidos’ death is the reason why his followers are ignoring the humans and turning against the paranormal community.

Which means that if they win the war, they will then start a new one, against the humans.

I created a new war and postponed the one I sought to eliminate.

Can I be more of a loser?

Why are they attacking their master’s academy? Are they afraid the students will be able to play a major role in stopping them? Are they too paranoid to go up against the brutal might of HEX Unite?

What role does HEX Unite play in all of this? Why aren’t there any of their hunters or slayers or executioners here? They should be over every inch of this scene.

The ogre is right about one thing. Most of the fires have been put out. The smoke above us is now white instead of black, and while there are bodies all over the place, there aren’t as many casualties as I would’ve thought. The students are more than holding their own.

But still, it’s hard to know who are students and instructors versus the interlopers. Most of the mentors and masters appear to be in robes of some kind, but everyone else is wearing street clothes. No uniforms. Do they not have uniforms here? Or maybe it’s the weekend and no classes. I have no idea what day of the week it is.

All around us are so many paranormal beings. I spy at least two other banshees. Several basilisks slither through the tall grass, rising up and trying to turn people to stone with a single glance. Bluecaps and brownies are working together instead of being at each other’s throats. Students? Or strong allies united by Jaidos’ hateful agenda? I can’t tell.

Elves abound, tall, stately beings, beautiful and majestic, wielding magic against just about everyone, but especially against the drow, their dark cousins. The dark elves live underground. At least I think they do. They have a bit of nature magic in them as well, but they tend to perverse nature. Why nature allows them to, I don’t know. I don’t understand. Are they that powerful that their darkness allows them to do as they please with nature? I think some of them might even engage in blood rites and blood sacrifices. The thought terrifies me.

Elves and fairies are rather similar in that we can either be light or dark, and the affinity we share toward nature.

There are far more, though, gorgons, goblins, even giants. Manticores, nagas, angels, demons, centaurs… Witches, of course, and shifters of all kinds.

“There’s no way to know who to help,” Aiden mutters.

“There isn’t,” I say sadly.

“You want to save the academy?” Sophie asks, sounding shocked.

“Mom and Dad did attend here,” I remind her, “and we’ve thought about it.”

“I don’t know,” Sophie says doubtfully.

Aiden holds out his arms and then drops them to his sides. “If there isn’t any way for us to distinguish who to help and who to fight, then maybe we should leave.”

I squint. “I think maybe the academy side is winning.”

“Can we even tell that?” he asks.

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“What now?” Sophie asks. “Do we try to induce a vision or a premonition?”

“No. I have an idea.”

We leave the battle behind even though it makes me feel like a coward. How can I go about my business while others are fighting for their lives? But to join the fight, we have to know who is on the right side, and in that mess, we just can’t tell. Yes, we can distinguish who are the mentors and masters, but are any of them under Jaidos’ sway? The headmaster might be dead, but his ideology lives on, and that’s not something I ever considered when I sought him to kill him. All I thought was that if he were dead, that would stop the war. In my naivety, I never once considered the possibility that he could have allies. And for him to have his own personal army?

“What’s your plan?” Sophie asks.

“We’ll talk over a quick meal,” I say, hating that we need to refuel but not wanting to run the risk of us overextending ourselves. If we let our guards down, we’ll perish. Of that, I’m sure, but if we neglect our bodies, they will fail when the time does come for us to rise up and join the fight.

We enter the nearest restaurant. It’s filled with humans, and the three of us all make sure we can pass among them undetected.

As we wait for our food and drinks to arrive, I lean forward. “We need to check out HEX Unite.”

Aiden lifts his eyebrows. He’s sitting across from me. Sophie’s in the booth beside me.

“Do you even know where its headquarters is?” he asks.

I shake my head. “It’s not common knowledge, then?”

He grimaces and pulls out his tablet. “I don’t think so,” he mutters as he begins to type.

I leave him to do his searching and glance at my sister. She tracing designs onto the table.

“Are you feeling okay?” I murmur to her, brushing her hair off her shoulder.

Sophie eyes me. “Are you?” she counters quietly. “You’ve always been suspicious of everyone, even…” She jerks her head toward Aiden, who is too consumed in his search to notice.

“That’s not…” I can’t finish my protest.

Sophie smirks. “You don’t trust him about something,” she murmurs. “What? That he wants to be with you? That he can accept all of this craziness you’ve drawn us into?”

“I’m a black widow spider,” I mumble, staring at my hands in my lap. “I’m drawing you all into a web of darkness, a web I spun.”

“Jaidos provided the silk,” she counters.

“Yes, but it’s not breaking. It’s just reforging into a new web.”

“Then we’ll have to cut it. Maybe a machete will help.”

I choke on a laugh. “I can’t picture you with a machete!”

“No? A butcher’s cleaver, how about that?”

“A hatchet is more your speed, I think.”

Sophie rolls her eyes. “How mundane.”

My smile mirrors hers. “You’re really okay?” I ask.

“Why do you keep asking me that?”

“You’ve been through a lot.”

“We all have.” Sophie glances at Aiden and then returns to drawing with her finger on the table.

“Aiden,” I murmur.

“Yes?”

“What was it like when you were home before you became Azorra?”

“You mean the other fairies.” Aiden places his tablet on the table and drags a hand down his handsome face. “They aren’t exactly happy about anything. It’s almost as if they’re all on edge, like they know something bad is coming, but they’re trying to pretend to be unaffected.”

“If there’s war, they won’t be a part of it,” I mutter. “Not unless the war comes to Roseshield Grove. It won’t matter that the war is between the paranormal beings. They won’t fight. The king and queen were so adamant about it concerning the humans that I don’t see them changing their rationale anytime soon.”

“It won’t come to that,” Aiden says. “We’ll locate the people we need to so all of this can be stopped with minimal bloodshed.”

“Blood will be shed,” Sophie says.

“We need to minimize it,” Aiden says.

“Try to minimize,” Sophie counters.

I clear my throat to silence them because the waiter is approaching with our drinks.

We eat in silence, burgers and fries. It’s a heavy meal, and Sophie and I never had burgers before. Fairies do eat meat. If we kill an animal, we eat the meat and find uses for the skin and the bones. No part is ever allowed to go to waste. What nature provides is precious, and nature provides animals and plants.

Nature provides life.

But death is a part of nature too. Nature shouldn’t begrudge me for asking so much.

No, that’s selfish thinking. I can’t become what I hate in order to stop my enemies, or else I’ll become a stranger, an enemy to who I am now.

Aiden sighs. Throughout the meal, he’s been on his tablet on and off.

“No luck?” I ask.

“None.” He hands me his tablet.

I do a quick search myself, not that I think anything will come up when I spy terrible news.

Extremely terrible news.

“We have to go.” I shove my hand into a pocket and toss some crumbled bills onto the table.

“I have a few fries left,” Sophie protests.

I grab a napkin, open it, toss a handful of fries into it, wrap them up, and hand it to her.

“That works.” She grins.

“Where are we off to?” Aiden asks as I practically shove them out the door.

“Down here.” I march into the alley, all the way to where the sun can’t reach.

Fairy dust brings us to the cliff overlooking Magical Prison. There are a few scorch marks marring the façade, but otherwise, the building looks relatively intact.

“What’s going on?” Sophie asks. She rubs her arms as if she’s cold. “I don’t want to be here.”

“I’m sorry. You can go.” I give her a sympathetic smile and a one-armed hug.

“Why are we here?” Aiden asks.

I expel a breath. “It seems the prisoners have all been set free.”

“No. No, that’s not possible,” Aiden says, shaking his head. “When I left, only a few of the prisoners had been freed, and the battle was just about over.”

“It wasn’t because of the battle,” I say.

I start to fly forward, but Aiden grabs my arm.

“You can’t. Not in this form, and not as Sequoia.”

“I can.”

In the blink of an eye, my form has changed.

Aiden shakes his head. “Let me go as Azorra.”

“Please, stay here with Sophie.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Sophie says dryly. “You and lover boy can—”

“Please,” I beg. “I’ll be fine. The prisoners are gone. There’s no one inside who wants to hurt me.”

“That angel, is he prisoner or guard?” Sophie asks.

“Castiel?” Aiden asks.

“I’ll be fine,” I repeat.

Before they can argue with me further, I fly to the prison, right on up to the front door, and I enter.

It feels so strange to be back, strange in a haunting sense, like this door should’ve been shut forevermore.

But I’m back, whether for better or worse.

Knowing this place, it’s for worse.

Chapter

Fourteen

I don’t make it far at all. The stench of death in this place is wicked, and I gag, my hand covering my mouth.

“Sequoia? What are you doing here?” Portia asks, appearing out of nowhere before me.

The angel doesn’t look perfect for once. Her armor is heavily dented, marred with dirt and blood. Or is that black more blood? I can’t tell.

“I heard…”

“You heard about Rall?”

My eyes widen. “Rall? What about the warden?”

Portia heaves a sigh and rubs her forehead, leaving a streak of crimson there that makes her look like she’s prepared for battle, only she’s been fighting battle after battle already and isn’t actively in one this very second.

“He was killed.”

“Killed!” My mind races, as does my heartbeat. “Who killed him? When?”

“He managed to kill some of that group who first attacked the prison, but they were skilled fighters. They were prepared. Rall was the only one to kill any of them, and we weren’t able to capture any to ask them questions or learn why they were here, but… A demon managed to escape during the chaos.”

“Zas.”

Portia eyes me. If she’s suspicious, she doesn’t let that be known.

“Yes, the demon from the vampire floor. For whatever reason, he returned. He let all of the prisoners escape.”

“One of them killed the warden?”

“No, Zas did that himself.”

I swallow hard, recalling the demon bound and gagged in solitary. “Every prisoner?”

“Yes.”

“Even…”

“Even the marine ones and those in solitary. Yes, every prisoner.”

“And you’re sure Zas was the one responsible?”

Portia crosses her arms and looks down her nose at me. “I know that you sometimes got close to those under your charge, but believe me. Zas is not an ally. He is not a friend. I will admit that not all angels are good, and not all demons are evil, but Zas is.”

“Did you know about Castiel? And Zas? Their history?” I blurt out.

“You side with Zas?”

“I don’t… I’m not picking a side. I’m curious. Castiel never liked me.”

“You did rat him out to Rall,” Portia says dryly.

“Yes, well, I thought…” I heave a sigh. “Castiel wanted star cress, and there’s dangerous uses to that herb.”

“I know. I’m well aware of what transpired. Castiel has his own issues, and I did not personally think he should be a guard here, but that was not my call to make.”

“He’s free.” I gulp. An angel with a grudge against me, an angel who might want revenge.

“Yes, he is.”

“Are you the warden then?”

“A warden in a prison with no prisoners.” Portia’s laugh is bitter. “No. I am going to organize the guards and mobilize them to seek out the prisoners and bring them back here.”

“HEX Unite,” I say in a rush. “Their hunters should help you, don’t you think?”

“There’s a lot of chaos going around,” Portia says slowly. “I don’t know who to trust.”

I gulp. “I…”

“You called me up to explain that you need to take a leave of absence, that it might be permanent. I understand. I appreciate you coming here at all to see what happened. Between the siren and then the attack…”

“Attacks,” I correct. “The hellhounds, the gang… not to mention the one here. It’s… It’s a lot.”

“I know,” she murmurs. “I’m not judging you. That’s not my place. I’m just saying I understand. This job isn’t easy, and the high turnover rate will not ever go away.”

I glance around. The place seems so empty.

Seems so dead.

“I don’t mind going to see HEX Unite and to try to talk to them, to explain what’s happened. Maybe they’ll be able to spare some paranormal hunters to help.”

Portia exhales deeply. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” What is the angel referring to?

“I don’t know how to contact them. Madra has always contacted me when an issue arose.”

“Madra?”

“The head of HEX Unite.”

“She would contact you? Not Rall?”

“I suspect that Rall might not be long for the position. The warden before him did an excellent job, but… If I have my way, he’ll return from retirement. Also, Rall’s picture might not end up in the warden’s office.”

I hide a smile behind my hand.

“I should not speak thus about the dead, but I suspect you did not care for him either.”

“No. He forced me to be a snitch. He gave me no choice in the matter. I didn’t… I didn’t like Castiel, but he tried to turn on me.”

“Samuel?” Portia asks.

The angel really does know everything.

“I hope he’s able to be with Athena. Is he… How is he?”

“He’s still being cared for by Pervinca. If anyone can save him, she can.” Portia heaves a sigh. “If Madra calls me, I can ask for a meeting for you. That’s all I can offer you.” She hesitates and then adds, “Will you stay on and help recover the inmates?”

“I… I need to…”

Portia lays a hand on my shoulder. “You have to do what you have to do. Get your head on straight. Figure out what you want to do with your life, and then go do it. I have faith that you can do just about anything, and if you know me at all, you know I’m not about palliatives.”

I grin. “Thank you for understanding, and it has been a pleasure working for you.”

Her smile is genuine and erases some of the signs of exhaustion settled over her features. She recognizes that I said for you instead of with you. She’s the true warden of the place, not Rall.

With a nod, I turn around and fly out of there. Zas did this. Why? What is his plan? Does he want to create chaos? Is he in league with Jaidos and his followers? Or is all of this completely separate?

I don’t know. There’s far too much I don’t know.

For a moment, I just hover there, in front of the prison. My heart feels so heavy. This place needs to exist because not everyone is good, but I think we might need more programs to help those inmates who can be helped, the ones who want to change.

But for that to be a possibility, first the world needs to be saved.

My wings hardly flap as I head back toward Sophie and Aiden. They say nothing, their gaze fixed behind me, and I turn and watch as a group of angels head toward Magical Prison.

Angel guards.

Like the ones at Magical Hunters Academy.

The ones responsible for torching Jaidos’ office.

I glance at Sophie. “Do any of them look familiar to you?” I ask, not daring to jump to conclusions. She spent more time with the angels up close. I will defer to her.

Sophie squints, eyeing them, and she slowly nods. “That one with the silver wings? He was definitely—Oh! The one with the black and white wings. Yes!”

“Where did you see them before?” Aiden asks.

“They’re the angels who arrested Sophie, and then they came back and torched the castle that housed Jaidos’ office,” I say grimly.

“Why are they here?” Sophie asks.

“I don’t know,” I say, my tone still grim. “But I think we might want to find out.”

I start to move forward when I happen to see my reflection in a puddle. My hair, my eyes… My appearance is still that of Sequoia’s.

My gaze shifts to Sophie. “Should you glamor yourself?”

Her lips curl into an unsettling smile. “Why don’t you lure one of them here?”

“Uh…” I glance at Aiden.

He shrugs. “If you think that’s best,” he hedges.

“All right. You two stay here,” I say.

Sophie shakes her head. “Aiden, go with her as… You were Azorra, yes? The gargoyle?”

Aiden nods.

“Why a gargoyle?” Sophie asks.

“Now isn’t the time to get into that,” Aiden mutters.

“Hmm. I think his not wanting to answer means he should answer. What do you think, sis?” Sophie teases.

“I think if we’re going to try to distract and get one of the guards to break off, we need to do it now.”

“Neither of you are any fun,” Sophie pouts.

“We’ll be back.”

I nod to Aiden, and we’re off, two former guards both flying toward the prison. By now, most of the angel guards have entered, but three linger outside. As we approach, one jerks his head toward us. The others nod, and the header jerker flies up to us.

I study him a moment. He’s the one with black and white wings, an unusual combination for an angel. His hair is blond, and his eyes are a faint, pale blue.

“What do you need?” he asks.

“Only a moment of your time. I work here as a guard…” I hesitate.

Work.

I said work.

Not worked.

Present tense.

I can’t lie. Deep down, I still feel like I’m a guard.

Burying that detail to dissect later, I add, “I believe one of my prisoners mentioned about an angel with wings matching your description bringing her in.”

“And who is this prisoner?”

“A fairy.” I watch his expression with a critical stare. “A fairy named Sophie Aldercross.”

“The name doesn’t ring—”

“She murdered someone, but even in the system, it doesn’t provide details. That strikes me as… peculiar. Do you mind sparing a moment to talk to us? We only have a few questions for you.”

“From what I understand, all of the inmates have been released. This is a crisis. Are these questions about one inmate—”

“We have reason to believe that many want this particular inmate killed, and we would like to know why,” I say flatly.

“The position as guards requires that the inmates be protected in our care as well as kept separate from society,” Aiden-as-Azorra says, speaking up for the first time.

The angel glances at the others and sighs. He flies up high enough that they can hopefully not overhear us.

As much as I know Sophie wants us to bring him over, maybe it would be best to talk to him here, away from her. A part of me is so very angry that I have to be worried that she would lash out and kill the guard, but she’s so unpredictable at times. While she’s mostly the sister I know and love, other times, she’s a complete stranger, a violent one at that.

“Can you tell us what you know about the nature of the crime Sophie committed?” Aiden-as-Azorra asks.

The angel hesitates. “She killed a high-ranking person.”

“High ranking?” I echo. “High ranking in regard to what exactly?”

The angel just shakes his head.

“I will tell you what I know,” I say slowly, ignoring Aiden’s widening eyes. “I know that Jaidos, the headmaster of Magical Hunters Academy, was killed. I also know that the castle that contained his office had been set ablaze. What I don’t know is why. Why would a fire be started that could provide some insight as to why someone would want the dragon shifter dead?”

“I…”

“Were you there?” I demand. “Did you witness the death?”

“No, but…”

“Did you set the fire? Where you there?”

The angel guard stared at me, more fear than anger shining in his bright eyes. “You have no place to question me. I did my duty.”

“Your duty according to whose will?” I ask softly.

He says nothing, just hangs his head.

“People can and do make mistakes,” I say soothingly, “but there are also times when people turn a blind eye so they can feign ignorance.”

“Sometimes, a man can do what they think is right and only learn afterward that it was wrong,” he mutters.

I smile sympathetically. His body language, the look in his eyes… He’s telling the truth. He’s not playing me. This angel feels stuck now, I bet, forced to play a role he no longer agrees with. What lie had Jaidos told these angels so that the guards would do such terrible things? They are the guards from Magical Hunters Academy, at least that’s my guess. They shouldn’t be here now, not with that battle going on, or is that battle over? So many battles, so many lives lost…

But these guards are so loyal to Jaidos and his plan that they burned down his office and destroyed any evidence of his plan and in doing so maybe set off a contingency plan.

“If you truly are sorry for your role in all of this,” I start eagerly.

“I am,” he says, nodding.

“Then I need to know what you know so that we can undo it.”

“The war,” he murmurs.

“Let’s go to a safe spot and—”

The angel jerks. His body twitches as a spearhead emerges from his chest. The weapon had been perfectly lodged in between his ribcage. With blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, the light dying from his eyes, the angel lowers his head and breathes his last.

Chapter

Fifteen

I gape at the dead angel, but Aiden-as Azorra is much quicker to react. He swoops around the dead angel and dives down, flinging out his wings and smacking down the angel who killed the one we had been talking to.

My head shakes, and I yank out my knife. It’s the only thing I can use right now, but we need to be careful. Portia is inside, and she wants to organize the guards. If they come and see us fighting angelic guards, they’re going to think badly of us, even though the angels struck first.

A loud booming sound comes from the cliff.

All of us glance over, Aiden and I, not the dead angel, but the other five angels who had left the prison did too.

Sophie’s there, only she doesn’t look like herself. She’s changed her appearance to look like a demon.

Well, that’s certainly one way to get the attention of angels.

Three of the five angels fly toward her, leaving one each for Aiden and I to deal with. I don’t want to fight, not really, and the odds are so stacked up against Sophie that I brandish my knife in a wide arc to keep the angel back and then race to follow the others.

Of course, that means Aiden’s left alone, but then he’s flying just beneath me, twisting and turning, pausing here and there to fling out his massive stone wings to attack the angels. How he’s able to fly when he’s made of stone, I don’t know. Birds have hollow wings, but even if gargoyles have hollow wings, how can they support such heavy bodies.

Magic. Pure and simple. Sometimes, things can’t be explained easily.

One of the angels reaches for my foot. I throw down the knife and chase down the blade. The angel goes to knock the weapon to the side, not paying me any mind, and my punch connects with his nose. My knife does go flying, as he did hit it, but he staggers back. Without hesitating, I zoom down to fetch my knife, and it’s off to the races again. I will not allow them to hurt Sophie.

The other three who had a head start are just approaching her now. She waves at them and then somehow sends out a spark of red light. It floats over to the angels and then explodes. The angels tumble down to the ground, falling alongside the cliff.

What did she do? How did she do that? Mouth agape, I wait for the angels to recover, to straight out, to hover, to regain their senses, but no. One, two, and then three, they all slam against the ground and lie there, motionless.

Did that explosion kill them?

I glance behind. The angel I punched has silver wings. Sophie recognized him. It might not be the smartest of ideas, but I do not want him killed.

With a strangled cry, the other angel clutches his throat. There’s a huge scratch along his throat. Blood begins to seep and then gush from the wound, and the angel falters and then falls.

Aiden killed him.

Only the silver-winged angel remains.

“Don’t kill him!” I call out to Aiden.

He—still a gargoyle—nods.

Don’t kill him, Soph. We need to talk to him, I tell her, hoping she can sense my serious desperation in her mind.

We can’t trust anything he says, she counters. He’s not a fairy.

He’s an angel!

Angels can lie.

Just… don’t kill him. Please.

Fine. You want him to be our prisoner? Then he’ll be our prisoner.

My stomach churns at the thought. I don’t care for that kind of thinking at all, especially with our being so close to the prison. Oh, man, if Portia leaves anytime soon… We’re lucky the commotion from all of the fighting hadn’t drawn her outside. If she’s working with these angels…

I don’t want to think that Portia is involved in all of this. That’s far too hard to believe, but they had gone to the prison.

Why? To see if the prisoners were all freed? To see if they can trace Sophie’s whereabouts? Little do they know she’s right here.

The silver-wigged angel dives down. Sophie flings out her arms, and the grass begins to grow, reaching toward him. I wince. That’s a dead giveaway that she’s a fairy and not the demon she appears to be, but the angel is flying so swiftly that the grass can’t reach far enough toward him.

Aiden takes off in swift pursuit, but the angel isn’t made of stone and is much swifter than Aiden’s gargoyle form.

It’s all up to me.

Trying not to be too worried, I zoom ahead.

“You don’t want to fight us,” I implore him.

“The lot of you fought me first,” he counters.

I shake my head. “You don’t understand.”

“Neither did my friends, and look at them.”

“Your friends liked to ruin lives,” Sophie says mildly.

The angel glances at her. “You’re the demon, not me.”

“I’m your worst nightmare is what you mean,” she corrects with a chilling smile that does belong on a demon’s face.

The angel shivers, and I shudder too. Sophie’s scaring me, and I hate it. Something happened to her in the prison, something she’s refusing to talk to me about. We never keep secrets from one another, but she clearly is. Why? Is she afraid I’ll blame her? Think less of her? Never! She saved me, and I returned the favor by saving her. We’re square, and we’re twins so even if we weren’t square, neither of us would owe anything to the other.

We’re in this together, through thick and thin. She’s my rock, and if she’s being weathered away by the storm that is our collective lives, then I’m just going to have to glue her back together.

Abruptly, the angel whirls around. Sophie’s just above my right shoulder, Aiden my left. The angel eyes us each in turn for only a second before his wings curl toward us and release feathers at us, but they aren’t ordinary angel feathers.

No. They’re blades.

I manage to deflect two, but one pierces Sophie in her right shoulder. She doesn’t flinch at all as she grips the end of the blade and rips it out, blood dripping not only from the tip of the weapon but also from her cut hand.

As for Aiden, he got struck, too, but he’s made of rock, so he’s fine.

Already, the angel is shooting out more feathers. I parry one and then duck down, dipping lower so that he is above me. As the other two distract him, I come around to behind him and go to place the blade of my knife at his throat.

Only he has a sharp feather there to prevent my blade from touching his skin. Not that I want to nick him since this is the spelled knife from the fairy Vinca, but still. This isn’t much of a levering point.

The angel just keeps the feather there to block me, and then he reaches out and yanks on my hair, forcing me forward. The angle makes it impossible for me to keep the knife anywhere close to him, and he whips me around to face him.

“If you want your friend to be safe,” he starts.

“We killed all of your friends,” Sophie says idly, “or did you forget?”

“I didn’t forget,” the angel hisses as he holds the back of my neck. It’s almost impossible for me to keep my head up. He’s not applying very much pressure, but he doesn’t need to.

“We can kill you too,” Sophie says evenly.

I would shake my head if I could. “Don’t fight,” I plead with him.

“How can I not? As she said, you killed the others.”

I can’t help noticing that he didn’t call the others his friends.

“Let me go,” I say.

“You’ll want to listen to her,” Aiden says.

How did I never notice how protective he had been as Azorra? How helpful he had been? How hadn’t I seen him in her?

A rush of compassion washes over me as I reflect on how deeply Aiden cares for me. Surely another cares for this angel as much as Aiden does me.

“You have a family, don’t you? People who will miss you? Maybe you should reconsider,” I tell him.

“You aren’t in a position to negotiate,” he says.

“I’m trying to save your life,” I say flatly.

“My life is mine. No one can take it from me.”

“If your friends felt the same way, they were wrong,” Sophie says. “Do you want to be just like them?”

He’s talking. That’s a good sign. If I can just get free of his grasp, we’ll be in business.

“Do you want to know my name?” I ask him.

“No.”

“It’s Sequoia. I have a sister. A life. A dream. Do you? Are your parents alive? Do you have siblings? Are you married?”

His grip on the back of my neck tightens to the point that the pain radiates all the way down my spine. I gasp and flinch, wanting to twist away from him, but his hold pins me in place.

“I will not play your games,” he says firmly. “You and I are going to go for a little trip. You have any fairy dust on you?”

I say nothing, cursing my inability to lie.

“Go ahead,” he urges. “Sprinkle us.”

“I’d rather die,” I shout.

Sophie doesn’t react to my words. Aiden gapes at me. His eyes revert to his true eyes, the glamor fading slightly, and I hate seeing how hurt my words make him.

But it’s true. I’m willing to die to stop this war. I’ll do whatever it takes to bring justice, order, and peace to the world.

If my life is needed as a sacrifice, so be it.

The angel hesitates, his grip loosening a bit. Quick as lightning, I slam the hilt of my knife onto his knuckles on the hand holding his sharp feather to my throat. His hand opens, and the feather falls, but my other hand grabs it. With the two weapons in hand, I jerk free of his grasp entirely, whirl around, and hold the knife and the feather to his throat, making an “X” with the blades.

Sophie and Aiden come around to form a triangle around him, and I smile.

There. He’s captured and without bloodshed.

Well, no blood is shed from him. His allies… That’s another story.

Chapter

Sixteen

Within the span of three minutes, we’re on top of the cliff, and Sophie has vines wrapped around the angel to pin him in a seated position on a tree trunk.

Sophie toys with the feather she took from me. “So very sharp,” she murmurs, pointing it at the angel. “Do you want to feel?”

“Sophie,” I admonish.

“I’ve been down this road before,” she says to the angel, ignoring me. “I know how to make people talk, and if they don’t…”

The angel shifts his gaze to me. “I’m sorry I grabbed you.”

“No you aren’t,” Sophie says.

“I’m inclined to agree with her,” Aiden says.

“He didn’t hurt me… much,” I protest lamely, “and he’s apologizing.”

“Do not be so naïve,” Sophie snaps. “He hurt you. He was using you as a shield so we wouldn’t attack him. That’s abhorrent.”

“It’s not that bad. He was desperate.”

“It was egregious,” Sophie insists.

“He just wants to live.”

“And he will live, so long as he starts talking.” Sophie crouches in front of him, tossing the feather up in the air and catching it, having it balance on her finger before flicking it back into the air again, always catching it on her finger even though she’s watching the angel rather than the feather. It’s quite impressive, actually, but her words, her tone, her attitude… they all alarm me.

She’s not acting like my twin again, and I just know that’s my fault. Did she have to change who she was in order to survive the prison? I can’t bear to think that Druiz did something to her. The ogre wouldn’t have, would he? I don’t think so, and I doubt Sequoia would’ve thought so, but then again, a few months ago, I never would’ve thought I would be capable of killing someone, and I have.

I’ve done so many questionable, dark things. How can I possibly judge someone else for their speech, their actions? I can’t. I won’t. All I will do is help Sophie as much as I can.

If she’ll accept my help.

“Are you going to start talking?” Sophie asks, continuing to balance the feather’s tip on her finger.

The angel eyes me.

“Can I ask the questions?” I ask Sophie.

She snorts. “I don’t know. Can you?”

I roll my eyes. “Is that a yes if I change the question to may I?”

“For now. If you don’t get answers…” She eyes the angel. “I have ways of making you talk.”

I shudder as she moves away to stand beside Aiden. He’s still wearing Azorra’s face, but I wish he would turn back to his true appearance. It’s haunting to see his eyes in the gargoyle’s face, and hearing her voice instead of his is strange too.

The angel heaves a sigh.

“Are you all right?” I ask him.

“Seriously?” Sophie mumbles behind me.

“I’ve been better,” he says. “I’ve been worse too.”

“I can make it the very worst,” Sophie says cheerfully.

I wince and glower at her over my shoulder. “You aren’t helping.”

“Says you.”

I rub my forehead and shake my head. “Don’t mind her,” I murmur.

“I heard that!”

“You can… You may ask your questions now,” the angel says.

“Will you answer truthfully?” I ask.

He hesitates. “Yes… or I won’t answer at all.”

“Fair enough, but silence is an answer in and of itself.”

The angel’s lips don’t move.

“All right. Why did you all come here?” I ask.

The angel stares off to the side at the grass beneath our feet. “We had to know if it was true.”

“If what was true?”

“That Rall had been killed.”

“Why does that matter to you? Why would you care about the warden’s death?” I ask, confused.

The angel says nothing.

“Is it because Jaidos and Rall were working together?”

The angel’s expression is pained. “Yes.”

“And you were employed by Jaidos at the academy.”

“We’re the guards at Magical Hunters Academy.”

“So your number one priority should’ve been the students, but that wasn’t always the case, was it?”

The angel grits his teeth.

“Come on, Silver Wings, you can do it!” Sophie cheers. “Just tell us what we want to know, and we can call it a day.”

I wince and correct her, “Just tell us the truth, not what we want to know.”

The angel nods slowly. “They aren’t necessarily the same thing,” he murmurs, “the truth and what you want to hear. The past… It’s complicated. When you’re employed by a powerful man, you either do what he says or—”

“You’re fired,” Aiden cuts in, breaking his long silence.

The angel’s laugh is bitter and far too sorrowful. “Oh, no. One angel did object To Jaidos and his vision for the future, but that angel wasn’t fired. No, no, Jeremiel was killed right in front of us as a warning and a threat. Jaidos knew what he needed to do to inspire fear and ensure a terrible sense of loyalty that had nothing to do with our visions for the future aligning beyond our wanting to live.”

“But what kind of life is that if the future you’re helping to shape is a terrible one?” I murmur.

The angel swallows hard and says nothing.

Aiden clears his throat. “So you did Jaidos’ bidding, whatever he wanted?”

“You have to understand. Before, Jaidos was a good man, a bit harsh and rough always, but he changed.”

“What changed him?” I ask.

“I’m not sure when exactly the change started, but there was a student who came through the academy. She was by far the most powerful witch to attend in many years. Only her mother had been stronger. Jaidos hadn’t been the headmaster while the mother attended, but Mirella… He saw something in her, I think. She was so very powerful that Jaidos began to think about how weak some of the paranormal beings were compared to her, and by extension, how utterly powerless the humans are in comparison to all of us.”

“Which is why he wanted war against the humans. He wants the Earth for himself. Well, for the paranormal community.”

“He wanted to kill every last human, didn’t he?” Sophie asks.

“Not quite,” the angel murmurs. “Not exactly. Well, at first, yes, that was the plan. To wipe out the humans, to eradicate them completely.”

“How was the warden involved?” Aiden asks.

The angel hangs his head. “Rall is… was a barbarian. He’s always craved power. I think he was a guard at the prison before he became the warden. This bit I don’t know if it’s the truth or merely legend, but it’s said that he locked up one of his own family members.”

“Like isn’t supposed to guard over like,” I say, doubting his story.

“His family member was a berserker,” the angel says, “so the knowledge of their being related wasn’t known at first.”

“Does he have berserker blood in him too?” Sophie asks.

“Possibly.”

I shiver. The thought of a barbarian with berserker blood is terrifying. Both tend toward violence, and their strength is immense. How had he not been able to single-handedly save the prison?

Or maybe he had. He just hadn’t killed many, but why? Was it because he wanted the prison to remain operational as long as possible?

If only he can see it now. The prison is an empty shell of what it had been, and a part of me wants it to burn to the ground.

“One thing you have to understand about both men—about Jaidos and Rall—is that they are both very ambitious. They want to be the best, and they want results. They’re both patient as well—”

“Were,” Sophie says rather impatiently. “Wanted. They’re both dead, and so are your friends.”

“I already told you,” the angel says with a devastated tone. “They aren’t my friends.”

“Weren’t! They’re dead! And so will you if you don’t start to tell us what we need to know!”

“Soph, he’s cooperating,” I say mildly.

She huffs. “He’s wasting our time.”

“We do need answers, Sophie,” Aiden says gently.

“Of course you would take her side.” She crosses her arms and glares at me, her foot tapping a very fast, staccato beat. “Get on with it!”

I wince, but the angel just nods with understanding, but how can he truly understand what’s going on with her, with us? We’re lying by all of us glamoring our appearances. I doubt very much that Sophie will allow him to live. I’ll fight her over that, but I won’t be able to hurt her. She’ll overpower me, and he’ll die just the same.

Does he know all of that? Does he realize that he’s most likely going to die?

“You said Jaidos and Rall were both ambitious,” I say to bring the conversation back on track.

The angel nods. “In their minds, I think they truly thought that what they wanted was what was best for the paranormal community, but they were ignoring so many others.”

“Jaidos wanted to overreach and hunt the humans,” I muse aloud. “Was he planning on turning the humans over to Rall? Hunted paranormal beings are sent to Magical Prison. Would the humans have been brought here too?”

“Yes.” The angel looks away.

There’s something else, something we’re missing, something huge. I can feel it.

“What else?” I prompt. “There’s more. There has to be. Humans in cells alongside the paranormal beings… I just don’t see that.”

“The humans… they wouldn’t have been put in cells.”

“Then where would they have gone?”

The angel gives me a pained expression. “I only just learned this hours ago! I didn’t know… I didn’t…”

“You didn’t know what?” Sophie asks.

The angel closes his eyes. As if that can wipe out pain and hurt and inflicted suffering.

My twin lines up the bladed feather. “Do you want to have your feather through the space between your eyes?”

“Sophie!” I exclaim.

“He can save himself,” she says with a shrug.

“They didn’t want to just go to war with the humans,” the angel mutters.

“What else did they want?” I prompt when the angel falls silent.

“They wanted to…”

“Unreal.” Sophie stomps forward and yanks on the angel’s hair to force his head up. “Let’s go. Talk. Spill out some words—truthful words—or else you’ll spill some blood. Got it?”

My body turns cold, as if ice has replaced the blood in my veins, and I rub my arms. “Sophie…”

“This is taking far too long,” she snaps, staring down at the angel instead of looking at me. “Those bodies are going to get us in trouble, and we’re going to have to leave in a hurry, but this one wants those bodies found, doesn’t he? He wants us to get caught.”

“I’ll go,” Aiden bursts out. “I’ll move the bodies, hide them. That way, you can take your time.”

“A—Azorra,” I say, almost calling him by his true name despite him looking like the gargoyle. “Are you sure?”

“If Sophie will let you continue the interrogation, yes.”

“Sophie?”

“Fine.” My twin releases the angel’s hair and steps back but only a pace.

I wait and watch as Aiden leaves, flying with Azorra’s stone wings, before refocusing on the angel.

“What else did they want?” I repeat.

“They were going to experiment on them, on the humans,” the angel says in a rush.

“Did they?” I ask.

“I don’t know.”

“Did they experiment on anyone? What kind of experiments did they conduct?” I press, trying not to think about the horror behind the meaning of the angel’s words.

“Without Jaidos to provide the names of humans, without the humans to experiment on… Rall…”

“What did the warden do?” I ask, finally growing impatient.

“The warden turned to his prisoners.”

It’s not the angel who says this.

Sophie does.

Chapter

Seventeen

I gape at Sophie. My mind races, and I almost can’t process what she’s said.

“Experiments? On inmates? What kind of experiments? What did they do? Sophie, is that why you were in the infirmary, to get away from the warden and his experiments? What did he have planned for the prisoners?”

Her eyes glitter with darkness as she flicks the bladed feather up. This time, she catches it, squeezing it tightly, scarlet ribbons of blood trickling between her fingers.

“Why is it that you and Aiden—whoops—are so willing to use my name despite our disguises? Oh, whoops. Sorry, angel. You weren’t supposed to know that, but you see…” Sophie snaps the finger of her non-injured hand, and gone is her demon appearance, only there’s something almost still demonic about her even though she adopts her true appearance. “This is me. Sophie Aldercross. And that is Jessa Aldercross. My twin. She looks just like me. And he…” She airily points the feather in the direction Aiden had flown off in. “Yes, the female gargoyle is actually a male fairy named Aiden. Aiden Sunwinds. So. There. A little bit of truth for you to enjoy.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you by using your name,” I protest, my hands up. “It just slipped out.”

“Oh, yes, an accident. So many accidents happen around you, though, Jessa. Do you really want to continue to wear Sequoia’s form? Come now. I outed you.”

I grimace. She wants me to change. Why? Is this a game to her? Why is she not acting like herself at all?

“Let’s just focus on the issue at hand. The experiments. Can you tell me about them? Either of you?” I ask, desperation bleeding into my words.

“Oh.” Sophie laughs. While staring me down, she whips the bladed feather. True to her word, it flies through the air and pierces the angel square between the eyes.

I let out a shriek and fall to my knees in front of him. The angel is somehow alive, and I think Sophie once told me about an article she read about a human surviving some kind of similar wound, that it severed the two hemispheres of his brain rather than killed him.

“I am so sorry,” I babbled. “I didn’t mean… I didn’t want… I’m sorry. I…”

His lips move, but no words come out. It’s clear enough what he’s mouthing, though.

Two words.

Kill.

Me.

My eyes squeezed shut, I remove the bladed feather from his head and plunge it into his heart. My fingers are covered in blood, some mine but the rest his.

“You made me do that!” I shout as I whirl around to face Sophie. “You made me kill him!”

“He was dead the moment he showed up here,” Sophie says indifferently.

“Did you know?”

“Know what?”

“About the experiments?”

“Didn’t you hear me? I said that the warden turned to his prisoners. He experimented on…”

“On you,” I murmur. “Experiments were done on you. That’s why you’re so different!”

“I’m different because of you!” Her tone is piercing, her eyes wild and mad. “You were the one who had me go to that place!”

“I never wanted you to go to prison for me!”

“No? Really? You didn’t want to continue your vendetta against all things Jaidos? Because that’s what you did first, isn’t it? You went to see his wife, his daughter, returned to the academy… You didn’t immediately try to break me out of the prison. You didn’t turn yourself in either! You let me rot in there!”

“I came for you as soon as I had a plan!” I protest.

“You came too.”

Vines shoot out of the ground toward me, and I fly up high. The vines stretch and stretch, still reaching for me, and I zoom around, looking behind me to make sure they don’t snag me when a hand grips my throat.

Again. I’m really starting to hate the feeling of pressure there.

Sophie grins, so very close to my face. “You need to realize something,” she says coldly as she holds me in place long enough for her vines to wrap around my ankles and wrists.

“What’s that?” I ask, my words coming out only slightly strangled from her grasp.

“There’s no need for both Aldercross twins to survive this.”

“What?” I shriek.

My hands come up as much as the vines will allow.

“You can’t be serious!”

“Oh, I can’t be? Is that so? You listen to me, Jessa. I am done doing things your way. I am done listening to you. You think that whatever you do, no matter how dark, is okay. It’s fine. You can explain your badness away. But you can’t, not really. That’s not how it works. You’re evil, Jessa. You killed a man, and now, there’s going to be war. You caused this, you! No one else! You fulfilled your own premonition!”

“That isn’t true,” I protest. “A new premonition—”

“I don’t even want to hear it,” Sophie says. “You’re one powerful fairy, you know that, right? The only fairy who can lie.”

I gasp. “Do you really think that I can lie? That I’m that dark?”

“Dark Queen Jessa. I’ll be doing the world a favor by killing you.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. This isn’t Sophie.

Or is it? What kind of experiments had been done to her?

What if she hadn’t been experimented on? What if this is truly what she thinks, what she believes, what she wants?

My twin wants to kill me.

After everything I’ve done for her.

After breaking her out of prison.

After trying to prevent her from having to fight in a war.

After attempting to make sure the war won’t happen that will result in possibly her death.

She wants to kill me.

Because she thinks I’m evil.

Because she thinks it’s the right thing to do.

Can I blame her? I killed Jaidos because I thought he was evil and because I believed it was the right thing to do.

But Jaidos was evil.

He just didn’t know it.

Am I evil too? Would the world be better off without me in it?

Sophie removed her hand, slowly drifting back a little. A vine from my wrist has been growing an offshoot that is creeping up toward my neck.

If I’m dark, I’m dark.

If Sophie is going to try to kill me, I’m going to have to fight back.

I won’t kill her. If this is truly a battle to the death, then I’ve already lost.

But maybe there can be another outcome.

Nature has already turned against me some, so what’s the harm in being a little darker if it means I might be able to survive this? To win? To see if I can’t get Sophie the help she needs?

Although I have no idea how to help her because I have no idea what the experiments were meant to do…

Sophie’s lips are curling into a wicked smile. It’s chilling to see my face with that expression, and I let go of the glamor, and I also let go of some of my fear.

If nature turns against me, I will find a way to adapt and survive, but first, I have to live.

I smile back at Sophie as I twist my bound wrists enough to grab the vines. The moment the offshoot touches my throat, I swipe all of the life away from the vines, withering them so entirely that they turn to ash that flutters down to the ground in a morbid, slow dance of death.

Sophie narrows her eyes at me. With a wild yell, she yanks out the dagger, and I barely have time to yank out my knife to block the blade.

I can’t hurt her with it. The blade is enchanted, and I don’t have any more of the antidote to get the wound to stop bleeding. Not anymore. I used the last of it on Sequoia.

Sophie presses again and again, pressing me back. When her next strike almost hits me, she pushes forward, using her body weight to try to force both of our blades toward my chest. Her strength is incredible, unreal, and I have no choice but to duck my head to one side as I plunge downward to avoid the blow. I hover beneath her for only a moment before she’s already whirling around and giving chase.

My mind races as I fly off, trying to think to figure out what to do. We’re too high above any plants for me to reach for them. Down blow, trees are swaying as if a powerful breeze is blowing. Like a hurricane-level breeze. That’s so strange. There’s no wind at all up here except for what I’m generating.

Sophie. Is she causing all of that? But there are twenty trees, full grown trees that are swaying and bending to the point of almost snapping, nearly being uprooted entirely.

A crack breaks out, and a huge tree branch falls for a few seconds before floating through the sky, barreling toward me. I duck out of the way, but one of the smaller branches strikes me in the forehead. I tumble, spiraling, head over heels before I can right myself.

Sophie stops her pursuit and holds out her hands. A tree—a giant, stately oak—trembles, vibrating wildly. One by one, its massive tree roots come up, and then the tree is loose, free from the soil and the hold of gravity. It rifles through the air, spiraling like a missile, heading straight for me.

I’ve been afraid to do anything toward plants aside from killing them for fear that I won’t be able to do anything, that nature will reject me again.

But if I don’t at least try, Sophie will succeed.

The tree’s so close, too close. I reach out and am shocked that Sophie’s released her hold on it. I can feel the tree, feel it’s life waning. After all, the roots aren’t in the ground. The tree will die. If it hits me, I will die.

Neither will happen.

With everything in me, I do my best to tap into the life of the slowly dying tree. The tree response, slowly acknowledging my presence, but it’s moving too fast for me to be able to stop its momentum. Panicked, I fly backward, my arms spread wide, palms out as I attempt to slow the spin, to stop the tree. A branch almost hits me, and then the tree stop. It hovers in the air, far too heavy for me to hold onto, and we both drop, the tree falling faster than me. It slams into the ground, landing on its trunk, it’s roots smashed beneath it, and I crash into the top branches, the leaves and branches all smacking against me.

Dazed, I sputter, spitting out leaves and yanking more from my hair as I reach toward the tree again, focusing on its roots, trying to get them to dig into the soil once more.

“Do you care so much about a tree that you’ll die for it?” Sophie calls.

She doesn’t sound super close, so I’m surprised that when I leave the tree’s canopy, she’s right beside me. Along her outstretched arms and on her head are ravens. She gives a single sharp whistle, and the birds divebomb me.

In a panic, I glamor myself not as Sequoia or some other fairy. Not even another being. No, I take on the form of a massive bird. A hawk, or maybe an eagle. I’m not even sure, but I just know that I’m a bird of some kind, a gigantic one with wings spanning wider than the tree had been tall.

The birds take on look at me and flee.

Before Sophie can react with whatever is to be her next attack, I use my colossal bird wing to tap the back of her head just hard enough that she falls unconscious. I wrap her in my feathery arms and slowly, gently, glide down to the ground. The moment my clawed feet touch the ground, I revert back to myself and stumble as I ease Sophie to lie down, her head in my lap, my legs curled beneath me.

The world is falling apart. My life is falling apart.

The world needs saving.

So does my twin.

She’s in there somewhere, the Sophie I know and love. I just have to set her free.

Somehow.

Chapter

Eighteen

A throat clearing has my heart leaping into my chest. I jerk and glance all around until I see Aiden-as-Aiden hovering in the air.

“You’re crying,” he says.

“Yeah, well, you try having to fight for your life…”

“I saw,” he says quietly. “I couldn’t come sooner because of…”

“Dealing with the bodies.”

“All of them, even the one you two…”

“Yes.”

“Did Sophie…”

“I killed him,” I say dully.

“You did?”

“I… He asked me to.”

“His head, his face…”

I just shake my head, not wanting to get into specifics.

“Did you learn anything useful?” He lands and crosses over to sit beside me, a little behind me.

I shift slightly and then have to readjust Sophie. She looks so very peaceful now, without a trace of hatred or anger in her eyes, but I know she’s hurting. It’s invasive, and I’m sure she wouldn’t consent to it, so I don’t, but the thought does cross my mind to enter her dream and see if I can talk to her—the real Sophie. But I won’t do that to her. So much has already been taken from her as it is that I won’t take her privacy away either.

Tenderly, I brush her hair back from her forehead and shoulder. “Yes. Jaidos and Rall were working together. They were hunting humans. Well, Jaidos was, and he was sending them to Rall.”

“To imprison them? In Magical Prison or somewhere else?”

“Jaidos died. I don’t know if any of the humans were sent to Rall, or if it’s just after Jaidos died and the humans stopped coming, but…” I swallow hard. “Rall turned to the inmates.”

“Turned to the inmates for what?”

“They did experiments on them.”

Aiden’s face blanches. “What kind of experiments?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you think we should do?” he asks.

“I… Sophie wouldn’t say if she was experimented on. Maybe she was. Maybe she wouldn’t know if she was. It’s possible—Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?” Aiden asks innocently.

“Like I’m being absurd.”

“I’m not,” he says gently, “but even I know something’s going on with her.”

I blow out a breath. There’s no denying that.

“She won’t be unconscious for long. You made a nice roc, by the way.”

I blink a few times. “I don’t even know what possessed me to do that,” I admit. “I never tried to glamor like that.”

“You almost had me convinced that you were a massive bird, that you actually transmuted yourself.”

“It can’t be much different for you become a gargoyle.”

“Wait, so you mean you actually became the bird? You didn’t just look like it?”

I hesitate. “How can you tell the difference?”

“I’m not sure,” he admits, “but that’s fairly powerful magic, if you really were the bird.”

“I don’t care about that,” I mumble. “Not after… She almost killed me, Aiden. I know it wasn’t really her, but that tree…”

“It wasn’t her,” he stresses, “and you’re fine.”

“You don’t understand how close she came to… Aiden, sometimes I can’t use chlorokinesis.”

His eyes widen, but his lips don’t move.

“I’m a failure of a fairy. Nature itself doesn’t always respond to me.”

With a grunt and a groan, I struggle to squat and pick Sophie up. Aiden moves to help, but I shake my head.

“Nature responded when you needed nature the most,” he points out. “Nature didn’t let you die. Maybe… Maybe you’re just being too hard on yourself. Maybe you’re freaking yourself out.”

“So I’m going mental.”

“No, I’m not saying that. A block or something. You’re so worried that nature will turn against you that you can’t get your chlorokinesis to work, which makes you even more worried. A terrible cycle, but you broke it. You saved yourself using chlorokinesis, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about?” I choke on bitter laughter and need to wipe a tear away, but I can’t because of holding Sophie.

Aiden brushes the tear away for me. “Forgive my ill-spoken words,” he murmurs.

“There’s nothing to—Look.”

My gaze is on the far-away prison. I can just make it out from here through the trees, but it looks like Portia is leaving and maybe a few others too. There’s no mistaking her armor as it glitters in the sunlight.

“Leaving the prison to find the inmates most likely,” Aiden guesses.

“I think so.” I eye him. “You can stay as yourself or turn into Azorra, but I’m going to the prison.”

“Why?”

“Hopefully, Pervinca is still there.”

“The doctor.” His eyes widen. “Do you think she’ll be able to help? But what if…”

“I hope she’ll be able to help. She didn’t alert anyone to Sophie and me when we were plotting our escape, and she even helped us.”

I start to fly toward the prison.

Aiden rushes to fly beside me, still as himself. “You aren’t changing into Sequoia.”

“No.”

“But—”

“Pervinca saw me as me.”

“What if someone else is inside?”

I fly even faster. Sophie’s heavy and growing heavier every second. “It’ll be fine.”

“But—”

“You’re the one worrying too much,” I tease.

He pulls slightly ahead of me and shakes his head. “You’re cracking jokes. I guess that’s a good sign.”

“I’m trying,” I say with a sigh.

“That’s all you can do,” he murmurs, adopting a more serious tone.

When we reach the front door, I land, Aiden right behind me. He doesn’t ask and just takes Sophie from me. He’s still himself, so I guess we’re just going to march in as ourselves. I’m not sure things can get much worse, and if he doesn’t want to glamor himself, that’s his call.

If the prison felt empty before, it’s even worse now. The air is stale and heavy, so much so that it feels as if it’s weighing me down. I hate feeling like this, as if I can’t hold my head up high, but there’s no reason for me to. I’m not proud or happy. I’m broken and lost, and I need my twin. She has to come back to me and as herself, not some kind of… whatever she is now.

Quickly, I fall on Aiden’s heels to the infirmary. Pervinca is waiting by the doorway. I’m assuming she heard our footsteps.

“Jessa… Sophie…” Her gaze basically skips over Aiden entirely. “Come in quickly. Put her… Here.” She rushes ahead of Aiden to shove a curtain aside to reveal an empty bed on the opposite wall than the one Sophie and I had been previously.

Aiden carefully places Sophie on the table, and Pervinca fusses, feeling her forehead and her cheeks.

“What happened?”

“I knocked her unconscious.”

Pervinca eyes me critically. “Why?”

“Because she was trying to kill me.”

Pervinca holds completely still. Then she nods slowly once and reaches behind her. She reveals a pair of magic-dampening cuffs, and although I sharply inhale, I do not stop her as she cuffs Sophie.

“We know… We just learned that there had been some… experimentation going on here at the prison,” I say. I stare at the doctor, not blinking, daring her to reveal something in her features.

Her expression is completely void of emotion, as flat as flat can be.

“I don’t know much about the experiments,” I add. “No one would give me specifics, but I’m not ignorant. It would take someone with great skill and knowledge to be able to conduct experiments of any kind, and who better than a doctor?”

“Why bring her to me if you think I conducted the experiments?” she asks softly.

A typical type answer I would expect from a fairy. She’s a sprite, so she’s not exactly the same as Sophie and me, but she’s rather similar.

“You helped us before,” I say.

“You’re hoping I will help you again,” she returns.

“Well?” I prompt.

The sprite inhales deeply and shifts to face Sophie. “I will say that I did conduct experiments,” she admits, “but I had no choice. I was forced to. My son… He died quite some time ago. He was murdered, actually. Such a violent death means the possibility of returning as a ghost is rather high, and he did. Rall… He found my son.”

I glance at Aiden, not sure what the barbarian could’ve done to a ghost. They aren’t like typical beings. I don’t know if they can die again. Maybe it is possible. I do know they can move on once they complete their unfinished business, the tie that links them to this world. That’s not really dying, though, just their accepting their death. But maybe my understanding is a bit faulty. I’m not a ghost expert.

“Rall threatened to have my son turned into a ghoul,” Pervinca finally gets out.

I gasp. “That’s possible?”

“Oh, yes. All ghouls were ghosts at one time. They just become creatures of hatred and revenge, violent even toward those they have no qualms about. Rall threatened to turn my Robbie into a ghoul and lock me in a room with him.”

“Robbie as a ghoul would’ve…”

“Yes,” Pervinca says, eyeing Aiden for only a moment before he gaze drops to Sophie’s still-unconscious form.

“That’s terrible,” I murmur.

“He also said that if the experiments failed, that he would go one step further and strip Robbie of his soul and have him become a wraith. Mindless tormentors, agents of evil, uncontrolled vessels of darkness… I couldn’t let any of that happen to my boy. He had been through so much already.”

“Boy?” I blurt out and wince at my interruption.

“I say boy, but Robbie was twenty when he was killed.” Pervinca heaves a sigh. “I didn’t want to, but my hands were forced.” She stares at her hands with contempt before sadly letting her arms flop to her sides.

“It’s not your fault,” I murmur.

“You forgive me so easily, when your sister…” Pervinca shakes her head, her strange wings fluttering behind her. The design of eyes near the tips of her wings have always disturbed me.

“I don’t think any of us here can say we haven’t done questionable things lately,” I assure her. “We aren’t judging you.”

“But we do have some more questions, if you’re willing,” Aiden interjects.

Pervinca wipes tears away. “O-Of course.”

“Did you conduct experiments on another prisoner?” he asks.

“Can you reverse it? Whatever you did to Sophie? Is it permanent? What exactly did you do to her?” I ask in a rush, hardly breathing. “She… She hasn’t been herself at all. She tried to… She… Is that because of the experiment, or is she just…” I can’t finish the question. As much as I want to believe the experiment is to blame for my sister turning on me, I know that there’s a distinct possibility that it’s because of my own actions that she hates me.

Pervinca gripes my hands tightly in hers and holds them up chest-height as she stares me in the eyes. “Jessa, I know what I did was wrong, but I know exactly what I did.”

“Does that mean…” I can scarcely breathe.

“I do think it’s possible I might be able to reverse it.”

Chapter

Nineteen

“Possible that you might be able to reverse it,” Aiden says dryly. “That inspires so much confidence.”

“Hush,” I scold him, turning my head in his direction while still looking at the sprite. What do you need from me?”

“I will need you to trust me. It took time for me to do the experiment, and it will take even longer for me to try to undo its effects. You were right to bring here her, Jessa, and I vow to you that I will do everything I can for her.”

“Vow that you will do everything to make her better as far as…” I hesitate, trying to think of exactly what I want to say. Doing everything for her is too open-ended. One could claim the experiment itself was doing everything for her.

“I vow that I will try to return your sister to who and what she was before the experiment if at all possible.”

I blink several times to hold back tears. “How… How much time?”

“That I can’t say,” Pervinca says gently.

I glance at Aiden. We don’t have time to stay here forever. There’s HEX United, and—”

“We’re waiting on a call from Portia with the location, aren’t we? We can’t do much more with that lead right now anyway.”

“We could return to that motel. I know it was a trap last time—”

“Was it?” Aiden counters. “It’s not as if we could’ve known if anyone was there. Zas wasn’t one of them so he might not have realized they would be lying in ambush for anyone who showed up.”

“Maybe he is in league with them. It’s possible he set us up.” I lift my chin.

“You don’t trust him.”

“No.”

“I get that, but I don’t know if going after them is smart. They broke into the prison to get to Sophie because of what… happened,” he says, eyeing Pervinca.

Clearly, he doesn’t feel comfortable talking about all of this in front of the sprite, and I get that, but I have to trust her. I have to believe that she can help Sophie. Otherwise, I won’t be able to do what I have to do.

Sophie is fighting a battle for her life, her body, her mind, her soul. I’m not even sure what it is that has been tampered with.

I have to let her go to fight that battle, while I fight to stop a war that I created.

“All they wanted was revenge,” Aiden continues.

“Yes, but they were following him. They might know more details of his plan. They might have proof—”

“Ah, that’s what you want. You want proof so you can clear your names.”

I fall silent, and then my shoulders slump. “It’s silly, right? In the grand scheme of things, that’s not important. We have to stop the war.”

“War,” Pervinca mutters. She’s been gathering supplies, rushing back and forth all around the infirmary, bringing herbs and candles and other assorted supplies to the wheeling table near Sophie’s bed.

“Fine. So they aren’t who we truly want. We can try Rall’s office—”

“Portia’s gone over it. If anything was there, she found it,” Pervinca says.

“Do you think she knows?” I ask, almost not wanting to know the answer.

“Portia? She’s a gem, not a fraud, not a charlatan, not a politician. She did what was best for the inmates as best she could. No, no, I don’t see how it’s possible that she knew about any of this.”

I breathe easier. “You don’t think Rall kept anything up there anyhow, do you?”

“Oh, I doubt that. I doubt you’ll find much proof of any wrongdoing on his part.” Pervinca stiffens.

“Not even yours, eh?” Aiden asks.

The sprite sighs. “Not even me, I’m afraid. Rall was very clear. All of my notes have to be here.” She taps the side of her head near her temple. “Nowhere else. He didn’t want anyone to stumble on my notes and discover what he was having done.”

What an interesting way of saying things. What he was having done versus what I was doing or what he was making me do.

“Where does all of this leave us, then?” I ask, trying my hardest to hide my growing frustration. “We can’t go to HEX Unite. There aren’t any other leads here at the prison—”

“No, that isn’t entirely accurate,” Pervinca says. “Well, yes and no.”

“A little help here?” Aiden asks dryly.

“The other prisoner.”

Aiden snaps his fingers. “I knew it! You did experiments on other prisoners!”

“Only one.”

“Who?” I ask.

“Kyros.”

I grimace. “I don’t think I spoke with him ever.”

“You wouldn’t have. He was here in the infirmary most of the time, in and out of consciousness.”

My eyes widen. When I thought we were alone, talking about all kinds of secrets…

Pervinca doesn’t seem all that worried, though. “He’s a male gorgon.”

“They aren’t all female?” I blurt out.

The sprite’s eyes twinkle, and she teases, “When a daddy gorgon and a mommy gorgon love each other very much…”

My cheeks have to be bright red, and I can’t look at Aiden. “What’s, ah, what’s his name?”

“Kyros. Here.” Pervinca reaches around the wheelie table to the end table behind it situated next to Sophie’s bed. The sprite clicks on her tablet a few times before handing it to me.

On the screen is a dossier on the gorgon. There’s even a picture. Kyros has bronze skin, but while I normally associate gorgons with green snakes, he has purple snakes. His features are a bit harsh, but he doesn’t look especially violent.

I move the screen down. “He robbed from humans,” I say, surprised. “Why did he need to do that?”

“I don’t know,” the doctor says, back to scrambling around to gather more material, “but any crime against the humans is viewed seriously.”

“How was he able to walk around the humans with hair like that?” Aiden asks. “With skin like that?”

“What’s wrong with his skin?” I ask.

Aiden glares at me.

“What?” I ask innocently.

“As long as he didn’t make eye contact with anyone, the humans would have been protected,” Pervinca explains.

“Yes, I know that, but mistakes could have happened easily.” Aiden sounds put out for some reason. “Why did he risk it?”

“Maybe he wore sunglasses,” I suggest.

“His hair. How did he hide that?” He crosses his arms.

I scroll back to eye Kyros again. What is Aiden so worried about? What is he seeing that I’m not? Is it because Kyros looks impressive muscular without being too muscular? Some guys have too many muscles. There’s a fine line between being ripped and being too jacked. Kyros is on the right side of things.

Is Aiden jealous?

I reach over and squeeze Aiden’s bicep. His cheeks blush, and then he pats my arm and shakes my head. “Ignore me,” he mumbles.

“Gorgons can be vicious monsters,” Pervinca says as she comes back again, this time holding a few very sharp-looking tools that have me gulping. “They have sharp fangs, and the snakes in their hair are both alive and venomous. They have their own minds, but they can be persuaded to listen to the gorgon, and it’s possible they wanted the money too. If they were all coiled up so that their faces aren’t visible, no one would think much of his appearance other than he’s a strikingly handsome man with purple hair.”

Aiden snorts. “Fine. I take it Kyros isn’t here.”

“No,” Pervinca murmurs. “When Zas unleashed all of the prisoners, that included Kyros.”

“He escaped you know,” I remark. “Zas. Before. During the battle. The first battle, I guess I should say. There was another battle when the inmates fled, wasn’t there?”

Pervinca nods. “He came back to free the prisoners.”

“And to kill the warden,” Aiden says.

“Doing the world a favor,” I mumble.

“I thought you hated the demon.”

“What he did was wrong. I never said differently. That doesn’t mean that everything he has ever done is terrible.”

“You’re talking about murder,” Pervinca points out dryly.

“Was it?” I ask harshly. “Maybe Rall attacked him first. What if all Zas wanted was to free the prisoners? Rall wouldn’t accept that. He would’ve fought him. It could’ve been self-defense.”

Aiden glances at me and then reaches for the tablet. I hand it over wordlessly.

Pervinca says nothing, just starts to wipe down her sharp instruments.

I know what I’m doing, and this has nothing to do with Zas and everything to do with me. As much as I need to accept what I did, I can’t. Yes, I killed Jaidos. He attacked me, but he had been trying to defend himself. If he lived, he could’ve claimed it had been in self-defense, and he wouldn’t have been lying. But I provoked the attack. I went to his office with the desire to kill him. It had been murder, plain and simple, and premeditated at that.

Even the humans would want me dead for what I did or at the very least locked up and imprisoned for the rest of my life for fear that I would kill again.

Which I might. Who knows? I might have to kill this Kyros guy.

“The experiments, what was the goal of them?” I ask.

Pervinca opens her mouth, but Sophie starts to stir. Her eyes flutter.

“You need to go,” Pervinca murmurs. “I need to get started.”

She picks up a bowl and holds it under Sophie’s face, wafting the smell of the contents toward Sophie’s nose. My twin settles back down, sleeping maybe instead of unconscious.

“All right,” Aiden says, handing the tablet back to the sprite.

“But—”

“We’ll return,” Aiden says, grabbing my wrist and dragging me along.

“Is there anything else we need to know?” I call to Pervinca.

“Be careful,” the sprite says, sounding distracted. “Oh, Sophie, I’m sorry.”

My heart breaks. As much as I know it’s the right decision to go and leave and bring the gorgon back here so he can be fixed or corrected just like Sophie, it’s a tough, heart-breaking choice. A part of me remains in the infirmary as we make our way out of the prison.

I wipe a traitorous tear away as we enter the sunlight. The sun is going down. How long has it been since Sophie and I broke out of the prison? I’m not even sure. I think it’s been maybe two days, but I can’t even be sure of that. It feels so much longer, though.

“We need to eat and rest some,” Aiden says.

“No,” I insist. “We have to find Kyros.”

“We will. We need to come up with a plan for finding him first. Let’s talk out a strategy over dinner.”

“But—”

“This isn’t a date,” he continues, “in case you’re worried.”

I gape at him, jaw dropped. Aren’t we together? I mean, after everything we’ve been through, that whole jealous bit back in the infirmary… We are dating, aren’t we?

But I don’t ask him this because I don’t want to have to deal with being broken up with on top of everything else.

“Hey,” he says gently, cupping my chin. “I just meant that now isn’t the time for romance. Not now. Not with Sophie being… Not with everything the way it is. Just a quick meal to refuel us, and we do have to sleep. I don’t know about you, but I’m more than ready to drop.”

Now that he mentions it, I can feel how utterly exhausted I am, how drained I am. Adrenaline. That’s been keeping me going for so long, and now that I have a moment to reflect and listen to my body, that adrenaline has fled, leaving me a shell of my former self.

Is that what the experiment has done to Sophie? Is it stripping her of herself? I know my Sophie is still in there. My twin isn’t gone, but those times when she’s vicious, when she’s cutthroat… when she tried to kill me, that’s not Sophie. That has to be the experiment, right?

My twin doesn’t hate me. She doesn’t really want me dead.

Or does she?

Chapter

Twenty

We eat. I’m not even sure what the food is. I can’t even say what it tasted like. All I did was eat to say I ate and to make Aiden happy because honestly, I have no appetite. Whenever I close my eyes, all I see is Sophie on the bed in the infirmary, her eyes fluttering. She would’ve woken if not for that scent. Would she have tried to attack me? The cuffs would’ve infuriated her and rightly so. That alone might’ve been enough to set her off.

“What do you think?” Aiden asks.

I blink a few times and stare at him blankly. We’re still sitting at the table because he hasn’t finished eating yet. Neither have I, actually, but I don’t know if I can handle another bite. Guilt and worry are eating me up, so I don’t have much room left to eat anything.

“It might not be easy for us to find Kyros. What if we try to induce a vision? Or a premonition? Either one could be very helpful.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” I mumble.

“Have you ever tried?”

“No,” I admit.

“Then maybe it’s possible. Pervinca might have an idea. We can check in with her around this time tomorrow to see how the progress is going with Sophie, and… You don’t like that idea.”

“Oh, it’s fine, but I plan on checking in well before tomorrow around this time.”

“Of course. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply—”

“You didn’t imply anything. It’s fine. You’re fine.”

“You aren’t.”

I eye him.

He flushes and rubs the back of his neck. “What I mean is that you’re fine. You’re so fine. But you also… you aren’t?”

“What are you going on about?”

Aiden sighs and laughs as he shakes his head, exhaling through his nose. “You’re fine,” he says, drawing out the word and giving me a look that lets me know that he’s referring to my looks.

I laugh, but it’s a quiet kind of laugh, not a full-bodied one. I just can’t be that happy right now.

“A stupid… Ah, but you also aren’t fine,” he says cautiously. “And I get that. I understand. I just want to help.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that. If Pervinca has an idea for an herb or tea or anything to help me, I’m open to suggestions. It’s a good idea.”

“Good. I’m glad you think so.” He sits back, clearly pleased, and he finishes his meal a few minutes later.

I’m on my tablet. I’ve been throughout the meal. Aiden sent both himself and me the dossier on Kyros.

“It says here that he grew up in Nautia,” I muse aloud. “Do you think he might’ve gone back there?”

“Nautia. Isn’t that the name of an underwater city?”

“I think so, but there might be an island nearby with the same name. Makes sense, right? For a gorgon to live near water?”

“Sure, it’s possible. I just don’t know if he would return home.”

“You think that the experiment would prevent him from going there? Or send him elsewhere?” I glare at him and lay down the tablet. “It sure would’ve been helpful to let Pervinca answer our questions about what the experiment exactly is intended to do, huh? But you yanked me away.”

I cross my arms as he fumbles for words, not really articulating much of anything but sighs and grunts.

I hold up a hand. “Let me guess. You wanted to spare me because of Sophie.”

“Yes,” he admits.

As much as I appreciate him trying to protect me, it really doesn’t help us any. Then again, Pervinca had the chance to answer our questions for details, and she hadn’t taken the time to. She didn’t want to say.

“If Sophie fighting you, being aggressive… What else has she been doing that’s out of character?”

I flinch as I recall her killing the scarred woman, Stri Ironclaw, the half-kobold, half-elf. And the angel. All of it.

“She’s… She’s ruthless. Brutal. Willing to do anything and everything to get what she wants.” I bite my bottom lip. “But is she in control when she’s like that? Is she truly doing what she wants or what someone else wants?”

“I don’t know.”

“We need to find him. Even if he hasn’t gone home, maybe Kyros has been in contact with family or friends who live there that can give us a head’s up.”

“All right. In the morning, we’ll head to Nautia. That sound good?”

I nod. “I just wish it wasn’t so far away,” I murmur.

“We can use fairy dust.”

“Duh.” I wearily rub my forehead.

He laughs gently, not at me but not with me either because I am so not laughing. “It’s all right. Come on.”

Aiden pays, and we find a hotel. We have to push to get two beds, and the staff grumbles because it’s the last one they have available, but I don’t care. Tonight, I’m sleeping in bed. Too much has been happening for us to sleep outdoors. Outside, under the stars, would be lovely under normal circumstances, but I think here, in a town full of humans, we’ll be much safer.

Unless the danger is following us.

But still, here, we can both sleep with the door locked and deadbolted. Outside, we would have to take turns keeping watch.

I toss and turn for only an hour before I fall into a dreamless sleep. When I next open my eyes, it’s almost noon.

With a gasp, I shoot up and glower at Aiden. “Why did you let me sleep so long?” I demand.

“Because you looked so peaceful. Don’t worry. I called and talked to Pervinca already.”

“And?”

“She’s still working on Sophie.”

“Did she say if she’s making any progress?”

“She’s doing what she can,” he says softly.

“That’s not very reassuring,” I tell him dryly.

He holds up his hands. “I also asked her if she knew of anything to induce a vision or a premonition. She said she would look into it.”

I exhale loudly. “Of course she doesn’t know of anything off the top of her head.”

Aiden shrugs. “Let’s wash up and get some breakfast. Then, we’ll be off.”

“Can’t we just go?” I complain.

“No.”

I climb out of bed and put my hands on my hips. “Are you saying I smell?”

Aiden grins. “I didn’t not say that.”

“You’re terrible.”

“At least I don’t smell terrible,” he teases as I enter the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, we’re showered, cleaned up, and on the way to a café on the corner.

“What do you want?” he asks.

“Surprise me. Oh, and I’ll pay.”

“It’s fine. I got it.”

“Aiden.” I make him wait and hand him a twenty. “That enough?”

“It should be.” He shakes his head, but he’s smiling.

“What?”

“You won’t let me take care of you.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to be pampered. It’s just…”

“You want to feel like you have some measure of control on your life so you want to spend money even though you don’t have to.”

I grin. “Something like that. Now, hurry up.”

“You’re hungry?” he asks, his eyes glittering in the sunlight.

“Not really. Just anxious to get going and find this guy already.”

“Ah.” He seems disappointed as he turns around and heads inside.

I pick out a circular table and sit under the shade of a gaudy orange umbrella. In my opinion, I would rather the sun shine down on me, but I’ll survive. At least I’m outdoors, breathing in the fresh air, although I have to say that the areas populated by the paranormal community is a bit fresher than where the humans are. Then again, we do have some factories, and some drive cars.

It doesn’t take long for Aiden to come out, and he lays out an assortment of pastries. One has chocolate, and I reach for it.

He laughs. “I knew you would want that one.”

I bite into it. Some kind of filling oozes out. It’s delicious, whatever it is. I’ve been spending a lot of time around the humans lately, far more than ever before. It used to be that Sophie and I hardly ever left Roseshield Grove. Who knows when we’ll be able to return?

“You might want to slow down and breathe in between bites,” Aiden comments.

“I’m sorry. Normally, I have manners.”

“Are you finally hungry? Are you enjoying it? Or do you just want to hurry up and get out of here?”

“Um, actually, yes, yes, and yes.”

He laughs. “What else do you want? I’ll eat the rest.”

“I’ll take…”

We divvy up the food, and I enjoy myself, which makes me feel guilty and sad. I’m on such a rollercoaster lately. I just want to know when things can go back to normal if that’s even possible at this point.

“Sophie Aldercross.”

I stiffen at the familiar voice and slink down in my seat. No. Please. No. Yes, I’m in my regular body, albeit glamored just enough that humans won’t recognize me as foreign to them, but any paranormal being who knows me will see through the slight glamor as to who I am.

Unless they don’t know that Sophie has a twin.

Like the guard marching toward me.

“Uh oh,” Aiden mumbles.

“Just play it cool,” I snap.

“Jessa, he thinks you’re—”

“I know.”

Illumine draws himself up to his full height as he towers over my seated form. “Sophie Aldercross.”

“Illumine.”

“It’s Eli,” he snaps.

Hmm. He goes by Eli around the humans? My guess is that he spells it I-L-L-I and not E-L-I.

“Illi,” I say smoothly. “It’s nice to see you.”

“You don’t belong here.”

“Where do I belong?” I ask, spreading out my hands. “Where do any of us belong? That’s the question.”

Aiden just shakes his head. He’s thinking we should’ve used fairy dust, but there are humans all around us, and if we would’ve run, Illumine would’ve chased, and that would’ve caused a scene. There wasn’t anything we could’ve done.

Besides, I’m interested to see how the phoenix treats me—err, treats Sophie.

“Sophie Aldercross,” he says firmly.

Why does he keep saying her full name? I don’t know if I like his sharp tone. I’ve never heard him talk to anyone like that before.

“Sophie Aldercross, you have a job to do.”

“A job to do?” I echo. What in the world is he talking about?

Unless…

Does it have anything to do with the experiment?

I gape at Aiden and then shift my gaze to the phoenix.

“Sophie Aldercross, go and locate your target.”

My target. As in someone I’m supposed to just find? Or find and eliminate?

Are they trying to turn humans and paranormal beings into spies? Assassins? Mindless minions?

“Who is the target?” I ask, trying to sound casual and hoping he can’t hear my frantically beating heart.

Illumine’s eyes turn fiery for a second. He’s losing his ability to hide among the humans. He’s shocked.

“You… You broke through,” he says, sounding amazed but in a horrified way. “You broke through. How? How did you do it?”

“I didn’t do anything,” I say through gritted teeth.

He grabs a chair and sits down, leaning over and grabbing my elbow. “You have to tell me how you did it.”

“I told you I didn’t—”

“You have to. Kyros is good. He’s fine, but you… At least, he’s good for now, but what about her?”

“Her?” I ask.

Illumine blinks several times. He’s looking right at my face, but I have the impression he’s not actually seeing me.

“You, Kyros, and Amy Chang. You three were the ones… If you broke through, they might…”

Amy Chang.

That’s not a paranormal name. Not at all.

That’s a human name.

A human has been experimented on.

Chapter

Twenty-One

I gape at Illumine and shake my head. “You might want to do more research on your prisoners,” I snap.

“What do you mean?” he asks, confused.

“I can’t believe you’re involved in this,” I hiss. “I thought you were one of the good ones. I liked you!”

“We… We never talked,” he sputters.

“Oh, yes, we did.” I run my fingers through my hair before grabbing some and pulling slightly in frustration.

A glance at Aiden doesn’t help me to decide just how much to confide in the prison guard.

“You’re a party to experimenting on prisoners, huh?” I spit out angrily. “Making them puppets, is that it? Who is the target? What do you want done to the target?”

“I…” Illumine pulls out a seat and sits. He looks so utterly confused. “Have we spoken before? You act like you know me.”

“And like I can judge you, and I am. I am judging you so hard right now.” I cross my arms and stare down the phoenix. “Maybe I should’ve realized that if you were working at the prison for so long that it meant you would do the warden’s bidden, no matter what he asked of you.”

“Now, listen,” he complains. “You don’t—”

“I get to do whatever I want. By the breeze, Illi! Do you have no conscience?”

The phoenix fidgets uncomfortably and eyes Aiden. “I don’t know you,” he mumbles.

I bark a laugh. “Guess again.”

Illumine wearily rubs a hand down his face. “You, ah… Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”

“No.” I go to cross my arms, but they’re already crossed. He’s making me that on edge that I’m no longer aware of what my body is doing. “If you want us to start talking, we have to trust you, and how can we when you’re a party to something so heinous?”

“Look. You don’t understand. I thought…”

“Thoughts don’t matter. Only actions and their consequences.” I tilt my head to the side and eye the phoenix critically. “You… Why? Why did you do it? Do you have some kind of sob story too?”

“Sob story?”

“Like Pervinca. Her son.”

“The ghost,” Illumine murmurs. “Rall asked me to track him down.”

“Did you?” A thought occurs to me. “Any chance he was in Cragburn?”

“Yes, actually, but I didn’t… I never told Rall where he was.”

“You lied to him. Why?”

“Because I didn’t always agree with his methods, and the warden I listened to and would’ve done anything he asked of me is Badin. He did what he thought was best for the prisoners, but I will say he didn’t try too, too hard to rehabilitate them. He was more concerned about the safety of the public, all of the public—supernaturals and humans. I just… Rall was a bit more ambitious. He wanted…” He shakes his head. “I shouldn’t be telling an escaped prisoner all of this.”

Illumine goes to stand, but I slap my hand on his on the table.

“You should sit and reconsider telling us what you know.” I pick up my drink—honey water.

The phoenix chuckles. “Are you threatening me with water?”

“I want answers, and I want them now. You want answers. I might have some but only if you talk first.”

“That’s not—”

“You think you can control me and tell me what to do. Who is the target? What’s the end goal for the target? Death? Am I a secret assassin, so secret I don’t even know it?”

“Ah… It wasn’t supposed to be like that,” he mumbles.

“Or Rall just told you what he needed to so that you would comply. He lied to you. He used you, manipulated you. There is no ghost in your closet, is there? No string he pulled. All he had to do was lie, and you believed him. Tell me the lie.”

“The experiments were to help with rehabilitation,” Illumine says.

I wince. “How exactly? And does Portia know about any of this?”

“No. She doesn’t know.”

I snort. “There’s your first clue that this isn’t on the up and up.”

“Yes, well… Yes, there were clues, and—”

“And Rall’s dead so why are you still doing what that bastard demands of you?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Life is complicated. You’re going to have to give me more.”

Illumine shakes his head. “No. No, I’m going to take you back to the prison and—”

“And what? Have Pervinca experiment on me some more? You can claim all you want that Rall was the one behind his project, but he’s dead, and you’re still forging ahead.”

“Like I said—”

“You haven’t said enough,” I growl.

“Sophie, you’re coming—”

“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Aiden says coolly.

Illumine shifts his gaze to Aiden. “I don’t appreciate any of this.”

“Do you think Sophie, Kyros, or that human… What’s her name? Amy Chang? Do you think they appreciate what was done to them?”

I can see the wheels turning in the phoenix’s head as he tries to sort out the puzzle. “You aren’t Sophie?”

“Maybe I am.” I lean forward. “The target?”

“Each of you have a different target. Yes, you’re to, ah, kill… The human. If she can break free from the experiment, if she returns home… We can’t allow that to happen.”

“Because it would expose us as terrible, wicked, and deserving of death. The humans would be well within their rights to rise up and attack us, to go to war with us over mind control and forcing people to commit—”

Illumine’s hand covers my mouth. Aiden’s chair clatters to the ground as he jumps to his feet.

“Get your hand off her,” Aiden says, his tone low but forceful.

The phoenix ignores him. “You’re talking too loudly. This is far too public of a place for this conversation.”

I yank hard on his wrist to get him to lower his hand. “A public place is where I want to be with you, not alone in the woods where you would try to kidnap me.”

“In the woods with all of the plants that you can use to try to kill me like you did Jaidos?” he retorts.

I scowl. I can dent a lot of things, but I can’t deny that I killed the headmaster.

“Yes, I killed him, but I killed him because of his plans for the humans. He was going to start a war between the paranormal beings and the humans. To learn that he was hunting the humans to experiment on them… And Rall took that a step forward, down a darker path, by expanding the experiment to include inmates, and you helped! You’re involved! How can you live with yourself?”

“I thought that the experiments were to help tame and make docile—”

“Oh, so altering one’s mind and forcing them to be compliant is the way to go. That’s how you can rehabilitate. Yep. Okay. That makes sense. Perfectly legal and above reproach and all of that. By the breeze, do you understand free will at all?”

“Your free will had you murdering someone, so no, I don’t think it’s entirely wrong to make the world a safer place by trampling on your free will,” Illumine hisses.

“You really think that no one can learn from their mistakes?”

“No.”

“So people can’t change?”

“Not really.”

I nod slowly. “But you have to admit that the experiments might not be a good thing, right?”

He hesitates. “I… I don’t…”

“It’s possible to have good intention but to do a bad thing, isn’t it?”

Illumine says nothing.

“I killed Jaidos. I did, but I wanted to prevent the war between the humans and the paranormal beings. Is that so terrible?”

“You can’t—”

“I had a premonition of the war.” I lean back. “I did what I thought was necessary.”

“I did the same,” he says with a scowl. “There are far too many inmates.”

“You think that more should’ve been visited by a paranormal executioner than a hunter, is that right?”

He sits there, arms crossed, his expressions ridiculously sullen.

“You’re worried about Amy Chang returning home and starting that same war that I wanted to prevent. Tell me, Illumine, when you hunt her down, what are you going to do to her? Bring her back to Pervinca? Or are you going to kill her? When is it acceptable to kill? When you say so? When the warden does? Jaidos?”

Illumine says nothing.

“Who is my target, Illi? Who am I supposed to kill?”

He just shakes his head.

“Fine. Who is Amy going after? Who did you send her to kill?”

“We thought… We thought she might be the only one who could get close enough to her to do it.”

“To kill who?”

“The next person on the list.”

“The list? The list of people who would stop this? The list of people who are powerful enough to change the world?”

His nostrils flare. “Master Vanhylde.”

I gasp, amazed at his audacity. “You sent a mind-controlled human to kill a valkyrie? Did you want Amy to die? Because that’s a suicide mission if there’s ever been one!”

“She is our biggest threat,” Illumine says glumly.

“The biggest threat to your going to war against the humans,” I say in disgust. “Just stop with the games, and admit it. This isn’t just on Jaidos and Rall. You want war too.”

He looks up at me. “You were supposed to kill Mirella.”

The name’s familiar, and it takes me a moment to place her. “Mirella. She went to Magical Hunters Academy.”

“She’s a paranormal executioner now.”

“Very powerful.”

“Yes, a witch who has almost mastered nine of the ten disciplines of magic. It’s just as well you aren’t going after her. If we can fly under her radar—”

“You really want war,” I mumble. I can’t reconcile this Illumine with the one I worked with in the prison. “You want people to die, and for what? Why? Just because you think paranormal beings should be the dominant species instead of humans?”

“There are good and bad humans just like there are good and bad paranormal beings. The bad should all be killed, purged. We can start a new, paranormal beings and humans alike. The world can rise up and—”

“The war will consume both good and evil, light and dark,” I argue.

“There’s no point in arguing,” Aiden cuts in. “We should go.”

I’m not about to leave when there’s more information to be had. I’m tired of being ignorant and kept in the dark. It’s bad enough that I still feel like Pervinca hasn’t told us everything yet. Why didn’t she mention to us about Amy Change?

“I was to go after Mirella,” I say. “Amy’s after Master Vanhylde. Who is Kyros going after?”

Illumine blows out a breath. “There’s a half-demon, half-angel who lives in Pennsylvania. Her name is Clarissa Garcia. She needs to be taken out.”

“Why? What’s so special about her?”

“She has both light and dark, and she’s powerful. She sticks to her hometown for the most part, but she’s taken on all kinds of paranormal beings—vampires, werewolves, sirens, djinn, demons, leprechauns, angels…”

“Angels and demons,” I remark. “Like I said, anyone can be light or dark.”

“Or light and dark,” Aiden says.

“You think Clarissa’s another threat to your war,” I state. It’s not a question. “Why isn’t my name on the list then?

“It does seem like it should be.” Illumine grimaces.

I close my eyes. Am I really that naïve? That stupid? How did I not realize how dark the phoenix is? Is it because I try to see the best in people? No, that can’t be it because I didn’t like Castiel from the start or Rall for that matter.

I did like Pervinca, though, and she’s done some very questionable things. Did I do the right thing by leaving Sophie in her care? What if I’m as wrong about Pervinca as I was with Illumine? What if Pervinca alters Sophie so completely that my twin is gone entirely, replaced by a killing machine?

After all, she already tried to kill me once, and didn’t I just say I should be on their list?

Chapter

Twenty-Two

“Illi, I don’t trust you,” I say flatly, “and I’m sure you don’t trust me.”

The phoenix eyes me curiously but says nothing to refute my statement.

“You want to go after Amy, don’t you?”

“Yes. I’ve been trying to track her and also locate any escaped inmates. We need order and peace in the world, and having escaped prisoners does not help that end.”

“Why don’t you focus on rounding up the prisoners, then? Leave Amy and Kyros to us.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t think so. You don’t get to tell me—”

“Do you still want that war?” I ask coldly. “Because we can bring it to you right now. We will be on opposing sides. We will meet on the battlefield, and I don’t care how many times I have to kill you. You will die.”

Illumine scowls. “I’ve seen so much more than you ever can. I’ve lived lifetimes, too many to count. I’ve seen the worst that paranormal creatures have to offer, and I even spent two entire lifetimes among the humans, living as one. That’s when I came back here, became a prison guard. I knew that there had to be something we could do to make the future a better place, and it starts with weeding out those who are dark, those who are evil.”

“People make mistakes,” I protest. “People can change.”

“No, they can’t.”

“The experiments sure can change a person, can’t they?”

His scowl grows. “Without an outside influence, people can’t change.”

“But love can change a person, right? Or do you think that love isn’t powerful enough? In all of your lifetimes, how many times have you found love?”

He drops his gaze.

I glance at Aiden. He’s antsy to go, and I am too, but the thought of leaving Illumine to his own devices doesn’t sit well with me. I’m also torn between going after Kyros and Amy. We can’t be in two places at once, and I don’t want to split up. What to do?

I don’t know.

Illumine slams a fist onto the table. “You don’t get to question my love life—”

“You’ve lived so many lifetimes, but you never found love. That’s why you don’t mind going to war.”

“You don’t know me at all,” he hisses, leaning forward, getting in my face. “I did find love, and what happened to her? She was murdered!”

My lips round into an “O.” “That’s when you become a prison guard, isn’t it? Wait, you said you lived with the humans… Did you fall in love with a human?”

His silence is answer enough.

“Did another human kill her or…”

“A human,” he mumbles.

Now it all makes sense.

“I understand why you’re hurting, but lashing out against the humans and the paranormal beings, that isn’t the way.”

“You don’t know everything. You don’t know the fate of the world.”

“I do know that war helps no one. It won’t help you, and it won’t make the world a better place. Even if you somehow manage to kill all of the ‘bad’ people,” I say, making air quotes when I say “bad” and ignoring his grimace, “there will be new ‘bad’ people. We don’t live in a box or a bubble. We make mistakes. We fail, and we fall. But we get back up again. We make new mistakes. We aren’t inherently good or evil, light or dark. We’re a mix.”

Illumine shakes his head.

“Illi, you aren’t entirely good,” I murmur. “Wouldn’t you have to die to see your vision fulfilled?”

“Yes,” he says angrily, “and I already planned for that.”

I sigh and run my hand down my face. “Illi, we’re going to stop this.”

“You’re going to try to,” he corrects, “but you’ll soon see that it’s too late.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” I stand. “We’re going to head after…” I glance at Aiden.

He shrugs. “I don’t know who to target first.”

“Amy,” Illumine says. “Without a doubt, we have to find her. If she breaks through her—”

“She won’t.”

“But you…”

I inhale through my nose. “You told us a lot of things, and I appreciate that. You’re coming with us, and we’re going after Kyros.”

“I don’t think so—”

“Illumine, the experiment works or is working. I didn’t fight through it.”

“But—”

“My sister was imprisoned for the crime I committed. I’m not Sophie. I’m Jessa.”

Illumine gapes at me. “You let your sister—”

I stare at the phoenix’s orange shirt. “I didn’t, and I broke her out. Imagine my surprise when she turned around and tried to kill me.” I force myself to look him in the eye. “There’s no reason to believe that Amy will run back to the humans because there’s no reason to think she can fight through it.”

“Why go after Kyros first?” Illumine argues. “The human—”

“Amy will hopefully not go after Master Vanhylde, not yet. She’s in a whole new world, and she won’t know her way around Kyros is more likely to close in on his target faster, don’t you think?”

The phoenix sighs. “You make a good point,” he says begrudgingly. “Fine. We’ll travel together, but I argue that we should split up.”

“You’re against the experiments now?” Aiden asks.

Illumine hesitates. “They pose an unknown variable that I am not as comfortable with anymore.”

I snort. “Should we use fairy dust or—”

“No. No fairy dust,” Illumine says. There’s almost an angry note to his words.

“Why not?” Aiden asks.

“Because.” Illumine shudders. “I don’t care for that at all. We’ll use my vehicle.”

The phoenix had been walking around a bit. He leads us back a mile, out of the city and into the wilderness where, hidden by tall foliage, is a small helicopter.

“For when I can’t be free to use my wings.” He grins. “Song taught me how to fly.”

“Song?” I ask as I climb in.

“My, ah…” The phoenix settles in at the cockpit, leaving me to speculate that Song is his love.

We pass over so many towns and villages. Some are humans, driving about in their cars, racing to work or restaurants or shops or home. The others are areas where the paranormal creatures are hiding in plain sight, invisible to the humans.

“How do you know where to go to find him?” I ask Illumine, shouting to be heard above the engine noise.

“I have my hypothesis.”

“So you don’t think he’s at Clarissa’s?” I ask.

The phoenix doesn’t answer. I’m beginning to hate silence.

“Why didn’t you just have a tracking device implanted in the test subjects when they were experimented on?” Aiden asks.

I gape at him. The fairy shrugs. It’s a good question, but it also makes my stomach churn. I hate that idea, and I’m glad it hadn’t been done.

Illumine coughs. “Rall wanted that done, actually. I convinced him that it wasn’t a good idea.”

“Why?” I ask suspiciously.

“I didn’t want anyone else to be able to track them.”

We fall into silence, and I quickly realize we’re heading near Magical Hunters Academy. Yes, I can just see it, and it looks as if it’s been through a war. The battle has long since been fought and finished, but has another broken out since? So much destruction…

And that’s not even the only place where I see evidence of fighting. Each pocket of paranormal beings reveals more and more fighting. There’s a grove where dryads live. The trees are moving, fighting alongside their dryads. The bushy branches don’t allow me to see who they’re fighting, though.

And there, a lake. Lizardfolk are there, squaring off against golems.

And there, a mountain. Kitsunes in their many-tailed fox forms are cockatrice. Above them, wyverns, dragons, and griffins are all fighting. The winged beasts are massive and majestic, and the more I watch, the clearer it becomes that the dragons and griffins are on one side, fighting together against the wyverns. The lack of arms doesn’t prevent the wyverns from doing some serious damage against their foes.

I want to close my eyes, to not watch the scenes unfolding far beneath us, but I can’t. Although it pains me, I watch as a siren and a mermaid fight each other. The mermaid claps her hands over her ears. Blood trickles down her arms, and she begins to thrash in the water. It’s a terrible sight, and I close my eyes, not wanting to see the mermaid die.

Death, so much death.

It’s anarchy. It’s war, and it’s already coming for the paranormal beings. I didn’t stop or prevent the war. It’s here.

No. It’s everywhere.

The more we fly, the more I see, and the more I want to cry. The paranormal beings are being so obvious about the battles that it’s only a matter of time until the humans realize they aren’t the only ones occupying the Earth. Humans will learn of their existence, of our existence.

And then the humans will enter the war after all.

“It’ll be all right,” Aiden says softly, reaching over and squeezing my hand.

I squeeze back as tightly as I can until he grimaces. “I’m sorry.” I go to release his hand, but he won’t let me.

“Squeeze as tightly as you need to,” he says. “I’m manly. I can take it.”

I give him a ghost of a smile before returning my gaze out the side. “I don’t think I can do this, that I can handle all of this.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Yes, I do. Nature gave me the premonition for a reason.”

“I’m not saying you don’t have to handle this. I’m saying you don’t have to alone. I’m here. Even he’s here for whatever he’s worth.”

“I can hear you,” Illumine says dryly.

We ignore the phoenix.

“It’s not going to be easy. We’re up against a serious threat, but we have to believe that we can change things.”

“Oh, we can change things, maybe, but can we be certain we’re changing them for the better?”

Aiden opens his mouth.

But my big mouth won’t let him talk. “I’m ready to have a nervous breakdown,” I admit. “I thought that by killing Jaidos, I could prevent the war between paranormal beings and humans. All I did, though, was make things worse. Now, there’s going to be two wars—a war among the paranormal beings and then the original war. What if our trying to stop this ends up destroying the entire planet? Because that’s what’s going to happen. It’s just going to get worse and worse and worse until there’s nothing left.”

“No, Jessa.” He cups my chin and gently twists my face so I’m looking at him. “You can’t think like that.”

“Don’t tell me to not do something. I’ll do it out of spite.”

He grins and throws me a wink. “Don’t kiss me,” he jokes.

I playfully shove his shoulder, but I do not kiss him. It just wouldn’t feel right to, not with all of the chaos down below where demons, goblins, and dwarves are clashing with elves, trolls, orcs, and gargoyles.

“Nature gave you the premonition for a reason,” he repeats my words back to me. “Nature doesn’t want war or chaos. Nature is about life and beauty and rebirth and second chances and third chances and fourth. We can get through this, and we will. We’ll survive. The Earth will survive.”

“But how?”

Aiden falls silent. He doesn’t have an answer, and neither do I.

Chapter

Twenty-Three

After another hour of flying, I can’t take either the silence or the terrible fighting below.

“How much farther?” I ask Illumine.

“I don’t know,” the phoenix mumbles. “I’ve been trying to see if I can sense him, but—”

“Sense him?” I interrupt. “That’s something a phoenix can do?”

“Sometimes,” he mumbles. “We come in contact with so many people over the courses of our lifetimes that we need to maintain connections to them all or else we will lose parts of ourselves. We’re nothing if we don’t have our memories.”

I grunt. “We’re nothing if we don’t have our minds or control of our bodies or free will,” I argue.

He says nothing. Am I getting through to him at all? Does he still want war? His plan will not make the world a better place, despite what he thinks.

Hope might be even more dangerous than ambition.

“Look,” Aiden says, pointing down below.

I shift my gaze and watch as gnomes trickle out of their mudhouses. So do orcs and trolls. Goblins as well, and a few bluecaps and brownies. This area seems to house a lot of paranormal beings, creeping from around the sparse trees on the outskirts of a tiny town.

And in the center is a flash of purple.

“What is that place?” I ask.

“That? That’s the Desolated Emptiness,” Illumine says. “It’s… A lot of paranormal activity there. Humans avoided it before the town was ever built. Some think the land itself has magic here. You two would know if there’s any truth to that.”

“Land,” I dictate.

“Why?”

“I want you to.”

“Not a good reason.”

“There’s a guy with purple hair.”

“Are you sure?”

“That it’s purple hair? No. Could be a hat. Might even be a woman and not a guy. Whoever he or she is, he or she is wearing sunglasses. Maybe because he or she doesn’t want to turn anyone into stone. Just land already!”

Illumine continues to fly on.

“Is this the path Kyros would’ve taken?” Aiden asks.

“Yes, of course,” Illumine snaps. “I wouldn’t be flying this way if not for that.”

“Then land.”

The phoenix grumbles. I’ve half a mind to just fly out of the helicopter and go down there with or without Illumine, but he finally complies. We’re well past the town now, but since humans aren’t around, there’s no reason why I can’t take flight.

Aiden’s right behind me, and in no time, Illumine flies just beneath me. The phoenix makes me decidedly uncomfortable. Why did he have to survive the battles at the prison? Why did he live while other good ones like Honorox fell?

The three of us land close enough that it’s obvious the one with purple hair is the one we seek. I glower at the phoenix, who just stares straight ahead at Kyros. Annoyed Illumine won’t give me credit, I stick my tongue out at him. He rolls his eyes, and Aiden just shakes his head.

Whatever. So much is going on right now that I’m allowed a moment of immaturity.

I stomp forward and halt in a spot where I can overhear Kyros. The others fall in behind me, and I’m unnerved to realize that none of those gathered pay us any mind. Hmm.

“Did you hear what the troll said about you?” Kyros is saying to one of the gnomes.

“What?” the gnome asks. He’s short, much shorter than I am, and he has whiskers for eyebrows. Hair sticks out of his ears, and his beard is white, his hair on his head gray. He looks too old for idle gossip, but he listening intently to the gorgon.

“He said that you don’t know the difference between mud and dirt.”

I glance at Aiden. That’s ridiculous. Why should anyone care if someone says that about them?

But the gnome’s eyes grow wide, and he sets his jaw. He flexes his muscles and picks up his axe, settling it so the blade is above his shoulder.

“Which one of the tall brutes said it?”

“I think it was the one with hair on his knuckles.” Kyros says.

Aiden snorts and leans closer to me. “Don’t all trolls have hairs on their knuckles?”

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t know because I haven’t been paying attention to their hands. Why do you think they do?”

He throws up his hands. “Clearly, I’m not the only one to think about it or notice because they both know about it!”

I roll my eyes and focus on the scene before us. As much as I want to rush over to Kyros and demand that he come with us so that we can try to sort everything out, I also want to see what he’s doing. He might not know much about the experiment, and he’s clearly not in a huge rush to get to Clarissa and off her, which is good, I guess, but why is he dawdling here? What is he up to?

The gnome marches up to one of the trolls. They begin to argue, and then the gnome takes a swing.

Kyros, with a smug smile among his harsh features, marches over to a goblin. Greenish skin, sharp yellow teeth, slender, short, the goblin eyes the gorgon’s chest. Light flashes off the gorgon’s sunglasses. It bothers me greatly that the gorgon is dressed for battle wearing bits of armor on his chest, upper legs, and arms. Does he plan on fighting someone? Just what is he up to?

“The orc with the triangular ears?” Kyros murmurs. “He said your wife is ugly.”

The goblin wipes out two daggers and charges.

So on and so forth, the gorgon goes around, convincing gnomes, goblins, bluecaps, and brownies that an orc or a troll did something to wrong them. Without questioning him, the one offended sought out the so-called foe and engaged them. A dozen one-on-one duels are going on all around us.

That’s it. I’ve seen and heard enough. I don’t know if this is a part of the whole experiment-type deal or what, but he’s purposely riling up everyone he’s talking to. I doubt the orcs and trolls ever said those things in the first place! He just wants to have them fight each other.

“Kyros, you need to stop,” I demand, coming right up to the gorgon.

He slowly turns around to face me, and his hand comes up toward his face. Immediately, I shut my eyes.

Kyros’ laugh is harsh, nasty. “You can look. I don’t feel like turning anyone into stone today.”

“Forgive me for not trusting you, considering a mind can change on a dime.”

“I would need more than a dime to turn your pretty face to stone.”

I still keep my eyes shut. I even tilt my head downward some. “Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“Don’t play ignorant.”

“I don’t talk to people who don’t trust me.”

“Why should I trust you? You’re a stranger, and you’ve been spreading lies to encourage fighting.”

“Not everything I say is a lie.” There’s creaking. His armor is shifting. He’s moving.

I say nothing. I don’t do anything, and I even hold my breath. What is he doing?

“Open your eyes,” he whispers.

I drop my gaze to the ground and comply.

“I’m wearing sunglasses. You’re protected.”

“I don’t trust you.”

He grabs my hand and forces me to feel that the sunglasses are in place. “You can even hold them in place if you want, but look at me when we talk. It’s the least you can do considering you have an advantage over me.”

“I do?”

“You know my name, and I don’t know yours.”

I exhale noisily and do hold the sunglasses there. “Why do you want them to fight?”

“They need to prepare themselves.”

“For what?”

“They need the practice.”

“For the coming war?”

Kyros grins. “You are more than just a pretty face.”

I huff.

“You are. You’re more than what the other fairies see. You’re powerful, and you don’t need them. You don’t need their approval. Without them, you’re so much stronger. If you do go back home, you should let them see how powerful you are. You should show them your true power.”

“My true power?” I ask, uncertain what he’s getting at.

“You could destroy all of Roseshield Grove, and why shouldn’t you? They ran you out, didn’t they? You needed their help, begged for it, and they turned their wings away. You deserve more than that.”

I gape at him. “How do you know all of this?”

“When you have as many eyes as I do, you learn how to read a person, to see into their minds, into their souls. You claim I’m telling lies. Maybe I am, but maybe I’m not. Have I gotten anything wrong about you?”

Unnerved, I risk holding his sunglasses with one hand so I can rub the back of my neck. “You need to stop.”

“Stop what? I’m not pushing you to do anything. I’m just telling you the truth. The fairies are not all good and kind. They’ve been downright terrible to you, and no one would blame you if you were to rise up against them. Shouldn’t someone put them into their place? The king and queen, they weren’t willing to even listen to you, were they? Kept interrupting you, and didn’t do anything to help. No, they left you on your own, didn’t they, Jessa?”

I still. He’s right. He knows so much, too much.

Even my name.

Not ever Zas knows my name.

Everything the gorgon is saying is true. The fairies have abandoned me, and they aren’t willing to listen to reason.

But that doesn’t mean that I should hurt them or our land.

“How about it’s my turn to talk, Kyros?” I ask.

“Go ahead.” He crosses his arms and smiles, all amused. He’s humoring me, and I don’t appreciate that.

But he’s also acting rather… human for lack of a better word. He’s not cold or standoffish, and he seems to be operating based on what he wants. The gorgon doesn’t seem driven to hunt down Clarissa and end her. No, he’s quite content doing this, spreading hatred and spurring fights.

Is he trying to start the war singlehandedly?

How many of those other battles that we saw had he been the one to provide the conflict?

“Why don’t you tell me why you landed yourself in Magical Prison?”

“Jessa, why are you asking me a question you know the answer to?” His lips twist into a quick smirk.

Unnerved and hating that he makes me feel so off-balanced, I glance around and realize that Aiden’s trying to get the others to stop fighting. As for Illumine, he’s hanging back, watching everything, an observant but unwilling-to-participate sentinel.

“Fine,” I concede. “Why are you instigating fights? Are you bored?”

“Why aren’t you going to stand up for yourself against the fairies?” he challenges, lifting his chin.

He’s strong, taller than I am. In a physical brawl, he’ll win easily. This battle is with words, though, and I’m a fairy. I’m a master at word play.

“Oh, I’ll return to my land when I’m ready, but I won’t be ready while there’s fighting going on out here,” I say sweetly.

“Then you won’t ever be returning home, and isn’t that a shame?”

“What’s a shame is that you think that bringing up past hurts will make me fly into a temper and rage against my people. It might work against some of those here, but it won’t work against me.”

“They hurt you,” he says through gritted teeth, his sharp fangs coming close to his lips. His expression has turned hateful, helped by his harsh features.

“You’re hurting the world,” I counter. “You’re nothing more than a puppet, a pawn. You’re lashing out, but it’s not really you doing the lashing, is it? Maybe you are hurting inside. Maybe someone hurt you along the way.” I gape at him. “Did you volunteer to be experimented on?”

“Maybe I did,” he says angrily. “You don’t know what it’s like to have no one look at you because of fear. I can’t even look my own mother in the face. That’s right. Gorgons aren’t immune. How would you like to live with the knowledge that you turned your mother to stone when you were a baby?”

My heart melts slightly, and he grins.

Is he playing me? Or just trying to use the truth to gain my sympathy? Either way, it won’t work.

But I can pretend it does.

“Kyros, that’s terrible. I had no idea,” I murmur. “I… Do you want a hug?”

His grin widens. “Yes.”

He embraces me, and I point to the back of his head, catching Aiden’s gaze. In seconds, the fairy is there, and he knocks the gorgon out with one punch.

The fighting continues all around us, but Illumine, Aiden, and I cart the unconscious Kyros to the helicopter.

Maybe the experiment with the gorgon gave him some siren-like powers because he used his tongue to start a ton of battles. If that’s the case, I need to count it a blessing that only three have been experimented on.

One is in Pervinca’s care.

One is here.

And one more is at large.

Chapter

Twenty-Four

“Now what?” Aiden asks as he rolls the gorgon onto his stomach and turns Kyros’ face so that he’s away from us. “What are we going to do with him?”

I eye the phoenix. He’s standing with his back to his seat, his arms crossed. He doesn’t look happy. Why? Because Kyros failed? Because we removed him from the picture at least temporarily? Or is it because he thinks all of the experiments have failed since Kyros clearly went off script?

Or did he?

“Illumine, please, illuminate me,” I start.

The phoenix scowls, his eyes flashing with fire more than ever. “You’re so original,” he snaps.

“Yes, well, start talking. You said he was to go after Clarissa, but she’s not a troll or orc or any of those out there.” I fling my arm in the direction of the small village teeming with battles. “You better start talking.”

“I don’t think so He’s going to wake soon, and when he does—”

“You and your threats!” I fume. “You need to tell me what’s going on!”

“I don’t need to tell you anything.”

I stare at my palms and then at Illumine. “I can force you to sleep, invade your dreams, seek the answers in your mind without your consent. How does that sound? You want to play dirty? Don’t get angry when I fight dirty. You do know the risk that poses, though, right? Your mind might never be the same, but then, considering what role you played with Kyros, Sophie, and Amy, it only seems fitting, don’t you think?”

The phoenix blanches. “You wouldn’t.”

“Woudn’t I? Do you want to test me?”

“Jaidos has a lot of allies,” Illumine mutters. “He’s been working on this swiftly. He became obsessed after Mirella graduated, which wasn’t that long ago, but Jaidos is—was—the kind of man who got things done. When he spoke, people listened, and they flocked to him.”

“Which ones?”

“Banshees. Berserkers. Barbarians, of course, because of Rall. Most of the birdfolk. Basilisks.”

“Bluecaps, brownies, gnomes, goblins, too, right? But not the orcs or the trolls.”

Illumine nods slowly. “A few others.”

“Go on.”

“Jessa, you can’t be serious.”

“Oh, yes, I am.”

Illumine grits his teeth. “We need to continue onward with… with whatever you want.”

“Fine.” I turn to Aiden. “I don’t want to split up. I really don’t, but I think it’s too important that we recover Amy as quickly as possible. I don’t want to endanger her life or her returning to the humans and all of their lives. It’s too risky.”

“You want me to take Kyros to Pervinca.”

“Yes.” I worry my bottom lip. “What do you think?”

“You and Illumine will go and find Amy?”

I nod. “I won’t let him out of my sight,” I promise.

“All right. Fine. I’ll make sure Kyros and I don’t see eye-to-eye.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m sorry, but that was lame.”

“You don’t like gorgon humor?”

“Not really.” I brush his hair from his forehead. “I like your humor, though.”

“Not much to laugh about right now.”

“Not at the moment, no, but one day.” I lean forward and kiss his nose.

He chuckles and wraps his arms around me, holding me tight. I squeeze him back, feeling safe and secure in his arms, but the embrace is over far too quickly.

Quickly, Aiden utilizes chlorokinesis to bring some vines onto the helicopter. He uses the vines to ensure the sunglasses won’t slip.

“Can’t risk anyone accidentally being turned to stone,” he jokes.

I glare at him, and Aiden just shrugs and gives me an impish smile that makes me shake my head.

After ensuring the gorgon is draped over his shoulders, Aiden nods to me, and he’s off, using fairy dust to whisk them away. I almost wish he could just fly away, disappearing behind the cover of fluffy clouds, but that’s a bit ridiculous even if it would be picturesque. I mean, if he flew off, he would have to touch down at some point to recover some strength, but at least the vines would give him safety so that even if the gorgon regains consciousness, Aiden should be protected from his turn-to-stone ability. The gorgon’s brute strength is another matter, though, which makes me grateful for the fairy dust after all.

“And we’re off to find Amy then?” Illumine asks, his tone a bit harsh.

I exhale slowly. “If we’re to work together, you need to know the truth.”

The phoenix scrunches up his nose.

“You still think you’re right and I’m wrong.”

“I… You haven’t lived the lives I have.”

“I don’t need to. You can’t just go around and kill people you deem as evil.”

“How ironic,” he mumbles.

“It’s different,” I snap. “What I did is different. I saw the chaos Jaidos was going to cause, the destruction.”

“And the ones I want dead have all caused destruction too!”

“Not to the point of deserving death!”

“In your opinion,” he says coolly.

I slump my shoulders. “You won’t ever see things differently.”

“No, and why should I believe the words of someone who has killed?”

“I’m a fairy. I can’t lie.”

“Lying isn’t the only sin in the world.”

“I know.”

“Murder is the worst sin of all.”

“Do you have any more salt? I don’t think you’ve poured enough in the wound,” I snap.

The phoenix grins. “You feel guilty.”

“A little. A lot. Not so much that I killed him, but that the war is going to happen anyhow, and that’s partially your fault!”

“And yours as well.”

I grunt and blow out a breath. “What I wanted to tell you is…”

I close my eyes and glamor myself, taking on the appearance of Sequoia again.

The phoenix tilts his head to the side. “When did… Ah. Yes. I see. You took her place… It had to have been after the siren incident, yes?”

I nod.

“And you were there to break out Sophie,” he says.

“Yes, but too late. I had no idea about the experiments. If I had…”

“You had me fooled.”

I shrug. “It seems like a hollow victory now. I mean, Zas returned, killed the warden, and freed all of the inmates. If I hadn’t gone there, Sophie would still be out.”

“Yes, but you—”

“I don’t know if I did anything good while there. I mean, I had Castiel locked up, but he’s so corrupt that it won’t matter. He wasn’t behind bars long at all. I tried to give Samuel advice, but who knows if my advice will help or hurt his relationship with his girlfriend. Then there’s Ciro. I started to talk to him and maybe make some progress with him, but then he wanted only me to be his guard, and it made me uncomfortable, but what if I just made him feel secure? What if I made him feel like he could change? And I failed him, and now he’s free, and he’s probably killed someone when he went to drink from them. He’s going to be back on the blood wagon—Is that what they call it?”

“Who?”

“Vampires.”

“You need to slow down. I’m not following you at all. Who is Ciro?”

“A vampire on my floor. I wanted to try to talk to the inmates, basically treat them more like patients instead of prisoners. I thought that maybe they could be rehabilitated if they were actually given advice and instruction. I don’t know how it’s determined if they can be released back into society. Portia said there are regulations, but I didn’t press for details in case Sequoia would’ve known them. I just… I wanted to make a difference in so many ways, and all I do is fail. I’m a failure. But I don’t want to let anyone else down. No war. There can’t be. No experiments. Sophie and Kyros and Amy, they need to be returned to Pervinca. Maybe she can fix them.”

“And if not?” Illumine murmurs.

“I don’t want to think like that. Positive thoughts. That’s how things are going to go.”

“You do realize that’s naïve, don’t you?”

“There are some who subscribe to the belief that whatever you put out into the universe comes back to you,” I say stubbornly.

“Maybe,” he says, doubt creeping into his tone. Then he eyes me critically. “And what exactly have you been putting out into the universe lately?”

“Ah… Yeah, well, so about Amy, where do you think she is?”

Illumine just shakes his head and sighs. “You’re impossible.”

“At least I’m trying to make the world a better place without killing a ton of people,” I counter.

The phoenix opens his mouth and then waves me away. “Sit down. Let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“My guess? She’s heading to either Magical Hunters Academy or Himinn Islet.”

“Himinn Islet? Isn’t that the island of the valkyries?”

“Yes.”

“How would a human get up there?” I wonder. “It’s a floating island.”

“I realize that.”

I hesitate. “The experiments didn’t give the human wings, did it?”

“Of course not!”

“Well, you and Pervinca aren’t exactly forthcoming as far as details as to what exactly the experiment is and what it does to the test subjects,” I say crossly.

The phoenix, of course, does not bother to enlighten me.

I sigh and throw up my hands. “We can just use fairy dust to whisk us to the academy.”

“She might not be there. If she was able to break free—”

“Sophie wasn’t able to,” I point out.

“Kyros wasn’t precisely doing what he was supposed to be doing.”

I grind my teeth. “Why did we use this stupid set of wings? Instead of the helicopter, would could’ve just flown.”

“And been exhausted. Do you know how many miles we’ve traveled?”

“We could’ve used fairy dust—”

“I never would have found Kyros if I used fairy dust to get me to this point or that point. I never would have thought to look here. And I also wanted to see if there was any trace of Kyros.”

“And there was,” I mumble. “All of those fights.”

“Not all of them had to be from Kyros, but he certainly did start some. A roundabout way of accomplishing his second goal.”

“I’m just glad he won’t be doing any goal,” I say. “But this helicopter…”

“Trust me. We had to use the helicopter.”

“For Kyros, maybe, but we don’t need to for Amy, right? Let’s go.”

“I would prefer to not—”

“You’re afraid someone is going to steal your helicopter. So what if someone does?”

“So what? Excuse me?”

“You’re a phoenix. You’ve lived how many lives? You’re probably the richest man alive. Don’t tell me you can’t buy yourself another one.”

“Just because I have money doesn’t mean that I want to waste it,” he protests.

Abruptly, I realize I still look like Sequoia. I banish the glamor. “You can fly your little helicopter if you want, but I’m hightailing it to Magical Hunters Academy.”

“I thought you didn’t trust me to leave me alone,” he says sarcastically.

“Clearly I trust you to some degree considering I told you who I truly am and about my secret.”

“Sequoia,” he mumbles. “How is she?”

“Very happy.”

“Despite what you did? Or was she in on it?”

I smile to myself. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but she was in on it the entire time.”

Illumine shakes his head. “You like to overly complicate things, don’t you?”

“That’s not true at all!” I protest. “Fairy dust is the least complicated way to reach Master Vanhylde!”

“I guess.” Illumine presses a few buttons on the dashboard and then stretches before standing. The helicopter is rising. “Get out your fairy dust,” he grumbles.

“But your helicopter—”

“Will land itself once it reaches its destination.”

“Without a pilot?”

“It’s called autopilot.”

“But that can land it?”

“Yes,” he says patiently. “Are we going or not?”

“We’re going!”

And we use fairy dust to arrive at Magical Hunters Academy. The last time I was here, there was a battle brewing.

It’s no different this time around.

Chapter

Twenty-Five

The sight before me is chilling, enough to inspire nightmares. Ghosts and ghouls disappear and reappear. They don’t wield weapons themselves, but they’re able to affect the weapons others are wielding, and they cause more than one casualty as I hover in place, too shocked to do anything but watch the scene unfolding before me.

Gorgons are running around, grabbing hair, forcing people to look at them. Thankfully, I only spy two of them, and a werewolf slashes one’s head clear off his shoulders. A vampire comes around behind the other and bites the neck so vigorously that that head is also detached. A dragon swoops down and burns not just the head but the bodies, the flames forcing the vampire to flee to another part of the battle.

But which side is which? Who should I help? I can’t do much good if all I’m doing is hindering one side from killing the other.

A woman walks toward me, her body slowly transforming into that of a massive snake. She’s a naga, and the rattling sound of her tail makes me want to flee. There’s just something about that noise that suggests death will come for all who hear it, a deathly facsimile of the light at the end of a tunnel.

But I’ve already seen the light at the end of a tunnel, the one that lead to Sophie’s and my freedom. I’ve come this far. I won’t dare to stop now.

Before the naga can come even closer, someone flies and lands in front of me.

“Ista,” a familiar voice says. “Go now.”

The snake nods her head. I’m just able to see her around the valkyrie.

The winged warrior turns around to stare at me. “I have the feeling we met before. Might you have been wearing a different face then?”

I nod. “Red hair, blue eyes, pale white skin, and freckles everywhere. How did you recognize me?”

“I have a nose for that kind of thing,” she says dryly. “I never forget who sets foot here.” Master Vanhylde glances at Illumine.

“We’re… I don’t know about him, but I’m here to help,” I say in a rush. “Only…”

The valkyrie lifts her eyebrows. “I don’t have time to stand around here and idly talk.”

Without looking away from me, she spins her golden spear and jams it backward, right into the left eye of a goblin.

I shriek. “How did you know…”

“I have a nose for these things,” she repeats.

“Does your nose tell you I’m a threat?” I ask boldly, wondering if she’s truly using her nose or if it’s an expression.

Her lips purse. “You carry secrets, I know that much, but I don’t think you pose a threat. You want to help, so help.”

“That’s just it, Master Vanhylde,” I say desperately. “I can’t tell which are the students and which are the enemies.”

“I suppose not. Tarragon!” the valkyrie cries, and a young man with green hair rushes over. A spriggan. “Tarragon, unleash a storm. A small one. Just one thunderbolt on me at my command.”

Within seconds, the spriggan does as she bids. The lightning sears through the sky right at her, but Master Vanjylde does not flinch. She holds up her spear, and the lightning crackles down the shaft before shooting off and racing around to form a tiny electrical necklace along many of those fighting.

With a nod, the valkyrie ushers the spriggan back to the battle before eyeing me. “Those with the lightning are connected to the school. Fight those without it.”

And she flies off.

I eye the phoenix. “What are you going to do?”

He snorts. “Not get involved.”

“You aren’t? But—”

“I’ll defend myself if someone attacks. Otherwise, I am not here for that.”

“You just want to locate Amy. What will you do with her if you find her and we’re separated?”

“I suppose we’ll find that out if that happens,” Illumine says.

I scowl. “I don’t like that.”

He chuckles, smiling for the first time in ages. “No, I suppose you wouldn’t. I don’t mean to harm her, obviously.”

“But if she’s going to attack Master Vanhylde, are you going to help Amy?” I ask desperately.

Illumine eyes the perfectly clear sky. The storm is long gone. “That valkyrie…”

As much as I want to lie and say that wasn’t Master Vanhylde, I can’t. So infuriating!

“She’s powerful. We were foolish to send a human against her. We thought the element of surprise… But no.”

“We need to find her and get her out of here before she ends up killed,” I say.

“I agree with that much,” the phoenix says.

Before we can talk more, a manticore comes bounding over. No lightning necklace, thankfully.

I hate manticores. What can I say? I hold grudges, and one of their kind killed my parents.

The manticore growls. With the body of a lion, and a head of a man with teeth like a shark’s with multiple rows, the beast is rather terrifying. Oh, can’t forget the scorpion tail that can shoot out spikes.

Fun, right?

Oh, and they like to eat people and can swallow them whole.

“This one’s mine,” I tell Illumine.

“You be careful,” he says, and he flies off.

Does he care if I live or die? Maybe there’s hope for him yet.

The manticore bounds over to stand right in front of me. Its tail raises, and I use my wings to fly parallel to the ground, close to it, and zoom beneath the manticore, dragging my knife along its underbelly. The stench from its organs makes me realize that I cut through its bowel. Disgusting, but the manticore isn’t ready to die just yet.

He shoots out random spikes, the sharps flying in random directions, and I quickly lob off the tail.

The manticore howls in rage and tries to jump to swat at me, but the manticore’s organs just fall out at that point, and it’s a matter of seconds before it collapses, dead.

But that’s not the only foe I face. Oh, no, not even close. A giant is attacking several elves, trolls, and ogres, and I help them to knock it down to level the playing field. The giant almost fell on a brownie, and I had to deal with him and his kobold friends.

A succubus is ordering around a bunch of hellhounds. I also have a grudge against those fiery, demonic dogs, and I take them out, but not before they kill a mermaid who is walking about on two legs. Err, was walking around on two legs. What a terrible way for someone with an affinity for water to die.

On and on the battle rages, and at times, I even forget that I have a goal in mind, that I’m supposed to locate a human in this chaotic nightmare.

But I don’t stop fighting. Dwarves, sirens, a naga, drow also known as dark elves… So many. Too many.

And I use the knife only. Well, the knife and my wings. I don’t want to risk using chlorokinesis and it fail considering I’m hardly fighting my foes alone. The students and professors are quite capable, although some do fall to injuries or even die outright.

I have no idea how much time passes, but eventually, when I take a breath after killing a wyvern by flying into its mouth and cutting through its tail to fly out of it, I realize that everyone I see has the lightning necklace.

Did we do it?

I fly up high to see, and within seconds, I’m joined by a certain valkyrie.

“You fought well,” she says with a note of pride that she shouldn’t have. “I am amazed at what you did. Have you any training?”

“Nothing but fear.”

“Well, fear isn’t the best of teachers,” she mutters.

“No.”

“The battle is won. Thank you.”

“The battle, yes, but the war is just starting,” I say.

“I’m sorry,” Master Vanhylde says. Other than being a bit out of breath, the valkyrie hardly looks as if she just fought a major battle.

Fury has me clutching tight, angry fists at my sides. “That’s all you can say? You’re sorry? Can’t you see what’s happening all around you? What’s at stake? The fate of the entire world—”

“My entire world is Magical Hunters Academy. My world is my students. I am the only master who works with every single student every year that they attend here. I will do what I can for them every step of the way going forward as I always have.”

“But they’re training, right? Training to be hunters, slayers, executioners… Why not consider this more training? We need all the help we can get. This war isn’t over. There could be another battle here very soon. Do you think that the enemy won’t see your students as a threat? Come on now! By the breeze, open your eyes!”

“My eyes are open, thank you very much,” Master Vanhylde snaps. “My heart bleeds for those who will die, but I cannot in good faith allow my students who are not ready yet for battle to—”

“They’ve fought in two battles already,” I say through gritted teeth. “Stop acting as if they can’t handle themselves. They can! They have you as one of their mentors!”

“Be that as it may, my decision is final.”

“Yeah? Well, who died and made you king?”

Master Vanhylde started to walk away, but now she stills and slowly turns around. “If you must know, Jaidos, the headmaster, has died.”

“Oh, you know that, do you? Because I’m not sure the students know that. Do you think it fair to keep them in the dark—”

“You do not attend here.”

“No.”

“So you have no say on the goings-on here.”

I purse my lips. It’s on the tip of my tongue to admit what I did. I would love to see her reaction, but she’s holding a golden spear. She’ll strike me down before I can get out more than half of the apology.

Master Vanhylde holds her head up high. “I do thank you for helping with the battle, but truly, we do not need you.”

“No?” I ask. “That’s a pity.”

The valkyrie glowers at me and shifts her gaze to over my shoulder. “Do you need to be escorted from the grounds?”

“No, but I’m not ready to leave yet.”

“Is that so?” she snaps.

“Yes. I need to examine those who died.”

“Why? Who are you looking for?” She crosses her arms.

“I… I would rather not say.”

“You are not going to touch the dead—”

“Amy Chang. That’s who I need too find.”

The valkyrie stiffens. “Are you certain?”

“I am.”

“And why would you think she’s here?”

Well, isn’t this going to be an interesting and awkward conversation.

I clear my throat and rub the back of my neck. “Well, you see, I have reason to believe that she, ah, she wants to kill you.”

“And do you know what happens to those who try to kill me?” she asks.

I wince. “You killed her?”

“I did.”

“But she was human!” I shout.

“I’m aware.”

“You didn’t have to kill her! You could’ve stopped her easily, could’ve made her unconscious, tied her up… There’s a thousand different scenarios that could’ve played out, that should’ve played out!”

“My, my, you are a judgmental one, aren’t you? She came at me during the battle. What would you have me do? It was the heat of the moment. A horde of hellhounds was surrounding me, and they actually allowed her to pass through them unmolested. I didn’t realize until after I killed her that she was human. She almost knifed me in the back, which, by the way, wouldn’t have killed me anyhow. Not with my armor.”

“The blade—”

“The one she was wielding? It was an ordinary dagger. She couldn’t have killed me. She tried, but it was rather pathetic.”

My anger dissipates, giving way to dismay. “It wasn’t her fault that she tried to kill you,” I say sadly.

“So you say.”

“There’s so much going on that you don’t know about.”

“And if it does not directly affect the academy, I do not care to know it.”

“That’s…” I exhale a breath. “I have to try to stop the fighting, the war.”

“If the battle comes to us, we will defend ourselves but nothing more.”

I glance around the academy. It’s partially in ruins, and it will take some time to be rebuilt. Can I truly blame the valkyrie for wishing to tend to her family? To keep them safe? The students are training to become hunters, slayers, and executioners, yes, but they’re still in training. Many have fallen between the two battles.

It’s only natural during times of crisis to stick to those you care about the most. The students here are lucky to have Master Vanhylde to protect them.

“You’re one amazing warrior,” I say. “I’m sorry we won’t fight alongside each other.”

“My place is here,” she says, her tone soft for once. “You will find your place, and it will not always be a battle field.”

I grimace. “I think you might be wrong there.”

The valkyrie opens her mouth but then shuts it and instead of saying anything gives me a tight-lipped nod.

And I’m off, heading toward the exit, wondering if this will be the last time I see Master Vanhylde.

Her staying out of the war very well may mean that she’ll survive it, but I can’t be certain I will.

Chapter

Twenty-Six

I’ve just reached the exit of Magical Hunters Academy when Illumine flies over.

“She’s dead, isn’t she?” he asks. “I can’t find her.”

“She’s dead.”

“Master Vanhylde?”

I nod.

Illumine mumbles a curse.

“Aw, upset that your little pet experiment died?” I ask sarcastically.

“I never wanted Amy to die,” he protests.

“No. Obviously not. You just sent her to kill a valkyrie. One who teaches how to use weapons. All kinds of weapons. She could sneeze and it would kill someone.” I glower at him and march ahead, leaving the grounds of the academy entirely.

Illumine rushes to be beside me. “Where are you off to?”

“I…” I grab my phone for the first time in hours. It’s almost dead, but I skim my messages.

Aiden lets me know that he’s arrived safely, that Pervinca is still working on Sophie, that the sprite is going to put Kyros in a magical medical coma until she can work on him. Sophie’s still unconscious. He even sent a picture of her. By the breeze, is she pale. I hate seeing her like this, and I shove my phone away.

There’s nothing I can do for Sophie at the moment.

There is the war going on. All those battles we saw from the helicopter, the ones Kyros started…

I eye Illumine. “Are you going to return to the prison?”

“To check on the two… Yes, I think I will.” He tilts his head to the side. “Isn’t that where you’re heading?”

“No.”

“Why not? Your sister…”

“I can’t do anything for her, and I’m not the kind to sit around and do nothing. If it were me, Sophie would be there, reading a book to pass the time. She can handle being still. I can’t. I need to do something. I have to.”

“You’re going to get yourself killed. That’s what you’re going to do.”

“Stopping your war, that’s what I aim to do.”

He opens his mouth.

“Save it. I don’t care if you think that falling in love with a human makes you immune to criticism. Love shouldn’t turn to hate.”

“I don’t hate—”

“You don’t hate the one you love, no, but you let your anger from her murder be the fuel for your hatred for all those you deem evil. Who are you to judge, though?”

He glowers at me. “You don’t dare get to judge me.”

“No? But you can judge everyone else it seems. And don’t act like I’m just a naïve, young fairy who hasn’t lived any. I’ve lived. I know heartache, and I even know loss. My parents were paranormal slayers, and they killed a manticore, but that manticore killed them too. They’re dead. I hate manticores, yes, but I don’t go around trying to find all of them to make them extinct. That’s not how the real world works.”

“I loved Song. She was the best thing—”

“Loved?” I interrupt. “Do you not love her still?”

The phoenix flares his nostrils. “No,” he says shortly. “It’s too painful.”

“I understand pain, but, Illumine, you don’t have to remember just that you lost her. Focus on why you love her.”

The phoenix closes his eyes, and when he opens them, a single tear, the color of a rainbow, trickles from his fiery eyes.

“You’re going to seek out another battle just like this one and try to stop it, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

He hesitates. “May I accompany you?”

“Why?”

“To ensure you don’t die,” he grumbles.

“You don’t think I can handle myself?”

“Maybe I’ve decided you’re one of the good ones, someone who shouldn’t be killed.”

“Hmm.” I grin.

Maybe I can get through to the phoenix after all.

We fly up high, above the clouds which causes visibility to be obscured. It’s not long at all before the phoenix stops, hovering in a cloud.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Scar,” he mutters, the fire in his eyes glittering harder than normal.

“Scar?” I repeat, confused. “What—”

“Not what. Who,” he corrects.

“You know someone named Scar?” I mutter. “Why am I not surprised?”

“You don’t have to be like that,” he mutters back. “He’s a shifter, one of the ones from my floor.”

“A prisoner!” I gasp. “Wait. You can sense him from up here?”

“Yes.”

“Should I… Would Sequoia be able to?” I can’t help feeling inferior.

“I don’t know. I have connection to those I interacted with. That’s a phoenix thing, not a guard thing,” he explains, his tone softening some.

“Oh, okay. All right. Let’s go collect Scar.” I grimace. “Did his parents really name him that? Because if so, that’s pretty terrible.”

“No, no.” Illumine laughs. “It’s a nickname. I don’t recall his real name, though.”

He shrugs, and we dip low enough in the cloud to be able to see that a wide forest is beneath us, nice and thick. We drop down to the highest branches, and I don’t sense any humans. Still, the moment my feet touch the ground, I conceal my wings. Illumine does the same, marching forward like a man on a mission.

Or on a hunt.

It doesn’t take long for the natural sounds of the forest—the rustling of small, furry animal running through the bushes, the birds singing—to all go quiet, replaced by the sounds of yelling and arguing. A terrible, sickening thud sounds, and the stench of spilled blood invades my nose.

The phoenix and I both break out into a run, and we shift between the trees to find a clearing. Inside is an elf, a demon who isn’t Zas, a man who might be a witch, and Scar. The shifter is in his human form, but there’s a terrible scar running down the side of his face and down to beneath his unbuttoned dress shirt, untucked, his jeans worn low.

Oh, and an ogre whose head is split open against a rock.

The elf stares down at the ogre and then glowers at the demon. “Why did you do that?” he demands.

The demon stands the closest to Scar. He merely glances at the shifter, but even I can see the confusion in the demon’s soulless eyes.

Scar touches the possible witch. Immediately, the man raises his arms and begins to mumble an incantation. The ogre’s body begins to twitch.

I gasp. A necromancer!

“Scar, come here,” Illumine says firmly.

The shapeshifter just laughs and moves around the necromancer, whose eyes are wholly black now, and touches the elf. The elf jerks away from him but then launches himself at the demon, the two fighting as if they have a personal vendetta against one another.

“You stop the necromancer,” I tell Illumine.

He grits his teeth. “Scar isn’t one that you can just take down easily,” he warns.

“Yeah, well, you have more experience with death than I do.”

He can’t argue with that, and I sidestep the two fighters, watching the shifter uneasily.

Scar grins at me, reaches out, and touches my shoulder just as he had the others.

I just stare at him. Does he expect me to do anything? It’s a little strange how the others aren’t fighting him but each other and only after he touches them…

Wait. Is that right? Or is that a coincidence?

“Scar,” I say calmly.

The shifter bears his teeth. Within seconds, he turns into a nasty, rabid rat the size of my head. He scampers to my feet and climbs up my leg.

I kick him off me, and I use chlorokinesis without thinking. Err, I try to, but the branches react too slowly, and the rat’s back at it. His teeth are larger than mine! He’s disgusting, and what’s even creepier is that even his rat has the scar, his fur parted to reveal the pink line.

The rat is trying to climb back up my leg, but by now, the grass is listening to my commands, and I wrap him up into a cocoon of sorts.

Scar dealt with for now, I survey the scene. Illumine is…

He’s fighting both the demon and the elf. The ogre is almost reanimated at this point.

“Illumine!” I rush over and tackle the necromancer. He falls hard, me on top of him, and I grab a rock and smash it against his temple, not hitting hard enough to kill, just to stun.

With another sickening thud, the ogre’s head falls back hard against the same rock.

I scramble to my feet. The rat must’ve chewed his way free because Scar is sitting on Illumine’s shoulder and then jumps onto the face of the elf. The elf knocks the rat out of the air. Scar slams into a tree and reverts back from his human self. He’s a bit dazed.

Illumine’s arms are on fire. He’s going to turn into his bird? Seriously? Why?

“Illumine!” I shout. “You need to stop!”

His eyes are literally flames that slowly revert to orbs. He blinks a few times, and the flames on his arms fade away. He’s clearly out of it, and the demon and elf go at each other and then go down, both gasping for breath, their wounds devastating. Are they both going to die? For what? Why were they fighting?

Scar begins to laugh, the sound terrible. Without thinking, I throw out my arm, and branches from the tree nearest him reach down and wrap around his arms to pin him in place.

The phoenix draws in a deep breath. The necromancer begins to stir, and Illumine drop an elbow to have the necromancer knocked out.

The guard marches over to Scar. He puts one side of magic-dampening cuffs on and then throws me a look. Sheepishly, I release the shifter, and Illumine finishes binding Scar.

“I’m going to bring him to the prison,” Illumine says.

“Illumine, what happened?”

“I’ll bring the necromancer too.”

I eye the elf and the demon. Yes, they’re both dead.

“Illumine. What. Happened?”

“It wasn’t…” He scowls. “I need to go.”

I grit my teeth but nod. Fine. He can go. I’ll find out the answers to my questions myself.

Because maybe more than prisoners had been experimented after all.

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

For an hour, I fly around, and I manage to find Nebula, a fairy inmate. When she realizes I’m coming after her, she takes off flying, heading to the nearest village. No, to the waterfall that gushes into a roaring stream. This waterfall has a name, Eternal Ivory Falls, and it’s the home of a herd of hydras.

Despite zooming after her and trying to catch her with vines, she just laughs and descends into the falls, going around and jumping from head to head of three hydras. One has three heads, the other seven, and the third has so many that I can’t count them because they’re moving too much.

Nebula winks at me. “Have fun,” she calls. She wiggles her fingers and then flies off.

Does she know who I am? Doubtful. She thinks I’m Sophie.

I start after her, but there’s a massive roar behind me. To my horror, the hydras aren’t fighting each other. No, they’re causing the water to rock and roll. They’re creating massive waves, and each one is bigger than the next. If the waves grow massive enough, they’ll reach the village.

With a muttered curse, I hesitate. I want to go after Nebula and handle this crisis, which means the prisoner is going to be free a bit longer, but what can I do?

My phone rings.

“So not a good time.”

“What a nice way to answer my call,” Aiden says.

“Do you have news for me?”

“No. I just wanted to check in. Illumine just returned and—”

“I have a bit of a situation here.”

“Where? With what?”

“Hydras. Eternal Ivory Falls.”

Before I can blink, Aiden’s hovering in front of me. Gotta love fairy dust.

“What are they doing?” Aiden asks, horror cutting into his words.

“The hydras are trying to drown the village.”

Aiden stares at the village. “Lizardfolk live there.”

“Better than humans, I suppose, but… How are we going to stop this?”

“I don’t know.”

“We might need more help.”

“Yes, we do.” He rubs his chin. A bit of stubble is growing. “A witch who can use water.”

“Do you know one?”

“No. But what would a witch do? Stop the water. We can do that.”

“Yes, but the hydras—”

“Let’s stop the water first,” he says.

“Okay,” I say doubtfully.

As quickly as we can, with the grass and trees reacting a lot quicker to Aiden than me, we create a natural dam. The waves slash against it as we continue to make it higher and higher to combat the growing waves.

But then the hydras just smash through the dam. They just plow right through it like it’s not even there, and I gape at them. They’re frothing at the mouth, their dragon-serpent-looking heads opening and shutting their mouths. One twists its sinuous neck toward us, but instead of trying to eat us. It nudges us.

Touching us.

Just like Nebula did with the hydras.

Like Scar did with the others.

I yank Aiden upward. “Watch,” I murmur.

“But they’re following the stream to the village!”

“Just watch.”

And we do exactly that as the hydra enters the village. The stream cuts through the village, dividing it perfectly in half. The lizardfolk slither out of their mudhouses. They look like lizards, but they stand and walk around as a human would.

The hydras touch each lizardfolk they can, and then, not only do the lizardfolk fight the hydras, but they start to fight each other too. Even the hydras stop acting as allies on turn on each other.

“What in the world?” Aiden mumbles.

“I don’t understand. You don’t feel the need to fight, right?”

“Ah, no. Why? Do you?”

“No…”

“We can’t… We can’t just leave them like this?”

I bite my lower lip. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. Humans aren’t nearby.”

“Yes, but they’re killing each other!”

“Because of Nebula.”

“Nebula?”

“An escaped fairy prisoner. She touched the hydras and set this off… whatever this is.”

“You want to capture her and return her to the prison,” Aiden guesses.

“Yes. She went off in this direction.”

I grab his hand, and we take off, flying a bit lower to the ground than we should. We’re approaching a deserted area, and there’s a lone figure leaning against a cactus.

As we near the person, I gape as recognition dawns.

I release Aiden’s hand and then hesitate. Ciro doesn’t know me as Jessa. He probably hasn’t seen Sophie either. If I’m to get anywhere with him, I’ll have to be Sequoia, so I quickly take on the fairy’s form before landing.

“Ciro? Are you all right?”

The vampire does not look so hot. He’s pale, paler than normal that is, and he’s sweating blood. That can’t be a good sign.

“Don’t come any closer!” he shouts, holding up his hands to ward me off.

“Ciro, what’s wrong? You look… You’ve looked better,” I say lamely.

“I don’t know what’s going on with me,” he mumbles. “I went to feed on a person. A woman. I swear I only wanted enough to quench my thirst! I didn’t want to kill her!”

“But you did,” Aiden lands right beside me.

I shift to the side a little to have some space between us.

“No,” Ciro says defensively. “She started to attack me! I rushed away because I didn’t want to make a scene, but then she started to attack someone else! I went to another street and tried again, and the same thing happened.”

I take a step toward him.

“No! Don’t touch me!” He hugs himself and takes a couple of steps backward. “I… When anyone is around me, I want to touch them, and I don’t know why, but it turns people violent. I don’t want to hurt you! You… You believed in me when no one else did. I won’t hurt you.”

“Is that why you’re here? All alone?”

He nods miserably. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

My heart melts. Here, I thought the vampire was being possessive, but he truly wants to change, and for him, I’m that person, the one he needs to rely on. I ignored him when I should’ve continued to help him to the best of my abilities.

“It’s all right,” I whisper, holding out my hand.

“No! Before I came here, I went to see my family… My family…” Ciro covers his face with his hands and falls to his knees. His shoulders shake as he sobs.

Without thinking, I kneel beside him and rub his back. Ciro stiffens and pulls away.

I just smile at him. “I’m not going to hurt you or fight with you or anyone else.”

“But…” Ciro shifts his gaze from me to Aiden and back again. “I don’t understand.”

“We’re not sure what’s going on either,” Aiden says.

“But it seems that whatever is happening isn’t affecting us.” I stare at Aiden. “Maybe it doesn’t affect any fairies.”

“I don’t know,” he says doubtfully.

“No! Sophie didn’t make us fight! It’s worth a shot.”

“What is?” Aiden asks guardedly.

“Talking to the king and queen.”

“They won’t listen to us. They didn’t the last time you talked to them.”

“I’ll just have to make them listen.” I refocus on Ciro and hold out my wrist. “Drink.”

“No.”

“You need blood.”

“I… No. I’ll be fine.”

“When did you last drink?”

He hesitates. “Sometime before I left the prison.”

“Drink.”

“But I’ve never been able to stop myself.”

“You will. This time, you will.” I nod.

Ciro swallows and holds onto my arm. He glances at me until the last second, when his fangs puncture my skin. It doesn’t hurt as much as I think it will, and he’s pulling back almost immediately.

“I can’t,” he gasps.

“You can.”

The vampire leans forward, and this time, he drinks. I can hear three swallows, and then he pulls back.

“There. I drank some.”

“And how do you feel?”

“A little better.”

“Because you need more.”

“No! This, ah, this is good enough for now.”

I just shake my head. “Fine. Have it your way. Will you be all right here?”

“I doubt I’ll ever be all right, not after…”

I pat his shoulder, but Aiden coughs, and I know we have to get going. After patting Ciro’s back, I cross over to Aiden. Fairy dusts whisks back to Roseshield Grove, not far from the castle.

“Are you going to see them as Sequoia or…” Aiden murmurs.

“Oh, right.” I smile sheepishly and release the glamor. Immediately, I start to fly ahead, but Aiden captures my hand. “Hmm?”

“What you did for Ciro… That was something. You didn’t see him as a prisoner. You didn’t even see him as a vampire.”

“He was hurting. He can’t help that his body needs blood to survive. Maybe with practice, he can overcome his bloodlust and drink what he needs without killing anyone.”

“You enjoyed being a guard, didn’t you?”

“Some of it, yes. When I wasn’t terrified for Sophie. But let’s talk about this later, okay?”

“Of course.”

The fairy castle is just as beautiful as the last time I came here, maybe even more so. It must’ve just rained because the castle is lit with rainbows along the white stone walls. The kaleidoscope of colors should make my heart alight with joy, but I’m far too anxious, worried, and frightened.

The guards glance at each other but allow us through unimpeded and without saying a word. We make our way to the throne room where the royals sit on their thrones.

King Jarrah and Queen Camelia Bramblebrook stop talking. The queen waves us forward.

“Please, listen to me,” I start.

“Jessa Aldercross, have you come to tell us that which we already know?” the king asks in a tone I don’t appreciate. It’s hard and condescending.

“I don’t know what you already know, so please, hear me out. The prisoners have all escaped from Magical Prison and—”

“We know,” the queen says. “We are grateful. Some of them have been imprisoned for far longer than they should have been given the nature of their trivial crimes. We should be able to see to our own prisoners, be able to punish those who wrong us as we see fit.”

“The prisoners are somehow tampering with people, affecting them, causing them to lash out with violence,” I say in a rush before they can interrupt me again. “We need to rally together to protect ourselves—”

“Why on earth would we need to do that?” the king asks with a curious glint in his eyes.

I furrow my brow. “Because we—”

“We have nothing to fear from whatever is plaguing the others,” the queen says with a wave of her hand. “You seem to have a good deal of visions and premonitions, Jessa. If you would come to us and let us handle them, perhaps you could be invited to the royal court. But we are the king and queen, and we decide our best to proceed with the knowledge gained from the premonitions. Fairies are free of this… plight.”

“But the rest of the world—”

“The rest of the world does not serve the better interest of the fairies,” King Jarrah says firmly.

Inwardly, I’m fuming. No wonder some of the fairies moved down south to Winternora Territory. I also wonder if the king and queen are the reason why my parents opted to become paranormal slayers since that isn’t typically done.

“Do I have your permission to talk to the fairies and see if any will help me?” I ask through gritted teeth, figuring they will not allow me even this.

“You may ask,” the queen says airily.

From their smug expressions, it’s quite clear to me that they don’t think any of the fairies will agree. That doesn’t stop me, though. I ask all of the fairies I see, explain what’s going on, but not one of them is willing to help. Not one. Finch is the only one who seems to consider my words, but then he shakes his head.

“I’m sorry, Jessa. You told me the last time we spoke that I need to keep my family close, and keep a lot of plants at hand. I’ve been doing that, and I need to continue to especially if there’s outside danger. Aidy is pregnant again and—”

“That’s wonderful, and I understand.”

“What about you?” he asks.

“You have to do what you have to do. I must do the same.”

Aiden coughs.

I smile wanly. “We have to do what we must. Better?”

“Somewhat.”

Aiden’s glum tone matches mine. The fairies won’t help. Our being immune to the sudden desire to fight until we kill each other won’t save us from the coming war.

But that’s fine. No worries. We’ll do it alone.

Aiden reaches over and squeezes my shoulder. He’s in this with me. At least I’m not going it alone.

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

“Now what?” Aiden asks I get off the phone with Pervinca. I needed an update on Sophie. So far, there still isn’t much of one.

As much as I wanted to, I didn’t ask the sprite if she knows or has anything to do with the prisoners being able to affect others and cause them to almost have bloodlust or bloodrage. Something.

Maybe I don’t want to know the answer, or maybe I’m just selfish and want the doctor to focus on saving my sister.

“There’s no point in returning to the prison.” I scratch my head. “Maybe we can—”

My phone rings. Before I called Pervinca, we ate a quick meal. Thankfully, there had been an outlet by the table so I could charge my phone.

“Hello?”

“Jessa?”

“Sequoia?” I ask, thrilled to hear from her but also alarmed. Is something wrong?

“I received a phone call from Portia.”

“Ah, yes, I had to talk to her and—”

“You wanted to know the location of HEX Unite.”

“Yes!”

“It’s in The Wilds.”

“Where exactly?”

“You know Portia.” Sequoia laughs. “She’s not big on talk or details.”

“That’s all she said? Of course it is. It’s not as if The Wilds is a small area. All right. Still, it should be visible, right? It has to be.”

“I’m sure it is.” She hesitates. “Do I want to know?”

“No, but, ah, you might want to stick to fairies for now. Under no circumstances should you allow a non-fairy to touch you.”

“Okay, you’re starting to scare me.”

“Don’t worry. This will all blow over.”

“By the breeze, you’re making me even more nervous!”

“Just stay calm.”

“Easier said than done.”

“That’s the story of my life.” I hang up and grin at Aiden even though I’m more than a little nervous. “Time to head to the Midwest US. We’re going to see HEX Unite’s headquarters.”

“The Wilds, huh? That’s huge.”

“And in the middle of nowhere. Come on. The sooner we go—”

“The sooner we can find it.”

We search and search and search. Soon, we have to abandon The Wilds in order of finding a hotel. Considering there are inmates running amuck and causing major battles everywhere they go, we can’t risk sleeping out in the opening. A quick breakfast in the morning, and we’re off, flying over The Wilds again, a barren wasteland. The lack of greenery makes me a little nervous, but then, I spy a roof. No walls, no building, just a roof.

I glance at Aiden, who’s staring at it too. It’s the only thing of note we’ve come across, so we head on down. The moment our feet touch the ground, a swirl of dust rises up, forming a kind of tornado. Once the dust settles again, we’re standing in front of a warehouse-type building with that same roof.

Aiden gestures for me to go ahead. I march up to the door, but before I can knock, it swings open. Out strides a valkyrie wearing blue and gold armor and heeled armored boots. Her long hair is blond, almost white, and her eyes are sky-blue, so bright they don’t look real. Her features are sharp, reminding me of Master Vanhylde. Like the master, this valkyrie also has a spear attached to her back despite her wings, but in her hands is a bladed boomerang.

“Hi, I’m—”

“Jessa Aldercross and Aiden Sunwinds,” she says, her words clipped in a strange lilting accent. “I’ve been expecting you.”

“That’s nice, but, ah, are you Madra?”

“In the flesh.” She shuts the door behind her. “Let’s go for a wee walk, shall we?”

“Of course.” Whatever the head of Hex Unite wants, she gets.

We don’t walk very far at all before the valkyrie opens her mouth, but I cut her off.

“You!” I gasp. “You’re the one…”

“I’m the one what?”

My head shakes so many times that I think it’s going to bobble off my head. I grab Aiden’s hand and squeeze it. We have to get out of here. Madra’s voice, I recognize it.

She’s an ally of Jaidos. She’s the one who spoke with him on the phone in the one vision I had!

“I’m sorry,” I babble. “I just realized that I forgot to do, err, something. We’ll come back another time, then, ah, if that’s all right with you.”

“Jessa, you can calm down.”

“Yeah, you see, I’m a little strange. When I’m told to calm down, I tend to get even more riled up, so…”

Madra tilts her head to the side and tosses the boomerang into the air. The blades spin before landing back in her hand. “I know what you’re concerned about. Yes, Jaidos and I were in communication. How could we not be? He was the headmaster of the academy that gives me plenty of employees.”

I swallow hard, unsure what to say or how to get out of here.

“Go ahead. Ask me, Jessa.”

I just shake my head. “If we can leave—”

“You came here because you want answers. You want help. I want to help you.”

“No, you don’t,” I say flatly. “You want Jaidos’ war—”

“To not happen, just as you don’t want it to. That’s why you killed him.”

My jaw drops, and I stop walking, turning slightly to block her, Aiden shifting to the other side. “I…”

“You don’t have to worry. I didn’t send anyone for you. Those angel guards were all of Jaidos’ from the academy, but, well, you didn’t go to prison. Your sister wasn’t supposed to either, but by that point, it was out of my hands. Magical Prison and I don’t play quite as nicely as Jaidos and I did, but then again, I wasn’t working actively to undermine the prison.”

“Wait. Are you suggesting…”

“That I was trying to undermind Jaidos? Yes, that’s precisely what I’m saying.” Madra’s smile is faint but a bit coy. “You can’t honestly think that I would want war, did you? Of course not. You’re also not the only one with premonitions. I knew the moment Jaidos decided to overreach and go after humans, and I knew what the consequences would be. That said, I did not know what his exact plan was, so I pretended to be on his side to learn as much intelligence as I could.”

“A spy,” I murmur.

“Indeed. I wanted to see his plan so I could foil them, stop him. You had the same premonition, and you opted to stop him as well, albeit a bit more permanently.”

My cheeks grow warm. “I… Learning his plan first would’ve been smarter,” I mumble.

“Yes, well, I have been doing this a bit longer than you have, but I must admit that not even my oracles foresaw the latest development.”

“Which development?”

“Well, the killing of the warden for one. The release of all of the prisoners for another.”

“And the… killing touch. Fighting touch? I don’t know what to call it.” I shrug uncomfortably.

“It’s almost like… an infection,” Aiden says.

“Precisely!” Madra beams at him as if she’s a proud professor of his.

“An infection?” I repeat dubiously. “It happens almost instantly through touch.”

“Yes, it does seem rather potent, doesn’t it?”

I nod, my mouth dry. “Who… Who did that? Jaidos? Is this part of his plan for the war?”

“Oh, no, dear, and that’s why I missed this until too late. I was so focused on Jaidos and then the new wrinkle that came about because of his death that I wasn’t paying any mind to what was happening in the prison.”

“But you knew about the experiments,” I say slowly.

“Yes, that, of course, but I mean the rest of the inmates, the infection, virus, what have you.”

“So you don’t know how to stop it then.” I grimace. My mind is spinning. Someone else is behind the infection. This isn’t Jaidos. This is someone else.

Just what we need. War from every which angle.

Who? Who could have done all of this?

“Zas,” I murmur before the head of HEX Unite could answer me.

“The demon from the prison.”

“The killer of Rall. He’s the one who released the prisoners. Maybe he infected them before releasing them out into the wilds. Err, into the general public.”

“That’s possible,” Madra says slowly, “but that doesn’t quite matter because to answer your question, yes, I do believe we are very close to coming up with an antidote for the chaos that’s being spread. We’re calling it Finisbellum.”

“You’re close?” I ask eagerly.

“Yes, but we’re missing one crucial ingredient.”

“What is it?”

“Fairy dust.”

I glance at Aiden. As much as I want to trust Madra, this all seems a bit too nice and neat, too tidy and perfect. Is she playing us? Can we trust her? I’ve never heard of fairy dust being used in a potion before.

Maybe she’s just playing me, playing us.

But we don’t really have a choice, do we? We need to stop the battles. They’re going to end up causing a war between not just the paranormal community but between us and the humans. The two wars will happen simultaneously.

I have to decide whether or not to trust Madra, and I’ve always wondered if I can trust Hex Unite.

What should we do?

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

“Are you sure about this?” Aiden whispers to me.

I nod. “It’s worth a chance, right?”

“Not if it makes things worse.”

I can feel the color drain from my face. “Do you honestly think that’s possible?”

“Who knows? At this point, it sure feels like the world is just one giant ball of craziness, doesn’t it?”

“You aren’t helping any,” I hiss.

“Am I getting on your last nerve?”

“Yes.”

“How about these nerves?” He brushes his fingers over my lips and then kisses me.

I’m smiling when he pulls away. “Not too bad.”

“Yeah? I thought you might like that. By the way, I read that book you told me about, the one with the demon and the angel.”

I have to think for a moment. “The book I read before everything with Jaidos,” I murmur.”

“Yes, the one where they fell in love, and their love was dooming the world.”

“Yes. How did it end? With a happy ending?”

“Not exactly. Somewhat happy. Halfway happy? Something like that.”

“Happily for now?”

“That’s it.”

“How did that work?”

“They loved each other enough to let each other go so that the war wouldn’t consume the world making it impossible for them to ever be together.”

“That’s not really happy at all.”

“They didn’t die, and the rest of the world didn’t go to war, so… halfway happy.”

I sigh and shake my head. “At least we don’t have to worry about that. We just have to test and see if the antidote works.”

“By the breeze, I hope it does.”

“You and me both.”

We’re so very anxious as we wait for Madra to come out. Aiden and I haven’t been allowed to step foot inside the headquarters, but we were directed to a small shack of a house where we could eat and freshen up. I even dozed a bit on the couch some.

As soon as I woke, I called the prison. Pervinca didn’t answer. I don’t think I could be more worried than I am right now.

Instead of the valkyrie, a troll marches out. Her large pointed ears has me assuming she’s part fairy. Her large red eyes don’t blink, and her complexion is a lovely shade of purple.

“I’m Illa,” she says. “Follow me.”

We trail behind her to the back of the headquarters. A siren is locked in a cage. In another are two goblins.

The troll marches over to the siren and tosses a vial inside. It smashes to the ground, and a faintly blue cloud wisps up and around the siren.

“Be prepared for anything,” Illa murmurs.

“First she opens the cage to the goblins. Then, she opens the other and uses the magic-dampening cuffs to guide the dazed siren into the cell with the goblins. Illa locks them inside.

It’s not surprising to see the siren touch the goblins each in turn, but it’s beyond disheartening when the goblins start to fight.

A failed experiment.

Two more trial runs with the experiment occur before Madra joins us.

“Science can be wonderful, and magic is rather glorious, but a marriage between the two doesn’t always work,” the valkyrie says, frustration evident in both her tone and the lines around the corners of her lips.

“Now what?” I ask.

“Now, I’m afraid we’ve run out of time.”

My heart skips a beat. “What do you mean?”

“On the outskirts of The Wilds, a massive battle is already brewing. The time to fight has come.”

“But how will we even know who to fight?” I ask.

“That’s just it,” Madra says sadly. “Without an antidote, there’s no way we can end the battle. We will all fight to the death.”

My eyes widen as realization hits me like a blow to the stomach. “We aren’t going to survive the war.”

“Is it possible? Maybe, but I… I’ll be honest. I don’t see how.”

Mouth dry, I nod.

She rises up and flies off. Workers pour out of the warehouse and follow her, either by running on the ground or flying after her.

I go to join them, but Aiden pulls me to him and crushes me with a powerful embrace and an even more powerful kiss.

A kiss full of promise.

A kiss full of regret.

A kiss to end all kisses.

And a kiss that might be our last.

My phone rings, forcing us apart and breaking the kiss sooner than I would’ve liked.

“I’ve done it,” Pervinca says wearily. “She should be by your side in seconds.”

“What? No!” I cry, but Sophie’s already here, embracing me, and I burst into tears.

What if my premonition is about to come true?

What if we all die?

“If we’re meant to die, we’ll die together,” Sophie says, squeezing my hand and Aiden’s too.

There’s nothing more to be said, and we fly over to the war. It’s a scene of chaos, of pandemonium.

Almost immediately, we’re overrun and separated. I try to locate Sophie, but I can’t see her dark and purple hair anywhere, and Aiden’s gone from sight too. As much as I want to try to fly up and find them, a giant is in my path.

I’m not willing to take him on by myself, so I dash between his legs only to be surrounded by manticores. Ducking, rolling, and using my knife helps me to take out one, and another takes out a third, and I keep on running and then flying.

All around me, fairies are fighting werewolves and vampires. Sirens and selkies are battling. Witches are flinging the elements as if they seek to destroy the earth itself.

Everywhere I turn, people are fighting, but there is one good sign. Everyone here has magic. Not one of the people is human.

Orcs, goblins, trolls… barbarians, berserkers… phoenixes, dragons, wyverns… brownies, sprites, pixies… Everywhere there are paranormal creatures, and they are all fighting each other.

Even their own brethren.

It’s a war, not just a battle, and what’s worse is that this is exactly the war I saw previously.

No. There is one difference. I don’t see any fairies, but then I do. Finch is leading the way, and I want to curse him, to tell him to return home to his wife and family, but I know him. I know that he’s here because of them, because of the future he wants for them.

Fairies fall, their wings ripped from their backs. Werewolves howl as they attempt to save each other. Sirens sing, causing those around them to turn against their friends.

Everywhere is destruction, and the ground is drenched in blood.

People are calling out for their mothers, their loved ones. Death shrills echo in my ears. The threats and vile phrases they hurl at each other churn my stomach. There’s even the clang of metal on metal as some opt to use weapons. Are paranormal hunters, slayers, and executioners entering the fray?

“Sophie!” I try to call out, but I can’t hear myself over the din. “Aiden! Anyone?”

I spy a vampire. A dwarf is coming up behind her, ready to rip her fangs out of her mouth. I saw this before, and it will not happen now. I dash past the vampire and shove my dagger into his outstretched hand. He gapes at me, at the blood running down his arm, and I try to coax grass to grow so that I can trap him, but I can’t. The grass here isn’t listening to me, and the dwarf reaches toward me, toward my wings…

The vampire backhands the dwarf so hard he falls to the ground, maybe unconscious… or maybe dead.

The vampire nods to me, and she’s off, racing into the thick of the fight.

I glance around and spy the werewolf who is about to have his tail stomped on. Before I can think, I throw my dagger It spirals through the air and clips the neck of the offending brownie. The brownie shouts a curse and grabs the dagger out of the air, but I plow right into him, lift him into the air to a decent height, and then let him fall. My hand yanks the dagger back as the brownie descends into the thick of the fight.

The ghost moves too fast for me to stop him from phasing here and there, moving weapons, adjusting them, causing a few to backfire. He’s not really killing many, so I leave him be.

Vampires are killing their fanged sisters and brothers. All kinds of shifters are attacking each other. There’s no sense of loyalty, just fighting.

It’s chaos and anarchy.

It’s destruction for the sake of destruction.

But I don’t see any demons. Not one.

Because a demon is the cause of all of this.

Not just any demon.

Zas.

Where is he?

Before, in the premonition, I sought out Sophie. I don’t try to this time, intent on locating the demon, but I do see Sophie. She’s fighting hard, but she has both wings yet and no scar. Her clothes are bloodstained, hopefully from those she’s fighting. As I tried to do, her aim is to wound, not kill.

She really is back.

Not wanting the rest of my premonition to come true, I race away, but again, instead of finding Zas, I see Aiden. He’s fighting hard, but he is wounded. Not as grievously as I saw in the premonition, but maybe it’s only a matter of time before he’s laboring and… and dying. At least grass and vines and even branches are listening to him, helping to protect him from his foes.

There’s no shadow, no one creeping up on Aiden to end him, and I force myself to keep on flying, to continue my search, but one time, two, three, four times I fly over the entire battlefield.

The demon isn’t here.

“Zas!” I shout. “Show yourself you bloody coward! Come here and fight! Or are you too scared that a fairy will do you in?”

But he doesn’t rise to my bait. He doesn’t hear me, or maybe he doesn’t care.

Fine. He’s staying away so that he can’t be forced to give us the antidote… if there even is one… so I’ll just have to figure out something else.

If they could just stop fighting a moment and see how this road will lead…

My phone. I grab it and fly up high so I can possibly hear the sprite.

“Pervinca. Do you know how I can induce a vision? Or a premonition?”

“Sophie?”

“It’s Jessa.” I wince. Pervinca sounds half-dead.

“A vision. Induce one. If you can meditate and clear your mind of everything and let nature in, let her show you what she wills, that might work. I can’t think… I don’t know if any herbs will help. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.”

I hang up and almost throw my phone in frustration. How am I supposed to meditate with all of this devastation and destruction occurring beneath me?

But I don’t have a choice.

My eyes close, and I focus on my breathing, in through the nose, out through the mouth, over and over again. My heartbeat slows slightly and then even more, and my mind clears. I don’t feel worry or fear. All I experience is a lightness I haven’t felt in ages.

“Nature, show me what you will have me see,” I murmur.

But I see no vision.

Instead of allowing frustration and doubt to rush in, I focus on hope.

“Nature, show us what you will have us see,” I try.

And now, now I can see. I can see how this battle will end, how each ogre, dragon, dwarf, shifter, vampire, fairy, even valkyrie will die. Each and every one of them.

No, each and every one of us.

Over and over, on a loop, I watch all of our deaths, and as it replays a third time, I seek out the one whose death I see and shove the premonition into their mind. It’s a kind of oneirokinesis, and I don’t rest until they each see their death, even Aiden, Sophie, and myself.

Gradually, I sense that those down below aren’t fighting. The battle is starting to wind down.

But it’s not ending, not completely It’ll happen again, as soon as I come out of this meditation trance.

Yet I’m not worried because I’m discovering something else. The paranormal beings aren’t sick. There is no sickness, no disease that’s being spread.

No, it’s a stain, a darkness, a blight.

There’s a bit of a demonic presence in them all, and I go back through each of them and yank it out.

That’s when weapons clatter to the ground.

That’s when the fighting stops.

And that’s how the war ends.

Chapter

Thirty

It’s been two weeks since the war ended, and we’re still rounding up the rest of the prisoners. Even Sophie’s helping, and Aiden and I long since confessed to Portia about our glamors.

I’ll never forget her reaction.

“Did you honestly think I was that gullible?” she asked. “No, of course I wasn’t. I could see straight through you, straight through you both. Now, I couldn’t see who you truly where, but angels, like valkyries can see through a person to their heart, to their soul, and I could tell that neither of you wanted to do any harm. Both of you wanted to help and do your part. How could I refuse?”

“You knew from the start?” I asked.

“I did. Now, if you want to be paid for the work you two did, I suggest you help find the rest of the prisoners considering their jailbreak is partially your faults.”

I’m not sure how the angel figures that, but Aiden and I don’t complain.

Now, though, there’s only one last prisoner to be found yet. Even Brokon, the worst of the worst has been returned to his cell in solitary.

But the mastermind, Zas, is the one needed to be found yet.

And I have an idea of where he might be.

“I can bring him in alone,” I tell Portia.

The angel, Sophie, and Aiden, and I are all in her office.

Portia eyes me. “You and he have a history.”

Aiden stiffens beside me.

“Not that kind of history,” the angel grumbles for me. “You are making progress with Ciro, and I commend you for that, but Zas is a demon.”

“I realize that, and he’s very good at lying, but the best liars conceal truths with the lies. I should know. It’s the best way for a fairy to use word play to get around our inability to lie.”

“Where are you off to then?” she asks.

“May I?” I point to her tablet.

She hands it over, and I quickly look up the demon’s record. He had been sent to the prison because of killing Castiel’s fiancée. Zas claimed he had been in the wrong place, the wrong time, that the angel killed the woman.

I want to know her name.

“Sybil,” I murmur to myself. I also note the location of the murder—Ivory Expanse, a lush Greenland I’ve heard about but haven’t visited.

Yet.

“I’ll be back with him shortly,” I inform the others.

With one hand, I toss the angel her tablet. With the other, I sprinkle myself with fairy dust, and I’m gone.

Ivory Expanse is even more beautiful than I imagined with all kinds of colorful flowers blooming, their scents magnificent, fighting to be the one smelled on the gentle breeze.

Above, the sky is perfectly clear, no clouds in sight, and I inhale deeply.

A sense of peace settles over me, and I could meditate easily at this very moment, something that not so long ago, I struggled with. My chlorokinesis is now my biggest struggle, and I think that, in time, I might lose that ability entirely. I don’t mind like I once did. My connection to nature hasn’t been severed, only altered.

I stroll ahead, walking rather than flying, and I’m not surprised when I come across a mound covered with Vita Sanguis. These flowers have dark petals with deep red centers, the petals growing from red to the darkest black at the edges. They can only grow in places where blood has been spilled.

I’m also not surprised to see a crouched-over form in front of the mound.

Zas leans back and sits on the grass, eyeing me. His eyes are more bloodshot than fiery, his skin paler than normal. Even his black hair looks a bit limp.

“How did you know where to find me?” he asks, his voice raspier than normal.

“I want to know why you did it, but I think I have a theory.”

“Go ahead.”

“You weren’t lying. Sybil was going to leave Castiel. She didn’t love him, not anymore. Maybe she never did. Maybe her family pushed for her to be with Castiel because he’s an angel like she was. But Sybil’s heart belonged to another.”

Zas doesn’t blink.

“She loved a demon,” I murmur. “You were there that day because she was going to leave Castiel for you. Isn’t that right?”

The demon scowls. “No one would believe the truth.”

“I do.”

“Do you?” he challenges.

“You were imprisoned because of love. I’m sure you’ve committed crimes, but even I have.” I squat beside him. “But your time in prison, near the angel responsible for putting you there, the same angel who murdered your love… That’s why you spread the darkness, the blight. You wanted to lash out.”

“I…” He heaves a sigh. “You understand some but not all. Come.”

Zas touches my hands to his temples.

“Dig around. Find the truth.”

“But it might make you go mad.”

“I might be mad already.”

“But…”

“If I go mad, you’ll have to kill me,” he says.

“I don’t want—”

“This isn’t about what you want,” he snaps, his grips tightening on my wrists.

I grit my teeth and take the plunge, looking around in the demon’s mind, finding his emotions, his happiness, his sorrows.

And his memories.

Before me is Sybil, a beautiful angel with long red hair and kind eyes. Yes, she loved Zas, and she promised to leave Castiel. It’s just as I said.

But then his mind shifts, and I see Zas standing over the warden’s dead body. Zas’ body shakes, and there’s so much fear, anger, and hatred within him that he throws back his arms, his back bending backward farther than it should, and his emotions burst out of him, seeping out of him almost like the one master told me that fairies leak magic.

Zas didn’t realize until later that his darkness touches each of the prisoners as he releases them. He didn’t intend for the war.

But once he did realize, he didn’t try to bring the darkness back to himself. No. He felt empty without his rage, without his pain. He no longer suffered even the loss of his love.

Yet, here he is, crying over her grave.

I lower my hands and wait, wondering if Zas is himself yet, or a shell of himself, or even a driven-mad version of himself from having a foreign entity in his mind.

In his hand is a dagger. I’m not sure where he had it, but he holds it out and then stabs himself just beneath the heart. With a strangled cry, he tries to cut and saw a hole around his heart.

He maintains eye contact as he finally yanks out the blade. His blood drips from the tip to the ground before the dagger falls to the grass. With his last breaths, he yanks out the patch of skin and then digs around to remove his heart.

I help him to lie down and brush back his dark hair.

“I never did tell you my real name, did I?” I murmur. “It’s Jessa.”

I return to the prison but only after burying Zas with Sybil so they can be united. Portia doesn’t seem all that surprised by the tale of the doomed angelic and demonic lovers. Maybe that story I started not that long ago is more of a warning than a romance.

A week later, Madra smiles like a proud peacock as she shows us the spread of decadent treats and delights for us to indulge in. She invited Sophie, Aiden, and I into HEX Unite for the first time, and it’s quite clear to me that she wants something from us.

“Help yourselves,” the valkyrie gushes. “We’ll talk business after.”

I knew it.

Of course, Sophie and I head to everything chocolate first, and we enjoy ourselves, talking and laughing until I realize Madra isn’t alone.

Master Vanhylde is here too.

Coughing, I nudge my elbows into Sophie and Aiden, and we face the two resourceful, powerful women.

“You three have all proved to be above reproach,” Madra starts.

“Which is why I would like to ask you all to attend Magical Hunters Academy,” the master says. The two are standing beside each other, Master Vanhylde slightly taller than Madra. “You have proven that you have the skill and the drive to be great paranormal hunters, slayers, or—”

“No,” I say.

“No?” Master Vanhylde sputters. “What do you mean no?”

“I mean that the one I want a job from isn’t here. Portia or Badin. Badin is the warden again, right?”

“Yes,” Madra says slowly. Her gaze shifts to Sophie. “What about you?”

“I do not want to go back to Magical Prison. Not as a guard, not as anything. No thank you.”

“And?” Master Vanhylde prompts.

Sophie eyes me, and I nod encouragingly. “I… I hated that I was experimented on, that I could be controlled by someone else. It was Rall’s project, but Illumine was the one to give commands, and sometimes, even from afar, he was able to get me to fight Jessa. I do not want to be that weak ever again. I… I do want to train. If, if you’ll have me.”

“Of course.” The master beams.

Aiden rubs his chin. “I think I might prefer being a guard too,” he says finally.

“Oh, I don’t quite want to be a guard,” I tell him.

“I realize that,” he says with a grin.

“You do know that Illumine is in a cell in the prison, don’t you, Sophie?” Madra asks. “From what our oracles say, it seems that he will learn his lesson and be released one day. Does that bother you?”

“That he’s going to have a second chance?” Sophie asks. “No. Why would that bother me when I’m getting a second chance myself?”

I beam, so very proud of how far we’ve all come, of how much we’ve faced and persevered over. Nothing can stop us, not ever.

In a week’s time, I’m back at Magical Prison, ready for a meeting to talk to Portia and Badin about my hope to become a counselor of sorts to the inmates. Aiden’s already been here for two days to start training to be a guard. Yes, training. Portia doesn’t want any shortcuts, and considering his original training had come from me, a poser of a guard, a refresher isn’t remiss.

I’m early for the meeting so I opt to take a detour and head to the infirmary.

“Hi, Pervinca, do you have a moment?”

“I do. Since you haven’t been around, I’ve been very bored lately. Hardly any work at all!”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” I ask dryly.

The sprite laughs. “Yes and no.”

“Touché.”

“What brings you to the infirmary?”

“A question.”

“You have my ears.”

“Well, how is it that the fairies didn’t become infected by the demonic blight?” I ask in a rush. “I can’t stop thinking about that.”

Pervinca nods slowly. “The experiments conducted on Sophie, Kyros, and Amy were about control. They were to be turned into hired guns, the perfect executioner, only that didn’t quite happen. By the way, did you hear about Kyros?”

“That you cured him too? Yes, and I also heard that he might be asking his girlfriend to marry him.”

“He did ask, and she said yes.” Pervinca beams. “I better be invited to the wedding.”

I giggle.

“Now, where was I? Yes. So the experiment was something else altogether, but I did have to go down to solitary once to patch up a patient there, one who was too weak to be moved. While I was down there, I overheard a few voices, only they were thoughts. I’m not sure how, but I entered the head of a demon.”

“Brokon?”

She nods. “He had been dreaming, and oneirokinesis just took over. In his dream, I could see him talk to Zas and explaining about how to transfer some of their darkness to another in such a way that the darkness could be replicated and passed on.”

“So you sabotaged it,” I guess.

“Clever girl. Exactly so. I purposely made it so that the fairies wouldn’t be affected, and I did so because of Sophie.”

“My sister?”

“Yes. I saw how good she was, and I hated that I had to experiment on her. There was an accident on her floor with Druiz. That was why she came down to the infirmary, and when Rall demanded I get started, he suggested Sophie because she was already there. I had no choice.”

“I don’t blame you,” I say softly. “Neither does she.”

“Yes, well, I wish I could’ve made everyone immune, but I barely had time to do the fairies because Zas took no time to get out of here as swiftly as possible.”

“But Brokon wasn’t the one to pass on the blight.”

“Ah. He tried,” Pervinca says with a wag of her finger. “If you want my opinion, I think he had been in solitary for too long, that his reach and might aren’t what they once were. As for how the darkness got out anyhow…”

“That was Zas, and it was more of an accident than anything. Your sabotage still worked, though.”

“Well, I had limited time, so I bound the magic to within the walls of the prison so that if darkness were to be passed, it would not affect fairies. I would have tried to continue to add more species, but Zas move so swiftly. I barely had any time at all. As it is, the fairy prisoners were affected. They just couldn’t pass it on to anyone else.”

“Thank you,” I say, my words warm. “If it hadn’t been for you—"

“I did the easy part,” she protests.

“You did not break the world,” I assure her.

“It’s time for your meeting, isn’t it?” Pervinca asks.

“Yes!”

Epilogue

I sit in the shade of the treehouse I’m fashioning on the cliff overlooking the prison. In my hand is that book about the angel and demon lovers.

A shadow crosses over me. “Did you finish it?” Aiden asks.

“No. I don’t even want to open it.”

“Why not?”

“Because. It hits a little too close to home.” I shrug and toss it to him.

He chuckles and tosses it back. “Open it.”

“Aiden…”

“Please. For me?”

Curious, I eye him. There’s such an earnest, open expression on his face that I can’t help comply.

As soon as I open the pages, a miniature rose lifts from the pages, the stem curled into a ring. I gasp as Aiden falls to his knees.

“We’ve been through a lot, and we’ve faced so much. I don’t care about returning to Roseshield Grove. I mean, I’ll want to visit my family, of course, but you’re my home. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“Do you?” I ask coyly, turning the rose ring over and over in my fingers. “I think you just don’t want to have to make a second treehouse.

“You got me.” He winks. “I’m lazy like that.”

“You’re a lot of things, but you aren’t lazy.”

“No?”

“Not at all.”

“So what am I?” he murmurs, drawing close, so close.

I kiss him and cup the side of his face. “You’re my fiancé.”

Aiden tries to slip the ring onto my finger as we kiss, and he fails, but it’s okay. It’s more than okay.

He’s wonderful. Life is wonderful.

The future is wide open for us, and yes, I may have premonitions in the future, but, by the breeze, I’m hoping they’ll all be fun and exciting ones.

And I’m so very glad that nature allowed the proposal to be a surprise.

“Are you ready?” Aiden asks as he draws back to put the rose ring on me properly.

“To enjoy the rest of my life with you? Yes!”

And that concludes Jessa’s saga! I really hope you enjoyed the story!

The Magical Prison series is part of my A Mayhem of Magic World Story universe which starts with my Bedlam in Bethlehem series. It’s so much fun to keep expanding this world!

Please consider leaving a review if you enjoyed Breaking Even! I love to read my reviews. Thank you!

Until next book,

~Nicole

Other Books By Nicole Zoltack

Bedlam in Bethlehem series

Cops plus Supernatural Creatures

Magical Hunters Academy trilogy

A school for paranormal teens to train to fight evil creatures

Blood Haven Academy trilogy

A paranormal retelling of Romeo and Juliet

Moonstone Academy trilogy

A half-werewolf, half demon and a cursed werewolf… What can go wrong?

Magical Prison

A fairy tries to free her twin from prison and save the world

Rebel, Supernatural Bounty Hunter trilogy

A human hunts supernaturals

HEX Unite trilogy

A grim reaper, a sandman, and their friends try to save the world

A Girl and Her Hellhounds

The youngest daughter of Lucifer is going to do things her way

Seasons of Strife

Elves defend their land against vikings and dwarves

Immortal Ties

Four sisters try to save their medieval town despite being turned into vampires

Court of Wolves

Four noble brothers from the Regency era try to find love while keeping their werewolf identity hidden

Magic Incarnate Series

Magic + Faith + Teens

Once Upon a Darkened Night Series

Twisted Fairy Tales - the villains are now the heroes

The Queenmaker Series

YA Female King Arthur Retelling

Heroes of Falledge trilogy

A superhero struggles to find love and save his town

Age of Dragons Series

A tale of lost magic and dragon riders

The Winged Beast Chronicles

Dragons enslave humans.

In the Eye of the Dragon written as N. M. Zoltack

An epic fantasy saga

Battle Among Crowns written as N. M. Zoltack

An epic fantasy series

Magical Awakening written as Nicole Beyer

Friends attempt to save a friend from a magical sickness

Beyond Boundaries

Can love cross class boundaries?

Standalones

Dark Hunt

Vampires vs witches vs humans

Bloodlust

Epic fantasy with forbidden love

His Soul Purpose

A vampire tries to reclaim his soul

Moonstruck

Gender-bent Cinderella set in NOLA

The Test of Time

Unpredictable time travel

Love Before Honor

Medieval knight. Regency lady. Magical Christmas.

Joy to the World

One lady. Two dukes, one an imposter

Christmas Kisses

Two gentlemen, only one Lady Anna’s mother approves of

Starving for Love

The Little Mermaid with a zombie twist

Guns and Fangs

A vampire huntress turns into that which she hates

Not on Her Watch

A military romance

About the Author

Nicole Zoltack is a USA Today bestselling author who loves to write romances. Of course. She did marry her first kiss, after all!

When she’s not writing about knights, superheroes, or witches, she enjoys spending time with her loving husband, three energetic young boys, and three precious little girls. She enjoys riding horses (pretending they’re unicorns, of course!) and going to the PA Renaissance Faire dressed in garb. She’ll also read anything she can get her hands on. Her current favorite TV shows are The Witcher and Stranger Things.

Sign up for her newsletter to learn when her next book is released as well as excerpts, cover reveals, and giveaways!

For more information

www.NicoleZoltack.com

Nicole.Zoltack@NicoleZoltack.com

Acknowledgments

First and always, I have to thank my husband. I’m sure it can’t be easy being married to a writer, and I am so appreciative of all the support over the years. I love you, Todd! Thank you to my wonderful children for understanding that Mommy has work she has to do, but she still does and always will love you!

To some of the best writer friends a girl could ever have. You know who you are and I can’t wait until we can retreat again!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my wonderful street team. You keep me going, and I’m writing for you and for all of my fans. Thank you for all you do for me!

And finally, I want to acknowledge my readers. You are why I write. As long as you keep reading, I’ll keep writing. So please keep reading, all right?

Author’s Note

Hi, readers! I absolutely hate proofreading errors. My editor, proofreaders, and I try to find them all, but sometimes, a few will slip through. If you find any, please feel free to email at Nicole.Zoltack@gmail.com or message me on FB with the errors. I’ll correct the file as soon as I can get to it!

Oh, and if you’d like, feel free to tell me anything else you like—something about the stories, the characters, if there’s any story you would want me to tell?

Finally, if you would like to join my beta reader team or my ARC team, be sure to mention that too!

I’m off to write the next book!

~Nicole

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Get Free Books

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Epilogue

Other Books By Nicole Zoltack

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Author’s Note