The creepy monster looked like it had the head of a lion, the paws of a bear, the body of an elephant, and the tail of an alligator. A shiver ran up my spine.
The boy looked just like Talia. He had jet-black hair, olive skin, but he had hazel eyes. His golden sword reflected the sunlight.
“A little help here!” He bellowed, kicking up some snow.
Talia took my arm and yanked me to the side. She pulled a something out of her sheath, which I hadn't noticed before. She pulled the tip out of the handle and it grew to a foot-long sword. “Ready?” She asked. She studied my face as I wrapped my fingers around the handle of the silver sword. “Don't worry. If you're really freaked out or in danger, just concentrate, snap, and you'll be gone.”
I could tell she knew I could handle a sword. I've had plenty of years of training with it. My father made sure I knew how to defend myself. I've been through karate, wrestling, sword fighting… but they all ended badly.
Talia took out her knife and beckoned me to follow her. We moved in on the monster just as Mason fell to the ground. Talia lunged and the alligator tail whipped toward me. I hopped over it like a jump rope, then stabbed it in the back. The skin was thick, just like an elephant's. I ripped the sword back out, and green liquid flowed out of the wound. I went in again, opening another gash on his stomach. Mason was still lying on the ground, and it looked like Talia was trying to protect him.
Just looking at them, I knew I couldn’t disappoint them. I didn’t even know them, but I felt like I did. I lurched forward, getting in the monster’s face. Talia tried to help, but I saw it before she did.
“Talia, don’t!” I warned. Too late. The tail swept her feet off the ground, and she landed on her back. That wasn’t the bad part. She’d dropped her knife, and her ankle snapped on the blade.
I stabbed the lion’s face and didn’t give it enough time to leave. I stabbed it in its chest and the monster disappeared in a cloud of green dust.
“That’s a good thing, right?” I called.
“Yes. You killed it. Good job,” Talia gritted. I rushed over to her, as she clenched her bloody ankle.
“I’ve gotta get help,” Mason groaned.
“You’re not in shape to run all the way to the castle. I’ll be fine-“ Before she could finish, he pulled himself off the ground and ran off through the woods.
She turned to me.  “You have to pull the knife out.”
“No, no way-“ Her look stopped me.
You have to, we have no other choice, I heard in my head.
“You - you can -“ She nodded. She let go of her ankle, letting the blood pour out. She slipped off her sweatshirt and handed it to me. And for some reason, I knew exactly what to do.
I tore off a chunk of the fabric, making it long enough to tie around her ankle. “On the count of three. One…” I grabbed a hold of the bloody knife; “two…” she wiped her hand on the sweatshirt and she repositioned herself; “three!” I ripped the knife out and tied the cotton around her ankle. She didn’t even let out a scream. She just winced, dabbing her sweaty forehead. I used the sweatshirt to wipe the blood off my hands, realizing some of the blood was mine. My hand was cut open.
I ignored it, pulling Talia off the dusty ground. She put her arm around my neck and we slowly limped out of the clearing and back into the thick woods.
I didn’t expect the castle to be an actual castle. I mean, how many castles are just sitting in the middle of the woods? As the trees lessened, we found ourselves in a valley. In front of us was a body of water, and up on top of a mountain was a huge castle. But we still had a few miles to go. It looked like a medieval castle, one completely made of stone. It had four circular towers, and a drawbridge to cross the water.
  And how do people in the city not see a giant castle in a giant valley? I mean there has to be someone somewhere who came exploring and found this accidentally.
We hadn’t been walking that long, but then again I suck with time. I was too exhausted to think about anything anyways. My mind still didn’t really absorb everything that happened so far today. Wherever I was going, at this point in my life I didn’t really care. I wanted a second chance, and maybe this is it.
After my mom passed away, my world starting crumbling. I was six when she died. My dad was never an extraordinary parent, and my mother’s death got him worse than it got me. He started getting buried in his work, pushing me out. It was probably for the better, because he kept having these episodes that made me run away to my neighbor’s house. He became dangerous, but he never tried to hurt me. He pulled me out of first grade when I was seven, and we moved across the country to Florida. He claimed it was because of his work, but I knew he needed to get away from the life that haunted him.
My dad was a scientist and his lab that was in the basement was off limits. I never knew what he did down there, but it blew up two houses and took his eyebrows too. I learned to take care of myself, learned to make friends but not draw attention to myself. I also knew better than to get too close with anyone, because my dad would just move us to the next state in a month. I got used to it, and didn’t really mind being free. I got to explore the new places we moved to, and I could disappear for days and he wouldn’t even notice I was gone.
I certainly got myself into a number of situations where I had to run away from cops, or I had to pretend I was a cute innocent little girl who meant no harm. I’d say I had a better childhood than most kids. But then again, they had a family to go home to.
I couldn’t tell you the last time I had a real conversation with my father that wasn’t, “What’s for dinner?” or “Have you seen my flame retardant suit? Oh never mind, I’ll find it.” (That was my cue to leave the house immediately).
After Talia said that my dad screwed up by moving here, I realized he did it on purpose. He didn’t want to screw up my life any more than he already had, and he knew it would be better for me. Or at least that’s what I hoped.
“What’s that?” I pointed to a skinny river in front of us that seemed to be rising.
She bit her lip and swallowed hard. “Enchanted water.” I watched it grow taller, up to our waist.
“And am I walking through this water or do we have to go around it?”
“Well,” she stalled. “It rises at this time every day. The rule is you can’t disturb it. But I was assuming Mason would be here so that we could fly over it.”
“And now we do what, exactly?”
“There’s no way around it.” She crumbled, sitting on the wet grass.
I sighed, joining her on the grass, “So we’re just gonna sit here until it goes down?”
“Nope. There’s not enough time to waste by sitting here for three hours. I’m thinking, now shut up.”
I sat there, twisting the grass around my finger. I felt the goose bumps rising on my arms.
“Okay,” she wired, breaking the silence. “I was hoping there’d be another way, but this is the only way.”
  She stopped talking and I waited, but she didn’t say any more. “What!”
“Oh yeah, I was talking. That tree right there is strong enough to climb.” The bushy green willow seemed strange in its environment. There weren’t many trees to begin with, but the ones that were there were bare, and this one was covered in leaves. And its trunk didn’t look like a tree’s, it looked like it was made of vines. It was a large deciduous-looking tree, about eighty feet tall. The shoots were a yellowish-brown with small buds. The leaves were spirally arranged, narrow, and light green. “This is the Weeping Willow. It’s the barrier line of the castle. Most weeping willows last about fifty years, but this one has been here for almost a hundred. And you won’t have a problem climbing it. I’m the one who’s screwed.”
I knew better not to argue with her, so I helped her off the ground. We headed to the tree and she let go of me.
“You first.” I grabbed a hold of the vinery trunk and pulled myself up. I secured my footing in the “U” shape the tree made. “A little further,” she called. I climbed a little higher until I was in the treetops. I could see everything from here. I could even see some of the city that sat behind the tree line. In front of the school were lights that flashed blue and red.
“Talia, the police are already at the school.”
“Wow. That was faster than I thought. I figured they’d just think you were skipping,” she shrugged.
“My dad doesn’t work like that. If they called him, he sent cops across the city to look for me. I can disappear for the whole weekend and not tell him where I am, but if I miss one damn day of school, all hell breaks lose.”
“Just focus on crossing this river. The longer you take, the higher this river will be. Meaning the harder it will be to jump.” I figured she was right, so without thinking, I just jumped. I somehow managed to land on my feet, but then fell to my butt.
She started climbing the tree, but she could barely pull herself up with one leg. Eventually, she dragged herself into the U of the tree. She pulled herself up a little more, the wet leaves tickling her face.
“Okay, give me room. Don’t try to help me land, you’ll just make it worse.” I moved to the side and watched her jump out of the tree. She landed on her good foot, and rolled into a front tuck. She put her hand out, asking for my help, and I pulled her up.
“Keep walking left. There’s a dirt path that leads to the doors,” Talia panted. I found the path and we slowly trudged up the mountains. Soon enough, after every bone in my body felt weak, we reached the walkway to the castle. Then I noticed the stairs.
I didn’t think we’d ever make it up the stairs. Besides the fact that Talia had to limp up them, every one of them was a different height from the last, making it impossible to properly judge how high to lift your foot. It was too high and you’d stumble forward, or it was too low and your foot fell beneath where you were expecting it to stop, or you kicked the step lip. It might not have been so bad if I were to walk up them alone, without the weight of Talia. But they were unforgiving gray stone - as cold as the castle but without the precision or attention to detail.
“You pay attention to detail,” she drawled.
“Uh yeah, I guess.” I was still creeped out that she knew what I was thinking.
“It’s a good thing to have. This world needs observers of humanity. And what you’re going to see soon, it’ll be good to have the power to see good in it. It’s the only thing that keeps this terrible world intact.” I took a step forward and carefully walked up the first few steps. The stones moved under my foot no matter where I stepped.
I realized she was right. I always look at things on the positive side, and I always try to see the beauty-
She interrupted my monologue and finished, “But beauty isn’t something seen through your eyes. It’s seen through your heart.”
We stayed quiet for a while, until we finally reached the top of the stairs.
“And by the way, once we get into the castle, I'll show you how to block my powers. Then you won't be so creeped out.” She smiled, nodding toward the path.
“Did I kill that monster?”
“Yes. But they don’t completely disappear. Most monsters take years to reform, but your monster is a little different, a little more powerful. At the longest, it’ll be back in a month,” she responded.
“And at the shortest?”
“Tomorrow.”
I almost collapsed when we reached the end of the path. But I stood up straight, tightened my grip on Talia, and we kept walking. We finally got to the drawbridge where I found myself standing in front of a giant lizard creature. It looked kind of like a dragon, but it was more like a giant salamander.
“That’s Oliver. He’s harmless,” Talia reassured. “He came to the castle when he was just a baby, and he’s been trained to protect this castle.” She went right up to him and petted his nose like he was a dog.
“Oliver?”
“He liked to eat the olives that grew in the grove. They tried to name him Olea europaea, which are olive trees’ primary name, but the kids voted for Oliver.” I held in a laugh.
Talia gestured for me to follow her. Instead of cross the drawbridge, she limped to the edge of it and sat down, letting her legs hang over.
“Sometimes when I come back from a mission, I don’t want to walk back into that chaotic mess, especially when I bring bad news. So I come here and relax, until someone comes looking for me.” I took a seat next to her.
Looking out and being able to see the city so clearly, I wondered again how no one has noticed the castle before. I mean, there’s just a random valley in the middle of the woods, occupied by a random castle. “The castle is enchanted,” Talia conceded. “Only Dorados can see it. Everyone else just sees woods. But with what’s going on, there’s a chance the barrier will be broken. That’s when we have to worry. Until then…”
It was a beautiful view. The sky was a dark blue; it looked fake as it hung above the trees. The water rushed against the rocks below us, creating wind that blew in our faces. The valley in the distance sparkled white from the snow. I could see our footprints that started at the clearing, and led all the way to the drawbridge.
I thought about what my mom just to say: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step…
But I was too tired to think about this journey that was ahead of me.

We made our way to the entrance of the castle. In front of us were a tall woman and a Husky. I would describe the woman, but there was nothing to describe except she was dark-skinned with dark, curly hair. Her face was burnt, and there was nothing to see.
“Talia,” she sang, “You made it back. And you found her. Mason passed through a little while back. He wanted to go back, but he was too beat up. He’s resting now.”
“Thank you, Carolina.” We walked past her, and the metal doors swung open, leading us inside.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“Carolina. She has the power of omniscience. She knows anything and everything.”
“What happened?” She didn’t answer. I was glad, because I didn’t really want to know at the moment.
The inside was nothing like the outside. The inside looked like a mansion. To either side were two glass staircases with velvet carpeting. In front was an open room with nothing in it. There was a giant chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
A man trotted down the stairs, walking right by. But he turned around when he saw us.
The man was old. He had pale skin, with silver hair and a five o’clock shadow. He had dark brown eyes and was pot-bellied and -
Talia nudged me in the ribs. I kept forgetting she could read my thoughts.
“Talia! I must take care of something before we talk. Rendezvous me in the conference room after dinner.” He had a thick English accent. He left as fast as he came.
“And that was…”
“Alaska. He’s the adviser here, the parent. He has power mimicry and immortality. One of the strongest of us alive.”
A girl about twelve ambled down the left staircase. She wore an airy light blue dress and white flats.
Her eyes sparkled jade as she stared me down. Her charcoal hair was tied in two pigtail braids. She had caramel skin and her mouth was grim, with ruby lips. Her teeth were gleaming, her nose hooked. She had high-cheek bones and a pointed chin. Her figure seemed stiff and chiseled - thin and bony. Her shoulders were drooped and her arms were folded across her chest, which seemed like a normal position for her. Her hands were slender with long fingers. She wore a similar piece of leather to Talia’s…
“This is Maya?”
“It is. Maya, this is Dakota.”
“Why are you all named after states?” I spurted.
“Maya,” Talia scolded.
Dakota asserted, “It’s a good question. The three most powerful Dorados named after states. Maybe you’re not the one. Maybe we’re supposed to be looking for a Georgia.” I could hear the sarcasm rattle her voice. She gestured for us to follow her back up the stairs.
“The one?”
“I didn’t tell her yet,” Talia grunted.
“Oh…whoops.” She led us down a corridor and at the end of it was a tall silver door that Dakota pushed open. It contained two beds and a cart filled with bottles. I plopped Talia down on one and I took a seat on the other.
“Mason came in and tried to get someone to go after you two. He collapsed, and I had to get him to lie down. His stomach was cut open.”
“Oh god. How is he? Will he be fine by tonight?” Talia interrogated.
“He’ll be fine. He just needs to rest.”
“Don’t change the subject,” I begged.
“Cut by your own blade,” Dakota hummed. “Just like last time…” She untied the cotton from Talia’s ankle, revealing a gash at least three inches long. Dakota took off her shoe and wiped the dried blood away. She rubbed her hands together and I watched them begin to glow blue. She gently touched Talia’s ankle, which also began to glow. When she removed her hand, the wound was gone, completely closed.
“One of the most powerful?”
“The power of healing. And invulnerability, of course.”
I nodded, as if I understood. “You know, the more you people say the less I understand.”
Talia disclosed, “No scar this time.”
“What happened last time?” I tried again.
“Last time was two years ago. The boy…we thought he was the one. I was sent to rescue him, but his monster attacked us on the way back. He died fighting, and I was left alone, trying to defend myself. The monster cut me - “ she pulled her shirt off her shoulder and revealed a long scar - “but I escaped.”
“And how do you know that I am the one?”
“The boy’s monster goes by the name of Haestroph. The brother of Gaestroph. The most powerful monsters are sent after the one. But that’s enough said,” Dakota finished. She wiped my hand and arm clean, then rubbed her hands together. Gently, she touched the palm of my hand and the pain retreated. She then put her cold hand on my forehead and I felt the strength come back to my body. My headache went away.
“That’s why Gaestroph sounded so familiar!”
“What’re you talking about?” Talia hopped off the bed and raced toward me.
“Uh, an old friend of mine used to use that name for the monster that chased us,” I replied.
“You mean you played an imaginary game about a monster named Haestroph who chased you and your friend?” Dakota inquired.
“Uh, yeah…”
“That’s it!” Talia shrieked. “They knew each other before!”
“I don’t understand. Again.”
“How long did you stay in contact with the boy?”
“I, I don’t know. I moved when I was seven. We kept in contact. Then one day, about two years ago, he just stopped answering. I figured he didn’t really care anymore. But-“
“Don’t you dare say his name!” Talia bellowed.
“I sure hope we’re talking about the same boy.”
“I can read your mind, Maya. We’re talking about the same boy.” It felt like someone threw a rock at my stomach.
“He’s really gone?” I blubbered.
“I’m afraid so,” Dakota whispered. She sat Talia back down on the bed and put her hand on my forehead.
“I don’t know, Dakota,” Talia spurred.
“Talia!” she scolded. “You’re not supposed to be reading my thoughts in here.” I understood why she flipped out. It was kind of an invasion of privacy.
“Sorry. I don’t know why the force field isn’t working…unless…” She took a long, hard look at me.
“You really think?”
“It would make sense. And it matches her invisibility powers.”
“Hey,” I interjected, “I’m right here.”
Dakota and Talia shared a look. “Okay, let’s try it,” Dakota agreed.
“Alright Maya. You have to concentrate. Rub your hands together then pull them apart like a baseball is growing in your hand.”
I rolled my eyes, thinking she was crazy, but I was in a magical castle named after a fish. So I guess anything is possible. I stood up and closed my eyes, then rubbed my hands together. I separated them as I watched a glowing blue ball appear in my hands.
My eyes grew. It was a loud, rumbling sound, and I felt the wind blow my hair back over my shoulder. “Whoa.” I watched the ball of energy flicker in my hand.
“You have to stay focused!” Talia yelled over the noise. “Now pick an object for the force field to surround!”
I looked around the room and picked the chair in the corner. I concentrated and threw the blue ball at the chair. The force field grew in my hands, growing big enough to cover the wooden chair.
“And then just disconnect!” Dakota renewed.
I made two fists and watched the glowing ball disappear.
“Whoa,” I repeated.
Dakota wondered, “so if she’s got the power of invisibility and force field, there’s probably one more, right?”
“Yeah, the third one is normally…intangibility,” Talia finished.
“You mean I can pass through solid matter?”
“Yeah but-“ I didn’t wait for Talia to finish. I focused on the wall and ran toward it.
It seemed like a good idea in the moment, but after I banged my head on the wall I regretted it.
“But it’s a little more complex than that,” Talia laughed. Dakota helped me up, once again putting her hand on my forehead.
“Okay then,” Dakota lilted. “Talia, why don’t you go introduce Maya to the Windsor’s and then the benders? And I’ll meet you in the conference room with Alaska after dinner.”
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go Maya.”
She led me out of Dakota’s room and down the hall to another silver door. “Let’s begin here. This is simple as you can get with super-human abilities. The Windsor’s.” She opened the metal door, revealing a large room with five beds. The kids inside looked from the ages of twelve to fifteen.
“Alec has the super-human strength…” I figured he was the boy who was lifting weights. He had nut-brown skin with tawny-gold hair, and cobalt colored eyes that sent a slight chill up my spine. “That over there is Zach with endurance and agility.” He stared at me with his luminous blue eyes. His sable hair made his skin look creamy. The boy that sat next to him had brighter blue eyes and a pale skin tone with copper colored hair, but it was obvious they were all brothers. “That’s Ian. He has super-human senses. And over there…” Two girls sat on a couch, talking. One had lily-white skin, raven-dark hair that was pulled back by a headband, and light brown eyes that reminded me of a puppy’s. The other girl had emerald eyes that sparkled, with her caramel skin and ash brown hair in a ponytail. “The black-haired girl is Grace. The other is Jinora. Grace has super intelligence and Jinora has super speed.”
Talia knocked on the doorway and everybody looked up.
“Hey Talia,” Grace greeted.
“Who’s this?” Alec asked.
“I’m Maya,” I replied.
“Nice to meet you,” Jinora smiled.
“Just showing her around. We’ll see you guys at dinner?” Talia seemed uncomfortable in their room. I could tell there was tension between them. And the things the boys were thinking were not very positive. She shut the door behind us.
“Question. Are they all related?” I wondered.
“What makes a super-human isn’t the combination of genes. They’re all half-siblings. One parent has to be a super-human or a descendant of one. Then there’s a chance if any of the children become super-human. Their father was a descendant, and even though they all have different mothers, they all somehow received the powers. Their grandfather had all of those powers, and then the powers were divided amongst the children. I still don’t understand how they’re all still alive. It was a blessing that they made it here.”
“But Zach has two powers. Was there another child?”
“Yes…” she hesitated. “There was another kid. But he died, passing his agility powers to the oldest, Zach.” I felt like there was something else she wasn’t telling me, but I didn’t push her to say more.
She escorted me down the hall and to another room. “Next are the benders.” She opened the door to chaos. A girl about thirteen had fire in her hand. She had a rosy skin tone, with strawberry blonde hair that was tied in two French braids. Two boys who looked like twins were hiding behind the couch. “Chloe!” Talia scolded.
Chloe put out the flame. The boys came out behind the couch. They both had fair skin, one with flaxen colored hair, and the other with sandy colored hair. All three of them had light green eyes.
“Maya, this is Chloe, Carter, and Dylan. The triplets.”
“And their powers?”
“It’s called manipulation. We can manipulate gravity, sound, light. We can bend too. Fire, air, water, and earth,” Chloe replied. “And sorry you had to walk in on that. Just our usual sibling fights.” She put them both in a headlock.
“Triplets?”
“Kind of impossible, huh? Don’t know how it happened,” Carter answered.
“I wish it didn’t happen,” Dylan mumbled. Chloe slapped him in the head, and Dylan’s hands then held water. Carter wound up a ball of air, and I could tell Chloe was the one releasing the gravity. And that was when Talia pulled me back out of the room.
“Almost dinner,” Talia warned. She turned to me. “C’mon. We’ll meet the rest down there.”
She led me down the glass stairs and down a corridor that I hadn’t noticed before. It opened up to a huge room that could’ve been a ballroom. There were twenty circular tables, each with five chairs. Talia took me to the back of the room where two of the tables were pushed together. Eight chairs were filled. Talia took the empty seat next to the weary Mason and I sat next to her.
“Everybody, this is Maya. Invisibility.” I waved at the others. They all looked around my age, some a little younger. Younger kids and older kids were filling the ballroom. Kids around eighteen were passing around plates of food. They threw down ten plates on our table, and we passed them around. The plates were filled with peas, mashed potatoes, and turkey, but I honestly had no appetite.
“You don’t have to eat,” Talia whispered.
A tall girl with bronze skin, her wavy auburn hair that went past her shoulders, smiled, “I’m Clara.” Her light blue eyes seemed to glow.
“And?” I realized it was a little rude once it came out of my mouth.
“I have the powers of time. Time travel, time manipulation, precognition.” She had a cold smile.
The girl next to her looked twelve. She had a dark brown complexion with straight rusty-colored hair and silver eyes that didn’t blend with her skin. “The name’s Lucy. Duplication, omnipresence, teleportation.”
I assured, “omnipresence is being in multiple places at once?”
“It sure is. I’ve got those powers too. My name’s Rebecca.” She had pasty skin, with tawny hair that was in a braid. Her bright green eyes reminded me of spring.
The last girl at the table had curly golden hair that went down to her elbows. She had ivory skin and sea green eyes that made me think she was related to Lucy and Rebecca. “And I’m Willow. I have the power of animals. I can talk to them, mimic them, etcetera.” I decided none of the kids at the table were related.
I looked over at Talia who was deep in a conversation with Mason. There were three boys on the other side of the table. The younger one was flinging peas around the room. The other two were mixing some sort of concoction, adding salt and pepper in the orange mix. The younger one had milky skin with curly honey-colored hair and stone gray eyes. The taller boy had light hazel eyes and mousy hair with ebony skin. The third one had fiery red hair that clashed with his sky blue eyes and apricot skin.
“The tall one,” Lucy introduced, “is Logan.”
“Shawn is the ginger,” Clara continued.
Rebecca finished, “the younger one is Teddy.”
“And their powers?”
“Teddy has power control,” Willow responded. “Power augmentation enhances or weakens powers, power negation cancels power, and power sensing means he can sense or recognize others with powers. Shawn has super-human vision. Night vision, X-ray vision, heat vision, telescopic vision, and freeze vision.”
“Then there’s Logan,” Clara sighed. “His powers are miscellaneous. Animation, he can turn inanimate objects alive; Shapeshifting allows him to turn into other forms; and the creepiest - Mediumship, which means he can talk to the dead.” She shivered.
We finished our dinner in the loud ballroom.  “Okay, Maya,” Talia wished, “Time to talk to Alaska.” I followed her out of the room and back up the glass stairs, leaving the two hundred other kids.

“How old is everyone?”
“Kids come here from the ages of ten to twenty. Unless you’re like me who came to the castle at age seven. It isn’t-“
“I mean individually,” I corrected.
“You want the age of every kid you met today?” I nodded, waiting for her response.
“Okay…to start, Mason and I just turned fifteen. Dakota is twelve. The triplets are thirteen. The Windsor siblings are each a year apart, sixteen to twelve, and from oldest to youngest it’s Zach, Alec, Grace, Ian, and the youngest is Jinora. A busy dad they had. Then Clara is sixteen. Logan and Rebecca are both fifteen, Shawn and Willow are fourteen, and Teddy and Lucy are twelve. That’s everyone you met, right?”
I saw Dakota hobble down the hall. “Ready?” she affirmed.
“I guess so.” She directed us down the hall opposite of the bedrooms. The door that was at the end of the hall was golden.
Dakota revealed a small room with a round wooden table and a few chairs around it. Alaska was already sitting down.
“Ah, girls, right on time.”
Dakota, Talia, and I all took a seat.
“So Talia,” he began. “Your verdict?”
“Not complete, sir. She isn't making it easy.”
“There are no signs, but she radiates quite a bit of power. Teddy was complaining about a really bad headache. He sensed too much power,” Dakota added.
“Do you realize I'm right here?”
“Sorry Maya.” Talia turned back to Alaska. “She was with me for most of the time. She barely said a word to Mason.”
“Still right here.”
“Okay fine. Have you been able to sense anything? Like knowing what people are thinking?” she finally asked me.
“No..." I thought long and hard. “Wait! When we were with the Windsor's! I felt some really strong tension between you and the boys. What they were thinking...let's just say they weren't nice thoughts.”
Alaska and Talia shared a look.
“Tell her,” Dakota pleaded.
“Alright. Your friend was a Windsor. He had super-human agility. When he died, he passed his power to Zach. But as you know, I was the one to rescue your friend. I was with Mason when we were saving all of them. But we knew J-“ she stopped immediately. “We knew your friend was the powerful one who was attracting the monsters. So I made Mason take the rest of them back to the castle. I knew we'd have a better chance if we all fought, but I couldn't risk any more lives. We were attacked, and he died. His siblings blamed his death on me, and the boys are still mad. Grace and Jinora have learned to get over it, but the boys...I just hate myself for letting him go.”
“Talia," Dakota scolded. “That was not your fault-“ Her voice got harsh, as if Talia crossed a line.
“Back to topic,” Talia interrupted, her voice shaky.
“So Maya,” Alaska remarked, “you knew what they were thinking?”
I replied, “Yeah, it was like their voices were inside of my head.”
“So it's true,” Dakota agreed.
“We'd know more if her mother were here,” Talia grunted. My fists clenched.
Alaska waved a hand. “Her mother would have done nothing. It would have made matters worse-“
“Don't talk about her like that!" I raged, knocking down my chair as I stood up. I realized I'd just thrown a tantrum, so I took a breath and relaxed when I saw everyone staring at me.
“Sorry, I..." I stopped again and studied their faces. Alaska looked satisfied, but Talia and Dakota looked petrified. And I saw why. I saw my blue hand, then I saw the spear that was impaled in the wall. Then I saw the spear was made of ice.
“Did I-“
"Water bending,” Talia mumbled. “But that's only possible if...”
“Can anyone finish a sentence?” Dakota complained.
But Talia seemed mesmerized. She slowly stood up and walked to the door. She opened it to Chloe, who stood in the doorway with her fist in midair like she was about to knock.
“Can you really tell if someone is close?” Chloe asked her. “Cause that's just creepy.”
“No, something else gave it away.” She gestured toward the ice spear.
Chloe looked down at her hands, as if expecting them to be blue. Then she looked at me.
“That wasn't me, was it?”
“Nope,” Talia admitted.
“So it's true?” She exclaimed. “She can mimic our powers?”
“Yep. She's the one,” Dakota chimed.
“Was that really me?”
“Yes, child," Alaska hissed. “Talia, you succeeded. This will complete it. We may have a chance at winning this war.”
“War?”
“Yeah, we're sort of in the start of World War III. But we hope we stop it before it starts,” Talia answered. “Chloe, do you mind?” She pointed toward the spear. With one hand gesture, it turned into a puddle of water. With another wave, it evaporated.
“See Maya, you can learn all this stuff. It just takes a little training and practice,” Chloe wintered.
“They'll need to leave for their mission tomorrow,” Alaska butted in.
“Tomorrow? We don't have enough time to prepare!” squealed Talia.
“We will have to make do. Now sit, I must tell you the plan.”
We all sat back down at the table, Chloe sitting next to me.
“We will have to pick who goes on this mission, but that is a later matter. For now, here’s the plan. Our spies have information. Tomorrow morning, you and your team will first head to your school.”
“What does my school have to do with anything?”
Dakota responded, “Their headquarters are underground. They're planning an attack. But tomorrow is the last day before Christmas break. So the school will need to be evacuated.”
“Can't you just call the school and tell them to get out?” Chloe wondered, being as clueless as I was.
“Trust me. It is the only way to get everyone out safely. And one more place before you invade their camp...you must go to your father's house.”
“Why do I have to do that?”
“Because,” Talia sympathized, “he needs to know where you are. He needs to know you're safe.”
“Yeah, because chasing after monsters is safe,” I muttered.
“You still don't know the entire story. I'll tell you tonight,” she told me.
“We'll have to pull an all-nighter. Whoever goes on the mission can be regenerated. I have enough power. But she needs training,” Dakota continued.
“So it's settled,” Alaska reported. “But it's time for Maya to pick the kids who go with her. Talia, take her to Clara.” Alaska carried himself out of the room.
“Chloe, you spread the word about the mission. Dakota and Maya, come with me.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hall back to the rooms. Dakota knocked hard five times on one of the silver doors.
“Dakota?” Clara whined. The door unlocked and opened. “Mission time?”
“Mission time,” she repeated. Clara let us in. She sat Talia and Dakota on a couch, and sat me in a chair.
“Alright, how many people?”
“I’d say six,“ Talia cooed.
“That’s a little risky, I-“
“It’s the right number.”
“Okay…” She sat down in the chair across from me. “I’ll try to keep this in as simple terms as I can.”
She took my hands into hers and closed her eyes. My brain started pounding and my vision went black. I could here a whistling. Then my vision came back. She let go of my hands, her body shaky.
“Wow,” she avowed. “That was much stronger than I was expecting.”
“Are we gonna be okay?” Talia questioned.
“You’ll all make it back this time, but if you leave again-“
“Just tell us who’s going,” Dakota interjected.
“Alright Maya. You’ll bring Talia and Mason. And you’ll need Logan too. And then you have to choose a manipulator to bring. But here’s our problem. Only one more can go but you need every Windsor power.”
“Well first let’s decide which manipulator to bring,” Talia struggled. “Carter, Dylan, and Chloe.” “Well I’d say Chloe is the most powerful. The boys are better fighters and might be needed here at camp,” I rejoined.
“Wow, her telepathy sure is rubbing off on you,” Dakota hymned.
“Okay. Chloe. But who will be the sixth member?” Clara inquired.
Talia raised her hand. “What if we combine the powers into one host?”
“But who would be strong enough to hold that much power?” The conversation became just between Dakota and Talia.
“Grace. She’s been training for so long now, and she’s the most powerful out of all of them.”
“Well then we should find Alaska and Teddy. I certainly can’t do it without them.”
“Okay let’s split up,” Talia concluded. “I’ll get the Windsor’s and Teddy and you bring Maya and Alaska back to your room.”
I thanked Clara and followed Dakota out of the room.
“Alaska!” she yelled down the stairs. “We need you in my room.”
“Oh alright. I’ll be up in a moment.” We trudged down the hall and back to her room.
“You stay out here. I need to prepare,” she said. I didn’t question. I pushed my back against the wall and slid down it.
“Could you just tell us what you want?” I heard Alec holler.
“Yeah, what do you want Talia?” Ian joined in.
Jinora declared, “I think I can guess.”
“Is this about Maya’s mission?” Zach guessed.
“Would you all just shut up?” Talia roared.
Silence.
“You want me to be the host, don’t you?” wailed Grace. Talia wouldn’t answer.
I couldn’t take it anymore when they were finally at the door. “That’s exactly what we want.”
Talia shoved Alec, Zach, Ian, and Jinora inside. Alaska came up the steps seconds later and snuck into the room.
Teddy added, “but you have to agree. You’re kind of our only chance here.”
“Alright fine.”
“Then get in there ‘cause we’re running out of time,” Talia summed up. She pushed in Teddy and Grace.
She sat down next to me.
“So this war…”
She nodded, as if thinking about the best way to answer. “There’s an army – the Celadons. It’s mostly made of monsters, but someone had to train the monsters. Super-humans who turned against us created a monster army and sent them after us. Decades later and they’re finally powerful enough to beat us…”
“And what makes them stronger than us?” She turned away.
“They’re trying to conquer reality warping,” she barked.
“You mean to be able to change or manipulate reality itself?”
“Exactly. They’ve already uncovered my secret power.” She gritted her teeth, her face looking pained.
“Secret power?”
“Yes. Every few generations of super-humans comes a secret power. My grandfather, great-great grandmother and beyond had telepathy. I was lucky -“ She stopped, as if regretting what she said. “Not lucky. Very unlucky. Anyway, I have the power of psionic blast. That means I can overload another's mind causing pain, memory loss, lack of consciousness, vegetative state or even death after having created a psionic link into that individual's mind. I have the power of killing someone with my own mind.” Talia was shaking now.  “But now they’re one step ahead. Before they found out about reality warping, they discovered psychic weapons. It’s a weapon of psychic energy that can harm mentally and not physically. It’s almost as bad as psionic blast.”
“So are they stronger than us?”
“They were. But I don’t know if they are anymore. They may know what a psionic blast is, but they don’t know how to use it. We’re working on using psychic weapons, but I’m one of the only two who can use them right now. Until you.” Her expression lit up.
“What can I do?”
“You can mimic powers. That means once I have enough control of these powers, I can teach you how to use psionic blast and how to create psychic weapons.”
“I don’t know, Talia-“
“I do. I know you’re capable. I know you can do this. But you still have quite a bit to learn. I’m ready to teach you if you’re ready to learn.”
“Well it doesn’t seem like I have a choice. I guess I’m in,” I agreed. A smile grew across her face and she leaned forward to hug me. “We start after this mission.”
“Another question,” I began. “How does Mason have Atmokinesis and you have telepathy?”
“I…I don’t know. That’s why it’s so rare that we made it back to camp when we don’t know where Mason’s powers came from. We don’t even know his monster. Atmokinesis normally goes to kids who get the miscellaneous powers like Logan. Somehow it made it to Mason.” She bit her lip, like she was on the verge of crying.
“You can stop. That’s all I needed to know.”
The door opened and Grace stepped out, everyone else standing in the doorway.
“So?” I wondered. “Did it work?”
“Of course it worked,” Teddy asserted.
“I would know,” Alec moaned.
“Haha,” Dakota giggled. “Alec didn’t believe she had his super strength, and Grace threw him into the bed to prove it.”
“So do they all still have their powers?” I implored.
“Yep,” Teddy saluted. “They just have less. And then when you come back, with the help of Dakota and Alaska, I’ll transfer the powers back. You have twenty-four hours.”
“What?!” we all shrieked.
“Teddy, I believe you mistakenly left that important point out. This mission was supposed to last more than one day. And we still have twelve hours before they leave,” Alaska yelped.
“Yeah, about that. I left that out on purpose. I knew you wouldn’t go through with it if I told you that. And you only have two places to go. You probably won’t even need to fight anyone. You can split up and cover the two places. You’ll be fine.”
“Teddy!” Talia screeched. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I just told you why I didn’t tell you.” He rolled his eyes. “Don’t get your mind-sucking, know-it-all brain in a knot.”
“You suck.” Her fists tightened.
“You swallow.” He turned to the rest of us. “Doesn’t Maya have some training to do?”
“He is right. We are going to have to work with what we have,” Alaska explained. “I must go talk to the spies to see what else they’ve found out. For the rest of you, pack up the supplies you’ll need. And Dakota, I want you to lock up some power in a Baxon jar please. Show her the basics. And maybe some power from Teddy, Shawn, and Willow, just in case.”
“Baxon jar?”
“They hold powers,” Dakota answered. “They’re named after the inventor, Thomas Baxon.” Alaska left with Jinora, Alec, Ian, and Zach, and Talia led Mason, Teddy, and Grace out. Dakota pulled me into the room. “He was Alaska’s brother; he had power mimicry too. He made them so that he could contain other’s powers and even when he was alone, he had an endless supply of power. Now of course, they’ve evolved. We’ve managed to create something that holds the power, but you can also store things in it. An extension spell allows you to put anything in the jar.” She sat me on the bed and took out a regular-looking jar. “Now let’s get ready.”

“Now hold the jar still,” she ordered.
I held the jar out in front of me, covering my eyes like she told me to. I peeked through my fingers and she rubbed her hands together. They started to glow blue, and she separated them like she taught me to when I learned how to make a force field.
Her hands became blindingly bright, but as soon as she threw the ball of power into the jar, she yelled, “Close it!” The second I did, the glowing ball shrank to the size of a golf ball. It reminded me of the sun, except, you know, it was blue and tiny.
“Well that was-“
“Malegante Portreo!” She waved her hand and I watched the jar turn into a satchel. My eyes widened. “When it’s in purse form, you can store literally anything in here, including a person, but I wouldn’t recommend that. When it’s in jar form, it’ll lock the powers inside. Now you try. Say ‘Balegante Portreo’ back to turn it into a jar.”
“Balegante Portreo!” I waved my hand and it turned back into a jar, the blue sun spinning around inside.
“Good job. Now I have to prepare medicines for the mission, and I need to get ready to be able to recharge the six of you. So do exactly what I just did, and take the powers from Shawn, Teddy, and Willow then find Maya. Shawn is in his room, but Teddy, Willow, and Maya should be downstairs.”
I nodded and left the room, walking down the hall to Shawn’s room. I knocked hard a few times until the door opened.
“Maya, right? What’s up?” He rested his head on the doorframe.
“I’ve been sent to bottle up some of your power,” I responded, holding up the jar. He smirked.
“Okay, open it up.” I untwisted the cap, half expecting the glowing ball to escape. But it stayed right where it was. “Ready? Hold it steady and cover your eyes.” I covered my eyes, once again peeking through my hands. When he rubbed his hands together, they were red. He gently placed the ball into the jar. When it hit the blue one, it vibrated, then hid on the opposite side of the jar. I closed it up.
“Um, I have one question before I go,” I affirmed.
“Shoot.”
“How do you make sure you use the right power? I mean what if you’re trying to see in the dark but accidentally light something on fire?”
He chuckled. “The key is to focus. Not once have I used the wrong vision power. I’ve never been trying to use my x-ray vision and accidentally freeze the thing instead. It doesn’t work like that.”
I gave him a head nod and a smile and he shut the door, but not before whispering, “good luck”. I headed down the stairs and to the main room where a crowd was located. I found Teddy talking to Willow. Two birds with one stone.
“Willow! Teddy!” They both stopped talking and turned to me. “I need your powers.” I lifted up the jar where the blue and red suns were floating around. They shared a look.
“Okay…” Teddy sang. He rubbed his hands together, which turned yellow. He plopped the ball in, unsettling the other two. Willow’s hands then turned green, and she threw hers in too.
“Thanks.” I waved my hand and commanded, “Malegante Portreo!” I shouldered the satchel and headed off to find Talia.
“Wait, Maya!” Teddy hollered. “Just some advise. I wouldn’t recommend you carrying the satchel, because you’ll have a serious headache. My powers recognize others with powers, but when you’re with people from the castle, their powers interfere. You won’t know a true migraine until you experience my powers.
I slowly nodded in understanding, already feeling a headache coming on.
“And my power takes no skill,” Willow finished. “You’ll just be able to hear and respond to animals.” Her smile looked as if she felt sorry for me.
The castle was loud, its stillness ruined. I spotted Grace somewhere within the crowd and I tracked her down, finding Talia and Mason too.
“Oh good you have the satchel,” Talia praised. They all had their arms full with utensils from medical supplies to food. I opened it and Talia dumped the provisions into the bag. The weight didn’t change at all. Neither did the bulkiness. Mason then added his armload, then Grace added hers. The bag still felt empty.
“That’s impressive,” I said.
“You’ll get used to it,” Talia promised. “Now that we have the materials packed, next up is preparing the castle. Grace, are you coming with me?” Grace looked up from the ground then nodded. “Good. Maya, you’ll need to get some clothes. My room is right next to Dakota’s. There are clothes on the bed and a bathroom if you need it. And give me that.” She took the bag from me, probably knowing Teddy’s powers would give me a headache.
She and Grace departed, and Mason went in the other direction. I took the steps one at a time, idly stomping up them. I slowly opened the door that convened beside Dakota’s, revealing a small room similar to Dakota’s, with two beds.
I picked up the folded clothes that sat on the bed, changing into the clean ones that were almost exactly what I was wearing before. I entered the bathroom and debated whether I should shower or not. I decided I wouldn’t have enough time. I brushed through my knotty hair, then put it back into its side braid.
I trudged back down the stairs to find a river of people surrounding the bottom of the staircase. I pushed through them and found Talia in the big room that wasn’t so empty anymore. All of a sudden, the ground shook, and I watched the crystal chandelier sway back and forth above me. I heard small screams, people running and ducking for cover. But it was over just seconds later. I’ve had my share of experiences with earthquakes, but that one didn’t feel right.
I saw a bright flash of lightning from one of the very few windows. I barely even noticed when Talia grabbed my arm and yanked me through the anxious crowd of kids.
She led me down the hall and through a door, down two flights of stairs.
“Where are we going exactly?”
“To find Mason. I was joking with him and he got pissed off. He comes down here when he’s mad,” she responded.
“Why is that?”
“The problem with his powers is he can’t disconnect them from his emotions. If he’s angry, he’ll make a storm or he’ll create a small earthquake. If he’s sad he’ll make it pour for days.”
I asserted, “Do earthquakes even count as weather? And why does coming down here help?”
“Technically, no. But he can still control things like that. And he comes down here because the farther down he is from ground level, the less his emotions affect the weather.” She turned the corner and led me down a narrow hallway. “Mason!” echoed off the walls as Talia yelled for him. The corridor opened into a small room similar to a laundry room. The walls were lined with washers and dryers. Mason seemed to be gathering some materials off the shelves.
“What do you want?”
“Are you seriously mad at me?” Talia snapped.
“What?” He looked up at her and put the stuff that was in his arms down. “Why would you think that?”
“Well one giveaway was the earthquake. And then the fact that you came down here-“
Mason sighed, “I came down here because I thought we might need some of this stuff for the mission. And I didn’t make an earthquake. I didn’t even know there was one.”
“Oh. Well then never mind.” Talia gave him an embarrassed smirk. I could hear the thunder rumbling even from all the way down in the basement. “But we might have a problem tomorrow if this storm keeps going. If these monsters are coming out now-” They exchanged a look and Mason shook his head violently.
“Wait a second,” I interrupted. “If you can control the weather, why can’t you just get rid of the storm?”
He replied, “It’s a one way road. I can make it stormy but I can’t make it sunny. Plus Mother Nature gets really pissed when I change the weather. Especially when it’s a big area.”
“Mother Nature? You mean she’s real?”
“Yeah of course. She’s quite nice actually; she’s just really short tempered. She doesn’t like that there’s someone else in this world that can change the weather.”
“Right,” I mumbled.
“And a tip from my experience if you ever master Atmokinesis: don’t ever, ever fly too high after you just changed the weather. She’ll either electrocute you out of the sky, or she’ll blow you around for a couple miles before you ram into a tree.” I asphyxiated a giggle. “C’mon, let’s get back upstairs.”
We wondered back down the hall and up the stairs back to the crowded main room.
“Hey!” Dakota tried, gripping the banister at the top of the steps. “Excuse me!” The volume didn’t change. I climbed the stairs, taking two at a time. I stuck my pointer and thumb in my mother and blew hard. The high-pitched noise rattled the room, slightly shaking the chandelier. The castle was silent. “Thank you. I need Teddy, Grace, Logan, Chloe, Mason, Talia, and Maya to meet me in my room. Everyone else needs to clear the main entrance. You guys should all get some rest.”
The volume slowly rose as I followed Dakota back to her room. I was weary, my eyes growing heavy. My consciousness was ebbing away, my thoughts all slowly disintegrating. My brain was becoming incoherent, my vision blurry. Dakota opened the door to her room and I slumped down onto one of the beds.
Next to come in was Talia with Mason and Grace. Logan, Teddy, and Chloe all came in mere moments later.
“Teddy, you ready?” Dakota was mixing some sort of concoction.
“I’m using up a lot of power in one day. Are you trying to drain me?” he whined.
“Oh shut up and get over here,” she ordered.
Talia and Grace sat down next to me. Logan, Mason, and Chloe sat on the other bed. Dakota added a few more ingredients into the pitcher, then she took Teddy by the arm and pulled him to the table. They both rubbed their hands together, doing the same thing they did when they put their powers in the jar. Dakota dropped her blue sun in, and Teddy dropped in his yellow one.
Teddy seemed dizzy, like he was about to pass out. Without looking up from mixing the ingredients together, Dakota outstretched her arm just in time to catch him and pull him back to his feet.
“Sit down, dummy,” she ordered. He sat down next to Mason. She stepped away from the table, and I saw she had eight cups lined along the table. She evenly divided the blue-ish yellow liquid into the cups. Mason helped her with the cups, delivering a cup to Talia, Grace, and I. He took one for himself as Dakota handed Logan, Chloe, and Teddy each a cup.
Dakota lilted, “Drink up.”
“Cheers,” Teddy groaned. I inhaled the disgusting liquid, hoping the faster I s=drank it, the less I could taste. But the second the drink hit my tongue, I already felt better.
“Now,” Dakota began, collecting the empty cups. “You guys have about three hours before you have to leave. Why don’t you all get some sleep?”
She pushed us out of the room and Talia and I went next door. The second my head hit the pillow I was asleep.
•        •        •
“Okay, here’s the plan,” Talia began, and everyone huddled around her, gathered at the top of the stairs. “First destination is the school. Logan will head in first, detonating the bomb that will knock out the adults. Everyone else will follow when Logan gives the signal. Grace and Chloe will go with Logan to make sure none of the teachers will interfere. Keep watch for signs of the army coming up from underground. Mason, Maya, and I will convince her homeroom class to help evacuate the school. And if it comes to it, I’ve trained Maya to use mind control. We can get everyone out that way if we have to.” She took a deep breath. “That’s when we split up. I’ll take Maya to her father’s house so that he knows she’s safe. Once everyone is out of the school and there are no signs of attack, you’ll meet us at the house. Hopefully he’ll give the blessing and we can continue on with our mission. We’ll find their main tunnel that leads underground and blow up the entrance. It might hold them off as we prepare for this war. Questions?”
Logan asserted, “Small problem. We have eleven hours before Grace’s powers run out. What happens if they do run out?”
“I’ll pass out and temporarily stop breathing. But I’ll be fine,” Grace responded.
“Sure sounds fine,” Mason grumbled. “There is a pretty good chance this mission will take all eleven hours.”
“Positivity would be nice,” I suggested. “And we planned this out perfectly. If it all goes smoothly, we’ll still have two hours to spare. And if Grace doesn’t have enough power to super-speed us away from the tunnel, I can. Jinora taught me a little when she was training Grace to make sure we both had enough control. We’ll all be fine. Clara said we’d all make it back.”
“But the future can change,” Chloe argued.
Grace agreed, “It isn’t permanent. Nor is it reliable.” She smirked.
“Quit wasting time arguing and let’s go!” Talia thundered.
She ushered us out of the room and down the stairs. Everyone seemed to be waiting for us. We cut through the crowds of people and pushed out the wooden doors to the frozen winter air.
Alaska and Carolina were waiting outside along with Dakota and Oliver, who was sitting next to Carolina’s Husky. Dakota grabbed my hands took them into hers.
“Remember what I taught you. And remember to concentrate,” she told me.
I turned to Alaska. “You must remember you're capable of anything you set your mind to. And that sometimes it's the questions that are complicated and the answers that are simple.”
“Isn’t that a Dr. Suess quote?” I asked.
He winked, sending a shiver up my spine. “As for the rest of you, be careful and don’t go too far.” His eyes narrowed. “I'm looking at you, Talia.”
Then I looked at Carolina. “There is nothing I need to tell you,” she announced. “You all know what you need to know for this mission.”
Together we walked down the stone stairs and down the dirt path, abandoning the castle and everyone inside. It seemed like a much shorter distance than yesterday, mainly because I wasn't carrying Talia. Also because there were no monsters chasing us.

I spoke too soon. A dragon-looking creature appeared in front of us.
“Sillenses!” Logan bellowed.
“That's his monster,” Talia whispered to me as she slid out her knife. I took out the sword Talia gave me, stretching it to its full twelve inches, and got ready to fight. Everyone else did the same.
“Mason!” Logan called. “Distract him!”
He followed Logan's orders, knowing he knew the best way to get rid of this monster. As Mason and Logan went in front of the dragon, Talia and I went to the back. Grace and Chloe covered the sides. Before I could blink, Logan was on the dragon's back. The slimy creature squealed, spinning in a circle.
His tail was much bigger than Gaestroph's, at least up to my waist. There was no way we could just jump over that. At perfect timing, Talia and I dove over the tail and left my sword down so it stabbed the tail, breaking all the safety rules of using a sword. But hey, who cares? The monster screeched and I ripped it out, purple blood oozing from the wound. When the green thing moved again, I realized my sword went far enough through that it sliced off his tail. The tail shimmered, then disappeared.
“Good job, Maya!” Talia praised, pulling herself off the dusty ground and untangling her hair from a tree branch.
“A little help over here!” Mason called. Talia and I shared a look.
“You go,” she offered. I didn't argue, because the butt of a dragon isn't very pretty and it certainly didn't smell very good.
I found Mason flying slightly above the scaly beast, trying to distract him from Logan.
“Hey Slimy Butt!” I hollered. He turned his attention toward me, and breathed a huge wind of fire. It knocked me off my feet, and I wondered why I didn't see it coming. I mean, he’s a dragon.
I lunged forward, stabbing his eyeball. It may have made him half blind, but it mainly just made him angry as he tried to shake Logan off of his back.
“Go, Maya!” Logan’s voice shook.
I ran to the other side of the monster, avoiding the fire that wanted to burn me to a crisp. I lunged for a second time, and aimed my sword into his other eye. He roared, spinning again.
But it seemed like Logan and Mason had a plan. Mason landed back on the ground to help me. He muttered a few words, and waved his hand at the sky. I watched a cloud form in midair, right above the fire-breather’s head. He tried to ignite, but water came pouring out of the cloud and extinguished it immediately.
Talia was coming in on Grace’s side. I inched sideways as they ran toward Mason and I. Chloe came in on the other side. They knew that if we worked together, it would be easy to defeat the blind fiend.
We all pounced at the same time, somehow knowing what to do (I’m sure Talia was the culprit of that). I ducked a claw, and I saw Mason swatting at something in the air. Logan held on tight as the creature danced around. But when he was ready, he stood up and held his sword straight down, aiming right between his damaged eyes. He plunged his sword into the thick skin as purple liquid poured out. Everyone stepped back as it flowed onto the ground. The slimy dragon shimmered, then faded away.
Logan fell to the ground right on his face as the monster disappeared from under him, and Mason pulled him up. Talia then led the way out of the clearing.
“Well…that was…something,” she panted.
“That’ll be the only attack, right?” Chloe panicked.
“Hopefully. Sillenses has very powerful senses and can find Logan the second he exits the castle,” Talia explained.
Mason added, “We thought he would be underground with the rest of the army, but I guess he can’t resist the temptation to attack.”
“So that won’t happen again,” Grace reassured, though it sounded like a question.
“I highly doubt it,” Talia replied. “Maya’s monster probably won’t recreate itself for another few days. Mine is too afraid to attack me in the daylight after last time…and we still don’t know Mason’s monster. Chloe, your monster is a follower, which means he’ll stay underground with the rest. Yet we have no choice but to worry about Grace. There’s a chance that you radiate your brothers’ and sister’s smell. So there’s a possibility that you have five monsters after you right now.”
“Oh joy,” she groaned.
We made our way to the back of the brick school. I felt the ground shake and rumble and I almost fell to my knees.
“This isn’t gonna be as easy as we thought it would be,” Talia cursed.
Logan complained, “They aren’t supposed to be out for another week.” He stomped his foot like a three-year-old.
“Maybe they’re just preparing. I think we’d know if they were above ground,” Grace reassured.
“We’re all doomed,” Chloe whinnied.
The ground shook again, sending dirt and dust into the air. I looked up at the school, which should’ve probably evacuated itself because of the earthquake.
“There’s a chance they can’t feel it,” Talia read my mind. “I’m not sure, but the Celadons won’t want to create chaos before the war itself starts. They know that humans will get in the way of their goal, which in our case is in our favor.”
“K buddy,” Mason mused. “This is your cue.” He patted Logan on the back so hard that he almost fell forward.
“Here.” Talia threw a small grenade-looking object at him. “Now remember, all you have to do is set that off and give us the signal. Then we’ll get everyone out and leave as soon as we can.”
He shook, “Alright Maya. Best entrance?”
“That one right there.” I pointed to the door straight in front of us. “It’s under a staircase and there’s very few students or teachers that ever go over there. If you turn left, you’ll find an air vent. My friends, Ryan and Gabe, accidently kicked it in a few weeks ago. It pops off easily so you can just throw the grenade right in.”
“And it’ll set itself off?” He was asking Talia now. She nodded. “And what if there’s someone who sees me?”
“Then you’re screwed,” I replied.
Talia grunted, “If it’s an adult, they can’t do very much as long as you throw the grenade in.”
“And what if a student is smart enough to get help after their teacher is knocked unconscious?”
“Oh right. Thanks for reminding me,” Talia hummed. She made a hand motion that looked like she was throwing a ball, and mumbled something like, “Diaspoza!” She smiled. “There. Now all of the doors are locked from the outside.”
“I have a question,” I interrupted. “Why do you say spells sometimes but not always?”
“I only use spells when I have to accomplish something big. Like locking every door in the school.”
“Another thing,” Grace remarked. “Remember that everyone in that school are teenagers. They all have cell phones. Someone will eventually call for help.”
“I can take care of that,” Mason declared. “Where’s the nearest cell tower?”
I answered, “Right down the street.”
He squinted, trying to find it. It seemed like he spotted it when he pointed in the right direction. Lightning shot out of his finger and hit the tower perfectly. That ought to do the trick.
“Go Logan!” Chloe pushed. He walked out from behind the trees and made his way toward the door. He pulled open the door, stalling a little longer. He stared at us, waiting.
“GO!” we all yelled in unison.
He finally slipped inside. We stood there, waiting for the signal. The cold air sent shivers up my spine and goose bumps appeared on my arms. We stood in silence, waiting for some movement.
“He should've been done already,” I wearied.
“Why is it taking so long?” Grace pouted.
“Right there,” Mason spurted.
“What?” Chloe snapped.
“There. Look at the window.”
I stared at the shade that moved back and forth.
Talia observed, “That's probably just some stupid kid. That wasn't the signal we agreed on.”
“No, that's the teacher's lounge. There was a small fire in that room a few days ago and no one was supposed to be in there. That has to be Logan,” I explained.
“There must've been a reason why he didn't send up the smoke. Maybe he just thought it was a bad idea,” Chloe added.
“Okay, well then let's follow the plan. Chloe and Grace, stay on the first floor and try to persuade some of the kids to leave. Maya and Mason, let's get to work.”
We all marched into the building, and split up at the stairwell. I led Mason and Maya to my homeroom and snapped open the door.
“Maya!” Sara screeched.
Sophia conceded, “We’ve been worried sick about you!”
“And Mr. Cory fell asleep again,” Ryan added.
“Sure, let’s go with that,” I muttered under my breath.
“And you weren’t here to draw a curly mustache on him,” Tyler implied. “So I did it for you.” He grinned, holding up the black marker that was in his hand.
Maya and Mason inched closer, and Maya nudged me in the ribs.
“Who are they?” Mary asked.
“This is Maya and Mason. They’re here to help.”
Olivia croaked, “Help what?”
“Actually we need your help,” Talia corrected.
“Something very bad is happening under the school. And we need to evacuate the school so everyone is safe,” I explained.
“And how,” Liam countered, “Are we supposed to help with that?”
“All the teachers are knocked out,” Mason started. “We knew they’d cause a knot in our plan, so we knocked them out. So we need your help. We need you guys to get all of the kids out of the school, the teachers too. So will you help or not?”
“Hey if it means break starts early, I’m in,” Gabe maintained.
“I still don’t understand how we’re gonna help,” complained Kara. “I mean have you met our class?”
Zander acknowledged, “It seems like you’re depending on us a little too much.”
“Oh would you people quit complaining and just agree to save the school? I know you’d love to see it blow up into a million pieces, but watch from outside because I’m sure you don’t want to be blown into a million pieces. So are you in or not?”
“I’m in,” Tyler remarked.
“Okay, that’s two, who else?” Talia tried. They all looked around the room, waiting for someone to speak up. When they all looked Sara I realized they’d all follow whatever she did. I looked pleadingly at Sara, who rolled her eyes.
“I’ll do it,” Sara declared. Then everyone nodded his or her heads in agreement. I grinned at Talia and Mason.
“Alright then let’s get moving!” I celebrated. “Everyone partner up. Think of any way that will lure the kids out of the classroom. The best way to get the teachers out is to put them in their desk chair and wheel them into the elevator and outside. Once they're outside, they'll regain conscientiousness, so be careful.” I looked at Mason and Talia. “Did I forget anything?” They shook their heads. “Then let's move out!”
They all stood, leaving in pairs of two. First, Tyler and Gabe left. Then went Olivia and Mary. Zander and Sophia were next. And then went Liam and Ryan. Kara and Sara left last.
I couldn’t help but thinking that this would be the last time I’d ever see them. Even if I live through this, I probably won’t be coming back to the school, especially if it’s blown up. I didn’t know them super well, but I knew them well enough for them to mean something to me. I looked around the classroom that had been a second home to me. Then I looked at the narcoleptic Mr. Cory who was knocked out behind the desk.
I pushed him out of the classroom in his roller chair. The hallway was clear, but I could make out Sara’s figure at the end, peeking into a classroom.
“Hey Sara!” I called. She turned around. “Take Mr. Cory outside!”
She stepped into the hall and I could see a smile across her face. With all my might, I shoved the chair down the hall and straight toward Sara. I made myself enjoy it, because it’s not that often that you can push your unconscious teacher down the hallway at a hundred miles per hour. As I watched Sara disappear around the corner and to the elevators I saw her hand flick a wave.
I turned to Mason. “Mason, let's go check the bathrooms at this wing.” I pulled him down the hall and pointed to the boy's bathroom. I opened the swinging door and called in. No one answered. I pushed open each stall door to see if anyone was hiding. Then I met Mason back in the hall.
“Um, Maya,” he puffed out his chest, “there's a boy who won't come out. I think he's crying.” I pushed the door open with my butt, so I didn't have to step into the bathroom.
“Neville?” I asked. “Can you hear me?”
“Maya? Is that you?”
“Yeah it is. Listen, Neville, you need to come out. The school is being evacuated and you have'ta leave.”
There was a sniffle, then silence. The door then popped open and Neville slid out.
“I thought you left,” he observed.
“Well technically I did. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you get outside now so you’re safe and I don’t have to keep smelling this disgusting bathroom.”
He came out the door and Mason slipped out too.
He was an odd looking boy, with buck-teeth and round glasses. But he was the first person who said hi to me when I came to this school, and he kind of became my friend.
“Is everything okay?” he wondered.
“Yeah, Neville. Everything is just fine.” I directed him down the stairs and to the door.

“Espera!” Someone yelled. I knew it was Chloe. Mason and I were running down the halls, making sure the classrooms were empty.
I found it funny how calm these kids were. Teachers were unconscious and six mischievous kids just come in here and tell them to evacuate. There was no argument and everyone obeyed. I’m sure they were happy to get out of school early, but there was no quarreling at all.
I bumped into Mason as we found Talia and Grace who stumbled upon Chloe.
“I saw blue and red lights plowing down the road. The cops are here,” Chloe warned.
Talia panicked, “Oh crap. We didn't leave a window of time for an unexpected escape. But we've gotta get out of here.”
“How are we supposed to get out? Well be surrounded in just a few minutes,” Mason reminded.
Talia pressed her fingers to her temple, and Grace cautiously paced in a circle. Chloe and Mason exchanged nervous looks.
“Hey,” I interjected. “I may be new to this school, but I've had four months to learn the routes. I know it like the back of my hand. At least I think so because I don't actually know the back of my hand. But anyways, follow me.” They all shrugged, but followed me down the side staircase and down a ramp that led to the basement.
The basement was mainly just pipes and electrical stuff. But sometimes they used it for storage, like old gym equipment. I led them through the maze of pipes and crates until we found the small square of light reflecting on a pipe.
It was coming through a little window on the tiny door. It was no taller than four feet, no wider than one foot. I whipped the door open and held it as everyone squeezed through.
There were cop cars lined up in the front of the school, but the building covered us. The sky was clear but it was a dark blue and the sun seemed very dim. I looked up at the V formation the geese made overhead.
That took me back to four summers ago when my dad took me to the pier for a picnic. It wasn’t very often that he’d go anywhere with me because he claimed he was to busy with work. We sat on the dock, our feet in the water. The sun was setting, the beautiful sunset reflecting on the water. A large flock of geese flew above us.
“Why do they fly like that? In a V?” I asked.
“Well, a flock of geese flying in a V formation can move faster and maintain flight much longer than any one goose flying alone. Synergy. It’s a law of nature.” He went on and on, like he normally does when a subject like that interests him. But I never stopped him. His voice was modulated and silvery, but it was orotund too.
He finally stopped rambling and I listened to the wind whistle on the water.
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you miss Mom?” I squeaked.
“Well of course I miss Mom. She meant so much to me - like you do.” He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
When my mom died, my dad spent weeks avoiding me because he said I looked too much like her. He said I was just as graceful, as strong, and as beautiful as her.
“But she died a hero, right?”
“She sure did. She saved a building full of families and she saved her squad. She made a dig difference,” he told me.
“So why’d He take her away from us?”
“There was no reason for God to take her. You know that the world needs more people just like her… it's what the world lacks.”
The door slamming behind me jolted me back to the present and my memory at the pier dissolved. “Alright,” Talia began. “We've wasted enough time already. So Mason and Maya, come with me. The three of you need to stay here to set off the memory charm. Make up some stupid story to the cops, and make sure none of the students and none of teachers know what happened. Let's move out.”
Grace paused, “Hold on a minute. There's only five of us.”
“Logan never followed us out,” Chloe backed up.
“Last time I saw him,” Mason added, “he was getting a class down the stairs. He must still be inside. There's no other way out.”
“Okay, um...” Talia insinuated. “Grace and Chloe, go in with Mason. Maya and I will keep watch.”
I asserted, “Sorry to burst your bubble, but that door doesn't open from the outside.”
“You've gotta be kidding me,” she whined.
“So now what? There's no way in, no way out,” Mason complained.
I glanced at the anxious faces, then up at the windows.
Talia's eyebrows furrowed. “You can't get in through the windows. You said that they were Plexiglas windows. And that they don't even open.”
“Except for the offices.” I paced back and forth as I were giving a lecture. “See, there's one office on the second floor whose window is always open - Dr. Reynolds. If I can climb up there-“
“You can't,” Chloe interrupted, “it's humanly impossible.”
“Well it's a good thing we're more than just humans.” I smirked. “Grace and Mason, give me a boost.” I moved them toward the open window.
“It's on the second floor,” Chloe argued. “That's just not possible.”
I started to talk, but Grace held up her hand. “I'll take this one. You see, I've got the super strength. Mason is strong enough to push her far enough and his Atmokinesis can take care of the rest. Even though Mason hasn't taught Maya to fly, it takes no skill or practice to float up two stories.”
“Ugh, this is crazy,” she grunted.
Mason and Grace positioned themselves on either side of me. I grabbed onto their shoulders, then put my right foot in Grace's hand, and was about to put my left in Mason's.
“No, no, no,” Chloe muttered.
I hopped back to the ground. “What now?” I demanded.
“Think about it. Grace has more strength than Mason. So if you both throw her into the air, there's a pretty good chance you'll be unbalanced and fall to the left.”
Talia raised her eyebrows. “She's right.”
“Okay...then lace your arms together.” Luckily, they knew what I meant. They grabbed onto each other's wrists, making a box shape. I gripped their shoulders and braced myself.
I secured my right foot on their arms, and at the same time, they threw me into the air and I pushed off the ground with my left foot. And I just made it.
With one hand, I held onto the windowsill I was aiming for. With all my might, I threw up my other arm, then pulled myself in.
The room looked always like how the guidance counselor left it. The bookshelves were full but neat; the desk was clear except for a large desk calendar and a full coffee mug that said #1 Dad and in pen underneath that, Dr. Reynolds wrote and guidance counselor.
I went to the door and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Then I remembered Talia locked it from the outside. I finally examined how it locked, and I realized the doorknob was completely flipped. The part that was normally on the outside was on the inside.
I didn't know how Talia did it. I wouldn't be able to reverse one doorknob with my hands, let alone a hundred with my mind.
I felt my pockets, and luckily found what I needed. A bobby pin. Now I was never taught how to pick locks, but I have been in a situation or two where I had to learn. I fiddled around with it, hoping it would work. After minutes passed, I was hopeless - until I heard the long awaited click.
I sprinted out the door and down the hall. I heard footsteps, and I was hoping it was Logan, but there were too many of them. I ducked into an open classroom and hid behind the door. When the heavy footsteps passed, I continued onward.
I sprinted down the stairs and ended up running into Logan. And I mean literally. We both fell to the ground and I offered him my hand.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
“Oh it’s okay. I’m just glad you came back. I thought you guys were gonna leave without me.”
“Well…we were about to. It was Grace who realized you weren’t with us.”
He blushed. “Well, I think we better get out of here before-“
Right on schedule, the police came barging through the main doors. I pulled Logan into the nurse’s office that was right around the corner.
“What now?” He whispered.
“We run.” His eyes grew with horror as the footsteps grew louder. “On my count, run out the door behind us. One…two…three!”
I grabbed his wrist and dragged his wobbling legs out of the office. I pulled him past lockers and down the hallway to the double doors in front of us.
“Hey!” A deep voice growled. I tried to pick up my pace, still pulling along Logan, but he was fighting me.
“It’s okay, Maya,” Logan soothed. “I know who that is.” I finally came to a stop to see a tall man in front of us. He had short gray hair and dark green eyes, and looked a heck of a lot like Logan. “Hi Dad.”
“Oh Logan!” He ran toward him, picking him off his feet and embracing him in a hug. “It’s all clear!” He yelled down the hall to the other officers.
“What’re you doing here, Dad?”
“It was a slow day at work today. But when we got this call, they sent everyone on duty. Now the real question is what are you doing here and who is this?” He questioned.
“Dad, this is Maya.” He outstretched my hand and I shook it. “And we’re here on a mission. Classified.”
“Alright son. Well they’ll probably be wondering where I am by now and I bet you two have somewhere to go. It was good to see you. Visit soon.” With that, he left us standing right in front of the doors.
As I pushed the door open, I asked, “How often do you see your family?”
“If we’re lucky, about once a month. But I run into my dad a little more often because…well because I get caught in situations like these.”
I froze when I saw all of the cop cars around the building. There were at least ten, maybe fifteen police officers, the cars blocking off the road that led in and out of the school. Kids were gathered in the front of the school, surrounding the flagpole. I thought maybe we’d be able to blend in, but cops were blocking our way around the school.
“And how are we supposed to get out of this?” I panicked.
“I think I can take care of this one. Take my hand.”
“What?”
“I said grab my hand!” he demanded. I took it. “Lestros Revîa!”
I shrank. And when I looked down at my body I was a furry squirrel still wearing my clothes that shrunk as well. I wanted to scream but I knew it would draw attention. I honestly didn’t even know if I could scream. I followed the squirrel in front of me, assuming it was Logan. If it wasn’t him that would mean there was another squirrel somewhere wearing Logan’s clothes, out in the cold wintry weather.
He led me around the back of the school where the group was waiting. He took my hand again and muttered something similar to before, and as my height grew, I turned back to human.
“Shapeshifting,” I cursed.
He joked, “It’s fun, huh?”
“Far from fun.” The blood rushed back to my head. I squinted, my vision a little blurry.
“Finally!” Grace moaned. “We thought you got caught. Those policemen…I thought they saw us.”
Talia gasped, “Oh thank god. Maya and Mason, we need to go. Now.”
“Good luck,” Chloe hoped.
“You too. Don’t die.” I saluted her and walked towards the sidewalk. I glanced back to see the puzzled Talia and Mason following close behind. I walked straight into the crowd of students and weaved my way through them. I sprinted toward the sidewalk, hoping the cops wouldn’t notice.
We walked down Montgomery Lane, and up Scarlet Drive, and turned left onto Washer Avenue. I looked over at Talia to find her lips pursed and her arms crossed in front of her chest. I watched her as she managed to avoid the cracks in the sidewalk, like that old game you’d play when you were younger. We were all shivering in the winter air, and I could hear the wind carry Jingle Bells, the song Mason was whistling behind us. He trudged along, his hands in his jacket pockets.
“So what’s the deal with Alaska and his brother?” I sprang on Talia. She scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. “C’mon. I know that’s what you’re thinking about.”
“I’m supposed to be the telepathic one, not you.”
“Is everything I learn on a need-to-know basis?” I snapped.
She sighed, “It makes it easier for you to absorb everything. If I told you everything you needed to know about this war and this castle the second after I told you that you could turn yourself invisible, you’d run away, petrified. I’ll tell you little by little.”

Eventually, we crept down the street that led into my neighborhood. The house was mostly glass, which was a little creepy in my opinion, but there was always sunlight shining in the windows. The house had a scent of pine always lingering. It sat on the top of a small hill in the small neighborhood, like it was the king. It was a small house, the perfect size for the two of us.
We approached the walkway and that’s when the barking started.
“Harris!” I screeched.
“Harris?” Mason quivered.
“Bull dog. It’s the neighbors’. But he’ll still attack us if we get any closer.”
Talia quaked, “Attack?”
“Yeah. Is the all great and powerful Talia scared of dogs?” Her face turned bright red. “He’s a guard dog. Not a good one. I used to have to sneak around the house and go in through the back door when I came back from school. Our mail didn’t come for three weeks after Harris bit the mailman. But the neighbors finally fenced in their yard,” I replied.
So why is he in your yard?” Mason questioned.
“Because he can jump the fence.”
“Okay…” Talia trailed, “now what?”
“Gimme the satchel.”
“Maya, I don’t think that’s a good idea. This was for emergencies-“
“This is an emergency. How else are we supposed to get in?”
She sighed, taking the bag off of her shoulder.
“So what’s the deal with this thing?” I wondered. “Do I have to change it into jar form and take the power out or…”
“Nope. It still radiates power in satchel form,” she answered.
I shrugged and took a deep breath, closing in on the dog. I’d tried this a million times before, but every time he’d try to bite me. I grew closer and he didn’t even flinch when I outstretched my hand to pet him. Instead, he fell over on his back, waiting patiently for me to rub his stomach. After a minute of petting, I stood back up and he whined pathetically.
“Harris, I really have to go. And so do you. Mr. Peters is probably looking for you.” He whined some more. Yeah, my teacher lived in the house next door. “Go on.” He let out one more groan then trotted toward the fence, hopping over it.
“All clear.” I gestured for them to follow. I sprinted up the walkway then up the front stairs. I tried the icy doorknob, but it wouldn’t budge.
“The one time he actually locks the door…”
I remembered him telling me to just ring the doorbell if the door was locked and he wasn’t home. It made absolutely no sense to me at the time, obviously, because no one would be there to open the door. But I popped off the cover on the doorbell, revealing a bunch of colorful wires. Inside a crevice of the doorbell lay a shiny golden key.
“That clever idiot,” I muttered.
I snapped the cover back on and I jiggled the key around in the doorknob a little until the lock clicked open. Talia walked in, and I waited for Mason to, but he just stood there, examining the house.
“Don’t worry about him,” Talia reassured. “He’s in a weird mood.” She pulled me inside, leaving him in the cold to investigate.
In front of us was the staircase that led to the upstairs part of the loft. To the left was the living room. It was painted a dazzling light blue, the sofa and matching chair cream-colored. The wood floor stretched all across the room with a circular blue carpet underneath the coffee table, which always had little pot of red roses on it.
To the right of the staircase was the kitchen, the walls the same color as the living room. A mahogany table sat by the sliding glass door, with two matching chairs. Another pot of yellow roses sat in the middle of the table. A stainless white counter lined the wall, with an oven, a sink, and cabinets built in.
“Dad?” I called. No answer.
Talia hollered, “Dr. Walker!” Still no answer.
Then at the top of my lungs, I shouted, “James Walker!” I finally heard the footsteps coming from the basement.
I walked toward the kitchen and stared at the door that I passed everyday, still never knowing what was behind it. I’ve certainly thought about heading down there, but I didn’t think it was worth it. The door made a trapezoid, slanted at the top. It was under the staircase, with signs all over it that said: KEEP OUT, DANGER, BEWARE, and DO NOT ENTER.
He swung open the door. He had a stubbly beard, which meant he was working late last night and early this morning. He wore his usual white lab coat that went down to his knees. He’d pulled his goggles off and left them on his forehead.
“Maya!” His voice was faltering and raspy. He took me into an awkward hug. “I was worried sick! I thought you and Sara might’ve left for winter break early.”
“Not quite,” I mumbled.
“Who’s this?” He turned to Talia. “And that creep.” I was pointing at Mason who still wouldn’t come outside. I pushed his arm back to his side.
“Dad, this is Talia. And that’s Mason.”
“And why are they in my house?”
I gritted my teeth. “Because they-“
“We’re from the castle,” Talia jumped in. “We took Maya out of school and brought her back to the castle.”
“Took a while,” he grunted.
I hit him in his arm. “Dad! Knock it off.”
“Well I’m sorry but I’ve been waiting for us to be attacked by monsters for three years now. I finally moved here knowing it would be close to the castle.”
“Dr. Walker,” Talia entreated. “How about the two of us go talk in private.”
He nodded forcefully, and then led her down the hall behind the stairs. I knew they were going into my art room. But I wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop because my dad made that room soundproof so that I could blast my music and he wouldn’t be able to hear it.
I concentrated and snapped, watching my body disappear. I followed them down the hall and snuck into the room right before Talia closed the door.

“Did she start drawing or painting more often? Or were the pictures she depicted more violent?”
“Um, well yes,” he answered. “She’s been in here much more frequently. And she went from pictures like this-“ He pointed to a painting I had hung on the wall that showed the back of a little girl in a field of flowers. “And this-“ He picked up an abstract painting that looked kind of like puzzle pieces. “But then I started to see things like this-“ He picked up a canvas that I’d painted just a week ago. It was a picture of a tsunami washing over an island, destroying everything in sight.
“Elispeis,” Talia grumbled. I had no idea what that meant.
My dad must’ve not heard her because he kept moving. “And this one scared me the most.” He went toward the easel that had the sheet over it. He revealed a painting that actually made me jump a little when I saw it again.
It was a picture of kids fighting some sort of creature. At first I thought it was me fighting Gaestroph, but when I took a closer look I was wrong. The monster looked a lot like Gaestroph, but he seemed much different. Two of the three clearly drawn children were obviously Talia and Mason. But the other kid was a boy. I didn’t think I knew him until my brain flipped back eight years. I realized I’d drawn a picture of Haestroph and the boy was…Jack.
Talia growled, “Haestroph.” I wanted to say something but I knew I’d regret it if I revealed my identity. So I held it all in, watching Talia gently touch the painting, moving her fingers from Jack to Haestroph.
“I think we need to get back out there,” my father interrupted. “It’s not like Maya has any patience.” He held the door open for Talia and I slipped through, running in front of her. I sat on the couch and snapped, my body appearing in front of me, and I pretended to be anxious for them to return.
“Alright,” my dad cleared his throat, “is there anything else you need?”
I stood up, realizing I was almost taller than him. “Two things, Dad. The first is you need to show this to the cops.”
On cue, Talia handed him the folded piece of paper.
“What is it?”
“A runaway letter,” I answered. “You have to pretend that I ran away. My friends are in on this, so you have nothing to worry about. Just tell them to stop looking and that I won’t be coming back until I’m ready to.”
He took a deep breath. “Can I read it?”
“Read it aloud if you don’t mind,” Mason implored. Talia and I both stared him down as he walked into the living room. “What? I never got to read it.” I rolled my eyes.
Dear Dad,
I don’t know when you’ll read this but I don’t want you to be worried. I’m going to live with Aunt Mona in New Hampshire to go to that private school Mom used to talk about. I knew if I told you, you wouldn’t have let me go. I want you to know that once I’m safe and settled, I’ll come back to visit. I think you’ll be better off without me anyways, not having to worry about a kid or another mouth to feed. Mona promises she’ll take good care of me.
I love you Daddy,
-Maya
He folded up the paper and placed it on the counter. Then his face lit up. “I almost forgot. I’ve been working on something for you for when you left.” He opened the basement door and disappeared behind it.
“I’m never gonna get to go down there, am I?” I yelled down.
“Not until I’m dead!” He came back up holding a bracelet. It looked like the one my mom used to wear. It was a very thin open-end cuff bracelet made of silver. It had a center ball detail with a gold-tone finish.
I tightened it onto my wrist. I loved it, but I gave him a funny look. He knew exactly what I was thinking. He wasn’t a fan of jewelry, and neither was I.
“I know you may not love it, but the look wasn’t the point. Twist the bead and you’ll see.”
I turned the gold bead and I watched metal come out of the bracelet. It formed a perfect circle, about a foot and a half in diameter. Its pattern that was etched into the metal emulated the sun.
“It’s a buckler shield. Now it doesn’t do so good with missile attacks or even arrows, but it’s incredible protection in hand-to-hand combat.”
“That’s awesome. And how do you close it?”
“Spin the shield,” he replied. I touched the cold metal and gave it a spin. It began collapsing, and the bracelet reappeared.
“Now what’s the second thing?” he asked. I lunged forward, attacking him with a hug. He wrapped his arms tightly around me, kissing the top of my head.
“I love you.”
“Love you too, sweetheart.” He broke out of the hug when he saw the clock. “I’m sorry but I’m volunteering at the church. I really need to go.”
He pulled off his goggles, then his lab coat, revealing dress pants and a button-up shirt. He grabbed his jacket and headed toward the door.
Before he disappeared behind the door, he peeked back in and said, “Visit soon.”
The second he was gone I turned to Talia. “What’s Elispeis?”
She narrowed her eyes. “You were in that room the entire time, weren’t you?”
“No!” I smiled. “Well yeah.”
“You’re ridiculous. But I know you won’t give up until I tell you. Elispeis was a tsunami that took place a hundred years ago. It was on the island where the castle used to be.”
“And that’s what I painted?”
“Yes. In the background, you can see the remains from the castle,” she told me. “But I have to ask, are you getting these pictures from dreams?”
“I guess so. I mean I’ll wake up in the morning and start painting. I don’t know who else I’d know about Ja-“
Mason’s hand clapped over my mouth. “Don’t,” he warned.
“Sorry.”
“Talia cored, “We should probably get going.”
“But the others aren’t here yet,” Mason argued.
“If everything went smoothly, they should all be here any minute.”
We followed Talia back outside and I plopped the key back in its hiding spot for the second time, after forgetting to lock the door the first time.
We sat on the front steps and waited. The sky was a light blue with clumps of clouds floating away.
“It’s really nice out here,” Mason admired.
I shared, “Sometimes I’d stay out here for hours, watching the clouds pass and see what shapes I can make out.”
“I see an old lady with a purse and umbrella,” Talia mused.
Mason pointed to a cloud with four legs. “That one looks like a dog.”
“Nah, you’re way off. It’s…it’s an alien teaching a baby to walk.” That made them both laugh.
But then Talia was serious again. “Maya, what do you see there?” She pointed to a big fluffy cloud that was slowly drifting away.
“I see a…volcano,” I answered.
She ordered, “More detailed.”
“It’s a cloud, what do you want from me?” Her eyes narrowed. “Alright, it’s on an island. It looks like it’s erupting. It’s destroying everything in its path. And it’s like it hasn’t erupted before. Like no one expected it.”
“Good job. That must be Mount Caracals. It-“ I stopped her before she could keep going.
“That’s a cat.”
“What?” Mason heckled.
“Caracals. That’s a cat. Why is a volcano named after a cat and why could I see so much detail in one cloud?”
“They’re desert lynx,” Talia explained. “Very profuse on that island. Now as I was saying, that cloud showed you something that happened a century ago. And you were right. They weren’t expecting it because there was never a recorded eruption previously, and there was no warning. But Mount Caracals erupted on the same day that Elispeis hit the shore. The entire island was ruined with very few survivors.”
And why is this important?” I snapped.
She sighed. “The leaders of the castle that were on the island was Alaska and his brother Thomas. That catastrophe was the start of this war. When Baxon took the monsters’ side and became a traitor to the Dorados.”
“Yet one of the best inventions in the castle is named after him,” Mason muttered.
“I think you’re forgetting Alaska’s last name. Thomas may have invented the jars, but they kept the name because it was Alaska,” Talia returned.
I retorted, “So you’re telling me that Thomas and Alaska are put head to head, one with an army full of monsters and Dorado traitors, and another with a castle full of untrained teenage super-humans whose powers are only helpful in some situations.”
“Well when you put in that way…” Mason grimaced.
I glanced over his shoulder and saw three people pathetically walking down the street. They were all covered in ash.

“What the heck happened?” I exclaimed.
Grace groaned, “Long story.”
“Well then start talking,” Mason returned.
“Um,” Chloe moaned, “We were about to leave when there was some sort of thudding in the basement. We all headed down there to see what it was. The machine that was creating the thumping ended up catching fire and we kind of got stuck in the middle of it.”
“That really wasn’t a long story,” Talia declared.
“Oh shut up.” Grace nudged her in the ribs. “A story was forged and the memory charm erased everyone’s most recent memories.”
“What I want to know is why one of the machines caught fire in the first place,” I rambled.
Logan conquered, “I’m sorry?”
I turned directly toward them. “The school got their inspection yesterday. Everything was fine.”
“And you knew this how?” Chloe inquired.
“I talk to the janitor during Health.” They all exchanged looks. “What? Health is a really bad class.”
“So that means either the machine just malfunctioned,” Talia remarked, “Or it came from underground.” Everyone’s faces turned dark.
They were coming.
“We should probably get a move-on,” Grace recommended.
Mason added, “I’m starving. Let’s eat and start walking.”
Talia opened the satchel and began digging around inside.
“Hang on. I can’t find the food,” Talia complained.
“That’s because it’s sitting on my bed.” Mason’s head was in his hands.
“You idiot. That was all you were in charge of,” Grace gagged. I heard a rumbling sound come from Talia’s stomach.
“Okay, I’m getting ravenous. I’ve gotta eat something.” She left us on the stairs and went to the side of the yard where the woods thickened. She came back moments later with a handful of dark reddish orange berries, round and smooth the size of a currant.
“Are you sure those are safe?” Chloe panicked.
“Yes. They’re buffalo berries, completely harmless. They’re normally sour, but they’re slightly sweeter in the winter.” She offered Grace some, but she pushed her hand away. “Mason?”
“No way. If I’ve learned anything, don’t eat random things from the woods.”
“Chloe? Logan?” They both shook their heads. “How about you, Maya?”
“I think I’ll pass.”
“Suit yourself,” she growled. She inhaled almost every berry in her hand.
Chloe conceded, “We better get going.”
“Good idea,” Logan agreed.
We headed into the woods and eventually ended up on the path that led to the tunnel we needed to blow up.
We hopped over a small rushing river from the melting snow when Talia grabbed my arm, coughing.
“What?” She coughed some more, and then puked. It was purple. The sun was setting but her face was sickly white. She fell to her knees, breathing heavy.
Mason maintained, “What happened?”
“Looks like you finally got to her,” I joked. His eyes narrowed. “Kidding. I think she’s sick from the berries.”
“Well now what?” Logan whined. “We’ve still got five miles to go. And it’s not like it’s smooth walking.”
Grace affirmed, “There’s no way I can super speed her back. My powers are disappearing.”
“Well what’re we supposed to do now?” Chloe shivered. “Talia is puking, Grace is gonna pass out soon, my leg is bleeding…oh crap, my leg is bleeding!” I smiled at how oblivious she was then rolled up her pant leg to reveal a long cut from her knee to her ankle.
“What the heck did you do?” I abhorred.
“I think I cut it on a crate when we were running out of the basement. I didn’t really think much of it since we were kind of running for our lives.”
“Talia, yes or no answer. Can I close up Chloe’s cut?” She nodded slowly, still on her knees clutching her stomach.
I brought Chloe close enough to Talia and the satchel and I rubbed my hands together. But instead of glowing blue like Dakota, my hands glowed a blue-green. I touched them to Chloe’s leg, watching the cut just disappear.
“Now what about Grace?” Logan conquered.
“If we split up, can Grace get to the castle before her powers drain?” I thought aloud.
“No way,” Mason barked. “We’re never supposed to split up-“
“We literally were just split up,” Chloe corrected.
“Oh shut up. My point is, the sun is almost down, we should all stick together, and there’s no chance we can get to castle in the next…” He looked at his watch in his pocket. “Hour.”
“Okay, geez,” I pouted, “It was just a question.”
“We were put way off schedule. First were the cops, then Logan, and then the machine. There’s no way we can finish this mission by tonight,” Chloe reasoned.
I turned back to Talia, who now had her head in her knees. “Talia, if I drain Grace’s power, will it help?” She shook her head plainly. I was hoping for a yes.
“Mason cried, “WHAT NOW, TALIA!”
“Maya, you have Teddy’s powers,” she choked. “Transfer her siblings’ powers into the jar.”
“Isn’t that what she said?” Logan cursed.
“Transferring and draining are different,” she groaned.
“Well how am I supposed to transfer the powers?” I rejoined. She threw up again before she could answer.
Grace tried, “I watched Teddy. Maybe I can guide you.”
She took a seat on a log and I sat down next to her. I took the satchel from Talia and commanded, “Balegante Portreo!”
I didn’t understand why everything we were storing in the satchel didn’t appear in jar form, but it wasn’t really the time to question.
I examined the four suns inside: a blue one, a green one, a yellow one, and a red one. I unscrewed the cap and turned to Grace.
“Ready?” I begged.
“Not really. Just try not to get rid of my powers, okay?” She bit her lip.
“We’re doomed,” Mason and Talia croaked.
Grace began rubbing her hands together but nothing happened.
Chloe pushed, “I don’t understand.”
“Concentrate,” I muttered.
She squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed harder. I watched her hands glow a rainbow mix of colors. Carefully, she slipped the colorful ball into the jar. It made all the others jump to the top. I resealed the lid before any hopped out.
“Are you still a genius?” I whimpered.
“Quick, Grace,” Chloe insisted, “the capital of…Venezuela!”
“Caracas, but-“
“Honestly I have no idea if that’s right or not-“ she contended. “What’s the square root of 324?”
“Eighteen. But you’re missing the point. We still have Talia to worry about.”
“Malegante Portreo,” I whispered, shouldering the satchel. “I have a question first. Didn’t we just drain her powers? How was that transferring?”
“You didn’t drain her powers. You transferred her siblings’,” Talia coughed.
“Right…” I stood up, facing Mason, Chloe, and Logan. “Well then I say we make camp for the night. We all need the rest and we’ll have a fresh start for tomorrow.”
“And what about the tunnel?” Logan broached.
“We’ll have to deal with that tomorrow,” Mason supported. “None of us are in good enough shape to run two miles away from the tunnel.”
Chloe raised, “And how are we supposed to sleep in the middle of the woods?”
“We can take turns to keep watch. I’m pretty sure Talia packed a tent and sleeping bags,” I responded.
Chloe, Grace and I dug around in the bag until we found the tent. We began assembling it as Mason tried to get Talia to drink some water. Logan gathered some firewood from the forest. Mason sat down with Talia and tried to calm her down. Grace nailed the pegs into the ground and Chloe rolled out the sleeping bags. I popped some of the pieces of the structure together as Logan tried to rub some wood together to start a fire.
“You know, Logan, it would be so much easier if you just let Chloe do that,” I suggested. Grace and Chloe both giggled. I thought I heard Mason laugh too.
“Alright,” he evoked. “Go ahead.”
Chloe flashed me a smile and rolled out the last sleeping bag. “Okay back up.”
Logan shook his head but backed away from the pile of wood. Chloe, as if flicking water, shot the fire from her hands and the wood went ablaze. “There you go, Frog Head.”
“Frog Head?” I asked.
“The first time he came to the castle, he had a frog in his hair. He got so freaked out when I told him, and the nickname kind of stuck,” Grace haunted. “Then Chloe caught on.”
Logan stuck his tongue out at Grace, and she stuck hers out back.
We settled down after the tent was set up. Talia slept in the tent as the rest of us watched the fire, sitting on the logs we moved toward our campsite.
The heat from the campfire seemed to be sucked into the frigid air before ever reaching our frozen hands. It struggled to penetrate the wintry air. It was like the fire was a little unsure of itself, afraid to light up the darkness. It sent feeble sparks to disappear in the air, floating away like balloons and then falling as an unnoticed blackened charcoal speck. But after a while it found its confidence and grew until the heat reached us, orange flames celebrating with their wild flickering dance.
As the sun set completely, the fire became bright and vivid, as though someone had shown a spotlight on it. The intensity and excitement of the flames was like they were dancing in the moonlight. The snow had the reflection of a distant glow, like a bright sun on water. The fire crackled, projecting long shadows on the surrounding area and dancing across the dark trunks of the trees, twisting and curling in obscure shapes and shining light around us. The fire itself was pulsating; the glowing embers seemed to move in rhythm with the flames, matching every dip and sweep. It was mesmerizing to watch, colors of orange and red gave way to yellow and white near the emanating heated center.
As time passed, Mason made himself comfortable inside the tent. Logan and Chloe joined them later, then Grace not long after. I sat on the log, watching the flames wave in the wind.
I heard crunching in the woods and was about to draw my sword when I realized the creator of the noise was a deer.
“Whoa there. Let’s not stab any innocent deer,” it entreated.
Any other day this would’ve scared the crap out of me. But after everything that happened in the past twenty-four hours, talking to a deer was no different than talking to a person.
I mumbled, “Willow has some awesome powers.”
“Hey! You’re a friend of Willow’s. Tell her we all say hi.”
“I’ll make sure I do,” I promised, finally acknowledging how strange it was that I was having a conversation with a deer that knew who Willow was.
“I was sent to let you know that whatever is underground is stirring. The wildlife is getting restless, and we may not know what’s going on down there, but we certainly know it isn’t good. So make sure you all leave early enough tomorrow and stay safe. Good luck.” He disappeared into the darkness.
I just took advice from a deer. Even after everything that happened - I killed two monsters, evacuated a school full of kids I’ll never see again, found out I have magical powers, told my dad I was leaving him, and found out my childhood friend is dead - that seemed like the strangest. Even against a stranger pulling me out of school and taking me to a castle as if it were Hogwarts.
A little while later, Mason climbed out of the tent.
“I can keep watch, Maya. You get some rest,” he instilled.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to go to sleep.”
  He took a seat next to me on the log and we listened to the crickets playing their song, and the fire crackling theirs.
“Mason,” I interrupted. “Talia is gonna be okay. Whatever is wrong with her…she’s a fighter. And tomorrow we’ll be back at the castle and Dakota can nurse her back to health.”
He let out a big breath of air and stood up and threw some wood on the fire. I watched the flames rise high, then sink back down.
“Of course she’ll be fine,” he confirmed. “I just can’t help thinking about what’s ahead of us. I mean this mission is nothing compared to what we’re going to have to face later. The army…they might not be able to be defeated. I’m worried that the castle won’t be safe enough. Its magic can only protect so much and whoever stays and fights will be risking their life.”
“What are we fighting for? Freedom? Power? Leadership? In my opinion, this war has no point. It seems like a waste of time and a waste of lives.”
“We’re fighting for our right,” he reverberated. “A right we used to have but was taken away from us for no reason. A right worth fighting for.”
“Where are your parents?” I spurred.
“Dead mom. We haven’t heard from our dad since he sent us to the castle when we were seven.” He sighed. “What about your mom?”
“She died when I was six. Killed.”
That ended our conversation. And once I struggled to keep my eyes open, I called it a day and crawled into the tent, leaving Mason alone on the log.

When I woke up it was still dark out. I crawled out of the tent to find Grace tending to the dead fire. She joined me on the log.
“Hey if you want to go get another few hours of sleep, I’ll keep watch,” I offered.
“Nah, I’m alright. Chloe just woke me up a little while ago to take watch. And it looks like it’s…” she trailed off and studied the stars. “Almost five.”
“You can tell that from the stars?”
“Dude, I’m the smartest person in the world. Of course I can tell the time from the stars.” She put her head in her hands. “God, I’m just really freaking out about this.”
“We all are, Grace. We’re risking our lives, fighting for something that was ours in the first place.”
“I’m just worried about what could happen to my family, my friends, the castle…” She fought back tears.
“And what about you and Logan?”
“What’re you talking about?” I rolled my eyes. “ Alright, I care about him. Just like if you blew into a million pieces, I’d be very upset. I mean I’ve known him for four years now. We’ve gotten really close over the years, after everything that’s been going on.”
The tent started moving and Chloe popped out. Then Logan followed, and then Mason dragged out Talia.
“Well good morning to all of you,” I greeted.
“And you dragged me out of that tent for what?” Chloe wearied to Mason, rubbing her eyes.
“Well if we’re all up, I say we get moving. The earlier we leave, the easier it’ll be. There won’t be any joggers to run into and my guess is even monsters need their beauty sleep,” Grace suggested.
“Slight problem,” I interjected. “There’s no way Talia will be able to run those two miles away from the tunnel.”
Chloe surmised, “Well you can super speed her away, can’t you?”
I twisted my mouth to the side but saw Talia shaking her head violently out of the corner of my eye.
“I think Talia says no,” I rejoiced.
She flashed me a look. “That power in the jar won’t get you farther than half a mile. Won’t do much for the upcoming situation, but it might come in handy later on.”
“Then what do we do with you?” Logan avowed.
“Why don’t we split up?” Chloe suggested. “Someone can take Talia back to the castle.”
“That’s not a bad idea. The sooner Talia gets back to the castle, the sooner Dakota can heal her,” I added.
“I’ll take her,” Mason offered.
“No. You have to send someone with me who won’t be needed to blow up the entrance. Mason, they need you to set off the bomb. Chloe, he’ll need your help with that. Maya will need to create the force field to protect you guys, and Grace needs to make sure the calculations and measurements are correct so that the tunnel is blown up but you guys stay safe.” Talia turned to Logan who stood next to her. “Which leaves you.”
“Well if it means I can bail on the mission early, I’m all in.”
“Then it’s settled,” Mason agreed. “We’ll stick together until we reach the Weeping Willow. Then Logan and Talia will head back to the castle and the rest of us will head to the tunnel. And we’ll be on our way to the castle in no time.”
“Another slight problem. Talia is supposed to contact the castle once the mission is complete. But if you won’t be there…” I trailed off.
“Easy problem to solve. I’ll leave you some of my power. You may not have enough training to contact the castle, but you’ll be able to contact me,” she replied.
Chloe mended, “Then if everything’s settled, let’s get going.”
While we all started packing up, Talia was trying to teach me to use mind control. I managed to disassemble the tent and fold it back up in the bag. When everything was packed, we went on our way. The snow was heavy and hard to walk uphill in. We were less than a mile from the Weeping Willow, but it took us so long to get up one of the slippery hills that I was very weak when we reached the top. The others couldn’t have been doing any better.
Then I froze when I felt the ground shaking. It knocked me off my balance and I fell to my knees. Everyone else seemed to duck for cover. I watched boulders roll down the hill, trees falling down. But what almost gave me a heart attack was the fact that the ground next to me just gave out, collapsing into the abyss it made. When I fell on my back, everything turned fuzzy so I just stared up at the dark gray sky.
When everything finally stopped vibrating and the air was quiet again, I lifted my head. My head was pounding and all I heard was ringing. It was dusty, but I squinted to see if everyone was okay. I saw Chloe hiding behind a boulder just a few feet away from me, coughing from the dust. A little farther down the hill, Mason was lying down beside Talia, who seemed to be paralyzed from shock. From what I could tell, Logan was covering an injured Grace, both of them inches away from a collapsed tree.
I tried to move but something was restraining me. Chloe was trying to say something, but I couldn’t hear anything. She got up from behind the rock, and with the help of her hand gestures her lips read, don’t move! I looked down at my leg that was under a boulder. It must’ve rolled down the hill. She seemed to be trying to get Mason’s attention, but somehow neither of them had a scratch on them. Chloe knelt down next to me, still trying to talk. I finally made out: can you hear me? I tried to reply with: “I can’t hear a thing.” She took the satchel off of my neck and searched it for something. Then she took out a small glass bottle and uncapped it. She squeezed a droplet of the liquid into both of my ears. My hearing slowly became echoed but clear, the ringing a little quieter.
“Is that better?” she asked.
“Much better.”
“Okay Mason, get over here.” She beckoned him away from Talia. First he sat up Talia and then he knelt down on the other side of me.
“Logan, are you two okay?” Chloe called.
“Yeah, we’re fine,” he yelled back. “Grace just got cut up a little.”
“Alright Chloe. Let’s see if we can push this off of her.” Mason stood up, joining Chloe on the opposite side of me. They both brushed the snow off of their knees and positioned themselves. They pushed as hard as they could but the rock wouldn’t budge.
“How the heck are we supposed to get this off of her? There’s no way we can push it off,” Chloe murmured. She was probably talking in a normal whisper, but I was pretty sure whatever drops she gave me made my hearing a little above average.
Mason whispered, “This is a mess. She’s the only one who can actually use the super strength, but it’s not like she can push it off of herself.”
“K Mason. Your time to shine. I hope your lungs weren’t scratched up,” she battled.
“What are you talking about?”
“Vortex breath. It’s the only chance we’ve got.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’ve only just uncovered this ability. I used it once. Now you want me to blow a boulder off of someone’s leg?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” she sympathized. “Now hurry up.”
He shook his head, but pushed her away. He took a long, deep breath, then with all of his might, exhaled. It seemed like a tornado came out of his mouth. The boulder flew right off of my leg, rolling down the rest of the hill. I looked down at my leg, expecting it to be rankled and squished. But it wasn’t. That was when it occurred to me that it didn’t hurt at all.
“Why is my leg just how it was? And why wasn’t that painful,” I wondered.
“You had the satchel. Dakota’s immortality must’ve rubbed off on you,” Chloe answered.
Mason offered me his hand and pulled me off of the ground. I wiped the snow off my back, my jacket soaked.
Mason proposed, “Let’s go see what’s up with Grace.”
Chloe led us down the hill, avoiding the loose rocks. I grabbed a tree branch to keep my balance, but instead it came out in my hand. I caught myself with the trunk and hopped down toward Grace and Logan.
“Oh my god! You call this just a little cut?” I cursed. Grace lay there, limp, her shirt pulled up slightly, with a large piece of glass stuck in her right side. Her hand covered the wound, and Logan was applying pressure to it.
Chloe screamed, “What the heck is wrong with you?” and slapped him on his arm.
“Well the glass wasn’t stuck in any vital organs and she claimed she was okay. I figured the only person who could heal her was stuck under a boulder, so she’d just have to wait until you were free,” he calmly countered.
Chloe sighed. “Um Mason, go get your sister. She’ll know the best way to get this out.”
He walked back to the path, a little ways up the hill. He helped Talia to her feet and brought her back over to us. As soon as he let go, she fell to the ground and made herself comfortable.
“Alright Maya,” she panted. “This is simple to do. First I’ll give you a spell to numb the area. Then, just like you did with my knife in my ankle, you just have to pull the glass out.”
I knelt down beside Grace, freeing Logan from his duty. I rubbed my hands together and prepared myself.
“Now say: Cinchona.”
I scrunched my eyebrows. “That’s a plant.”
“Yes I believe it is. It’s a genus of species found in Ecuador and Peru. Except in the magic world it numbs pain. Now do the spell!” I looked at Grace’s sweaty face, which was contracted from the pain. Her breathing was starting to pick up and the pressure she was applying to the wound lessened.
I hovered my hands over the glass and the bloody wound and repeated: “Cinchona!” My hands glowed their blue-green, and then the glass did too. I watched as Grace’s wincing lessened and she let out a long-needed sigh. “Is the pain gone?”
“Enough of it,” she groused. “Now please get this out of me.”
I put one hand on her bloody hip, and I put the other one on the tip of the glass. As rapidly as I could, I ripped the glass out of her skin. There was more to the piece than I thought there would be.
“Chloe,” I consoled, “Can you get me some water to wash out this wound?”
She turned to the snow and grabbed a handful. The snow slowly melted to a ball of water. “Here.”
I carefully took the ball out of her hands and into mine. I pressed it to her skin, and the blood started to wash away, disinfecting the cut. I threw the water to the ground then rubbed my hands together, pressing her side. The cut disappeared, but a scar was left behind.
“Why is there only sometimes a scar?” I questioned.
“Because,” Chloe responded, taking Talia’s place. “All the healing powers do is speed up the process. If the wound is severe or deep enough, a scar will be left behind.”
My hands felt like they were burning, tingling. “And why do my hands hurt so much?”
“Dakota says that’s something you just have to get used to. Try putting them in the snow,” Talia suggested.
I pressed my dirty, bloody hands into the cold snow and the sizzling sensation disappeared. My hands were a little cleaner too.
“How many more, Talia?” Grace wept.
“They’re preparing. There could be countless more. But no more glass. I bet some kids were out here drinking and just left a bottle somewhere. We’ve gotta get rid of it.”
“We can just through it over the newly created cliff.” Mason gestured to the ground that fell through as if he were a talk-show host.
I picked up the sharp glass and whipped it over the edge. “All gone,” I sang.
“We really have to get going,” Chloe wrapped. “We’re so far off on time. Grace, can you walk?”
Logan helped her up off the ground. “Just one question. Talia, you’ve been stabbed,” she casually continued, “when does the pain stop?”
She sighed. “It will only hurt for a little while longer. But it will bother you forever. Just one thing Dakota’s healing powers can’t fix.”
We were all quiet for a moment. Then we started walking. “Make sure you stay away from the edge,” Mason ordered. I looked down, but I could barely see anything. There was rushing water at the bottom, rocks all the way down. Chloe and I led the way, after us were Logan and Mason, then Talia and Grace limped along behind us.

The ground rumbled and I fell down into the snow. When it stopped and I stood up, the satchel wasn’t on my shoulder anymore. I looked around, but when it was nowhere to be seen, I headed straight to the edge. I saw the bag falling; gaining speed the farther it went.
“You didn’t…” Chloe appeared behind me.
I sniffled and nodded. “Oh god. We’re so dead. I just killed us all.” I tightened my fists and turned to the surprisingly calm Talia.
“Oh don’t even worry about that. It was getting useless.”
“You’re joking right?” I choked. “The grenade, the thing we were gonna use to blow up the tunnel, is now lost in an abyss. Yeah, I’m sure we’ll all be fine.”
“There are two differences between magic bombs and regular bombs. One is the grenade was made so only Mason can set it off. Two is the grenade can be retrieved by the person it was connected to. Mason can get it back.”
Chloe, Talia, and I all turned around at the same time when we realized there was no noise behind us. Grace sat on a rock, her head in her hands. Mason was rocking back and forth, mumbling something. Logan was nowhere to be found.
“Grace,” I cooed, “Where’s Logan?”
She lifted her head and pointed behind her. “I think he’s trying to run away.”
Chloe disappeared behind the trees, then came back pulling Logan by the collar of his shirt.
“And where exactly were you going to go?” I interrogated as Talia went to check on Mason who seemed to be giving himself a panic attack.
He wailed, “I just wanted to get away from here.”
“Hey,” Chloe uttered, “We might die on this mission, but we’re going to die together-“
“Great motivation,” Grace muttered.
“Can we please just get the grenade and get out of here?” I whinnied.
Talia was trying to stand up Mason. “Please, you have to get it. Please.” He finally snapped out of his misery and made his way to the edge.
“I’m going to have to literally hang over the edge. So the uninjured, if you could make a chain.” Chloe grabbed Mason’s hand, and Logan grabbed hers. I took Logan’s. “And the injured need to stand on opposite sides to catch this grenade. It never comes straight to me.”
Talia and Grace did as they were told. Mason then pulled the chain forward. I spit in the dirt and dug my foot in to create a little more friction. I watched Mason inch forward, more than half of his body hanging over the edge. It felt like forever, until something flew out of the abyss and Talia had to jump up to catch the grenade.
Most of the next part was a blur to me because I was so weary. But the next thing I knew, a black mass flew over us, knocking everyone down. When I came to my senses and I stood up, my brain couldn’t absorb everything that happened. Mason was still on the ground, clutching the grenade. Chloe was a few feet away from him, Logan a few feet from her. Logan sat up, rubbing his head. It seemed like Chloe and Mason were unconscious. Talia bravely stood next to me, facing the black mass that wasn’t such a black mass anymore.
He was a thin man with gray hair. He looked similar to Alaska, but my brain couldn’t process all of that because it was too busy focusing on the girl he was holding hostage. He had a knife to Grace’s neck, her head pulled back.
Talia snarled, “Thomas.”
“Whoa, ho, ho, little girl.” His voice was so similar to Alaska’s, with his thick English accent. “I go by-“
“El Diablo?” she derided.
“Good to see you too, Talia. But just Baxon to me. I am the favorite brother anyways.”
I muttered to Talia, “Why does he seem so calm if he wants to kill us?” She ignored me.
“I’m sure your parents are very proud of the traitor you’ve become.” She had uncanny sarcasm shaking in her voice.
“What are you doing?” I begged.
“He’s not here to kill us. He wants something,” she whispered.
Grace tensed and swallowed hard. Baxon’s knife dug a little deeper into her neck.
“Let her go,” Talia pleaded.
“You think I just came here to scare you and leave with nothing?”
“No. So what do you want?”
“You know what I want. If you join us now, I’ll spare your lives-“
“Sorry, Thomas, but that offer just isn’t very convincing.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“Not trusting you is just the tip of the iceberg.” She took a deep breath. “I think you’ve been watching us for our entire mission. I think you’ve been one step ahead the entire time. But you waited until now to attack. After I poisoned myself, after Grace got cut, after Maya dropped the satchel over the edge, after Mason had a mental break, after Logan tried to run away. Because you were too cowardice to face us before when we were all stronger.”
“You better watch it, missy,” he barked.
“I think you should watch yourself.”
That’s when I saw Mason and Logan had gotten up. Not only had Mason gotten up, but he also created a cloud over Thomas’s head. It wasn’t a fluffy white cloud though, it was dark and stormy. Thomas’s eyes grew in horror, and when the noise of the lightning cracked, he let go of his grip on Grace and ran out of the way of the cloud. She raced over to us and Logan caught her right before she fell. Mason just made the cloud follow him, and Thomas couldn’t run. So instead, he turned into the black shadow and disappeared.
Talia fell to the ground, tired from arguing. Mason went to check on Chloe, who was still unconscious. Grace and Logan were both on their knees, Logan’s arm wrapped around her shaking shoulders.
I sat down next to Talia. “Why were we all knocked unconscious for different lengths of time?”
“Because he used a riptide spell,” she replied. “Those kinds of spells affect the strongest person the most, and the weakest person the least. Grace and I were barely knocked out, but I was too late and I couldn’t do anything to protect her. Then you woke up. Mason and Logan were next because they hadn’t really experienced any trauma. Chloe’s still down because, well because she was the strongest out of all of us at this point.”
“C’mon guys,” Mason called, “we’d better get going. Chloe’s awake.”
I pulled myself off of the ground and walked over to Chloe. “Go get Talia up, Mason,” I confirmed. I pulled Chloe off of the ground. Grace was standing, but she was hunched over in Logan’s arms. Mason got Talia up, but her legs didn’t support her weight and she fell to the ground. He picked her up again, this time keeping his grip on her waist.
“One thing before we start moving,” Talia panted. “We’re about half a mile away from the Weeping Willow. When the Weeping Willow comes into view, no one should say anything. Without a word, Logan and I will split from the group. You guys will keep moving toward the tunnel.”
“Why?” Chloe muttered.
“The Weeping Willow is connected to Alaska and Thomas. Alaska can’t use his power when he’s in the castle, but the quieter we are, the less Thomas will sense. He’s able to tell when someone is close, and I think that’s how he’s been watching us. So be careful.”
“Talia,” I drawled, “How am I supposed to contact you went we finish the mission? We have no jar.”
She crinkled her nose. “I’ll know, don’t worry.”
Chloe and I led the way, trudging through the heavy snow. She was walking fine, but I had to check on her every few minutes. Mason was dragging along Talia behind us, the grenade in his other hand. Behind them, Grace slumped along, Logan carrying most of her weight.
We finally reached the Weeping Willow. Without acknowledging them, Talia split away from Mason, and Logan handed off Grace to Mason, Logan following Talia. The two of them turned down the path and disappeared behind the Weeping Willow.
I turned around after about five minutes to see how far we’d gotten.
“Okay, I think we’re clear,” Mason reassured. I could barely even make out the Weeping Willow. “Let’s go over the plan for the attack, because I think we’ve got less than a mile to go.”
“Go for it, leader,” Chloe sarcastically answered.
He rolled his narrow eyes. “Okay, when we get there, we first have to make sure the premises are clear. Then I’ll fly Chloe and myself up into the air, right above the tunnel. We’ll create as much water as we can. Then Grace will check the calculations to make sure we’re all in the right spot so we don’t blow ourselves up. Once she’s done, I’ll throw the grenade into the water. Maya, that’s your cue to start making the force field. Once you’re done, and I make sure we’re all on the outside of the force field, I will shoot a lightning bolt in the small hole you leave open. The force field should protect us enough, but not from cops. Once the explosion is complete, we make a run for the valley. Don’t stop or turn around until you make it to the stairs of the castle.” He looked around at us. “Questions?” He turned to me and I realized I was smiling. “What is it Maya? If you've got something to say, spit it out.”
“It's just… You remind me so much of Jack.” I was expecting a storm cloud to appear over my head, but no one reacted. “What? You don't care that I just said the name that you people have been trying to stop me from saying all of this time?”
“We haven't been stopping you from saying the name, we been stopping you from saying it in front of Talia,” Grace corrected. I looked over at Grace, who looked like she was in pain.
“I'm sorry Grace, I wasn't thinking…” Chloe and Mason picked up their pace and left Grace and I far behind.
“No, it's okay. I've actually been expecting you to say it by now. We've all been hiding from the name over all these years, with the help of Talia of course. But where is that going to get us? Why are we afraid of this name? Of the brother who saved our lives? It's pathetic, really.”
“What happened that day?” I asked.
“Well I guess you have the right to know. It was in the winter, a lot like this one. There was a slight layer of snow on the ground as we were waiting at the bus stop in the morning. That's when twelve-year-olds Mason and Talia appeared in front of us. Of course we really weren't scared, I mean they were twelve. Probably the same way you felt when Talia “kidnapped” you. But they were telling us that we needed to come with them to the castle, that they knew about our powers.”
“Wait, you knew about your powers?” I interrupted.
“Most people don't know until they're sent to the castle, but at that point Zach was thirteen and our parents thought that we would be in danger. They trained us and taught us how to protect ourselves. It was a family secret, but it was a secret nonetheless. Anyways, we weren't going to willingly follow them to the castle, until Haestroph found us. We had to fight him. But this monster was too strong for us, even if there were seven of us. By the end, Alec was unconscious, Jinora was petrified, Ian cut his leg open, and the rest of us were holding onto our last bit of energy. And Talia claims that Jack told her that she needed to get us out of there as fast as she could. But she wouldn't leave him. She told Mason to bring us back to the castle, but we didn't want to leave either. We would have stayed if it weren't for the voice. None of us remember what the voice said specifically, except for Jinora who claims she remembers but won't repeat it. We were all pretty sure it was Talia, but no one knows how she did it. It was a deep, creepy voice that was in our head.”
“What if it wasn't Talia? What if it was Thomas or someone else?”
“Mason tried to convince us, but Talia was the only one who didn't hear it. Even Jack heard it. But that scared enough to get us out of there. So we left Talia and Jack fighting the monster alone, and a few hours after we made it back to the castle, Talia came back alone, bloody. We were so angry with her. But Jinora was actually the one who convinced me that it wasn't actually her fault and it wasn't Talia's voice in our heads because the voice was too dark and scary for her. The boys of course stayed mad even after everything. I think Alec was the angriest because he was unconscious and couldn't do anything about it. Jack was my twin brother. I felt attached to him.”
“Sorry to ruin this heartfelt conversation you two are having,” Mason disrupted, “but we’re here.”
Now you’re probably visualizing a tunnel under a bridge that goes underground with the bright yellow lights. That’s what I was expecting too. But this was in the middle of the woods, and it was more like a subway entrance than a tunnel.
“…used to be a subway entrance,” Mason was saying, “but it was abandoned in the middle of building it. Thomas thought it would be a great place to raise an army.”
“Well, there’s no one in sight. Let’s get started,” Chloe lilted.
“Alright Chloe. One important thing before I throw you into the air without any practice,” Mason halted. “You can’t be scared because that’ll just make it worse. I know you’re not one to be afraid but when you’re fifty feet in the air…well just don’t flail because it’ll be harder to keep you in the air.”
“Don’t worry, Mason, I’ll be fine.”
The next thing I knew, Mason and Chloe were levitating in the air, Mason clutching the grenade.
“You’re still fine?” He joked.
“This is awesome!”
Once they were high enough in the air, Grace and I positioned ourselves in front of the opening. Mason created a cloud that poured down rain into the entrance. Chloe created balls of water and dropped them down like balls. Grace was muttering something to herself, measuring our distances from the entrance.
“Maya,” she called. “We’re ready.” Her eyes narrowed.
I then waved my arms like a maniac in order to get Mason’s attention. He whipped his hand through the cloud and the rain stopped. Chloe stopped creating water balls. Mason dropped the grenade into the water and made a splash big enough to get Grace and me soaked. I planted my feet on the ground and concentrated. I closed my eyes, rubbing my hands together. As if a baseball grew in my hands, I pulled my hands apart and the glowing blue ball appeared. The loud wind blew my stray hairs around. I aimed the ball at the entrance and it began to grow, surrounding it.
When it finally covered the area I needed it to, I nodded to Grace. I succeeded in making one small opening in the force field, right below where Mason was floating. He then shot a lightning bolt through the hole, making the force field flicker. I focused on keeping it strong as it hit the grenade. The ground started shaking and I shut my eyes to try and stay connected. There was a boom, a bang, and then a scream. When I opened my eyes, I saw ash floating to the ground inside of the force field. On the outside, Grace was lying on the ground next to me. Then I looked up. Chloe was falling, not fast, but she was still falling. I didn’t really know what was going on, but right before Mason and Chloe hit the ground, they stopped about a foot up. Then they hit the snow.
“Disconnect!” Mason roared. I made two fists and the force field disappeared. The wind stopped and the woods were silent again. Grace sat up, conscious. I made my way to Chloe and Mason.
“What happened?”
Mason sat up. “The explosion made me lose my balance. I started falling which made Chloe start falling…”
“It was actually kind of fun.” Chloe lifted her head and spit out some snow. “I felt alive.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. I smiled, “at least we succeeded.”
Good job, all of you, I heard in my head. I looked around. Everyone else heard it too.
“Talia,” Mason muttered.
Grace proclaimed, “She said she’d know.”
“C’mon guys,” Chloe endeavored. “Let’s get home.”
We walked away from the mess we’d blown up. We headed back for the path that led back to the castle. The path that led home.

By the time we finally made it up the unforgiving stairs, I was practically carrying Grace - she was still in pain from getting cut and the blow from the force field didn’t help. Mason and Chloe were ahead of us. But as soon as we reached the door I knew something was wrong. No one was outside, not even Oliver. Mason was about to open the heavy wood door when he collapsed to the ground. Chloe pulled open the door to reveal Dakota who was on her way out. Today she was wearing a loose purple dress and white flats. Her hair was in a braided bun.
“What happened?” She inquired.
I responded, “I think he’s just tired from saving Chloe from the fall. We’re all just tired, that’s all.”
“Oh I’m supposed to apologize that there was no one to greet you for successfully completing the mission and not dying.”  She bent down next to Mason and placed her hand on his forehead. “It’s been a hard day. There was an earthquake - which I’m sure you felt - and one of the back pillars of the castle collapsed. There was a lot of damage, a lot of injured. My room was flooded with wounded kids all day. And then there was Talia who didn’t help the flow of things. C’mon, someone help me bring him upstairs.”
“I’ll take him,” Chloe proposed. “Maya, you should probably bring Grace back to her room. Your both need your rest.”
“Before you do that,” Dakota closed. “You should know that Jinora was in the pillar when it collapsed-“
“Oh my god, is she okay?” she grimaced.
“She’ll be fine. But she’s got a broken leg…for her that’s the worst thing that could happen. I’ve already healed the bone, but as you’ve experienced when you got cut, it still has some healing to do on its own.”
Dakota and Chloe helped Mason up the left staircase and Grace and I went up the right one to her room. She opened the door, and behind it were not the Windsors I met yesterday. Jinora was lying on the couch, reading. Alec and Zach were on their beds.
“Hey…” Grace trailed.
“Grace!” Jinora shot up. “You’re alive! That’s twenty bucks from both of you,” she enlightened the boys.
“You were making money off of me?”
She returned, “No! Well yeah. I said you’d come back alive, Alec said you’d come back dead, and Zach said you’d never come back.” Grace sighed in disgust.
“Uh, where’s Ian?” I wondered.
Alec responded, “Don’t know.” Alec and Zach joined us, sitting down on the other couch.
“When he found out Jinora was in the pillar that collapsed, he kind of ‘ran away’,” Zach alleged, making air quotes with his fingers. “My guess is he’s hiding in the basement but even if we go looking for him, he’ll hear us and hide. Sometimes I hate how good his hearing is. Curse his super senses.”
“Well what’d we miss?” Grace marveled as she plopped down on the couch next to Jinora. I sat on the arm of the couch.
Jinora mocked, “Oh so very much.”
“On a positive note, Alaska thinks the Celadons won’t attack until spring. That means we have about three more months to prepare,” replied Alec.
“I have to say whoever came up with the plan to blow up that tunnel…it was genius,” Zach admitted.
“It was only your magnificently beautiful baby sister,” gloated Grace.
“Man, I kind of set myself up for that. I should’ve seen it coming, huh?” Grace and Jinora let out a chuckle, and I saw Alec hiding a grin when there was a knock at the door.
“It’s open,” Jinora hollered.
The door slid open and Clara strode in, holding two glasses filled with some sort of blue liquid.
“Heyyy, Dakota told me to bring the scary blue liquid to the insomniacs-“ She froze and her eyes widened. The glasses slowly slid out of her hands and they shattered on the ground. Startled, I jumped up, but after exchanging looks with everyone else, it didn’t seem surprising to them.
“What do you see, Clara?” Grace questioned.
Clara finally came back to the planet, and she batted her eyes violently. “They’re coming. They’re coming before winter is over. At the next, and last, snowfall. They’ll be here in a week.” She swallowed hard.
It felt like someone just punched me in the stomach. I looked back up at Clara.
“What else is wrong, Clara?” I persisted. “There’s something else.”
“Nothing, it’s nothing.”
“Clara,” Zach scolded.
“It’s…someone important in this castle will die before they come,” she leaked. The synchronized gasps made the moment so much worse. After a few moments of awkward silence, Grace finally broke it.
“Well who is it?” she snapped. “Alaska? Carolina? Talia? Ma-“ She stopped short. I was really hoping she was going to say Mason, but the uncomfortable glances from everyone in the room confirmed my assumption I was avoiding.
Clara grunted, “Grace, you know that I don’t know that much. I don’t know whom, just what will happen.”
More awkward silence.
“Um, Maya and Grace,” Clara gulped, “why don’t you two get some more mysterious blue liquid from Dakota? I’ll clean up this mess.” She gestured toward the shattered glass and what looked like blue Gatorade seeping through the wooden floorboards.
“Yeah, um, yeah. That’s a good idea,” I stuttered. Grace and I stood, stepping over the mess.
“Oh, before you leave,” Jinora seized. “With everything going on, they made dinner a buffet. So you guys can go down to eat whenever you want.”
“Okay thanks for letting us know,” I answered, still trying to break the uncomfortable air. We turned for the door, but I stopped as I touched the door handle. “And Clara, you should talk to Alaska about the revelation you’ve uncovered. Both revelations.” The second Grace closed the door behind us, there was arguing, mostly from Alec and Jinora with Zach and Clara trying to be mediators.
Grace let out a heavy exhale, rolling her eyes. “Let’s just pretend that never happened.” She took me by the arm and pulled me down the hall to Dakota’s room and I could’ve sworn she muttered, “not until we have to.”
Inside, Dakota was mixing something on her miniature “stove” and Mason sat by Talia’s bedside.
“What’re you two doing here? You’re supposed to be asleep,” Dakota wobbled.
I asserted, “Wait a second, you were trying to drug us, weren’t you?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. I wouldn’t put it that way. I just knew you guys wouldn’t want to go to sleep but I knew you needed sleep. So why aren’t you cataleptic?”
“Clara had a vision while delivering our drugs,” Grace portioned, emphasizing ‘drugs’.
“Man, I knew I shouldn’t of sent her.” She turned around with two more glasses filled with blue liquid. “You want it?”
“Yes, but first you should probably hear what the vision was,” I declared. She bit her lip and put the cups back on the counter, wiping her wet hands on a dishtowel.
“What is it?” Talia muttered.
Grace and I looked at each other. She held her hands up in anguish, not wanting to repeat it.
“Okay then, I’ll say it. Two things. Alaska’s prediction about when the Celadons were coming was wrong. They’ll be here at next snowfall, which is in a week.” The tension in the room grew, but Mason, Talia, and Dakota have all experienced more surprising or more painful news. “And the second thing is…” This one got caught in my throat.
Grace finished, “Before the Celadons get here, someone important in this castle is going to die.” Now that one caught them by surprise. Dakota’s jaw was clenched and Mason’s knuckles were white from Talia squeezing his hand so hard. I could see them all rearranging the puzzle pieces to make the picture.
Then there was a knock on the door – or more like a clattered banging. Dakota shook off her anger and opened the door, revealing Logan.
“Oh, um, hi,” Dakota fumbled.
“Oh good, the two people I was looking for.” He let himself in, and I found the stun on Dakota’s face hilarious.
“Would you like to clarify those two people?” Mason barked.
“Maya, Mason. I need to talk to you,” Logan completed. I exchanged a look with Mason and he shrugged.
“What do you need?” I asked.
“I’ll explain it. In private.”
“Yeah, okay.” I glanced at Dakota. “I’ll be back for my drugs.” She winked and a smile tugged at her lips.
Mason stood and Logan pulled him and me into the hallway. “This is more towards Maya, but since Talia isn’t…stable enough to explain everything, you’re gonna have to step in.”
“What’s this about?” I asked.
“I had someone talk to me. Sorry, not someone, a spirit. A spirit interrupted my beauty sleep and it was singing some sort of rendition of ‘Deck the Halls’-“
“Jack,” I mumbled.
“Great, you saved me from revealing that. Anyways, he told me he wanted to talk to his two friends.”
“Friends plural? What other friend does he want to talk to?”
Mason bit his lip. “I see Talia didn’t completely fulfill her job of filling you in.”
Logan finished, “I guess you can take it from here. Tell me when you’re ready to speak with him.” With that, he left Mason and I at the top of the stairs.
“I think it’s time for a family reunion,” Mason mimicked.
“You’re certainly not as good of a respondent as Talia…”
“Cry me a river. Now go back to when you were a little girl and you played that imaginary game about Haestroph with Jack.”
“Okay, what about it?”
He continued, “Did you ever play this game with another kid?”
“Yes! Izabela!”
“And what did she look like, just to confirm.”
“Uh, light brown hair and chocolate brown eyes,” I answered.
“Oh thank god. Alright, let’s go.” I figured he was going to turn around and walk out the doors, but instead he marched up the stairs.
I followed him but croaked, “Wait a second, she’s here, in this castle? And you never introduced me?”
“That was the least of our worries when you came here.”
“And what are her powers?”
“She’s like Talia, just less developed.”
“Does that mean she’s related to you two?”
“Not exactly,” he responded. “Powers first took form in a person centuries ago. The “genes” are spread out so much that there are probably a hundred super-humans like Talia and Izabela.”
“And what do you mean by ‘less developed’?”
“That was a bad choice of words. She doesn’t have telepathy or memory manipulation or empathy. She has the more dangerous powers, which is why she likes to keep to herself. She has the mind control and the memory manipulation. Talia explained the psionic and psychic powers to you, right?” I nodded. “Okay, so Talia and Izabela have been working together to master these things. They’re the only people known in this world who have mastered psychic weapons. They’ve been training to use psionic blasts too. It’s incredible how far they’ve come.”
“Are they the reason why we stand a chance in this war?”
“Kind of. If they actually master this, you, Talia, and Izabela could stand alone in this war and still beat them.” He knocked hard on the silver door that was hidden at the end of the hallway.
“Who is it?” A soporific voice sang.
“Mason,” he optimized.
“Ugh, for the last time Mason –“ I could hear her moving around in her room. “- I can’t tell you what happened last with me and Talia. But once she feels better we’ll start up again and finish mastering-“ She stopped short when she opened the door and saw me. “Oh, I thought were alone.”
She was lean and slender with a nut-brown complexion, tawny colored hair cut at her shoulders, and the same light hazel from eight years ago. She wore dark denim jeans with black boots, and a plaid top. She studied my face long and hard. “Maya,” she gasped, throwing her arms around me. I embraced her hug, as it felt good to have a piece of my childhood back. She pulled out and added, “I’m sorry I didn’t come see you when you first arrived, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you and then the next day you left for the mission-“
Mason interjected, “Breathe. And before I forget to tell you, it may be a few days before Talia is back on her feet again. We just got news that the Celadons were attacking in a week and Talia won’t be prepared to help finish what you two have started. You’ll probably have to finish this alone.” None of this news surprised her. Then again, even if she wasn’t telepathic, she could still probably get inside our heads.
“Well I know you didn’t just come here to tell me that it’s hopeless, so why are you here?”
“Jack got a hold of Logan. He wants to talk to the two of us,” I replied.
“Oh great.” She pouted.
“Not trying to rush you guys or anything, but a little while ago I was collapsed on the castle steps. It’s been a long few days for everyone and I’d really like to go to bed,” Mason complained.
“Then let’s go talk to the oh so annoying Jackson,” Izabela countered. “Just let me put Tyto in his cage.” She opened the door up more to let us in.
“Tyto?” I questioned.
“My owl.” Sure enough, there was an owl on her windowsill. The owl climbed onto her fingers and she put him – or her – into the cage. “She’s named after the genus of barn owls.”
“Our kind was built around owls,” Mason explained. “So they’ve always been good pets for us. Very long ago, owls helped us train, and eventually received some of our traits – don’t ask me how, that’s Talia’s job. Anyways, when Izabela first came here, she made friends with Tyto, and Alaska let her keep her. Tyto now helps her with training when Talia isn’t around.”
We exited the room and I led them down the stairs, Mason in my tracks. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Izabela zoom down the banister of the stairs, landing safely at the bottom.
“Do you always go down the steps like that?” I asked her.
She responded with: “It’s faster, funner, and it saves energy.”
“Funner isn’t a word,” Mason corrected.
“No duh,” she retorted.
I looked at Mason. “She never grew out her weirdness, huh?”
He smiled. “Thank god she didn’t.”
“Hey, why’d we go this way?” Izabela wondered. “Wouldn’t Logan be in his room?”
“Yeah, why’d we follow you, Maya?”
“No, I’m positive he’s down here. He’s in the cafeteria.” I didn’t know why I knew that. But sure enough, sitting in the empty cafeteria, Logan was choking down a burrito.
He spit, “Man, how’d you guys find me?”
“Maya’s stalking senses led us here,” Izabela reverberated.
“Great, I can never hide again. Let’s go to my room. Jack is a rambunctious spirit, and well, he should be as condensed as possible.
“If he’s a ghost, can’t he just pass through walls?” I asked.
“We’re talking about Jack here. He’s not very brilliant.”
Izabela agreed, “Good point.”
He led us back up the stairs and down the hall to his room.
“I’ll leave you guys to it. I really need to sleep,” Mason slumbered. He left the three of us in the room as he thundered down the corridor.
Izabela and I sat down in the sofa chairs in Logan’s “living room”. Logan stayed in the corner. All of a sudden, a shimmering form appears on the couch next to us. He had a folie skin tone, with short-cropped tawny hair and blue gray eyes. He didn’t seem to change at all. Well except for his muscular build. But his face still looked like it used to, just on a fourteen-year-old’s body. He was slightly see-through, but other than that, he seemed completely human.
“Well that’s a…ghost,” Izabela drawled.
“We actually take offense to that. We prefer the term spirits. Or dead, that’s fine too.” He flashed a sincere smile. “Hey long lost friends.” He nodded to me, “Caballa,” and he nodded to Izabela, “Cabra.”
“S’cuse me?” Logan intervened.
“Childhood nicknames.” I sighed. “His mom was Spanish. I was a horse because I was fast, and Izabela was a goat because she was a good climber. Dumbest. Nicknames. Ever.”
“Dude, we were six,” he argued.
“Still stupid, Mono,” Izabela returned.
“Lemme guess,” Logan assisted, “good climber too?”
“Nope. He was just in love with bananas,” I laughed.
“Hey before we get to the point, have either of you talked to my mom?” Jack asked.
Izabela replied, “I talked to her a few years ago. She was still going out of her mind looking for you. She still thinks you’re alive. That you somehow escaped the monster and ran away.”
“Wait, why haven’t you contacted your mom? You know, given her a sign you’re not actually alive?” I barked.
“I’ll tell her. When the time is right.”
“When is the time, Jack? It’s been three years.”
I’ve got five brothers and sisters. One of them is bound to screw up real big and then we’ll talk.” I rolled my eyes but he continued on. “So, anyways, I wanted to talk to you guys because you’re facing some pretty harsh and chaotic stuff here. So I have a few things to say. First is Maya. Maya, I passed my powers down to you because I knew you could handle all of this and I knew you’d be a great leader-“
“Wow, thanks,” Izabela grunted.
“Hey, you know this would be too overwhelming for you. You hate the spotlight, especially when everyone’s depending on you. You probably would’ve ended up killing everyone.” She pursed her lips. That shut her up. I found it weird how much Jack reminded me of Ryan from school. Or I guess Ryan reminded me of Jack.
“Anyways, Maya, you have some incredible challenges to face. One of those will happen even sooner than the attack-“
I interjected, “Wait, what? If you and your dimples know something, now is the time to spill it.”
“Of course I know something. I’m a spirit. I can see the future. But I’ve said too much already. And please stop interrupting me and let me finish one damn thought.” I bit my lip, trying not to smile. “As I was saying…oh I don’t even remember. I’ll just move onto Izabela. Now, you need to take this leadership slot and prove you’re worth it. With Talia in this horrific state, she’ll be in no shape to help master the psionic and physic weapons. That means you need to. Now since Maya has power mimicry she can also train to use these powers, but first you have to baby-proof them.”
“High expectations of me, ghosty?”
“And the last thing is to both of you. You two are in the handful of super-kids who are the most powerful. You all need to team up and work together to prepare for this war. Or, of course, the other option is to back out now and save hundreds of lives.” My heart skipped a beat. Izabela almost fell off of the chair. “We’re counting on you.”
“Jack, you’re dead,” Izabela snapped.
“They’re counting on you. So understand how important this is-“
“Did you really disrupt my dreams just so you could give some old friends a pep talk before they go into a war that they probably won’t come back alive from? They’ll be up there with you soon enough,” Logan threatened. It wasn’t really a threat.
“Oh quit your complaining, pasty,” Izabela quartered. I missed her snarky comments.
“Gotta go, you guys. Take care of yourselves, and I’ll be in touch when all of this passes over.” His body shimmered and disappeared.

“So? What's the verdict with Talia?” I asked as Dakota popped out of her room. After seeing Jack and everything, I really just wanted to go to bed but there was no way I’d be able to fall asleep no matter how tired I was. Izabela and Logan went down for dinner but I didn’t to eat. Mainly, I didn’t want to socialize.
“I think she'll be fine. She just needs some rest. She should be better by tomorrow morning,” Dakota replied.
“Oh thank god.”
“Hey I want to show you something. Do like looking at the stars?”
I smiled. “My mom used to teach me the constellations when I was little.”
Dakota led me down the hall to a door. This one wasn't gold or silver; it was copper. And it was smaller than the rest. She led me up three flights of steps and I knew we were outside when a big winter breath hit me in the face. I realized we were at the top of one of the circular pillars.
I looked up at the magnificently clear sky. I stared into the black void, making out the constellations that sparkled in the sky. I found the North Star, then the Big Dipper. And next to that was the Little Dipper. I spun in a circle, embracing the cold night.
“I don't know why it's so clear tonight. I mean you can see pretty much anything. And that doesn't happen very often,” she hummed.
“What’s that one?” I pointed to the stars that made two triangles, the small one isosceles, and the longer one scalene. It seemed to have a tail. “It looks kind of like a fish.”
“Well that’s because it is,” she replied. “The night sky isn’t normally this visible, but that constellation is always there. The Dorado constellation; what this castle was named after.”
“Are those bats over there?” I tried to make out the black bird bodies flying in the sky. There had to have been at lest fifteen of them.
“Nope, not bats. Do me a favor, can you whistle?” I nodded, confused. “Alright then, whistle twice.” I decided not to question so I put my pointer and thumb into my mouth, and blew hard twice. I watched the birds fall out of the sky, making a horrible screeching sound. I realized there weren’t fifteen anymore, there had to be at least fifty. Dakota pushed me back through the door and shoved me up the stairs.
“Would you please tell me what those things are?”
“Night terrors. They’re like evil bats mixed with pterodactyls. Horrific creatures that kill anything in their sight. Unfortunately, a few years ago we tried to kill them. But more came. We were under attack, ended up having to lock down the castle. They finally left us alone, but we knew they’d be back. They don’t come often, but when they do there’s more every time.”
“So…now what?”
“As quietly as possible, we sneak back inside and order a lockdown,” she whispered.
Slowly and silently, she pulled open the heavy door and we crept inside. Dakota tried to close the door as quietly as she could, but it still made a loud thud when it met the doorframe. I peered through the tiny slit of a window at the top of the stairs to see the black mass growing: in size and in proximity.
I sprinted down the stairs as quickly as my feet could carry me, jumping over the last few steps. We came out on the second floor, right at the top of the stairs. Dakota opened a box that was on the wall, which I hadn’t noticed before. She opened it, exposing a pallet of colored buttons. The small buttons on the left went in rainbow order: pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. The two big buttons on the right were red and black. Dakota smacked the black one, which made the fire alarm go off. The only difference was the noise wasn’t a siren like the fire alarm; it was like a car starting, just at a higher pitch.
Seconds later, Alaska appeared at the bottom of the stairs, which was where Dakota and I stood.
“Night terrors?” He asked, already sure of the answer.
“They came out of nowhere. There’s no way they just decided to show up-“
“They were sent here,” I finished.
“That’s quite likely, girls.”
“By-“ Dakota stopped short when she heard the scratching. If it were an animal outside, you wouldn’t have been able to hear it over the alarm. I walked over to where I thought the noise was coming from. I saw the vent shaking. The vents were high up on the walls, placed where the ceiling met the wall.
I wondered, “Could they have gotten into the ventilation?”
“If they’re in there, this place will be attacked in minutes. They already have us surrounded.” Dakota pointed to the black masses banging on the window.
  “Go into the mess hall, girls. That’s where some kids are. There’s no vents in there.” Alaska ushered us into the cafeteria, where familiar faces were frantically pacing. Alaska shut the doors, separating the ten or so of us from him. I looked around the room, realizing we’d probably just interrupted a meeting of some sort. Spread out across the cafeteria was Izabela, Clara, Dylan, Carter, Rebecca, Lucy, Willow, and the “lost” Ian. I was surprised I remembered all of their names on such little sleep. After meeting so many people, their faces kind of just blur together.
“What’s going on?” Izabela panicked.
“Night terrors,” Dakota answered. “They’ve got the castle surrounded. And somehow they got into the vents. In a few minutes they’ll break their way inside.” Gasps made their way along.
I asked, “Sorry, were we interrupting something?”
“Nah, we all came down together to eat dinner and then the alarm went off,” Carter responded.
“So now what?” Willow squeaked. And I mean literally. She sounded like a mouse. She cleared her throat and laughed, “Sorry. I was trying to train my pet mouse earlier.”
“Well there aren’t any vents in the cafeteria,” Dylan continued, ignoring the squeaks. “But eventually they’ll fid their way in.”
“So somehow we have to get everyone into the cafeteria without making any noise to as to draw attention. Then we need to get the bloody birds outside. Sounds totally possible,” Izabela croaked.
“Impossible for humans. We’re a little more developed than humans…” Clara implied.
“Do you really expect us to teleport a few hundred kids, kids who are spread all throughout the castle might I add?” Lucy whimpered.
Dakota alleged, “That might actually just work…how many can you teleport a once?”
“About fifty individually. But with the both of us together, about two hundred if we’re lucky,” Rebecca collected.
“And what if you have three people?” she implored.
Rebecca mutinied, “No way. Maya has gone through no training and she’s too weak right now-“
“How many?”
“Four hundred with someone strong and trained,” Lucy mumbled. “We’d be lucky to get three hundred down here with Maya. Uh, offense.”
“Well I can barely keep my eyes open so…”
“We’ve gotta try,” Dakota pleaded.
“And what about the birds…” Ian drawled. He’d been hidden (probably because the alarm was so loud for him) but he came out from behind the twins- no, two out of three of the triplets; lets just go with brothers.
“Willow, do they listen to you?” I inquired.
“Yes, but I can only control a few at a time.”
“What happens when you kill them?”
Carter replied, “They only stay dead for a while, but they’re reincarnated back at their home.”
“So it’ll have to be a teamwork effort here. Whoever is bold enough to go out there – I suggest Carter, Dylan, Willow, and Izabela. The more people, the quicker they’ll be gone.” The plan came off of my tongue as if I actually knew what I was talking about.
“How am I supposed to help?” Izabela scrunched her eyebrows.
“Last time I checked you’ve been working on mastering the powers of killing things with just your mind. This seems like perfect target practice.”
“Alright we’ve wasted enough time already,” Rebecca persisted. “If we’re really gonna do this, we better get to it.”
There was a loud bang, followed by a scream, and the alarm shut off. The lights went dim. The noises hadn’t come from the cafeteria, they came from above us.
Rebecca took my hand and Lucy’s hand, and Lucy took my free hand.
“Maya, you just have to concentrate and visualize. We can do the rest,” Lucy relieved.
I did as I was told, and my vision turned blue. Pain went up my spine, but Lucy squeezed my hand to let me know she was still there. My legs turned wobbly, and it felt like three hundred pounds were thrown onto my shoulders. Rebecca and Lucy let go of my hands and I opened my eyes as noise drilled into my brain. There were people everywhere – I mean everywhere. Some kids were standing on tables, others on each other’s backs, some in a handstand.
Lucy giggled, “Whoops.” I felt better than I had all day. I don’t if it was just the fact I transported three hundred people from who knows where, or if it was all the adrenaline. But it didn’t really matter at this point.
I looked around the room. Some kids had bird feet on their faces, some were all scratched up, but it didn’t seem like anyone was in danger. I found Izabela, who was weaving through the confused crowd, Carter and Dylan in her wake. Willow was pushing through to the door, jumping into their group. I understood that the only way I wouldn’t worry about them would be to go with them. So I met them at the door.
“One thing we didn’t think through: how to open the doors,” I rekindled. The five of us stood there, hoping the doors would magically open, not letting in any Night terrors. I didn’t even know if there were any birds on the other side of the door because the kids were so loud that I didn’t even hear any squawking. Without thinking, I put my pointer and thumb into my mouth, creating a noise so loud that the room went silent. The birds not so much. I realized I made a really stupid mistake because of what they did earlier.
“What’d I just do?” I asked Izabela.
“You just solved our problem. Night Terrors hate loud noises like that, which is why the lockdown alarm is designed to avoid that. But they fly as far away from the noise as they can go, which means the door is clear. It wasn’t really the most effective way to open this door, but hey, it worked.”
“Well?” Willow snapped. “What’re we waiting for?” I pulled open the doors with Izabela, Carter, Willow, and Dylan following. I made sure the doors sealed behind us because what I saw proved they were killing machines – no one heard dead yet, though. They were hiding up in the corner of the room, and I could tell it wasn’t all of them. The few things in the open room were destroyed – the drapes over the window were torn and falling, the coffee tables broken and the lamps that used to be on top of them were shattered.
“Do we have a plan?” Carter hollered over the screeching.
“I say wing it!” I yelled back. “Carter and Dylan, use whatever you powers you want; just get these things out of here. Izabela, you can take care of the birds that Willow calms down. I can give you a force field, Willow.”
Carter wailed, “Why don’t I get a force field?”
“Well one, your power doesn’t work through it. Two, you’re not trying to sweet-talk the murderers.” The birds were beginning to come out of the corner.
“What’re you gonna do?” Dylan asked.
“I’ll use whatever power helps-“
“No you won’t,” Izabela countered. “You’re to tired, too weak. You’re gonna stand guard at the doors and make a force field to close off every possible way into the cafeteria.”
“Izabela-“
“I know exactly what you’re going to say. You’re not the boss of me, wah wah wah. But you should know what’s better for you. We don’t need you collapsing in the middle of combat – er, whatever you’d call fighting birds.”
I bit my lip and stomped toward the door like a three-year-old. I threw a small force field over Willow, not even knowing if I could hold two different force fields at once. I attempted to completely block of the doors and me from the rest of them and the birds. It was weak but it held. I didn’t actually mind not being able to kill a bunch of murderous birds/bats. Even though looking through a force field was like looking through a plastic water bottle, I still had a good view of everything going on.
Carter and Dylan went into attack mode. They’d switch from power to power, first shooting fire from their hands, then water, then a second later they’d be walking on the ceiling. Willow tried to call some of the birds down and a few of them landed nearby, but it didn’t seem like Izabela was getting the hang of the psionic blasts.
I called to her, “Just focus!” but I was pretty sure it sounded like I was underwater. She glanced over her shoulder at me and then I watched her back arch as she took a deep breath. Willow brought another bird down and he stood there on the bottom step. I could only see part of Izabela’s face, but from what I could tell, her face was bright red. Then, I watched the menacing creature implode, his feathers falling to the ground like confetti. She eventually got the hang of it, and Willow brought down two birds at a time, then five, then ten.
But as I watched them fighting the birds that had been in the corner, I failed to see the birds that were coming from upstairs. On instinct, I broke my force field (making sure I kept the one around Willow up) and raced to help. I hadn’t been trained to bend, so I honestly had no idea what to do. I started with water, assuming it would be easy. It was. I fiddled around with it and in no time I had perfect icicle that served as a spear. I threw it at the birds, managing to kill three birds. Two birds with one stone, or, three birds with one ice spear. I noticed Dylan had climbed the stairs and was trying to kill them before they came downstairs. Carter appeared next to me.
“You suck at following directions,” he whistled. “But while I have your help…Willow is struggling with catching multiple birds at once and since Dylan is covering the upstairs, I need your help to blow them back into the corner.
“Can’t I just whistle again?”
“It makes them angry and more vicious.” I shrugged and followed what he asked. I did the same thing I did to make a force field, and sure enough, a ball of air formed in my hands. I looked at Carter, who was in position. He nodded. Together we threw our air balls into the air, and they grew from the size of a baseball to the size of a giant beach ball.
They blew all of the frantic birds back into the corner. The birds struggled out but the wind created a barrier. Then I watched as few by few imploded, their feathers coating the ground. I realized it was Izabela. She didn’t need them calm, she just need them cornered. They disappeared by tens, twenties, fifties, and in no time they were gone. Carter and I cancelled the winds, and we listened to the silent creaking castle. There were no more Night terrors, no more screeching.
“We did it,” Izabela panted, her voice shaky and surprised.
“Yeah. We did.” I smiled.
We headed through the double doors and my mind disappeared into the screaming and cheering crowd.

I woke up in the morning to the sunrise. I was in Talia’s room, but Talia was still in Dakota’s room. I walked over to the small window and pried it open.
The air felt clean and fresh with a calm zephyr that caressed my skin. Brilliant pink rays poured out of the sun and across the horizon. I watched the ribbons of golden sunlight spill throughout the valley. The trees blended together in a large black shadow against the gleaming gold sky. The red streaks took over the bluish purple sky. The wrinkled clouds were every shade from palest crimson to the deepest salmon. Dawn broke over the horizon, the dazzling yellow egg yolk spilled across the horizon as far as the eye could see. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.
I didn’t really want to see what today would bring.
Last night, after everything that happened during the day, was a blur. First, the boulder flattened me, then I threw the satchel over the cliff, then Thomas appeared out of thin air and tried to kill us. After that we blew up the tunnel, then when we finally got back, Mason collapsed and we were told we only had a week until the date of our deaths. And then evil pterodactyl bats attacked us and I couldn’t make out any other events that happened afterwards.
I took a nice, slow shower that was long-needed and a few days late. Then I slipped on a pink sweater, which looked like the sunrise. I pulled on jeans and black boots. My stomach rumbled and it reminded me of the sound the alarm made last night, so I decided to head down to the buffet for breakfast.
“Maya!” Dakota appeared in front of me and I almost tripped down the stairs. Today she was wearing a pink dress. I wondered how many colors she had the exact same dress in. Her hair was down for once, just reaching her shoulders. It was perfectly straight. I guess flyaways didn’t exist in her hair.
“What? What is it?”
“Come with me.” She pulled me back up the stairwell and led/dragged me down the hall and into her room. There lay a sickly white Talia. She was on the bed, a blanket pulled all the way up to her neck. Her skin was sallow, her eye sockets sunken and dark.
“What the-“ I caught my breath. “You - you said she'd be better by this morning.”
“Well I thought she would. But she didn't eat what I thought she ate."
Mason burst through the door. “I talked to Alaska and he said-“ He stopped when he saw Talia. He knelt down beside her and took her hand. “What happened?”
“She ate something called Arisen berries. She thought they were buffalo berries and that's why she thought they were safe to eat. But Arisen berries are deadly. And I can't even cure it.”
“So, she...she's dying?” Mason shook. “There's no cure?”
“I didn't say that. I said I had no cure. But I talked to Alaska and Carolina and we decided there was only one person in this world who has the remedy.” Talia's eyelids flickered open, and Dakota helped her sit up by adjusting the bed so it turned into a chair. The blanket fell from her chest and I realized she was wearing the same clothes she wore last night.
“Well who is it?” I demanded.
“Talia's mother,” Dakota mumbled. Mason's eyes widened.
“That's a mistake,” Talia groaned. “My mother is dead.”
“No…Mason's mother is dead.” Talia and Mason shared a confused look.
“Okay, don't kill the messenger,” Dakota prayed. “But listen closely. You're half-siblings. Same father, different mothers-“
“We...I thought we were twins,” stuttered Talia.
“You're a month older, Talia. Now don't interrupt me.” She was stern, knowing that was the only way she could keep their attention. “This is the reason why you have different powers. Talia, you got the powers from your grandfather, your mom's father. Mason, your powers came from your father's side. It's very uncommon for two Dorados to reproduce, but when it happens, the dominant power wins. In this case, it was Atmokinesis. Talia, your mother lives on the other side of the valley, she practices medicine. She has every herb known to mankind in her garden. She'll have the solution to healing you. But we only have a little while. We need to send someone to retrieve the herb as soon as possible.”
“No, no way. I’m not sending anyone-“
“I'll go,” Mason and I responded in unison.
Talia's eyes were filled with tears. “No, no. Neither of you can go. It's too dangerous. The armies that block the other side of the valley...it's – it’s suicide.”
“I'll let you three figure this out.” Dakota left us in her room.
“Talia,” Mason squeezed her hand tightly, “we're the best two to go.”
“No you can't go. I'm not letting you two risk your lives to save me. Unless you have a death wish, no one crosses the valley line.”
“We're going whether you agree or not,” I told her. Tears streamed down her face now.
“I can't lose you. Neither of you. No.” Her eyes rolled up in her head and she leaned her head back. She opened her eyes again and pretended nothing happened.
“Okay,” Mason swallowed. “Then we’ll just sit around and do nothing and watch you die.” He stormed out of the room, slamming the door so hard that everything in the room shook. I couldn’t even meet her eyes so I joined Mason in the hallway, not slamming the door as hard of course.
I asked, “We are following through with this, right?”
“Of course we are. If I were in her spot…I mean I wouldn’t want the two people closest to me to risk their lives to save me. I certainly wouldn’t tell them to go on a suicide mission. But then again if they didn’t do anything, if they just sat around and watched me die, well I can’t even begin to describe what I’d feel.”
“It wouldn’t be anger…you’d feel helpless,” I suggested.
“Exactly. She doesn’t know how to react to this. It’s just a lot to take in, even for her.”
“So…we tell Clara or Alaska first?”
“Clara. Let’s hold off on Alaska for as long as we can.”
I turned toward the hall but Mason didn’t move. I asked, “You coming?” His stomach growled loud enough to wake up Oliver.
“If you don’t mind, I’m gonna go get breakfast. You can either join me or you can go talk to Clara and I’ll meet up with you later.” I touched my stomach, which felt like someone reached inside and tied it in a knot.
I forced a smile. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
We split up at the top of the staircase, Mason heading down the steps and me heading down the hall. I counted the doors until I reached Clara’s, where there was shouting inside. I knocked on the door that was open a crack but it wasn’t loud enough for them to hear me so I stepped in.
Inside, Clara and Alaska were arguing.
“Oh c’mon Clara,” I complained.
“Sorry. Rules. I had to sign some stupid contract before agreeing to be this castle’s ‘psychic’. That included not keeping anything from Alaska.”
“Maya, I am not allowing you and Mason to go on this mission. It is not worth it,” Alaska chartered.
“Lemme put it this way Alaska,” I tried. “If no one goes, you’ll lose one of your strongest fighters and the one closest to mastering psionic blasts. If Mason and I go, the possibility of neither of us making it back and Talia dying are equal to the possibility of both of us returning and Talia surviving. But the rest of the chances fall with one of us making it back and Talia will be okay. So if I were you, I’d let Clara explain the outcome and take the chances.”
“Well let me tell you something before we do that. I doubt this has come up in a conversation. If Clara predicts the outcome of your mission and suddenly you or someone else decides to back out of it, you begin a curse. A curse that is unable to be broken. There’s no backing out.”
“Alaska, you haven’t known me for very long, but you’ve known Mason for many years. You know that he won’t back out of this and I won’t either.”
“Very well,” he sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to budge. “Clara, my dear, go ahead.”
She seemed to be in a rush because she didn’t sit me down, she just scrambled for my hands. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, like she was breathing out all of the bad. I suddenly became relaxed and my knees turned wobbly.
Seconds later she released my hands and stared me down. “Your prediction was correct. Only one of you will make it back.”
I felt like a little kid, so tempted to throw a tantrum right then and there. My stomach wouldn’t leave my throat and it felt like all of my bones turned into jell-o. I hadn’t felt this bad since the detective told me my mother was dead.
I was only six, but I still recall the day perfectly. My dad was in the basement working and I was in the living room watching TV. The doorbell rang and at the door was Detective Cosby, my mom’s partner. She was a tall lithe woman with long blonde hair. She wore a melancholy look and her uniform. She asked where my dad was and I told we couldn’t interrupt his work. She talked to me in a soothing velvet voice, but that part wasn’t important. I only caught her last words: “Your mom passed away. She took a bullet to protect the rest of her squad, who managed to escape. I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”
And at that moment, I was unable to cry. The air tasted lethal, and every body part hurt. The thoughts were gyrating in my head. I tried to slow them down so I could breathe but they just got worse. My gasps were sharp and painful, and I wished I blacked out. My heart hammered against my chest. The room spun and I swooned to the floor, trying to make everything protracted. If it just toned down a little to something my brain and body could cope with…I felt sick. I want to yell for my dad but nothing came out. I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know what to do. Voices flew in my head (some of them were Detective Cosby’s voice, I just didn’t know which ones). She's gone, breathe Maya, gone, yell, too far away…blackness…Where is she…the room is spinning…blackness…she's gone…
The creeping darkness fluttered from my vision and I was back in Clara’s room.
I asked, “But you don’t know who?” Clara, as well as Alaska, shook her head.
“Visions aren’t that clear. I couldn’t tell you-“ She froze and her eyes glazed over as she clutched my shoulder for balance. Once she came back to the planet, she lost all color in her face. “I lied. Now I know who’s going to die.” She spewed it out like it was just an ordinary comment. She clenched her jaw, not wanting to say more.
“Well spit it out! I can take it,” I gulped.
“I know you can take it, Maya. But I don’t think Mason can.” Alaska raised her chin as if he’d already known the answer.
“So I’ll make it back but Mason won’t…well how could you be so sure? The future can change, right?”
“Of course it can,” she replied. “But that’s quite unlikely in this situation. The visions that change are the ones with little detail, the hazy and fuzzy ones. But this one was clear as day. It was exactly seven days from now. You and Talia were fighting Thomas side by side. But Mason wasn’t there. He was nowhere to be seen.”
“I know that all of this is hard to take in, but if you want to make it back with enough time to prepare for this war, you and Mason will need to leave first thing tomorrow morning,” Alaska squabbled. He started to say more but I was fuming. I didn’t know if I was frustrated or sad or angry, but it didn’t matter at the moment. I turned out of the room. I flew down the stairs – literally, my feet just hovered, Mason not being far off from me. I circled into the mess hall, finding Mason carrying a tray piled with food toward the round table where Shawn and Zach were sitting. I trudged over through the empty cafeteria and pulled the tray out of his hands. I tossed on the table, and it almost tumbled over the edge but Shawn stopped it. I yanked back Mason’s arm as he tried to reach for the food.
“You can get it later,” I muttered. I dragged him all the way back to the vacant open room.
“So?”
“Only one of us will make it back. Mason, you’re going to die on this mission-“ I stopped and studied his face. He didn’t seem surprised. In fact, he didn’t even react. It was as if he was expecting this news and he’d been preparing for it his entire life. “Seriously?”
He whistled, “What do you expect me to say? I saw this coming.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “How did you see your own death coming?”
  “When we turned ten, Alaska offered Talia and I our old life back. He never said that to any other Dorado. He promised we’d be safe and we could live a normal life. But I knew I’d never be able to have a normal life. I was willing to risk my life to save other people. I wouldn’t have the guts to go back to a normal life. Then he asked again when we were thirteen, and this time I hesitated. It was as if Alaska predicted what was going to happen. He was trying to save us. But once again, I knew there was no way I could just throw this life out the window.” He took a deep breath. “And you’re right. I have been preparing for this my whole life. Starting with coming to this castle, I knew I would cherish my life and the time I had a little more. And every day since then, my life got better and better. I’m happy with the life I have, and I’m happy with everything I’ve done. So maybe I am okay with saying goodbye, especially if it’s saving my sister.”
“Then we leave tomorrow,” I entailed.
“Alaska knows already, doesn’t he?” There was a whimper to his voice.
“He was already with Clara when I got there. He knows…” I choked on my words. “He knows the result of the mission.”
He sighed, “Ugh. Just do me a favor: don’t tell Talia I won’t make it. I want to tell her when the time is right.”
That seemed like a reasonable request. But I couldn’t hold in my snarky remark. “Will the time be right before we leave?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, Maya. I’ll tell her.”
I flashed him a smile. “Then we better get ready for this mission.”

I ate as much food as I could without throwing up. I didn’t know when my next meal would be so I had three eggs, six pieces of bacon, and three pieces of toast. Around the table I was sitting at were Chloe, Carter, Dylan, and Teddy. When I got up to throw my trash out, Mason was in my seat, already with a tray full of food.
“Heyyy, Maya,” he greeted. “Dakota got a bunch of people to add their powers into a Baxon jar and she wants to see you. I’ll meet you up there later.” I sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to get my seat back. I hopped up the stairs, taking two at a time, then turned down the hall and flung Dakota’s door open.
“Ugh, finally,” she groaned. “Mason will never be my messenger again. I sent him to get you an hour ago. It would’ve been quicker to send Talia.” Talia lay on the same bed she was on yesterday, looking more green than pale.
“He said you have a Baxon jar?”
“Here it is.” She turned from the counter and handed me a jar filled with the rainbow. There were so many colors I couldn’t even count them. “Try not to throw this one over the cliff.”
“Malegante Portreo!” I commanded and it turned into a satchel. Dakota pointed to a pile of things that sat on the chair that was in the corner.
“Pack that stuff.” She tended to Talia while I threw everything into the satchel. There was a grappling hook, gauze, duct tape, rope, water, and etcetera.
When I was finished, the door swung open and Mason stepped in. Dakota cooed, “Oh good, you’re here. I need to get some food into my system so I’ll bring Talia downstairs with me and we’ll meet you two down there.”
With Mason’s help, they got Talia off of the table and out of the room.
“Last chance to back out of death,” I whispered, putting a fake smile on my face to cover up my fear.
He scrunched his nose. “Sorry, not going to happen.”
“Just remember I tried to stop you.”
Mason and I shouldered our bags and headed out of the room.
Mason and I made our walk of shame – walk of bravery? Walk of death? Whatever it was, we made our way down the stairs and outside in the winter air where our entourage was waiting. I was surprised how many people were there. There was Alaska and Carolina with her husky and Oliver. There was Talia who was leaning on Dakota, Izabela beside them. All of the friends I’d accumulated since I arrived were there too.
I started with Izabela.
I hugged her and she whispered, “You better make it back alive, cause then I’d have to find a way to win this war. And that’s just too much work for me.”
“Oh you just don’t have the gut to say goodbye again, do you?”
Her eyes swelled with tears but she forced a smile. “I lost you and Jack in the same day. Jack never said goodbye before then; it was always ‘see you later’ or ‘until tomorrow’ and then he’d salute me. But I knew that when he said goodbye he wasn’t coming back. And then you didn’t even say goodbye; I went to school the next day and our teacher told me that your dad pulled you from school and you moved somewhere else.” She wiped her eyes with her palm. “Until tomorrow, Maya,” she saluted. I saluted back and turned to Talia and Dakota.
“Don’t you dare die on me, Walker,” Talia muttered. I would’ve laughed if her eyes weren’t rolling back in her head.
“I’ll try my best.” I looked over my shoulder at Mason who was talking to Alaska. “And I’ll try to keep that bozo alive too.” Her lips curled into a smile. She stealthily snuck a piece of paper into my pocket and whispered, “To my mom.” She didn’t have to say anything else – her expression said it all.
I turned to Dakota, waiting for her to say something that would lift my spirits. She furrowed her eyebrows and her voice echoed in my ears: as strong as healing powers are, you can’t revive the dead. Once they stop breathing, there’s nothing else you can do. That just made me more confused. It was almost as bad as Alaska’s advice he gave to me on my first mission. Mason came over to Talia and I went to talk to Alaska.
“I have no advice for you. Just be careful.” I could’ve sworn he choked on his words, but his accent was too thick to tell.
Carolina patted my head. “Good luck darling. I know how dangerous the valley line can be.” She gestured to her burnt face. A chill went up my spine. I didn’t know how to respond, but Oliver burped and fire shot out of his mouth, saving me from the conversation.
I made my way over to the Windsor’s. Jinora was on crutches, her hair pulled back in a messy bun. Grace’s eyes sparkled in the dark sunlight. Alec and Zach were arguing about something. But Ian still wasn’t with them.
“Still no Ian?”
“He thinks we’re all doomed and we should back out of this war while we can,” Zach answered.
Jinora chimed in, “he locked himself in the basement. He says he’s gonna hide out there for as long as this war lasts.”
“Doesn’t matter anyways, he wouldn’t be much help in this war,” Alec smarted.
The wooden doors opened, and a girl about eleven popped out. Her hair was in pigtails and she smiled at Alec. “Ian says he heard that.” She slipped back inside. We all broke into laughter.
“Maya,” Grace sang, “Good luck.”
“You better come back alive cause if not we’ll all be doomed,” Jinora swallowed.
“And come back in one piece,” Zach added.
Alec finished, “And we promise we won’t bet on you.”
Behind them, Dylan was lighting leaves on fire and melting away some snow, and Chloe and Carter were playing rock-paper-scissors, except it was air-fire-water. Carter held fire and Chloe held water. She threw it in his face, extinguishing the flame and making him soaked. She then threw water at Dylan to get him to stop. Her brothers stood next to Chloe, soaked, and she smiled innocently.
“You’re coming back alive right? Cause then I can teach you how to play,” Carter joked.
Dylan inserted, “And we can light things on fire.”
“And I won’t have to feel guilty when I kill these clowns.” Chloe’s smile could’ve fooled anyone. “Don’t die.”
I turned back to Talia and Mason.
Talia pulled away from their hug. “I’ll see you soon.”
“You didn’t tell her?” I blurted.
“Tell me what?”
Mason calmly replied, “Of course I didn’t tell her. Why the heck would I tell her that?”
“Well I think she has the right to know-“
“She’ll just stop me from going-“
Talia interjected, “TELL ME WHAT?”
“That there’s a pretty big chance he won’t come back alive.” All of the color drained from her already-pale face. I realized that since Mason and I had already talked about this it seemed like a fact that we wouldn’t be able to change the future. But after the words came out of my mouth, it sounded like suicide. It kind of was.
“You – it – we – you can’t…” Her words wouldn’t form like a car that wouldn’t start. “You’re gonna die on this mission?”
No! Maybe? Probably…Yes,” he sputtered. “Clara had two visions: one showed her that only one of us would come back alive. The other showed Maya in the midst of battle against the Celadons. That means I’m the one who won’t be coming back alive.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” Izabela warned, “but I think you should leave now if you want to beat the rain.” She pointed to the tempest clouds.
The trees creaked back and forth and the dust was whipped up into the air, semi-blinding us as we looked at the clouds across the valley. There was one gigantic column of violently twisting air rotating around each other. At first we stood there, but then I realized what it was.
“Is that…are those…” I hesitated, like saying the word was worse than the clouds.
“Tornado,” Izabela finished.
“Tornadoes in this area? There’s never been one recorded,” announced the weather expert. Mason looked even more shaken than everyone else.
“Curse you, brother!” Alaska shouted at the sky. Then he turned to Carolina. “Get everyone into the basement. I’ll be down soon after. And Izabela, turn on the magnetism and hopefully that will cover the castle. Mason and Maya, I’m still going to have to send you on your way. It’s in the opposite direction of where you’re heading and you should be safe. But that storm is coming straight at this castle so you need to go. Now.”
Carolina was ushering everyone inside the castle, and Izabela helped Dakota bring Talia inside. Alaska slammed the door shut behind them.
The wind whistled through the quiet valley.
“You up for a run?” Mason inquired. I shrugged, staring at the growing storm.  I’ve lived in many stated, only experiencing tornadoes twice. And both times I had to go down into the cellar.
My hair that was in a ponytail slapped me in my face. We would have to walk toward the storm in order to get off the bridge and into the woods. Mason and I exchanged a look and made a silent agreement. Together, we dashed off the bridge and into the trees.
•  •  •
We were running for about three miles when I could barely get enough oxygen into my lungs and we took a break on a rock.
“So do you know where we need to go?” I panted.
“You can hardly see it through the trees but there’s a little piece of farmland past the woods. That’s where Talia’s mom lives.”
“Well the storm seems far enough off. We should be safe.”
Mason stuck his hands in the air, palms up. “Well it’s starting to drizzle. It’ll be pouring soon.” I smoothed my wet ponytail.
“I think rain is the least of our worries.” I pointed to an odd-looking tree that was taller than the rest. “That’s not a tree, is it?”
“Ah, giants,” he confirmed. “Not enough people have survived the valley line to confirm what’s over there. But giants…they’ve been confirmed.”
A few days ago, I would’ve thought he was insane. Now what I was hearing sounded normal.
“So we have to get by giants in order to get to the farmland?”
“The most important thing you need to know about giants. Some are nice and some are mean. The nice ones who guard the valley line, they’re herbivores. But the mean ones just wander and kill.”
I groaned, “Great. And is there a way to tell the difference?”
“If they try to kill you they’re the mean ones.”
“That’s helpful,” I muttered.
“Well we should probably keep going. I’d rather get the death thing over with.” He just said it so casually. I’d rather extend his expiration date a little bit longer.
“That’s smart. Let’s walk toward the killer/non-killer giants.”
We trudged through the snowy woods where the dirt was already peeking out. The snow was melting but we all knew there’d be more snow coming. Finally we reached the valley line.
I climbed up part of a tree to get a good look at the giants. There were at least a dozen, all of them going on with their lives. Some were roaming freely, others playing games. One giant was just a few yards in front of us. He was about twelve feet tall, with olive skin. He had some hair, only some of it on his head. He wore something similar to a brown tunic. He wore pieces of armor that look like they were made from scraps of metal.
“Time for a distraction?” I asked. He raised his eyebrows.
He countered, “You’re gonna turn invisible, distract a giant, and then I’ll run across the field.” I nodded, as if there was nothing that needed to be confirmed. “Well I should probably warn you that most people don’t their powers work at the valley line because it’s so powerful. And then there’s the storm. Rain and super-humans don’t mix.”
“Says you, the one who has the power to create a storm and make it rain.”
He rolled his eyes. “My point is, I highly doubt you’ll be capable of turning invisible.”
I smiled. “Watch me.” I snapped and my body disappeared.
“Wow, thanks for destroying my self-esteem.”
“Just run when he’s distracted,” I snapped.
“Wait! Maya!” But I was already gone. I hopped out from behind the boulder we were hiding behind. I used the rain that was falling and created a ball of water, throwing it as hard as I could to reach the giant’s face. He roared angrily, turning toward me. I had a mini heart attack when I looked down at my hand. My body was flickering, trying to decide whether it should stay invisible or not. I concentrated with all my might, but it wasn’t worth it. My body reappeared.
“If you waited a second, I could’ve told you your powers weren’t going to hold!” Mason shouted. Moments later, we were standing shoulder to shoulder, the twelve-foot giant peering down at us.
“Who goes there!” The giant bellowed, his breath smelling strangely like egg plant.
“Hey, Mr. Giant, sir,” Mason shook, “We’re from the Dorado Castle. We need to get to the other side of the field.”
Mr. Giant yelled back, “No one trespasses my land!”
“Mr. Giant, we mean no harm,” I tried.
“AARG!” He roared. “You cannot cross unless you know the secret name.”
I blinked a few times, trying to register what he meant. Without knowing what was about to come out of my mouth, I announced in a deep voice, “We must seek the Unwritten Garden.”
“It’s good to know Talia is with us,” Mason whispered. I grinned, sending a silent prayer to her.
“Very well then,” the giant coiled. “You may pass. But you must be careful. And by the time you return, the storm will have reached this field and this land will be destroyed. You will have to go the long way around and back to the Weeping Willow.” He stood up straight and stomped off, the ground reverberating beneath our feet.
Mason announced, “That was a nice giant.”

We managed our way across the field, hiding behind rocks and trees so as to avoid being trampled under a giant’s foot. Finally we reached the farm. It had to have been at least two square miles with a small farmhouse in the center. I was tempted to run to the door and knock on it, but that wouldn’t matter. Talia’s mother was right in front of us cutting some roots away with a sword. Handy, huh? A weapon and a gardening tool.
Mason’s foot crunched under the snow. The woman had lightning-fast reflexes. She scrambled to her feet and raised her sword.
“Quién es usted? Qué deseas?” She screeched. “Who are you? What do you want?”
“Camila,” Mason cooed, “we aren’t here to hurt you.” Camila slowly dropped her weapon.
“What do you want from me?” She had a thick Spanish accent, and she looked Latina. She had tan skin and dark hair that was pulled back with a bandana, but I never would’ve thought she was Talia’s mother. She reminded me of Jack’s mother, who I hadn’t seen in so many years. Talia didn’t even seem Latina. But now that I thought about it, she mentioned Dorado means golden in Spanish…
“My name is Mason. This is Maya,” he introduced.
“Mason…you, the brother of my daughter?”
I confirmed, “Yes that’s him.”
“And you the Maya who’s supposed to save the castle. What you want from me?”
Mason explained, “Talia is sick. She poisoned herself from eating Arisen berries and Dakota can’t heal her. We need your help.”
Camila slowly nodded, her weapon falling from her hand. “She thought they were buffalo berries, didn’t she? Common mistake; poor thing.”
She led us into her small home. There was nothing inside the main room except for shelves packed with glass bottles. They were small and blue, all with something different inside, all with labels that looked like hieroglyphics. She searched the shelves for a while until she found what she needed. She took down a glass bottle from the third shelf and handed it to me. It was hard to see through the blue glass, but it looked kind of like grass. I slipped it into my back pocket.
“And you,” she pointed to Mason, “I give you this bottle to fool the giants. You two shall have a greater luck surviving.” She handed him a glass bottle that looked like it was filled with sticks.
“Thank you, Camila,” I declared.
“Ah, you two must be starving. Sit.” She gestured toward the next room over that contained a dining room table full of plates of food and a pitcher of lemonade. “Puedes comer.”
I couldn’t turn down food. Not after running three miles, walking two miles, almost being killed by a giant, and walking another mile. I ate like a pig; almost as bad as Mason.
Mason affirmed, “Thanks for everything, Camila.” I agreed with him. I wanted to get back to the castle as fast as we could.
“Boy, you have death in your near future, don’t you?” I didn’t really want to head back to the castle anymore.
“Whatever the giant told you, listen to him,” she advised.
“For Talia,” he murmured, and headed outside. I was about to follow when I felt my pocket.
“Oh, Camila, I almost forgot. Talia told me to give this to you.” I unfolded the piece of paper that she left in my pocket and told me to give to her mom. It read:
Un amante de la naturaleza,
Un corazón de oro,
Lo mejor de este mundo podía sostener.
Nunca egoísta, siempre amable,
Estos son los recuerdos vas a dejar atrás.
Un pensamiento en silencio, una oración silenciosa,
Para una persona especial, te amo.
“What does it mean?” I inquired. Her eyes were swimming with tears.
“A loving nature, a heart of gold, the very best this world could hold. Never selfish, always kind, these are the memories you'll leave behind. A silent thought, a quiet prayer. For a special person, I love you.” She swallowed hard. “I knew the day I’d given birth to her that I’d have to give her up. I just didn’t know when. So every night for the first two years of her life, I recited this poem to her. I didn’t she’d remember it. Heck, I didn’t think she’d remember me.” She’d spoke so fluently, I was taken aback how much it sounded like Talia. She took my hands into hers. “Thank you Maya. And tell her I love her.”
Mason and I headed on our way. I wasn’t even the one about to die but I was just waiting for a dark shadow to swoop down and take Mason away. But we followed Mr. Giant’s rules and took the long way back to the castle. The tempest was nearing the field and I knew it was too big of a risk to walk into a storm. I wondered how Camila would survive the storm, but I was sure she’d find a way.
We were almost across the field when I felt the ground shake, and I saw two ugly giants following them. They were so much uglier than Mr. Giant. They roared, their smelling breath making me drowsy. One of them had purple skin and the other had blue skin. They both had Afros that were the inverse color of their bodies.
“These are the mean giants,” Mason asserted.
“Plan?”
“We charge. Get your knife ready; you’re going to need it. We distract Bob and together attack Indigo. It’ll be easier using teamwork than both of us facing a giant alone.”
I was in too much shock to comment on their names. “What kind of plan is that? You clearly did not think this through!” I snapped.
“I try not to think. It interferes with being nuts.” If those were the last words I heard from him, I wouldn’t mind. It wrapped up everything I knew about him perfectly. I pushed that thought aside. We can’t lose that easily.
It wasn’t hard to distract the first giant. Mason blew a gust of wind in Indigo’s face and I tripped him with the rope. He fell to his face, creating a ripple in the ground, as bad as an earthquake.
The next giant attacked. Bob wasn’t as easy. Every cut we made in his skin just made him angrier and ended up healing seconds later.
I was dodging Bob’s fists as he tried to crush me. He grabbed a hold of my arm but I freed myself and yanked it back. I couldn’t see where Mason was. Then things got bad.
The rock hit him so hard I could hear his ribs crack, even over the stomping footsteps. I finally found my way over to him, but I was too late. He wasn’t breathing. The rocks must’ve crushed his ribs and he couldn’t get any air into his lungs. Not only was he gone, but he also suffered a horrific, terrible death.
“Mason,” I pleaded. “Please, please wake up.” I knelt down next to him and pulled his head into my lap. “You’re going to get up. You have a future. You’re not leaving me yet. You can’t leave Talia. Don’t give up, not after everything you’ve been through. The future can be changed. Please Mason. Don’t let…”
Dakota’s voice echoed in my head, as strong as healing powers are, you can’t revive the dead. Once they stop breathing, there’s nothing else you can do.
I broke into tears. Suddenly, a dark shadow ripped the light out of the sky. I looked up to see the giant’s ugly face peering down at me. Bob was next to Indigo. Fury sparked inside of me like a flame. I extended my arm and some sort of wind came out of my hand. I somehow knocked Indigo off of his feet and he fell to the ground about a mile away. I didn’t know what just happened, but there was no time to be impressed. My hand was engulfed in flames and I threw it at Bob. He screeched and then his body turned into a pile of charcoal.
I stood up, picking Mason’s lifeless body off the ground. Excruciating pain veered down my arm. From what I could tell, my shoulder was dislocated. I looked up at the sky, which was beginning to turn a dark blue, a few stars revealing themselves. I searched for the brightest star, which in my luck I found right above the Big Dipper. I studied Polaris for a moment, trying to calculate my distance from the castle. I decided I needed to head east, which was hopefully the quickest way back to the castle.
With all the strength I had, covered in grime and dust and tears streaming down my face, I took my first step into the woods. I began doubting my navigation from the stars because nothing seemed familiar, until I heard the rushing water. I walked towards the reverberation until I stood in front of a six-foot tall river and the Weeping Willow. That’s when I realized there was no way I could bring Mason any further. The river was too tall and I was too weak. So I placed him under the willow, knowing he’d be safe from any animals or monsters there.
I held onto the trunk and pulled myself into the “U”, using my one good arm. I climbed up to the last sturdy branch and jumped. My toes skidded on the top of the water, but I made it to the other side, landing on my feet. I clutched my elbow, making my shoulder feel a little less strained. And I kept walking.
The wind gently whispered to the trees, puffing through the woods, and occasionally sighed like a summer zephyr. My legs turned to iron and it became almost impossible to lift them.
Trudging up the mountains, I finally found the dirt path. I marched up the uneven stairs, but tripped only once. I raced down the drawbridge and collapsed at the door. I used all of my strength to give the door a push. I heard the door creak open, and I literally crawled inside. In front of me, sitting on the stairs appeared bare feet and white flats. I looked up at Talia and Dakota. Talia was even paler and was wrapped in a blanket, unable to stand. I took the glass bottle of herbs out of my pocket and gave it to Dakota. Then Talia stared me down, pleading. I shook my head apologetically and my vision blurred with tears.
“No!” Talia cried. She ran about twenty feet from us and screamed some more. Then her screams became sobs and there were no words you could make out. I struggled to walk over to comfort her, but Dakota pulled me back.
“Let her go. She’ll be okay.” My eyes were heavy, my body weak. Then I felt Dakota’s cool hand on my forehead and the pain slowly left my body. My shoulder was still throbbing, but it was nothing to what I felt inside. I could’ve stopped Mason from getting hurt. Maybe if I came up with a better plan…or if I knew Indigo would’ve gotten up after we tripped…or if I pushed Mason out of the way when he threw the rock-
“Stop Maya.” Talia came back to the stairs. “His death wasn’t on you, that was on fate. I know what it feels like. But you can’t beat yourself up over something that wasn’t your fault. It isn’t worth it. You couldn’t have stopped him from dying, it was going to happen whether you stopped the rock or not.” She took a deep breath like speaking for that long was too hard for her.
“Um, Maya, where’s Mason’s body?” Dakota interrupted.
“Weeping Willow. I wasn’t strong enough to carry myself back home; there was no way I could’ve brought him back too. I figured he’d be safe there.”
“He is,” Talia reassured. “He’s not dead.” I raised my eyebrows. “Sorry, that’s not what I meant. He’s not human but because you left him at the Weeping Willow, he had the option to be reincarnated into nature.” She looked up as if she were listening for something. Then she cracked a smile, though she still looked hurt. “He turned himself into a fish who lives in the magic river. He’s a Dorado.”
I couldn’t help but smile too. He could be any animal but he chose a fish, just to make a point.
“Maya,” Talia hummed. “Listen closely. You can hear him.” I focused, hearing nothing but the creaking of the castle.
Heyyy, Maya. You did it; you got back alive. Hearing Mason’s voice had never made me so happy before. Next time you guys are at the Weeping Willow, don’t forget to say hello. We Dorados have some pretty sharp teeth and I’m not afraid to bite you.
I held in a giggle. Mason was safe; he was okay.
“Talia, your mom says she loves you.” A smile tugged at her lips.
“She didn’t think I’d remember, huh? She didn’t even think I’d remember her. I would’ve never remembered if Dakota hadn’t described her to me. All of the memories came flying back to me,” she proclaimed.
“Come on you two,” Dakota whistled. “Time for bed. You could both use the rest.” The three of us hobbled up the stairs and said our goodnights. I climbed in bed and tried to send a message to my dad. Talia was trying to teach me, but she never got to finish. I concentrated, but my brain was already jumbled and it was hard to keep my thoughts straight.
Past his bedtime anyway, I thought. My eyelids became lead and I was overcome with drowsiness.

I awoke to banging on my door. I rubbed the sleepiness out of my eyes and used all of my strength to climb out of bed. I could tell that it was at least eight from how high the sun was in the sky. I yanked open the door and pain sprang up and down my arm. I ignored the pain and opened the door where Izabela was waiting impatiently. She held a smoothie in her hand. Or at least I hoped it was a smoothie.
“Drink up,” she urged.
I was too tired to argue. I chugged the pink liquid that tasted like strawberries, and I changed out of my mucky clothes. Izabela wore a blue and green striped long-sleeve shirt, white jeans with converse sneakers, and a hasty look on her face.
“You taking me somewhere?” I wondered as I brushed my teeth.
“We only have a few days until we’re under attack. And we still have to master some things. So it’s time for training.”
“And…Talia?”
She muttered, “She’s fine. She’s still weak, but progressing.” I put my toothbrush back in the cup but I reached a little too far and I winced in pain. “Your arm hurt?”
“Um, no. Just a little sore,” I replied.
“Don’t lie to me.” Her face was stern, and it brought me back in time to when we were seven and she’d scold me when I made a mess of her toys.
“Yeah, it hurts.” I pulled my shirt off my shoulder and revealed a big purple and blue bruise that I hadn’t noticed before.
“You still have the powers in the Baxon jar?” she asked.
I nodded, picking it off the ground.
She ordered, “Then it’s time you start practicing. Concentrate.”
I bit my lip. I tried to concentrate but my head was throbbing. Dakota couldn’t even fix the headache. That’s when my hand started glowing. I touched it to my shoulder and pressed down with just enough pressure. There was still a bruise left behind but it faded and I had no pain.
“That’s a good start.  Now it’s time I bring you to my practice room.”
I followed her out of my – Talia’s – room and down the stairs. The castle felt different; it felt darker. Everything was negative and there was no incessant chattering. It was quiet – too quiet. I didn’t like it. She led me through the mess hall and out a side door I’d never seen before.
We kept walking, all the way to the back of the castle, which I hadn’t explored yet. At the end of the dark hallway was a large metal door. There was a sign on the door but I had to squint to read it.
“This door is alarmed,” I finally made out.
“What startled it?” I couldn’t help but start cracking up. She tilted her head with a smile. “I really like that you understand my sarcasm because it’s an advanced form and not everyone gets it.”
She pushed open the door but no alarm sounded. It opened up to a large, empty room, the wall straight ahead completely made of glass. Outside was a forest with very few trees and mostly tree stumps. They were cut down in a pattern as if a road were being built there.
“It used to be a beautiful forest. Humans suck. Suburbia: where they tear down the trees and then name streets after them.” There was a knock at the door and Teddy stormed in. He wore jeans and a plaid button-up shirt with Nike sneakers.
“Dude, get out,” Izabela demanded. “We’re working here.”
He glared at Izabela. “Do they ever shut up on your planet?” He snapped.
“You look like crap. Is that the style now?” The tension grew in the room but I just wanted to laugh.
“You should try practicing random acts of intelligence and senseless acts of self-control.”
“Earth is full. Go home,” she countered.
“I’m not an alien.” He grinned like he came up with a clever comeback. “Some have claimed that Nephilium of Genesis 6:4 were aliens-“
She affirmed, “But The Bible was written by the same people who said the Earth was flat.”
“You cry because you’re sad. I cry because other people – like you - are dumb.”
“Don’t bother me. I’m living happily ever after.”
“Is everyone annoying to you?” He asked.
“Not all boys are annoying. Some are dead.” He narrowed his eyes and she added, “Aw, did I step on your poor little bitty ego?”
Finally, with a smirk, he replied, “I like that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you’ll go ahead and say it anyway. You play by your own rules - I admire that.” 
“And I like that you use your photographic memory for really random things.”
“Sorry,” I began, “to interrupt this little…whatever this is. But is there a reason why you’re here, Teddy?”
“Oh.” He finally dropped his eyes that had been locked on Izabela. “Um, Talia said she was going to join you in a little bit. The medicine finally kicked in and she knows you guys need all the help you can get.” He left Izabela and I alone in the massive, empty room, but not without meeting Izabela’s eyes one more time.
“You ready to start that training?” Izabela propelled, speaking before I could comment on that little moment she and Teddy just had. I looked down at my feet. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s…it’s nothing.” She shot me a glare, using her life-sucking straw to get the truth out. “I just feel like you people are all depending on me here and I just don’t know if I can do it.”
“I get it Maya, I do. I mean, just think about it. A little while ago, you were a normal girl with a screwed up life. You had a normal house with a screwed up father. No offense. And now we tell you that you have super human powers. Now you’re living in a castle and have to choose how to save the world.”
“That was one of the first normal things that had made sense since Talia kidnapped me,” I answered. “But if you expect me to be a leader here…it would be like telling you to become president.”
“I think you’d make a great president because you would make outrageous declarations like, “Free pie for everyone!” And that would actually probably make you a terrible president, but the people would love you. And sometimes that’s just as important. In a world of ladybugs, you’re a tiger. Yeah, you’re that much better than everyone else.”
“Thanks, Izabela,” I managed through my laughs.
“I honestly think you can do anything you put your mind to. But I know what kind of thoughts you have, so maybe hold off on that for now.”
My stomach hurt from laughing. Then her expression turned serious.
“But let that weight off of your shoulders. This is a group effort. You can’t carry the whole weight of this world. There are hundreds of us, and we’re all in this together. You’re just one of the important chess pieces.”
“I missed you,” I admitted. “I miss playing our imaginary games with Jack. I miss running down to the creek until our parents sent the cops after us. I know we were little, but-“
Talia popped inside. She looked much better, her olive complexion blending with her dark hair that was tied in a side ponytail.
I whinnied, “Hey you’re alive!”
“Hi. Izabela, do you mind giving Maya and I a few minutes alone?” That wasn’t a good greeting.
“Sure…” Izabela slid to the back wall and opened a door I hadn’t noticed before. Well I wouldn’t call it a door. It was like someone took a saw and cut two slices in the wall. Izabela pried it open and stepped into the large room behind it.
“You’re still thinking about that?” I realized Talia was talking to me. She was right, again. Mason wasn’t going to leave my head any time soon.
“I just can’t get that thought out of my head. Which is now becoming a problem because sometimes I have other things I need to be thinking about. Like what I would call myself if I were a dragon.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Oh…I’ve been hanging out with Izabela too much.”
“I heard that!” she yelled from the conjoining room.
“Oh just come back in here, Izabela,” Talia journeyed. “Let’s start training.”
Okay, let’s just say the training thing didn’t go how we wanted it to. For starters, we still didn’t have anything to test our power on, and we couldn’t test each other because then we’d be inducing ourselves to pain. Secondly, Talia still hadn’t completely recovered and I was still a little shaken from yesterday. Then there was Izabela who’s serious for 0.01 percent of her life.
First, they taught me how to use mind control. Izabela volunteered to be the dummy for me to practice on, because it wasn’t harmful – mostly. Under the control of another puts you in some kind of trance. She listened to everything I told her to do, no questions asked. After fooling around with mind control, making Izabela do stupid things, they moved on to memory manipulation. But they wouldn’t let me test it because chances were you couldn’t make the memories return.
That left the physic weapons and psionic blasts. Izabela got the idea of using a creature they had locked up because it kept on attacking kids on the castle’s property line. She wanted to release it, but there was a pretty big chance he’d attack.
Izabela began, “Now when I open the door to let Sheldon out-“
“Sheldon?” I asked.
She shrugged. “What? He needed a name. Anyways, when I open the door, Maya, you need to be ready to strike. Talia, you should cover her just in case. I’d rather not die before this war truly starts.”
She led us into the conjoining room. It was a room identical to the first one, with a cage in the back corner. Inside the cage, was a strange-looking dog. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a dog, but it sure resembled one. Sheldon was asleep. His fur was dark and thick, his tail (which had a triangular point on the end) was thumping against the ground. The dog paid her not the slightest attention, as it seemed docile enough to be asleep. He was bigger than the size of a Great Dane, a puddle of drool at the foot of his cage.
“This is the monster?” Talia cautioned.
“He’s not scary now. Just wait. He injured six kids and won’t leave the castle alone. The vote was to kill him, but I asked for more time to see if I could get control of him. I couldn’t without almost dying. So I want to try to let him go, but we’ll see if he attacks or not.”
Talia and I cleared a path for Izabela as she unlocked the cage. At first, Sheldon just lifted his head. And then in a split second he was out of his cage and he lunged at Izabela. Now I don’t know how to describe a psychic weapon, but it’s kind of like a lightning bolt shooting out of your head. As fast as the dog attacked, he was on the ground in pain. He didn’t seem injured, but I guess that’s what psychic weapons are. They hurt your mind, which is probably worse than physically getting hurt.
He started to pounce again, but I concentrated a little harder until sparks were flying out of his head - literally. I guess I discovered psionic blast. He collapsed to the ground.
“Did you kill him?” Izabela wondered calmly. It wasn’t like a killer dog just attacked her. “Yup,” she decided. “You killed him.”
“I don’t think so.” Talia hesitated. Then she knelt down next to the dog and put her hand on his stomach. “He’s still breathing.” Talia stood back up, and damn, that dog was sneaky. He ambushed Talia, smashing her to the ground. It was like an Talia sandwich: ground, Talia, and dog. And then the dog toppled off of Talia and fell to the ground once again. But he wasn’t breathing. This time I killed him.
It was strange, feeling sympathy for something that attacked eight people, two of those attacks witnessed. I couldn’t help but feel bad for killing him, mainly because I didn’t even know what I was doing when it happened. It just happened. Once we all unfroze from our daze, we carried the dog outside and nicely buried him under a shady tree.
“I’ll miss you Sheldon,” Izabela hummed.
Weird day.
“Well,” Talia started. “I think that’s all the practicing we can handle for one day. I’m starving.”
Izabela led us back down the dark hallway and into the cafeteria. There were a few people inside, but everyone else seemed to be roaming the castle as if they were preparing for a war. Oh wait, we are. But that doesn’t mean there’s no time for food. I’ve been living off of energy smoothies Dakota had been giving me and I missed real food.
It was about ten o’clock, just the right time for brunch (or lunchfast, if you like that better). Talia, Izabela, and I gathered our food and took the three empty seats at the large round table with Lucy, Rebecca, Grace, Shawn, and Teddy. Lucy and Rebecca seemed to be drawing some sort of diagram plan and Grace was hovering above them, correcting their mistakes. Without making contact, Lucy was arguing with Teddy across the table, who was playing with a piece of string. I noticed the orange pair of scissors lying on the table. Shawn sat next to Teddy. He seemed to be ignoring the conversation until he picked up the pair of scissors and cut Teddy’s string, then shot laser beams out of his eyes and burned the papers Lucy and Rebecca were drawing on.
“That is not going to work!” He yelled. “None of this will work!”
I met Grace’s eyes and they clearly told me not to ask any questions.
Teddy barked, “Dude! We were getting somewhere!” The sunshine from the window reflected off of his gray eyes. Shawn turned to him, as if her was about to turn Teddy into an ice cube. Teddy drew an x through the air and nothing happened. Shawn became angrier, blowing all of the ash off the table and to the ground. Then he stormed away and out of the mess hall.
“Restart?” Lucy asked, tilting her head back to see Grace.
“Uh, not now Lucy-“
“Wait,” Rebecca intervened. “You don’t agree with Shawn, do you?”
“No,” Grace admitted. “I just think we could all use a break. We’ve been working on this since the sun came up. I need a nap and Jinora has been locked up alone in our room all day. I’ll see you guys later.” She disappeared behind the corner.
“Alaska could use your help,” Teddy countered, pointing the scissors at Lucy and Rebecca. Your duplication skills could be really useful if you actually used them.”
“Oh shut up. It’s not like you’re much of help anyways. And being in two places at once gives you a splitting headache. Maybe if I dropped a coconut on your head you’d know what it feels like – oh wait, you already did that today,” Rebecca cackled.
Lucy just rolled her eyes and grabbed Rebecca’s hand. Teddy followed them out of the cafeteria.
After all of the excitement and forgetting Talia and Izabela were beside me, we finished our brunch in silence and split up. Talia needed medicine, and Izabela needed to package supplies. Which meant I was free to roam.

Okay, so maybe roaming wasn’t as nice as I thought it would be. Everyone was scrambling around, getting things ready. For once, I felt useless. I wandered the castle, inside and out, until I knew it as well as I knew my new school. A little past three, Ian came up and said Izabela wanted to talk to Talia and me. Everyone else had to go to a meeting in the cafeteria.
I walked up the stairs and past the window, but what I saw made me take a step back. I looked back out into the valley to see snow falling from the sky. I was taken aback when I realized it wasn’t snow – it was ash. I sprinted back down the stairs and flogged open the doors.
It was silent – a silent I’ve never experienced before. Sure, we’ve all experienced so-called ‘silent’, but it’s never actually dead silent. If you’re in a classroom, whether it’s shuffling of feet, or pencils tapping, or even shouting from other classrooms, there’s still noise. Or if I’m home alone, there’s still the ticking of the clock, the fish tank filter, or creepy noises in the basement from whatever previous experiment my dad was working on. Outside, there’s still birds chirping, bugs buzzing, and wind blowing. There’s always some clamor.
But right now, there was absolutely nothing. No wind gusting, no birds tweeting, no life moving.
And then I saw two people coming over the valley. As they got closer, I could tell they were about my age if not older. One boy, one girl, both looking exactly alike. They both had piercing blue eyes with golden tan skin and curly blond hair. The girl’s fell at her shoulders, and the boy’s was shagging and long.
The doors opened behind me but I was too frozen to turn around. I knew it was Talia who had shot outside.
“Maya, what’s wrong? I saw you sprinting down the stairs. What-“ I interrupted her and pointed to the two teenagers heading straight towards us. “Is…is this ash falling?”
“It sure is.” She ignored the raining ash and squinted at the kids nearing us and she cursed under her breath. In Spanish. “Do you know them?”
“Amelia and River. Twins. They’re sixteen I think. Dorado traitors. They used to be my friends… and then they left.”
“Alright, now what?” The closer they got, the more detail I saw. Amelia’s hand rested on her dagger and River was slowly raising his hand. Talia grabbed my wrist and we turned for the door, but they blew shut in our faces.
“River,” she cursed.
“Hmph. I just figured his powers would have something to do with water since his name is River. That’s kind of disappointing.”
They were less than ten yards away now. Talia whispered, “River has Atmokinesis, like Mason did.” She choked on did. Amelia has the same powers as the triplets. She’s a bender. Just be careful because she’s trying to master bending the water in bodies. So she can make you her puppet.
“Oh Talia,” Amelia purred. “How nice to see you.”
“I wouldn’t use those words exactly. What are you doing here?”
“Well as you may or may not have noticed, this isn’t snow,” River answered.
“Wow, that totally answered the question,” I snapped.
Amelia grimaced. “He means that we aren’t here to kill you yet. We’re giving you one more chance to surrender.”
Talia affirmed, “And why would we surrender? We’re fighting for something that’s already ours. We aren’t giving up that easily.”
“Wrong choice,” River scorned. But I was expecting him. He collected a gust of wind and threw it straight towards me, but I had enough time with Mason to know how to stop the wind. I immediately put up my force field and blew River off his feet. He fell to his butt. Talia and I exchanged looks, and hers said: Hurt them; scare them. Just don’t kill them.
I reached for my dagger, but all I found was my empty sheath. My knife was in the bedroom. Talia seemed to have the same problem. Amelia snarled. They planned this…they planned a surprise attack because they knew we’d be unarmed. And that just pissed me off more.
Everyone else was in a meeting, planning strategies for the war. Talia and I weren’t expected at the meeting; we were supposed to be with Izabela. I may have not been with Izabela for very long, but she barely changed. I doubt she’d even notice if we showed up. That meant no rescue – Talia and I were on our own.
I balled my fists, about to snap to create a distraction for Talia. But Amelia was smart - a little too smart. She shot water from her hand and it wrapped around my wrist, covered my hand, and froze over. I broke through the ice, but I knew I couldn’t pull that again. I’d seen Chloe in full action and I knew what she was capable of. If Amelia was as powerful as Chloe, and from what I saw she was, we were screwed. She also probably had the same amount of training as Chloe because had been a Dorado in past years.
I turned to Talia, whose face was sour. I didn’t have to be telepathic to know what she was thinking.
“You two are unarmed. Do you really think you can stop us?” Amelia retorted. She blew fire at me but I put it out with water.
I muttered, “We can certainly try.” I concentrated and the sky got darker. Storm clouds formed overhead, lightning shot out of the sky and landed right between where Amelia and River were standing, frying the ground.
“Two can play at that game,” River grunted. He created a funnel of rain, like a hurricane. He was about to push it straight at Talia and I, but then he collapsed to his knees and the rain sprinkled down on him and Amelia. Amelia screamed, as if getting her hair wet was the worst thing in the world. I knew Talia used the distraction I created as her opportunity.
“Leave,” Talia ordered, “now.”
River was still crumbled in pain. But Amelia just snickered. “You really think you can get rid of us that easily-“ I took my cue. I recalled everything Talia and Izabela had told me in practice. Then I took all of my anger and my fear and used it for power. I used the air around Amelia and she yielded to the ground. But it took the breath out of me too. Amelia jumped forward as I was sidetracked and she pulled out her sword. I put up my force field just a second too late. She cut into my shoulder, blood gushing out. I held it in pain, wishing Dakota were here.
But there was no time to waste. Our powers against theirs, we lost. Fighting, we lost there too. I was already injured, and Amelia and River were back on their feet. Talia couldn’t take them on by herself. The thing I was about to do next was a big risk all things considered. But I didn’t have time to weigh the pros and cons. I focused on Amelia’s thoughts.
Obviously, there weren’t very many nice thought in her brain, and the mean thoughts shouldn’t be said aloud. I ignored her snide comments, flying through her brain and into her memory. And all of a sudden she was on the ground again. Talia furrowed her brows, wondering what I did.
She lifted her head and squinted. “Where am I?”
“What!” River screeched.
“Amelia,” I cooed, “how old are you?”
She hesitated. “Thirteen…”
River’s eyes grew. “Amelia, what’re you-“
“Talia,” Amelia whined. “You look so old! What’s going on?”
“Amelia.” River’s voice became calmer. “We were in the middle of attacking them.”
“What? Why’d we attack Talia? And why do you look so old? And who’s this? And wh-“ River’s strike was like lightning. Well, following his strike, lightning stuck just a few feet behind me, so maybe that wasn’t the best comparison. Talia dodged his slash, but he grabbed a hold of his wrist.
“Um, Maya, you might want to take this chance to wipe his memory too,” she prayed. It was like I’d been dong it my whole life. Seconds later, he was on the ground with Amelia, just as confused as her. They were both asking a million questions, most of them unanswerable.
“How old are you, River?”
He looked at me like I had three heads. “Uh, thirteen?”
I looked to Talia for answers. “And what now? They’re on our side…”
“I say we go interrupt the very important meeting. I’m pretty sure this is a tad more important.” Talia helped Amelia off the ground and I assisted River up. We barged through the locked doors and into the mess hall.
There was already a lot of shouting coming from the room, but once some of the kids spotted Amelia and River, it broke in chaos. It was mostly the older kids flipping out, probably because they knew they were traitors. Amelia and River were perplexed, still asking impossible questions. I stuck my pointer finger and thumb into my mouth and blew as hard as I could. Silence fell over the room. Kids cleared a path for Talia and me, and we led Amelia and River to the front of the room where Alaska, Carolina, and Dakota were standing.
“Uh, Talia, these are…” I’d never seen Alaska speechless before.
“Maya figured out memory manipulation,” she whispered. “The twins’ minds are set three years back, before they left the castle.”
His eyes widened even more. “Um, okay…Dakota, why don’t you take Amelia and River up to your room. Talia and Maya and I will meet you up there.” She followed her directions and Talia and I let go of the twins. Dakota shuffled past me, put a hand on my bloody shoulder, and the pain subsided. The wound closed.
Alaska added, “And Carter and Dylan, why don’t you join them.” He shot them a look that told them he was just taking precautions. Dakota, Dylan, and Carter disappeared at the stairs, Amelia and River in their wake.
Alaska turned to me. “Memory manipulation, huh?”
“I, uh, wasn’t thinking. I don’t really know what I did. It kind of just happened,” I answered.
“Oh, my dear. Your strategizing worked perfectly. Most super-humans break under pressure, but there wasn’t a better way to fix that problem. They were your enemy. You made them your ally. Perfection!” I could feel myself blushing.
“But Alaska,” Talia began, “do you really think we can trust them now? I mean, sure, three years of their memory is wiped, but they did just come to attack us.”
“Well what are you going to do with them? You can’t lock them up for something they don’t even remember,” I argued.
“Yes you can!” Someone yelled from the crowd.
Someone else shouted, “They’re traitors!”
“Lock them up!”
“They deserve it!”
I turned my attention back to Alaska and ignored the yelling behind me. “You aren’t really going to lock them up, are you?” I don’t know why I felt so strongly about this. Maybe it was because my mom was a detective and she hated when an innocent person was locked up. Maybe I already thought bad enough for taking three years of their memory. But I wasn’t stepping down here.
“Well…” He hesitated. He was probably trying to think of the best thing to say without creating World War III. Well, before the first snowfall.
“Alaska, you’ve seen the bad of memory manipulation,” Talia complained. “Sometimes it fades. Other times, it can jumble your present thoughts, making you go insane. I mean, Maya didn’t even know what she did. Maybe…”
“You don’t think I wiped their memories?”
“I don’t know. No one can be sure. But Amelia and River could be smart enough to act all of this out. There’s a possibility they remember everything and just used this-“
“Just used this as a chance to get into the castle.” I let out a deep sigh. “So how do we know if they’re telling the truth or not?”
“You can tell,” Talia announced. “You’re one of the very few people without a biased mind towards them.”
“They just attacked me.” I stared blankly at her.
“But even after they attacked you, you thought they were innocent. We’ll leave you alone with them and all you have to do is start conversation. River will be easier to break. Figure out if it sounds like you’re talking to thirteen year olds, or sixteen year olds.”
It seemed like I chance we shouldn’t take. But I didn’t really have much of a choice. They already left River and Amelia baffled in the hands of three kids they didn’t know, whether they had their memory or not.
Talia and Alaska and I waded up the stairs and to Dakota’s room. I touched my hand to the doorknob and inside my head Talia, said we’ll be right out here if you need us. I stepped inside.
“Oh Maya,” Dakota greeted, as if I just saved her from a black hole.
“Do you mind if I talk to Amelia and River alone?”
Dakota nodded and grabbed Cater and Dylan’s wrists, dragging them outside. She closed the door behind her.
“Can you please explain what the heck is going on?” Amelia demanded.
River added, “Why does everyone look older? And why do I only know half of these people?”
“What was the last thing you remember?” I asked.
“We were outside on the bridge with Oliver, and some old man came up to us,” River explained. “We didn’t think it was possible for a human to wander onto castle property, but he seemed pretty confused. So Amelia and I walked him back to town and we dropped him off in the apartment building where he claimed to live.”
“Let me guess. Thin man, gray hair, looks a lot like Alaska?”
Amelia nodded. “Yeah how’d you know?”
My mind blanked. How could I save myself from this one? “I’m telepathic.” Close enough, I decided. “So when did this happen?”
“Just today,” Amelia replied. “This morning.”
“And when did you guys come to this castle?”
River answered, “A little less than a year ago.” He didn’t answer too quickly, like he was prepared to answer it. But he didn’t answer too slowly either, like he had to calculate the years.
“Okay, thanks guys. I’ll have Carter and Dylan bring you down to the cafeteria so you can eat.”
Everyone was waiting for us in the hallway, their faces grim.
“Dylan and Carter,” I started, “why don’t you take the twins downstairs for dinner? They’re probably starving after their adventure into town.” They both met my eyes, and they seemed to understand the twins weren’t dangerous. The four of them disappeared down the stairs.
Dakota questioned, “So they don’t remember anything?”
“I guess I’m just really good at erasing people’s memories,” I joked. “They don’t remember three years of their lives. The last thing they can recall is walking a senile man off the castle’s premises and into town. I’m pretty sure it was Thomas. I think that’s how he gets Dorados on his side. He lures them away from the castle and then convinces them we don’t stand a chance in this war and that he can offer so much more. But I asked them how long they’d been at the castle and River said a year. Does that sound right?”
“They came when they were twelve so their story matches up,” Talia responded.
“I think they’re perfectly safe but you should probably keep an eye on them just in case they’re just really good actors.”
The meeting ended kind of suddenly, but all the kids since then had emptied the cafeteria. We ate a quiet dinner in the mess hall and resumed our preparations for war.

It was about seven when a few of us took a rest from carrying equipment out of the basement. Me, Talia, the triplets, Alec, and Jinora (whose leg was fully healed and reconstructed) rendezvoused in the already-crowded cafeteria for refreshments.
I spent the entire sitting thinking about all of my friends at school. They were on break now, and god knows where they were. Sara and I were supposed to be visiting her aunt in the countryside. It wasn’t my ideal vacation, but I still could’ve spent it with her. I wondered about Zander and Sophia – I hoped they were spending their break together. Olivia and Mary were going to Disneyland together and I knew I could’ve heard all about it if I had my cell-phone. Kara and Liam (they’re twins by the way) were probably being passed from their mom’s house to their dad’s, and Ryan’s parents let him bring Tyler and Gabe to California on vacation and I was sure they were having a blast. Here I was, facing my death. I certainly wasn’t having a blast like they were, I was surprised I hadn’t been blasted into space yet.
The mood in the mess hall was gloomy. There was a slight chatter, no happy or exciting conversations. Then again, we were about to face our death sometime this week. But I figured these kids needed some cheering up. I imagined what I’d be doing with Sara right now, except I didn’t even know what day it was. Wednesday? Thursday? I guess it didn’t matter. We were still in danger of war any day now.
I leaned over to Talia and whispered my plan to her. Her lips curled into a smile, like it was the best idea she’d ever heard. The plan spread across the table until we were all nodding in agreement. Without drawing any attention to ourselves, we slipped out the back door of the cafeteria and into the winter air. It wouldn’t have been such a cold night if it weren’t for the wind. A chill ran up my spine and I couldn’t help but think of Mason. It felt like the wind was coming off the water – except we were at least fifty miles inland.
I helped Talia and the triplets dig a large shallow hole in the dirt at the back of the castle. We were at the edge of the castle’s property, far enough away from the castle itself. Alec and Jinora teamed up and piled up the trees that had been cut for the road that was never finished. We cut up the tree stumps into pieces of firewood and placed them in the shallow hole. The fire pit was big enough for an entire summer camp to fit around it. Exactly my plan.
After there was enough wood in the hole, Chloe, Dylan, and Chloe got to work. They stood around the pit, lighting the wood with fire. But every time they stopped, the flames were blown out by the wind.
“Well this is hopeless,” Carter grunted.
Dylan added, “The wind is too strong; we need more power.”
“Your time to shine, Maya,” Chloe sang.
“How much help am I gonna be?” I asked.
Chloe replied, “Enough power to get this baby going.” I wrapped my jacket around me tighter, the cold finally setting in after the last fire being blown out.
The triplets and I lined the pit like it was a clock: me at 12, Chloe at 9, Carter at 3, and Dylan at 6.
“On the count of three,” Carter counted. “One…two…three!” The wood caught fire much easier than the rest of the tries, except Dylan’s flames blew into my face and I felt like it was peeling off. When we stopped, the flames engulfed the wood. The flames rose, dancing in the darkness. The flames were almost as tall as the castle’s pillars. The cackling fire immediately gave me a warm sensation – not just heat, but it seemed like it was radiating happiness.
We’d brought out blankets to sit on and we laid them down around the fire. It didn’t take long for Ian’s super senses to notice the fire. He came out with Dakota, Zach, and Grace. Alaska and Carolina came out a little later with Clara, Lucy, and Rebecca. More familiar piled around the campfire, some not so familiar. I caught Teddy, Izabela and Willow dancing around in the firelight, Logan and Shawn sitting across the fire from me.
This was exactly what we needed – this was exactly what I needed. We were enjoying ourselves and our minds became clear. And everyone was happy. There had to be at least half of the kids out, enjoying the fire. Maybe this was what we needed. Something to get thinking about death out of our heads.
A little ways into the relaxing night, Zach came up to me with a guitar.
“What’s this for?”
He responded, “I heard you could play. Start singing because what’s a campfire without music?” The circle of people fell silent and all eyes were locked on me. I did know how to play guitar. Music ran in my family. I surrendered and snatched the guitar out of his hands.
I knew I was going to make a fool out of myself, so I went for campfire songs. I started with a simple song I hoped everyone knew: “She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain”. Luckily, most of the kids knew it.
I followed that song with Louis Armstrong, and I was amazed when people started catching on to “Down by the Riverside”. I even surprised myself when I pulled some Woody Guthrie lyrics out of my brain and started singing “This Land is Your Land”, my dad’s favorite classic song. And you can’t forget “Old MacDonald had a Farm”, which was the funniest because Teddy thought his animal noises were unbeatable, but Willow’s animal impressions were obviously perfect. You could feel the happiness spread around the circle – laughter and giggling, excitement.
People slowly emptied out after midnight, because of all the hard work so far with still so much to come. There were only eight of us left when the fire began to die. Alec and Jinora sat on one blanket, poking at the fire. Carter and Dylan were chatting about something on another blanket and Chloe was on a blanket with me. Next to us sat Grace and Logan, a little closer than I would’ve expected.
There was a crunching noise coming from the trees and we all turned to look. Out of the shadows a little girl appeared. She couldn’t have been older than five, but by the look of her clothes she’d come a far way. Her reddish brown hair was pulled into pigtails, her white shorts now brown.
“Please don’t hurt me!” She squealed as we all got up off the blankets. She hid behind her hands. I knelt down in front of her and pried her hands from her face.
“It’s okay,” I cooed. “We aren’t going to hurt you.” She took her hands off of her face and smirked.
“I know you aren’t. You wouldn’t stand a chance against me.” She began to grow right before my eyes, becoming taller than six feet. Her frail arms turned muscular and solid. Her red hair became short, like a buzz cut. Her facial features shifted, so she looked less like a little girl and more like a thirty-year-old man. I was too stunned to catch the leg that kicked me in the nose. He turned to my friends as I tried to stand.
My friends caught on a little too late as well. He went for Chloe, who was unarmed and separated from everyone else. I charged at him, blocking Chloe. I wiped my bloody nose as he turned his attention toward me. I punched him in the face and grabbed his wrist, flipping him over my shoulder. His head slammed into the dirt. I put my knee on his chest, my forearm against his throat.
He sure was strong. He pushed himself up, knocking me to the ground.
He may have been strong, but he was an idiot. He lunged himself at Carter, which was stupid because he already had a funnel of air in his hand. Well maybe he wasn’t that stupid because somehow he blew out the air, leaving Carter unarmed. I sprung into action, reaching for my knife - which was luckily in its sheath because I’ve kept it with me at all times now after the River and Amelia incident earlier. I thrust my knife into his stomach right before he reached Carter and the rest of them.
When I pulled my knife out he crumbled in agony, except he then exploded into a pile of dust, which made me catch my breath. I assumed he would die like a normal person – bleed out and unable to get enough oxygen, and they breathe their last breath then their body goes still, becoming a corpse. But no. Instead he exploded into a pile of powder. Thanks for ruining every assumption I have, I thought. I prodded the mound of dust with my sneaker – it felt like dust, it moved like dust, but it couldn’t have been dust. I kicked it some more and spread it across the ground, as if I were afraid it was going to turn back into a human.
“Um…” Grace was speechless. They all were. I turned to my friends, who all seemed frozen in time. Chloe was peeking through her fingers and leaning on Dylan, as if awaiting her death. Carter was staring at his hand, like he was wondering how he lost his power, his stormy green eyes sparkling in the night. Jinora was hidden behind Alec, his arm protectively in front of her, with his gold hair in his eyes. Grace’s hand was clasped around Logan’s forearm, her chocolate eyes full of worry.
Dylan choked, “What just happened?”
“I figured he was a Dorado,” Chloe unfroze. “Even though it’s rare for them to live that long, it’s still possible.” That thought made my stomach churn. “I thought he was a traitor, someone caught up in Thomas’s web. But that death-“ she gestured toward the powder-“proves me wrong.”
“Maybe Thomas found a way so his army dies peacefully and painlessly,” Jinora offered.
Logan shook his head. “I thought he was just a shape-shifter. But even Thomas couldn’t make something that couldn’t do something like that. And besides, somehow he blew out Carter’s power.”
“I’d like to know how he got in,” I wondered. “I mean, doesn’t this castle have some kind of magic borders?”
“Well of course they do,” Alec replied. “But people can come in if someone from the inside allows them to.”
“So because this guy-“
“Let’s call him Bob,” Carter suggested.
I continued, “Because Bob was a little girl, she was able to come in because we let her?”
“Pretty much,” Jinora summed up.
I turned to Grace, who was biting on her lip, her mouth upturned. That was her thinking face. “Grace?”
She blinked, coming back to reality. “I’m just wondering… the border normally takes longer to disable.”
“So you think someone knew she – Bob – was coming before we did?” Carter asked.
“That’s exactly what I think,” she answered. “And think about it. If Bob were planning an attack, why’d he attack now? One, why did he know we’d be outside, right at the edge of the property? And two, just a little while ago there was a hundred people out here. But he waited until there were only eight of us left.”
“You think there’s a spy in the castle,” I finished. She slowly nodded. My mind immediately thought of Amelia and River. I scanned the faces of my friends. They were all hesitant as if they were waiting for another attack.
“I say we save sharing this news until tomorrow. We can call a meeting with Alaska and we can tell him then,” Logan proposed.
We could all agree on that. Carter, Dylan, and Chloe put out the fire and we collected the blankets.
I broke the silence, unable to hold in the question any longer, “Off topic, but who’s keeping an eye on River and Amelia. Everyone - even Dylan who was normally slow at understanding these things - caught on immediately and they all froze.
Logan then swallowed hard and answered, “they set up a spare bed in my room for River. And Amelia is staying with Talia and you, Maya.”
I slowly nodded, accepting the arrangements. “Watch him like a hawk.”
We headed inside as the last flame disappeared. I glanced at the dust one last time, but you could barely tell it was there.
Inside, it wasn’t as chaotic as it had been the past few days. It was late; most kids were already asleep, including Talia and Amelia. Carolina and Alaska were asleep too. No one was running around like imbeciles and those who were awake were doing quiet things like reading or chatting in the cafeteria. It was strange with the castle dark, as I was unable to see its picturesque features. It seemed normal.
As normal as a magical castle full of super-human teenagers could be as we prepared for war.
We split up, promising to keep our secret to ourselves until tomorrow. I snuck into my room, trying not to wake Amelia and Talia. I almost killed myself by walking into Amelia’s cot, but she just rolled onto her side. I changed into clean clothes and slid into my cold bed, glad to have roommates.
It was way past my dad’s bedtime, but I really wanted to talk to him. It was worth waking him up. Or maybe I’d appear as a dream.
“Dad?” I called in my head, staring into the darkness of my eyelids. I tried to connect to him, but it didn’t seem to work - until I heard his snoring. “Dad!” I couldn’t see him but I knew I startled him. “Dad, it’s me, Maya.”
“Hmm? Maya who?”
“Dad, wake up. It’s your daughter.”
“Heyyy,” he purred, still out of it.
“Hey, how’s it going?” I tried.
“Oh, no thanks.” I sighed in frustration.
“Okay… how was that church volunteering thing? Gone anywhere else? Any new projects?”
“Ask Martha. She said she’d help you later.” I tried not to think about who Martha was.
“So, we’re being attacked by monsters and we’re all in the process of dying.”
“Okay, in a little while.”
I decided to call it a night.
“Love you,” was my last try.
He mumbled, “Love you too.” His voice echoed in my head and my eyes shot open. I was still in my room, Talia asleep beside me, Amelia on the cot at my feet. I took a deep breath, trying to ignore the heated lump of emotions inside of me. I missed him. But I’d have to defeat the Celadons if I ever wanted to see him again. That was harsh, I thought. The other side of my brain argued, but it’s true.

I’ve never had a problem sleeping in – not until now anyways. I was up before Talia and Amelia, even before the sun. I wiggled through the small crack between Talia’s bed and Amelia’s cot. I crept down the stairs, walking as close to the railing as I could so I didn’t make the old wooden floorboards crack. The castle was quiet, except for its creaking walls and the whistling of the wind.
I was going to go outside and take a walk around the castle, but I realized I wasn’t alone. I tiptoed into the cafeteria to find Jinora sitting at the center table alone. Her hands seemed to be fumbling with something. I was going to leave her alone but I stepped on a creaking floorboard.
“Hey, what’re you doing up?” she inquired. I walked to the table and sat next her.
“I could ask you the same question.”
“Tushay.” Her emerald eyes sparkled and her ash brown skin looked flawless. Her caramel hair was pulled back in a Dutch braid, and I thought of Sara who used to say it looked like a dinosaur braid.
I realized it was a Rubik’s cube in her hands. But she could move her hands so fast that all of the colors just blended together.
I finally answered, “I couldn’t sleep.”
“Me neither. If you hadn’t noticed, I don’t know how to keep my mouth shut. It’s hard not to tell anyone. I almost told Zach but Alec hit me to stop me.” She put the solved Rubik’s cube on the table. “So a tip: don’t ever tell me any secrets.”
Her eyes seemed empty, like she was lost.
“And I guess there’s no way we can’t tell Alaska. I guess it’s too important to keep from him,” I complained.
“I just can’t imagine anyone in this castle as a traitor. They’ve all been my friends – I grew up with them and they’re all like my siblings.” She paused, searching my eyes for an answer. “Do you think it was River or Amelia?”
“I don’t know. It would be the most likely answer, but I don’t know how they could put on a show like this. They were genuinely confused.”
She bit her lip, which I realized was a nervous habit for her. I squeezed my hands between my legs. “Hey,” I cooed, “I’ve been wondering. You’ve been at this castle a while; how are you dealing with all of this?”
She shrugged. “Zach was thirteen when he became a danger to our family. Our parents decided it would be easier to ship all five – six – of us to the castle all at once. I was only nine at the time, and we already knew about our powers, unlike most kids who come to the castle. They told us at a young age so it’s easier to understand since you grow up with it and can practice at an early age. Even when I got here, they knew war was in their near future. I spent all of my time here training and preparing for a war. And I embraced this life because I knew this was what I was meant for. I knew it would be okay in the end, one way or another.”
I sighed heavily. “And your monster? Is it anything like Haestroph?” I had been turning the idea of everyone having their own monsters over and over in my mind.
“Harper? She’s harmless,” she stated, her expression flat.
“Harper? She?”
“Yes. There has to be some girl monsters out there. Harper, just like the rest of my siblings’ monsters, isn’t detrimental. Well other than Jack’s and Zach’s. Monsters are genetically made to be the anti of whatever powers the child has. Our monsters were slightly deformed and unsuccessful. My monster is as slow as a tortoise. She may reappear every week or so, but it only takes a few seconds to defeat her since it’s the fastest girl against the slowest tortoise. She isn’t actually a tortoise, by the way. And…”
Her voice came to a halt and she glanced over her shoulder as if expecting someone to be listening. “And Grace’s monster, the anti-Grace, is a complete idiot, easily outsmarted by Grace. Heck, Dylan could outsmart him. Ian’s monster is partially deaf, partially blind, etcetera. And then Alec’s monster is as weak as a toddler. He could be snapped like a twig.”
She peeked over her shoulder again, making me nervous. “Then there’s Zach. Zach’s monster is almost as impossible to defeat as Haestroph was. He has more advanced powers than Zach, and it’s as if he can get in Zach’s head. He can predict every movement and every swing, making it almost impossible for Zach to defeat him alone.” She swallowed, and it looked like she choked on sandpaper. “In my opinion, monsters are like riding a bike. Once the training wheels come off and you’re left on your own to ride, it’s difficult. But after practice, you become an expert and it becomes an instinct. It’s just like fighting your monster. You learn his weaknesses and the easiest way to defeat him.”
I affirmed, “That actually made sense. And there hasn’t been much I understand since I got here.”
“It’ll be like that for a while. Well if we-“ She pursed her lips together, as if holding back words. I knew she was going to say: If we survive.
I decided not to say more. I picked up the Rubik’s cube, shuffling it up. When I looked up, Jinora’s sea foam eyes were locked on mine. “I remember watching you and Jack and Izabela playing outside. You would play in the cul-de-sac that was between the three of your houses. I’d watch you run around like crazy from the window and then you guys disappeared into the woods. And then our parents would meet, looking for the kids, and would send the police to find you.”
My eyes became teary. “I miss him,” I mumbled.
Jinora was in the same state as I was. “I do too.”
I blinked the tears away. “Can you explain to me again what Thomas is after?”
She shrugged. “Honestly, this is just a giant brother rivalry. Thomas and Alaska’s parents always liked Alaska better. One, because he had stronger powers, and two, Alaska had a plan to make the castle better. Thomas just wanted to destroy things, and he always acted like he was ten. But they were in raising the castle together, until Elispeis and Mount Caracals. After the destruction of the castle and the island, they needed to build a new safe place to train Dorado kids. Alaska was making this complex plan to rebuild it safely in America. Meanwhile, behind his brother’s back, Thomas was learning to handle monsters and collecting some of the mere survivors to join his side. When Alaska found out, Thomas just ran and hid. It’s been a century and he finally comes to face his brother. Except he brings along an army of monsters because he’s too cowardice.”
A little girl who was still in her pajamas about eleven stepped into the cafeteria, her hair in pigtails. She was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. It was the same girl who delivered Ian’s message right before Mason and I left for a mission.
“Maya and Jinora,” she sang, as if she was wide awake. “Alaska wants you in the conference room.” I exchanged a look with Jinora. She stared at me, but finally she broke.
“I left him a note,” she admitted. She waved off the little girl, who merrily skipped away.
Jinora and I sauntered up the stairs and toward the golden door at the opposite hallway to the bedrooms.
We met in the same room I met with Alaska in before my first mission. Familiar faces were already at the table. At the head of the table sat Alaska, and on the right side of him were Talia, Dakota, and Chloe. To his left, sat Grace, Logan, and Carter. Jinora took the empty seat next to Carter and I took the empty seat across from her and next to Chloe. They were all still in their pajamas, none of them happy to be up so early.
“Where are Dylan and Alec?” I asked.
“I needed them to help Carolina with something. You can tell me the news without them.” Alaska seemed different – he seemed edgy.
“Spies,” Chloe blurted. She was sitting on the edge of her chair, like she expected to have to bolt out of the room unexpectedly. Her strawberry hair hung at her shoulders, covering her face.
I heard a gasp that came from either Dakota or Talia, and Alaska rasped, “Excuse me?”
“Good job delivering the news lightly,” Carter grunted, kicking her in the shin.
Under her breath, Grace added, “No time to waste.”
He turned to me. I raised my eyebrows; surprised he looked to me for an answer. “Um, yes. Yes it’s true.” The room was silent, all eyes on me. “After the bonfire last night, we found a little girl at the edge of the property line. She ended up being a man, or at least that’s what he looked like. He attacked, and I managed to stab him, but he didn’t die like an ordinary person would’ve. Instead, he exploded into a pile of dust. With the help of Grace, we all agreed the only way the barriers could’ve been let down was if someone was working on the inside. Someone who knew we set up the fire at the edge of the castle line, someone who knew there was only eight of us still out there.” I went on, with a few interruptions and arguments.
“Who do you suspect?” Alaska interrogated.
I sighed. “Immediately, I thought of River and Amelia. Who was watching them last night?” Without standing, Alaska reached out to the wall and loudly banged on it. Seconds later a boy and a girl – both maybe eighteen – popped their heads in.
“Do you need something, sir?” The boy with sandy golden hair asked.
Alaska introduced, “These are my two commanding officers. You two were in charge of Amelia and River, correct?”
“Yes sir,” the dark-skinned girl replied.
“Were there any suspicious acts or communication?”
The girl hesitated. “No sir,” she decided.
He nodded. “Thank you.” They closed the door behind them.
“River has the power of Atmokinesis and Amelia has bending,” Talia thought aloud. “Which means they have no means of communication.”
The room was quiet again, like it was thinking about this.
I broke the silence: “We can’t just assume it’s River and Amelia. I don’t want to say it was someone else in the castle, but we can’t cross everyone else off the suspect list.”
Logan let out a long deep sigh. “She’s right.”
“It has to be them,” Talia argued. “No on else in this would ever do such a thing.”
“People have been leaving the castle for the Celadons here and there. Some are noticed, but many of them aren’t,” Grace returned.
Talia snapped, “Why are you even defending them, Maya?”
I didn’t know the answer to that question. Maybe it was because I felt so bad for taking away their memories. But I clenched my fists and I could feel my face heating up. Then I was sitting on the ground. I looked around at everyone, my jaw hanging open. One second I’m sitting in a chair, the next second I’m on my butt on the ground. I stood up to check if the chair broke or something. But it was perfectly intact.
Dakota was giddily chuckling. Grace, Jinora and Chloe were trying to stop themselves from laughing. Logan and Carter didn’t care about trying not to laugh. Talia and Alaska seemed satisfied.
“You seem to discover all of your new powers in this room, my child,” Alaska chortled.
Dakota inserted, “So maybe to draw out your powers we just need to piss you off.”
“Can someone explain to me what just happened?” I complained.
“Intangibility,” Grace hummed.
“So now I can’t sit in a chair without falling through?”
“Nah,” Carter answered, “matter only becomes un-solid when you want it to.” I groaned.
“Maya, walk through the door,” Chloe commanded. Any normal person would’ve figured she meant open the door and walk through. We weren’t normal people. I swallowed my bubble of anger and walked up to the door. I took a step forward and when I opened my eyes I was on the other side of the door in the hallway. I turned around, walking back through the wood.
I felt my lips curl into a smile. “That is pretty cool,” I admitted.
“Alright, enough for now,” Alaska wintered. “Matters aren’t solved yet. Sit back down.” I took my seat, sitting down slowly as if expecting to fall through again.
“How do we find the spy?” Jinora inquired.
“Well,” Alaska began, “all of our technology is accounted for. And the castle’s satellite accounts for any source of communication, meaning there’s no way around that. So the only way the spies can communicate with the outside army is if they have-“
“Those long-distance telepathy communication power things!” Carter interrupted.
Alaska raised his eyebrows. “Right… Talia are those powers all accounted for?”
“There are twelve in this castle, including me and Maya and Izabela.” Alaska waved his hand in gesture for her to continue. “In the nine remaining, six are boys and three are girls. Seven of the kids are under the age of twelve.”
I didn’t know how she’d remember all of this, but she probably memorized everything when she was looking for a partner to develop the mental weapons.
“And how many of them are capable of this?”
“Well we know it’s not me, Izabela, or Maya. The two youngest, a ten-year-old boy and an eleven-year-old girl, would be incapable of any of this because their powers aren’t strong enough-“ She stopped short, making a sour face. “Subtract one boy – Jonathan died last week. Which leaves six.”
“Can you narrow them down any further?” he asked.
“One of the boys is on a mission right now, so he wouldn’t have been in the castle last night. And one of the girls left yesterday afternoon to visit her parents. That leaves one girl and three boys, all of them between thirteen and seventeen.”
“Get them all down here as soon as possible.” Alaska stood, but Talia stood too.
“Um, Alaska, your commanding officer who was just in here, I think he’s one of them.”
Alaska bit the inside of his cheek. “Eliminate him. I know he’s not a possibility. Just get the other three down here and we’ll rendezvous in an hour.”
He left the eight of us in the conference room. Even Talia seemed surprised. But she shook it off.
“Okay, Logan and Grace, go take care of whatever you needed to. Maya and Dakota will take the thirteen-year-old boy, Chloe and Carter can get the fifteen-year-old, and Jinora and I will get the girl.”
After Talia gave us the room numbers we all split up. It felt strange that she only gave one kid a name, and that was just the one who passed away. Maybe she just didn’t remember them, or maybe she didn’t want to tell them. But that didn’t matter. We met up an hour later with Alaska, and all three kids were decided innocent and incapable of committing the crime. Which brought us back to square one.

I woke up to screaming. When my eyes shot open, I realized I was in Talia’s room, and there was no screaming. It was in my dream and they were my screams. I’d been having nightmares lately, starting my first night at the castle. At first they didn’t really mean anything, as I didn’t really remember any of the by the time I woke up. They seemed to get worse, but I still barely remembered any of them.
I sat up in my bed and I felt a pang of pain – or maybe it was fear – in my stomach. My gut felt heavy and hollow. It was just like every other morning I woke up in this castle, the same heavy feeling. But my whole body felt different today and my head was telling me some serious stuff was about to go down. I swallowed the bubble of mixed feelings. We were more then halfway through the week and there was still no snow falling. We were running out of days and we all knew the attack was coming.
Amelia was sound asleep at the foot of my cot and Talia’s bed was empty, her covers pulled over the pillow. There was a glowing light coming from the bathroom, and then the door shot open. Talia was wearing jeans and a blank green t-shirt with sneakers. Her hair was pulled back on both sides in a waterfall braid.
I opened my mouth to speak, but she held up her hand and put her finger to her lips, beckoning me into the hallway. I pushed the covers off of me. I was wearing the clothes I wore last night, which I’d been doing a lot lately. I snuck my knife off the nightstand, as I never leave without it anymore. Talia closed the door behind her.
“Alaska is busy today so he wants me to go talk to Clara. Do you want to join me?” I nod and she leads me down the quiet hallway.
Every day this week Alaska went to Clara to get a prediction from her for the day. They were always vague like, “Today is not the time. Not yet” or “We fell into a hole too big to climb out of. But now isn’t the time”. They were supposed to help us mentally and physically prepare ourselves, but it just made me jittery and impatient. Then again, the future can change, right?
Talia knocked three times on the door and a weary Clara opened it. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and scrunched her eyebrows. “Where’s Alaska?”
“Busy,” Talia replied. “I’ll pass on the message.”
Clara gestured for us to come in and she sat in her chair. She pressed her fingers to her temples, her elbows resting on her knees. She gently shut her eyes. Then seconds later she squeezed her eyes harder. Her eyes flew open, her expression blank. She didn’t say anything.
“Clara?” Talia’s voice cracked.
She pursed her lips together, as if holding back information. “I don’t understand.”
“What did you see?” I asked.
“Nothing. I didn’t see anything. It was as if someone was blocking my signal. I heard static and saw white.”
“Have you seen Teddy lately? Maya is a little tense…”
Clara held up her hand. “Teddy is helping set up defense lines by the valleys. He’s not close enough for Maya to pick up on his power. And there’s no other kids that has strong enough powers like Teddy’s. No, this was someone who’s controlling my predictions from far away.” She clenched her jaw. “They’ll be here by tonight.”
Talia let out a long sigh, as if calming her nerves. Her shoulders didn’t relax. If anything, it made her tenser. “I’ll pass on the message to Alaska. Maya, I want you to warn Izabela and the rest of the group. They should be down in the cafeteria. Clara, pass on the word to prepare the weapons.”
Talia relaxed her shoulders and quickly exited Clara’s room. Clara left her room and sprinted down the hall. I reached the top of the stairs and slid down the banister, Izabela style. I dashed into the congested mess hall. Alaska has been waking everyone up early so we had more time in the day to prepare. I squinted to find the table I was looking for. Sitting around the table was Chloe, Carter, Dylan, Lucy, Rebecca, Logan, and Shawn. Standing on the tabletop was Izabela, who seemed to be belting out a high note, her arms stretched above her head.
I neared the table and Izabela caught my eye. She immediately stopped singing and climbed back into her seat, like I was about to yell at her. But I think my facial expression said it all.
Izabela raised her eyebrows. All she said was: “Time?” I nodded. All of the expressions around the table turned into grimaces. Chloe threw her head into her hands, Rebecca’s head fell to her chest, Carter was playing with his food, pretending he didn’t hear, and Logan just grunted.
“Get ready. Just don’t spread the word quite yet. They probably won’t be coming until tonight.”
“So… can I finish my breakfast first?” Dylan complained.
I smirked. “Take it with you. Chloe, Carter, and Dylan, I want you to retrieve the weapons and make sure everyone is armed. Lucy, Rebecca, go spread the word to the people who are setting up barriers at the valley line and by the Willow. Logan and Shawn, set up the cannons and defense systems. And Izabela… you’re with me.”
The triplets headed to the weapon vault, Lucy and Rebecca teleported to the valley line, and Logan and Shawn headed out the back corridor to the canonry. I was about to bring Izabela upstairs to find Alaska and Talia, but Grace and Jinora stopped us. They popped out the basement door and waved their arms to get our attention.
“Maya,” Jinora sang.
Grace completed, “We have something for you.” They gestured for us to follow. They led Izabela and I down a dark flight of steep stairs. The bottom of the stairs opened into a large room very similar to the one Izabela used for training on the other side of the castle – except there were obviously no windows. Waiting in the center of the room was Zach, Ian, and Alec. Ian… he was socializing.
“Well hi there, Maya,” he greeted.
“Can someone tell me what’s going on?”
“She’s got places to be, dude.” Alec playfully slapped him. “Wrap it up.”
“Right. Quick.” Ian revealed what he was hiding behind his back – a long bronze sword. He placed it in my hands. The sword was made of steel. The hilt had three pieces to it, a simple crosspiece, a square pommel, and a ribbed grip made of ebony. A single rune was carved into the middle of its back.
“Wow,” I muttered. “This is incredible.”
Zach clarified, “It’s yours.”
“It’s… it’s mine?”
“Yeah. I made it for you,” Ian smirked.
“He thought you needed a better weapon than a knife. You have to be really talented to fight well with a knife,” Jinora added.
Grace put in, “It’s a magic sword. It’s kind of like the Baxon jars. Right now it only holds the triplets and our powers – bending abilities and super strength, agility, endurance, sense, speed, and intelligence – but you can put in more.”
I was speechless, but Izabela, who I forgot was standing next to me, grasped my arm. “Sorry to rush this, but we’re kind of going to be in the middle of a war in a few hours and we might not want to spend so much time relishing on this sword’s beauty.”
“Attack?” Jinora whined.
Ian squeaked, “A few hours?”
Grace wailed, “war?”
“Beauty?” Zach choked.
“Relishing?” Alec quacked.
I couldn’t help but laugh. Maybe it was the reactions they gave even though we’re all about to die. Maybe it was because they all went in order. I didn’t know. “Yeah, Izabela’s right. And we need you guys upstairs anyways. Thanks for the sword Ian. But let’s get to work.”
I sprinted up the stairs, taking two at a time. Izabela was right at my feet, the Windsor’s behind her. We left the Windsor’s in the crowded cafeteria.
Izabela and I stepped outside, the cold wind barely a breeze. The sun was hidden behind the clouds.
“So…when exactly did you come here?” I inquired.
“Two years ago. I didn’t feel like I belonged here, until Talia realized what I was capable of. She’s probably explained to you how rare it is to be able to use psionic and psychic weapons. When she found out I could, even though I had a lot of room for improvement, she took me under her wing. I mean, she’d already been here for six years and there wasn’t anything she didn’t know about the castle. She’s Alaska’s right-hand man.”
She paused, letting that sink in. But I wasn’t thinking about that anymore. Just like the other day, it was completely silent. The cold wind, if possible, turned colder.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I squeaked.
“The silence? That’s one of Thomas’s strongest powers. Something about being able to make all life still.”
Then I felt it. I lifted my face to the sky, feeling the rain sprinkle down. Izabela was doing the same. But it was cold… it was snow.
Izabela choked, “It’s snowing.” I squinted to see the dust picking up in the distance right over the hills.
“They’re coming,” I croaked.
The army in the distance grew close; close enough for me to tell what the monsters were. Well I didn’t know what they were, just that they resembled dragons.
“Go inside and spread the word,” I ordered. “Sound the alarm.”
“Yeah right! I’m not leaving you out here to face an army of creepy-looking- dragon creatures alone! That ruins the fun for me!”
“You’re impossible!” I felt like a little kid again, yelling at her when I didn’t get my way. I turned to her, my expression stern. I raised the knife-into-sword that Ian had made for me. “Go. I can take them.” I don’t know if it was my harsh expression or the determination in my voice, but she listened.
And I wasn’t lying – the adrenaline in my veins told me I could take them.
They were nearing the bridge. There had to be more than a dozen of them, all of them scaly and green with long necks and wings and long tails. I held my sword in the air and charged at them, meeting them at the bridge. I turned to the castle one more time, hearing a low blaring noise in the background. There were red lights flashing in the windows.
I lunged at the first monster, stabbing it immediately. As I moved onto the next, it exploded into dust, just like the man girl. I slashed through four of them before I was surrounded. I noticed on the horizon there was more dust being lifted into the air. More were coming. I wiped the snow out of my eyes.
“Not yet,” I mumbled. I shot myself into the air, completely confusing the monsters. Some of them stabbed each other, leaving only five monsters left. I landed back on the ground, creating enough force to knock tow of them off the bridge. One of the three remaining dragon-creatures was already hovering above me, eliminating that escape route. The other two had me blocked, unless I wanted to jump over the bridge.
Any day now, I complained, praying Talia would answer.
We’re working on it- She was interrupted by a loud cackling.
You foolish children! The voice was definitely Thomas.
Sorry, but this line is taken, I told him.
You really think you stand a chance against my army of monsters? This is just the beginning. You won’t survive this. I am too powerful to be beaten, especially by you prudent children!
I swung my sword at the dragon on my right, then at the one on my left. I jumped out of reach of the flying dragon that landed right where I was standing moments ago. I sliced the dragon in half as armed kids poured out of the castle.
I didn’t know if he could still here me, but I snapped, Just proving my point, Thomas. I could’ve sworn I got see his face grow as bright as a tomato.
It’s Baxon! He screeched. I careened through the crowd of angry kids who were charging the new wave of monsters. I sprinted through the castle doors to find Dakota and Talia in the main entrance. I put my sword in its sheath, retracting itself back to knife form. I put my hands on my knees, catching my breath.
“Why can’t I go?” Dakota pouted and knit her eyebrows.
“You’re not ready…” Talia trailed off and looked at me, begging for help. I looked at Dakota, who was on the verge of screaming.
“Here, look at it like a soccer game. Talia and I are on offense because our powers are strongest and we’re good fighters. People like Ian and Rebecca are on defense, and they’ll protect our land. But you’re one of the most important people in this game. You’re the goalie. If offense and defense slip, you’re the only one left to stop the ball before they score.”
Except this is a game of life or death, I though, but I decided to leave that part out.
Talia instructed, “Stand guard. And we need your hands free so the wounded can come in here to be healed.”
Izabela came sprinting down the stairs and slid across the floor to us. “We’ve got trouble. Monsters are everywhere. And Thomas will be here soon. I can feel it.”
Dakota nodded, as if she finally understood. “Go.” Her voice was so low, I wouldn’t have known what she said if she didn’t shoo us away.
Talia, Izabela, and I weaved our way through our exceptional defense. We reviewed the war plans so many times it was drilled into our brains. With my help, Talia and Grace split up the kids, organizing them into either offense or defense. We set it up like a huge soccer game, the strong powers and good fighters on offense, the good defenders with sharp eyes and good reflexes on defense. We were prepared, even if this fight was unfair.

In the distance ahead of us, the army of the enemy broke through the woods. Hundreds of monsters poured out.
“Positions!” Talia commanded.
We arranged ourselves in our tight and compact lines. Kids scrambled. Talia and Izabela were right next to me in the front of our army. Familiar faces were spread around nearby. The plan was to make the enemy army break around our offense so the fight would be evenly distributed. They’d have to completely surround the castle, which was a huge risk for us, but it was much needed and worth it. Hopefully our offense wouldn’t break, and even if it did, our defense would be ready.
At first, the plan seemed to work. The enemy divided and streamed toward us, spreading around the castle. When they had us half-surrounded, our defense kicked in. In the woods on the right, a troop of kids sent a volley of arrows into the enemy line, destroying twenty or thirty monsters, but more replaced them.
Our offense fought every monster that came in sight. We teamed up with each other to speed up the destruction. Every time a monster fell through the cracks of offense, our defense was there to help. They didn’t have much action, but when they did, they made the most of it. It made it more like a game.
The first hour or two seemed like a dream. I killed monsters left and right, switching from one power to another. The adrenaline running through my veins made me temporarily immune to pain.
The first person I clearly remember fighting beside was Teddy.
“Hey, Maya,” Teddy panted. “Can we take a doughnut break?”
“If you can somehow make them appear out of nowhere. Otherwise, I have to point out the fact that we’re kind of in the middle of a war.” I wiped the sweat off my brow. In fact, I could hear the battles all around me. We needed some kind of miracle.
And I guess my prayers didn’t really work. Instead of a miracle, we got a giant – a mean giant.
At first, the flow of monsters started to slow down and become thinner. There were barely any monsters. We all looked around at each other, exchanging confused looks. Then the ground shook. It wasn’t a continuous rumble; it was just every few seconds… like footsteps. In the foggy, snowy air, a giant appeared. It wasn’t just any giant, it was Indigo, Mason’s killer.
I realized I never actually checked if I actually killed him, and he was probably furious after I killed his friend. And Indigo wasn’t headed toward our vanguard. He was headed toward the castle. Our front lines began to follow.
“That giant’s gotta go,” I muttered under my breath. “Hold formation! I'll take care this one. You guys hold the rest of the enemy. Push them back!”
Talia chastised, “Maya! You can’t take that giant alone!”
“That’s the giant that killed Mason. I’m going to get my vengeance.”
“But, Maya,” Logan squealed, “what if you can’t kill the giant? What if we can't push them back?”
“Cave in if you need to,” I said. “You just have to slow them down. I'll destroy this giant and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I saw how tired he was. Using powers drain all of your energy. Talia didn't look much better from fighting with a sprained ankle that she got when a fire-breathing monster knocked her off of her feet. Dylan was fighting with a bum shoulder after he was thrown off a hairy ogre. Zach had a gash down his stomach, blood seeping though his shirt from a claw of some sort. I didn't know how defense was doing, but the enemy was destroying our front lines.
Kids everywhere had been taken off the battlefield and into the castle to treat their wounds. I heard of no deaths yet, but this was just the beginning. I didn't want to leave my friends in such bad shape, but the giant was the biggest threat. He was headed to obliterate the castle and he needed to be stopped. Before I could change my mind, I sprung into the air and smoothly used the wind to guide myself through the sky and towards the giant.
I figured he’d have more luck destroying me on land, so I decided to stay in the air. I concentrated on forming a rainstorm. Rain poured on the giant as I hovered above the storm cloud. I stopped him right before he reached the left flank of our army, giving me room to attack.
The giant screamed, but his shouts were eventually drowned out by water. I landed on the ground just as Indigo struggled to his feet. He was dripping wet, his eyes looking murderous.
“I will kill you!” he roared. “You killed my brother!” The rain was still pouring down hard.
“Who, Bob? You killed Mason first!”
“Bob?” He howled. “My brother shall not be disrespected like that!” the wind of the storm cloud started to pick up speed.
“It’s better than your name – Indigo.”
He wailed again and charged. I lifted myself softly into the sky, just out of his reach. The rain cloud swallowed him for a second time. I landed on the ground again, but Indigo closed on me with blinding speed so I didn’t have enough time to escape. My sword met his rough skin but it did less damage than a paper cut.
I focused on the water, putting all of my strength into it. The giant was fast, but I was faster, high on anger. Indigo kept stumbling back like he was being pushed away. The water stung my eyes, but Indigo could barely get a blow in without having to squeeze his eyes shut.
“How are you doing this?” The giant yelled over the wind. I didn’t know what he was talking about. But when I looked down, I realized I wasn’t on the ground anymore. Wind was churning under my feet, mixed in with the rain. I created a hurricane. The wind was powerful enough to knock Indigo off of his feet. He couldn’t get back up. I launched him across the battlefield.
I followed his landing to make sure he was dead, and I let my hurricane die down. I landed beside the giant. He was still in his body, so I thought he was still alive. Then his stomach exploded with purple confetti, and his body was gone.
I launched myself into the air and quickly swept the area surrounding the castle. Some of the younger kids had set up a defensive line in the woods, just a little east of the army. At the right side of the castle, the two kids Alaska introduced me to the other day, his commanding officers, were leading an army toward the enemy, trying to sneak up from behind. To the west, some of the older kids created a defense line that would be impossible to cross - unless the enemy just invaded a few feet over from them. The back of the castle was clear for now, with a few kids on defense, but the enemy’s flanks were coming around and it was only a matter of time before we'd be completely surrounded.
I was tempted to stop and help a battle that was occurring not far from the castle’s boundaries, but I could tell from the smoke and screaming that the real action was the area I left – the front lines. They seemed unable to hold the army back any longer. When they backed up, toward the castle, that made the defense back up too. Our vanguard was a war zone. You couldn’t go ten yards in any direction without some sort of combat. An army of trees – yes, evil trees that can move – were ripping up the ground and trying to attack, but the good part was they had no arms. The octopi creatures were making up for that, using their sixteen arms to snatch swords and weapons out of our hands. They were also good for sucker-punching kids. Our defenses were collapsing and enemy was closing in on the castle.
Still flying above the crusades, I spotted some familiar faces that were in need of help.
Talia and Carter were holding back a monster that looked like…like a grapefruit. He was round, with stumps of arms and legs sticking out of him. His skin was scaly orange and red. His head looked like leaves on a grapefruit.
I soared through the air and landed on Grapefruit’s head. When the monster looked up, I slid off his face and bashed his face with my sword hilt.
“RAWR!” Grapefruit screeched as he staggered backward with blood spurting from his nose. I hit the pavement and ran. Grapefruit exhaled a cloud of reddish gas, which hit me in the face. I stopped myself from breathing, but my lungs were already burning. I turned to the monster and stabbed him in his stubby legs. He wailed and the ground rumbled when he collapsed. I could’ve sworn he bounced slightly when he hit the ground. He tried to attack, but Talia and Carter caught him from behind. He exploded into reddish orange goop, and I wiped it out of my eyes. His body was gone, but me, Talia, Carter, and the area where he landed were covered in a layer of goo. I tried to wipe it off, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Thanks.” Talia cringed as she tried to catch her breath, wiping the goop from her eyes. "The giant?"
“Fairy dust,” I panted.
“Perfect.”
Carter retorted, “We've got an abundance of enemies still left to fight.” He c***ed his head to the army.
The next hour was a blur. I fought like I'd never fought before. I sliced hundreds of scaly creatures, knocked out others, and took out a whole species of groundhog-looking monsters.
Talia and I raced from troop to troop, trying to shore up our defenses. The castle was overflowing with wounded. Too many of our friends lay wounded in the grass. Too many were missing.
The moon rose in the sky as the night went on. I thought we were pushing back the enemy, and we were, but eventually we were the ones getting backed up foot by foot until we were only a mile or two away from the castle in any direction. At one point Alec was next to me, throwing monsters at other monsters. Then he disappeared in the crowd, and it was Chloe at my side, throwing fireballs and rocks from midair. I saw Oliver a few times, hurdling out of nowhere, breathing fire until the enemy was coal, or using some of the monsters as his chew toy. I watched a few monsters disintegrate for no apparent reason, and I knew it was the little boy who Talia had introduced me to – he was using his invisibility powers I taught him so he could sneak behind the enemy lines.
But it still wasn't enough.
And then something incredible happened. The rumbling began subtly, barely even noticeable. Then the small rumble turned into reverberating vibrations, then into what felt like an earthquake. It felt just like when Indigo came to attack. But as these footsteps got closer, I could tell it wasn’t just one pair. There had to be at least twenty.
The few remaining fighters fell to the ground. I thought we were screwed. That was up until I realized the giants weren’t coming from the woods. They were coming from the valley. And they stomped right around defense, around the castle, until they joined us in the front lines. They weren’t fighting us, they were fighting with us.
I got to my feet, and Talia and Izabela followed. The Windsor’s and the triplets were on their feet too – we were some of the few people without catastrophic injuries. We all wanted to help, but there was no need. There were at least twenty giants, all of them dressed in armor.
“The nice giants,” I murmured. I saw a small figure riding on one of the giant’s backs – a young woman with dark hair pulled back in a bandana. It was Camila.
“Mom!” Talia croaked.
The giants advanced, but so did the enemy. Just not for long. The giants slashed and struck any monster in the same vicinity. Dust piled up on the edge of the woods. Monsters were disintegrating every second.
Then a monster screeched, enough to make the giants freeze. Chatter fell upon the enemy, until it seemed like they came to agreement. Every single monster turned and backed away from the giants. They were surrendering. The giants didn’t really take it that way. They all followed the army into the woods and I just hoped the enemy didn’t come out the other side alive. The last giant to disappear was the one carrying Camila. She slipped off of his back and bantered over to us.
She smiled at me, but froze when she saw Talia. She was unable to produce words from her mouth. So instead she just wrapped her arms around her. I thought Talia was going to cry.
Talia winced, “How–”
Camila pulled out of the hug. She smiled, then spoke in her thick Spanish accent. “Your friend here, Maya, and your brother-” Talia’s expression cut Camila off. She just squeezed her shoulders, knowing she overstepped her boundaries. “Maya and Mason showed me how desperate this castle was. So I rallied the giants up and they said they would be happy to help.”
“Talia,” I cooed, “why don’t you bring Camila in to help out with the wounded. And I’m sure that ankle of yours could use some rest.”
Talia nodded. “You should get some sleep, Maya.” She pulled her mother through the field and back to the castle.
The monsters were gone. I looked around at the destruction. I was still covered in red goo, the tree line was ablaze, but our only casualties were injuries. No one had died. But I felt a knot in my gut that old me that this wasn’t over, that that was just the first volley.
Alaska stumbled out of the castle doors and stomped toward the few of us remaining on the field. We had nineteen left on defense, and only thirteen left on offense that were in fighting shape. The rest had taken refuge inside the castle. I can’t even think about what would have happened if the castle was overcome and attacked. What would happen to the wounded? The rest of us had tried to form ranks, but we were all weary and tired.
“Go rest, Maya.”
“Everyone is telling me I need to sleep,” I complained. “I don’t need rest.”
“Have you seen yourself recently?”
I peek at my wardrobe, which were burned, sliced, tattered, and scorched from my night of continuous crusades. “I look like death threw up on me,” I admitted. “But there’s no possibility of me sleeping after what happened.”
“You are not invulnerable in combat," Alaska chided. “You, child, need your rest. You may be our only hope in this battle.”
I wanted to argue that I wasn't their only hope. But when I locked eyes with Alaska, he made it apparent he wasn't going to take no as a response.
“Fine,” I grumbled.
I trudged toward the castle. When I looked over my shoulder, Alaska and Carolina were walking together in solemn conversation, and it was as if they were discussing funeral arrangements. They sent the remaining soldiers to the castle not long after me. Inside the castle, I found an empty cot and collapsed, sure that I would never be able to fall asleep. My eyes shut seconds later.

Screams echoed in my ears. I sat up so fast I banged my head on somebody's shield.
“Ouch!”
“Sorry, Maya.” Izabela was standing over me. “I was just about to wake you.”
I rubbed my head, trying to clear the disturbing visions. I had nightmares again.
“Maya?” Izabela croaked. “What's the matter?”
“Huh? Oh nothing. What time is it?”
“Eleven o'clock. AM. They're back.” Her voice was cold and stern.
“What!” I stood up and hit my head on her shield once again. “Ow... Where'd you even get that shield?”
“Ian made it. He's been busy. He made weapons for dozens of kids. He made you a shield too. It's designed to hold even more powers. Now c'mon.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me off the cot.
Somehow I was in a new pair of clothes. Can you sleep-change? The vast castle lobby was slightly filled. Dakota and Camila ran from cot to cot, healing the injured, regenerating the weary. I saw Shawn in one bed, his arm wrapped in bloody gauze, but he was conscious.
Other familiar faces lay on some beds, but most of the cots were empty. That was a good sign.
I followed Izabela out of the castle. The battlefield wasn't pretty. Izabela picked up a shield that was beside the bridge and handed it to me.
“Ian put every power he could get his hands on in there.”
There was no layout of our army. It was monster against kid. There was no offense or defense, just a whole bunch of scattered fights. Izabela led me to the "vanguard" that didn't really exist anymore. Talia was fighting off a hairy beast that reminded me of the creatures from Where the Wild Things Are. Alec was on the ground nearby, holding a bloody wound on his stomach. Grace was kneeling next to him, Zach and Jinora covering them. I guess siblings stand by each other. I whistled to get Dakota's attention, and I waved her over. She sprinted over, rolling a makeshift gurney behind her.
She knelt on the other side of Alec. "You need to mover your hand." She pried his hand off of his stomach, revealing a deep, gruesome cut.
I unsheathed my sword and cut the head off of a kangaroo-thing. Izabela took out her weapon too.
“All of you,” I called, “cover me.” Zach, Jinora, Grace, and Dakota surrounded Alec and me. I placed my sword on the ground and effortlessly lifted Alec onto the gurney.
“He'll be okay,” Dakota promised. She speedily rolled the gurney back to the castle. I realized she had a knife in her hand.
I turned my attention to Talia, who finally killed the hairy creature. Too bad he brought a nostalgic memory to me. Talia collapsed to her knees. She wiped the sweat from her brow. I saw wrap around her ankle sticking out from her pant leg.
“We can't just go on like this forever,” she cried.
With a higher pitched voice than expected, I replied, “we don't have a choice.”
I barely even recognized the fact that I stabbed the monster that was creeping up behind us. He disappeared into a pile of dust.
Then Izabela froze and it sounded like she choked on her breath. Grace sliced off an arm of an octopus monster and Zach stabbed it in its stomach. The purple dust blew away with the wind. Izabela grasped my shoulder for balance. Her eyes looked like they were glazed over.
“He’s here,” she muttered.
Talia took the words from my mouth. “What are you talking about?”
“Thomas. I can feel his presence.”
Seconds later, Teddy was at my side. He panted, “He’s here.”
Izabela snapped, “Told you.”
“So why wasn’t he spotted?” I asked.
“He’s a wimp,” she explained. “He’s letting his army do all of the work for him while he sneaks into the castle?”
“And what is he after, exactly?”
We all stared at each other, waiting for an answer. Jinora elbowed the green monster that was behind her and Izabela knocked him in the face with her shield then stabbed him.
“He’s trying to attack our strongest point,” Talia decided.
Grace gasped, understanding. “He’s going after Alaska.”
“Without Alaska, this castle would fall apart. If Thomas hits us in our strongest point, he’s guaranteed to win the war,” I clarified. It was more of a question than an answer.
“Well then, what are you waiting for?” Zach barked.
“Yeah!” Grace exclaimed. “We’ll take care of this army out here.”
“You three need to get in there and get to Alaska before Thomas does,” Jinora added. Izabela, Talia, and I exchanged glances.
“Then let’s go!” I was way too exited to be going on a suicide mission. I cut the head off of a blue monster that was hovering over Jinora. Then the three of us sprinted for the bridge. But something stopped me. I backed up. Dylan and Chloe were hovering over someone’s body. I got closer and the curly golden hair and sea green eyes was recognizable in an instant. Her ivory skin was pale and her eyes showed no sign of life. I was staring at the dying face of Willow. I leaned over her and her eyes locked on mine.
“I’m-” she tried. “I’m giving you my powers, Maya.”
Willow didn't speak again.
Dylan held her and wept. Chloe put a hand on his shoulder. Finally Talia closed Willow’s eyes.
“We have to fight.” My voice was brittle. “She gave her life to help us. We have to honor her.”
Dylan and Chloe stood. I picked up Willow’s limp body.
“Izabela,” Chloe roused, “we need you in the front lines. Er, whatever we’re calling that.” Izabela nodded.
“Fight for her,” I whispered, but it was mostly to motivate me. I followed Talia into the castle as Dylan, Izabela and Chloe went back into battle. Dakota greeted – not happily - us at the door.
When she saw Willow in my arms, she squeezed back tears. “What… what can I do?”
“Make sure she has a proper ceremony. And later we’ll place her at the Weeping Willow,” Talia garroted.
“No, I can bring her back-”
“Dakota,” I softly cooed, “You said it yourself. You can’t retrieve the dead. She stopped breathing and there’s nothing else you can do.”
I placed Willow’s body on the cot, covering her up with a blanket. I didn’t know her very well, but she certainly didn’t deserve to die. None of this is fair.
“That’s two,” Dakota blubbered.
Talia snapped, “Who’s the first?”
Dakota just weaved through some of the occupied beds until she reached one in the back that had a body covered in a sheet. She pulled it down far enough for us to see the person’s face. It was a woman with dark skin, dark hair, and a burnt face. Carolina had died.
Talia choked back shock. “She…how? She wasn’t even in battle.”
She went out to get one of the wounded. She was unarmed. That’s why Alaska gave me this.” Dakota showed us her knife then covered up Carolina’s face.
Alaska. I almost forgot about him.
“Dakota, where’s Alaska?” I asked.
“He was trying to rally up some undead soldiers with Logan in the basement last time I checked. Why?”
Talia responded, “Because we need to beat Thomas to him.”
We sprinted for the basement door. I took the stairs two at a time, skipped the last five, raised my shield, and unsheathed my sword. I heard Talia do the same. The basement was dark and I didn’t hear any noise. Until the ceiling caved in. Thomas stood in front of us.
“Seriously?” Talia complained. “You couldn’t have come in as your usual black mass? Or you could’ve at least given us a warning.”
“Where’s my brother?” he growled.
I answered, “I think he disowned you as his brother a while ago.” He snarled.
“We came down looking for him. Which makes us just as clueless as you,” Talia retorted.
“Watch your sassy remarks, child,” he roared.
“Excuse me?” He seemed to have hit a bomb detonator. “You are the lazy coward here.”
“Watch it.” He took out his weapon. His small knife grew into a sharp staff.
“You should be the one watching it.” She waved her knife in his face. I tried to grab her arm but she just wiggled out of my grip. “You created this huge diversion just so you could attack your brother without many fights. But you aren’t going to get your way. We’ll soon wash out your army of monsters and then you’ll be helpless.”
“Think again, darling.” He caressed her face and she took a step back. His hands were gnarly and wrinkled with stubby fingers, his nails talon-like and sharp. “I will never run out of monsters. And you haven’t even seen my army of some of your friends who have chosen me over Alaska. I’ve only let loose a fraction of my monsters and all of them are extras. What about the monsters that were created to be the opposite of each of the Dorado kids? This is just the beginning. And if you give in now, I promise to give you leeway.”
Talia’s voice came out harsh. “Not. A. Chance.” And she swung. She cut Thomas’s forehead, but the cut immediately healed. He lifted his staff and I attacked. I hit his pelvic bone, but the blood barely came out of the wound before it closed up again. His staff knocked Talia’s knife out of her hand, the blade grazing her hand. I ducked as the staff whooshed past my head.
Then I heard footsteps. But they were too slow to be backup. They were Alaska’s. His voice was raspy, his accent thick. “If you lay a finger on either of them-”
“Too late,” his brother snapped. He knocked my sword out of my hands and my shield clattered to the ground. His staff turned into a knife and he put it to my neck, just like he did with Grace in the woods. I tried to swallow, but the knife was dug too far into my throat. He held my arms down so I couldn’t struggle.
Alaska was still in the shadows and Talia was frozen. Thomas purred, “If you make any movement, I promise this girl will die a slow, painful death. Just like Mason.” Talia lunged. Luckily, I was prepared. One second I had a knife to my throat, the next second I was in the shadows beside Alaska, and Talia had tackled Thomas. It was a good thing Ian added Lucy and Rebecca’s powers into the shield. I picked up my sword and shield and joined the fight. It was frustrating that Alaska just stood there.
I shared a look with Talia and we both knew it was hopeless. Thomas didn’t have Alaska’s powers, and I honestly didn’t know what his powers were, but he had years of training. He was stronger than us and he was smarter. I may have been able to use any power that existed, but it wasn’t enough. Just like me, he could disappear and transport himself somewhere else. Talia had limited power skills and I had limited fighting skills. So we went to our last resort.
I concentrated as if my life depended on it – and it kind of did. I could see the gears spinning in Talia’s mind. Thomas crippled to the ground. He groaned in pain. He spun his knife into a staff and he attempted to trip us, but we jumped over it and I kicked it to the wall. In the dim light, I could see tears swelling in Talia’s eyes. I concentrated harder, until Thomas collapsed completely, his head hitting the ground.
Talia and Izabela told me that psionic and psychic weapons alone are deadly. Together they’re even worse. With two people using both powers at the same time, it horrifically gruesome. Thomas wasn’t breathing. I checked his pulse and his heart wasn’t beating. He was as dead as dead can get.
“He’s dead.” I turned to Alaska. “How could you just stand there? We could’ve just restrained him, kept him alive.”
He stepped out of the shadows. “He cannot be restrained. As you know, he has the power of teleportation. He could escape anything we put him in and we have not created anything that eliminates those powers, unless Teddy stands guard twenty-four seven. And I did not help you because I knew you two were capable. And you two deserved the credit of saving the castle.”
“I have a feeling it’s not over yet,” I muttered. They both looked at me. “Thomas controls the monsters our army is currently fighting. Once they don’t get orders for a while, they’ll retreat. But we each have monsters of our own that aren’t completely controlled by Thomas. They’ll continue to attack… and this time they’ll all be attacking together.”
“I think you’re wrong,” Talia argued. “I’m sure our monsters will be back, but I think they’ll be scared away by Thomas’s death.”
I nodded in agreement. “Then let’s go make sure that army of monsters fighting our friends surrenders and disappears.”
We turned to the stairs but Alaska stopped us. “I’ll stay here for now. Send some people to retrieve his body. I have a creepy feeling he’ll wake up.” He laughed at our facial expressions, but his laugh had no humor. “I apologize. I didn’t mean it like that. He’s dead, but there are so many powers in this world you’d think he’d be able to come back to life. Now go finish saving this castle.” He ushered us up the stairs.
I weaved my way through the cots, now almost all of them filled with kids, with Talia in my wake. Outside was hard to process. Dust and dirt filled the air. I held my breath and squinted, making out bodies lying on the ground. Monsters were running for the woods. I coughed and waved away the dusty air that was in front of me. Luckily, the people on the ground seemed to be breathing, but the ringing in my ears told me there was an explosion.
“That stupid egg-head,” Talia cursed. Whatever she knew, she didn’t seem open to telling me. Izabela came out of the dust.
“Is he dead?” she panted.
Talia hissed, “Yes.”
“What happened?” I wondered.
“Did you think it would be simple?” Izabela retorted. “He did think he would succeed in killing Alaska. But he had a backup plan. Fortunately, we beat him to it.”
“Um, you just confused me more.”
Talia finished, “He was trying to blow up the castle. His plan here was to knock Alaska out of power. But if you hadn’t noticed, Alaska doesn’t even have that much power.” She turned to Izabela. “So how’d you do it?”
“Trust me, I had help. Teddy was the one who sensed the bomb. Then the triplets, Grace, and Zach helped me disable it. It shook the land, but if you didn’t feel it, then it couldn’t have done much damage.”
“So…” I shook, “is this over?”
“Almost,” Izabela replied. “I came over here because of Logan. A monster struck when the dust blew everywhere. We couldn’t see to help him. Grace is over there now.”
The bodies turned undead. People were sitting up, rubbing their heads. Izabela hopped over people and led us toward the tree line. Through the thick air, I made out a huddle of kids. Logan lay on his back – he looked paralyzed. At his side, Grace was clutching his hand. Chloe was at her side, her brothers behind her. Jinora and Zach were standing there helpless. I pushed through them. Logan’s leg was cut open, his shirt pulled up. His stomach was cut too. He could barely breathe.
I bent down next to him and waved my hands over his wounds. I barely even stopped the bleeding. I wasn’t powerful enough. Fortunately, Dakota sprinted over seconds later. Before she saw Logan, she wailed, “Shawn’s dead!”
We all gasped, but we didn’t have time to morn. Dakota saw Logan and she knelt beside me. “I need a washcloth, herbs, and a thread and a needle.” Everyone exchanged looks, and Carter, Dylan, and Jinora ran off. Ran was an understatement. Jinora took Carter and Dylan’s hands and disappeared; the next time I saw them was right in front of the castle doors.
“Zach and Talia, if you could go check on the people who are waking up from the explosion and on Shawn,” she ordered. They disappeared into the dust.
Dakota waved her hands over Logan, but not much happened. She grabbed my hand and told me to help. The bleeding stopped, and the wound looked a little better, like it was an open wound from a week ago. Jinora came back with a washcloth, stitches, a bottle of herbs and crutches. I washed out the wound and Dakota sewed it closed, her hand moving faster than Jinora could have. Grace’s knuckles turned white from squeezing so hard. Dakota spread the herbs over the wound.
She clapped her hands together. “There.” She stood, dusting off her knees. I did the same. Then Logan’s eyes shot open.
“Stupid monster,” he groaned. Grace wasted no time. She dusted off his cheek and pressed her lips to his… long enough for it to get awkward, with five of us watching them. When she pulled away, Logan had a crazy grin on his face. I helped him onto the crutches, and together the seven of us stumbled back to the castle, leaving the battleless battlefield.

Alaska was waiting for us at the entrance. “Oh good, you’re all here.”
“Thomas?” I inquired.
He answered, “The body was burnt immediately. It was the safest way.”
“Good,” Izabela purred. Talia, Zach, Carter, and Dylan joined us in the makeshift hospital.
“I just feel like I’m the enemy here,” Alaska complained. He sounded like a little kid. “I killed so many… over a brother rivalry.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You weren’t the one who attacked. You weren’t the one who formed an army of monsters. You did what you had to do to protect this castle and us. Their army lost many monsters but only one human. I know our side lost more than three-”
“Eleven,” he corrected. “My beloved co-proprietor, Carolina, Shawn, and Willow. Then there were the spies - my two commanding officers. I should have seen it coming. They attacked two of our youngest – eight-year-old twin boys. All four of them ended up dying, the twins our heroes. Then there was Nina, who was thirteen; Ava, who was eleven; Joe, who was seventeen; and Pedro, who was fourteen. Then there are nineteen severely injured.”
“I think those who died need a ceremony, don’t you?” I tried.
Talia put in, “They all died heroes. They do deserve it.”
“Yes, yes,” he agreed. “Down by the river.”
And that’s just what we did. Everyone (at least those who could walk) met down at the river, and one by one the names of the dead were announced. We shot a cannon into the air for the eleven heroes – even the spies.
When the ceremony was over and the sun began to set, Alaska decided we all deserved a big dinner. The crowds piled up the hill, leaving my friends and me.
Zach, Alec, Ian, and Jinora were all standing together. I knew they were close with Shawn, but I think they were closer than I thought. Logan was on one crutch, holding Grace’s hand. Chloe had her arms around Carter and Dylan’s necks. Clara, Rebecca, and Lucy were standing pathetically to the side. Izabela was giving Teddy a piggyback. She treated him like she treated Jack – like an annoying brother.
Logan and Grace left first, slumping up the hill. “Good job,” she whispered to Talia and I. The remaining Windsor siblings followed, all of them congratulating us.
I wanted to tell them there was nothing to congratulate us for, but I knew they’d argue. Chloe pulled her brothers up the hill after shooting us a huge grin. Teddy hopped off Izabela’s back and joined Clara, Rebecca, and Lucy, walking up the hill.
Izabela hung around a moment. “You did it. You saved the castle.”
“We did it,” I corrected.
“And the psionic weapons?”
“Couldn’t have done it without them. Or without your help.”
She shot me a wicked grin and suffocated Talia in a hug. Izabela pulled back and pulled me into an embrace, and whispered, “I missed you.”
She smiled again and disappeared up the hill.
I gave Talia a high-five. “Thank you.”
“For?” She inquired.
“For showing me what I’m capable of. For taking me into the life that’s meant for me.” I missed my father. A lot. But I’ll visit him. This is the life meant for me. But I knew where he was, unlike my friends. I didn’t know what day it was. Are they at school? Still on break? “I’ve probably just been a burden-“
She laughed. “Nah, you’ve changed something here. I see everything in a different light. Like Mason. I know he’ll be safe and he’ll always be there guarding this castle.”
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” A grin spread across her face and she threw her arm around my shoulder. Together, we ambled up the hill, away from the tree and Mason, and toward the castle.
I looked up at the dark sky, and examined the constellations – the ones my mother taught me so long ago – and in the center of the night sky was the Dorado constellation.