“Let me go!” I eventually forced myself out of the students’ grip. They suddenly—almost robotically—walked back into the classroom, leaving me alone with Asir.

  I stared at her, her dull, almost lifeless blue eyes stared back at me. Her brown bangs covered one of her eyes. My heart raced a million miles per second, scared of what she would do to me. Would she erase my memories again? Nalupie mentioned I could only use Ether Recollection once on each person or item, so I wouldn’t be able to rely on that again.

  “I see you remember.” She stared at me emotionlessly. It was scary seeing someone visibly mad at you, but even more terrifying when you knew they were mad, despite them not showing it. I didn’t respond, terrified she would kill me just for speaking. “Once someone remembers on their own, they’re no longer susceptible to memory manipulation. At least not by the same user.” Just how many people had this stupid ability?! “It would be easier to just make you go away.”

  Two mechanical, almost claw-like devices appeared in her hand as she stepped towards me. I instinctively backed up, just to hit my back against the wall. Curse me for not looking first! And for not having a weapon!

  I wanted to scream—to call out for help—but I knew nobody would come. I didn’t even know if anyone would be able to hear me. My hands iced over, and to my horror, froze against the wall, the ice gluing them in place. I yanked and pulled, but nothing. Stupid Elsa hands! Her claw was inches away from me. Not knowing what else to do, and needing time, I raised my leg and kicked her in the stomach. To my surprise, she went flying backwards into the wall across from me. Huh, my feet were a lot more powerful than I’d thought! Maybe my weapon had something to do with them, too.

  “Bitch!” Asir hissed at me as she came stalking back over. I yanked my arm again, but still nothing. This was making me angry— Yes! That’s exactly what I needed! The fire melted the ice from one of my hands, which I then used to yank my other arm out. Asir was only inches away at this point.

  I could feel the ether—the heat, welling within me. I was angry that Avaline had manipulated our memories, and I was angry that not a single one of my friends stood up for me! What kind of friends did I have?! Yes, I know they’re being mind-controlled right now, but that shouldn’t make a difference!

  “Graaaaaah!” I screamed as I tackled Asir, my entire body covered in flames. I pushed her into the wall once again as her screams deafened me. I swear I could feel my ears pop. I felt myself growing ridiculously weak and dizzy. I pushed myself off of her, and struggled to keep my balance. My vision doubled, but quickly returned to normal when I saw Asir covered in fourth-degree burns. I wanted to scream and vomit at the same time, but I couldn’t do either. I needed to get out of here before someone found me.

  My heart pounded into my ears as I ran back into the classroom. My thoughts were racing, a mix between needing to get someone—anyone—to remember, and the fact that I may have very well just killed someone. It wasn’t her fault that we were mind-controlled. Sure, she may have tried to kill me, but that didn’t mean I needed to kill her.

  “Elaina? What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Finn frowned at me.

  “I need you to believe me,” I choked out. The tears were coming full force. I couldn’t do this alone. Someone would find Asir’s body, and probably soon. And probably multiple someones. I couldn’t take on multiple someones! I couldn’t even walk in a straight line! I needed to stop panicking so much!

  “Elaina, what’s wrong?” Finn stood from his desk and hunched over to look me in the eye.

  “Asir is lying to us. She just tried to kill me!” I choked out a whisper. It was so hoarse and quiet, for a moment I didn’t know if he’d heard me. His face contorting in confusion told me he had.

  “W-what are you saying? Ms. Asir would never try to kill us—”

  Without thinking, I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him toward me, pressing my lips against his. They were surprisingly soft… His eyes widened, and I pulled back. “Please…” I whispered. “Please trust me.”

  “Why did you just do that…?”

  “I don’t know…”

  ——

  “Tell me again why we’re going to the kitchen?” Finn asked as we carefully snuck down a hallway. He was standing in front of me, holding my hand to keep me supported. Honestly, I didn’t know what he would do if someone came. It wasn’t like he could use magic right now.

  “I need to eat as much cake as possible to replenish my ether so I can share some with you and you can maybe remember everything,” I explained quietly. It wasn’t even difficult to speak quietly at this point—I was too tired to speak normally.

  I slumped forward, and he moved to catch me. He had to sling my arm over his shoulder to continue supporting me. I really hoped that cake was nearby…

  “How do you even know there’s cake in the kitchen?” he asked.

  “We had cake yesterday. There must be some leftover. You don’t think that they perfectly portion everything out, or bake a cake with a slice missing, do you?”

  “Well, the former is a lot more likely than the latter.” He shrugged, and my arm started sliding down his shoulder. He quickly grabbed it before I could reach the ground.

  We made it to the kitchen door. Finn sat me down against the wall as he peered into the tiny window on the door.

  “Do you see anyone?” I asked, hoping that if there was anyone inside, they wouldn’t see him.

  “One person. Their back is turned to us,” he answered. Great. I wondered if I had enough ether left to manage one shot without passing out… “It’s nothing a frying pan can’t solve.”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “What—”

  The door swung open, and Finn was gone. I heard the sound of a bash, and then a thud. Oh no… I quickly tried to push myself off the ground to make sure Finn hadn’t accidentally killed himself, but as soon as my hand made contact with the ground, the rest of my body followed, completely devoid of strength.

  Thankfully, it was Finn who ran out the door and not some murderous baker, and he was able to help me up. Inside the kitchen, there was no cake! The cake was a lie! But there was a lot of fruit. It would have to do. I started stuffing my face with fruit and encouraged Finn to do the same. Out of the two of us, I was definitely the pig. He daintily peeled his fruit while I practically inhaled mine. I was starting to feel self-conscious.

  Slowly, I started to feel better. My muscles had more strength, and my head didn’t feel as dizzy. If Finn would just eat the fruit faster, maybe I wouldn’t have to share my ether with him. Who peels their fruit anyway?!

  “How do you feel?” I asked as Finn shoved the last piece of fruit into his mouth.

  “Stronger,” he answered without bothering to finish chewing his food.

  “Do you… feel anything? Hear anything?”

  He continued chewing, his expression lost in thought. He swallowed, and suddenly his expression changed—curious, but also confused. I don’t think he choked?

  “No, I didn’t choke,” he answered, and I breathed a sigh of relief. He could read my mind again. “Can you… focus on your memories for a second?”

  “Oh, sure.” I thought back to when we had met at the manor, our time on Earth, him explaining how we were betrothed at some point— Why did I remember that?! The time at the facility— Maybe I shouldn’t be thinking about such unpleasant things… But that would include most of our time on Vafir!—

  “Thanks, I got it now.” He combed his hair with his fingers—an action he often did when stressed. “Are you okay?” He eagerly turned to me. “I mean, you faced Asir by yourself… Boy, do I feel like an asshole now…”

  “Oh, I’m fine. Erm, now at least. I was terrified when it happened…” I glanced away from him. I didn’t want to make him feel even more guilty than he already felt. It wasn’t his fault, after all.

  “Even if it wasn’t technically my fault, I feel terrible that I wasn’t there for you. I made a promise to protect you! And the one time you needed me most, I wasn’t there…” His fists clenched at his sides, and his knuckles turned white. Just seeing him like this was starting to stress me out.

  “Please, can we move on from this? We need to figure out how we’re going to make the others remember.”

  Silence surrounded us. I didn’t know if he was thinking of a plan, or if he was still fixated on not coming to my rescue. I wondered how long it would be before someone checked in here. Someone must have found Asir’s body by now, and they must be looking for me. I listened, but I didn’t hear anything.

  “I can talk to people through their minds,” Finn began. “And I can see people’s memories when they think about them. I wonder if I can also show my memories to others.”

  “Well, you’re free to test it out on me,” I said.

  He nodded. Suddenly, a somewhat blurry image appeared in my mind. It was clear for not even half a second, and fizzled out after two. Still, I could clearly tell that it was me during the time he had tried to train me with Maverick. It was so weird, like one of those random thoughts that pop into your head when listening to music.

  “It worked then?” he asked.

  “Enough to where it should help the others remember, I hope. How did you remember anyway? Just from reading my mind?”

  “Once I saw your memories of me, everything started to fall back into place. Hopefully if I show the others a couple scenes, they’ll remember too.”

  We started making our way back to the classroom, hoping everyone was still there. I mean, they should still be there, considering classes were still going. But part of me wondered if the “school” was on high alert after the stunt I pulled. School. This whole building was a sham—part of Avaline’s palace, no doubt. I couldn’t believe she had dedicated a portion of her palace to this mind game. Why hadn’t I discovered it before when I was snooping around? Better question, why hadn’t she just killed us? If she had the ability to alter our memories, she could’ve turned us into her loyal worshippers and killed us. There must be some other reason.

  Aidan and Marge were still in the classroom. Maverick noticeably wasn’t. Ugh, it would be easier if everyone stayed together in one place so we wouldn’t have to look for people!

  “Where’s Maverick?” I asked Aidan.

  As soon as I approached him, he squirmed back in his chair until it fell backwards. “P-please, don’t kill me!” Great. Word had already gotten around. I wasn’t surprised when the other remaining seven students stood up and surrounded us. Marge, for whatever reason, didn’t seem interested.

  We needed to be careful—we didn’t know if these seven had access to their ether. For all we knew, their juice didn’t have the ether-suppressing effects ours did. “It’s fine, I can read their minds. They intend to fight us, but with skill alone.” So my theory earlier about them being brainwashed was most likely correct if Avaline didn’t trust them to have access to their own ether.

  Finn summoned his lance, and with a quick swoop, he managed to knock three of them over, using the blunt part of the lance. The other four nimbly dodged his swipe by either dodging or doing a backflip, show-offs!

  They approached Finn one after another—the first punched, ducked, so the person behind could kick, and then another person jumped over them, and the last person circled around. I could hear Finn grunt every time he deflected one of their blows with his lance.

  Right, I couldn’t just stand back and watch. I was about to attack when my mind flashed back to Asir’s burned body. Guilt froze me in my spot—I couldn’t do that to them. I intentionally allowed my fear to consume me for a moment and focused all of my magic into freezing them in place.

  Ice trailed from my hands down the row of chairs and desks until it reached one person, and then another. The last one froze in midair—the ice connecting them to the others. Finn had managed to defeat one of them during this time.

  Poor Aidan was shivering in the corner, and I somehow got the feeling that it had nothing to do with my ice. I decided to stay where I was and let Finn approach him. Moments later, he calmed down, and tears poured down his cheeks. “G-guys… I’m so sorry!” he bawled.

  “It’s fine—” I was interrupted by the sound of a chair being knocked over. I quickly turned to see Marge running to the door. She must have been waiting for an opportunity to leave…! I hadn’t used magic from a distance before, but I didn’t have much choice. I focused on the handles of the door, and with all my might, willed for ice to appear. Thankfully, for perhaps the first time since I arrived in Etheria, my magic decided to listen.

  Marge turned to me, the look of horror in her eyes caused my stomach to sink. It’s okay, Elaina—she’s just scared. In a few moments, she’ll remember us.

  Finn leaped over a desk with dexterity I would never have, and rushed over to her. She was like a deer in headlights, standing frozen in place. After a few seconds, she backed away uncomfortably, and I watched as Finn grabbed her wrist. Her expression softened, and she quickly turned to me. “Ella!”

  “I’m so glad you’re okay!” I ran to her and hugged her so hard her back went into the door. Her repeated “ows” made me instantly let go as I realized her back had collided with my ice… Oops.

  “I can’t believe Avaline had control over our memories! Why didn’t Talus warn us about that?”

  I shook my head. “Maybe she didn’t know. Where’s Maverick?”

  “How should I know? Probably with the rest of the staff.” Rest of the staff…?

  “What are you talking about?” I narrowed my eyes, getting the feeling that something was off.

  Marge blinked at me. “Don’t you remember? Maverick is one of the staff.”