Maverick squinted at me as I held the sword in both hands. I was surely going to win—never mind the fact that the tip of the blade was dragging along the floor. I’d wield it like a broom if I had to!

  “Are you sure you can—” Maverick started.

  “Yep, I’m fine. Just peachy,” I assured him. He didn’t look convinced, but gave a small shrug. He stood in place, allowing me to take the first strike just as he had Finn. But I was no fool! I knew that whoever struck first had a disadvantage, so I decided to wait.

  And wait.

  He wasn’t going to take the first hit, was he? Well, neither was I! We could wait all day if he wanted, dammit!

  “So, how’s the weather?” I asked. “The hallway is a little chilly, don’t you think? Is central heating a luxury Her Imperial Cheapskate can’t afford?”

  “You’re stalling.” His voice came out as a growl. Probably more so at the fact that I was insulting his beloved empress than the fact that I was wasting time.

  “No, I’m just waiting for you to strike. If anything, you’re stalling.”

  “Whatever.” He rolled his eyes and lunged at me. I barely raised my sword up on time to block it, but his sheer weight knocked me to the ground with him on top. Our faces were inches apart, and if we were in some cheesy romance novel, this is where the readers would want us to kiss. “S-stop thinking about kissing him!” I’m not! The readers are! “What readers?” Good question.

  “Um, can you please get off me?” I asked.

  “I’m only going to say this once: If I get up, you won’t have enough time to defend yourself with that sword.” His voice was so quiet that it may as well have been a whisper. He must really think so low of me that he’s offering advice. Admittedly, it was good advice. The sword is just too heavy. I’d have to fight him without a weapon.

  I nodded, and he stood up. He wasted no time swinging his sword at me once he got on his feet, and I just barely rolled away in time. My body felt super heavy, like I was moving a hundred pounds across the floor. Oh, wait, I was. My heart pounded as I heard him run over to me. My body was so stiff compared to his that it took some time to get on my feet. To my surprise, Maverick was sent backwards by a gust of wind. I look over his shoulder to see Marge’s arm extended. She saved me…

  “Don’t interfere!” Maverick growled at her. “This is between the two of us!”

  “You expect me to stand around and let my best friend die?!” Marge shouted back. “Screw your rules! I’ll help all I want—” Aaaand she was gone. Maverick must have teleported her somewhere else.

  “Where is she?!” I demanded, terrified he teleported her to one of the staff members—or worse, Avaline herself.”

  “In her room,” Maverick answered. “If you defeat me, I’ll let her go—I’ll let them all go.”

  “All?” I raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, Finn and Aidan disappeared as well. My stomach sank as reality hit me. I was all alone now. Everything depended on me. Me, an Ethereal who still hadn’t completely awakened her magic, against an Ethereal with hundreds of years of experience.

  I glanced at the sword on the ground. It wouldn’t help me. The only thing that would help now is if I could get my stupid weapon to manifest! I held out my hand and made a grabby motion, but still nothing! In the end, my only real power was my friends…

  Maverick was quickly approaching, despite the fact that he was slowly walking over to me. I could hit him with fire—that was probably one of my stronger elements. But the thought of hurting him— Asir’s burned body flashed in my mind. No, I couldn’t do that to him. Well, ice never failed me.

  Once Maverick was close enough to strike, I focused all of my thoughts on my fear and the cold hallway.

  Please, manifest as ice!

  Ice appeared around Maverick and his sword, that was only inches away from me. I instinctively backed away, my body trapped between the ice structure and the wall. Okay, what was I supposed to do now?! The only way I’d be able to stop him was by weakening him! But the only way I could do that was by hurting him! And I didn’t want to hurt him… I could run to Marge’s room and let her out, but that wouldn’t do anything but stall. Think, Elaina! Think!

  The ice began to crack, and Maverick would free himself soon. I needed to get out of here, fast! I tried to wedge myself out, pushing against the wall instead of the ice so I wouldn’t risk breaking the ice faster. Almost… There!

  The ice cracked, and Maverick was back with a vengeance. My body shook. Instinctively, I tried to freeze him again, but his sword somehow managed to deflect my ice! I was running out of options…

  My stupid fear got the better of me, and I accidentally created a puddle of ice behind me that I proceeded to slip on. My back burned and popped as I fell, feeling like I had pulled something out of place. He was so close to me now… And he would kill me without hesitation…

  Without thinking, I raised my hand out and used my Talent.

  Time stopped, and the world changed color. I used the little bit of time before the visions started to my advantage, getting back on my feet and creating as much distance between us as I could. Then, I braced myself for what would come next.

  Visions appeared of him and his family enjoying some sort of Meridian holiday together. I wondered if it was still celebrated. Probably, it wasn’t that long ago. The vision changed to him and his friends. He called out to them as he ran ahead into a forest, all giddy. His friends rolled their eyes at him, but smiled nonetheless. Then, a vision of his magic awakening. I couldn’t help but smile—his expression was filled with awe and wonder, like he had discovered pure bliss… Something in my heart warmed. I had never seen him like this before, and wondered if I ever would again.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  All of that changed in the next vision—fire rained down from the sky as Maverick stood among dozens of corpses. Nausea rose up my stomach and into my throat as I saw the lifeless look on his face, his hands and clothes stained in blood. It was one thing to picture it in my head when he had told me, but another to actually see it. I wanted the vision to end! I wanted it to stop!

  And then it did. And I barely had time to recover, as Maverick was still walking towards me, apparently unaware of what I had just seen. Though he did seem confused about how I had seemingly teleported across the hall.

  I couldn’t beat him. It was impossible. Unless all my Ethereal powers suddenly awakened, I couldn’t do it. I needed to reach out to him another way. “Do you remember Lena?” I asked, calling out the name of his former friend.

  He stopped. There was a look on his face like he was trying to remember, but it was quickly replaced with his previous serious expression as he continued walking forward. He didn’t remember, and he wasn’t going to waste time on me. It had worked, though. Kind of, anyway. Maybe I could get him to remember, but I was losing time. I summoned a shield made out of ice, not knowing if it would do me any good. Holding ice was a lot more slippery than I remembered.

  “What about Florian and Dylan?” I asked, turning so that my back faced the wall. I sidled against it as I tried to get around him while he had stopped. Behind him, there was more room. His expression was angry now, and his steps hastened. I tried to run, but he was inches behind me now. “Finn! Aidan! Zephyr! Sylvis! Rosalie! Do any of those names do anything for you?!” I cried, my shield was cracked by one swipe of his sword. He wasn’t stopping, and I wasn’t powerful enough to stop him. I couldn’t reach him.

  He was going to kill me.

  Tears poured down my face as I stood trapped between him and the wall. He pulled his arm back, preparing to no doubt stab me. I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch. I hoped he would at least make it quick. “Do you remember Ella?” My voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, and more shaky than my hands were.

  I heard a metal clang followed by his voice: “Of course I remember Ella.”

  I opened my eyes to see tears in his as well. His shoulders were slowly shaking, much slower than mine were. I glanced down and realized the ice had frozen both of us in place. Frozen us together.

  My cheeks heated up, and the ice instantly melted. “I-idiot!” I shouted as I pounded my fists into his shoulder blades. He winced a little, but didn’t make any effort to move. “I thought you were going to kill me!”

  “I’m… I’m really sorry.” There was a deep sadness in his quiet voice. Enough to make me stop hitting him.

  “Oh… um, it’s fine. I mean, you didn’t mean to. You were being mind-controlled and all. Better than when Aidan and Zephyr sincerely tried to kill me, right?” I chuckled humorlessly.

  “You know Aidan would have never gone through with it, right?”

  “Well, I certainly didn’t know that at the time. Um, could you maybe bring the others back, by the way?”

  “R-right!” He took a few steps back and turned away from me. It was strange to hear him stutter. A few seconds later, Finn, Marge, and Aidan appeared.

  “Y-you did it?” Aidan looked at me in surprise.

  “Yeah, she got my memories back. Don’t know how she managed that,” Maverick explained. Was it just me, or was there a tint of pink in his cheeks?

  “A-anyway, we should get going. Avaline isn’t going to kill herself, most likely.” Finn quickly beckoned for us to follow him.

  “Right. We gotta find our way out of this creepy simulation,” Marge said.

  “Don’t you think you’re forgetting about someone?” a familiar voice said as a door opened. …Oops. We may have forgotten about Zephyr.

  “Oh, uh, hi Zephyr.” Marge gave a sheepish smile.

  “You forgot about me, didn’t you?” His voice was more dramatic than usual as his head spun to look each of us in the eyes. “Why am I always the last one?!”

  “Sorry, Zephyr. It’s just that Maverick was trying to kill Ella, ya know? And how did you get your memories back?”

  “Well, it started with the juice. Have you thought about how vibrant it is? It made me wonder what ingredients were in it that would give it such a glow, and what ingredients could suppress ether. But really, the glow is what had me intrigued. It made me wonder if it could be some sort of illusion, and then I remembered that I have control over illusions.”

  “And that’s how you remembered?” Aidan asked.

  “No. That’s when I started using my illusions. One of the staff members saw and said, “Oh shit, he’s going to realize he’s being mind controlled.” And then I realized I was being mind-controlled.”

  “…This is our Zephyr, right?” Marge looked at us hesitantly.

  “O-of course it’s me! I’m not some clone or shapeshifter Avaline created to fool you! Though, that isn’t a bad idea.”

  “I think we should leave it behind.”

  Finn shook his head. “He’s our Zephyr. And he conveniently forgot to block his memories again.” Finn smirked.

  Zephyr’s cheeks turned red. “You didn’t see the time that I— Well, n-never mind!”

  With all of that settled, we headed off in the direction of the locked door I came across earlier. Now that all of us were here, we could just… conveniently walk through it because it was no longer locked. Yep, I sure am glad we’re all powerful magical beings! No doors will get between us and an evil empress!

  We walked through the palace halls that were eerily quiet—not a servant in sight. It really gave us time to “admire” the interior decoration that was only more disturbing without people in the way to block it. Did Avaline seriously need five of her heads plastered in gold hanging from a wall? I think not. I scare myself enough just looking in the mirror, so I could never imagine having something like that.

  “Do you think she’ll be in the throne room?” Finn asked.

  “I don’t know. Seems kind of small to have an epic battle in,” Marge replied. “Maybe we should try the ballroom.”

  “But is she even planning on having an epic battle?” I asked. “She probably expects to squash us like bugs. I wouldn’t be surprised if she grew ten times her size just to step on us!”

  “Hot.” I turned to see who said it, because I couldn’t tell if it was Finn or Maverick. Neither of them gave it away. Well then!

  “Throne room or ballroom?” Aidan asked.

  “Ballroom,” Maverick answered. “The lady likes to entertain. She’ll be there.”

  So, we made our way to the ballroom, which also happened to have double doors like every other important room in this oversized house.

  “Wait!” Maverick rushed to stand in front of the doors, which was funny when the rest of us had already stopped ten feet away. Nevertheless, Maverick continued. “Once we go through these doors, there’s no turning back. We’re fighting for our lives in there.”

  “Uh, maybe we should replenish our ether—” I was interrupted by a warm sensation filling my body. I noticed a faint white light surrounding the others as well.

  “I think it just was,” Aidan said.

  “It was probably Talus,” Finn surmised.

  “Are you ready then?” Maverick looked at all of us, but then stopped when he turned to me. “Ella, are you ready? There’s likely going to be a lot of pain ahead, and there’s no guarantee we can protect you.”

  “Yes, I’m ready,” I answered. “It’s something I’ve accepted ever since we decided on facing Avaline.”

  “Zephyr, can we count on you to pull the trigger if it comes down to it?”

  Zephyr clenched his fists before releasing them. “If it comes down to it, I won’t let you down.”

  Maverick nodded. “Whatever happens in there—whatever we face—It’s been one hell of a time knowing you.”