Fire blazes all around me, never once burning my skin or that of the people hidden within its depths from the man standing on the northern wall. He's not alone, but he's not currently my concern, no matter how much I want to push the flames threatening to snake up the wall to swallow him whole. No matter what, I need to keep Xaxias here.

The fire element has been stacking its strength, and the wind feels just as strong redirecting the smoke. I've been playing with the directions of the wind for the past few days, that way when the smoke did blow over the castle they wouldn't think it was me doing it and think lesser of my ability. There's no pain lancing up my arms, no real struggle to keep the large section of flames burning high and bright. Yet. I don't know how long I can hold it, and trying to keep the heat of the fire from burning my friends and the bags of explosive powder takes a lot of concentration.

I don't need to be near him to hear what he says, and something tells me he doesn't either.

"Come for something?" He asks, the air element vibrating with the scratch of his voice. My mind goes back to that day in the ballroom. His voice, the wave of death that constantly rolled off him as it does now, bucking and pulling to be set free - to kill.

"No. I just thought I'd take a page from your books and be dramatic to come say hello," I spout sarcastically, thinking about what Clare would say in this instant.

"Well, you have my attention now. So what is it you've come to say?"

I shake my head, letting a smirk rise to my cheek. "How many idiotic questions will you be asking today? Funny. I suppose that's an idiotic question in itself."

"You're quick-witted like your friends," he says through his teeth.

"Did you expect anything less? You can, after all, see that we're teenagers, can you not? We're naturally and annoyingly quick-witted."

"And meddlesome."

We drift into silence, the only sound of the elephant grass crackling under the heat filling our ears. I panic a little, trying to find something to say to keep him intrigued. My eyes move before my mouth can, focusing on the bored expression on Willdred's face. Never will I call him Will, not when the nicknames remind me of the one person he's broken more times than once.

Xaxias notices my stare, standing straighter as I will the flames to lick the few bricks in front of them. "I'm rather disappointed, Darius. I really thought that you'd burn Will where he stands."

"Willdred's life is not mine to take."

The fire is beginning to ask more of me, but I'm not feeling the effects of tiredness yet, so I keep pushing, inching the flames higher, and pretending that though they stay a few feet away from them, that they're burning every inch of them.

Xaxias sighs dramatically, making me roll my eyes. "Ah, yes. Sadly, I do not believe either of his pursuers will be able to put the knife in his heart. Tell me. Could you? Could you kill him?" He leans forward, my flames so close to his skin that I can feel his breath against them. It'd take a thought from me and...

I don't answer, taking the second to make sure no one hiding is burning. My fingers twitch in front of me, and then Willdred is clawing at his throat trying to swallow down the air that won't come. I keep my eyes on Xaxias, matching his challenging stare. I can see it in his eyes, even from here I can see it. He's daring me to kill, daring me to show him that I can and will kill if asked to. I don't have blood on my hands, don't have the names of those I've killed constantly echoing in my head, plaguing my nightmares. I don't have reddened hands yet, but I know what will be asked of me come the fight I'll have to throw to win. I know that after all of this, I'll have a long list of the enemy and ally lives alike to repeat to myself, but that list doesn't start with Willdred Maron.

Willdred falls to the ground the second air rushes back into his lungs. Xaxias stands straight up again, looking at me with disappointment. He's growing tired of me, and I need to give the others more time before he leaves to find everyone else.

"Despite his clear, screaming label as a traitor, I see no kill mark. I gain nothing from his death aside from a slight joy, and that's already been taken from me."

"You love her that much?" he asks, tilting his head. "From what Eleanor says, you knew her not more than five cycles."

"Sometimes that's all it takes," I answer plainly. He narrows his eyes, but I only shrug, not letting a spec of the pain I feel at the mention of her or love show.

Longing is like a long blade, driving slowly into your skin and grazing agaist bone. I miss her, that much I can tell clear as day, but every time I try to feel as I did before or go back relive the memories where I found myself staring at her longer or catching her when she has her head tilted up either to music notes or to the sun, I can't remember what it felt like. I can't remember if it was love or something else, but I know that I miss that too, and I'm afraid that it will never come back.

"You know nothing. You know nothing of who she is," Will spits, standing back up. His breath is still quickened, his face beginning to glisten with sweat and blackened with the soot in the smoke. I can feel the tiny particles on his cheek, I can feel how easy it would be to light them and cause the sparks to burn his flesh.

Again, I shrug. "I know more than you believe."

"Oh? And do you know where she is now?" Xaxias asks, daring another towards the flames. My hand clenches, causing the flames to pulse and burn blue with the amount of heat I push into them. A small sliver of flame snakes out at my command, biting his arm like a snake. He quickly steps back, the vein between his brows beginning to show.

"You know nothing of love, Eternal." The flames pull back down, sweat beginning to form on my own brow as the fire becomes harder to keep sustained.

"I know more than you believe," he says, repeating my own words back at me.

"No, you don't."

Instinct has me throwing up a wall of flames around the woman who popped out of nowhere, causing my focus on the flames against the wall to flicker before I regain control of it again. She doesn't yell in pain and doesn't seem to do more than stare darkly at Xaxias. I look at him, finding his face pulled into what could be nothing but fear. It's a faint expression that doesn't last more than a few heartbeats, but it's there nonetheless, and Willdred looks just as frightened, if not more. For that reason alone, I let the flames around her sputter out, and she turns to me.

"Meus Rex," she greets, her voice like that of a luring siren's. She places two fingers on her brow, bowing at the waist. I feel Garrison and the others begin to move towards her, but seeing as she's not one of his, I pull on the air element to keep them where they are.

Her hair's an astonishing shade of red, almost blending in with my fire. Her green eyes stand out against her pale skin, especially with the ring of gold around her pupil that seems to be glowing. "It's an honor to finally meet you."

I return the gesture, dipping my chin with years of formality training taking over as my mind goes blank with rampant questions.

"Willa." The woman and I both turn back to Xaxias who now looks at her with a whole different expression. Rage. It's pure rage spilling off of him, churning the air into spikes and whips while outright fear pours off of Willdred like ice water.

"Miss me?" the woman - Willa - croons.

"I miss the stench of your blood spilling." He steps closer, and this time as I once again raise the flames, he doesn't back off as they slowly singe his clothes, and then his skin.

She smiles widely at him, only aggravating him more. "I bet you do. Sorry to ruin your fun, but unlike you, I can't stand the smell of charred flesh. You'll have to excuse us." She turns to me, still perfectly calm.

"You'll always run, Willa," he screams, practically leaping into the flames I burn white hot now. "You never could face me, always sending your pawns to do the dirty work, and just like pawns, they will fall."

She ignores him and instead holds out her hand toward me. "Take my hand, Meus Rex. Your friends have already been taken to safety, and you're beginning to weaken. We must leave before you fall." I glance back to the wall, watching as the fire thins and the wind slows. That last push cost me. "Don't worry about them, they won't touch you so long as I'm here, but time is running short."

"Who are you?" I ask, still not sure about her.

"My name is Willa Daleka Zoraida Verken. I am from Thralia, allies and close friends to the Ginerva who are currently keeping your friends out of harm's way. If you wouldn't mind, Meus Rex, we must go before one of them is endangered."

"You're a coward, Willa!" Xaxias continues, trying not to look as anxious as he feels. "Saving people you know you can never keep from me. I took your daughters! I will take him!" She doesn't flinch at his implication, doesn't even look to have heard him.

The name Willa finally brings up a memory of Gretel mentioning the name alongside The Ginerva. Gretel spoke of her briefly with awe and respect, not to mention I let Melody roam free in hopes she'd find the Ginerva, and if they're here then she succeeded. So I take her hand.

"You can pull it back now," she tells me, nodding to the fire.

I do, watching it wink out as I release a much-needed deep breath. The wind dies alongside it and I have all of one second to watch as a large wave of thick blackness rises behind Xaxias before everything goes blurry, and I feel like my whole body is being squeezed through a very small space.