The last chapter! Here we go...

Disclaimer: I do not own Richelle Mead's world or characters.

The last time Adrian and I had been up late working with spirit, one of us had been able to use it. Now, both of us are useless, and we still find a way to occupy ourselves with trying until almost two in the morning.

"It doesn't make any sense!" I cry and fling the ring onto the carpet. My eyes burn. My throat is tight. I am too tired, stressed, and frustrated to be emotionally stable.

"Just try one more time," Adrian says and picks the ring back up.

"No, I need to go figure out something else. This isn't going to work."

"It has to work."

I take the ring back and hold it, but I don't try again. "I haven't even glimpsed it."

"Maybe you're like Lissa? You won't really see anything until you try to heal something? I think I have a dying houseplant somewhere around here..."

"But she could use compulsion! Maybe not to this extent, not in making charms. But she could use it."

"Well I guess your magic is different then ours. Or Sydney's. You did try Sydney's right?"

"I might have snuck a look at Ms. Terwilliger's book and tried a simple spell. It didn't work. It was supposed to be a super easy spell too."

"Well, then you're not moroi, and you're not human."

I stare at the ring. "We better figure out what I am before tonight, or Sydney's going to be traumatized like heck."

"You're a traveler. It must not be like how witches are human. It must be a whole other thing."

"But I can't control the stuff I do. It just happens."

"Whenever you read something, right?"

"Whenever I read a book, a story. Once it happened in a memoir, which was realy weird."

"Okay..." He goes over to a kitchen drawer and pulls a notepad and pen from it. "Maybe I can write the steps to make a charm? In, like, narrative or something?"

My phone buzzes in my pocket. I ignore it.

"You're going to try to write a memoir?"

"I'm going to try and save Sydney!"

He's scribbling away already. My phone has stopped. I walk, well more stumble in my sleeplessness, to where he stood and try to look over his shoulder. He moves the pad away from me.

My phone starts buzzing again. I pull it out and look at the screen. It says I.C.E. On my phone at home, I put Dad in as my In Case of Emergancy, but it wasn't Dad's number.

Confused, I click talk.

"Hello?"

"It's not the reading," says a voice on the other end. It sounds familiar. "It's the feeling."

"What are you talking about?"

"Words aren't magical on their own. They need a mind to feel them. Think about it. You always go into books that make you feel. The feelings trigger the magic."

Click.

I don't know who it was, and I don't care.

"Adrian," I say, "Don't write what to do, write what it feels like when you use spirit."

He glances up at me for a second. "Why?"

"Just do it." I don't want to admit I don't know.

He writes. I want to sit down, but I don't for fear of falling asleep.

He hands me the paper. His handwriting is bad, but I can still read it.

It feels like when you're six years old and running down to the christmas tree, knowing there's presents there, and not regular presents, but magical ones from Santa. That's just when you take hold of it. Then, you use it, and it feels like your ripping open those gifts, but at the same time you feel sick, like on a roller coaster, like when the car rushes forward too fast an it feels like your stomach is being yanked from your body.

I feel it as he describes it, just like I do when I'm reading.

And the ring starts to pulsate.

I look up, to Adrian, and he's watching me. Waiting. Around him is a faint violet glow.

Well, this explains my hypochondria.

.

Exausted, I let myself collapse onto my bed. The alarm clock reads three. I've got three hours to sleep. Sydney isn't here.

I close my eyes.

.

"Evie!" Sydney is shaking me. "Wake up."

I blink my eyes open and glance at the clock. Six thirty.

"What?" is all I can mumble.

"We're late. Come on."

She's already dressed. Though she looks as tired as I feel, she goes over to my closet as I'm sitting up and tosses my uniform at me. "Here."

She turns her back.

I pull it on quickly. "Today's the last day," I say.

"What are you talking about?"

"Today's the last day of the book."

Sydney is silent at first. I tug on the itchy skirt.

"Are you going to tell me the end?" she asks, still facing the closet.

"Well now there's no point. It'd just scare you. Adrian will tell you tomorrow."

"Or you could. Best to have a direct source, right?"

I don't say no. But I also don't answer. "At the beginning of your independent study, Adrian's going to pick you up."

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere better than the alternative." Court if they make it.

"And how will that help?"

I ignore that too. "I need the love phone. Oh, I'm dressed now."

She turns around. "Why do you need the phone?"

"I just need it, okay?"

She gives me a hard look and tosses the phone at me. Both of us are too tired to be nice.

But this might be the last time I see her.

"Hey, bring your stuff with you. As much as you can," I tell her. "You won't be coming back here."

The hard look on her face slackens a bit. "Will I see everyone again?"

"Yeah," I say, not actually sure.

"Does this have to do with Zoe?"

I keep my mouth locked in a thin line.

"It does doesn't it."

"I've got everything under control."

"Did she figure it out or something?"

"Sydney," I normally don't look people straight in the eyes. At least not for a long time. It feels awkward and makes me nervous. But I do now. "You can't give any indication that you know, or this will end very badly. For you. For Adrian. For me. For Jill. For Eddie." I shake my head. "God, it messes with Ms. Terwilliger's head. Just do what I said, and I'll take care of it. I promise."

And this time, I believe myself.

I slip the charmed ring into my pocket before I go down to breakfast.

.

In the cafeteria, I pull Eddie aside.

"I need your help," I say.

He's holding a tray of pancakes, a bottle of juice, and a tiny cup of syrup. But he puts them on the empty table I dragged him to and says, "What do I need to do?"

"I need a ride tonight."

He picks the tray back up.

"It's essential," I say, seeing him deflate at his lack of importance. "If I don't get there, Sydney's going to be taken to re-education."

"What's that?" He asks. I can tell he's thinking what I thought before we saw Keith the first time. Is it like school? They just teach you stuff until you believe them?

"It's a torchure center with a jazzed up name, basically."

He frowns. "So where am I driving you to?"

"You're not going to like it, but to go in her place."

He opens his mouth to argue, but I cut him off.

"Eddie, I'm going to wake up in my realm tomorrow morning. Or maybe, maybe the morning after. If Sydney goes, she'll be there for a long time. I can't get her out of it without going into it."

He looks over at the table. Sydney's halfway through a greek yogurt. Jill is whispering something to her, Zoe no where to be found. Neil looks confused and horrified, making me think Jill brought up something girly. Angeline looks amused as heck.

"Okay. I'll do it."

"Thanks. I'll call you when."

.

I have the book in front of me when the text comes in. I text Zoe back with the same words Sydney would have, and I hope she and Adrian are already long gone.

I call Eddie.

He answers with, "I'm on my way."

.

We're more than halfway there when I pull out the ring.

I don't tell him I'm going to put it on, to make sure he's able to see the disguise. I want to make sure it works.

"Look here for a second," I tell him.

He glances over and does a double take. "Wait- How did-?"

"Charm."

He looks back at the road but keeps glancing at me. I can tell when he stops seeing it by his stance. "How did you do that if Adrian can't use spirit?"

"Adrian can't, but I can."

He doesn't question me further.

I bite my lip so hard, my fangs cut my teeth. I'm still not sure how this works. I pull a napkin from the dashboard and hold it to my mouth.

Eddie doesn't mention it.

When we're about to pull in, I pull the napkin from my lip, fold it, and put it in a little trash bag hooked onto the back of my seat.

We exit the car and start to go in. I know I can't talk or the whole thing will be ruined, but I want to just get it over with.

One guy comes out of the shadows and tries to grab me.

I pull away automatically, and Eddie yanks my arm, barely pulling me out of reach of another. It takes all I have not to yelp. My shoulders hurt from last night.

Eddie pulls me outside, and I almost tell him to stop, but I can't talk. I can't ruin it.

I see Zoe and Jarad Sage. Or who I assume is Jarad Sage.

I pull my arm from Eddie, making it hurt more, and go to them.

"Sydney," Jarad says, "Come with us and we'll let him go. We don't need him."

"We just want to help," Zoe says. She looks like she's begging me to understand.

I almost tell her what she's trying to do, but I know all that will do is rat me out. Then they won't have enough time to get to Court. I don't know how long this will last. I might just disappear when I wake up. But I want to give them as much time as possible to get to a safe place.

I walk to them, slowly. I don't have to feign terror. I really am scared.

Jarad Sage grabs my arm and pulls me to the car. I gasp. And I thought Eddie's grip hurt. I didn't realize how gentle he was being.

He practically throws me into the car.

"He brainwashed you," Zoe said, "We're going to help you."

"You're lucky we're taking the time to do this," Jarad says. They climb in behind me. "There's no way to tell how far gone you are, but I know it's bad. And I'll do whatever it takes to undo whatever he's done to you."

I want to give him the line that Sydney did. Really? Cause he did everything to me. But I can't. I stay silent, and I look down.

I feel the pinch of a needle in my neck. It makes me flinch. Needles scare me, but re-education scares me more.

The floor rocks beneath me, either from the serum or the car starting to move. I sit up, dizzily, long enough to take one last look at Eddie.

His eyes are huge, and I can tell he regrets what he's doing.

There was no choice.

The world blurs and the edge of my vision turns dark.

I lay my head on my lap.

.

I wake up to a yellow wall, my wall in my room. I guess they took the ring off. I didn't have to wake up in re-education like I though I'd have to.

I roll over to check the time. I always sleep late on nights when this happens.

There's a woman in my room, sitting on my desk chair.

It's my mom.

She stands up, places the gift wrapped box she was holding onto the chair and leaves.

Groggy, I reach up and touch the salt chrystal. It was real. It was real.

I sit up and go to the box. It has my name on it.

Dad comes in when I'm starting to pull a corner of the paper. "Happy birthday, honey! I have a sixteen year old daughter now!" He hugs me.

When he pulls away, I ask, "Where's Mom?"

He frowns. "What are you talking about?"

I motion to the present. "She left it here. I saw her a second ago."

He goes to pick up the present, but when he touches it, he pulls away. "Oh! Ow!" he shakes his hand. "That stung."

"It didn't sting me."

He frowns. "Don't touch it."

"I have to open it."

He presses his lips together, like I do sometimes, and nods.

I rip the paper from the box and open it.

Inside, there is a journal. When I flip through it, there are two people's handwriting. On the first page, there are two names: Therese Burrs and Jackie Terwilliger.

Since no one voted on the poll, I've decided I will likely do Silver Shadows next. (I suppose it matters how I feel when the book comes out, but Ms. T is now important, so... This series just took a turn I didn't expect. But anyway, I hope you all liked it! Please, if you have any ideas for ways I can improve my writing, leave them in the comments! And I hope to see you in the next edition of Travel Through! :D