WYLIE

I snap my fingers, and the light surrounding one of the entrances moves a bit. Tam guides his shadows along and suddenly, the entrance is perfectly visible. We walk through, and look up at the giant, destroyed hive.

Pieces of it lie everywhere on the ground, but it is too large to carry home. Tam rolls his eyes. "You people from Foxxfire always forget your telekinesis. It is so useful."

He closes his eyes, and the piece of the hive floats off of the ground. We walk out of the clearing, back into Everglen, and I clear my throat. Tam looks towards me, an eyebrow raised. "Yes?"

I can feel the blood rush to my cheeks, and I'm sure my face is tinged red. "Ah, I wanted to talk to you about your sister. I, um, I was wondering if-"

"You want to know if I'm okay with you liking Linh."

I nod, looking at the ground, avoiding his eyes at any cost. I can hear Tam groan, and then gingerly pat me on the shoulder.

"I'm fine with it. But if you hurt her in any way, I will rip you apart and feed you to a baby troll."

I shudder and nod. I understand the instinct to protect Linh. She's so innocent and sweet, and you don't want her to get hurt, ever.

"Thanks, Tam."

He nods and walks out of Everglen. I follow him, and we light leap back to Havenfield.

Biana, Dex, and Stina are already there, sitting by the Panakes tree. We place the giant piece of hive next to everything else, and small talk with them until the others come back.

LINH

Sandor whistles loudly. Almost immediately, a giant snake pops out of the ground. Marella screams and scrambles backwards, but I think that it's beautiful. Its scales are shiny and yellow, and its eyes are intelligent. "What's her name?"

Sandor smiles at me. "Her name is Twinkle."

Maruca laughs hysterically as we board the carriage to Gildingham. "It's named Twinkle!"

I glare at her. "Twinkle is a she, not an it. And she's absolutely beautiful!" I beam at Twinkle. "Aren't you, you beautiful whittle snakey-flakey."

I can hear Marella and Maruca groan, and suddenly, the carriage comes to a stop. "Are we here already?"

Sandor nods and tells us how Twinkle can go at super high speeds to get to Gildingham quickly. That is very cool. I'm going to ask Tam if we can get a snake once we get home.

We walk towards the golden palace where Queen Hylda lives. As we approach the throne, Sandor drops to his knees in a bow. Marella, Maruca, and I follow suit.

"What is your business for being here?"

"My queen, we have come with a request that would aid us in our quest to vanquish the Neverseen. We have found a way to capture them all, and we wish for an ingredient in the spell to do so."

"And what is this… ingredient?"

Sandor gulps. "An aurified goblin from a battle that ended in victory."

"WHAT?"

Sandor steels himself. "We must stop the slaughter of our people at the hands of the Neverseen. To do so, we need a symbol of victory."

"And you have decided to use one of your fallen comrades," seethes the queen.

"Your Highness, it is a necessary evil."

Queen Hylda narrows her eyes. "Fine. But you must give it back afterwards," she hisses.

"Done," Sandor agrees.

She waves her hand, and we walk into the room full of aurified soldiers. Sandor walks up and down the aisles, trying to keep a straight face, but I can feel the water in his eyes. Finally, he gets to one of the goblins and stops. "This one."

I look at the female goblin with straight hair and a fierce expression. "Why her?"

"She fought in a battle against the ogres. When she died, she took out about half the army with her. Her name is-was-Dessa."

I nod, and pat Sandor's arm. We grab onto Dessa's arm and pull out a leaping crystal. We get swept away by the light, and when we can see again, we're at Havenfield. Tam is already here, so I run up to him. "Tam! Can we get a pet snake? PLEASE?"

Tam rolls his eyes and mumbles about, "Little sisters who always get their way 'cause they're cute."

I smile, knowing we'll be going to the pet store in Atlantis soon.

KEEFE

I have to go to Ravagog. I hate going to Ravagog. I get all sea-sick, and it's gross. And Ro is coming. She'll be teasing me for the entire ride about being sick and clumsy. Ugh.

Well, Sophie will be there. She was good at making me not sea-sick, so it'll be fine. And Percy and I can plan all the pranks.

We get onto Lady Cadence's boat, and Percy looks around approvingly. "No sparkly things, and it's a boat. I like it."

Ro high fives him. "I knew I would like you! You have good taste."

I groan. "I hate it. The river is super rough, and we have to go against the current." Then I have an idea. "Percy, can you change the course of the river?"

Percy stares at me in disbelief. "Dude. I literally blew up a volcano by accident when I was fourteen. I can make your bodily fluids turn against you and tear you apart from the inside with a snap of my fingers. I would be a pretty pathetic son of Poseidon if I couldn't change the way a river is flowing."

I blush, but my head is racing. Did he blow up a mountain? I could definitely use some more blowing up power in my arsenal. But the other thing is a bit… unsettling. I hope he never uses it.

Ro pokes Percy in the stomach. "Hey. Don't make Keefe feel stupid. Only I'm allowed to make Keefe feel stupid."

Percy rolls his eyes. He flicks his hands, and the river churns, then switches direction. Lady Cadance raises her eyebrows, impressed. "Thank you. That'll make this much easier." Percy nods.

We start to sail down the river. Sophie is standing at the front of the boat, the spray dampening her clothes and hair.

Percy pulls me into one of the corners of the boat. "Keefe. If I'm ever doing something with my powers that would hurt someone, kill me."

I jerk back in shock and horror. "WHAT?"

Sophie glances at us. Percy smiles and says, "Just planning our next prank. I just blew his mind." She turns away again.

"What do you mean kill you? Why would I kill you?" I whisper furiously

He looks out over the water and absentmindedly flicks a finger. The water next to the boat shoots up into a geyser, which responds to the raising and lowering of Percy's pinky. "Because then I'll hurt you guys. And if I do that, I'll never be able to forgive myself. So promise me, you'll kill me if I try to hurt someone with my powers."

"I can't."

"You have to!"

"I-I-"

"Listen, Keefe. If I hurt one of you, I will try to kill myself. It won't work, but I will find a way. I'll end up dead either way. Please, Keefe. You have to."

I can feel the intensity in his gaze, but I can also feel the guilt and the sorrow coming off of him. I don't know if that's just because I'm an Empath, but I know that he's sincere. And that's what makes it up for me. The guilt he feels now, which will only get worse if something actually happens, is the guilt I feel whenever my mother hurts someone. He needs me to do this.

"Fine. But if there is any other way to stop you, I will use that. I will try my hardest not to kill you."

He gives me a weak lop-sided grin. "Thanks, Keefe. Now we have to plan a prank."

I snort. "We can do that later."

TIME SKIP

"From now on, don't say anything you don't want the ogres to hear."

Percy sniggers. "I have plenty of ideas. How riled up to ogres get when they're mad?"

Sophie shudders. "You don't want to know."

We land on the bank of the river, and I jump off the boat. I didn't get very seasick this time, but still. I will always prefer land.

Percy just shakes his head. "I don't understand how anyone could hate water. I could honestly live in it forever."

A deep growly voice says, "I can help you with that. Except, you wouldn't be living."

King Dimitar steps out of the shadows. Percy looks at him, then takes his pen out of his pocket and flicks the cap off. Immediately, it turns into a sword. "Who are you?"