(Content/trigger warnings for this chapter: anxiety)

**Isabelle**

She had arrived. Someone who could protect me. Someone to make my fears go away, who… could defend others when I couldn't. Mother Nature's green dress and dark hair mixed with the nature and shadows around her. My chest heaved in relief.

But then something crashed behind me. I jumped and spun. Ranya lay on the ground with dark frost glinting on her chest like wicked crystals. Her eyes were closed. The frost was spreading.

My heart pounded as I spun back to face Mother Nature. "Can you save Ranya?" I pleaded, pointing. "Please!" Mother Nature, Jamie, and Sophie followed my finger. Jamie and Mother Nature strode forward, while Sophie's fists balled her ripped, bloody dress as she looked away.

"I don't know what this is," Jamie rushed out. He turned to Mother Nature. "Can you stop it?"

She narrowed her eyes at the frost and held her hand over Ranya. "This power is very dark. Death. I can feel it." How powerful was she? She met my eyes. "Someone with light powers would have a greater chance at ending it."

I glanced down at my symbol again. Its silver star-like G was nearly complete, only the tip of the downward-pointing hook left.

But Mother Nature was here. She would protect me from Pitch.

Yet, what about…

"Can you fight the soother?" I asked.

"I've never heard of this being, except in your letter," she responded. "But I will do my best to withstand her if she arrives." She paused. "This may help you save your sister." Mother Nature raised her arms, and torrents ripped through the forest around us. The wind snapped trees in half and into the air. Rocks tore from the dirt, and the wind outside the unaffected circle in the center turned a dull, cloudy brown. It roared an all-consuming blare like the blast of an airplane taking off. Mother Nature threw her arms out, and the torrents reached farther: ten, twenty, fifty feet away.

The soothing woman wouldn't be able to get close to the tornado and affect Mother Nature.

But what if the being was already inside?

I opened my mouth to the powerful woman beside me, who immediately shook her head.

"I've sensed a… presence in Windshallow before," she shouted over the storm. "She's not here."

My heart beat slower despite the sound that nearly hurt my ears. Some of fear's binds in my chest slackened, and for once in four days, I could breathe. I found it possible to crouch over Ranya's chest; not easy—it was a slow, painful process—but possible. Fear wouldn't force me to leave someone to paralysis or a kidnapping. I could actually help people.

The frost had reached Ranya's shoulders and abdomen now, pressing her clothes into her skin and sinking through the fabric. Perhaps even deeper.

And I didn't know what to do. Create a shield? Stop the frost in time? How could any of my powers get rid of this ice? I hovered my hands over the cold surface and thought hard about creating a shield between the frost and Ranya. It was my best guess. A shield. Shield shield shield shield shield.

Nothing happened. I shut my eyes and pictured the blue blooming from my fingertips and peeling the ice off with a crack. But what if this didn't work? What would happen?

I peeked from under my eyelids. The ice had crawled up Ranya's neck, and down to her elbows and legs.

A shield, I tried to think as I squeezed my eyes shut again. A shield that slides beneath the frost. Shield, shield, shield.

I blinked. Still, nothing had happened. The frost neared Ranya's knees and nose.

Yet my mind was just clear enough that I could still think. I plucked a stick from the ground and tossed it at the frost's surface. The twig bounced off, and the ice didn't crawl up the wood. But would it attack me, a person? And if I couldn't figure this out, would Ranya die? What if the frost spread everywhere once it finished with her?

Sophie knelt next to me, gave me a sympathetic look, and touched the ice with her pinky. My chest squeezed for her. She pulled her hand back and we stared at it, me clutching my hands together, waiting to see if frost appeared on hers. One second, two, three, four. Nothing.

My heart pounding harder, I pushed my whole hands against the frost. I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on a shield again. Throwing off the frost. Shield, shield, shield.

What if this didn't work? Mother Nature might not be able to hold the tornado forever. If Ranya didn't defeat Pitch, the Watcher, and everyone else, what would happen to me? I would likely die!

I blinked. The ice had spread to Ranya's ankles and eyebrows. It quickly approached her toes and the top of her head.

Light. Light. Light.

Why was I thinking that?

What if the frost took control of Ranya, and she attacked me? Would Mother Nature have to kill her? The ice crept over the toes of Ranya's boots.

Light light light.

If she died, who would take my place?

LIGHT. LIGHT. LIGHT.

What would happen to my family?

PLEASE.

Something glowed through my eyelids, and I opened them to see a blue beam—pure, soft, full light—burst from my fingertips.

It surged across the frost in a wave, twinkling and scattering. Its sprinkles bled and seeped into the ice around it, lightening it to Jack's normal pale blue frost. The ice faded to glitter and evaporated.

The blue glowing wisps fluttered back into my fingers. My heart rate slowed.

Ranya's eyes blinked open.

We all stared. Sophie stood and stepped back. I had done it. I had managed to save someone. A smile broke out on my face, but soon it dropped and cracked on the ground, my heart twisting with a slow, sharp yank. What about the other people that had been hurt because of me? I hadn't been able to save them.

"Are… Are you all right?" I asked Ranya over the roar of the tornado.

She erupted into laughter.

She tried to sit up but fell back onto the dirt. Her eyes traveled to each of us. Then she brushed her hands against the ground, and her roaring grew more uncontrollable.

"I love grass!" she laughed. Then her gaze shot to the tornado around us, and she leaped to her feet before promptly falling back down. "A tornado? I've always wanted to see a real one!"

We all stared as she continued to roar.

"Ranya, are you all right?" I shouted.

She turned toward me but didn't cease laughing.

"The fake Jack hit you!" I continued.

Ranya patted her chest. "Yeah." Then she turned back to the tornado and fell on her side, still laughing.

"What's wrong with her?" Jamie asked me.

"I don't know," I replied, glancing back at Mother Nature, wondering if she knew anything. She shook her head.

Ranya sat up again, grinning. "You know what I want to see next? The Bermuda Triangle!"

At that, something occurred to me. "Ranya, how old are you?"

"16? Wow, I'm super old." She flopped back to the ground.

Something deep inside told me what to do. I bent over and placed my hand on her forehead. Her eyes narrowed in on my fingers. "What are you doing?"

"Ranya, wake up." My voice was light and fluttery.

The smile vanished from her face. I stood and backed away. She blinked and grabbed for her stick. "What the heck?"

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