Scrubbing my hands through my hair, I groan as I sit up and sweep my arm haphazardly to cover the ceiling's hole. Ice crackles as it slides past itself, blocking the approaching footmen. I massage out the stone dust and attempt to focus my eyes in the dark. The aged subway tunnel shivers and pops in the dark distance as the rumbling overhead begins to settle. 

My fingers touch the cold, wet metal of a long damp train track, and I realize why my body aches so badly.

Helen climbs to a sitting position, rubbing her temple with her palm. "Ouch..." she winces as she tilts her head to the side. "Did you have to drop us?"

"I panicked," I admit with a sigh. "I've been working with Tiberius on my magic, but I'm rusty on the execution of these spells." 

Straightening, I take inventory of the tunnel system. We're at a fork; only instead of two directions, it goes off in multiple different paths of varying darkness. Dusting my hands off, I slowly climb to my feet and test my battered body. While I certainly feel capable, I'm not pleased with the surface that I landed on.

My chest feels wet, and I dab at the leaking injury with a grumble as I freeze the blood to prevent more seepage. "What is this?"

"A subway, much like they have in New York, only this looks quite old. The subways in the US are steel and concrete. This looks like... brick?" She stumbles over the railway, and I tilt my head as I fathom the tunnel's sheer size.

"Feels much too tall to be a simple subway. This isn't on any of the maps I've seen of this area." Pulling up my phone, I shake it with a frown. The cracked screen flickers and shimmers as it attempts to repair itself. A small light blinks at me, reminding me to be patient while the machine assesses its damage. "No phone. Did you bring yours?"

Embarrassed, she glances at the ground. "No."

"We need to think about your responsibilities and lack of duty to them." I chastised her; she'd gotten so cavalier since Verando had gone. "Go on, smell around, and find this water source you locked onto."

Rolling her eyes, she lightly treads down the path as I huddle closer to her for warmth. The chill of the tunnel causes our breath to form before our mouths, a distant glimmer flickers just out of our range of sight, and she gestures with her chin. Simple enough, though, I didn't hear anything to indicate the pool had motion.

The water has an iridescent sheen to it, the closer we get, the brighter it seems to glimmer under lights that appear from within. The tunnel was almost black; there couldn't be enough illumination to create such a strong beacon. Finally, as we lean closer, drawn to the brightness beam in the dark cold, I begin to feel that nagging suspicion.

Where had I seen this light before?

"Do you hear it?" Helen asks, her voice a whisper, entranced.

"Hear what?" I listen, but only the steady drip of aged pipes in brick walls echoes through the chamber. The light steadily grows more substantial, and I inhale sharply. "Helen!" I hiss, grabbing her arm to yank her behind a falling piece of rubble, pulling her down into a sitting position as we press our backs to the chilly surface. The beaded water from the moisture in the air clings to our coats, producing an outward chill that slowly creeps inward. 

My teeth threaten to chatter.

With an explosive gasp, the water erupts and pours forth its bounty onto the abandoned tracks. It almost seems to sizzle, hissing, and whispering as it reforms the pool, and the man surfaces as if he were walking upstairs. 

"Stay in there, you damned lizard." Gabriel snaps, cursing to himself as he stomps off the icy surface and onto the flat ground. "Useless. Completely useless."

"Gabriel." Helen mouths, her eyes wide. I desperately want to steal a peek, but I dare not even breathe.

The gentle cluck of keys on a pad chimed lightly against the walls. "Can you hear me? Hello?"

 I almost think he's talking to us; his voice is monotone. Tapping his finger lightly on the glass, he exhales slowly as if it were the most significant inconvenience he'd suffered all day. 

"Good help is so hard to find these days. Wouldn't you agree?"

My eyes flicker to Helen, and she shrugs, just as bewildered as I am. Could he possibly know we were here?

"I'm the best help you've got, mind you." We were caught. 

By Helen's senses, no one else occupied this domain save for us. I prepare myself, drawing energy to my fingertips.

"The only help I need." He chuckles. 

Helen grabs my hand abruptly, flinching at the chill. 

"I do thank you for joining me today; I don't know what I'd do without you."

My mouth twists, and all at once, I feel overwhelmingly sad as I lean back against the stone. He's talking to himself; the poor man had gone insane. Or, perhaps, this was his inner monologue much as I had, only his manifested more outwardly. Whatever the reason, the deep sense of remorse for the long-lost son stabbed me through my emotional core.

Helen shakes her head at my sympathy. "Don't you dare." She mouths through her teeth. I'm not foolish; I don't wish to perish so early in the game. While I feel I could take Gabriel, I don't know if I'd survive such a fight. 

Defeat him, positively, but remain intact? Questionable. The back and forth in my head makes me question my sanity, was I so different from him?

 Could this have been me if Verando had not come along to destroy the very fabric that wished to make me this way?

"Hello." The natural tone brings us both to pause. 

Shifting our eyes, we spot the hooded face peering around the brick at us. My heart leaps into my chest as we startle, too shocked even to consider moving. 

"If you're going to hide in plain sight, I suggest a glamor." 

The rock behind us begins to shiver, and as the icy spikes jut sharply from its surface, I yank Helen away and pull her to her feet.

His hand follows us, producing spikes wherever we move, narrowly missing our feet on the wet surface. There's too much ammunition, but in that very thought, I remind myself that I am of the same breed. In a quick shove, I send the energy back towards him, closing my fist and thrusting up to form a blunt force that makes contact with his stomach, sending him flying across the vast space.

"Damn, Nic." Helen breathes, impressed. I felt strong, unbelievably strong. Staring at my hands, I twist them back and forth, startling as she gasps, and I sling my hands upward to block the massive ball of ice and rock hurtled towards us. 

"I knew you were strong-" Her breath catches, and she inhales. "Fergus.."

"What?" I demand, kicking the ice back at him and cursing as he dodges. The walls shiver, and I quickly form an ice barrier overhead to protect us from falling bricks.

"Fergus!" she shouts. "Fergus! I smell Fergus!" 

Running towards the water, Gabriel lands in front of her, delivering a blow with a gust of wind. She cries out as her shoulder hits the ground, catching herself and scrambling back to her feet.

Gabriel 'tsks', waggling his finger. "You shouldn't go where you're not invited."

Gritting my teeth, I bring the water up from underneath him and cast him towards the ceiling. "Keep him from the water! He can't close it if he can't touch it!"

Irritated, Gabriel rains down a massive cylinder of air on me, the twisting vortex siphoning all air from my person as the end envelopes my body. This was new, Solomonari magic wasn't meant to be used this way. I clutch my throat, fighting to free myself, hearing the white wolf's snarl as Helen tackles Gabriel to the ground. Falling to my knees, I cough and sputter.

Digging my fingers into the silt, I freeze it solid and pin him to the ground beneath her. "Rip his damn throat out!" I thunder, blinking away the tears as my body fights for oxygen. With a loud crack, he kicks her square in the stomach, and her back hits the roof with immense force. I pull water off the pond, using it to catch her, and Gabriel practically screams at me in anger.

"Careful with that." He spits, eyes crazed, teeth clenched—the first piece of unbridled rage we'd seen, of any emotion.

Blinking, I twiddle my fingers, stirring the water. "With this?"

"Stop!" With the wind behind his voice, the echo is enough to rumble through the tunnel. "These passages are critical to my work!"

"Come and get me then."

The challenge stirs a rage that I deem only capable among the mentally insane. I've seen it in my sister. I've even seen it in myself, the way one's pupils shrink down, and their skin reddens. It's as if their form doesn't wish to partake in such an act—the cape billows behind him as he charges at me, propelled by the wind. 

I consider how he must feel, for I echo that same throb to protect those around me. He feels he's doing the right thing; he has my passion and his mother's spirit.

For a moment, I'm proud. Vaguely, I can hear Helen shouting in the background, and yet the still is quite comforting. Not afraid, I can merely wonder how it will feel to kill my only actual flesh and blood. Lifting my hand, I begin to chant. In his anger, he's too obsessed with me to defend himself. 

While the school had taught him about magic and fighting, they didn't teach him the most significant thing I discovered in my travels.

Self-control.

I allow the lightning to come from my palm; it strikes with a blinding force in the immense light. When I see past the squint, wondering if he were dead, my heart sinks to realize he is holding the ball of energy in his hands. 

Breathing heavily, his sleeves burned off his jacket, hands scalded, he stares at me wildly. "A cheap trick. Would you like to see mine?"

"Get up, Nic!" Helen screams, her jaws closing on his leg. The bolt escapes his hand and strikes the ceiling, raining brick and surface down on us at the rate of a steady hail.

The instinct to protect is strong. I push my hands up, gathering the water from around us and forcing it against the ceiling. "NO!" Gabriel shouts, kicking free of Helen to tackle me to the ground. The ceiling wrenches, cracking like hot thunder among the clouds. "Not the pond! You can't move the pond!"

"You'll kill us all!" I seeth, propelling him off me as the ceiling cracks once more, the entire tunnel shakes wildly, and I leap for Helen. She lowers her body, ducking so that I can climb onto her back, and makes a race for the far end of the tunnel. We pass the water as the ceiling collapses. 

I grasp the pond and form a barrier overhead, the entirety of the roof crashes down on us in what sounds like the rumbling of giants. Dust and soot plume in big inky clouds as the sparks from the falling rocks ignite small pockets and form bursts of energy.

All at once, it threatens to overwhelm me, and I shout a spell, feeling it threaten to suck me dry. When I open my eyes, I hear Helen calling my name and see the familiar black nose poking my cheek. "Helen?" I grumble, feeling as though I've gone through this whole thing once more. The wet tracks under my back threatened to maim me for life with their imposing force, so uncomfortable, on my body that'd been carelessly cast over them by fatigue.

"Can... can you control what you're doing?"

"What I'm doing?" I repeat, taking a glance around to see that I've effectively frozen the rock. All around us, in various stages of descent, it remains frozen in time. "How..?" 

She looks as if she might succumb to it herself if I were to ask her to unveil the mysteries of my magic. Twisting my hands, I expect the darkening of deadly amounts of drain, and yet my skin is the best color it'd been since this began.

In the distance, I hear a weak chuckle. "Wow. I'm impressed."

Standing, I lean on Helen as we carefully tread through the frozen rock, not daring to touch it. "Gabriel?"

He's squeezed under a spike, pinned to the ground by his shoulder. While it's not a fatal injury, yet, he could use medical attention. "Using the pond's ability to freeze these rocks, that's an advanced trick. You paused time effectively."

That seems quite illogical. I near him but Helen catches my jacket. "What're you doing?" She demands. "Kill. Him."

Her point, while short, is valid. I had always told myself that if it came to this, I would accept this option quite clearly. I could not allow Gabriel to live. "You're right." I sigh. 

He should not know me; we don't need to bond or mend this broken relationship; there was no one to form or recreate. He had no idea who I was. Lifting my hand, he doesn't look afraid.

"Are you not even going to introduce yourself?"

"Would it matter?" I murmur.

Through the beard, my eyes gaze back at me. While he looks much older than I am, he doesn't look unlike me. His clothes remind me of my outfit, seeking out items that evoke the memory of home. Even his hair, out of place from distress, was once neatly combed as mine was.

Gabriel flinches, resettling on his elbow. "It might. In the next life."

"You're too talented to believe there's life after this." I snap, bitter. I wasn't so sure I wanted to consider there could be another life that suited me more than the one I currently had. I had everything I ever wanted, and he was trying to destroy, trying to dismantle it before it could even begin. "This is the only life there is, and you're wasting it killing your kind."

With a frown, he considers this, carefully touching the bloodied shoulder where the spike rests. "None of us are too talented, too smart.. too anything.. to dream. When I was a boy, the dream of the next life was the only thing I had to cling to. Getting there, to the next chapter, is my only destination these days. Once I cleanse this planet."

"You're disgusting." I charge my palm. "You are not the only one who has suffered. You might have been dealt a bad hand, but taking it out on those around you is cowardly. This planet did nothing to deserve your wrath."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," His tone hits me, and I realize that I've been tricked.

With a shove, he sends the spike flying in our direction, and I must jut my hand up to deflect it. I curse loudly, gritting my teeth in frustration. He'd done to me what I'd done to him earlier, take advantage of the raw emotions. He talked his way out of my grasp and used my tactics; he was smart and was able to adapt on the fly to my techniques.

"There!" Helen gestures, trotting after him as he forms an ice barrier to protect himself from us and the remains of the pond.

Squinted through a busted eye, he glances over his shoulder at us as he stands before the water. "No. But my father wished to see the magic users liberated. He wished to see us stand before the armies of man in triumph, he wished for a world where magical creatures could walk free. That is what I offer. Freedom. Liberation. You will not stand in my way of what I've been destined to accomplish. Goodbye. Nicolas." 

He jumps into the water, and I burst through the ice barrier as we reach the pond's edge. My spell breaks and the ceiling begins crashing down around us once more.

"We have to go after him."

Helen shakes her head, vehemently. "No! We don't know where he's going; he could be headed straight to Caspian!"

"Helen, we have no other choice! We can't stay here!" I command her to shift back into her human form and slip off my jacket to cover her, flinching at the sting of my chest wound. My body feels as if it's been steamrolled. "It's now or never."

Shutting her eyes tightly, she slips into my jacket and wraps her arms tightly around my body.

Taking a deep breath, we leap in after him.