Now I know. It's Nina. It falls into place. How Nina always came to our house, how my aunt always locked me out. It's her. It's Nina. She's the spy. She's the one. She's the one.

I'm shocked. I've always known Nina to be unfair, but not stoop to this level.

Nina enters the door, and she's no longer trembling. She's a good actress. Now, she's got a gritty, satisfied smirk on her face.

I fill up which such a hatred that fire blazes in my eyes. Candice grips my hand like a vice, telling me with that grip to stay calm, keep my cool. It's hard to, though. Nina. My aunt.

"You don't have any right to push lost causes out and leave us alone and treat us as unwanted things," I say in a low voice. Surprisingly controlled, considering my anger.

Nina simply snickers. "Oh yes we do," she says. "You've got no right to Etherian things. You belong in Alium. Where the others go."

I tense. "Don't, Elara," whispers Jinx. "They're not worth it."

"We're not worth it?" says Nina in an almost hysterical voice. "You're not worth it, more like. Why should we be the worthless ones if you're them already?"

Candice's fury is so immediate that I can feel it through her vice-like grip. "Don't. You. Know. That. You. Should. Never. Call. A. Lost. Cause. Worthless?!"

"No, because you are." She turns to my aunt, who has been watching Nina approvingly. "Should we kill them?"

"No!" shouts a voice. One that I haven't heard in a long time.

My magic teacher.