I looked across the bank once more, catching her staring at me.

"Who is she?" Tom asked.

"I'll be back."

I jumped up, releasing my wings as I flew over to her speedily. I landed roughly on the bank beside her, retracting my wings as I neared her slowly. I looked her up and down, taking in every inch of her as she did the same to me.

"What are you doing here?" I decided to start with, not knowing what else to ask her.

"And here I thought you were here to thank me for saving your friends," she said innocently.

"Does Edward know you're here?"

"No. I haven't been able to find him."

"What are you doing here?" I asked again, confused as to why she was here.

"My best friend is a witch. She got a vision saying you were here and you needed me," she replied.

"You don't even know me. You expect me to believe you'd drop everything to save a stranger?"

"Believe what you want," she said, shrugging as she began to walk away from me.

"Thanks for saving my friends but it isn't safe for you here. You should leave," I called out after her.

In an instant, everything stopped. The water stopped moving, the grass stopped swaying in the light breeze. Even my friends were frozen, mouths agape from their halted conversations. I looked at her in wonder, speechless as to what to say. Edward told me she could manipulate time but seeing it face to face was something else, seeing everything frozen like this.

"As you can see, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself," she snapped, walking away as everything proceeded in motion as if nothing had ever happened.

Everything alright?

I looked over to see Crexus watching me with concern written all over his face.

Yeah.

"Since you're here, you might as well meet the rest of my friends," I said, deciding that after saving my friends she deserved my kindness at least, even if I didn't trust her one bit.

She stopped in her path, looking back at me with a grin on her face before nodding excitedly. Something about her was warm, it reminded me of Star.

"I can take you if you want," I offered, realizing the massive distance from us and my friends.

Seeing the look of suspicion in her eyes, I decided to grab her hand and take her anyway. I didn't have the patience to sit here and argue with her. After all, our friends were still missing.

"Oh shit, you're cooler than I thought you'd be," she said excitedly, looking around like she couldn't believe she made it across the bank in a matter of seconds.

"Tom, Crexus, this is Esat," I said, keeping it vague for Edward's benefit. Which was completely pointless since Esat clearly wasn't on the same page as me on that matter.

"Hey, I'm her sister," she said, offering her hand to Tom happily, causing everyone's heads to whip around and stare at me.

"Edward made me stay quiet about it. It wasn't my choice," I said, raising up my hands in surrender.

"Wait so, you're just like her?" Joel asked.

"Same dad. Different moms," I explained.

"You're human," Crexus commented, his interest piqued.

"Half human, half whatever," Esat said nonchalantly.

"What does that mean?" Jeremy asked, confused.

"I'm human but I have magic."

"So what does that make you," Joel said, scratching his head.

"I don't know. My parents named me-"

"The Reta," I finished, not meaning to say it out loud. Esat looked over at me, surprise in her eyes.

"What else did our father tell you about me?"

"Only the basics. I had to beg for even that much because he was hell bent on protecting you."

"Dad is so dramatic," she said, rolling her eyes. I couldn't help but notice the softness in her voice when she referenced him. It had a touch of familiarity that told me they were close.

"So, what can you do?" Jeremy asked.

"This," she said, effortlessly stopping time and space around us as the world went still.

"Did you just- stop time??!" Jeremy exclaimed.

"Is your whole family this cool?" Joel asked me, grinning from ear to ear.

"Where were you when we were being attacked by monsters?" Jeremy asked, whistling in approval as time went on once more.

She laughed in response, her breathing becoming slightly quickened.

Noticing the toll those few seconds took on her, I asked, "How long can you stop time for?"

She turned to me, unable to hide the astonishment in her eyes that I'd caught on to her weakness.

"Two minutes."

"What happens after two minutes?"

"I pass out," she admitted sheepishly.

"Even 10 seconds could make a huge difference in a battle," I said, reassuring her.

I felt a pang in my chest, causing me to stumble for a moment. Zion popped up in my mind immediately, my mind racing with fear as I looked at the others.

"What's wrong?"

"Zion. We have to go now," I said, jumping up into the air and using my vampire vision. I sensed them. Edward, Star, and Zion a little over 2 miles away. I focused a message, directing it at Crexus as I went flying as fast as I could towards them.

I'm going ahead. Zion's in trouble. Lead them to us.

Of course.

I sped as fast as I could through the air before I came crashing down on the ground beside them, surprising them all. I shook off the pain of my hard fall in my arm as I crawled towards Zion who was lying on the ground completely still, in Star's lap.

"What happened?"

"I- I don't know. We were running away from something and I think it grabbed onto Zion before we got out."

"What does that mean?" I said, looking to Edward for help.

"I don't know. We would have to go inside his mind to see. He might still be trapped in that place," Edward admitted.

"I'll go," I offered immediately, taking a deep breath. Truth be told, I was getting tired of hopping into peoples minds but this was Zion we were talking about. It wasn't even a choice.

"By the way, Esat is here," I said to Edward before grabbing Zion's hand and jumping into his mind. I didn't see Edward's reaction but it wasn't hard to guess.

I groaned once I opened my eyes, finding myself on a beach with nothing surrounding me but the salty waters and endless field of sand. I'm so tired of these puzzles and games. For once, can I go in someone's mind and find them immediately?

I looked around, finding nothing and nobody for miles. I knelt down, resting my hand on the salt and feeling a tug of magic as me and the Earth bonded. I whispered to the Earth, feeding it with my magic as I asked them to help me find my mate. The sand began to slide apart and split into two, revealing a dark hole. I jumped down with no hesitation, finding myself in a save with Zion backed in a corner and massive, red dragon shrieking at him.

"Zion!" I screamed, drawing the attention of the dragon to me.

Zion took that second of distraction to race out from under the dragon, towards me. The dragon opened its mouth, spitting out fire towards Zion's running figure.

I screamed, releasing fire out of my own finger tips that collided with the dragon's. Our bursts of fire struggled for dominance, pushing against one another until the dragon's started to win, consuming mine and making it's way towards us.

Zion shoved me out of the way as we both went flying to the opposite side of the cave as the blast of fire barely missed us.

"And you say I go looking for trouble," I said, panting as I scrambled to get up as the dragon trotted towards us at an alarming speed.

"We should run."

"Good idea," I said as Zion's hand grabbed me and pulled me. We ran as fast as we could as we tried to come up with a plan.

"See that boulder?" Zion said, pointing to the massive rock near the ceiling.

"What about it," I huffed.

"If we could just- get it to fall, we could get it down long enough to kill it."

"And how are we going to do that?"

"Follow my lead," he said, taking off in a sprint right for the dragon.

Is he insane? I quickly began chasing after him, gulping as I made eye contact with the huge dragon who had opened its mouth to let out another wave of fire.

Slowly, I understood what he was doing as he started circling around the dragon's feet. Confused, the dragon closed its mouth, not knowing where to blow without hurting itself. I circled the dragon as well, huffing and puffing as I saw the dragon wobbling. It was getting dizzier by the second and it was only a matter of time before it came crashing down. As we expected, it fell backwards, knocking into the wall hard enough for the boulder to come crashing down upon it. The dragon roaring in pain, trapped under the weight of the boulder.

Zion jumped over the rocks, making his way over to its chest before shoving his hand into the dragon's heart and piercing its chest. Finally dead, the dragon began to turn to ash.