I had spent so long looking into those eyes, I could identify that shade of gray anywhere. Even when they were Changed. They had always been a source of comfort before. They stood for happiness. Love. But now? The only thing I saw in them now was hunger. Like that of a starving predator waiting for its next meal.

And yet, I couldn't look away. They held me in a trance, even as every single instinct screamed to run away. All I could do was stand there.

No. It's not him, I thought. It isn't possible. I watched him die. But deep down, I knew that there could never be a reasonable explanation for what I was seeing. It had to be him. There was nobody else who could capture the complexity of the entire world in those two eyes.

I never signed up for this. I never asked for this. I never wanted to fall for Thomas, and I never wanted to have him ripped away from me. But now? Why was the world so cruel? What had I done to deserve this?

"Alexander!" screamed a voice, and I closed my eyes as tightly as I could, hoping it would drown out the rest of the world. Maybe I'd wake up in my room, coated with sweat, Eliza slumbering peacefully besides me. But when I opened them, the darkness had overwhelmed everything again, leaving nothing visible. "Alexander, what's wrong with you?" Eliza's voice sounded, telling me she was somewhere to my right.

"You didn't see them?" I returned.

"See what?" demanded Eliza. I felt her hand grab my arm, and she let out a gasp of surprise. "Fuck, you're cold. We have to get out of here."

"I'm afraid there's no running," the King said calmly, as though this was a game to him. And why wouldn't it be? "Nowhere to go, now."

"Show yourself, you coward!" Eliza's voice ripped through the air, highlighted by pure and utter rage. But I heard the fear lurking behind her anger, like a wounded animal.

"Very well. But I am quite afraid you won't like what you see."

Instinctively, I closed my eyes so I wouldn't be blinded, but even with them shut I could still see the light that flooded the gazebo so suddenly. I opened them and adjusted to the brightness.

We were no longer in the gazebo. And we weren't in the maze, either. But rather, a wide arena covered in sand. An empty stadium sprung up around us, emphasis on the empty part; nobody would know what happened to us if we were killed. We were alone, and certainly nobody was going to help us now.

I narrowed my eyes, moving my hand up to block the sun beams shining directly into my face and blinding my vision. Sweat rolled off the sides of my face, but even despite how hot I was physically, something deep inside of me was chilled by those two glowing gray eyes.

It's a trick, it's a trick, it's not him, I repeated to myself, hoping that I would believe it. But if it was a trick, then Fredericks had managed to capture those eyes perfectly.

"Let's play a little game," the King's voice said, bounding off every wall of the colosseum. I spun, dagger suddenly in my hands. "If you beat my newest pet, I'll let you walk out of here with your lives. If not, well... let's just say it won't be fun to clean your blood up off of the sand. Let's keep it fair, shall we?"

"We have to get out of here," I heard Eliza hiss under her breath as Lafayette and Hercules fell into position, each of us facing a side of the arena with our backs to each other. "Hercules, can you transform us into light?"

"I'm working on it, but I don't think we can leave."

"Very astute observation," the King exclaimed from wherever he was hiding.

Lafayette let loose a dangerous growl and raised his sword. "Come out and face us like the king you claim to be!"

"I don't have to prove anything to you, Marquis," he said, mocking, as if this was truly the game between childhood friends as he made it out to be. "Good luck!"

I felt the pressure of his presence disappear all at once, but it was short-lived. A blinding light ripped through the air, followed almost immediately by a loud crash of thunder. Lightning danced through the air, popping as it glided gracefully. And a figure slowly began to take form against the wall opposite where I was standing. Hercules, Eliza, and Lafayette fell into a straight line next to me, weapons raised and bodies ready. A growl on my lips, I lowered my stance. One of Eliza's knives sprouted a flame.

But before any one of us could move, the flashes of electricity circling the floating figure pulled away, and it dropped to the ground. Its face was hidden by a dark cloak, but all the same, I felt every single cell in my body tense.

It can't be him.

"Who is this joker?" Hercules asked sharply as the figure rose to its feet. He didn't know. How could he not know? Was I the only person who did?

I staggered backwards, my throat tasting sour. I couldn't make sense of the thousands of the thoughts whirling through my head, but all I knew was that we had to leave.

"We have to get out of here!" I exclaimed, my voice sounding wild even to me. Like it wasn't my own. "Now!"

"Alexander," Eliza hissed, grabbing onto my arm. "Now is not the time for you to panic!"

"You don't understand," I said, my eyes locked on the figure as it raised its right hand. A weapon, long and dangerous with a curved blade appeared in his grip, and I wanted to throw up when I recognized where I had seen that scythe before. "We have to leave."

Eliza's gaze turned unreadable, and she let go of my sleeve. She turned so I couldn't see her face, instead drawing in the sight of the creature standing before us. Raising the flaming dagger, she stepped forwards, coming to stand in front of the three of us. "Let's just get this over with."

"Eliza, no!" The words ripped themselves from my throat like desperate animals trying to get out, but they did little good. Eliza hurtled her dagger at the figure, who stepped out of the way like he had been expecting it.

"We have to go," I said, over and over, the only thing that made sense to me as I watched Eliza battle the figure. She was fast and agile, and the second one knife left her hand, she had already produced another. But it didn't matter how quickly she moved from one place to another, it didn't matter how unpredictable she tried to be. The creature knew exactly where she was going to go. Like somebody who had fought by her side for years. She was fighting a battle she had no hope of winning, and I knew it the instant the figure swiped her feet out from under her.

Eliza landed hard, and the blade was pushed up right against her throat.

"Lafayette!" I all but screamed, the sunlight glinting off the blade. "You have to help her!"

Lafayette nodded and started forwards, his sword ready to sink into flesh, but all of a sudden, he froze mid-bound. His mouth fell open, but no words escaped.

I tried to move, but just like Lafayette, I was stuck in place. The only thing I could do was think, and the few thoughts I could pick out among the frenzy all were basically the same thing.

No. No, please.

I couldn't watch this again. I couldn't go through this once more. I had already been on the verge of shattering. Of breaking. And Eliza had been the one to pull me away from that precarious edge.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to yell and never stop yelling, but I couldn't even move.

All I could do was think. And watch.

I watched Eliza look up. Her eyes, already filled with that horrible realization, grew wider. Her mouth fell open as the blade of the scythe pushed closer against her neck. I could see her terror from here. I could sense the last few flames of hope dwindling.

"You," she whimpered. "How are you... you can't be..."

"What's wrong?" the figure asked, drawing out each and every word as though he was savoring the moment. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

The world around me fell apart as the familiarity of that voice slowly sunk in. It shattered into tiny pieces, sharp as glass, and I felt like was being cut by those shards. I saw the same feeling in Hercules and Lafayette.

The figure lowered his hood, but it didn't matter. All it did was confirm my worst suspicions.

I heard Eliza's breathing catch in her throat, as if seeing him without the hood covering his face made it so much more real.

"You know," Thomas said, slow and deliberate. I didn't understand. I didn't understand the sardonic grin. I didn't understand the triumphant stance. I didn't understand. There was nothing warm about him. This was not him. This was not my Thomas.

"I've been waiting for this for quite a while," he continued, and I watched as every word cut deeper into Eliza than any knife every could. "But now that it's here, I'm actually a little sad to see it go."

"Thomas," she said, but she didn't beg. It was more of a careful calculation. And in that moment, I knew the instant she had the chance, she would go for his throat.

A laugh, derisive and brisk, cut into anything Eliza was going to say. "So you do remember me! Thank the stars. I was starting to worry you had forgotten." His voice went harsher as he spoke the last few words, the collected way he held himself disappearing. And as if on cue, the invisible chains that rendered me motionless momentarily loosened.

"Thomas!" I yelled, my voice ringing out in the silent arena. His back straightened, and in one quick movement, he was facing me, though the tip of his blade never left Eliza's neck.

"You," he said, and it was worse than any poison, sharper than any knife. I withered underneath the pure contempt in his gaze. "What do you want?"

"Thomas," I repeated, trying to keep a handle on the situation. I started towards him, hands raised defensively, but all of a sudden, my body froze. I swallowed, finding I could move my mouth, and continued. "Thomas, we don't have to do this."

Lafayette and Hercules were still frozen, but across the arena, Eliza caught my eye. She nodded solemnly, shifting away from the point of the scythe. All I had to do was keep him distracted long enough for her to get away, and it would be fine.

"Put down the scythe," I said, the same way a person would talk to an injured animal, but it was working. I saw Thomas's grip loosen on the weapon, less sure of every move he made. "We can talk about this, okay? There's an easier solution. Just Thomas, please. Put it down." I kept repeating his name. Maybe somehow, it would get through to him. Because whatever was sitting on the surface was not my Thomas.

"Talk?" he spat. "What is there to talk about?" He laughed again, this one longer and far less humor-filled. "I heard what you said about me. I saw what you did. With her. On my bed, no less," he hissed, his eyes crazed and his smile sickening. Even from here, I could see the glints of tears in his gaze. "The time for talking is past."

"Thomas! Please," I begged. "I missed you."

Apparently, those three words did the trick. He froze, but more importantly, his scythe came clattering to the ground. I relaxed. Maybe I could get through to him.

"Thomas," hissed the voice of the King from around us, a soft reminder. Thomas's gaze hardened, and he spun to the girl who was already on her feet.

"I should have known," Thomas said. "I should have known that Alexander would lie." He spat the word like it was the worst form of poison, like it was a broken promise.

"It wasn't a lie!" I called, but my words were drowned out as Eliza screamed and rushed forward, her daggers pointed for his throat.

Thomas's scythe was in his hands in the next moment, jutting upward as Eliza leaped.

I wanted to turn away, but I was rooted to the spot. A whimper sounded, but I'm not sure whose it was. Probably mine.

I saw the firework of realization explode in Eliza's eyes long after it hit mine. Thomas wrenched the scythe out of her stomach and staggered backwards, as though the act had been physically demanding. And Eliza fell.

I stood there, my legs feeling like they would cave underneath me. I searched Thomas's face for a flash of horror at what he had done, a tang of sympathy, anything, but he was impossible to read besides the pure and utter contempt, and he made no effort to hide that. "Please don't think of this as petty vengeance due to what you did with Alexander. Instead, think of this as justice for destroying my home in a matter of seconds," he spat.

Eliza's final breaths came out ragged, her mouth moving but no words escaping.

"Do me a favor, will you?" Thomas asked, producing a cloth from nothing and casually cleaning his blade. "Tell John I said hi."

And for the second time in the span of a few months, I got to watch the light leave the eyes of the person I cared for most.

And for the second time, I was alone.