Marella screamed, then collapsed. I jerked my head up. She lay sprawled in front of three people.

   Fintan Pyren.

   Vespera.

   Alvar Vacker.

   They didn't seem to have seen me, so I slowly rolled off of the bed. Crawling slowly, I made my way under the bed. I saw three pairs of boots walk by, and Alvar reaching down to check Marella's pulse. Luckily, he didn't look my way.

   "He's here somewhere." Vespera's horse voice chilled me to the bone, and I almost shivered. I tried to keep my heart-rate, and breathing quiet. I crouched, and prayed, until Fintan let out an exasperated groan.

   "He must be out of the room. I'll wait here, and you bring the girl back to the hideout," Fintan planned.

   Alvar grunted his approval, and Vespera seemed to nod, as Fintan said, "good."

   More footsteps, and then Marella's unconscious body disappeared from sight.

   I heard Fintan sit onto the bed above me, and sigh. He picked up the remote for the television. After clicking a few buttons, and a few angered curses, he turned on the screen, and a movie started playing. He turned the volume up, and set the remote down. I couldn't see what was happening in the movie, but I heard crashes, and explosions. Fintan sighed contently.

   "The joys of human technology." His voice was dream-like, and almost decipherable with the noise from the war in the movie.

   Then I realized that he was watching a war scene in a movie. He must be enjoying the killing and maiming. He continued making small comments, and he even laughed.

   I took the opportunity, to wriggle out for under the bed. Ever so silently, I rolled forward. I saw that he was lounging on the bed, eyes trained on the glowing television.

   I got on my hands and knees, and crawled towards the door. The poorly carpeted floor made shifting noises beneath me, but the movie was too loud for it to reach Fintan's ears.

   Just as I reached the door frame, I sighed with relief. But in that moment, the movie stopped, and the ads came on. Fintan heard me.

   His head whipped over to where I was half standing, half crawling.

   "You!" he yelled, leaping from the bed with incredible grace.

   That's about when I bolted.

   My footsteps slammed the hallway floor. I didn't dare look back, but I could tell Fintan was on my tail. I could almost feel the heat from the flames he was summoning, tickling up my back. Somehow, the heat made me shiver, but I pushed on. When I fuelled my run, I felt Fintan falling back.

   But he wasn't giving up. A ball of fire shot past me, and nicked my shoulder, causing me to scream in pain, and pat out the little flames. Another blast of fire shot past me, this one avoiding me completely, but lighting up the wainscotting on the side of the hall. I sped around a corner, and I saw a cleaning cart. I ran over to it, and climbed into the bottom of it, letting the towels close around me, and concealing me from sight. I heard Fintan storm past.

   And then the cart began to move. I saw a pair of legs, dressed in leggings, like the another cleaning lady I had seen when we first arrived to the hotel. The woman pushed the cart, and when she turned the bend onto the main hall, I heard her scream. That's when I realized how it would look to a human. Seeing a hallway one moment, clean and pristine, and the next moment, burning, and charred.

   Screeching sirens sounded, and I heard people yelling that there was a fire. The lady continued pushing the cart, not seeming to realize that she could evacuate faster without a big heavy cart. Pounding footsteps were all around me. I closed my eyes, and tried to filter the ashen air with my sleeve. The building was burning down.

   Finally, fresh air filled my lungs, and the cleaning woman left the cart. I climbed out, and was nearly trampled by the onslaught of bodies flooding from the building's doors. Once I finally got to my feet, I ran towards the street. It was crowded with people in sleeping clothes, and children screeching for their toys they had been forced to leave behind.

   It made me feel achingly sad. I hoped that no one remained in the building. That no one was dying in there. It would be impossible to hear a scream from inside, because of the hubbub from outside.

   If Lihn were here, she could have solved the flames in a moment.

   I heard more sirens, and big red trucks zoomed toward the parking lot. They started arranging tubes and ladders, spraying water onto the flames. Back and forth. Shining water spraying out. Trying to defeat the powerful flames. They were trying to to douse the flames, even though it was hopeless. Anyone in there, would already be long dead, and the building was unrecognizable. Kind of reminded me of Sophie. She tried, and tried, to defeat the Neverseen. But every battle she fought, she only lost more and more. More resources. More allies. More hope.

   And moments later I found myself on the ground. My head ached. My limbs hurt.

   I screamed in agony, and my eyes fell half closed, leaving me in a dreamlike haze. No one even batted an eye at me. I groped the air above me, until my fingers clasped the cold metal of a bench. I hauled myself up, and shook my head a few times to clear the fogginess.

   People were walking around with microphones, and asking people questions. I slipped away from the crowd, and skirted around a neighbouring building, but stopped quickly, when I saw Alvar approaching. He strode quickly, about twenty feet away at the other end of the alley. I guessed that he was going visible, to prevent any commotion. He was walking in the shadows, keeping his face down, but not wearing a hood. I saw a dumpster—human garbage can—and slid behind it, before Alvar saw me. He went by, and I released a big breath. I was about to exit the space behind the stinky dumpster, and continue walking down the alley, away from where he went, when I realized that if I escaped Marella would be left with the Neverseen. And maybe Sophie and the others could help form an ambush, but I had a perfect opportunity now.

   I crawled along the filthy ground, until I was out of my hiding place. I lunged at Alvar. He hadn't seen or heard me, so he couldn't brace himself, and I sent him to the ground and fell on top of him. Still, before he could react, I punched him in the back of the head, and he went limp. I reminded my self—as I felt guilt rising in my chest—that he was just unconscious. I stuck my hand into his pocket, and pulled out a green leaping crystal. I held it up to the moonlight, and stepped into the light beam, without hesitation.

   I instantaneously appeared in a dim cave. Only a little sliver of moonlight came in through a vertical hole above me. I pocketed the leaping crystal, and ran towards the door that was directly beside the place I had leapt to.