Skylor's POV

As I slowly wake up, I notice how heavy my body feels. All of my muscles ache with an intensity that I didn't even know was possible. Additionally, it feels like there's something missing, like something that usually stirs in my chest isn't here.

However, there's also a familiar warmth that engulfs me and sends all of my other worries to the back of my mind. It's like a fire on a cold night that's protecting me and keeping me calm.

When my eyes flutter open, I'm met with an unfamiliar white ceiling as opposed to the cave that I've become accustomed to. I try to get out of bed, but once I sit up through the pain, my movement is restrained. My eyes dart down to the shackles locked around my wrists that are connected to the bed that I'm lying on. My chest seizes as I realize that's what was missing, my powers. These chains must be made of vengestone.

That's when I see him, the heartbreakingly handsome man that has been unrelentingly populating my dreams since the last time I saw him. He's reclining back in a chair at the opposite side of my room, staring at this little metal brick in his hand. His hair, although it looks a bit wet, is styled how I've always seen it. On top of it all, he's only wearing some loose, black pants that hang low on his hips, putting himself on display in a way that locks up my entire body.

Even though I hate myself for it, I can't help but just stare and admire him. From his defined collarbones to his exquisitely contoured arms to his abs that rise and fall at flawless intervals, he holds every bit of my attention and makes my insides scream in the best way. That's not even including his face which is something that I couldn't even dream up if I wanted to. His tattoo, the lion sprawled across his built chest, ignites a fire deep down inside my gut that makes me giddy against my will.

If I was weaker, I would have already fallen back into his trap again. His smile, his charisma, all of it, they're all tools to regain my trust, and that can't happen. I need to avenge my sister, and I won't let a man, no matter how attractive he is, change that.

"What did you do to me?" I glare at him, pulling against the chains.

His hazel eyes dart up at me, and he gives me a little smile. "You're up."

"Answer my question," I grit out with a clenched jaw.

"We brought you back with us after the battle. You were knocked out by the giant fire snake. Sorry for that," he sets the metal object down on the side table next to him and sits up straighter.

Squinting my eyes, I try to think back on the last thing I remember. Master had gone out to "get the last piece", and a few hours later, we heard screams, grunts, and crashes. When we rushed over to see what was happening, we found the masters of fire and energy tearing through the place.

We should have taken them on differently because they clearly had an ulterior motive. All of us went to them, but there's no way that the masters of water, lightning, and ice weren't all there too. Our strategy clearly failed anyways since the master of fire is sitting in front of me unscathed while I wince whenever I move.

It's because they were hiding out in a shield that the master of energy made. The two of them were in there while they let that fire snake run rampant. I don't know how it knocked me out, but it apparently did.

"I'm a hostage?" I glare at him, putting a little frown on his face.

"No, you're not a hostage," he grabs a cup that's practically erupting steam and takes a sip. "We didn't take you to make a deal. I'd rather shave off all of my hair than see you in the hands of those monsters ever again."

Having heard how much he infamously cares for his hair, the comment catches my attention. "Then why am I here?"

"We're going to get your memory back," his fingers tap on the side of his cup. "Then, the eight of us will be reunited just like the good times, and you can finally have a conversation with my sister now that she's not in diapers, and..."

"I don't want to see your sister," I snap, and the smile that was growing on his face fades away in a snap. I can't help but feel a little bit guilty, but I banish the feeling as soon as it arises.

"Of course. I'm getting ahead of myself," he flashes me a toothy smile that looks genuine, but in my gut I just know that it's fake, and something about that makes my heart heavy. "The vengestone is precautionary. Jay has done some research on the long term effects of it, so it shouldn't be harmful to use for a couple of days until you remember..."

"Why do you think I'm going to suddenly remember now that I'm with you?" I scoff at his arrogance. Of course the master of fire would think that he could single handedly cure my amnesia.

"Cause the master of mind's hold on you is weaker now since you're further away from him. You'll be able to break through his suppression," he explains softly, but I still can't help but roll my eyes.

"Neuro is my friend. He wouldn't do that to me," I defend the man who I have spent nearly all of my time with since I have woken up. He has such a sweet, kind soul and only wants what is best for the world. Going behind my back would be so out of character for him.

"Have you been able to do anything without him right next to you? There's a reason he was always by your side, Sky. Plus, even if he isn't controlling you like you claim, it doesn't hurt to try, does it?" His words make so much sense, but I shake my head, trying to let them go in one ear and out the other. They just stick in my skull.

"What if I don't want my memories back?" I ask him rhetorically, and it's like a flame in his heart is extinguished, the light in his eyes dimming with it.

"You should try to break free in a few hours. The hold will probably be weakest when he's sleeping since he won't be conscious, so that's the perfect time," he looks up at the ceiling, ignoring my comment.

His words turn my blood into ice. If this theory really is true, which I don't completely think it is, Neuro's powers would be weakened when he is sleeping which is also when I am sleeping. That would be confirmation that my dreams...

"Can you tell me about my twentieth birthday?" I watch as his eyes flicker back to me as he tilts his head just a pinch.

"That's oddly specific. If you don't mind me asking..."

"Forget I asked," I shake my head.

"No no no, I'll explain. So, hmm that was so long ago... oh, I've got it. So basically, the king really wanted for you to have this big grand party, and while you just wanted a small little party with the guys, the king, and your sisters, you went along with it to make him happy and decided that you could just have one of those the next day.

King Chen really wanted you to be late so that it could add to your entrance or whatever, so I had to wait for the longest time until I finally got to see you, but when I did, it was something else. You were wearing an orange sleeveless dress that... I can't put it into words. You were...wow," a gentle smile rests on his lips as he stares off into the distance, seemingly picturing it.

"I didn't want to go to the party. How could I have when you were right there in front of me? You convinced me though. Once we were actually there, you opened so many gifts that I honestly lost track. Every year you got so many dresses. You didn't care if I was actually paying attention, so I was just running some security with my powers when I noticed some guys with weird movements who didn't bring you anything. I brought it up to Jay when he and Cole brought up your present. I can't remember what it was, but I do remember that it was your favorite present of the night. Jay agreed to search the guys, which sent Aria, also known as your 'master' as I've been told, into a hissy fit, but they were able to calm her down.

We saw your stepmom – she was a bitch – before we went to the dance floor. While we were dancing and having a good time, some assassins struck and tried to hurt you. The guys and I took them down immediately, and the royal guards took them away right afterwards. You were frightened (who wouldn't have been?) and so was I because I couldn't think of someone hurting you. It...it made me so mad.

The party ended at that moment. I escorted you back to your room with some of the royal guards, and for the rest of the night, I protected you. You laid in my arms and fiddled with whatever you could find as I held onto you and made sure that no one else could get to you," he runs his hands through his hair several times as he talks with a soothing tone.

His words do nothing to calm me. If anything, they collapse my brain and send me into a panic. While my dream ended before the party ended, everything else that he said matches up with exactly what I saw. Not only does that add evidence to his "Neuro is controlling you" theory, but that also means that everything else I saw and felt was probably true.

Since our last interaction in the mountains, I've had a lot of dreams, and each one brought me back to him. I saw him in so many different situations. I saw him with the other elemental masters of creation, joking around and including me as if I was one of them. I saw him commanding his own little section of the army, the fierce glow of a leader radiating off of him like it was the most natural thing in the world. I saw him taking care of Harumi and the master of energy, playing little games with them and spinning them around in ways that made everyone fall into a contagious fit of laughter. I saw him alone with me, kissing every inch of my body and gripping onto me like his world would fall apart if he let go.

The only thing more intense than seeing everything happen was feeling them happen. My soul lit up when he wove me into a conversation or played with my little sister, and thinking about the way his touch felt nearly turns my cheeks crimson.

To distract myself from it, I latch onto the tiniest, yet very important, comment that he made, "How do you know about Master?" I take my frustration about my feelings out on him and turn my gaze into a glare.

"She revealed herself to Cole when trying to take his soulmate's blood. Also, how much of her plan do you actually know? She went into a long evil villain speech for Cole, and I got briefed on it before I came in here, so..."

"I know everything," I plaster on an irritated smile, still not completely trusting any of the words that come out of his mouth. I have to counter his confidence with my own, even if it's fake.

He leans back in his chair. "And you still side with her? I don't believe that, sorry. You're so... so convinced that we're in the wrong, yet you support her when her whole goal is to take over the kingdom so that she can rule beside Jay?"

My jaw goes slightly agape at his comment. However, it would make sense that she would want him. From the one dream she was in, she was clinging to his side, but I can't wrap my head around it. She said she wants revenge. Would the revenge only be on the other elemental masters of creation and not him?

My head spins as the door opens, and a duo that I recognize nearly entirely from my dreams, the masters of earth and lightning, walk in together. While there are some differences from my dreams, they're still very obviously the same people. The master of earth has longer hair than in my dreams, and he is somehow even more muscular, but his face, while slightly etched with worry, is the same. His partner, on the other hand, looks absolutely worn down. Clad in a robe with slightly curlier hair, his arms are crossed, and his eyes are distant as if his mind is somewhere else.

"Wow, someone's grumpy," the master of fire smirks from his chair.

His companion in blue glares at him. "Haha, astute observation, hot head."

"Do I want to know what happened?"

The master of lightning rubs his temples. "No, no you don't." He then turns his head to look at me. "Oh, hi Skylor. Sorry I didn't greet you."

I don't give him an answer. I just narrow my eyes and assess him.

"Dang, it's icy in here. If I didn't know better, I'd think Zane was in the room," the master of lightning quips, a smile appearing on his lips that doesn't quite travel up to his eyes.

"We just came to see if you need anything before we hung out in my room," the master of earth explains after his friend's joke hangs in the air for too long.

"I'm alright, but thank you. I have my coffee right here," he reaches over and takes a big gulp of his steaming cup. "I do want to meet your soulmate...but not here. It's just kind of mind blowing. I can't believe all five of our soulmates are under the same roof."

"All five?" the master of earth and I ask in sync. While he looks at the man next to him with wide eyes, I stare straight at the master of fire, practically begging him to elaborate.

It's impossible for all of their soulmates to be here. My sisters were alive 600 years ago, and one of them was literally murdered. Yes, there can be three out of five of us here, but not all of us.

"Both of your sisters are here. I was going to tell you once you relaxed a bit," the master of fire explains. He conjures a small flame in his hand and presses it to the side of his cup.

"That's impossible. PIXAL is dead, and..."

"I used my powers and Lloyd's powers to revive her as a robot. Since I mapped out her brain beforehand, I was able to reconstruct it. She has her own mind, but she is just in a different body. Plus, Harumi was kept alive all of these years by Lloyd's powers," the master of lightning cuts me off while completely ignoring his friend's question.

My heart starts to race. They claim that my sisters are on this ship. My sisters, the people I know that I can trust, are in the same structure as me. Why aren't they here? Why did they stick me with the master of fire instead?

"Bring them to me. I need to see for myself that they're alive and okay and..."

"PIXAL is undergoing an update at the moment that will last several more hours," the master of lightning looks down at the little device on his wrist. "Correction, a lot more."

"And Harumi?" I look between the three of them, but they all avoid my eyes, even the master of fire. One looks up at the ceiling, another down at the floor, while the last is hyper fixated at the wall.

"Master of fire?"

He breaks, letting out a sight and looking towards me but not at me. "She...she said that she didn't want to see you."

My skin goes numb at his words. That's impossible. While I didn't interact much with Harumi in my dreams, I felt how my heart swelled when I looked at her. There were very few things that I wanted to do more than protect her and care for her. I love my little sister, and surely she feels the same way.

I jerk up in bed, trying to leap free of the chains. They clink and clatter, and the metal pinches and squeezes my skin as I strain against it. Every time I try to pull away, I'm forced back by my restraints. "Liar! My sister loves me!"

The master of fire's eyes turn glassy before my eyes. His features instantly fall. He rushes over to my side and pressed his hand on my upper right chest right below my clavicle. This contact, especially this close to my tattoo, warms my skin. "Shhhhh, Skylor, babe, it's alright."

The way those words instantly soothe me causes more anger to flare up inside of me. I stop moving to swat away his hand. He pulls it back as if he just got burnt.

"She'll come around. Your relationship was... You loved her so much. She loved you too, but it was complicated. She'll come visit you soon," he talks slowly as if he's trying to piece his thoughts together. I fight the urge to reach out and grab his hand. He's a poison disguised as a remedy. I can't trust him, especially when I have no evidence about the truth of my sisters' whereabouts.

"Please just go sit in your chair and stare at your little metal box. You're upsetting me," I look away from him and towards the blank dresser that is pressed up against the wall. As he shuffles away, an awkward silence fills the air.

"Text us if you need anything, Kai," the master of earth says, breaking the tension once again, before I hear the door creak twice and a little click.

Even when they're gone, I don't dare look back at the master of fire. I need to wait this out until my friends can come save me. If I don't cave in, I can go back to the other side and try to avenge PIXAL once and for all. I don't care if they claim to have my sisters. I need to see it to believe it.

I lie on my side and face the blank wall. I will find every possible way to disarm the weapons this man wields against me. Being created for me, he is the ultimate challenge.

This is my trial by fire.

A/N: And there we go! This part of the book is taking up waaay more time than I thought (all of this stuff was supposed to happen several chapters ago haha) so we still have quite a few chapters left.

Next one is a BIG one though. Things are about to go down

Thank you all so much for reading! I'm trying to get these chapters out ASAP for you all, so your constant support means a lot!