"We'll discuss your powers later. Now let's get you settled and cleaned up for the party," Life said briskly and clapped her hands.

"Party?" Amber asked. I tilted my head.

"Yes party, we are having a ball to celebrate that all the powers have been recovered!" Life continued cheerily. Maddy began tipping her head like a confused dog.

"Seriously? We're partying after we were nearly killed?" I questioned and began plotting my escape route.

"Don't even think about it Sara," Death said sternly. "You'll be fine. You all need a good meal and dancing is good for syncing energies."

"This makes no sense," Maddy grumbled.

"Beyond not cool," Adhya muttered to me. I whispered back, "Agreed."

"What is this, an anime?" Amber joked. I applauded appreciatively.

"You have to get used to this, believe me. When your adults you'll most likely be diplomats," Death explained slowly. "You'll have to attend formal meetings. Best to get used to it now."

"We're getting ahead of ourselves," Life intervened. "Let's first take you to your rooms and get a feel for the rest of the academy."

Griffin gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. I cooled off a little and nodded. I saw the girls getting similar treatment from the partners. It seemed that their souls had a very calming effect on us.

"Ok then let's go," I agreed. After all, I could always sleep through the party.

Life waved a hand for us to follow her. She lead us through the gates and into a courtyard. It was big and open with expanses of grass and trees. The center path that we stood on was Made of cobblestones. Kids in armor lounged about or read books. A few were fighting with knives.

"Here's our common area, this is where you can come during lunch and free time. Students often practice combat here," Life explained as we walked through.

"Did that person just get stabbed?" Adhya asked and pointed towards the knife duel.

"Um, yeah," I replied, confirming the sight as I leaned out from behind her.

"What?" Maddy said and leaned out from behind me.

"Oh fun," Amber said with a hint of sarcasm as she bent near in half to see.

"That happens," Jared explained. Wincing Griffin added, "We've got to get used to it. Demons aren't going to stop because your hurt."

"Always sunshine and rainbows with you, isn't it?" Adam remarked.

"Ain't that the pot calling the kettle black," Keanu poked.

"You did say you would undoubtedly drop your partner, and that their skull would be cracked on the ground," Jared pointed out.

Amber smacked Adam's arm. He yelped and rubbed it.

"Let's move on," Life suggested. She elbowed Death for help.

"Yes let's go into the castle shall we?" Death asked cordially. They both started walking without an answer. Cautiously we followed.

Maddy groaned as we were confronted by a flight of white marble stairs. Life and Death floated up them easily and gracefully. For us mortals, ungainly scramble is a more accurate description.

"I'm so out of shape," Amber panted at the top. Adam nodded in agreement.

"We just fought a demon and jumped off a building, we're entitled to be tired," Adhya growled.

"Preach it!" I agreed. I glanced over at the boys, who were trying in vain to hide grins.

I kicked Griffin in the shin. Not hard but enough for him to get the message.

"Ow that hurt," he complained. I raised an eyebrow. He stuck his tongue out at me. I mock punched his shoulder.

Life and Death watched us all with amused expressions and small knowing smiles.

"Now that everyone has caught their breath shall we continue?" Life asked. She didn't wait for an answer and began walking towards the huge doors.

She lightly tapped one door. Golden light spilled through the center line and danced across the elaborate designs. With a loud creak the doors began to swing outwards, towards us.

With a final groan the doors stopped moving. Death strode purposefully inside. Life motioned for us to follow. After we crossed into the reception room Life tapped the door again. Groaning and creaking all the way, it slowly shut.

"These doors can only be opened by a registered power," Death explained. "You all should be able to do it in a few days."

The hall was huge. White marble interior with high sweeping ceilings. Two golden staircases climbed upwards at the east and west edges of the hall. In between them were two ornate wooden throwns.

"In our reception hall, we have standing dinners for our foreign diplomats. They will be visiting tonight because we've retrieved everyone. However your dinners will be in another reception hall. It's actually nicer than this," Life said and waved her hand around.

"Why do we get the better one?" Keanu asked. After Maddy gave him an annoyed poke, he quickly added, "Not that I'm complaining."

"The simple answer, is we don't want to deal with those pompous yahoos called the council any longer than we have to," Death stated bluntly.

"Legit," Amber said with a shrug. Adam  gave her a reproachful look.

I laughed quietly behind my hand. I heard Griffin do the same.

"Your rooms are this way," Life said tactfully and began walking up the western staircase.

Another ungainly scramble later, we stood facing a long hall way. Blue doors on the right, golden doors on the left.

"Girls are the gold doors, boys are the blue," Death said. "Your rooms are directly across from each other."

"I'll take the girls while you deal with the boys," Life suggested. Death gave her a small nod, then waved a hand at the boys. They followed her into their room.

Life shoved open the golden door. We stepped inside a massive room. There was a huge brown couch on a green rug. The walls were a golden cream color. A kitchen of dark mahogany was to our left. Enormous windows covered the outside wall giving us a lovely view of the sea.

"As you can see, this is your living area," Life said with a smile. She floated over to a smaller brown door. She reached into the folds of her dress and pulled out a fine silver key. With a click, the door unlocked and swung open.

We filed in and gasped with amazement. Four King sized beds awaited us with mountains of fluffy pillows. Each comforter matched the color of its owner's magical energy. Directly opposite of the beds were giant wardrobes.

"Yes! SLEEP!" Adhya yelled and threw her hands up. A resounding cheer rose from the other girls and I as we followed suit. Life let out a dainty, lady-like chuckle.

"Go explore your closets," she encouraged. I prayed that they would be filled with comfy pajamas.

With a grunt, we heaved open the doors. Revealed, neatly hung clothes beckoned invitingly. Several pairs of tall leather boots, tan and cream pants, and darker shirts with three quarter length sleeves. I guessed that was my training uniform, I shoved those aside and uncovered a set of leather armor. After clearing that away some jeans and plain shirts along with pajamas were unearthed.

"This is so nice!" I exclaimed and grabbed a clean set of clothes. I pivoted on one foot and closed the door with the other.

"I'm glad your excited, now all of you need to go and wash up," Life said. Groaning, I threw myself dramatically against the bed.

"Balls are for fancy people," Amber mumbled into her pillow. I began to burrow under the covers. Adhya faceplamed and Maddy discreetly edged closer to her bed.

"How about you just shower?" Life said. As if we didn't know what she was doing. Reluctantly I rolled out of bed because I was covered in sweat, dirt, demon gore and a whole slew of nastiness. Life opened the door to our huge bathroom that had four separate showers.

One quick shower later I sat in the fluffy bathroom shaking my head.

"Nope, nope, nope," I continued to say. Amber hid a snicker, Adhya was concentrating hard on not bursting into laughter and Maddy was simply faceplaming.

"I refuse, not wearing a dress, let alone a BALL GOWN, I don't dance and I'm tired, annoyed and cranky," I adamantly stated. Life sighed, "How did your parents get you to cooperate?"

"They didn't," Maddy answered for me. I smiled and nodded.

"She's stubborn," Adhya said with a shrug.

"If you hadn't noticed," Amber added cheekily. I leaned over and gave her a high five. Snickering, I fought to regain composure as I looked at Life's frustrated expression.

"You leave me no choice," she groaned and snapped her fingers.

"BULL TWINKIE!" Adhya yelped.

"SUCK EGGS!" Amber cried.

"FARTKNOCKER!" Maddy cursed.

"SON OF A MOTHERLESS GOAT!" I contributed to the round of curses. Life had put us in dresses. Maddy stood tall in a bright scarlet dress with a rose like full tule skirt. Adhya was in a velvet dress that was forest green. Amber  was swaddled in sky blue strapless and backless dress that had dramatic long trailing pieces of tule. She also had a white lace jacket thingy. Frowning I plucked at the sea of lilac silk around me. It was strapless with a white ribbon tied in a neat bow. The skirt had hundreds of petal like pieces of silk sewn on it.

"Not cool," I grumbled.

"No way cool," Maddy said. All eyes turned to gawk at her in confusion. "These are the coolest pajamas I've ever had!"

"I thought we lost you to the dark side for a moment," I said in relief.

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A/N hey hey hello hello! So my lovelies it's been awhile. This chapter is rather crappy because I  didn't edit it and wanted to churn something out for you guys! I've had minor writers block. Like I've got what's going to happen at the end totally down but getting there is the issue... Well that's all I got right now so thanks for reading my lovelies! Y'all are amazing!