While Lily, Ally, and Nari are off doing fun and extra important things like finding Ivy and her beautiful sapphire blue ey...uh, I SAID NOTHING. AN-Y-WAY, Lana and I are finding Holly. Yay? I know I haven't been helpful. At all. I've probably been a burden to the others, but I'm going to show my worth.

"It's one of the Rickmans!" A random person yells as we walks through the city.

"Get her!"

"I want the money!"

"I spotted her, the money's mine!"

"But I'm gonna catch her!"

"No you're not!"

"Let's just burn her!" Lana and I make eye contact as the riots continue. We don't speak but we know what we're telling each other. Run. So we do.

"She's getting away!"

"After her!"

"Corner her!"

"I can finally pay off my debt to Leila with that money!"

"Who's the other girl?"

"She's probably after the money too! We have to get to the girl first!" 

At least they're not after me, I think as we run away from the crowd. What if I pretend to get Lana? Maybe they'll leave us alone. 

So I whisper to Lana, "Trust me on this," she barely nods so I take it as a yes. I grab her and bring us to the ground.

"Got you! Now I get my fortune!" I exclaim. 

The angry mob brings down their raised torches and stares at me sadly.

"We can't attack a little girl," someone whispers. 

Little? I'm not three! I think, while still grateful that they won't murder me with their torches.

"She's mine!" I tell them. "I need this fortune!" I don't even wait for a response before dragging Lana into a house.

"Now we've fixed that," I tell her.

"Great. There's a ransom over my head. What I always wanted," Lana sarcastically responds, ignoring my remark.

"HELP!" someone screams.

"Holly!" Lana exclaims, charging upstairs. 

I follow her and see a mob surrounding Holly and Kendall. Lana pushes through the crowd and someone grabs her.

"A thousand sapphyris to me!" The man exclaims. 

Lana bites the man's hand and he lets go, looking at his bloody hand. I push through the crowd and grab the three girls saying,

"They're mine now!" I push my way through the crowd with them and walk out the stairs and out the door.

"Thanks," Holly whispers, once we're probably out of earshot.

"No problem. What were you even doing? Where's Daisy?" I pepper them with questions.

"I think she was kidnapped. It might've been someone else but then the crowd saw me and it was after the whole ransom-over-our-heads thing," Holly replies

"How much is it?" Lana asks worriedly.

"One thousand sapphyris. A sapphyris is about the same as ten Earth dollars, Jade."

Everyone gulps. 

"Each. Dead or alive." 

Suddenly, we hear someone huffing behind us, "Where have you been?" the person asks.

I turn around. It's Snapdragon!

"Long story. What happened to you? Tell us once we get to safety," I drag everyone into a house to make it appear I captured them and we sit down.

"Okay. Snapdragon. What's your story?" Snapdragon goes on to explain what happened after the dragons and I peek over at her injuries.

"I'm not a doctor, but it looks bad."

"I'm fine. I've had worse and been fine," I give her a look.

"You're not. You ran from a place where you could heal, when you needed to heal, to warn us about what we already know."

She glares at me and looks over at Holly and Kendall.

"What happened to you two?" I ask. They quickly jump into the story of Cassandra and Emira and the chandelier. Holly explains her part before turning to Kendall.

"Once we split up I began searching houses. Most were empty. Some completely empty. Some even bloody. I was in one house when Holly burst in and you know the rest." 

Everyone nods and Snapdragon turns to me, "What's your story?" 

I quickly explain what happened from when Snapdragon left to now.

"What about the others? Are they safe?" Holly asks worriedly.

"No idea. We need to find them," I say determinedly. "Let's go. Now." 

Everyone jumps up to follow and we look up, figuring that would be a good place to start.

"MM MM MMF!" a voice screams. 

Kendall looks at Holly.

"Daisy. We'll get her," Kendall says, pointing to Holly.

"Okay, we'll get the others," Lana says coolly. 

The Sparks leave us to go rescue Daisy and that brings us down to three to find the others.

"Let's stick together," I suggest. 

The other two nod and we continue looking around the sky.

"There's a dragon. A DRAGON! RUN!" Lana says, starting to scream.

"Not now. There's something on the..." my voice trails off as I realize what it is. "The others! They're tied to the dragon's horn!" 

Lana and Snapdragon look up and from the looks on their faces they've seen it too.

"If only Holly was still here. She could get them," Lana kicks a rock on the road.

"I'll—" Snapdragon says, but I interrupt her.

"No. You have to heal, Snapdragon. I'll try," I say sternly. I put my hand on a brick on a house and start climbing to the roof. 

Lana stays behind to restrain Snapdragon, which isn't too hard considering that Snapdragon really does need to rest. I'm a great climber, if I do say so myself, so it doesn't take too long to scale the house and get onto the roof. The dragon notices me and the girls—Nari, Ally, and Lily—scream. The dragon dives at me and I jump off the roof, holding on to the side with my fingers. The dragon lands on the roof, much to my dismay, and looks down at me. I jump up and punch the dragon in the stomach, and he turns to me, inhaling. He breathes fire and the last thing I see is flame.

-={+}=-

"Jade? Are you awake?" a voice talks to me. 

I open my eyes and scream. I'm hanging over fucking lava!

"Good, you're awake," the voice says. 

Ivy! I try to brush some of the soot off of my back but I can't reach it. "What happened?"

"You were levitated in by Leila, who tied you to my back," Ivy tells me. 

At least that explains whatever is on my back.

"Hello. Jade, right?" another voice starts talking. 

I begin to look for the source but don't find it.

"In the painting," Ivy says.

Feeling stupid, I look over at the painting. The woman inside paces her frame and I shriek.

"The painting's moving! I'm hallucinating!"

"You're not. It's real," Ivy assures me. "That's my real mother."

"Oh," I say. "So...why is she a painting?"

"I'm not," Ivy's real mother says. "Leila cursed me into here over a decade ago."

"Oh," I say, feeling a little stupid again.

"Anyway, I was just asking my mom, or Queen Evie really, about our ancestry,"

"Why are you asking about ancestry at a time like this!" I exclaim.

"Because...Because..." Ivy can't bring herself to finish.

"Leila's my sister," Queen Evie says sadly.

"SHE'S YOUR FUCKING SISTER!" I yell.

"Yes. She is my sister. Control your temper, Jade," a cold voice says. 

I recognize it and panic Leila!

"Sister," Evie's starting to sob even as she speaks, "it doesn't have to be this way. Mom and Dad, they would've wanted us to be together. Maybe rule together. And Oliver. He..."

"Never speak of him," Leila's holding the heart from her locket as she...cries? 

Who's Oliver? Why does Leila care about him so much to start crying? What happened to him? I look over at Ivy and she seems to have the same questions. 

Evie seems to know the answer and dares to continue, "I know why you...you don't have it. Mother told me right before she died because y..." her voice trails off, unsure of how to word it.

"I KNOW WHY!" Leila roars, sobbing. "I KNOW WHAT I DID! I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! YOU'RE JUST SO PERFECT AND CAN'T LIVE TO SEE SOMEONE ELSE HAVE ANY GLORY!"

"No, Leila. We can start over. Rule together. All you have to do is let me out," Evie whispers as she cries.

"We were never meant to rule together, sister. We were always mean to be apart. We were meant to be rivals. We will never be together," Leila puts the heart back in her locket and the tears stop flowing almost immediately.

"Is that...her heart?" I whisper to Ivy, slightly disturbed.

"I think so," she replies. "Seems like something she would do."

"Goodbye, girls. Off to find the rest of you, or maybe someone will find them for me..." Leila goes out the front door and I look over my surroundings.

"Ginger? Is that Ginger over there?" I ask Ivy, looking at the other lava pit.

"If you're looking at that other lava pit then yes," she replies sadly. 

Ginger whines as she hangs from the ceiling and I feel bad for her. She's just a dog! Ok, just a magic dog, but same difference.

"Any ideas for escape?" I ask everyone.

"Someone comes to rescue us?" she says unenthusiastically. 

I guess hanging over lava for a bit takes a toll on you.

"MMF!" someone screams.

"Shut up, child," another voice says.

"Queen Leila! We brought you a runaway," a third voice says. 

I watch two men dressed in black (no puns intended, because now is not the time for puns) carry a wiggling sack in.

"My mother is not here at the moment, men. I am her daughter, Princess Cassandra Savvy, and this is my sister, Princess Emira Savvy," ("They don't deserve that title," Ivy mutters.) Cassandra says. 

"Oh, of course, Princess Cassandra. Here is the runaway," the men put the sack on the ground and untie, dumping the girl inside out.

"Shit, they got Daisy!" I whisper yell.

"MMF MMF MFF!" Daisy yells, attempting to run away. She fails though, because her feet are tied together, and Cassandra is magically tying them to a boulder.

"MMF!" she squeals.

"Shut up, girl," Emira says cruelly.

"Where must we put her?" the men ask.

"First, here is your thousand sapphyris," Cassandra summons some money, which I assume is a thousand sapphyris, supposedly equal to TEN THOUSAND FUCKING US DOLLARS. "Second, I'll take her. Begone." 

The men back out respectfully in a bowing position and I stifle a giggle. Cassandra considers what to do with Daisy but quickly decides. She gives Daisy handcuffs and keeps her tied to the rock, but separates her feet. From the look on the Daisy's face she's not excited about what comes next.

"Slave, give me that book," she points to the book that she put on the armrest of the throne.

Daisy walks over to the book, and falls over from the rock before she even gets close.

"I-I can't," Daisy stutters.

"Slave, you will give me the book!" Cassandra commands. 

Daisy attempts to walk to the throne, falling over over and over again. She eventually moves the rock a small bit so she can walk a little farther, but she still falls over. Eventually, her nose starts to bleed from it being fallen on and she cries.

"SLAVE! I DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR BLOOD! GIVE ME THE FUCKING BOOK!" Daisy sobs as she slowly trudges over to the book. I quit looking at the torture and stop to think. How can we get out? Will we get out?