Mia sighed, looking out her window. She hadn't been able to do anything since she'd broken her wrist and it was killing her. She wasn't even allowed to use her powers or drive or anything. It was awful. Not only that, but she'd also just finished finals week. And writing with a broken wrist was not easy. At all.

"How are you doing?" her dad asked from the driver's seat. "You should be excited but you just look miserable," he told her.

"I'm happy," she protested. "Just thinking about how much I can do once this stupid cast is off," she admitted.

"I bet you are," her dad laughed.

"How much longer?" Mia asked.

"Just about ten minutes," he said. Mia looked out her window. In the distance, she could see Bay Bridge. She immediately thought of the fight. It wasn't a flashback like it normally was, though. It was just a memory.

Mia looked away quickly. Just because it didn't make her faint or have to go to the hospital, that didn't mean she wanted to see it.

***

Mia walked out of the door, sighing in relief. It had been awhile since she'd gotten her cast and it was nice to have it off. Mia rolled her wrist, getting used to it being free. "Hey, dad? Can I go to Blake's house?" she asked as she hopped in the car.

She hadn't been able to use her abilities for a month. Well, at least her lightning. She could do her invisibility and memory whenever she wanted but her lightning used her wrist too much. The thing that killed her was that there were more attacks. They weren't as strong. Just a fire lemur. Yeah, lemur. It was very weird and luckily not very strong or smart. The wind owl was hard though. It just knew exactly where to go and Mia could see the police men struggling. After being almost completely defenseless and unable to protect anyone, she seriously needed to use her powers.

"I think so. Why don't you ask him?" he suggested.

"Sure." Mia took her phone out of her jeans pocket and went to her contacts, clicking on Blake's profile.

Hey, what's up?

Not much. Wanna come over?

Mia smiled. I was literally just about to ask that. Lol.

Perfect! When can you get here?

Mia looked over to her dad. "Hey, how long till we can be at Blake's?" she asked.

"About half an hour," he told her, eyes still focused on the road.

Like half an hour?

See you then! XD

***

Mia felt her heart beating like it did literally every time she was within ten feet of Blake. Now that they were together, every one of her feelings was amplified. But... to be honest, Mia was worried that Blake would be mad about the Charlie thing. If it was her, she would be mad.

"Hey," he greeted, pulling her into a tight hug. Mia responded immediately, feeling an electric shock shoot up her spine at his touch. She smiled into his neck, smelling the familiar scent of mint.

Blake pulled away from the hug before pulling her into a kiss. His lips were perfect and the feelings filling her were more than anything she'd ever felt. And it wasn't like this forced feeling that she'd felt when she was kissing Charlie. It was a sweet, uncontrollable flutter. It was the best feeling she'd ever had.

Mia pulled away to breathe, resting her forehead against Blake's. "We should probably go inside. It's weird to just be out here kissing when anyone could watch," Blake laughed.

"You're probably right," Mia agreed with a chuckle as they walked into . "Plus, I'm here to train!" she exclaimed.

"How's your wrist?" he asked, closing the door behind them.

"Way better without the cast," Mia said, sighing in relief as Blake grabbed her hand to lead her to the gym.

"I need to change first, smarty pants," she joked, already feeling less tense just being around him.

"Right," he remembered. He turned around quickly, almost bumping into her. Mia laughed as he steadied himself, walking past her and heading to the guest room.

Mia followed him into the room. She walked over to the closet and opened it. Sure enough, inside she saw the familiar black suit. "Privacy?" she asked, looking at him.

"Right," he agreed before walking out of the room. Mia laughed and changed into her suit before walking out of the room.

"I missed you," he told her.

"I was gone for literally two minutes. How do you live when I'm at home?" she asked.

"Barely," he told her. She wanted to pretend like he was being crazy but she understood the feeling. It was awful without him. And the more she was with him, the more she wanted to be with him. She had never, ever felt anything this strong. It was stronger then any feelings she'd thought she'd had for Charlie.

"Me too."

Blake smiled his perfect smile. She seriously did not know how someone could make her heart pound with just a smile. "Let's go to the training center," Blake told her.

***

Mia smiled, looking out her window. The day had been amazing. After she'd finished training, she and Blake had gone to the park and just hung out and it was perfect. And then the time came when she had to leave which was really disappointing.

Mia was about to turn onto her street when she saw something. Mia sucked in a breath, knowing exactly what she had to do. Mia pulled over to an almost empty parking lot before grabbing her bag, opening the door, and running over to a packed store and rushing to the bathroom.

It stank of bleach and... bathroom smells. Needless to say, it obviously hadn't been cleaned in a while.

She scrunched up her nose but didn't say anything as she hopped into a stall. Changing quickly, she waited for the bathroom to clear before running outside to where she'd seen it.

When she saw what the creature was, she shivered. It was a fire lion. I really need to come up with a name for these creatures, she thought. Mia's heart raced as she ran towards the monster.

She focused on the lightning, concentrating all of her energy into that single bolt. In one fell swoop, the lightning soared down on the monster. Mia watched the lion shake and the lightning soar through it's slightly see-through body. Soon enough, it was gone. A wisp of smoke and ash was left in its place.

Mia took a deep breath, glad that it was over. She was surprised she'd defeated it so quickly, though. Normally, it was way harder but this time it had only taken a few minutes and she'd barely broken a sweat.

Mia was about to turn around to inspect the damage when she heard a blast. She ran over to the noise and saw an air hawk. But it was ginormous. At least five feet wide. She knew immediately that this would be one of the hardest things she'd ever fought. Mia was deep in thought, looking over at the creature. She needed to destroy it soon or it would destroy the whole block. But how?

She'd never been good at fighting air or water creatures, how could she possibly destroy it. She thought for a moment when it clicked. The air on that monster was compacted. If she could separate a few, the rest would follow and the monster would be destroyed.

With new determination, Mia ran across the street. In her peripheral, she could see newscasters and pedestrians watching her. It was weird and extremely dangerous but she didn't have time to worry about that. Mia decided to go the safe route and turned herself invisible. She felt an immediate change in her energy but ignored it. She ran over, creating lightning in her hand. She'd need to be precise. If she could do it right just once, it would work. But she had to get it inside the hawk, not just push it away.

She tried to focus on the shape of her lightning, making it as straight as she could before she pushed it inside. It worked. It actually worked. The lightning soared through the monster. It burst like a balloon that had just been popped.

Mia was about to congratulate herself when she heard screaming. She turned around, fast as the lightning she created. She was faced with not one, but three monsters. And they were all either air or water.

One was an air owl. They weren't that strong or big, but they were smart. The next one she saw, was a water crab. But it was huge. Even bigger than the hawk. She hadn't known that was even possible. Then again, very few things that had happened to her in the last seven months had been very possible. The last monster was an air Eagle. It looked almost exactly like the one she'd already fought twice. No. It was the one she'd already fought. She could see that it looked disheveled. It was hard to tell because... well, it was air. But if one looked close enough, they could see that it seemed to have fallen apart a bit.

She felt both proud and weak. One, it was really disheveled and it had definitely taken a hit or two from their fights. And two, she hadn't even been able to destroy it. What else had she failed to destroy? Had she done anything?

Mia turned her focus back to the monsters to take in the situation. Then she realized how hard this would be. One monster, she could take. It would be hard, but she could do it. But two!? No way. And three? Completely out of the question.

But she had to try. She couldn't just let it go. Not with all of the people surrounding her. Mia knew that if she left, they would be the ones paying the consequence. So, taking a deep breath, she got all the lightning she could and threw it at them. She immediately knew it wouldn't work. The plan was weak and for these creatures, one needed a strong, fool-proof plan.

As suspected, all the lightning did was move them a little bit. Mia took another deep breath. She searched through her mind, hoping to think of something useful. She knew that this was her last chance. She just didn't have much energy. Mia thought back to the hawk. If she could do that but with all three at once... maybe.

She took a deep breath and felt the last of her energy drain into that one lightning bolt. She stretched it out, making it as long and pointy as she could. She thought about how huge the crab was and knew that one swipe wouldn't take it out. She'd need to swirl it around for a bit.

Mia shot it out of her hands. It was a familiar feeling now but it was still draining. Literally.

She swerved it to go into the crab first. As she had predicted, one swing didn't do the trick. She bent the lightning to her will. It was harder since it was already inside the crab, but she could do it. Barely, but she could do it.

It vanished and she was about to get to the next one when something else happened.

Five more creatures appeared.

Mia gasped and let her lightning fade. That was a mistake. She knew she couldn't get it again and she was completely vulnerable now. Immediately, she was encased in water and couldn't breath. She tried to escape but she was so tired and weak that it was impossible. Soon though, sooner then she'd thought at least, the water released and Mia gulped down air.

Mia opened her eyes and saw a girl she didn't know, Charlie, and...

Her mother. Clarissa.

Mia shivered involuntarily as she clutched her throat. "Hello, Mia," her mother's familiar voice rang out. It was sickly sweet and yet, at the same time, it was condescending and cold. Her mother had a gift, that was for sure.

"What... What are you going to do to me?" she asked, making sure to keep her voice steady.

"We only need to take you into custody. It will make it all the easier if you don't struggle." This, of course, only made Mia want to struggle more as she watched Charlie lean down. He grabbed her bridal style and she screamed and kicked. It worked, she fell out of his arms and tried to run away but her legs simply wouldn't move. And she didn't want to move. All she wanted was to be in Charlie's arms again.

Mia forced the emotions aside. "What is he doing to me?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"Charles? He's only controlling your emotions. Very poorly, may I add."

"Sorry, ma'am. She's stronger than anyone else I've controlled. I'm trying." His voice sounded weak and pathetic but she forced all emotions to leave her.

Mia gasped. She'd had suspicions that he may have been doing something but this? This was different from anything she'd assumed.

"That's not all I can do," Charlie, or Charles, told her. He created a gust of wind and Mia shivered. It explained everything. She hated it more than anything else in the entire world, but it made sense.

"I hate you. And you? Who are you?" she asked, pointing to the other girl.

"My name is Reagan. You need to learn respect. I am older than you. I am stronger than you. I am better than you," she said. Mia hated her instantly. Anyone who worked with Clarissa was immediately awful on her list.

"Anyone, we should get going. Charles?" Clarissa gestured towards Mia. Charlie nodded, walking over to Mia again. She tried to back away and felt fear course through her but she wasn't fast or strong enough and soon he'd grabbed her.

She yelled and screamed but it was no use. Mia had been taken captive for her worst enemies. Who knew what they might do to her?

A/N The very last chapter. This is surreal to me. I know that you all probably hate me right now. I hate me right now. Lol. But this is the first book in the series. Sadly, book two most likely will not come out until next summer. I plan to spend the rest of this summer editing and re-editing this book and MAYBE planning the next book. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this book. I'm going to go to sleep now because I went hiking today and also it's like 1:30 A.M. so I should probably sleep. 

Bye, Apples