MY FIRST MOVE was getting a mouthful of dirt.

Fuirus dodged my charge and let me trip over the force of my own momentum. I laid there for a full second before scrambling to my feet.

He was ready for me as I then cautiously walked towards him instead. Even though his fire should not burn me, his abilities were as unpredictable on me as the Elf who had come to my shop with shadow magic. If I was not careful, his fire might destroy me, too.

"What are you going to counter my magic with, little Dreamcatcher?" Fuirus taunted. "I have duelled with those who use ice magic. And they have lost."

"I do possess ice magic," I admitted. "But I already knew that it would not work on you."

"You have that much in the ways of strategy, then," he grinned, the flames dancing in the breeze. Then he suddenly thrust his hand outward towards me, and a line of fire followed.

I dropped to my knees, missing it by a few inches.

The next blast was directed at my legs.

I leapt into the air, springing backwards and arching until I landed with my back facing away from the Elf. I heard a growl as confirmation that Fuirus was becoming frustrated. His magic had not yet landed a hit.

I whipped around in time to sidestep a ball of fire.

Adam and Georgia were holding their breath.

Knott had stopped screaming, and was watching the duel in a mixture of shock and awe. I recalled her previous words at the first mention of all of this.

Brother never loses.

That made me wonder how long his duels usually lasted. With the impressive skills which he had gained over time, I could not imagine that battles were dragged out for very long. Perhaps Fuirus had even thought that this would be an easy win. I would allow no such thing. And he would soon lose his patience.

For the moment, I was still defending against his attacks. He was not giving me the opportunity to pause and calculate a pattern. Then I realised.

There was no organisation. Or rather, the randomness and what could be assumed to be spontaneity, was exactly the basis of his strategy. By giving me nothing with which to work, he was short-sighting me.

Fortunately, I was quick on my feet —quicker than he was. I was almost dancing around him, gracefully imitating Knott's haphazard acrobatic tricks, and doing all I could to get away from the flames.

But I had to think of something quickly. I also needed to play on the offence. I clenched my fists. I did not know of any magic which would be effective against his. Though before I could think any longer, Fuirus did something I had not anticipated.

Chains of orange flame whirred across the Duelling Pit, and found their target. I gasped as they bound me, wrapping me like coils of a snake. And they burned, like nothing I had ever felt.

The chains singed linear holes into my clothes, before touching my skin. The pain seared.

I fell to the ground, and cried out towards the sky. I thought that my own body would erupt into flames. But Fuirus too knew how much I could take without my consciousness and senses giving out.

He knew how to keep me on the edge of that pain.

"Caught you," taunted the Elf, his gold eyes wild.

Another scream ripped from my throat.

"Purple!" Georgia cried from outside of the pit. Adam was holding her back, in case she tried to run towards me. "No!" she sobbed, kicking and thrashing.

Georgia was crying for me.

I remembered that I had made a promise. No one was going to get eaten. No matter what, I had to fulfil that —I had to do something.

My muscles locked, and I poured everything that I had into coating my skin with frost. I had to stop the fire first. I strained at first, distracted by agony, but then the burning began to lessen. I was creating frost —but it was instantaneously evaporating.

I counted it as a small mercy; an opportunity.

"So, you resorted to ice after all," Fuirus sighed, feigning whatever emotion was reflected on his face. "How disappointing. I was hoping for a creative duel, considering how well you were doing initially."

"It is...not over...yet!" I hissed, shaking. Steam rose where my ice met his flames; billowing upwards.

"How is it not?" he quipped. "It is only a matter of time before my fire burns right through you."

So he did intend to kill, and break his own rules.

He was no longer doing this on a whim; for fun. He had become blinded by frustration. His pride was on the line, and he wanted to make an example of me —because his sister knew that he never lost.

I dared to meet his gaze. There was nothing but wild and unchecked bloodlust. He knew no other way. Was this how these three treated strangers?

They are just children.

My eyes shifted to Adam's, which were locked intently on me. Time almost paused, just as it had before when I had asked him if he had dreamt of me. The soldier's expression was of guilt. He said absolutely nothing, but I seemed to know what he wanted to say. I felt the thought that he could not bear to let me die.

Whether he needed me or not, Adam could not handle witnessing more death. This time, the death of someone he knew who had not been a part of his family.

Maybe, I could not bear to die either.

Live. For them.

I growled, and began to rise to my feet. Every muscle protested. I stumbled and swayed, but made Fuirus hesitate as I managed to stand and face him.

"I will not die!" I spat. "Not like this."

Though I have no magic to counter his.

The chains tightened, but I did not cry out again. I would not give the Elf that satisfaction.

"Purple!" Georgia screamed.

Live for her.

I could then feel that conviction course through my veins. It was electric; explosive. The inside of me began to heat up —not because of Fuirus' fire, but because of a power within. Then I heard several gasps.

"Her veins," Glimm breathed. "They are glowing."

I looked downwards at myself. My veins were indeed luminescent, white and pulsating. Like Kynes'. It did not feel like pain. It felt like magic.

I turned my head, and met Adam's gaze again. Some different kind of warmth spread through me. Not desire; not fire —I did not have a name for it. But it calmed me. It seemed to have the same effect on him. And that was all that I needed to see.

Live...for him.

The explosion of the magic from inside of me that then followed was ardent.

Even though it was not quite clear what happened thereafter, I felt and heard rather than saw, the branches of lightning; the crackle of thunder at every pore. A storm that had been bottled, now set free.

The light was blinding, and the electricity sparked. It struck everywhere and everything, mercilessly. Except for them —the ones for whom I would live. Bolt after bolt hissed through the air as it erupted from me. I might have decimated grown trees.

As the magic fulminated, I felt a sense of extraordinary release. As though I really had finally unleashed something that had been clawing under the surface of my skin. And when I had nothing left to give, my legs no longer had the strength to support me. I collapsed forward onto my knees, breathless.

The lulling silence after the storm.

Everything was still. Too still.

I glanced around. Indeed, every tree within a five mile radius had been flattened and charred. The Elves were down, but still breathing. I drew a breath. I had not killed. I had played by the rules.

I had won.

Georgia broke free from Adam and ran for me; a teary mixture of relief and anguish. Her action of crashing into me knocked me backwards, but her grip was strong enough to keep me upright.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she sobbed.

"Hey," I smiled, withdrawing to hold her face in my hands. I saw the pain in her eyes, as though she had felt what I had. She cared so much —too much. "...You do not have to cry," I told her.

"I thought you were going to be destroyed," she wailed. "It was like that time with the flamethrowers...all over again. I couldn't do anything about it then, and I felt just as useless now," she confessed.

"You are not useless, Georgia," I assured her. "Please do not think that. There is always something that can be done. And you are also a child. Do not treat yourself like an adult —you do not have to know all of the answers. Even we do not have all of the answers."

She nodded, before burying her head in the crook of my neck and embracing me again.

Adam then jumped into the pit and strode over, the ghost of a smile tugging at his lips. He stood there for a good few seconds before Georgia realised that he was behind her. She now knew to give us space. She slowly withdrew and got to her feet.

Adam barely acknowledged her generosity, but she simply scoffed it off.

My gaze then met his, and that warmth filled me again.

There was a lot that I felt I wanted to say, and perhaps he did as well, but neither of us could find the courage to initiate anything. But then the soldier held out his hand for me. I glanced at it admittedly rather sceptically, but I lifted my hand up to slip it into his. The feeling was unusual —foreign yet familiar at the same time.

As if even though this was the first time for us, it could have been the umpteenth for another reality.

He pulled me to my unsteady feet.

For a moment, we just stared.

I saw Georgia roll her eyes in the corner of my vision. It made me abruptly pull my hand away from Adam's, and take a step backwards. Where was that distance which I had promised?

The soldier averted his gaze and nodded in understanding —for a sign that I had not meant to send, but would likely benefit everyone in the long run. I inhaled sharply. I had made the situation uncomfortable.

"...Did you feel it?" he then eventually murmured.

He had asked me a similar question before. I did not know before, but now I thought that I had realised it. That inexplicable warmth. As though everything that was in me was drawn to him.

"I...I felt it," I answered.

"And?" he quipped. "What do you think?"

I scoffed. "We barely know each other."

His brows knitted. "That is not what I meant."

I opened my mouth to make another excuse, when I was interrupted by the stirring of the Elves. We tensed, and pulled Georgia to stand behind us.

"You...did not mention that you...possessed lightning magic," Fuirus rasped, sitting up.

"It...is a recent development," I said, turning my hands over and shivering at the sparks that then discharged.

"I see." That grin stretched Fuirus' lips again, and a horrible feeling settled in my stomach. "But, you did win," he then surprisingly admitted. "And a deal is a deal. So, you are hereby free to go."

No one moved.

"...Seriously?" Adam checked, his eyes narrowing.

"Seriously," Fuirus confirmed, before springing to his feet as though nothing had happened. "I have not had a duel that exciting in a long time. Every single one before you was so tedious. You gave me a reason to train again. Thank you, Dreamcatcher," he said to me.

Was that really all?

I found it difficult to believe that he would settle for this result. Did he not want a second round?

Not that I was complaining or ungrateful —it just seemed suspiciously too easy.

We then stood frozen as he went over to Glimm and Knott. They too sat up and brushed the incident off. They appeared to have short attention spans, because Knott was already declaring that they should go somewhere else, and Glimm was unopposed to the idea.

And so it was decided that they would go.

"Farewell," Fuirus trilled to us. Then he looked up at the now indigo and fuchsia sky. "And good fall."

"Good...fall," I returned, still dumbfounded.

As I concluded —they were just children.

We did not dare to move until it was obvious that the Elves were actually leaving. Fuirus' voice carried as he apologised to the others for the result of the duel. Knott could not care less about her brother's defeat, but Glimm paused to turn back and glare at us.

"Be careful," she said. "If you wish to cross the border, know this: the Faeries there in Winfrost will not be so forgiving. Or any, for that matter."

I swallowed nervously. We had no other choice.

The wood refused to catch fire.

Unlike my clothes, which were ruined. The material was singed, but my skin was perfectly fine. I definitely had to credit my magic for that grace.

Adam tried to light a fire for half an hour before deeming it useless. We would simply have to make-do without. It was not too disastrous —Georgia would be fine in her sleeping bag, and the night air was not freezing.

The soldier and I did not have sleeping bags —neither of us could sleep. I had no issue with the temperature, but Adam would have to bundle up if he sat outside with me —which he did decide to do.

I was grateful that I had someone to distract me from drowning in my thoughts. I did not have the time to think too deeply about my new ability and whatever it meant. Whether it was permanent or if it had been a spur of the moment.

Had I been alone, it would have been agonisingly quiet.

At night, one could hear the sounds of animals and the flittering of fairies very clearly.

One could hear precisely what wanted to kill you.

Camping out until first light was the wiser option, especially with the Icen in the Pine Woods.

"Why don't Dreamcatchers sleep?" Adam suddenly asked, startling me even though he had been sitting there on a free trunk for the last ten minutes.

"What do you mean?" I frowned. "We simply do not require a period of rest and recharging."

"Well, sleep can do wonders for other things," he mused. "For example, did you ever want to experience dreaming before you received the ability?"

"I suppose so," I admitted. "There were a lot of human things that I wished to do when I was younger. Dreaming is not how I imagined it."

"How so?"

"Well, for one, I thought it would be more whimsical and nonsensical. Instead, I got stuck with prophecies and visions," I sighed. "Things that I avoid."

"You hate Fate that much?" he murmured.

"I do not hate Fate," I clarified. "I just...I do not like the feeling of being controlled," I explained. I then turned my head away from him. "...I have had enough of that to last a lifetime."

He was then quiet for a while.

I realised that we were not going to continue our previously interrupted conversation, but it did not bother me. I was no longer sure of what exactly I had been meaning to say back then anyway.

Then Adam went on, "...The whole reason that I'm here is because of Fate. I hadn't thought much of it before, but now that I'm a pawn —I don't know how I like it."

"Do you feel trapped?" I asked.

"Not quite," he answered flippantly. "I figured that I would just go along with it. I might not be in charge, but it does not mean that I can't control what I can."

I raised a brow as I turned to look him in the eye. "That is a clever way to look at it."

"Why, thank you," he smirked.

I fiddled with my thumbs. "So, what do you think that your fate is?" I murmured.

"Something to do with you," Adam answered immediately. "And...I'm no longer complaining."

My eyes lidded. "So you hated the idea at first."

"I didn't know what to expect at first," he corrected me. "Now, I suppose I don't mind that you're here."

I only offered a smile.

In the back of my mind, was my nightmare. I thought about falling and drowning. I thought about his voice, screaming at me. And I wondered if I did not mind.