Hello Traveler fans! Hope you're ready for a battle because here it comes. :)

With my feet swaying, I dangled just above the ground in Jeremiah's grip. His fingers tightened. I tucked my chin and clawed at his hand trying to loosen his grasp just enough to get another gulp of air.

No luck.

Come on! I know you can beat him.

He's too big for me to fight physically, I said trying to swing my feet to kick him.

So yank his ass off this dimension.

I closed my eyes and let the tingling coldness of the astral plane filter through me. When the warmth of the world around us disappeared, Jeremiah's grip loosened, and I gasped for air.

He jerked his head around to get his bearings. I dug my nails into his arm until I could smell metallic scent of his blood. He growled, cocked his arm and tossed me backward.

I slammed into the ground with a thud. I grinned, rolled over, and pushed myself to my feet. Jeremiah was no longer on the astral plane but lying in a heap on the floor in front of Robin.

Yeah! That's my girl.

I rubbed my neck trying to get the blood circulating again. Far from down for the count, Jeremiah was already on his feet.

"Okay, buddy—round two," I muttered.

The warmth of the physical plane burned in my palms like they had been asleep for too long and the blood was starting to filter back into them.

Rygar cracked his knuckles and took a step forward like he was ready for some payback.

"Mind if I take a turn?" Robin asked Rygar. "Jeremiah and I, have a score to settle."

Jeremiah wiped his bleeding arm across the front of his shirt like he was marking himself for battle.

"Ah, it's plant boy! You're not still sore about me taking your sister into custody, are you?" He grinned like there was more to his statement than he cared to reveal.

"I'm not the one who's going to be sore." Robin ushered Nebula behind him and stretched an arm above his head.

"You're going to teach me a lesson." Jeremiah laughed. "This I've gotta see. Maybe you haven't noticed plant boy. There ain't any green leafy things down here for you to control."

Robin took a step forward and pulled his hand from his pocket. "That might be true..."

Robin stepped past me and tossed a handful of tiny black seeds at the guard. "But, then again it might not."

The color drained from Jeremiah's face, and he shuffled a couple of steps backward before tripping on a fast growing vine wrapped around his ankles. He tore at the young leafy ropes but as soon as he broke free of a few, several more formed in their place. He ripped them from his body, but the ones around his ankle had already turned to wood and started to form thorns.

"Robin! I'm sorry," Jeremiah screamed.

The thorns pierced his arms forcing blood from the wounds to trickle down his skin onto the floor. The brambles continued to twist around him until he was cocooned inside a thorny cage.

Robin crouched down until he was face to face with Jeremiah. "It's a little too late for apologies. Don't you think?"

Jeremiah glared at Robin. "You think you're so smart? Don't you? Your sister—"

Robin flicked a pinch of seeds he had between his fingertips into Jeremiah's face.

The guard coughed and squirmed against the vines that quickly wrapped his head and held his jaw shut. It looked like some of the seeds had gotten into his mouth and he was trying to spit them out.

"Did you have something to say about my sister?" Robin asked.

Jeremiah rolled his lips and shook his head no.

Robin smiled and dusted his hands together. "Didn't think so."

After the torture Jeremiah inflicted on Robin's sister, I wouldn't blame Robin for letting those seeds tear him in two.

He wouldn't. Would he?

Robin stood in front of me doing something with his hands behind his back. I couldn't tell if he was just fidgeting or if Jeremiah was about to meet his maker.

I reached out and grabbed Robin's hand. "Hey, he's not worth it."

He just stared at Jeremiah not budging.

I gave his hand a squeeze and whispered, "Robin, you came here to save a life, not take one."

He let out a soft vocal sigh and washed his hand down his face. "Fine." Robin looked directly at me. "But if he so much as sneezes to alert someone we're here, his insides will be budding flowers."

"I think he gets it." Rygar smacked Robin on the shoulder. "But I have to say I'm gaining a newfound respect for that talent of yours."

Rygar stepped over the guard and peeked around the corner. "I'll meet you guys downstairs."

Then he ran off on tiptoe down the hall. Nebula and I followed Robin the opposite direction past several cells lining the hallway. Being early morning, the prisoners were still asleep.

"Where did you get all those seeds from?" I asked, still feeling a little amazed at what I'd just witnessed. "It wasn't like you would have had any of those on you at the banquet."

"The garden shed had buckets of them." He smirked and pulled out another handful of different shaped seeds from his pocket. "I thought it wouldn't hurt to be a little extra prepared."

I plucked one of the seeds from the pile he was holding. "Who would've thought something so tiny could be so dangerous?"

"Too me, it's just another one of my tools, just like you have yours." He put the seeds back in his pocket, and I stuffed the single one in mine.

As I walked next to Nebula, I wondered what she'd seen in the future that would make her agree to join us on this rescue mission.

At the top of the stairs, Robin paused and looked at us both. "All right, there is a guard stationed at the base of the stairs. I'll distract him, and you two get Celeste out. With that alarm going off upstairs we won't have much time."

I took a deep breath. "Let's do this."

We jogged down the stairs single file. When we rounded the last bend, I noticed the guard leaning against the wall. He pulled out a round glass ball and threw it in our direction. Nebula grabbed my hand and placed her hand on Robin's shoulder, and a moment later the three of us were running on the astral plane. Something exploded on the stairs behind us.

We were only a few feet away from the guard. He held another bulb in his hand high above his head, scanning the area for us.

"Robin, this is your stop. Ready?" Nebula asked.

"You bet." Robin held out his hand and dove through the air grabbing the orb from the guard's grasp.

I was about to stop and help Robin, but Jax chimed in, interrupting my thoughts. Don't worry about Robin. There's no way that guard has a chance against him. Get your mom.

You promise?

I swear. He's kicked that guard's butt more times than I count. He'll be fine.

The energy in the room we were standing on the edge of felt off— spotty and broken. Not like in the hallway on the level above.

That's the obsidian. The architects left the strongest connection point at the center of the room, but with your ability, you might be able to get a weak connection in the rest of the space.

Nice to know. Any idea which cell she's in?

After having been gone three years? Nope. When I left the Keep, she was inside the first cell on the left. But they probably have moved her since then.

I glanced around the circular room. Each cell had a metal door with a barred window. Nebula was already looking through the window of the cell Jaxon had mentioned she might be in.

"Celeste?" Nebula said, peering through the opening, breaking the silence. "Wren, check the cells over there."

"Right."

The first window I looked in had a big lug facing the wall in it. In the next cell, a woman slept on a thin mattress laid out on the floor. Her blanket was pulled up over her shoulders which made it impossible to see her face.

"Mom?" I whispered.

The woman on the mat stirred like she might have heard me. Nebula peered over my shoulder into the cell.

"Mom—is that you?" I said a little louder.

She opened her eyes and looked in the direction of the window. I would've known those blue eyes anywhere. They belonged to the woman I had said a thousand goodbyes to each night in my dreams. My mother—the women who risked her life to save mine.

"Mom..." my voice cracked. I shook the bars and made them rattle.

She pushed herself to her feet. The rags that covered her thin frame were so dirty it was impossible to know what the original color of the dress might have been. She covered her mouth with her hand, and her glassy eyes threatened to spill over and wet her dirt covered cheeks.

"Wren—?" She thrust her hand through the bars and cupped my face. "Is that really you?"

"And Nebula?" Her voice choked with emotion. "God, I've missed you both."

"Come on, let's get you out of there," Nebula said, taking hold of her hand.

She closed her eyes, but when she opened them, she looked around and realized they hadn't budged. "Damn, obsidian rock. You try," she said staring at me.

"But the door—"

"Is only a physical barrier," Nebula said like she was stating a fact I should have known about. "Once on the astral plane that door won't be a problem."

The circle's presence was weak in this spot. My mom grabbed my hand, and I tried to pull the two of us across the astral barrier. The distant dimension's cool breeze tingled against my skin begging to embrace me, but my mother's presence kept me firmly planted on the physical plane. My mom's hand slipped from my fingers and the next thing I knew I was standing on the astral plane by myself.

"It's no use I'm never getting out of this cell," my mom said as I re-entered the physical plane.

Nebula was standing in the middle of the room stretching out her arm toward my mom. "There's a full connection here, but there's no way I'll be able to reach you."

I took Nebula's hand and was about to reach out for my mother's when Nebula shook her head.

"It has to be you that draws us across. I can't take more than one person with me." Nebula took a couple of steps closer to stand next to me, then pointed for me to take the spot where she'd just been.

The clang of a door crashing against the wall shook my attention. The big lug which I spied in on earlier stood in the open doorway of his cell. This time I could see his face.

Otis.

Yeah, dear old dad in the flesh.

"I knew the seers would be interested in her death sentence." He glared at the back of Nebula's head. "Just so we're clear, no one escapes my dungeon. Not ever!"

Nebula grabbed my mom's hand connecting the three of us. "Now, Wr—"

Her words cut short as Otis wrapped his arm around her neck. She squeezed my hand even tighter, telling me to keep going. I closed my eyes and drew the energy from the circle in dragging the four of us off the physical plane.

Otis never even flinched at our new surroundings.

The moment my mom stepped through the threshold. I dropped the four of us from the astral plane like an elevator plummeting to the bottom floor. This time I anticipated the awkward slowing of time before reentry and landed on my feet.

Nebula gasped and choked for air with Otis straddled over top of her back with her face pressed into the floor. With her hands now free, she pounded her fists into his thigh.

My mom was trying to push him off her sister but with little effect.

Jax was doing something with his hands again. He's not stronger than you. So that means he can only get a weak connection to the circle there. Let's use it to your advantage.

Jaxon moved his hands through mine, and my hands rotated around each other like petals on a bike. With each revolution, the power I held grew stronger.

You'll only get one shot before we have to recharge, so make it count.

Otis was tangled up with Nebula if I missed I might hit her. When he extended an arm to restrain Nebula's arm, I aimed at his leg and let the energy loose from my fingertips then pulled myself back onto the astral plane.

Firebolt crackled through the air and struck him hard in his leg. He let out a guttural roar and shot off a thin fire rope in the direction of where I had just let the bolt loose. He lifted Nebula a foot off the ground by her hair, then slammed her face hard into the stone floor. When she screamed, he pushed himself off of her and scanned the room for me.

Nebula clutched her throat and wiped the blood from her face.

"Come out you little witch." He took a step closer to the middle of the room. "I know you're in here."

"Stay where you are, Wren," Nebula said barely above a whisper.

His hands clenched and the veins in his neck bulged. "No? Fine. I should have done this years ago when you broke your contract with the Fire Circle."

He shoved past Nebula, grabbed my mother from the floor and dragged her to the center of the room. I stared frozen in horror watching Otis' glowing hand hot with heat.

Wren! He's going to kill her. Snap out of it!

Nebula dragged herself to her feet. "You're not going to hurt my sister!"

Otis raised his flaming hand above his head.

Without hesitation, Nebula dove into the air and knocked my mom from his grip. When his hand came down, it wasn't my mother he stuck.

Nebula flew backward until the back of her head struck the cell doors. A dark wine color smeared down the door and pooled around her head on the floor.

I fought every instinct that screamed for me to run and hold Nebula in my arms. Tell my mom everything was going to be okay. Instead I dropped from the astral plane and landed in front of Otis ready to fight for everyone I loved.

MORE to come. Sorry to leave it here. (I'm writing as fast as I can!) Love to hear what your favorite scene in the book has been or what your reaction is to the latest scene is. Thanks for reading!