Turned out six stories was a lot higher up than I’d originally thought.

The ground was coming up too fast. Throwing my arms wide, I pulled the air up to meet me, slowing myself just enough that I landed with a roll…and instantly regretted it. Rocks jutted out, shredding my back, until I came to a stop and hauled myself up.

It wasn’t the safest of methods, but it had gotten me down here faster, hadn’t it?

The ground was relatively flat in the clearing, but walls made of rubble surrounded it on all sides. The easiest way out was where I’d come from, but that wasn’t an option a second time around—especially if Alec was hurt. I squinted through the haze, sweeping the smoke away so I could find them again. Up at the top of the cliff, I could barely make out my team, and I hoped they would find a way down… Another zing through the air had me turning to catch a bomb, but what I found was far deadlier.

“Blair.”

Her eyes had a wild look to them. Something desperate lurked there, and I needed to make sure she recognized me before I made a move. The knife at my throat pressed down just enough to draw a trickle of blood, before she snapped out of it.

“Selena? Oh my— Are you okay? How did you find— Where’s everyone else?” The craziness had left her eyes, but she was still wary. Dirt caked her body, and tiny pieces of debris clung to the gash on her arm where the blood had already dried. She looked like she’d been through a war zone, but for all intents and purposes, she had.

“They’re at the top. We need to get out of here. Where’s Alec?” The words had barely left my lips when a fit of coughing flared up behind her.

“I’m right h-here,” he rasped. Just behind Blair, Alec pulled himself up, using the concrete fragments for leverage. If I’d thought she was bruised and bloody, he was a downright mess. His pants were shredded, and chunks of his legs were missing as my gaze travelled down. His foot was only half there, and I grimaced to think how we were all going to get out of this.

Think, Selena. Think.

Something landed next to me, jarring me from my thoughts. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, given the way everyone referred to him as my bound and soul-shackled, but when Aaron looked down at me, it wasn’t the relief I’d been expecting that someone had made it down here. It was the urge to hurl, because it was him.

It only took a moment for Johanna to land behind him, and Amber and Tori literally popped out of nowhere. An idea slowly formed even as shouts rang out around me. I stared at Tori long enough to get her attention then flicked my chin toward Alec. I hoped she got the hint that I wanted her to teleport him up. Her eyes went big as she motioned to the rest of us with a sweep of her hand and a raised eyebrow.

“You want to teleport all of us?” I asked, giving up on the silent communication.

“I mean, I could, couldn’t I?” she responded, shrugging like it was no big deal even though her hands were already trembling. Amber, who was closest to us, looked between the two of us like we were nuts.

“You’re already exhausted. Be damn sure you can do this before you agree, because we don’t need two bodies to haul back. You hear me?” Amber said.

Part of me almost agreed with her—the part that knew that if it wasn’t this jump that pushed Tori to burnout, it would be the next. The rest of me said we all had to make sacrifices, and this was our best shot. Alexandra was running out of energy. Alec was running out of blood. We were running out of time.

“I can do this,” she whispered.

That was all I needed to hear.

Linking our hands, we formed a circle around Tori, positioning Alec between Johanna and Aaron. Blair’s eyes kept darting to him, but when the time had come for us to fall into line, she’d insisted on being between Tori and me. Not that I cared, really—I was more concerned about getting us out of here—but it was interesting. Blair and Alec were another puzzle to solve, if we ever got enough of a break to bother.

As if on cue, another disk landed a few feet to my right. Tori’s breath hitched, and she squeezed her eyes shut. The beeping sped up as I mentally counted down. Three. Two. One.

The bomb went off, but it was distorted. Tori sucked us through a vortex so quickly that one moment, we were waiting to die, and the next, I was sixty feet up.

Time to move.

I opened my eyes and peered through the haze. Our world was on fire, and even though everyone was together now, we weren’t out of this mess yet. The group in front of me was still collapsed, but the others who hadn’t followed us were fighting. Each other.

Not much time had passed, but in the minutes it had taken us to go down, get them, and come back, a fight had broken out. Lucas and the Graeme bitch were going at it, while the others were trying to separate them. Alexandra was still holding the wall, but barely. She was already on her knees, shaking as she tried to calm the fire. I’d been right to trust her, but, unfortunately for us, time had almost run out.

When we get out of here, I’m ringing Fortescue’s neck.

I let my emotions burn away in the flames until all that remained was the ability to do what needed to be done. I looked out over the group who’d followed me down. They’d trusted me with their own survival, and I’d failed them.

Tori was coughing up blood, and Alec’s leg was blown to bits. My sister was about to hit burnout, and even Lucas was fighting with some German chick over who knew what. Why was it that every time I started to get myself together, the world chose that moment to fall apart?

This was it. Make or break.

Are you a leader or are you coward? Pick.

We make our own peace. Don’t let your sentimental heart get in the way of what you need to do.

I made my choice. After letting myself literally fall apart and hit rock bottom, there was only one way to go.

Up.

“You guys get Alec and Tori to the door. I gotta deal with this,” I said.

Running like a madwoman, I tackled Lucas head-on, stopping him in mid-swing. I landed on top of him and quickly readjusted so that I straddled his chest and had the upper hand.

“Go! I’ll handle him,” I yelled at the Graeme girl and the boys holding her back.

“You better learn to control your mouth before you insult my house again. Next time, she won’t be here to save you!” Scarlett spat at the ground and threw a look of disgust at him before letting them drag her toward the door. I hoped the others had also listened, but they weren’t my concern right now.

“Get off me,” Lucas growled.

I pursed my lips, looking down at him with my arms crossed over my chest. “Not until you stop acting like a prick.”

He let out another growl, and I decided to do what I should’ve done last time we talked.

I punched him in the face.

“Ahh! What the hell, Selena?” His nose was bloody and broken, but I’d held back.

“Think of it as a wake-up call. If I can get my act together, so can you.” The conversation was taking a surprisingly serious turn until Lucas flipped us and pinned me beneath him.

Welp. That’s not how I was planning on doing this.

The concrete under my back scraped as it bit into the skin, but I didn’t have to stay like that long before Lucas was torn off me.

“You don’t get to touch her like that. Not anymore,” Aaron said as he threw him aside—luckily not into the fire.

“How many times do I have to—” I started to snap at him.

“Do you want him to touch you like that?”

No. Not that I could bring myself to say it, but it was still none of his business.

Aaron crouched down, grabbing my hand to pull me to my feet. “It’s been my business since I first set eyes on you, and that bastard knows it. We can talk about this later, though. Right now, Alex needs you.”

His words left me reeling, because I hadn’t answered him aloud. Somehow, he knew what I’d been thinking. He wasn’t telepathic, and that was alarming. My sister did need me, though, and it was the only reason I ripped my hand from his and turned to face the fire.

Once again, she’d used too much of herself, and now all control was hanging by a thread that was going to burn to ash. The shaking had stopped, but only because her body had dematerialized into a living flame. Now, the only thing that could stop it was to put that fire out. Good thing my father had been paranoid, because I wasn’t the only one he’d conditioned.

“Ignes ad cineres. Cineres ad ignes. Renascere denuō, itaque tu es incendere incendia.”

Fire to ashes. Ashes to fire. Be reborn again so you can light the pyres.

Her fiery figure vanished, leaving in its place a naked Supernatural girl with flaming red hair and skin as pink as a newborn baby’s. The fire bore down on us both, and I really hoped Aaron and Lucas had had the good sense to get out of here.

I turned into the wall of flame as it hit me, but didn’t burn. No one knew why or how, but for as long as I could remember, the flames hadn’t burned. Not really. Were they hot? Hell yes, but I’d endured worse.

Channeling anger from my core, I rooted myself to the spot where I would make my stand and bring this whole simulator down. This time, I would listen to my instincts. This time, I would not be afraid.

I reached down into myself, smashing the dam that contained my power with a mighty crack. Strands of darkness poured from the fissure, calling for me to seize them. The dam blew apart, and the world flashed from black to white with strands of darkness connecting everything. Mentally, I pushed on those strands, trying to scatter the fire with strong enough winds. It was too far out of control, though, and bombs were still going off. I needed more power. More strength.

“We can do this. Let go.”

I knew who the voice belonged to, but found myself holding back, despite my burning clothes and ash-filled lungs.

“I can’t lose control again. How do I know you’re not just going to kill them all?”

“You don’t,” she whispered, pushing me from my body as she stepped in.

I reached out to hold onto something, anything, but my hands didn’t move. I tumbled blindly through my mind, until there was no chance of forcing her back until she was ready. No longer in the driver’s seat, I observed as she clenched and unclenched my hands.

“Fortunately for you, I’m in a helping mood today. Time to make a little noise.”

My foot came down—and the ground rolled as the rubble reduced itself to nothing more then ash. With a flick of my fingertips, she summoned a wall of air so strong that it swept across the simulator, smothering the fire wherever it touched the flames. It was beautiful and terrifying to watch, as I decimated the world. A thrill ran through me when the air slammed into the walls of the simulator, creating a fissure to the outside world.

“Holy shit. Why didn’t I do that?”

My other laughed and said, “Because you don’t know how to. Not yet. But soon you’ll make what I can do through you look like child’s play.”

I reveled in the darkness, finding peace in this kind of control. That should’ve scared me more than it did. Another bomb came at me, but this time, with the fire gone, I saw where it was coming from. She jumped to meet the flying metal disk in mid-air, and redirected it back to the hole it had just been ejected from. It exploded on impact, but when the dust cleared, the gaping hole in the simulator was a jarring enough sight that my other slipped out and I back in.

“I’ll be watching,” she said, but her parting words didn’t feel as ominous as they had before.

Which meant I was in deep shit. When you trusted the voices in your mind more than you did yourself… I shook my head. The falling soot made me cough, but I was otherwise unharmed. Even my clothes had survived enough that I wasn’t butt-naked. I stripped off my riddled leather jacket and approached Alexandra.

After covering her up for the second time in less than a month, I carried her out, hoping she would understand when she woke. I’d let her make her choice, just as I had the others. There wasn’t always a right answer, but she and Lily were still alive, and that was enough for me. I approached the door, barely held in place by its hinges. I guess the shockwaves I’d created had done more than damage the simulator. The glass was blown out of the window where Anastasia watched me approach. Her posture was stiff, but her eyes betrayed nothing. She looked bored despite what had happened, which I found a little odd.

I picked up the pace as my blood quickened. Just as I crossed the threshold into the classroom where I’d spent most of my sophomore year, she spoke.

“I suppose you all pass this round, seeing as no one died. I’ll be back in three days, and I’d better be impressed.” She turned and walked out the door.

Never mind that we didn’t have a working simulator to impress her with, or that I didn’t give a damn what she wanted. I had half a mind to follow her and cut her limbs off piece by piece.

Let’s see how much that would impress her.

I was halfway out the door, when Vonlowsky coughed and stepped in front of me. “What are you doing?” he asked, gentler than I would’ve expected.

I looked down at my not-so-little sister. Alexandra was only younger than me by eight minutes, and yet I’d never looked at her as an equal. Until now.

“I’m going after—”

“No, you’re not. Don’t even think about it. Let it go. You did well today,” he said.

Was that pride I heard in his voice? There was no mistaking it when he put his hand on my shoulder for a second, before pushing me toward the barracks.

“You all did well today. Take the rest of the day and tomorrow to get back on your feet. Alec, go see Love immediately to have her look at that leg. I’ve been given orders that no one can come here, but she never said I couldn’t send you there.” His support of us and defiance of the Council Member was startling, and a nice change of pace.

As I headed for the barracks with my head down, someone stopped me, stepping in front of the door. Probably Scarlett wanting to pick a fight for almost getting her killed in there.

“Look, I get you’re not my biggest fan right now, but I need to get her to bed. Can it wait, like, five minutes?” I asked, not even bothering to look up.

“It can wait as long as you need,” Johanna said. My head snapped up. “I wanted to say thank you, for what you did in there. You saved my friend.” Her eyes flicked to Alec, who was being held up by another blue-eyed Supernatural guy Johanna seemed to trust.

“Don’t mention it,” I said awkwardly. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had thanked me for destroying something, even if I’d had good intentions. It was nice, but I didn’t know how to feel about it.

She tilted her head to the side a little, squinting her eyes before laughing. What was she looking at?

“Come on, Alec, let’s get you to whoever this Love bloke is before you lose that bloody leg. A little help, Oli?” She tucked herself in on Alec’s other side.

The blue-eyed Supernatural holding him let out a short laugh as they basically carried him out the door and toward the infirmary under Alec’s directions.

I shook my head as I headed down to the bunker. What an odd girl.

Since Lily still occupied my sister’s bed, I put Alexandra into mine and climbed in after her. No more than a few hours had passed from when I’d come out of limbo and walked into the simulator, but I was dead tired. I told myself I was only going to rest my eyes, but it didn’t even take thirty seconds for dreamland to swallow me whole.