Jeremiah had called me to some stupid meeting before I could eat my breakfast.

My starvation was making me grumpier than I already was. I hadn't really heard much of what he had to say, but the breakdown was him going on and on about making "tough decisions as a leader".

I suppose that should have been my first clue.

When he mentioned Jake's name, he suddenly had my full attention. I hadn't seen Jake around the place. I figure he was trying to get some sleep before training.

But now, from the way Jeremiah was speaking, I had a sick feeling in my stomach that something was wrong.

"What about Jake?" I asked.

Jeremiah smiled cynically. "I've been making a lot of compromises lately, Miss Creed. When Mr Groove phoned me up asking for Mr Maxwell, I decided to do something to benefit me for a change."

I shot up from my seat. "If you hurt him I swear to God-"

"You'll what? Paint me to death?"
Jeremiah taunted. "Besides, I didn't lay a hand on him. I simply told Dante where he might be and what time."

I ran.

Training was about to start, but Jake liked to get there early and set up.

When I reached his usual spot, his weapons bag was on the floor and Shir was in chains. I was fuming with rage.

I'm going to kill the bitch and make Jake watch. Dante's words vibrated in my head.

Oh God.

People were starting to arrive for practice. I ignored there confused looks, pulling at Shir's chains to try and get her lose.

"Let her go!" I yelled.

Jeremiah had finally showed up and was already shaking his head. "You're the one who said the community needs protection. I suspect the lion will do the job sufficiently."

Before I knew it Jeremiah was giving his 'I'm the boss' speech to everyone. I didn't hear a word. All I could think about was what Dante could be doing to Jake at the very moment.

Shir was looking at me with sad eyes, begging me to set her free. I gave her a firm glance back to say that I would help her when the time was right.

Eventually, Malvin and Veera showed up. Malvin intervened and I fell to the ground, explaining what had happened.

Malvin was giving me a sympathetic look but Veera seemed disgusted.
Who would have thought that she'd be the one to silently tell me what needed to be done?

Pull yourself together.

It felt like my heart had been ripped out of it's chest, but who would want to follow a leader who couldn't deal with the tough situations?
What's that expression?

Only the strongest survive.

I remembered Jake's 'element of surprise' lesson and I certainly surprised Jeremiah with what I did next. First, I leapt to the ground and without hesitation, I pulled a knife out of Jake's self-defence bag and held it to his throat.

"Didn't see that coming, did you?" I spat.

My face was filled with wet tears and probably runny makeup. I imagine I looked like a lunatic, but a scary lunatic.

"I-"

"Where's the keys to Shir's chains?" I kept the conversation hushed and between the two of us.

Everyone stood there frozen, probably trying to hear what was being said.

"In my left pocket."

I reached in his jacket, assuming his pants were too tight to hold anything. I'd been right and I pulled out a silver key.

Then I turned to the hundreds of eyes, waiting eagerly for my response.

"Today's the day we've been waiting for," I announced. "We're going to go out there and show the world what Karnoi are truly capable of."

"But we're not ready." Danielle's voice was shaky.

"You were ready the moment that you got in touch with your abilities," I stated. "Now it's time to start believing in yourselves and show the world that we're not animals to caged. We won't be controlled anymore!"

There were a couple of whistles and cheers from the audience as the atmosphere grew.

Jeremiah laughed and I tightened my grasp on the knife.

"This is ludicrous. Are you seriously going to follow this girl to your deaths?"

"You're not going to your deaths," my voice grew louder at each word. "You're stronger than the people out there. We make history today as we come together and fight for our rights as Karnoi!" I paused. "Who's with me?!"

The crowd broke into a frenzy, bellowing and howling, before holding their fists up in the air.

Jeremiah's eyes grew wider by the minute. Obviously he'd underestimated mob-mentality. All anyone ever needed was a good motivational speech and a crowd to follow.

In the midst of his peoples excitement, I whispered in his ear. "Don't think that you're getting away with what you did. You'll get what's coming to you, Jeremiah."

I freed Shir and then got down to business.

Everyone hurried off on their own mission. I went back to my room to fetch Clearwater's podium, with the hopes that Dante might want to exchange it for Jake.

A part of me knew it was going to take a lot more than that, but it was worth a shot.

Everyone knew exactly what to do in theory. We'd been through it so many times in training. It was just a case of building up the courage to make it so.

I heard a knock at the door and when I didn't respond, it slowly opened.

It was Malvin.

He tiptoed into the room like it was on fire, and I carried on rustling through my stuff to prepare for a war.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Pacem, I understand that you're emotionally attached to the situation at hand, but I need you to think logically here."

"I know what I'm doing, Malvin," I stated. "I'm ready."

"Just take a breath." He nodded. "We can only leave at sundown anyhow."

"Sundown?!"

Malvin lifted his brow at my exaggerated response.

"The longer we wait, the longer they'll wonder if we're coming at all."

"The more time they have to torture Jake." I shook my head.

"He's a big boy," Malvin flipped off the statement. "He can handle himself."

I shook my head and sat down on the bed. "I don't know what to do, Malvin. Jake said it last night; they're not ready. We need more time."

Malvin sighed and sat down next to me.

"People respond well under pressure. Or so I'm told." He looked at me and a smiled curled up on his face. I remembered the day that he had left me to escape on my own. I suppose he had been right that.

"You know, I often think back to when I first met you, Pacem. You thought you needed other people to save you. Well look at you now."

He had a lot of faith in me. He always had, right from the beginning. Half of the time I didn't know I was capable of all the things he just expected me to do.

I smiled back. "Thanks Malvin. For everything."

Something weird happened after that. We looked at each other and I'm not an expert- but I think we had a moment.

It had to have been platonic-Malvin and I definitely weren't like that- but something about it compelled me not to look away.

That is, until somebody walked into the room.

"Pacem, a lot of people are asking to speak to you," Danielle's voice seemed nervous.

I immediately jerked away and stood up.

"Of course. I'll be right there."

And off I went to tend to the masses.

We discussed the strategy one more time and to make everyone feel better.

"When we get there, we separate into smaller groups. Each group has a leader, you know who they are are. Don't question them. Once we separate, I won't be able to help you. You need to work together and do this yourselves."

They all nodded firmly.

We'd divided them all with the intention of spreading out capabilities. Hopefully this wouldn't lead to a full on battle, but just in case, there were at least three fighters in each group.

"You all know where you have to be. Remember, never be the first one to raise a weapon. We're going to show them that Karnoi are peaceful but also not ones to be walked all over."

They spend the rest of the day in their groups, practicing the concept of team work (since we hadn't quite mastered that in training yet).

Once I was sure everyone understood, we waited. And boy was it a wait.

I was pretty sure that it was driving other people crazy too, considering the conversation that I had with Veera.

She'd caught me in the one second that I wasn't trying to calm everyone down and I had been so shocked that she was willingly talking to me, that I'd almost forgotten to respond.

"Um... What's up?" I asked, trying to be as polite as possible.

"Look I don't even know why I- I just..."

I folded my arms impatiently.

"What you're doing, Pacem..." She paused mid-sentence considering a retreat. "It's pretty impressive. That's all."

Her words had felt similar to a punch in the face; surprising and disorientating.

I tried not to look too shocked with my response, "Um... thanks, I guess.'"

She turned around looking embarrassed and ready to leave.

"Veera."

She glanced back at me briefly.

"You too."

Veera gave me a nod of understanding and then walked off.

Today had been a very weird day.

And I had a feeling, there was a lot more weird to come.

What will happen next as Pacem leads the community into war?

And did Malvin just have a non-platonic moment with Pacem?