The entire field was demolished by my blast of flames, and as I dragged my feet along the burnt grass, I returned it to its bright green state. Tendrils of fire and smoke rose from around me, twining into the gray sky.

"Return," I said quietly, waving my hand as I envisioned the plants returning to bright bits of nature.

The area responded and bloomed, filling my eyes with the usual pretty scenery. As soon as the last flame sputtered out, I turned and started towards the academy again.

"Miss Uriah!"

Blinking hard in irritation, I swung around.

"Were we too late?" The leading man, Jones Griswold, looked around at the grounds.

"Well, yes, but no. I had everyone retreat and took care of the threat." I gestured towards the academy.

His expression contained relief and a bit of guilt. "That's good. I apologize for arriving late."

"No problem. I assume you brought healers?" I glanced at the twenty or so people that arrived with him.

"Ah, yes! Healers, please step-"

"No need. This case is one my team is specifically trained to deal with. If you'd like, though, there are many students that were possibly shocked or caught by someone's ability on accident, or having backlash from their own."

He smiled. "Glad to, Miss."

I returned a polite nod and led the way towards the doors.

"As always, I assume there will be no rats here to expose anything?" I flicked a glance over my shoulder.

Jones raised his eyebrows. "What rats?"

"Good."

I placed my hand onto the metal wall.

It grew soft, and then exploded and flew away as I turned it into dust. Silver turned to look at me momentarily, faces relieved, then returned to their business.

"Bella." Michael opened the door for me, and I stepped inside as he saw the group behind me. He smiled awkwardly and yanked me away the second they left.

"What?"

"Um. Liz has become a problem."

I drew my gaze away from the crowd and looked at him. "And?"

"What do you mean, and?! Father always warned us, you know what we're supposed to do!" My twin brother conveyed his irritation in his hands as they twitched.

"I'd follow Father's orders to the letter, usually, but we've practically disbanded. Until he calls the family back together, we can only hold on to the name of Uriah, and not to the R-"

"I know!" He threw his hands up, interrupting me. "Bella, the Uriah name is the Royal Family. It has been for CENTURIES. So why exactly-"

"Don't talk about that connection here, of all places. Look, what Silver got the gist of is that we are OLD. We are the evolved humans. That's how we managed to explain Snow."

"And Trent? We never made an excuse for him. Where's the difference?"

I sighed. "Trent isn't from the Uriah line, directly or distantly. We have no way to explain his early mutation other than to pass him off as the first outside of the family. He-" I could faintly sense blood rush to my cheeks. "He's an exception."

Michael caught my blush and snorted. "Exception or not, there's no way Father and Mother really accepted him as your...that. Giving him the heir's hand? I think not."

I gave him puppy dog eyes. "Hael..."

He glared at me. "Don't give me that Hael bullshit. I hate it when you use that as an excuse."

"Bella!"

We both looked to see Avery speed walking to us. "Liz is getting a little too wild. We need a restraining unit, now."

I snapped my fingers, and the almost silent humming of the shaking building stopped. No one noticed, since it had been practically unnoticeable.

"There's your restraining unit. Avery, put her to sleep or something."

She frowned. "She has a sort of... resistance, I guess? Maybe her father's doing, since she probably trained with him."

I blinked. "Yes. She did. Sorry for that, then. Tell Snow to put her to sleep, okay? She should have something on hand for it."

Avery nodded. "Okay."

As she left, Michael returned to me.

"Now, Bell, about that Trent business..." He narrowed his eyes at me.

I made a face. "He's a good guy."

"He shouldn't be good enough to be King."

"Are you questioning our parents' choice? They chose him, you know."

Michael scowled. "Like I'll believe that. I'll have you know I was there when he asked them to give him a chance."

I felt my face redden again. "So?"

"It was obvious, Bell. He's really the only one you display any level of emotion around, besides me. And-"

"Guys."

Michael's face hardened and the very person we had been talking about came up to us.

Trent noticed the tension Michael was emitting and raised his eyebrows.

"Is there a problem?" He asked. Bowing his head to Michael and lifting my hand as he did, he quickly kissed it and winked before letting it drop.

I blushed, and Michael gave him a burning glare.

"Yes. With you," he spat.

"Hael, calm down," I told him gently.

"He - I won't accept you!" He fumed. He turned and walked away in a fury.

Trent looked at his retreating back, and sighed. "Still not too excited about it, huh?"

"No," I admitted softly, disappointed.

His gaze softened as he glanced at me. "Aww, don't worry, bella. He'll come to terms with it at some point."

"That was what we were fighting about the other day. We didn't mean to leave the classroom like that." I winced.

He offered me a gentle smile. "It's fine. He came to fix it after you fell asleep, you know."

I nodded.

We stayed silent for a while, and I sensed Michael begin to use our connection to do some work.

Trent hesitated next to me. "Bella, are you sure it's okay? Your parents haven't been seen in decades... None of you have made an appearance to uphold your family name in the meanwhile either. I feel like their approval is fake, especially since it was made last second."

I cast him an irritated look. "Really? I don't mind giving you the ring back."

He panicked. "I - I didn't mean that!"

I pulled him away with me to a hallway that was out of sight. His hand was warm and rough in mine.

"Trent," I began as we made it into the darkness,"my parents meant the best for us. Regardless of whether or not you think they were in their right minds at the time, I think that it was the move that benefitted us the most. Right?"

His eyes narrowed. "You always make it sound like one of your old war talks. I hate that."

I tightened my grip on his hand. "I'm sorry. I just - I really do think that the way we are now, that it couldn't have gone any better."

There was a temporary silence before he pulled me closer and wrapped me into a hug. I flushed a deep red, his heartbeat loud against my ear as I absentmindedly pressed myself against him.

"I wish it had stayed normal. The war...it was wrong. I know it could have gone wrong if you hadn't done it, but it was wrong on so many levels that I almost refused to accept it all."

I turned my head up and rested my chin on his chest, meeting his intense brown eyes. I tentatively reached up to brush away the matching light brown hair, and he closed his eyes in response as I ran my hand through it. He swallowed hard.

"I know," I began,"that there was a lot of pain. As the heir, I knew I had to make the right decision. And I-" my voice faltered as I tried to blink away the water gathering in my eyes. He was watching me, face gentle as my hand stopped, slightly tilting his head towards me.

"I didn't think...the kingdom would fall apart so badly. But it did. We barely even managed to keep it in districts. And as everything happened, it was just me and you and Michael, doing nothing! After, there were so many bodies that I couldn't even count them. I just... I felt it. I failed everyone. There was still safety, and it was the best ending for almost everyone, but it was still a failure."

His nose bumped against mine, eyes clear and nervous.

"Bella, I-"

"You need to go work, that's what." Our heads snapped towards the way we had come from, and Michael stood there, expression screaming bloody murder as Delia stood behind him, her - oddly enough - hurt gaze on us.

"Michael, she was just-" Trent began.

"I heard enough. Go upstairs, Trent, Liz is still a problem. Bella, go with him. Delia will accompany both of you." My brother stepped aside, and Trent heaved a sigh before pulling me with him towards Delia.

Sorry. An odd chapter, especially with so much haphazard details thrown in, but I'll fix it later.

Sadly, we didn't make the Watty's shortlist (though I didn't expect it to) but it was certainly worth a try. Regardless, I've been very lazy with any sort of updates lately so I suppose I didn't really deserve it.

High school is presenting some problems, as I need to keep straight As to get into the university I want, and I currently had one of those As drop to an 89 and consequently forgot to ask my bio teacher for extra credit. Hopefully the test we took on Friday brings it up.

Have a good week!

        - LG