I ducked instinctively, but they shot past us without even touching us. I stood up, confused.

"Hey!" Audrey shouted. "Give us back our hostage!"

I turned to see Damius being lifted into the sky by the posse of monsters. My expression soured. He had gotten away. Of course. I silently cursed to myself. "We almost had him," I muttered.

"Don't beat yourself up," Sierra said softly. "You've done more than enough."

I suddenly realized how exhausted I was. My vision became spotty and I stumbled forwards and collapsed.

"Hey, take it easy, ok?" Deynan said, sounding a bit worried.

"I'm fine," I protested, trying to stand. I felt a head rush and thumped back down, blinking hard. "Ok, maybe not fine."

"Yeah, are we going to ignore that fact that Ravi basically just achieved god form?" Audrey asked.

I shifted uncomfortably. "I really don't like the sound of that," I muttered.

"We need a new name for it," Sophie agreed.

"I've actually been thinking a lot about this," Sierra said carefully, "and I was thinking...well, what do you think of...Legendary form?" She smiled a bit. "Mythical for the girls."

"I like that," I said immediately. "I like that a lot."

Everyone else nodded their approval, and I could see Sierra's smile grow a bit more relaxed. "Cool," she said confidently.

"MORTALS!" a huge voice suddenly boomed. I jumped. "SHOW YOURSELVES!!!"

I shot up in alarm, trying to stand firmly. Then my head spun, I toppled forwards, and everything went black.

~~~~~~~~

I woke up with the odd sensation that I was moving. The world was blurry and incredibly blue.

Then it came into focus and I realized I WAS moving.

I was lying down on something like a hammock, and it was speeding forward smoothly. It was relaxing.

I looked around and realized that my hammock was actually a blanket tied between two broomsticks, one ridden by Abigail, the other by her friend Liza. I smiled. Sorcerers. Awesome.

Deynan and Isaac were on the hammock with me, which would have been weird, except the broomsticks were flying far enough apart so the blanket was stretched out like a picnic blanket. Isaac was chatting softly with Abigail, and Deynan was fiddling around with Sophie's book computer.

"Does Sophie know you have that?" I mumbled sleepily.

His head shot up and his mouth broke out into a grin. "Ravi! You're awake!"

"Ravi's awake?" a voice said from the other side of Liza. I raised my head a bit and realized that the girls were in a similar set-up between Liza and Abigail's other friend, Chris. Sierra waved at me from the other blanket. I flashed her a peace sign before slumping my head back down.

"Tired?" Isaac asked softly.

"Not really," I replied. "It's just nice to relax."

"I know the feeling," Deynan muttered.

"Just so you know the story," Abigail interjected, "I had finally convinced these two that helping you guys take down the Destroyer was the right thing to do, and we had just arrived at the castle, only to realize that you didn't need our help at all."

"It would have been against the rules," Liza said crossly.

Abigail sighed. "Liza, sometimes, rules are meant to be broken."

"Rules are NEVER meant to be broken," Liza said firmly.

Abigail looked a little exasperated, but didn't press the issue.

"Thanks for taking us back, though," I said. I paused. "You are taking us back to the school, right?"

"Of course," Abigail said dismissively. "It's the least we can do."

I turned my head back to Deynan. "Now, back to my question, does Sophie know you have her book?"

"Yes," Sophie shouted from the other blanket, sounding extremely annoyed.

Deynan's grin widened. "After discovering that she," --he jerked a thumb towards Liza-- "has no sense of humor, I was bored, so I took the book."

"And, dare I ask what you're doing on it?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Playing Duck Life," he replied, continuing to mess with the book.

I frowned. "What the crap is THAT?"

"A really dumb game," Isaac said dryly.

"Hey, it's not dumb," Deynan protested. "You train your ducks to do stuff like run, swim, and fly, and then you enter them in races and crush the competition."

I raised my eyebrow higher. "I'm sorry, ducks?"

He nodded.

I looked back at Isaac, who shrugged.

I raised my head a bit and shouted, "Sophie, why did you let him take it? Come on, you're better than that!"

"I only got it out in the first place because I wanted to message Mrs. Simone," Sophie said, sounding frustrated. "Next thing I know, he snatched it from across the blanket and starts playing his stupid duck game."

"He almost knocked me off my broom," Liza said coldly.

"Ok, you guys need to chill," Deynan groaned. "And Sophie, how was I supposed to know you wanted to message Mrs. Simone? You didn't tell me!"

"I don't have to tell you my reasons for wanting my own possessions," she shot back.

I lifted my head, amused. I caught Sierra's eye from the other blanket, and her smile danced with mirth.

"Now give it back," Sophie said firmly.

"Oh, Sophie, I already messaged Mrs. Simone," Audrey said, fiddling with a smaller book in her lap. I didn't know Audrey had a book too.

Deynan grinned. "Aha, excellent," he said, scootching a little further from Sophie's glaring eyes.

"I've never seen Sophie get so fired up before," I whispered to Isaac.

Isaac nodded. "And I've never seen Deynan so pleased that he's annoying someone."

I frowned. "Yeah. Isn't that weird?"

Isaac smiled mysteriously. "I guess."

I knit my brow, wondering what he could mean by saying that, but Abigail interrupted me. "Did you guys use the sand?"

There was a second of silence. Then Deynan let out a sound of pure agony. "No!" he exclaimed, crestfallen. "I was so excited about being the awesome lord of fire..."

"You gave him the fire?" Liza asked, deadpan.

"It wasn't our best decision," I admitted.

Abigail laughed. "So, since I've been DYING to know, anyone wanna fill me in on the big fight?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling. Everything felt too still. The castle was bustling with activity, I was sure of it, but here, in this room, it was still.

We had arrived yesterday, exhausted and hungry from the long flight over the ocean. Mrs. Simone had ushered us into a small room, fed us, and demanded we told her the whole story. Isaac told most of it, which was fine by me. Despite my nap on the broom-stretcher contraption, I was still exhausted. Part of me wondered if I'd ever feel energized again.

I heard a quiet knock on the door and snapped back to the present. "Come on in," I said, sitting up slowly.

Isaac walked in, Deynan behind him. "We thought we'd find you here," Isaac said, sitting on the bed next to me.

"Well, we kind of wanted to chill in here anyways," Deynan said, plopping down on the floor. We sat in silence for a moment, a comfortable silence. The kind of silence where you can hear every breath of a person in a room, and it makes a sort of strange music.

I thumped back on the bed. "This is so weird," I sighed.

"You're weird," Deynan muttered, almost automatically.

I didn't even glare at him. "You know what I mean. In here, it's too quiet, too still. But out in the corridors, it's too noisy, too busy."

Deynan nodded slowly. "And I feel a little purposeless. Like, we've spent the past two weeks hunting down this dude..."

"...what now?" Isaac finished.

I shrugged, which was an odd sensation as I was lying down. "I guess we try and find Damius."

"Oh yeah," Deynan said glumly. He took out a bouncy ball and began to bounce it against the wall.

"Audrey gave it back?" Isaac asked idly.

"Mhm." He flicked his wrist and it bounced again.

"I'm worried about that fear dude, whoever he is," I said quietly, sitting up again.

"What do you think the Destroyer was?" Isaac asked.

I thought for a second. "Anger."

Isaac nodded. "Makes sense."

"What did we do with the gloves?" I asked.

"Abigail took them," Deynan said. "She's going to try to release the magic slowly. She wanted to consult Mr. Marquez, but said something about him needing more time."

"Oh. How is he?" I had almost forgotten about his whole struggle with Giselle.

"I saw them sitting together in the courtyard earlier," Isaac said. "They seem to be doing alright."

We were quiet again. Mrs. Simone had told us that a lot of teachers wanted Giselle to leave, because they didn't want her taken control of again. I understood their reasoning, but it still made me upset.

"It'll be ok," Isaac said, as if he could read my thoughts. He grinned. "After all, you're Legendary now."

"Yeah, teach me that madness," Deynan said, pocketing his ball. "You looked freaking awesome."

My face burned. "Shut up." But I was grinning.

We shared a grin around the room. The room turned a little brighter, and I felt a relaxation in my stomach. Everything was going to work out. Looking at their faces, I could believe it.

"Hey," Deynan said suddenly. "Isn't dinner now?"

I rolled my eyes. "Do you think about ANYTHING but food?"

"Not really," he replied.

Isaac laughed.

And then, laughing and joking as if we were the three most normal boys in the world, we walked down to dinner.