We watched as the body of the sphinx slowly dissolved into Amarie's still form. I let out a shaky breath and collapsed onto a bench.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Sophie asked, running over. My friends surrounded me in an instant. Isaac handed me a bottle of water.

"I'm good," I exhaled, opening the cap and chugging down a quarter of the water.

"Dude, that was sick," Deynan said seriously.

"I have never been more impressed with you in my life," Audrey said, lightly punching my shoulder. Well, light for Audrey.

I grinned. "The footsteps one almost got me."

"But it didn't," Isaac reminded me.

Sierra placed a hand on my knee. "That was really brave of you."

I looked down at her and smiled. "Thanks."

"Well," Audrey declared, "that was exciting. I say we all settle down and chill for a bit, yeah?"

"Wow, Audrey wants us to chill?" Deynan asked in mock surprise.

She aimed a kick at his shins but he danced away.

"I need some rest too," Isaac admitted. "That was a little insane."

Everyone nodded before heading to various spread out places on the boat. I leaned back against the side, letting out a slow breath. I wasn't tired. My adrenaline was pumping far too much for that. I put my hands in my pocket out of habit and felt the familiar crinkle of a certain scroll.

I grinned and pulled Tinder out. He was a good companion, sass and all. I hadn't talked to him in a while.

I took out the quill and scratched my message: hey.

...hello? What's wrong? What did you idiots do this time?

I snorted under my breath. Nothing. I have a question. It's about Monsters.

Ooooh. Yikes. Those things are bad news. Steer clear.

There's one on our boat.

WHAT?! Why?!?!

Ok, don't worry about that right now. How do you defeat them?

Chop off their head, I don't know, how would you kill a bear? Look, the more important question is, WHY IS THERE ONE ON YOUR BOAT?!

It's fine, trust me, she's a friend. I mean, how do you defeat them without killing them? Just, make them transform back?

You're crazy. Get that thing off your boat. It will kill you.

Answer the question.

Well...okay, so Monsters tend to have pretty big egos because they're making up for all that insecurity. So usually you kinda have to prove them wrong. Try to show them you're disinterested and you want their human form back. Monsters were engineered to do whatever gets them the most attention or praise.

I thought about this. So that was why Amarie's transformation dropped when I had beaten her in the battle of riddles.

Nice.

Okay but I'm very concerned about this Monster who is your "friend". What?!

It's complicated.

"Hey," Sierra said, sitting down on the bench next to me. The pit of my stomach grew a little warmer. "What's up?"

"Oh, just talking to Tinder." I gestured to the scroll. "Trying to understand Monsters a bit better."

Sierra nodded. "Hey," she asked excitedly, "does he know me? Like, who I am? What does he say about me?"

"Uh..."

My thoughts drifted back to the last time Tinder had talked about Sierra. It involved him saying the two of us should date.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Come on, please?" she begged.

"Um..."

"Pleeeeeeease?"

I sighed. "Okay."

Hey, Sierra wants to know what you think of her.

The script grew a little curlier.

Oh, Sierra! So nice to finally meet you at last, belle cherie. I have heard such great things about you from Master Ravi.

I rolled my eyes. "He's being obnoxious, sorry. He's being super nice to you to annoy me, I bet."

Sierra giggled. "I think it's funny."

You're a real clown, Tinder.

I'm not joking! Princesse, he says the most amazing things. He says you are the most beautiful girl in the world, and that your kindness surpasses all others, that you are a radiant star in the dark void of life, a truly divine being.

Sierra laughed harder. "Well, what a gentleman."

I groaned and wrote back quickly. You're laying it on a little thick now, Robert Frost.

If I were frost, Sierra would be the sunlight to remove the chill from my heart.

"This is by far the most praise I have ever received," Sierra laughed.

Annoyed as I was, I couldn't help but smile. Her laughter was infectious.

Then she glanced up at me, her eyes shining with a look that said, isn't-this-fun?

My breath caught and my heart stopped. For a second, the world stopped, and she was all I could see.

"Hey guys," Isaac said suddenly. "Amarie is waking up."

I regained my ability to breathe and looked away quickly. Amarie was stirring, slowly sitting up. Isaac put a supportive hand around her waist.

She blinked. "What...what happened?" Her eyes widened in panic. "What did I do?! Did I hurt anybody?" Her voice was choked with desperation.

"No, everyone's fine," Isaac said soothingly.

I took another swig of water, then stood up. "Hey...can I talk to Amarie for a bit?"

Isaac looked up in confusion, but smiled anyway. "Uh, by all means, I guess." He stood up and walked to the other side of the boat.

"Are you okay?" Sierra whispered.

I nodded. "I just want to make sure she is."

Sierra smiled. "Okay."

I went and sat cross legged next to Amarie. She looked up at me fearfully. "Did I do something wrong?"

I let out a small laugh. "Not at all. I just wanted to talk to you."

"Oh."

I debated for a moment over how to start. I took a breath.

"You shouldn't be insecure about your intelligence."

Amarie looked up, confused. "What?"

I shrugged. "You shouldn't. I know that's easier said than done, but...you shouldn't. You're plenty smart. You escaped Damius. That takes intellect. You found us wandering around Sierra's hometown, and I still don't know how you did that. And if we're going way back, the hint that you gave Sierra in the arena was really clever. You may not realize it, but you think through situations really well. Your mind has also been incredibly valuable to our team. Knowing how Damius and his plans work, figuring out what he might do in the future...you're a smart person, Amarie. If you were confident in that intelligence, you'd be one heck of a power machine."

Amarie blinked in surprise. "Oh. Um...thank you."

"And," I continued, "there's more than one type of intelligence. There's spatial intelligence and emotional intelligence, kinesthetic, linguistic...there's so many. Remember that. The world today would have you believe that the only type of intelligence is math equations and facts, but that's not true. That's not true at all."

Amarie nodded slowly, then sighed.

I raised an eyebrow. "You don't believe me?"

"It's just...it's easy for you to say. You're a really smart person."

I paused at that. I gave her a quizzical look. "You think I'm not insecure about my intelligence?"

She looked up. "I mean, yeah."

I laughed slightly. "Well, that's where you're wrong. I've been insecure about my intelligence ever since they put me in the 'gifted kids' group in elementary school. See, the thing about being labeled as gifted is that the standards are raised. And then you feel like, since you've always been smart before, you have to stay smart. People place you on a pedestal. And that's when it gets scary. You don't want to let anyone down. You don't want to prove them wrong. So you become terrified of failure. Doubtful of your own abilities. Scarily unsure of whether you'll be able to live up to the standards placed before you."

I took a deep breath and laughed a little. "Did you know that, until last year, I had difficulty trying? I didn't know how to try. Anything where there was the possibility of failure, I simply ran away from because I didn't trust my intelligence. I had trouble with my griffin transformation, to the point where I almost couldn't do it. All because of a little nagging voice inside my head that insisted I wasn't good enough."

There was a moment of silence. The now familiar sound of the ocean waves lapping against the side of the boat filled the air. The sails flapped in the wind.

The sky was beginning to grow dark. Night was about to fall.

Finally, Amarie responded. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what to say."

"Don't apologize," I said dismissively. "This isn't a pity party for me. It's to help you understand that...you aren't alone." I carefully put my hand on her knee. "You're not the only one on this boat who is afraid they aren't good enough."

She looked up, her eyes wide.

I smiled.

She looked down again. "Ravi...I know that everyone always talks about how smart you are. And they should. You're very, very smart. But you shouldn't base your worth on just that. You are strong, and loyal, and funny, and you care about people so much that anyone would be a fool not to see it." The ghost of a smile danced on her lips. "You're a good person."

My heart constricted, touched by her kind words. "I come to tell you how amazing you are and you turn it right back on me. That is the most Amarie thing I have ever heard."

Her smile broadened slightly. "Thank you."

I sensed the conversation was coming to a close. I started to stand up, then remembered something. I turned back around. "I meant to ask...how do you spell your name?"

She frowned. "A-M-A-R-I-E. Why?"

"Well, see, your insecurities come from fear, yeah? And the opposite of fear is love. Well, there's a word in Latin, amari, no 'e'. The infinitive passive form of 'amo'."

She tilted her head, confused.

I laughed. "It means 'to be loved'. Remember that."

Then I stood and walked away.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey guys," Sierra said softly, "I just sent a message to Tess. Hopefully we'll get an update soon."

"It's so weird to think that we're, like, friends with Tess," Audrey said.

"So you admit that a person you previously thought was evil is actually a good person at heart?" Sierra asked lightly.

The boat fell silent.

I cringed slightly at the sudden tension. It was weird to hear Sierra say anything that might cause conflict.

"I'm sorry," she said immediately, realizing the awkward moment she had created. "That wasn't fair of me."

"Yeah, it wasn't," Audrey responded, anger creeping into her voice. "Just because Tess turned out okay doesn't mean everyone will."

"I know," Sierra said quickly, although without much conviction.

"Hey, guys," Isaac said suddenly, "it's been a long day. Why don't we just try and get some sleep, okay? Who wants first watch?"

"I've got it," Sophie whispered.

"Me too," Deynan said quickly.

"Sounds great!" Isaac said with a forced smile. "Alright, everyone! See you in the morning! Goodnight!"

"Goodnight," I whispered back, leaning back on the bench.

I didn't fall asleep for a long time. There was something unsettling in the pit of my stomach.

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

A/N: Hey all! Sorry for the late update, you know how it is. Also...

I HAVE MORE FANART TO SHARE!!!

My INCREDIBLE friend Opianeer drew this portrait of Audrey simply from my description which is insane. Look at this!

I'M FREAKING OUT!!!! This is so good!!!

Alsooooo here's another with her showing some pride in the background.

Big shout out of thanks to her, and much love to all my incredible readers! Fanart is actually such a high compliment, I'm kind of freaking out a bit. You guys are amazing.

Much love to you all!
~Margot