Arriving in Maracoste goes much smoother than anticipated. Although, that might have something to do with help from a certain blond haired smooth talker who assured the guards at the gate that we were honored guests of his.

"Welcome to Maracoste!" Axas beams in his navy blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black dress slacks as he throws his arms back, palm trees swaying in the distance and sandy beaches within sight.

"How did you know we were coming?" I blink in surprise.

"I never reveal my secrets," Axas winks.

"What he means to say is that I saw you coming," a tan woman with split-dye black and white hair sighs from behind Axas as she approaches, her brown eyes unamused.

"Malachite, you're no fun," Axas pouts and turns to look back at the woman dressed in white skinny jeans with a gold chain belt, a black cropped tube top, and short black gloves.

"Malachite Martinez," Malachite introduces herself to us, choosing to ignore Axas. "Welcome to Maracoste. I'm afraid you've arrived at a poor time."

"Malachite, another council member," Leo says, his eyes flickering between Axas and Malachite.

"I know what you're thinking, but don't worry. I don't support Valeria. With that being said, I also don't support you. I support the truth and what is just. At the moment, I believe your intentions and your cause are just. Therefore, it is my duty to aid you," Malachite explains.

"What did you mean when you said you saw us coming?" Selia asks.

"My magic revolves around time, in a sense. It allows me to see the future, but I'm not able to use it at will. Visions come and go. I also possess the power to see someone's past at will, but only if I touch them," Malachite explains.

"She's a human lie detector for the council," Axas grins. "She serves as the judge in all cases."

"Come," Malachite waves a hand and turns, the heel of her calf high black boots with golden chains digging into the asphalt, her brown eyes serious, "we have much to discuss. I reserved a table for us at a restaurant where it will be safe for us to talk freely."

The rest of us exchange glances amongst ourselves as Axas follows after Malachite before we decide to follow after them, seemingly having no other choice. Malachite leads us towards the beach where a restaurant rests on the boardwalk in the form of a small wooden building. Upon seeing Malachite, the chef behind the counter motions towards the door behind the counter.

Malachite leads us into the back room and up a flight of wooden stairs to a private balcony where our table is reserved. Immediately upon sitting down at the round dining table, a staff members hurries up the stairs and bows as he greets us and hands us our menus. Malachite nods towards the worker and he rushes off back down the stairs, leaving us to talk and examine our menus.

"Let me be candid with you," Malachite begins, placing her menu down on the table. "You do not have many allies on the council, even if you seem to have gotten lucky so far. Esmerelda, Axas, and I are your only allies. Irene will not help you. Jasper strongly supports Valeria. Petunia would kill you on the spot, as would Kaede. As for Henrietta, she has a soft spot for a select few, but she is loyal to Valeria."

"Do you know anything about the incident in Asterithe?" I ask.

"No," Malachite shakes her head. "Jasper is still in the custody of Queen Iris and I haven't been able to visit him to find out. Although, if I had to guess, I would say it was Valeria's doing. Jasper never acts without Valeria's order, and with his undying loyalty to her, I can't see him betraying her."

"It was done behind Irene's back though. Wouldn't that make her distrustful of Valeria?" Selia asks.

"Valeria probably knew Irene wouldn't act against Iris. Irene's sense of justice and her personal connection to Iris would keep Irene from doing so. She probably figured she would act without telling Irene and ask for forgiveness later if she were to be found out," Leo says. "But what would be that important for her to go behind her own council member's back? What was her greater motive for controlling Iris?"

"All we can do is speculate until we find out the truth," Reina says.

"If you're here to make an agreement with Lord Dominic, I'm afraid the timing couldn't have been poorer," Axas sighs and waves his hands in the air with a shrug.

"What is his purpose, anyway?" Leo asks, crossing his arms.

"Ever since he was robbed of his magic by Valeria, he's harbored a grudge against her. For a while, he was neutral towards Tatiana, but lately his thinking has shifted. Now he believes that stripping others of their magic in order to protect them is the worse option compared to training them how to fight," Axas explains. "Honestly though, can you blame him?"

"I see where both Tatiana and Dominic are coming from," I say. "With Tatiana, she wants to protect those who can't protect themselves, and she doesn't intend to keep their magic forever. She wants to fight for them instead of have them fight for her cause. But with Dominic, he wants to give people the opportunity to fight for themselves if they want to, to give them more of a choice. To be honest, I can't say who has the better answer, but I think that deep down they have the same goal of protecting the innocent."

"Yes," Malachite nods before she sighs. "If only Lord Dominic saw it that way. Maybe they could reach a middle ground. It's not worth fighting each other over differences of opinion when they have the same ultimate goal, especially when the real danger is out there still."

"What can we do?" I ask.

"Gaining an audience with Lord Dominic will have to wait. He won't trust you, especially not with Leo and Reina among your ranks. You could try visiting him with just Selia and Rosaline, but it's still unlikely that he would hear you out. Although kind to others, Dominic doesn't trust easily. Even my word alone wouldn't convince him. You'd have to prove yourself to him," Axas says.

"Lord Dominic is very much a 'show, don't tell' kind of man," Malachite agrees.

"Well, how do we do that?" Selia asks.

Axas and Malachite exchange glances before Axas beams at us.

"Join the resistance," Axas grins.

"You're kidding," Selia deadpans and Axas' smile only broadens. "You're...not kidding."

"What about me and Reina then?" Leo raises a brow.

"If you both join the resistance, even with your connection to Tatiana, it shouldn't deter him from talking to you if you prove you support his cause," Axas says.

"Alright, fine," Leo sighs.

"Now," Axas grins and holds up his menu, "who's ready to eat?"

The six of us order our dinners and talk amongst ourselves while we wait for our food to arrive. As for myself, I ordered crab legs with lemon and garlic butter sauce and french fries on the side and a mojito. I've never tried seafood before, but I've always wanted to try it.

"So, where do we sign up to join this resistance?" Selia raises a brow and crosses her arms as she looks between Axas and Malachite.

"You'll want to find one of the generals," Malachite says. "Axas and I serve directly under Lord Dominic as his advisors. However, he has different people in charge of the resistance, considering Axas and I are on the council. Even though we are working against Valeria, it would be foolish to make that public knowledge."

"Dominic has four resistance generals. There's Mateo, Ren, Catalina, and Ymir," Axas continues. "All of them are easy to get along with, but you might have an easier time finding Ren or Ymir. If I recall, one of them should be stationed to this area."

"I see..." I trail off in thought as our food arrives.

Dinner with Axas and Malachite goes well and we spend the rest of the time enjoying each other's company. Leo asks them if they've heard anything about Aleksandr and they both say that they haven't heard of any incidents involving Aleksandr and the resistance, which I can tell really relieves Leo. Still, we should probably try to find them soon in order to ensure that Aleksandr and Mishka are safe.

"Thank you for the dinner, Malachite," Reina says politely as we prepare to leave the restaurant.

"Yes, and thank you both for helping us," I say with a small smile.

"Of course. Good luck finding one of the generals," Malachite winks. "We'll be awaiting your visit to Lord Dominic."

"See you around," Axas grins and waves goodbye with two fingers as Malachite walks away, his other hand in his pocket as he stands turned sideways.

I watch as the two of them slowly fade into the distance of the nighttime, leaving just the four of us standing outside the restaurant.

"Now, we just need to find Ren or Ymir," Selia sighs with her hands on her hips.

"Ymir Valente?" A low yet feminine voice questions from behind us.

The four of us turn around to see a tall woman with shoulder length brown hair and green eyes leaning on the doorway of the restaurant with her arms crossed against her army green crop top and her one ankle crossed over the other.

"Uh..." I trail off, uncertain if we can trust the stranger before us.

"The resistance general, yeah?" The woman hums, her eyes scanning us over as she moves to stand up straight and puts her hands in the pockets of her dark green cargo pants, her black combat boots hitting the floorboards as she shifts around. "I can take you to her, but only if you tell me what you want with her."

"We'd like to join," I say, risking trusting her after exchanging glances with the others.

"I see..." The woman says before she takes a hand out of her pocket and holds it out to me. "Ymir Valente, at your service."