The walk down the hall was quiet. It was near silent, except for the sound of our footsteps and Hira's bubblegum. Hira brushed her bangs out of her face.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

Hira scoffed. "Dorian wanted to see you in the control room. You two have to talk over 'plans'." Hira did air quotations with the word plans.

I knew she was jealous. I had literally just arrived and already I was calling the shots. She'd been here for months and she still wasn't high ranking. It pissed her off.

"Listen, Hira-"

"Don't talk to me." She snapped. I'm only supposed to escort you from point A to point B, and that alone is enough to make me want to snap your neck.

"But you can't. Because then Dorian would have you killed, so you'd better shut up and listen." I seethed.

Hira rolled her eyes, but said nothing.

"Now as I was saying, why are you working with Dorian? What happened to you? You were so nice at the house."

"Nice gets you killed, Circe. I'm surprised you haven't already learned that."

"Answer the question, Hira."

Hira remained silent for a minute before she sighed. "Because it's smarter to be on the winning side, Circe." She said simply.

And suddenly we were there. Dorian was waiting by the door. When he saw me, he smirked. "About time. Thank you, Mrs. Takashi. That's all. I'll call for you if I need anything else."

Hira didn't say anything else. She stared at me as she turned around and walked away.

"Now," Dorian began, "Since you're a part of our little organization, I think it's best to clue you in. The plan is to use our resources to gather as many Elementalists as possible and recruit them. If they refuse, well..." Dorian dragged his finger across his throat.

"But, why kill them? Why not let them go?" I asked, brushing some of my hair out of my face.

"Because they're too dangerous to let roam free. If they know about what we are, then it's likely that they'll tell someone and bust our whole operation. That's not something I could afford." Dorian clarified.

I nodded as if I understood, when in reality I saw it as psychopathic. But I was tired of asking questions. It would raise suspicions on me, which was the last thing I needed.

"We've hacked into the EH divisions radio frequency and have heard word of high Elementalist activity in around this area." Dorian pointed to a spot on the map. "That's where you come in. I want you to scope out the area. Find some new potential recruits. And if they don't accept, you know what to do."

"But what if I-"A sudden explosion rocked the building. I fell to the ground and Dorian gripped the table to keep his balance

"What the hell was that?" Dorian exclaimed. He whipped around and looked at the monitors that lined the walls. Some were flashing red and alarms blared loudly throughout the building.

Dorian's eyes darted back and forward between the screens until his eyes narrowed in on one dead in the center. There, through all the smoke that clouded the camera, we could make out a few blurry forms. But then suddenly, glowing orange eyes appeared out of the smoke. The boy ran his fingers through his tousled blonde hair and shouted commands at the people behind him. A magenta haired girl was right beside him.

Victor and Evie! They were here! They'd come to rescue us!