Trigger warnings for violence, deep water, fire, and death. I feel like I'm missing some, though - please tell me if I am!

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Chapter 4

Avery Willows

It's midnight—and I'm awake. Someone's tugging on the covers, yanking them—

"Ow! Hey, w—" I fall on the floor, and hear an oddly familiar voice hiss, "Damn," and some kind of cloth covering my mouth.

Two cold hands pull me upright, nails digging into my skin. It takes a moment to adjust to the dark, but it's clear that Shadow is holding my wrists, and—wait, is she tying my wrists together with rope?

She drags me across the room and twists the doorknob. The door opens with a small creaking noise.

Alicia and an unbound Sonia are in the hallway, with a scowling, limping Lacey trailing behind them.

"Where're the guys?" Shadow hisses.

Alastair and Jay run in. "Lily isn't here," Jay informs Shadow, his nervous demeanor nearly gone.

"What about Star?" Alicia whisper-shouts.

"We need inside intel, remember? We can't pull her out now," Shadow says.

"That way!" Alicia points to the end of the hallway.

We race down stairs and through corridors, all the way to the Head Trainer's office.

"Ali—" Sonia begins, but the lock on the door explodes in a shower of silver sparks and the door bursts open. I turn to look at Alastair, and I swear his eyes were a humanly impossible shade of bright green for just a second. But they're back to hazel now.

We run into a strange scene—the Head Trainer with his hood down. He has a bald white head, and when he sees us, he turns around and opens his mouth.

His face is burned. All of it. Badly scarred too. His eyes are like chips of orange fire, ready to burn us, and the building, down.

Alastair's eyes turn green again, and he rolls his eyes at the Head Trainer, and looks to his left. The Head Trainer's body flings to the left side of the room like a rag doll, hitting the wall.

"Let's go, people!" Alastair yells, and runs to a door. "It's here, Ali?"

"Yeah, do your thing!" Alicia barks back.

Alastair does the same thing he did with the door's lock, and he shoves the door open.

Jay points to the room the door led to—it's small, with a sort of tube that goes upwards like the thing that transported the tributes in the Hunger Games to the arena. It has a control panel on the inside, and an open-shut sliding door that's currently open.

"In!" Shadow says sharply, undoing the rope tying my wrists together and my gag.

I practically run into the tube thing. Sonia and Alicia follow, with Shadow close behind.

Jay stands in front of the tube while Alastair narrows his eyes at the hooded figures—wait, where did they come from?—advancing toward him. The figures crumple and I widen my eyes. Alastair turns and runs into the tube thingy, grabbing Jay and shoving him in it too. It's a tight fit, but it works.

Alicia presses a bunch of buttons on the control panel thing on the inside of the tube.

The figures are getting up, and coming closer to us. "Alicia," Jay says in a calm voice, "hurry up."

The figures are almost at the door when Alicia cries, "Code word constellation!"

An automated voice says, "Access granted," the door slides shut, and we zoom up.

The ride takes just a second, and when we're on the surface, the tube's walls slide down and, like a spring, the floor of the tube shoots us up into the air. I catch a glimpse of midnight purple-blue sky dotted with silver stars. I look down, and the ground races towards me.

I fling my hands toward the ground, and a jet of pale green that's almost white light shoots out of them. I hover above the ground for a moment, and then crash to the ground. It's less painful than I'd expected.

I get up and look at the others. "Did you—did you see that?" I exclaim. "I—I did magic! I did magic! I'm magic! I can do magic!"

I'm giddy with excitement, but then I see Alastair smirk. His eyes turn from green to hazel within a moment.

I blush. "Alastair, you jerk!" I yell.

He shrugs. "I was protecting you from a rather sudden and painful death."

I look at our surroundings. Alicia and Sonia are standing on the right side of Alastair, who's standing in front of me. Shadow is standing to the left of Alastair. I crane my neck and see that Jay and Lacey are standing behind me. We're in a street in a city. It's night, at least ten P.M. We just came out of a. . . wait, is the top of the tube a manhole? Ew, that's gross!

Shadow tugs at my arm. "Get ready," she whispers.

She then emits a noise humanly impossible, a sharp whistle that lasts for about five seconds.

A black car about a few yards from us on the right stops, and two of the car doors, the middle and back ones, open. Alicia and Sonia practically fly into it. Jay stumbles toward it and shoves himself in. Lacey runs around the car, yanks open the door, and jumps in the front seat. Alastair casually stuffs himself into the back seat, and so does Shadow. I'm almost at the car when—

The manhole bursts open, and the hooded figures land gracefully on the street. A car swerves and pulls up behind them. They hop in.

I jump into the car and slam the door. "Drive!" Alicia demands.

The driver, who I can't see since the front and middle seats are separated by a partition, says, "Hang—" as they slam on the gas pedal. We shoot off.

Suddenly there's an explosion of glass, and a small rock lands on Shadow's lap.

"Everyone okay back there?" The driver yells.

"Yeah, we're fine, Jax!" Alicia yells. "The fricking assholes that want us dead chucked a rock at Avery, and they're fine, but they hit Shadow, and she's fine!"

"WHY ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL US?" Sonia shrieks.

"Switch seats," Alastair demands.

We do, and the car makes a sharp turn to the left. I slam into Shadow.

A jet of green light shoots out of Alastair's hands. Shadow's eyes turn fully black. Black liquid streaks down her cheeks like she's crying and then—

The car swerves and I'm thrown into Shadow's lap yet again. Our heads knock together like maracas.

Her shoulder slams against the window, hard. A small crack like a spiderweb spreads across it.

"I think I'm about to throw up," I mumble.

We swerve again and suddenly the driver yells, "FULL SPEED AHEAD!" and slams the gas. Our car rockets forward. Jay is looking out the window, Alastair is shooting that green light at our pursuers, Shadow is clutching her shoulder, and Alicia and Sonia are clasping each other's hands for dear life. This is complete with me mumbling "Oh god oh god oh god am I gonna die am I gonna die I'm gonna die" under my breath.

Finally, about thirty minutes later, we make it to a bridge—well, half of one, at least. The other half is just gone. There's a churning green-blue ocean with white caps below where the bridge should be.

"We're not going to—" I close my eyes as we rocket off the bridge. . .

. . . and land on solid ground.

I open my eyes. We're on a shimmery path of navy blue waves made out of lines connected with dots. The bridge leads to a huge strip of empty beige land. Why would we be going there?

I'm about to find out, because we're at the end of the "bridge." The second the car drives off the bridge and onto the strip of land, a giant blue barrier suddenly materializes, made of the same things the bridge was made of. . .

Suddenly the barrier explodes in a flash of blue light, and. . . wow.

There's a hedge maze behind and a garden and forest in front of the huge, yellowish red mansion several yards in front of us. That's all I can see out of my window, but. . . woah.

The car swerves and skids, and I hear a muffled thudding noise.

"Did we hit the house?" I ask.

No response.

I jiggle the car door handle, and it opens. Everybody else is still in the car, so I get out and start to walk towards the door of the house.

"You don't want to go in there." The voice of the driver startles me, and I turn around.

Jay and Alastair are standing awkwardly next to each other. Nearby, a shaking Sonia is leaning against Alicia, who's gently braiding her hair as if nothing is happening. Lacey and Shadow are sitting on the hood of the engine, peering at the top of the roof of the house.

None of their voices match the voice I heard. Unless—?

Next to Alicia and Sonia is a tall, slender dark-skinned boy with dreadlocks, wearing plain black clothing.

"Who are you?" I ask, taking a cautious step forward.

"Jax." He extends a black-gloved hand. I shake it.

"Why can't I go in—" I begin.

The door flies open.

A slender, bronze-skinned boy with dark hair and golden brown eyes is standing in the doorway. His face falls as he sees Sonia and I. "What did you bring home now, Jay?" he asks.

"I—" Jay stammers. "I didn't—"

"No matter," the boy says. "Come inside, all of you. Geniveire will be. . . pleased to see you all." He turns around and walks into the house. Everybody follows him except Shadow, who, I realize with a small shock, is standing near me.

"What's his deal?" I ask.

"Oh, A.J.?" Shadow says. "He's just bitter. His sister is worse, but his brother is better."

"He has siblings?" I bite my lip.

"Yeah. Jax is Alicia's cousin, and Jay is Midnight's half-brother—Midnight's uncle is Jay's dad, but he divorced Jay's mother and married Midnight's." Seeing my look of confusion, she adds, "I'm confused too. It's complicated."

"Who's Midnight?" I ask.

"Oh, you do not want to know." Shadow walks past me.

"No, I do. . ." I walk into the house, shut the door, and turn around. And. . .

Holy crap.