Once I stepped off the plane at the airport in Sicily, I realized just how glad I was that I could use magic to transport. I had forgotten how much I absolutely hated flying in airplanes. It made me feel sick. The entire time, I was afraid that we were going to crash or that I was going to vomit on the extremely attractive Italian guy that was sitting next to me.

Gerrard was leaning against a pillar waiting for me when I wheeled my trolley with my suitcases out. There were several girls oggling him as he leaned casually against the wall with his sunglasses and leather jacket. I rolled my eyes before approaching him.

"Hey, douche. Want to help me with these bags?" I asked. He pushed himself off the wall when he heard my voice.

"That's not a very nice thing to say to your ride," he replied, ducking under the bar to help me.

"In modern times, an example of a douche would be exactly what you look like right now," I told him.

"Hot?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Sunglasses indoors? Black leather jacket? Posing and pretending not to notice all the attention?" I offered. He smirked at me and took his sunglasses off to wink at me. I shook my head at him and spotted the cute Italian boy. He smiled at me and then walked up to his receiving party, which was an equally attractive Italian guy. Then he swiftly kissed him on the lips. I sputtered.

"Figures. The only attractive guy on the airplane would be a gay guy," I remarked. Gerrard glanced over and then chuckled.

"Aren't you engaged?" he asked.

"I can still look," I said. Now he rolled his eyes at me.

"Let's go. I want to get out of this place. I hate being around so many Magia Non," he said as we started walking out of the airport.

"That was a very Elijah thing to say," I said, following him.

"Well, you know what they say..." he trailed off.

"What?" I asked as we approached a shiny black Porche. He stopped, blinking.

"I don't know. I was hoping you would know," he said. I punched him in the arm and he laughed, tossing my suitcases into the trunk. He came around to the passenger side and opened my door for me before getting into the car himself.

"For someone who doesn't like non-magic things, this sure is a nice car," I said, running my hand over the smooth expensive leather interior.

"Since I have to play the part, might as well do it in the best way there is," he replied.

"Which is?" I asked as he started the engine.

"Over the top," he replied, smirking. He pushed a button to open up the top to make the car a convertible and then reversed, speeding off out of the airport.

"I see what you did there," I said sarcastically. He winked at me from behind his sunglasses. "So where's my clone?" I asked.

"At the loft," he answered.

"Does she still look like me?" I asked.

"Of course. But she lacks the spunk," he replied.

"I'll take that as a compliment," I said, grinning cheesily. He chuckled.

"How did the good-bye go?" he asked.

"Painfully," I replied, sighing and putting my elbow on the door. I gathered my hair into a pony-tail to keep it from whipping into my face.

"You'll see them soon enough," he said.

"But under what circumstances?" I asked. He was silent a moment as the wind rushed into our ears and the sounds of Sicily swirled all around us.

"I guess we'll find out," he said. I sighed.

I guess we would.

                                                                ~~~~~~~~~~

"I still can't get over how weird this is," I said, staring at what looked like my reflection in the mirror, except without the mirror.

"I mean, you saw me as Trey's clone. This can't be that much more strange," Gerrard replied.

"Oh, it's a hundred times more strange," I remarked, staring at myself in disbelief. Or rather, my clone. Or whatever she was.

"How was your flight?" Caley--Nina--asked me. I looked at her incredulously.

"I can't handle this right now," I grumbled, turning my back to myself and walking into my room. I heard Gerrard laughing as he walked in behind me.

"It's not the first time you're seeing her," he said.

"She freaks me out. When are we dumping her at the campus?" I asked.

"You're so harsh," he said, jumping onto my bed and laying on his back. "Maybe I'll hit on her since I can't have you," he said, wiggling his eyebrows at me

"Would you like to repeat that while I dial Isobel's number?" I asked. That wiped the smirk off his face.

"Way to ruin the fun," he said, sitting up.

"But really, when are we dropping her off? The sooner she's settled, the sooner we can get out of here and start looking for some answers," I said.

"First day of class is next week. She'll have to stick around for at least that long," he said.

"I think we should just drop her off now," I said.

"You really hate yourself, don't you?" he asked. I threw a pillow at him from the couch in the room. He laughed and caught it. "The dorms open in two days. We'll drop her off then," he told me. "In the meantime, we can figure out where we're going to go first," he said.

"The maps are all in my suitcase," I told him.

"We'll have to pack for a year," he said.

"I know. That's crazy that we're going to be gone for that long," I said.

"We can always come back here. We have the means. And we might need to, to check up on our duplicate," he said, nodding his head at the door.

"That's true. We'll figure it out later," I said, climbing onto the bed and pushing him off. "But right now, I want to sleep because I'm dead tired from that horrid flight and all those emotions," I said.

"Cranky pants," he muttered as he walked out of the room.

"Stupid head!" I shouted after him as he shut the door.

I smiled to myself as I settled into my pillows. I was glad of one thing: that Gerrard was with me. If I didn't have him, I would have probably gone mad by now. Thinking this, I closed my eyes and let sleep take over me.

                                                                ~~~~~~~~~~

After I woke up a few hours later, Gerrard, Nina and I went out for dinner. I tried to stay as far away from Nina as possible. It still freaked me out how she looked exactly like me. I mean, I knew it was necessary and that ti was the whole point of the spell and that it was a good thing that even I couldn't tell us apart, but it was still weird. I liked thinking that I was the only Caley Lucia in the world; that I was the only chosen one. Now it was almost as if there were two of us.

"Are you two twins?" a tourist asked us for what felt like the hundredth time.

"That's fifteen," I muttered under my breath darkly at Gerrard.

"We are!" Nina giggled. I glared at her. Gerrard nudged me with his elbow.

"Calm down," he hissed in my ear.

"Literally every person we've come into contact with has asked us that. She is not my twin!" I hissed back.

"Just play along. She'll be gone in two days," he replied back. I grumbled in response, but kept my mouth shut. I would just have to tolerate her for the next few days.

When we got back to the condo, Gerrard and I opened up one of my suitcases to look for the maps.

"Why the hell did you pack so many clothes?" he asked.

"I have to give them all to her," I replied. "She can't wear her own clothes. I've seen her clothes and they are not things that I would ever wear," I said.

"Right, because you're actually a boy," Gerrard said.

"Pretty sure we've kissed before so that would make it really awkward for you," I snapped back.

"Touche," Gerrard replied, tossing the clothes out of the bag and then flipping up the compartment where I had hid the maps. He pulled them out and laid them on the bed.

"I still have that bag that we took when we went to Sylvanterra. I think it's still spelled, too," I said, digging around the pile of clothes that Gerrard had just thrown onto the floor.

"So we need to repack and figure out our game plan," Gerrard said, sitting back.

"First, let's get her shit together," I said, nodding at the door where Nina was now standing.

"What are you guys doing?" she asked.

"No more asking stupid questions," I snapped. Her eyes glazed over before returning to normal, an effect of the command curse that was on her.

"Okay," she said. Gerrard chuckled and shook his head at me.

"How about you go to your room and figure out what books you need for the semester?" Gerrard suggested to her. She nodded and walked away. "See? That's called being nice," he said to me.

"Since when are you nice?" I asked accusingly.

"Since I've been around you too much," he said.

"Are you saying that I bring out the best in you?" I asked jokingly.

"No, I'm saying that you bring out the pussy in me," he replied. I fell back on the floor laughing, which made him laugh, too.

"Get up! We need to get this shit done!" he exclaimed, pulling me up. I sat up, still laughing, wiping tears from my eyes.

"Ok. Let's get serious now," I said, letting out another little chuckle.

We laid the maps out in front of us.

"So we've already been to Sylvanterra," I said, taking a marker and crossing it off the map that showed the most recent country divisions.

"Let's decide on if we want to visit multiple nations of each element or if we just want to visit one," Gerrard said.

"I wish I could have read Mikael's thoughts so we can figure out which of these are the most important," I said. "I mean, there's a fire nation in almost all of the deserts in the world!" I exclaimed.

"And air nation at the top of most of the mountain ranges," Gerrard added.

"There's a lack of water nations..." I said.

"Which makes sense," Gerrard told me.

"Yeah, I know..." I trailed off, biting the inside of my cheek.

"What?" he asked.

"I don't know. I just have this weird feeling that this isn't Mikael's final copy," I said.

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

"I just have a feeling," I replied, looking at him.

"Caley, you are the last pure-bred water master," Gerrard told me.

"No, my father and Elijah are. I'm a half-breed. My mother was a fire master," I pointed out. "But you have blue in your eyes, too. Maybe there are others out there like us," I said.

"There aren't," he said.

"How are you so sure?" I asked.

"Because it's well-known that your family is the last of the water masters!" he exclaimed. I bit my lip, not wanting to believe it. I just had this feeling...

"I think we should go to a fire nation next," I said.

"Which one?" he asked.

"There are five on here," I said, pointing to the ones in the Arabian Desert, Sahara Desert, Kalahari Desert, the Outback, and Chihuahuan. "I think the Sahara is our best bet," I said.

"Because it's close to Egypt," Gerrard said, reading my thoughts.

"Think of the magic we could learn there, Gerr! What if we find more information about the curse?" I asked.

"Which one?" he asked.

"Any of them. I bet you we can find information on at least one of them. We just need to talk to people," I said. Gerrard sighed and nodded his head.

"Okay, I guess it's worth a shot. How long do you anticipate us being there for?" he asked.

"It took us about three days to find Sylvanterra. But we didn't stay there for too long. I want us to be able to stay for a while and learn things thoroughly. Let's not rush it and see when we get there," I said.

"The Sahara Desert..." Gerrard said. "It's going to be a lot more difficult to find our way around when we're there," he said.

"I know. But hopefully with luck it won't take too long," I said. "Just as long as I don't get shot in the neck with a tranquilizer," I mumbled.

"So the Sahara?" Gerrard asked, taking the marker from my hand. I nodded.

"The Sahara," I said as he put a red circle around it.

_______________________________________________________

A/N: I'm excited to write about the Fire Nations. =)

Wahooo! I updated! It's because I'm in a good mood and it was a terribly long week for me and I just needed to do something to clear my mind for a bit. I'm so excited because I finally get to write the adventure part of this book. We're going to learn a LOT of stuff very soon.

What do you think they'll find in the Sahara?

Leave a comment below! And as always, vote!

Please stay pateint with me!

XOXO