I opened my eyes to intense, intermittent flashes of light, which were coming from outside the window. My vision was too blurry to make out any more than that, but my wrists and ankles burned with pain and when I tried to move them, I met with resistance; I had been tied to something. A chair? I blinked hard, bringing my eyes back into focus. Before I had a chance to take in my surroundings, a cold, Brizan voice cut across my thoughts.

"Oh, thank the Water God, you've finally woken up. Maybe now you can stop the lightning?" Emmanuel's voice was impatient. He was stood in front of me, his arms crossed and his face lit up brilliantly by a fork of violet lightning.

"Huh?" What in the air was going on? There had been beautiful sunshine when I had left my room earlier.

"The lightning! You've been making it flash outside for ten minutes now with your mutant powers."

My head was throbbing, like it had taken a pretty big hit. What was Emmanuel trying to do? He had threatened to kill me, but instead he had tied me up and was ranting about my powers. I definitely wasn't going to complain about still being alive, but why was I? Before I could ask, Emmanuel explained.

"While you are putting on your little light show, I can't get anywhere near you without the risk of getting fried!" He glared, as though this was something I should be trying to rectify. "I got burnt badly enough getting you tied up and when I tried to go near you with metal..." He rolled his eyes and gestured to something on the floor. A lump of misshapen metal. It probably used to be a dagger, I realised with a shudder.

"I can't stop the lightning," I told him honestly. I had a hard enough time with the water and fire elements of my powers; I had no control at all over the lightning.

"I had a feeling you would say that. And that's precisely why you should be killed-you have powers which you don't have the ability to stop; powers which no one can teach you to use safely. You are a danger to the Realms. In killing you, I will be doing them all a great service."

"Why don't you deposit me in the Helian Realm instead, so that I'm their problem?"

"Because they've already let you escape once. Besides, they might try and harness your powers to turn you into a weapon against us. Electricity and water make a dangerous combination; I will not expose my people to that risk."

I had to kill time. Brae would know that something was wrong as soon as he saw the lightning. I needed to keep Emmanuel talking to give Brae long enough to find me. "What are you going to do then?" I asked. I fought to keep the tremor from my voice, so that he wouldn't realise how afraid I was.

"I'm content to wait a little while longer. I've been waiting sixteen years after all, another few minutes won't hurt me." He smiled. "If you could produce your lightning inside, I would have a problem, but since it seems confined to the skies, I think I'm safe. It's not really a useful power is it?"

"It had quite an effect when we were escaping from the Helian Realm."

"Well, Helians are Helians. They were probably concerned because it was something they had never seen before, something even hotter than their own flames. The Helians don't like being made to feel inadequate."

He sighed. "This is growing tedious. How about you stop the fireworks so that we can get down to business?"

I opened my mouth, desperately trying to think of something else to say, something that would stall him for just a little bit longer. But, at that moment, the door to the room burst open. I looked towards it gratefully, expecting to see Brae.

Instead, the Queen's dainty frame was visible in the doorway. She wore a flowing aqua dress and her hair, which had been braided down her back, had come loose and disarrayed.

Her eyes took in the scene before them, glancing first over Emmanuel, who was holding another, longer, knife and then me. The pools of blue widened and her porcelain skin burnt red with anger.

"What is going on in here?" She still spoke with poise, but there was a dangerous undertone to her voice that reminded me of Rowan's stormy outburst.

Emmanuel looked up at her in surprise. "Your Majesty? I'm helping you to keep your crown, of course."

"It looks as though you are trying to hurt my daughter!"

Emmanuel shrugged. "It would seem they are one and the same."

Aurelia flew at him. She may not have had the powers of a Protector and she was far smaller than Emmanuel, but she was fearless in her attack. She hurled abuse as she pounded him with her fists, managing to land some surprisingly good punches to his chest and jaw before he swung his left hand up to block her, taking hold of her wrist in his right and twisting. Her legs, following her hand, buckled towards the floor and Emmanuel used the momentum to throw her onto the floor. He leant over her, his face red with anger.

"How dare you turn on me!" he screamed at her. "After all I have done for you! You wouldn't have a Realm without me, let alone a crown and adoring subjects! Everything I have done, I have always done for you. But you never took any notice!"

"Why would I thank you for breaking my heart? For forcing me to give my daughter up and now for trying to kill her? You are psychotic, Emmanuel. I owe you nothing," she spat at him. I would have cheered if I wasn't so frightened for her; Emmanuel was a maniac wielding a knife after all, it wasn't a good idea to goad him.

"I could kill you in an instant," he hissed, as if to prove my point.

"Go ahead. You wouldn't last long without me and I don't want to be alive if I have to lose my daughter again."

I was taken aback by the emotion in her words. It was an incredibly brave thing to say. I wished desperately that I could do something to help her, rather than siting and watching from the sideline.

Emmanuel shut his eyes, as if in pain, then brought the hilt of the dagger down on Aurelia's head. She crumpled on to the ground and lay motionless, like a doll. He hovered over her, his hand shaking as he brought it down, gently, onto her hair, caressing it.

Then he turned to me, his eyes wide. "It looks like that was the distraction you needed to stop those annoying lightning bolts." Air, he was right-I had been so caught up that the lightning had stopped. And I had no idea how to start it up again.

He advanced on me slowly, clutching the dagger in his hands, his eyes tracing over my body as though deciding where best to strike. I felt a chill run down my spine as I realised that this was likely to be it. After everything that I had been through in the past few months: my powers; the escape from the Helian Realm; learning about my parents; Brae. Above all, Brae. Now I was going to lose it all. I shut my eyes tightly, willing something, anything, from my repertoire of uncontrollable powers to work, to protect me.

My eyes flew open at the sound of a crash; had I managed it? But Emmanuel had spun round at the noise too. We watched as Brae, Cameron, Imogen and Devon thundered through the doorway.

Brae's eyes locked straight onto mine and I nodded, letting him know that I was okay-for now at least.

"Oh look, another rescue attempt." Emmanuel's cold laugh filled the room. "I have no idea why you are so popular mutant, but it is really beginning to get on my nerves."

"Let her go, Emmanuel," Brae said, his voice deep and commanding.

The Brizan only laughed again. "I've already taken out one monarch this afternoon, please don't presume I will be treating you any differently."

Brae's hands shot forwards and a gust of wind rushed through the room. The others joined in, causing the window behind Emmanuel to shatter under the force. His feet slipped backwards.

Emmanuel's expression remained composed. Keeping his grip on his knife, he sent a powerful blast of water straight back at my friends. The jet cut through the wind and hit Imogen square on the chest, sending her backwards into the wall. There was a sickening crunch as she fell to the floor. Devon and Cameron ran to her side, while Brae countered with a whirlwind.

Emmanuel stumbled, but righted himself quickly, sending another jet of water at Brae. This time it got caught up in the wind and sent droplets of water everywhere.

Brae used the momentary confusion to lunge at the Brizan, sending him crashing to the floor in front of the broken window. He landed a punch to Emmanuel's jaw before the Brizan managed to take control, rolling Brae off of himself and pinning him to the ground. Emmanuel held the dagger inches from Brae's neck.

"I'm not going to enjoy this, Arcan. You were never supposed to die-it's going to make things far too complicated. But there is no way I can let you live now, not if I want a chance of getting away myself. I'm going to have to take care of you and your friends, along with the mutant. If only you hadn't interfered where you weren't wanted..."

Emmanuel was beginning to babble. He was distracted, which was all I needed.

Praying that they wouldn't fail me when I needed them most, I summoned small flames to my fingertips. I nearly gasped when the tiny ball of fire ignited first time, but bit down on my lip to stop myself. I bit down further as I concentrated on winding the flames up around my hands and wrists until they hit the ropes, burning through them almost instantly.

Silently, so as not to alert Emmanuel's attention, I used the flames to burn through the ropes around my ankles as well.

The idiot; who ties up a Helian Protector with rope?

I stood up, as quietly as I could, and made my way over to where he was taunting Brae, the dagger pressed to his throat.

I was going to have to be careful. I couldn't lunge at him, as there was too great a chance he would hurt Brae in the struggle. I needed to get him off of Brae quickly...

The plan came to me at once-it was my only option, really-even though I wasn't sure if I had the skill to carry it out. But with Brae's life hanging in the balance, I didn't have time to worry. I had to act, and fast.

I ran to Emmanuel's right and, as he looked up at me in surprise, I thrust my hands out in front of me, hard.

Water shot from my hands and into his side. Emmanuel was thrown from Brae with a force which shocked even me. The Brizan wheeled his hands furiously, but he was unable to steady himself. The floor was soaked from the fight and his feet slipped from under him. He was sent careening backwards, through the broken window and down onto the ground below.

My pulse was racing, my breathing frantic, but I forced myself to take slow, deep breaths. I needed to calm down if I was going to make the water stop. With every breath the water pressure lessened. When my palms began to dry I rushed to the Queen's side.

"Is she okay?" Brae asked, coming to sit by me. A small bead of blood was visible on his neck and I felt sickened by how close Emmanuel had come to grievously harming him.

I turned my attention back to the Queen. Her eyes were closed and she was bleeding from a wound on her forehead. "I don't know. He hit her pretty hard. Aurelia? Aurelia, can you hear me?"

She stirred at the sound of her name and her eyes fluttered open.

"W-what happened? Emmanuel?"

"He took a fall," Brae supplied, his mouth creased in concern. "I'm going to check on Imogen and send one of the others for help, okay?" he said, touching me lightly on the shoulder.

I nodded and he vanished into my peripheral vision.

The Queen pushed herself up onto her knees and I helped her to her feet. "Where did he go, Jasmine?" she asked, sounding drained.

"Out of the window." I pointed. As we approached it together, she took my hand in hers.

But when we looked down, there were only shards of glass in the courtyard below.

No body.

No Emmanuel.

He had vanished.