Chapter One ekj2006@comcast.net

I walked across the floor, lightly treading across the cave, trying not to waken my twin sister Emerson. I flapped my dragon wings and stretched my human body out, brushing of my flowy long dark blue dress. Me and my sister lived on an undiscovered island in the Pacific Ocean.

“What time is it?” My sister growled.

“Dawn.” I said calmly, helping my sister off the cold stone floor. Her light blue short flowy dress wrinkled from sleeping. “Let's go outside and stretch our wings.”

We stepped into the open air. It was a very, very warm morning. I took off and flew, grabbing Emerson's hand. Our sharp eyes darted around the landscape. “Katana wait,” she said. I whipped around to see my sister looking at me, worriedly. Really worriedly.

“What is it?” I said, and then I saw it. A big plume of smoke coming from the beach.

“Land ho!” A man yelled. Emerson and I quickly darted into the trees. Men carried giant boxes across the bank and onto the more grassy areas. All of a sudden the branch we are crouching on gave way, and we fell out of the trees on to the soft grass below.

A man with a shaggy, ginger beard looked over at us. Emerson quickly folded her light blue wings into a jacket sort of shape, and I tucked my dark blue wings into my dress. Very tightly, into my dress.

“What are you girls doing here?” he said.

“W-we were just um….” Emerson stuttered. The man walked over to us.

“What’s this bump right here?” he said looking at my back.

“Uh nothing.” I said. I sounded very sarcastic.

“WHAT IS IT!!!!” he yelled. His breath smelled like rotten eggs and fish. I sighed. I carefully pulled out my wings. I looked at Emerson. She did the same.

“Ahhh…” he says as he grabbed my sister and my arms with tremendous force. He dragged both of us onto the leading ship. There was a dragon symbol painted on the bow. We struggled like lion’s in a cage, but to no success. He threw us into a barred cell as if we weighed nothing. There was bookcases stuffed with books around the cage. “Tomorrow we will check out those wings of yours!” he said as he slammed the metal door and locked it.

I woke up and looked around. Me and Emerson were in a different room now. We were in a white room, that looked like a doctor's office. It smelled of chalk and chemicals. Bookcases lined the snowy white walls. We were strapped to cold metal tables, with our wings facing up.. A man walked into the white room and started to poke, and squeeze our wings.

“Ow!” me and my sister said in harmony. When a human touches our wings it burns like fire. Same if a dragon touches our human bodies.  

“Shut up!” The man said in a Scottish accent. As he lowered a x-ray machine over us. “How old are you anyway?” He pushed a button and took a picture. Then he came over and put metal bands over our wings.

“Uhhh.” I gasped… “Twelve.”

“Guards!” said the Scottish dude. Two men with wide shoulders and bulging muscles grabbed me and Emerson as the straps got released. We got shoved in the small cage again.

“Katana! Katana!” I arose to the frantic sound of my sister’s voice, as she shaked me like a earthquake. A very grumpy earthquake.

“What?!” I said annoyed, I was dreaming about our home.

“I can’t feel my wings!” she said a touch of fire in her soft voice.

“What!” I sat up as fast as a cheetah. “Wait!” I can’t feel mine either!”

All of a sudden part of the bands over my dark blue wings and Emerson's light blue wings uncovered. We snapped our ice blue eyes to our wings. It had turned gray in that small section. A screen appeared.  A face appeared. It was the man who had grabbed us the day before.

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” he chuckled evilly. “Soon your precious wings, will be under my mighty control! And after that I will put those same bands over your tiny, stupid, arms.”

“No!” Emerson cried. She flung herself at the screen. It disappeared before she was even close to hitting it.

“We need to try to get out of this cage,” said my sister as she franticly paced across the . small cage.

“Try using your light magic!” I suggested.  

“No, Katana…”

“You have to try.” I said, tears pooling up in my crystal eyes.

“It might kill you!” she interjected.

“YOU HAVE TO!” I yelled.

“Duck.” she cried, a bright blue orb glowing in her small hands, a wind started to blow, her blond ponytail, whisping around. My black straight hair, smacking my pale face.

I ducked. Whoosh. A blast of light magic sent a wave of white through the air. It bounced off the bars and came flying back at Emerson. It hit her square in the chest.

“Well at least if you get hit with light, it doesn’t hurt you,” I said, scrambling to my feet.

“Yep,” she said. “Hey! You could try your dark magic!”

“But…”

“Yeah, that is why I didn't want to use my light magic.” Emerson giggled.

“But should I…” I asked, concern in my voice.

“You should,” said my sister, her eyes growing serious.

“It’s your turn to duck,” I said, my voice weak. A dark blue orb glowed in my callused hands. Emerson ducked. Whoosh, clang! “It worked!” I said scrambling out of the small hole I had made, Emerson close behind me. We ran silently to the top deck. “Oh no!” I cried.

“What sis?!” my sister said, her face a sea of, what’s wrong wrinkles. I looked at my wings. “Oh, god!” she yelled, slapping her hand on her forehead. “We are so dumb!” We had obviously gone out to sea, while we were below deck, and we couldn’t fly!

“Hey little girls!” a strong, heavy voice said from behind us. We whirled around to see one of the guards. He ran over, he tried to grab us. Whoosh! We jumped out of his grasp. I rolled off to the side.

“I warn you! Don’t make us mad.” I said, a grin on my pale face.

“Why not?!” the guard slobbered.

“Oh you’ll find out if you do make us mad.” I snickered.

“Why you little…” he grumbled. The sound coming from deep within his throat.

“Oh, does Mr. Meany Beany, want a fight,” my sister cooed. She made a pathetic puppy dog face.

“Grrrrr!!!!!” bellowed the guard. He ran towards us full power. I was lucky and clever and I rolled under him before he could get a hold of me, Emerson, on the other hand was not so lucky. The guard seized her by the arm and flung her on the ground. She lay there, unconscious.

“No!!!!!!” I screamed, my voice becoming deep and vicious. “ROAR!!!!” I turned around. My flesh becoming scales, my wings becoming bigger. I was a dragon. “I told you. Not. To. Make. Me. MAD!!!!!”

“I-I'm sorry…”  he stuttered. I flung at him, full force.

“YOU HURT MY SISTER!!!!” I screamed as I gripped him between my claws. The guard looked at me. He looked ridiculous. I mean, a full grown man, with bulging muscles, terrified at the of a face, of a dragon. Seriously. I flicked him overboard. Very, hardly overboard.

As I ran towards Emerson, I turned back to my normal self. “No…” I cried. I cradled her head in my lap. “I need to try.” I whispered. I concentrated all of my energy. Finally, A small globe of whiteness glowed in my hands. I pushed it into my sister head.

“Wha??!!!” she sat up and looked around confused. “Did you just…”

“Yep!” I said, engulfing her a hug.

“But, your dark.”

“I know,” I chuckled. “When we were born we got just a tiny bit of each others powers.”

“Wait! Look behind…” my sister yelled.

And then it was darkness. Very black darkness.

Chapter two

Whoommmm…. I opened my eyes to see a baby with long black straight hair and a baby with blond short hair. I shot a glance into their eyes. Then it hit me like a heart attack. ‘‘What this can’t be….. Th-the past….” I stuttered. All of a sudden, a woman with a sweet face and blond hair glided through me. I looked at my hands, they were the same color as my magic. I was a ghost from the future!

“Hey Emerson,” she said, “Hello Katana.” I assumed she was my mother. Then a dragon, walked into the small golden room. A DRAGON! I watched  him stomp across the room. The same way I did when I was angry. His scales matched my color.

“Polly get the children out of the house!” he boomed, his voice serious but calm. I watched as my mother stroked are wings. It didn’t seem to harm us. Me and Emerson's wings opened. Our mother shoved us out of an open window. I followed us. I watched. Then I turned back, to see the whole house we were in covered in flames. Very hot flames.

“But, but….” I whispered my voice a rasp. I flapped my wings and soared toward me and Emerson. I watched us. Hand and hand. We were just babies. I started to cry. I cried so hard that I stopped flapping my wings. That was pretty stupid.

I fell. I fell into the numbing water. It felt like a thousand needles were digging into my pale, now perfectly white skin. It was blue and icy. Then I woke up.

Chapter three

SPLOOSH! Something numbing, wet, and filled with ice cubes got sloshed on my head. I flung my head back, to see my hands handcuffed to a desk, and the man with his shaggy, ginger beard looking at my water coated face. I was in an office, that smelled of rotting fish. Very, old rotting fish.

“Nice that you could finally join us!” he snickered evilly, while doing that ridiculous hand thing that villains always do. “I suppose I haven’t introduced myself properly yet.”

I looked next to me and saw my sister glaring at the man, her eyes little fire balls. “Katana…” I think I heard her whisper. Her whisper was firm.

“My name is Brent Costevotte, ruler of the magical beasts that hide in our world.” he said while flexing his arm muscles.

Suddenly, my sister popped to life! “What do you want with us then?!!” she snapped, her voice as quick as a shark's jaws snap.

“Oh, I just want your powers and your wings, in my control.” he bellowed.

“H-how do you know about o-our powers?” I shrived, still cold from the icy water.

“Hmmm… Who knows…” he walked through the door of the office, and left.

Fabric bags were then thrust over our heads. I could feel my hands put behind my back, and being tied together. Tightly, tied together.

I need to escape! I thought. I got it!

“Hey, uh…” I said, as I felt something sharp being pushed on my back, which willed me to stumble forward. “Really tough guys.”

I made random gossip, for a few more minutes. A small dark blue orb, was helping me out.

Snap! The thin rope was cut in a matter of seconds. I blasted those thugs into the wall. I jogged over to make sure they were unconscious.

“Hey!” a bulky voice shouted. I turned my head to see my sister with a knife to her throat. “You don’t want me to kill her, do you?”

“Save. Your. Self.” My sister muttered. I stood there. No. I thought. I clenched my fists, into balls of anger. Very angry balls of anger.

“Do you wanna play?” I asked a smirk on my face. I put one of my hands on my hip.

“Currently.” the guard said while shoving Emerson on the floor. He cracked his overly large knuckles.

I quickly made a ball of magic. I flung it at him. He ran at me. I ducked under him.

“Ahhh…” I sighed, dropping to the floor in pain. I weekly shot a glance at my wings. They were blood red.

Brent Costevotte walked towards me, clapping his hands slowly. “Finally I have your wings under my glorious rule!” he smirked.

He pulled a Gameboy looking device out of his pocket. He pushed a button. My wings started to flap. Emerson’s too. We flew to the ceiling. Very fastly, flying to the

“Let’s test this puppy out, shall we!” Brent cackled. He shook us violently in the air. Then, he did something, that I was horrified of. He made us fly straight into each other. It was a thwack, as loud as thunder!

“WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH US, you, you, YOU MONSTER!!!!!!!” I screamed. My eyes holding ready tears.

He made me fly down, but just so that I was eye level with him. He punched me hard. REALLY hard. I stumbled through the air.

“I want you for the war!’’ he yelled. “Restrain Katana. I have work to do. Oh and put the bands on their arms.” he pushed the button and we dropped to the floor.

I was shocked. I had never been struck before. And, my name, how does he know. I didn’t even notice the metal bands being wrapped around my arms.

Katana, Katana, Katana. His voice echoed, through my head. I felt dizzy as I was hoisted onto my feet. I swayed back and forth. My mouth, was open as I blindly tiptoed through the dank ship.

Finally, I was back in the cage. I weakly sat down on the dusty stone floor.

“Katana!” my sisters voice was slurred. “Are you okay?’’ She shook me gently.

“My- my name.” is all I said. “Katana…”

I slept, through the night, well sort of. I tossed and turned, but buy 3am I was, snoozing away.

In the morning my arms were as limp as a noodle. Heck, I couldn’t even wiggle my fingers. Emerson’s arms were as numb as a stockings hanging on a fire place. She couldn’t wiggle her fingers either. I was over my shock by then, but I still wondered how he knew my name.

“Wait, I got it!” I exclaimed at about 9am.

“What have you got?” My sister asked.

“How that stupid Brent, knows my name.”

“What do you think it is?’’ she inquired.

“You remember the dragon symbol on the front, of this ship?” I asked as I raised my eye

brows.

“Yeah?” Emerson’s, eyes were confused.

“Well, while I was knocked out, I had a vision. It was…” I took a deep breath, “The past. Our house burned down. We were there. Our mother and father too. If I remember clearly, there was that same, darn seal on a flag, that was waving over the top of the building.”

“Our parents could still be alive?”

“Who knows.”

“Brent does.” my sister grumbled. I was surprised she hadn’t started crying about all this. She was just fuming with rage. Very, angry rage.

“I hate that guy.” I said as my legs, pushed me to my feet. It was kinda hard not being able to feel my arms and all that.

A couple hours after, I finally realized that I hadn’t eaten in like a day. And my belly was grumbling like a bear. A very, cross bear. I was losing strength and fast. At about five pm, a man shoved two pieces, of very small bread, into our cage.

We ate it with merciless hunger. It was a little hard. But we didn’t care. After we ate my belly was growling like a not so grumpy bear.

“So good!” cried Emerson. “FOOD!!!!!!!”

“I know!” I smiled, while shaking crumbs from my face. I slowly ate the last piece, I kinda wanted to save it for later. “Hey, Emerson,” I said, “I think we should try to find out more about what’s gonna happen to us, and who that freak Brent is.”

She tilted her head, in a playful way. “There are tons of books in here.” If you didn’t know, my sister is a reading machine. Somehow we randomly had books on our island. Emerson taught herself how to read. “In one of them there has to be some sort of clue.” She stood up and reached for the closest book with her toes. She just managed to grab it. “Ok let’s see…”

Chapter Four

“Read it!” I exclaimed.

“Ok.” said Emerson. “Here at Myth Inc., we take the peaceful magical creatures and turn them into weapons of war. By using special magic from Polly Magia, we can control the movement of creatures bodies, such as dragons, elves, fairies, etc.”

“Wait, our moms name in my visons name was Polly, and isn’t our last name Magia?” I interrupted.”

“Yes! It is!” my sister squealed, in excitement. “We put her magic into metal bands, which we put over the parts we want to control.”

“Like, these?” I said, nodding to my noodle arms.

“Yes,” said Emerson, “Brent Costevotte, is the mastermind behind all of this. He started as a young man, and somehow managed to find out that mythical creatures are real, first he captured Polly and Drako Magia. With their children, Katana and Emerson escaping.” Emerson read.

I put my hands over my mouth. “Oh my gosh! So are parents have to be alive,”

“Well, at least our mom.” Emerson sighed.

“There is our answer,” I confirmed, “Hey do you think you can put the book back?”

“Um,” she tried, and failed miserably. “No.” she said, stating the obvious.

Just then, a guard walked in to check on us. “Hey where did you get that book from? He asked.

“It fell.” I stated. “Would you put it back sir? We can’t.” I shook my body back and forth to show the limpness of my arms.

“Fine!” He bellowed.

When he came in, I bolted out of the door, with Emerson close behind me. “See ya later JERK!” I cackled, I spit out jerk like I had just put hot sauce in my mouth.

The guard looked around confused, for a couple seconds. “I think they escaped.” He said into his walkie-talkie.

“They did, or they didn’t not, there is no ‘Think’.” A voice said from the other end.

By then, we were too far ahead, to hear the rest of the conversation.

All of sudden, a screen appeared, we both fell over in surprise. It was that dumb man Brent. He snickered as part of the bands over our arms uncovered. It had once again turned gray.

“Finally, I am just one step away from controlling your magic!” he chuckled.

“WE KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO OUR PARENTS!” I screamed at the screen. “

“We demand to see them!” my sister yelled.

“Fine,” Brent said.

Suddenly, two guards grabbed me and Emerson. I kicked, but they held us strong, they led on to the top desk of the vessel.

“Land hoe!” the captain yelled, and he was right. Standing before us, was the mainland. We saw a pure metal building, with the words Myth Inc. Prison/training area/torcherish area, on the side.

“Tocherish?” I said after reading that, I tilted my head at Brent who was standing next to us.

“Yes! We tocher you in there sometimes.” exclaimed Brent, as if he couldn’t wait to get me in one of his tocher contraptions.

We came ashore, and two men on the beach were holding these chair things. They had restraints on them. The two men who were holding us still walked down the ramp, with us in their hands. They shoved us into the chair things. The restraining straps locked in right when we got in them.

“Let. Me. GO!!!!!” I screamed. There was no answer.

“You should probably answer my sister before she completely screams at you.” My sister said lamely. Once again no answer.

We started going towards the prison. Once we got there Brent walked in front of us, “Welcome to Myth Inc. prison!” he announced like a tour guide. “Here we will make you very uncomfortable,”

I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry dumbso! I thought we would get the luxury suite, in this ‘amazing’ hotel. Especially, since we are the daughters of the person who made this possible.” I snickered. Emerson cracked up.

“Don’t mess with me girl!” Brent snapped.

“But she’s not.” Emerson said.

He looked hard at her, “Well we are going to get started on our tour.”

The big metal gate opened. Screech! It screamed. We saw lots of cells, they were not normal cells. They had laser beams for bars, that cracked like a fire. All of the creatures, and people in the cages looked at us. A whisper went through the ginormous room. In the biggest cell right in front of us, there sat a woman, her hair was the EXSACT same color and style as Emerson’s hair. And next to her sat a dragon, he had the same color scales as my magic, and he was in a laser beam muzzle. They looked so forlorn, they didn’t even look up when the loud door opened.

“Hey Magias!” hollered Brent. The woman sadly looked up. Her eyes grew wide when she saw me and Emerson. “We found your two daughters. They are incredibly stubborn, just like you were telling us their location.”

The two men who were wheeling us in the restraining things unlocked the cage and pushed us in.

“I see you have a bit of catching up to do. Well better get to it, Emerson and Katana will be going through the first steps of moving here.” Brent said as he left with everyone else.

“Katana? Emerson? Is it really you?” the woman said. “I’m your mother…”

I almost started crying. “Mom? Dad?”

“Yes honey.” Said mom.

“Mrrh.” Said dad.

“Sorry but your father won’t be able to talk to you until we escape from this dreadful place and get that stupid muzzle off of him.” Mom grunted.

“It’s ok.” Said Emerson. “Wait did you say esca…”

Mom silenced her by putting a finger across her mouth. Brent was coming towards us with laser beam chains.

“Well, time for you girls to take the first steps in moving here.” He said. Two guards opened the cage and grabbed us. Brent slid the chains over our wrists. Both me and Emerson struggled. The chains held strong. Brent walked towards a door. When we didn’t follow, he yanked the chains. We would stumble forward. He led us into a different room.

Chapter Five

In this new room, it smelled sterile. People in long white lab coats bustled everywhere. On one table there were two things that looked like really advanced dog collars. They had little blinking lights on the sides.

“These are your new accessories!” Brent announced. “For Katana, every time you do something wrong, light magic will be pumped into your body. And for Emerson, it will pump light.” My eyes widened. “But, with these on, you will be able to move your arms and your wings.” I let a breath that I guess I had been holding in for a while go.

Brent came over to me and snapped the collar on. Immediately, I could feel my arms and wings. Through reflexes, I flapped my wings and took off, clawing at the collar, desperately trying to get it off. When Brent saw me he took a remote out of his pocket and turned the dial on it to one. Then pressed the green button.

I have to be honest with you. It felt like a knife had just been stabbed into my neck. My head was pounding. My wings stopped beating. I fell to my knees.

“Katana!” Emerson yelled.

“I’m okay.” I wheezed. “Note to self-Try not to make Mr. Costevotte angry.”

“Get up!” hollered Brent. He yanked on my chains and I weakly stood up. My knees were shaky.

Brent snapped the other collar on Emerson. She started flapping her wings but stopped when she saw Brent glaring at her.

“Let’s go back to your little family now.”

This time we followed without any courage from our chains (or our collars). He lead us back to our mother and fathers cage. Once mom saw the collars, She clapped her hands over her mouth. “You weren’t kidding?!” she screamed at Brent.

“I never kid, Polly.” Stated Brent. “I gave them the high tech collars that you made.”

“Well it was either make the collars,” huffed mom, “or get killed.”

“Here are your senseless, stupid, stubborn, daughters.” Brent thundered. “After awhile they can get on your nerves.” He flung us towards our parents. He undid the chains. Dad grunted in disapproval.

The moment Brent stomped away, mom grabbed Emerson’s collar and tried to pull it off. “Mom stop…” said Emerson. “If you made ‘em you should know what happens.”

Mom sat down and barred her head in her knees. Me and my sister slowly sat down as well.

Suddenly, I heard a voice in my head. It was deep, but very calm. Girls, leave your mom alone for awile. I can only chat to you once every day. I am your father. Me and Emerson jerked our heads towards the dragon. Be careful around Brent, he is a bad, bad guy. I… Need to stop soon, my magic is… Week… The voice in our heads stopped.

“Did you here that?” Emerson shot a glance at dad.

“Yeah.” I looked at dad. He nodded his head. His eyes seemed to change color depending on his mood. Right now his eyes were a soft blue. I guessed that meant he was happy. I looked into his eyes. My head started hurting. I felt lightheaded. Until finally I fainted.

It was another vision. I saw the house being engulfed in flames. AGAIN. But this time from the inside. I saw mom and dad. They were running out of the house. Mom on dads back. They darted out of the smoke. I followed them. When we got outside, I saw men in SWAT uniforms. They were holding guns. BIG guns. That had a white lucid in them.

My eyes got wide, I started breathing heavily. Then I went back to the real world.

The first thing I saw was my mother’s face. Her eyes were wide, she seemed scared. “What happened to you?” she gasped.

“I had another vision.” My voice was shaky.

Her head jerked up. ”Another?!” I think she was looking at Emerson.

“Honey, please tell me.” Her voice was timid. I closed my eyes. “Emerson tell me!” her voice was stern.

“She had another one on the ship…” Emerson voice was also a bit shaken up.

“Oh my god Draco!” Mom gently put my head on Emerson’s lap. I opened my eyes again. I reached out to her. She helped me sit up. When I did. My mom was practically tackling my dad.

“It’s your fault our daughters might black out every, stupid day.” Our father was standing there like everything was normal.

“Mom stop!” I said, as I struggled to my feet.

“No, I’m sorry but he needs a nice fight.”

“Mom you need to stop!” Emerson backed me up.

“NO!” Mom screamed. Every creature in the room was looking at us. A whisper looped around the room. Mom grabbed on to our dad and scratched as hard as she could.

“Stop!” Me and Emerson said together. Our voices were loud, but solid. “Now.”

"NO! NO! NO!” Mom was screaming at the top of her lungs.

My eyes narrowed. I started making a ball of dark magic. I couldn’t stop myself. It was painful to see my parents fighting. Emerson was doing the same. (but of corse with light magic). Emerson’s eyes started glowing a light blue color. And judging by the look on her face when she looked at me, my eyes were glowing too. Mom turned around. We started flapping our wings. A wind started to blow.

“You…. Y-you are the girls in the prophecy?” She gasped. Me and Emerson came back down to The floor.

“What ‘prophecy’?” Emerson asked.

“When the time is right, two twins will have a fright.” Moms breathing was slowly calming down.

“And be sent to a bend, in a bridge of bliss.” The people and creatures in the room said all together. “One with magic of white, the other with magic of black. Wings from dragons breath, body from human, these loyal warlocks will be our heaven.”

“Us? But, we have never…” I put my hands over my face. “Saved anyone.”

“You saved yourselves.” Mom shook her head. “You flew away from our house, when Brent first wanted us, for that darn war.”

“Everybody keeps blabbering about this ‘war’, what even is the war?” Emerson inquired.

“Yeah.” I put my hand on my hip, like how I did on the vessel.

“There is a war between, the mortals that know, and help magical people and creatures, and people like Brent…” Moms voice trailed off.

“And why did you get so mad at dad when, we told you about Katana’s visions?” Emerson questioned.

Mom let out a breath slowly. “The reason is… Your father used to have visions as well. And he usually would get them at really important moments. He would fall over and…”

“And what?” I twisted my long hair around my fingers.

“Not wake up for a week at the most.” Mom put her hands over her face. “Oh Draco…”

I gasped. I flapped my wings and flew towards the top of the cell. I hovered there trying to decide what to say. I heard another set of wings whooshing through the air. I didn’t have to look at where the sound came from to know who had joined me. I turned anyway. I grabbed my sisters hands. She tilted her head at me. Not in confusion, or madness but of sympathy.

Shreech! The medal door we had come in to here from squeaked open. A girl with chocolate brown hair, and pail skin, stood there. Her cloths were feminine, but fierce. She looked about my age. Her pointed ears swiveled. She stood there unhappily as four guards wrestled her into the room.

“She’s an elf…” mom whispered.

This might sound weird, but I knew her. I just had seen her before. I glanced at Emerson, I think she knew her too... When she saw the laser bar cages her mouth dropped open. She looked toward our cage. Her eyes met me and Emerson’s. She slanted her head.

“Welcome to your new home, Azalea Windleaf.” Sneered one of the guards, he thrusted her out into the big room.

“Hey! Stop it, your mean.” Azalea snapped, her voice was high and childish. “When I don’t come home tonight, my dad will kill you.”

“Shut up.” Thundered the guard. “Go into there.” He gestured to a small cell right next to ours.

“No!” She winded. The guard grunted and pushed her into it anyway. Then he and the other guards left when the laser beams turned on. “Come on!”

“Hey… Who… Are… You?..” Emerson asked.

“I’m Azalea, but most people call my Aza.” The childish sound had disappeared into thin air. “Are you the girls from the prophecy?”

“Sadly yes,” I sighed. “ I’m Katana.”

“I’m Emerson.”

“OMG! Oh my gosh! OMG!... LOL!” she giggled. “I knew our paths would cross! I knew it!” She jumped up and down. “Wait… What are those things around your necks?”

I tensed up. “Collars. I have already had a taste of them.”

“Katana could barely stand.” Emerson breathed. I nodded.

“Brent will probably make you use your magic for bad, bad stuff.” I exclaimed. All of sudden nine or so guards came out of a door in the room. “We are here to take Azalea Windleaf and the Magia girls.” One of them boomed.

“Ugggggggggggg!” me, Emerson and Aza moaned.