Chapter Nineteen

Half in a trance, Madeline fainted- *forward*. Falling out the window, she barely had time to react before her body shut down. Tumbling to her doom, her last rational thought was *Oh no.* But what she didn’t see was her hands glowing, rocks falling into place around her, creating shapes and forms that somehow cushioned her fall, depositing her gently and safely into the grass.

\*\*\*

Madeline opened her eyes. She was standing in the middle of a clearing. A clearing filled with black grass. It started to glow- blue. She realized, somehow, with utter certainty, that they were not blades of grass, but tiny rocks. They started to grow, surrounding her, almost seeming to bow to her, like she was their queen. And she *was* their queen.

A figure stepped out of the shadows. She gasped as a mixture of emotions swirled through her- hate, love, longing, all in her heart. “*Varian,*” she whispered, and never had such a word been filled with so much emotion, each one different and vast.

He was wearing her pendant. The black disk had seemed insignificant at the time, but she saw it glow, too. She was utterly confused, in shock, and-

Something jerked her awake. Without thinking, she shot her hands out, but winced when they collided with someone’s face. “Sorry!” she said. Squinting her eyes in the moonlight, she struggled to make out the person’s face. When she saw who it was, she gasped and punched him in the jaw- deliberately this time.

“Ow!” Varian screamed.

“Serves you right and-” For the first time since her rude awakening, she realized a strange sensation on her wrists. “Rope?” she asked. “*You tied me up while I was sleeping?*”

“I had to. I-”

“Explain to me why you had the desire to approach me while I was passed out after falling seven stories and tie my wrists together. NOW,” she ordered.

“Okay, okay! I was getting to that. Anyway, I’m kidnapping you.”

“You’re WHAT?!?!” She laughed. “Vee, I really don’t think you understand how kidnapping works.”

“Doesn't matter, I’ll get away with it regardless,” he said, absolutely certain, an awful fire in his eyes. “Now just shut up and let me take you.”

“No,” she said, and summoned a rock shard from the ground.

Instantly, the rage took over, and her skills were suddenly elevated. She whipped around and pressed the blade of the makeshift knife to Varian’s neck.

“Maddie- please-” he gasped.

She was so angry her vision almost turned red, and the rock glowed blue. “No! You abandon me, all my friends, your princess, your kingdom, then you *disrespect* me like this, try to kidnap me, assume I can’t fight back!”

His hand inched toward his pocket. With some kind of strength and skill she’d never had before, she flipped the blade around, cut the rope binding her hands in one clean swipe, and with one hand, returned the rock to its previous position, and with her other, grabbed his wrist and squeezed it.

“Your move,” she said nonchalantly.

He laughed and, with his other hand, pulled out what he was really going for- in the *other* pocket. As the green dust in her eyes made her vision blurry, taking over the red and bringing her to sleep, she could’ve sworn she heard the boy she used to love say “Checkmate” in the voice of someone truly evil.