Jacquie was left floating in the dark. She thought she heard her friends' voices through the shadows, but she was ripped from the void and into a house.

"Mommy? Daddy?"

A little boy entered the room Jacquie was standing in. She gasped as she realized it was a younger version of Kyran. The boy had Kyran's aquamarine eyes and dark, curly hair.

"Help!" two voices shouted from upstairs. Suddenly, the house burst into flames and Jacquie was whisked into a different room.

This room was alight with flames and had a tall man and woman standing in it.

Kyran's parents, Jacquie thought.

Jacquie looked at Kyran's mother and realized that she was right. They both had the same emerald green eyes.

The younger Kyran ran into the room. "We have to get out! Hurry!" he yelled.

Everyone rushed for the door, but a fiery beam crashed down. It separated and Kyran and Jacquie from Kyran's parents.

"Mommy!" Kyran screamed.

"Kyran," Kyran's mother said. Her voice was soothing yet strong.

"Daddy and I can't come with you. You need to leave."

"No," Kyran cried. "I don't want to leave you!"

"Then take this," she said, taking off her necklace. It was the same one Jacquie was wearing. "It's so you will always be with us. Use in a time of great danger."

Kyran's mother tossed the necklace over the flames. "We love you, Kyran."

Kyran was crying heavily now but he managed to croak out, "I love you, too." He ran out of the room. Jacquie went to follow him.

"Jacquie."

Jacquie turned to see Kyran's mother looking her dead in the eyes. "Take care of my son," she said. Jacquie had no idea how or why she talking to her, but Jacquie felt like she had to make that promise to Kyran's mother.

"I will," Jacquie said.

Before the flames could grow any closer, Jacquie raced down the stairs.

A glimpse of Kyran's head led her in his direction. The door was nearly in her grasp.

A rafter from the floor above crashed down in front of Jacquie. She screamed out of her wits. How was she going to get out now?

Kyran, now older, ran into the room. "Jacquie!" he shouted. He came as close as he could before he started up in tears.

"No! Not again!" he cried.

The flames climbed higher, and smoke filled Jacquie's lungs. She got to the ground, but her lungs ached for oxygen.

So, this is how I die. Stuck in a burning building because of a neon disaster warning--

Wait, Jacquie thought. This is just Kyle's doing. She tried to think about breaking free of the flames, the fire, and smoke.

And it worked.

It all vanished and Jacquie was left alone in another void. This void was different, though. She could see her friends as if they were on the other side of a screen or veil. She could hear vague sounds coming out of her mouth, but Jacquie couldn't understand a word of it.

Jacquie watched as her hand dropped something in the center of the circle her friends were sitting in and the veil disappeared.

Kyran looked at her cautiously and said, "Are you okay? The necklace was acting... weird."

Jacquie grasped the orb and asked, "How so?"

Riordan said, "The colors inside of it were swirling around."

Kirna nodded and said, "And then the necklace began to float towards the sky."

Jacquie was surprised that the necklace behaved like that. No one else's jewelry acted like that.

"Is that all?" she asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Well," Kyran said, making up for the awkward beat of silence, "we should get to the castle by tomorrow, so we should get some more sleep." Kyran laid down on the sand. "Goodnight, guys."

"Wait," Johnathan said, "We're all just going to keep sleeping on the sand? What if another worm comes while we're sleeping?"

"Would you like to sleep on that cactus instead?" Kyran countered. "I assure you that sleeping on that particular cactus will end in an explosive death."

"Nope, I'm fine, goodnight!"