I didn't feel anything when Lucian's attack struck us. I started to laugh at how pathetic the attempt was, until I realized I wasn't in the room with him anymore. My allies weren't around either. I barely processed that, though, because I now stood somewhere more familiar to me.

A quaint farm house at the end of a field of tall, swaying plants. It was my childhood home. Lucian crossed his arms as he stood on my patio, his mere presence disrespecting the place.

"I don't care much about you, you're no Seth Kerres, but I can muster a moment's attention," Lucian said. "Your name is Anastasia Kathron."

I fired a burst of shadow energy at him, forming multiple knives that I aimed at his torso. They went right through him, and the next second he was right behind me.

"That's not going to work," Lucian said.

I spun, attacking again, but Lucian was gone again.

"You can't hit me here," Lucian said. "All you can do is listen. I've read you, and I understand you now."

This shouldn't have remotely rattled me. I didn't care what a fool like him thought of me. If we ever met before this, neither would have given the other an ounce of attention, and that was fine. His judgment meant nothing to me. Yet, a chill ran down my spine.

"Your father is cruel hearted, and he imparted that onto you," Lucian said. He was back on the patio, and a vision of my father with a stoic face walked out behind him.

I ran to the patio, but they were both gone by the time I got there. "How dare you...speak of him..."

"You haven't even begun to discover the depths of what he's done," Lucian said. He was inside my house now, peeking out through the curtains, fire behind him. My childhood home burning. I ran inside, but the flames were gone. I cautiously stepped through, hating how accurate the recreation was of the living room, the chairs set up, the rug where I played with my first toys. "You know it, too. That's why you clam up thinking about it."

I shut my eyes, trying to tune him out. Father's a hero. Father's a great man, don't listen to a word he says.

"Your mother is not much better, is she?" Lucian said. "When's the last time she really showed you any affection?"

"Stop it..." I said.

"Even so, are you happy she turned you into a monster?" Lucian said. My shadow on the ground had horns and a tail, looking like I'd shifted into my more powerful form. When I felt my head, there was nothing there, though.

"This won't work on me. Mother has saved lives, her work is saving lives. I love my parents, and I know they love me."

Lucian was quiet. Did I fend him off that easily? Then he chuckled, and in a dreamlike shift common in the void, I was now at school.

It hit me that this was a lot like my first memory trial, something they made us do to make sure we could shift between the stable world and the void worlds. It carried an extra risk with my void born condition, but thanks to Mother's research, I was able to do it without incident. That was frightening, but it wasn't antagonistic like Lucian's vision was so far.

Lucian stood at the front of the class, and I sat in the middle. Directly in front of me was Nikki.

"Speaking of a lack of affection," Lucian said. "How about we talk about her next?"

"Stop this," I said. "Nikki and I are fine. This tactic won't work on me. I'm going to find a way out of this, and make you regret ever mentioning her."

I got up, searching around the room. I tried more energy blasts, but they didn't cave the walls in like they did in the hallways before. "Your band's terrible, you're never going to go anywhere, especially dating someone in it who has no interest in you."

"Shut up..." I said, giving a glance back to the vision of Nikki. Wherever I stood, her back was to me. Past her now stood that girl. The one with the pink and green hair, the one whose song reached into my soul.

"And let's be real, you're not that interested in Nikki anymore either, are you?"

"Shut up!" I said.

The girl with pink and green hair waved, and I hated the sensation it gave me.

"Shall we get to your 'friends,' next?" Lucian said.

The devils all appeared in a row of desks, staring with neutral expressions at me.

"They're sick of you. Deep down they hate you, and they can't wait to be rid of you," Lucian said. "And why wouldn't they? What good do you do for them? You're a hassle, a hotheaded moron who can't make a single right decision to save her life as you so desperately try to win something in this pathetic game that is your life."

I gritted my teeth as one by one, the devils faded away, as did the classroom.

"While you can't have anything you want..." Lucian said.

Someone tapped my shoulder. I turned to see Zeta Faleur standing, dopey expression across her face as always. She held the hand of her girlfriend.

"The person you hate the most has everything you want," Lucian said.

Zeta's friends popped up behind her. Stella Faleur and her partner too.

I let out another burst of power, and this one hit its targets, sending the visions of Zeta, Stella, Oka, Kalei, Diast, all of them went tumbling, screaming in pain. I didn't stop, feeling some relief as I let my shadow power loose on them.

"All you have left is this hate," Lucian said. "This is my summary of you, a one sentence book report on your very soul: You're entirely alone."

I screamed then, not out of fear exactly, a deep, guttural scream as I tumbled into an abyss of my own heart.

Then I was back in Reed's dungeon, on my hands and knees, trembling.

"Ana!" Sai said.

They were beside me, concerned, a hand gently on my shoulder. I pictured them in that vision, staring at me with such exhaustion at everything about me.

"Wh...what happened?" I said. "Did he...did he hit you, too?"

Lucian just remained there, smiling softly, arms crossed. An aura of energy surrounded him, as Caya and the rest of the devils with us fired blasts at him. Each attack seemed to take away a small fraction of the power surrounding him, but they hadn't broken the tether of the pact next.

"He didn't do anything to us," Sai said. "You tanked that big energy blast, then you both froze for a second."

"The funny thing is...I barely did anything to you," Lucian chuckled. "That read you like a book thing? It was already my Cani power, Reed just made it stronger. All I can do is send an image of me to your mind. Before, I'd just say it was judgment or something scary to get the ball rolling, but Reed gave me a better line for it."

"What...do you mean?" I asked.

"Everything 'I' said to you was born of your own thoughts. I don't even know who you are, and I don't care," Lucian said. "My power's a funny thing. It's really worthless most of the time. People who are well adjusted are fine, it doesn't do anything when I use it on my friends. Send a vision of me in their heads, saying something about judgment, plop you into some places from your memories, and they think it's a weird vivid daydream and cast it aside. But you're so twisted up that a single moment's reflection about how broken you are has you groveling on your knees. You must have told yourself some really terrible stuff."

"I..." I said. "That was...all me?"

It hit me how absurd it was. This boy who I had no idea of, no connection to, someone I never would have run into before, making me feel like my soul had been beaten down and torn apart. I was pathetic. If everything he said was from my own mind, then...

"Drat, I shouldn't have told you all that yet," Lucian said. "Now you're going to dodge it if I try again. Ah well, at least I hit someone with some serious issues, that's always fun."

Just as he said that, Caya let loose a bigger blast of her power, the glittering energy burning away the aura. The tether of the pact was broken.

"It's over," Caya said. "You had your fun, now you're—"

I didn't hear what Caya said next. I didn't hear anything. My vision went blood red as I tackled Lucian, fists swinging madly at him.