Sara clutched her pounding chest and waited.

Click.

A red dot flew across the ground, a few inches left of her.

Click.

Another, just above the slope.

Click.

Three, four, all moving through the fog like searchlights, looking for the collar around her neck.

Sara held her breath. She watched the air move.

West. That was wind. East. Fire.

Click.

A fifth laser joined the party. It was accompanied by a swirl in the mist, directly north down the hill, and it was coming up.

Sara sprang off her good knee. She caught the arm as it emerged and seared through the leather sleeve to get at the flesh beneath it.

“Evaporate!”

Steam rose between Sara’s fingers, but the arm did not even twitch. It started to move, bringing Sara close to a fleshless, pale face.

Jack was wearing a mask of bone. Only it wasn’t a mask. It was him. He smiled, showing two rows of perfect teeth inside a mouth with no lips.

Fear overcame anger. Sara shoved her other hand into Jack’s empty eye sockets. Bone would burn just like anything else if the fire was strong enough, she hoped.

Chaos 98/100

Chaos 99/100

A violent pain sprouted from the center of Sara’s brain. Her body seized up, muscles spasming.

When the world stopped shaking, Sara could only open her eyes. She saw the ground was wet with blood, and this time, she knew it had come from her.

Jack’s leather boots stepped into view. “Looks like someone didn’t put any points into Chaos Control,” he said, the bones on his face rearranging themselves as he laughed. “You have to look ahead.” He aimed the remote in his skeletal hand at Sara’s collar and pressed the button.

Sara couldn’t get out of the way. Lightning pummeled her. She rolled down the hill, joining Tom at the bottom.

The guards were laughing as they kicked at the unmoving prince.

Sara wished that Tom was dead, because what was going to come after would no doubt be much worse.

Jack’s boots crunched the dirt. “I’m torn between being impressed and furious.” The undead man’s sultry voice worked its way through the chaos inside Sara’s mind. “I only take my eyes off you for a day and you destroy my life’s work.”

He nudged Sara onto her back.

“It’s not much to show for a lifetime,” she told him with what she hoped was a withering smile.

“How’d you do it?” Jack asked. “Flame Touch and lantern oil?”

Sara kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t going to tell him that she’d killed enough people to have an overabundance of attribute points. She didn’t want to give any indication of the white-hot hatred that seized all thought, or the fact that she had the power to act on that hatred.

Jack crouched beside her and touched her cheek. His finger was rough, the skin missing. “The Kitsune will not be pleased you have done this. But maybe, just maybe, you’ll end up being the one who makes this all obsolete.”

Sara’s bones were charcoal. Her knee was a pulsating supernova of pain. Her heart beat with two different rhythms, both slightly out of sync with each other.

Jack stood and turned to his guards. “Get the doll.”

Sara was lifted up by her arms. She was pinned between two guards and forced to stand. In front of her, Tom was being dragged to a spot on her right, his head lolling on his neck.

Jack started peeling off the pieces of burned leather stuck to his body. The chunks came away sticky and black. Beneath that was bone.

The mist cleared. Though the sky was choked with ash, the fire looked to be put out.

Sara silently went through her list of new spells.

Make Water…

Shock Touch…

Minutes passed. Sara cleared her throat. “Are we waiting for a magic trick?”

Jack held up a boney finger. He stayed absolutely still, empty eyes fixed on some smoke-covered point in the distance. The guards didn’t move either. It was like everyone was preparing themselves for… something.

The smoke parted and Sara saw it wasn’t something they’d been waiting for, but someone. As two guards made their way over with a third body dragged behind them, her world began to collapse.

“Still in one piece,” said Jack. “Well, mostly.” He pointed to a spot next to Tom, and the guards dragged Sapphire over, holding her up in a similar fashion.

“Damn you people,” Sara whispered. Her eyes welled up as she saw the state Sapphire was in. The girl had only a shirt on and her eyes were covered with a bloody cloth. She stumbled into position in front of Sara, her bruised feet barely able to hold the rest of her up.

Tom began to stir.

“Do not worry about her injuries,” Jack said. “Those will heal. Perhaps in shorter a time than it will take my crater to be restored.”

Make Water…

Shock Touch…

“You’re a monster,” Sara told him, but that just seemed to please Jack. He swept his arms out like a conductor readying for a show.

“Perhaps. But it is you who must choose.”

Sara felt bile flooding her throat, but when opened her mouth it was blood that came out, dark and hot. It splashed over her toes and made the guards holding her jump.

Make Water…

Shock Touch…

“Don’t die now,” said Jack. “You’d have wasted everything.”

Sara looked at Tom. Some prince. Wasn’t he supposed to save her? She supposed not. She wasn’t a princess or anything, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t the rightful heir to an entire kingdom.

Sara turned to Sapphire. Her first thought was to save her, but the girl wasn’t Sapphire anymore. She was too damaged from God knows what kind of torture these sick people did to her.

She suddenly remembered what Jamie said to her on the wall as he pushed the other slave girls off.

Sometimes, death is a mercy not everyone is lucky enough to get.

Sara lowered her head. She stared at Jack’s boots, and then started to laugh.

It seemed to perplex the undead man. “What is the matter?” he asked, which made Sara laugh harder.

“Nothing,” Sara said. “It’s just that, I’ve never been given so much autonomy before. Back home, all I could choose was whether I did my homework before, or after my evening jog.”

There was silence.

“It’s brilliant.” Sara lifted her gaze and found Jack looking confused, and something else too.

Worry.

Make Water…

Shock Touch…

Sara stomped on the foot of one of her captors, pulling her arm from his grasp. Jack started reaching for her but she stuck out two fingers and snapped. A spark danced across her broken nails, and ignited the hydrogen-infused air.

In the ensuing inferno, Sara heard most clearly the sound of her own laughter, ringing like the tolling of church bells.

Attribute points gained: 5

Chaos gained: 100/100