MARCH 1, 2011

It was a pleasure to burn.

Freemans would have to burn. Since they attacked the Soynites' planet, they had earned the right to grimace, suffer, burn.

Boone Windsore ran into the bedroom he shared with Lauren Windsore.

Moonlight shone against the room's windows, the closed blinds blocking the light's path. Boone, Lauren, Marina, and Lovely would have to travel a path away from the home. They would leave. Boone would bid farewell to Lovely and Marina, because he couldn't leave with the to-be Highs and their Watchers.

The Freemans attacked Soy. They assaulted Majestic City, the planet's largest city, the place where Boone, Lauren, Lovely, and so many other great Soynites lived.

"Marina is here!" Boone said, Lovely's Watcher accompanying him. "We need to get Lovely to Theo Majestic. It's time for her to become a High."

Lovely Windsore.

She was five, a preteen, a Soynite. Lovely was a girl Theo Majestic could turn into a ruler.

What would Lovely be like in the future?

Boone hoped his daughter would stay as sweet and hopeful as she was now. She wouldn't become almost as bad as the Freemans.

Lauren held Lovely, who clung to her as pale enemies ruined the city.

The four people in the room were pale themselves, but they weren't too-pale. They weren't Freemans.

Marina approached Lovely. With her free hand, the woman caressed the kid's long hair. She touched orange. Her other hand touched blue. What Marina held could prolong her survival. It could defend. It could kill.

The Watcher was armed.

"Okay, Father," Lovely said. Her green eyes stayed pointed at the man.

Lovely didn't protest. She didn't try convincing her parents to stop viewing her as a kid who should become their ruler.

She was a good girl.

If Lovely became a High, her parents would be forbidden from boarding the same spaceship as her. She knew it. It would be horrible for Boone and the child. And her mother.

"We have to hurry," Lauren said.

Boone went closer and shared a kiss with the woman, his wife, a lady who needed to survive. The four Soynites had to live. They were orange-haired and green-eyed, and vicious danger had come to their city. Their planet.

"Take her," Lauren said, handing Lovely to Boone. "I'll carry her Soynite Box."

The ceiling light cast its glow against the blue Box sitting on the bed. White markings adorned the microwave-sized object.

Lauren turned to the Box. It was Lovely's.

A bang sounded. The small explosion destroyed a chunk of the living room's wall. Red rushed toward the room. The laser beam blasted a hole through Lauren's head. She dropped onto the floor. Marina aimed and fired.

"Mother!" Lovely shouted.

Her mother, Lauren Windsore, didn't rise.

The pale killer collapsed on green grass. Marina had shot him.

"I'll carry Lovely's Box!" Marina said. She moved around the poor Lauren's body, put her Soynite laser pistol in her pocket, then lifted the Box off the bed. "Use your pyrokinesis to set any Freemans on fire!"

They had business to attend to.

Goodbye, Lauren.

She would never see her daughter become a High.

"Okay," Boone said. Lovely shed tears with no silence. Boone understood. He rubbed his daughter's back. "I'm still here, Lovely. I'm still here."

"The streets are ruined," Marina said. "We'll have to go on foot."

They left on foot.

Running, Boone didn't stop rushing as Marina ran beside him. Gaping holes occupied the street. Lifeless Soynites littered its asphalt with their bodies, holes riddling them. Other Soynites lay on the sidewalk, bleeding, alive but dying.

Bellmas tore into a Soynite child's lifeless flesh. They sunk their sharp teeth into the girl's corpse, feasting.

Her blood glistened in the light emerging from the streetlights. The blood with no life coated the bellmas' sharp teeth.

With Lovely's warmth against him, Boone longed for his daughter to never be eaten alive. He kept her close. The man had to protect Lovely and Marina. The girl and the Watcher needed to reach the outside of the spaceport, where Theo Majestic should be. He would turn Lovely into a High.

If Theo had already turned six children into Highs, that meant Lovely wouldn't be allowed to become a new Soynite ruler.

Planet Soy needed six Highs, not seven.

Bellmas flew above a one-story building, screeching. The dead girl shrouded Boone's mind, and he hadn't forgotten he possessed a wonderful power.

Without stopping his run, Boone set the winged creatures on fire. He did the same to the bellmas that had turned a child into a meal. The Freemans' war animals screeched louder, burning.

Lovely giggled.

She did it as tears fled her green eyes. Boone would wipe away the liquid on her pale face if he could, but he had to run.

The bellmas dropped, their bodies engulfed in agonizing fire.

"Good job, Boone!" Marina said.

Boone couldn't save the dead child, but he had ignited the bellmas he assumed had mauled her to death.

A strong wind arrived. It made Lovely's blue shirt and Boone's hair ripple, but it wouldn't extinguish the vicious flames consuming the Freemans' small creatures.

Bellmas were vicious. So was Boone.

Fire didn't catch the running man, but he would extinguish flames if they caught him. He could do that. Boone could start fires and he could rid them. He had a daughter and he could help her meet Theo Majestic.

Maybe Theo would kill Lock Tannis and become the Freemans' new ruler.

The Freemans brought immense destruction to Soy because Lock Tannis had ordered them to. Boone assumed Lock was the mastermind behind the devastating chaos that had gotten his wonderful wife killed.

Many Freemans had left their home planet after Lock's killing of the previous Freeman ruler.

The current Freemans viewed Lock as the best person in the universe, but what kind of person would make his subjects massacre people and destroy their planet?

Lock was not the best.

But the Freemans praised him. They viewed him as a man more important than themselves. Whoever the next Freeman ruler would be, the Freemans would love that person.

No Freeman leader had been a Soynite.

If a Soynite killed Lock Tannis, would the Freemans kneel for them?

The Freemans valued power, yes, but they despised Soynites. After Zero Spike's death, one of the original six Freemans, Voy Nail, had made a decision. Because of that decision, whoever killed the present Freeman ruler would become the new Freeman leader, regardless of if they were a Soynite or a Freeman. Lock Tannis hadn't existed back then. Boone assumed so.

Voy Nail had been the second Freeman. He had become the Freeman ruler after Spike Zero's death. After Voy's decision, Tok Also had tried murdering him.

Tok, the third Freeman, had failed. Voy had murdered him afterwards.

The Freeman Voy had gone with the other Freemans after that original Soynite's murder, proving his allegiance, but the Soy Maker had given evidence there was a chance Voy had been better than the other original Freemans.

Spike Zero.

Voy Nail.

Tok Also.

Juno Hick.

Fauna Dam.

Killma Zone.

Six Freemans. Three males. Three females. The oldest had been Spike Zero, the first Freeman. The youngest had been Killma Zone, the sixth Freeman. Her death had ignited the first conflict between the Soynites and the Freemans.

A Soynite had killed Killma.

Would Lovely kill the Freemans' Great Leader?

Lovely was not yet thirteen. She was a Soynite. The girl met the qualifications to become part of the next generation of Highs.

Boon's daughter, his only child, wore blue pants and a blue shirt. She lived. Her mother did not.

The kid would bid farewell to her father. Maybe they would never see each other again after tonight. It was the first of March, and Boone ran near two Soynite females he cared about. He loved the youngest of the two more than anything on Soy. Yes, he did.

And the Freemans continued their attack on the planet Boone, Lovely, and Watcher Marina Tome lived on.

A hole caught Boone's foot.

The man cried out. He turned so his back would hit the nearby body. With his daughter against him, Boone crashed onto the fallen man. Red blood pushed out the man's head, escaping a wound that had been there before Boone's fall. The injured man groaned. His hand stayed against a blue laser gun.

"I'm sorry!" Boone said.

Lovely moved off him.

"Boone, are you okay?!" Marina said.

Yes. The unfortunate man had broken the father's fall. As he prepared to get away from the hurt Soynite, Freeman words crept into Boone's ear.

A hand smaller than Boone's grabbed the blue laser pistol.

Boone rose.

A Freeman charged, armed with a sword. His combat boots clashed against the ruined street as he rushed.

Sound erupted. The noise shrouded Boone's ears as the enemy moved.

Blue came and blasted through the Freeman's brain.

He dropped.

Laser beam fire. It was the noise Boone had heard. The man hadn't opened fire on the foe, but he knew the heroic killer.

"I killed him!" Lovely said, wielding the wounded man's laser pistol. "Did you see that, Father?! And now he's going to turn into smoke!"

She wiped away a tear on her face.

Lovely was five years and she had already murdered a Freeman.

The Freeman, on the ground and lifeless, became smoke. Smoke rose from the bellmas' scorched flesh. Boone had set them on fire. His daughter had shot a Freeman to death.

"Good," Boone said. "Your mother would be proud."

He took the gun from her and approached the fallen man. Boone kneeled. He set the blue weapon near the unfortunate man's hand.

"Here's your gun back," Boone said. He showed compassion during a vicious attack's midst.

"Thank you," the man said, pain coursing through his voice, the poor Soynite wounded and dying.

He shut his eyes and his breathing stopped.

The man and Boone's wife. Both dead. Those were two Soynites who hadn't deserved what they had gotten.

"Lauren," Boone said. He put a hand on the man's back, touching his blue shirt's fabric. "She's dead. And now this man is. That's two Soynites who had gotten killed because of Lock Tannis."

"Someone will kill him, Boone," Marina said. "But we have to keep moving. Grab Lovely."

Right.

They had to move. Then Boone would bid farewell to his daughter and her Watcher.

The three Soynites would have to get close to a gate not far from a spaceport's airstrip.

Boone grabbed his daughter. He and Marina ran.

After they arrived outside a huge blue building, a structure not far from a long airstrip, Boone, Lovely, and Marina approached the nearby man. Moonlight cloaked the man's blue suit. He held a clipboard and a pencil. Behind him was a gate. It was attached to the fence surrounding the airstrip.

"Government agent," Lovely said, reading the words the badge attached to the man's suit displayed.

Other men and women in blue suits with badges stood, surrounding the fence, guarding the area.

Theo Majestic stood on the airstrip.

Boone had come closer to getting his daughter to meet the man, the Soynite who had turned normal people into rulers. Theo would do the same to Lovely.

The other Highs had gone missing.

Boris Endman, Don Ascend, and all the Highs who weren't Theo had been unseen since earlier.

Two children stood on the airstrip. A boy. A girl. Their hair was blond. Behind the boy was a black-haired man.

Behind the girl was a blond-haired man. Lilly Majestic's younger brother. That was who he was, and Boone and Marina and Lovely knew it.

A man stood on the airstrip, standing closer to the spaceship than the others.

Who was he?

Whoever he was, his hair was black. He was muscular. Maybe Lovely would meet him and be good to him. Boone didn't doubt his daughter would be good to many people in the future.

Lovely deserved to be alive eleven years into the future.

The two children standing on the airstrip proved there was still a chance Lovely could become a High. Two out of six children had stepped onto the airstrip.

"What's this child's name?" the nearby government agent said. The nearby grass swayed in the warm wind. "And how old is she?"

"Her name is Lovely Windsore," Boone said, telling the truth. "She's five."

The government agent trained his brown eyes at the young Lovely. She looked like she could be five years old, which she was. Lovely was a Soynite. The kid was a preteen, and she had been invited to survive the apocalypse.

"How do you spell her first and last name?" the government agent asked.

Boone spoke.

As someone used their mind to tear an airborne black spaceship in half, the government agent wrote on the sheet of paper resting against his clipboard. A gust moved his black hair.

"Which one of you is Lovely's Watcher?" the government agent said.

"I am," Marina said. "My name is Marina Tome."

"Go to the airstrip with her," the government agent said. "Talk to Theo Majestic. He will turn her into a High. When all six children are on the airstrip, the process will begin. Marina, you and Lovely have to bid farewell to this man. He can't leave with the both of you."

Boone was a man with a name.

"I'm Lovely's father," Boone said. "My name is Boone Windsore."

The government agent's name was Macksen Mime. Boone had read that name on his badge.

Macksen Mime. He had said what Boone already knew. The father couldn't escape with his daughter and her Watcher.

"I'm sorry, Boone," Macksen said. "Say goodbye."

Boone's vision blurred. His pulse quickened and a burdened sigh fled his nose. Bidding farewell to Lovely and Marina would be more agonizing than the sight of the bellmas ripping into that girl's lifeless flesh. Boone had avenged the girl.

If he got killed, which person would avenge him?

Marina lowered Lovely's Soynite Box to the pathway's concrete. She and Boone hugged.

"Take care of Lovely," Boone said. Tears went closer to the ground, coming from his green eyes. "I love you. Thanks for everything you did for my family."

"I love you too," Marina said, her voice trembling. The hug died. Maybe Boone would too. "Try to survive."

"I will," Boone said.

He had one last person to bid farewell to.

The father kneeled in front of Lovely. He caressed her hair and kissed her pale forehead.

"I love you, Lovely," Boone said.

"I love you too, Father," Lovely said. Tears descended her cheeks. Boone wiped them away. No one wiped away his tears.

Boone and Lovely embraced.

After the hug, Boone watched Lovely and Marina arrive on the airstrip.

Other children and their Watchers came as time passed, the Freemans still attacking Soy. Boone watched a man carry a baby as he moved.

The man, brown-haired and brown-eyed, gave information to Macksen Mime. Boone listened.

Kara Ascend.

That was the baby's name. She was Don Ascend's daughter. A High's daughter would become a High.

Victor Valley. That was the Watcher's name.

Regardless of whether or not Boone would remember Victor's name eleven years from now, it was clear the man would have to raise Don's child. Marina had to raise Boone's daughter.

Victor was the sixth Watcher Boone had seen step onto the airstrip.

Macksen Mime joined the others. He gave the clipboard to Theo Majestic.

The High ritual began.

After it ended, Theo used a camera to photograph the Highs.

The blond-haired boy was the first High of the new generation of Highs. Ken Herman, Lilly Majestic's younger brother, was now the Watcher of the second High of the new generation of Highs.

Lovely had become the third High of the new generation of Highs.

The baby Boone had seen was now the sixth High of the new generation. The infant's Watcher had arrived later than the other Watchers.

Lovely and Marina looked at Boone.

Goodbye.

After the pilot, the six High children, and the six Watchers boarded the spaceship, it left.

Boone left.

Longing to find a safe place, the father ran into a meadow.

Freemans hunted.

There were two of them, and they were two of billions of Freemans.

Ahead of Boone was a blue spaceship. Its metal reflected outdoor lights in the jungle, the spacecraft proving hope was true and real. The tall woman near the spacecraft would let him board the space vessel. She would have to. Just like her, Boone struggled to survive.

The man stopped running. He turned, ready to burn his sword-wielding pursuers.

A blue laser tore through the nearest Freeman's head, making him drop. A second laser made the other Freeman collapse. They jerked. They stopped and died. Their dead flesh morphed into smoke.

While the smoke ascended toward the dark sky harboring dark Freeman spaceships, Boone remained alive. The lady had killed the Freemans. She hadn't killed him.

"Mother?" a voice said. "Are they dead?"

"Yes, baby," the woman said. Boone faced her. She wore a blue dress and held a Soynite laser gun. "What's your name?"

"Boone Windsore," Boone said. He ran toward the woman. "My daughter is Lovely Windsore. She's one of the new Highs. I saw the six new Highs get made. Theo Majestic did it."

He came to a stop in front of the woman.

"I'm Misty All," the woman said. She stood as tall as Boone. Lauren had been shorter than her, but the tall lady was now a woman Boone would have to befriend. He needed to survive. "You need to get inside my spaceship, Boone. Unless you want to die, of course."

Boone had heard Misty converse with someone who wasn't him. Small hands gripped Misty's dress from behind, a person standing behind the tall lady, trusting her.

"Is she your daughter?" Boone said.

"Yes," Misty said, in a way that didn't seem like she told a lie.

Boone believed her.

"It's okay, Zoey," Misty said. "Get from behind me. I want you to meet Boone, our new friend. His daughter is one of the new Highs."

The girl stopped clinging to Misty's dress, and she stepped from behind her mother.

Zoey.

She was Alice Endman, but Boone didn't know this.

The man didn't know Misty had kidnapped Zoey. He didn't know Zoey would fall in love at the age of sixteen. He didn't know his daughter would become blind at the age of six. He didn't know Lock Tannis was Reed Pisces, the exiled former High.

What Boone knew was that he needed to survive.

"Hello, Zoey," Boone said. "My name is Boone Windsore."

Zoey smiled, showing small teeth. Boone knew another child with small teeth, but the man had bid her farewell. He had hugged his daughter goodbye.

"Hello," Zoey said.

She wore a blue shirt and blue pants. So did Boone.

If Zoey lived long enough, would she meet Lovely? Boone hoped so.

A hand came to Zoey's hair and stroked the brown strands. Misty shared the same hair color as her daughter, and she had proved to be a good woman.

"Go, go, go," Misty said. She forced Zoey to face the spaceship's open door. "Get inside, Zoey. Then you're going to do the same, Boone."

Zoey entered the spacecraft.

Boone moved into it.

Misty boarded the spaceship last.

Simply put, Boone Windsore, Misty All, and Zoey All survived.

MARCH 2, 2011

Hours had gone by.

Boone stood in a lounge room within the Alls' huge spaceship, which was the room where the Exchanger named Hero would confront Misty before holding Zoey hostage. Boone didn't know this would happen. And Hero wasn't an Exchanger at the moment. Plus, he was five. Boone didn't know Hero and the boy didn't know him.

The spaceship Boone stood in flew past stars beyond the room, and no Freeman had the power to hurt the man and his new friends.

It was a new day.

The invasion had come and gone. Soy, like Lauren, was dead.

It was the second of March. Boone had seen Watchers yesterday. He had learned their names. The children who had been with them possessed names.

Kara Ascend.

She was Don Ascend's baby daughter. Boone had known about Don for years, so remembering Kara's surname came with ease.

What was her Watcher's name?

Vermont?

Vinny?

Boone couldn't remember, but he would never forget Marina's name. The Watcher would care for Lovely when her father couldn't.

Boone wasn't alone.

Zoey stood beside him as her mother stayed in the spaceship's bridge.

"My daughter, Lovely, is a High," Boone said. "If you ever meet her, you have to kneel for her. She's your ruler."

The man's daughter was his ruler, his High.

"What does she look like?" Zoey said. She turned to Boone. The man turned to her.

"She has orange hair and green eyes," Boone said. "Like her mother. Well, like her mother had. Her Watcher, Marina Tome, has orange hair and green eyes too. Maybe you'll meet her and Lovely. One day, I hope."

Lauren had died in her home. That hadn't happened to her husband. No. Boone had escaped the doomed planet Soy, and he had found a tall woman and her five-year-old daughter. Alice Endman would be five years old, but Zoey had never met that missing child. Maybe she never would.

Zoey didn't wear a Soynite pendant.

"Where's your pendant?" Boone said. "You have one, right? Every Soynite should own one."

"Don't answer that question, Zoey," Misty said.

Zoey's mother neared her daughter and Boone, a man with a dead wife and a distant daughter.

Misty carried a fruit in her hand. She didn't have the gun she had used to kill the Freemans she had seen hunting Boone.

"You're good with a gun, Misty," Boone said. "Are you a Watcher?"

"No," Misty said. "There's a man I want to kill."

Boone would have to train if he intended on killing the Freeman leader. Misty had trained. Because she wanted to kill a man.

"Likewise," Boone said, aware he wanted to kill Lock Tannis.

Misty looked at Zoey, then made eye contact with Boone again. His green eyes focused on her brown eyes, and Lock Tannis remained absent.

"When you were trying to survive, did you see Boris Endman?" Misty said.

"The only former High I saw was Theo Majestic," Boone said.

Misty tightened her grip on the fruit.

"Here, Zoey," the woman said. She handed the fruit to her daughter. "I got you this."

"Thanks, Mother," the child said.

Misty put her hands on her hips and turned to the wall. Beyond the wall was the vacuum of outer space, and Boone hoped his daughter hadn't been sucked into it.

What if a Freeman spaceship had attacked the spaceship Boone had seen Lovely go into?

"Boone, are you sure you didn't see Boris Endman during the invasion?" Misty said, as she kept her back turned.

"Yes," Boone said. "I promise."

"Okay," Misty said. She faced the man, then played with Zoey's hair. "A part of Boris is always with me, at least."

The lady in the dress admired Boris.

Lovely admired her father. She didn't know he had survived the invasion. The father and daughter had escaped Soy with their lives, but Lauren Windsore would never see them again. Her husband would never kiss her again. Her daughter would never hug her again.

Now Boone was with another mother and her daughter.

"I can tell you admire Boris," Boone said. The tall woman chuckled, as if her new friend had made a good joke. "You're going to meet him. He went missing before the attack. Maybe he left Soy. If he did, he probably survived."

The red fruit stayed in Zoey's hand as she watched Boone. Her mother watched him.

Boone's daughter was in a different spaceship and she was with different people. Her Watcher was her caretaker now, at least, and Boone believed Marina would treat his child well for a long time.

"Boris is alive," Misty said. "I had a vision of the future. It happened before Zoey was born. I saw myself and Boris Endman, and that precognition hasn't come true. Not yet. That's how I know Boris is alive. I'm going to meet him."

Boone could set creatures on fire from a distance.

Misty could see the future.

The lady had confirmed Boris hadn't been killed. He wasn't dead. But Boris and Misty didn't know where to find that former High. In addition to that, Boone didn't know where Theo or the other former Highs were, and the man didn't know if the exiled Reed Pisces was alive or dead.

Boone had looked at Theo outside the spaceport. The man had made Lovely and other kids into Soynite royals, then he had teleported.

"That's good," Boone said. "Boris is a powerful man. With him on our side, we will be able to kill so many Freemans."

"How many Freemans have you killed?"

"Not enough," Boone said.

A pale brute had murdered his kind and loving wife. Lovely would grow up without a mother, and Boone would love to burn a Freeman. He would love to let one of Lock Tannis's people suffer.

Misty gestured at Boone with her hand.

"Your hatred for the Freemans is admirable," the woman said. She placed a hand against her chest. "And you're with me, and you're with Zoey. You're safe. The horrors we experienced on Soy are gone."

Boone smiled. He said, "Yes. They are."

Misty approached him. She put her hands on the man's broad shoulders.

"Can I hug you?" she said.

The man had seen a laser beam take his wife's life, and he hadn't succeeded in saving that injured man and a young girl. The Windsore man needed a hug.

"Of course," Boone replied.

He embraced Misty, who hugged him back.

Bright light covered them as they held each other, the pair standing and hugging in a blue room with multiple sofas.

The hug ended. Zoey, fruitless, walked toward one of the sofas in the room. They were blue, inviting.

Misty's child moved onto her back and shut her brown eyes. When Lovely slept, would she dream about her father? Did she sleep now?

Lovely hadn't been born to rule, but she now doubled as Boone's daughter and his High. She was a great High. The girl was the best High.

Misty moved her attention to the kid on the sofa.

"She's tired," Misty said. "I'm going to put her to bed. As for you, Boone, find a room. Sleep in it. You earned some peace."

"Thank you, Misty," Boone said.

Misty put a hand on his shoulder and kissed his cheek. It was affection Boone craved, and he appreciated it.

Boone Windsore, alive and well, left the room.

***

Misty lifted Zoey off the sofa, supporting her back and legs.

The tall woman had never been pregnant.

The man called Boone was so ignorant. He didn't know the girl Misty carried was Boris Endman's missing granddaughter.

Alice Endman.

The child wasn't missing to Misty, because she lived with her. She kept her. The woman had stolen Alice, then she had renamed her Zoey All. Misty had no romantic partner. She had never been kissed, but maybe Boone would kiss her lips. Misty had already kissed his cheek.

Misty moved, walking, holding the kid she had taken when she was a baby.

She had held Zoey the night when she kidnapped her. Her name had been Alice. Misty had changed it, and she had kept the girl safe and alive.

"I love you, Mother," Zoey said, keeping her eyes closed.

"I love you too," Misty said.

She hadn't lied.

The girl she carried bridal style was precious. Even though Boris Endman's gross genes dwelled in her, Zoey was more deserving than her grandfather.

Misty couldn't fight fate.

Her Save had given her the power to see what would happen. She had seen herself clash with Boris, and Boone would be smart if he agreed Misty was fated to become High Boris's worst enemy.

Boone couldn't fight fate.

Zoey couldn't fight fate. She didn't fight Misty, because the woman was her mother. Holly Endman had given birth to the girl, but Misty had spent many seconds of her life caring for the child.

Holly had to die.

Her husband, the man who had come from Boris Endman, had to be killed. He and his wife would try taking Zoey back.

Misty couldn't allow it.

She had loved Zoey's grandfather, and she loved the kid herself. Misty's past love for Boris had been strong.

But the vision had come.

Misty had to hate Boris the more people loved him. She knew it. And she would never spare the former High's life.

The mother approved of Boone. She didn't approve of Boris.

Would that ever change?

No.

Peace couldn't exist between Misty All and Boris Endman.

In order for Misty to find immense peace, Boris needed to die.

When Zoey was in her bed and asleep, Misty sat in the chair in the bedroom. She watched the girl sleep.

The woman had kidnapped Zoey in the bedroom she had shared with her parents. Misty had been invisible when she took the girl, and it had come with sweet ease.

Misty had taken Zoey's pendant, which she had seen photographs of. She had abducted Zoey.

"You're so young," Misty whispered. "Your grandfather isn't, and I can kill his granddaughter right now. I could actually kill Boris Endman's granddaughter. But I won't. And I know why I won't do it. You can't fight fate. My power gave me that vision, and it showed me that I was destined to become Boris's worst enemy. Destiny is tricky. I kidnapped Boris's granddaughter so he could suffer, then I fell in love with her. To be clear, I'm going to kill your grandfather. He's going to die, Alice Endman."