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I didn't take you for the swamp-cave type."
    "They're probably already on their way. You need to leave now, before they hold you, too. Go!"
    "Oh, thanks for the warning," he muttered sarcastically, "Always the martyr."
    The dust began to clear, drawn out by the whistling and whipping winds outside the gaping hole in the wall. His platinum blonde hair came into view first, like a beacon of light against the dark backdrop. By the time the rest of him registered in my sight, I realized he looked almost exactly as he had the night he vanished from the party. Eyes still as blue as an open summer sky, skin fair with undertones of peach. His body was wrapped in a tight, long sleeved black shirt, matching black pants blending him perfectly with the pitch black sky.
    "Are you seriously staring at me while I'm trying to break you free?" Ari gaped at me in disbelief. Shaking his head, he latched onto my wrist and brought me into his chest. Heat blew off of him in waves, a perpetual sun for my cold and hopeless heart. He raised a hand and muttered something, white fire lancing from his hand in the form of a spear. It sliced through the wall, melting the rock into burning pools of black.
    “Ari,” I started to say. “Ursula said-”
    A high, glass-shattering scream sounded from below. I felt the color drain from my face as I recognized the tone.
    “We need to go to her,” I said. “Ursula, she-”
    “No, we need to leave.” Ari held onto me tighter, no doubt afraid I’d make a run for it. “That was the plan.”
    Pulling me along, we started down the hallway at a jog, Ari dragging me as I tried to jerk free. “Screw the plan,” I yelled sharply. “I can’t let her just die!”
    Spinning me around, he locked his hands around my upper arms, forcing me to meet his hard stare. “Listen to me, I appreciate you’re trying out the whole hero thing, but now is not the time. I came here to save you, not burn to death with you, and like it or not, we need to get through this together. Now work with me, dammit.”
    He had barely finished speaking when a pair of Vens, dressed to the nines in their iconic black, split from the shadows of the hallway. Red daggers flashed in their hands, the shine of the metal instantly making me wary. They both leapt for Ari, moving faster than I could keep track.
    “Ari!” I screamed, yanking myself from his grasp and flinging out a hand. Blue fire spiraled up my arm before it fired into the hallway, setting the walls and floor ablaze.
    But Ari was already gone. He moved faster than both Vens, winding between them with a dancer kind of grace, fire twining off his hands like a personal light show. Bolts of white shocked the hallway to life, and like flies attracted to the light, each Vens fell crippled to the ground, shrieking and writhing in pain before fire consumed them whole.
    “Move,” he commanded, grabbing my wrist once more and pulling me along. I didn't dare look back over my shoulder, partly because I was afraid I'd see the aftermath of our fires racing to catch up to us, partly because I was afraid I'd come face-to-face with one of those red daggers. Instinct told me I didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of those blades.
    We turned down another set of hallways before the sounds of voices and feet caught up to us. Ari looked over his shoulder and met my eyes for one split second, a finger pressed gently against his lips. Locking an arm around my waist, we ducked into the nearest room and sealed the door shut.
    The room was dark, a never-ending pit of emptiness. Only a flicker of blue and red, glowing halfway into the room, gave a hint of light to combat the dark.
    I instantly knew where we were. And how we had to get out, fast. "Ari, we shouldn't be in here."
    Against the dark, I could barely make out his silhouette. His hands were moving fast, quick dashes of white lingering on the door in front of us as he drew several different symbols into the heavy wood. "What's the matter,