Start with foreshadown of big demon talking with Skylar and talking about Remus and telling Skylar to make sure that Remus doesn’t kill the girl but they aren’t ready yet for her.
Cuts to Maxine in assembly meeting with the Elementals, just cuts right into the middle with everyone talking. Remus suddenly reveals information about the druids being the ones who are after her and he agrees that he will be the one to protect her.
Maxine tries to ask him how he knows more than what he was letting on but Ares interrupts breaking her into her battle training. She is snippy through the battling and tries to end it quickly. Her and Remus get into a fight afterwards. Remus doesn’t tell her about his secret but he lies and says that he has told her everything that he knows. Maxine says she believes him.
Cuts to her making out with Amar (or rather Amar making out with her) while she’s telling him she doesn’t believe Remus for a second. Kriss interrupts the two of them.
Later/next day Maxine sneaks out into the city and starts getting chased, enters Steven who has been practicing for the full year since they met and is quite proficient in his gift. He has been tracking down legends of Maxine hoping to help her.
Helps to rescue her from the druids and gets her back to the castle. Morkoth chews her out and thanks Steven. They realize he is the one the Fates were talking about.
Starts to see hallucinations caused by Oletheros – especially her symbol. This can only be done, though, if Oletheros has connection with someone who has had ties with her (her brother). He was able to do it to Drakkar
“Remus, can I ask you something?”
“I think you just did anyways,” he said curtly, walking up to the dragon and adjusting some straps.
“You’ve never once mentioned to me that you knew something about what might be coming. I mean it’s pretty obvious in a few ways that it’s going to be a demon that gives me problems – what else – but… you sound as if you know a lot more about this demon.”
Remus paused in his work, a tick in his jaw. He was silent for the longest time.
“Remus, come on!” she pressed. “If there’s something that you know I think I have a right to know. Knowing might prepare me in some way.”
Finally he turned to her. “I realize you have a right to know,” he snapped back – strangely with a lot more vehemence than she would have expected. “I haven’t kept it from you without reason. I just wasn’t sure if you were ready to handle it.”
“Oh well that’s reassuring. I get thrust into everything else without preparation. I’m glad that you’re protecting me from stuff that actually matters and that I should be prepared for,” she replied sarcastically.
He stared down at her with pursed lips as straight as a line, a sharp gleam in his amber eyes. “Are you finished being insulting?” he asked. “Remember when you fought Panaptos?”
“Like I could forget? That was only six months ago.”
“You messed up, Maxine.” Then he caught himself and winced and shook his head. “No. I messed up because I didn’t tell you anything – and I acknowledge that. I just… I didn’t think you were going to succeed, and I never would have assumed it possible that you would have actually fought and won against Panaptos.”
She gaped up at him. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. Wait – were you expecting me to die?”
“I expected you to fail and get purged. That’s why I was trying my damnedest to get the purge revoked. Simply put, Maxine, you should never have killed Panaptos. Drakkar sealed it for a reason. He didn’t seal Panaptos away because he couldn’t throw him away into Tartarus. He did it because he didn’t trust that last demon to get killed.”
“Last demon? I’m confused.”
“There’s another demon – a powerful one. Drakkar kind of met him, when I say that I mean that this demon was not on this side but he is able to interfere with people through Fate Lines. His name is Oletheros. I never saw him because I never went the extra step that I have with you and actually placed myself into the events. I always pushed my limitations of being able to interfere so I never had a Fate Line. He tricked Drakkar into killing a certain pack of demons that were in charge of a seal. This Demon Lord was so bad that a bunch of demons got together and sealed him away in Tartarus. Drakkar suspected he’s even immortal. Panaptos was the last demon that had to be killed to break the seal.”
Maxine felt her heart sink and pressed a hand to her forehead. “And I killed it.”
“You killed it.”
“B-but so what? So it terrorizes creatures in Tartarus – it’s in Tartarus where it should be. No harm done, right?”
Remus was silent for a long while. “Only the one who opened the door can control close it. The door is not closed Maxine. It’s halfway closed. Demons can go in but they can’t go out. Only that person has the power to close it completely once all demons that went through have been replaced back inside. And until that time the door can be reopened fully by that same person.”
Maxine pointed to herself. “You think the demon would be after me now to try to get me to reopen the door so he could leave?”
“Yes. Yes, I do. He said as much to Drakkar.”
She groaned and buried her face in her hands. “Like I don’t have enough to deal with on this side now I’m worried about that side, too. I thought once they were over there my job was done.”
“Since when is anything ever easy? Now come on. Your brother is probably frantically worried about you making it back to Arcadia.”
He picked her up by the waist as she turned around and helped to lift her onto the back of the dragon and he climbed up to sit in front of her, picking up the reins of the dragon and tightening them in his hand.
“Remus?” she asked just as he was preparing the dragon to take off into the air. “Is there anything else that you’re hiding from me?”
He looked over his shoulder at her and with a small grin said, “No.” Then he turned back around and slapped the reins and the dragon leaped off into the air.
Chapter 1
“I so do not believe him,” she said.
She was laying on her back staring up into the morning sky as the sun was rising. Only a blanket separated her from the cold stone of the parapet. It was going to be another frozen day with just the hint of a threat of snow in the air. …That was going to make practice really fun, she thought sarcastically.
“For being an Elemental who has lived thousands, maybe even millions, of years, you’d think he’d lie better.”
Her thick fur coat lay a few feet away having been completely discarded by breakfast dishes, but she was not feeling any of the cold – largely in part due to the warlock who was lying across her on her chest. His several layers of black robes kept him warm and now he was better than any blanket she could have brought out with the two of them.
“And then the question is, what is he lying about anyways.”
“Maxine,” Amar’s mumbled voice reached her ear from where it was buried in her hair, his breath tickling her neck, “I’m trying to make out with my girlfriend. Not really interested in talking about another guy right now.”
She giggled and turned her head to him. He raised up and turned enough to kiss her deeply, her arms tightening around him. His deep blue eyes seemed to penetrate her mind. Dear stars sometimes it felt like Amar was the only thing that she could depend on some days – as strange as that sounded. He was a warlock who had spent his childhood learning dark magic and had murdered many people, all because his aunt Sorceress Alain had forced him to do it. Not even running away had managed to get him free of the Sorceress’s terrible power. His words could sometimes feel like ice and trust was something that did not come easy to him.
So why did he make her feel all warm inside?
He pulled away with a small smirk on his face. “Now, can you concentrate, please? On me.”
“I’m going to catch a cold like this,” she complained.
He propped himself up on the palms of his hands hovering over her, his locks falling in his face and framing it. “Why? Are you cold?”
“No.”
He reached up to the top of her shirt and undid two buttons with a wicked grin. “Then we have nothing to worry about.” He pulled her shirt open to expose more of her shoulder and lowered himself back in place, kissing her bared skin.
She closed her eyes and tried to let her mind go, trying to enjoy it. Oh elements… what would have happened if she had been sent back to Terrisma?