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There’s no mistaking him – not that slimy, murderous Bullfrog bastard.

As he stands framed in the doorway, the Bullfrog rubs the scar I’d left across his chest and arm. It’s as if his wound is hurting again – triggered by the sight of me. I hope that’s true. I hope it hurts to evenlookat me.

But look at me he does – staring me down silently. The doors close behind him, and suddenlyhe’sin the room with me. My strength and resolve instantly falters. I suddenly feel like I’m stuck in place – my bare feet rooted to the floor.

I feel like I’m staring into a mirror – looking out at the real world, but powerless to change it.

Lord Oblog sees my reaction, and licks his glistening lips.

“Oh, so you remember Gab’nah, do you? He certainly remembers you.”

Anger and fear mix together inside of me – creating a sickly, black and yellow potion that bubbles in my mind like noxious fumes.

Tell me what’s happening.

Quint’s voice suddenly echoes in my mind. It’s nauseous with worry, and that doesn’t help. My fear bounces back against his, each reflecting the other and amplifying them both.

I don’t answer Quint. Instead, I force myself to look up at the scarred Bullfrog looming in front of me. At least he has a name now - Gab’nah.

A name as ugly as he is.

I force myself to stare at him – to face my fear. I stare at Gab’nah so intensely that I can actuallyfeelthe shadows of his image transmuting through my mind to the three Aurelians.

I’d never told them about Ling – but they can feel my hatred and terror so deeply that they instantly know this Bullfrog means something to me – that he and I have unfinished business.

Their auras shift to match my mood – dark, cold, and saying nothing. They reckon with the beast standing before me, just as I do.

All four of us now want to kill this Bullfrog – even more than we want to kill Lord Oblog himself. Gab’nah might just be a tool of the sinister Toad puppet-master, but it’spersonalwith him.

It suddenly occurs to me that Lord Oblog asked me a question – and it feels like a lifetime has passed since he began waiting for an answer.

The strength of the Aurelians buoys my own.

“I remember him,” I answer defiantly.

As I state the words, I’m proud that none of my terror seeps into them. In truth, I’m not nearly as fearless as I sound. This creature looming in front of me scares me. He’s not like the other Bullfrogs. Even amidst his brethren – the most depraved, disgusting creatures in the universe - he’s darker, viler, and more hell-bent on revenge.

He wants to hurt me – and it’s not the scar itself that makes him hate me so virulently.

It’s the moment when I’d made him feel weak. Weak, because of a human female.

To have humiliated him like that – to have torn asunder the illusion of his bolstered confidence – is unforgivable to Gab’nah. It makes him hate me, perhaps even more than I hate him in return.

Iknowmen like him – and even if he towers nearly ten-feet-tall, and is built like a building, all I see is a pathetic, shameful child when I look at Gab’nah.

When men like him – Toad, Bullfrog or Human – are challenged by a ‘little girl,’ they respond with rage and violence. These men attempt to dominate out of insecurity, not out of genuine power. Gab’nah is a living embodiment of everything my warrior triad aren’t.

They’re confident, powerful, and protective.

Gab’nah’s ilk will break you down until there’s nothing left but a fractured husk.

I see that now, as if I’m seeing things for the first time. Perhaps I am.

I was so scared back when I was running away to planet X12. I was so scared after Ling died. I’d thought she was invincible, and yet it had all come crashing down around me.

But,fuck it.

I’m still scared now – but I’m not letting it rule me. I proved to myself how capable I was when I grabbed that splintered wood and tried to kill Oblog with it. I’ve demonstrated that I’m done cowering and hiding.