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Snow whipped around my head as my black sneakers sank into the soft snow. The cold came in rolls of vicious gusts, dampening my bare skin around my arms. The white powder gathered in mounds around me.

I stood on a mountaintop, looking down upon the vast expanse of the ?lden Lands.

The Dead Woods of Elizy lay barren in the distance, the hills rising and falling like waves in a stormy sea.

The crystal fields shimmered with an ethereal beauty, reflecting the silver hue of the moonlight.

Beyond that was Ellion City that rose up like a beacon of hope in the midst of heavily forested cliffs and flatlands.

The Onyx River snaked its way through the landscape, a ribbon of sinister black against the liveliness that surrounded it.

Where? Where? Where?

No time to waste. The Elizians were depending on me to free them from the Cidris. Accessing my overbearing split like it was the only thing filling my body could be their saving grace.

Darkness swelled within me, bursting from my core and seeking freedom.

It poured out of my fingertips in inky ropes as I threw my hands forward.

The lovely split obeyed, moving with intent and purpose as it slithered down the mountain in a bulk of black smoke until it reached its destination.

For the first time, I was in control of my magic.

It moved when I willed it to, and it breathed when I allowed it to.

I could wield it expertly. And it was delicious and dangerous and intoxicating.

A smile tugged at my lips as a cacophony of cawing erupted. I watched hundreds of rayko birds take flight from their slender trees, their iridescent feathers shimmering in the pale light .

Graff’s bulky figure appeared beside me. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Go away,” I ordered, reeling in some of my split to throw at Graff if need be.

“Come back home with me, Ripley,” he reached out, fingertips grazing my hand. “You’re clearly not well.”

I took a step back. “You touch me and I’ll have your head rolling down this mountain.” At the thought, my split embraced me, encouraging me to fall deeper into its cocoon.

His hand came down on mine anyway. “I’m ordering you to return home with me.”

My magic blazed, darkness spiraling to the front of my mind as my arm burst into an obsidian and sapphire twisted flame.

Graff yelped, and as soon as his hand released me, I did what Fletcher had done. Around Graff’s wrists, shackles without a seam. “Ripley!” he wailed.

With a devious smile tugging at my lips, I let my eyes roam the forests one more time. The warm depth of the split reached out, touching every bit of the ?lden Lands like vines of abstruse shadows that no secret could escape from .

Then, my darker magic found what I was looking for. A lone Cidris wondering the forests near Ellion City.

I fragmented, riding the branches of my magic down to the Ellion Forests.

The wind changed to a warmer temperature as my speed increased.

A sharp gust snapped the rose vine Fletcher had secured my hair with as the many yards unraveled behind me.

The vines of shadows flexed and throbbed.

I remained steadfast atop it, steering with determination and dropping myself off in front of the young man with ginger hair and freckles.

He startled and stumbled back onto his bottom with a cry.

I cocked my head, smiled sweetly, and enunciated, “Hello.”

Before he could reach for his belt to grapple with the shackles, I sent black lightning into his chest, a buzz humming so angelically. I giggled at the melody of the man’s screams. The electricity sank into my heart, allowing more of the split to uproot and thrive.

I reigned in the voltage once the man fell to his back and demanded, “Tell me where the Cidris Facility is.”

He panted like a dog out of energy in between his words. “You’re the girl Fletcher was farming. ”

I got on my haunches, reached for the two golden shackles on his belt and tossed them into the Onyx River behind me. “I won’t ask again.”

“It was Fletcher who broke you out, huh?” He smiled, blood coating the spaces between his teeth. “How’d he do it?”

I scoffed and sent another wicked zap into his chest.

His extremities curled inward like they were cramping as he took a harsh gulp. “The Dead Woods. It’s underground. There’s an opening on the far west side. About three miles away from Elizy. Please, enough.”

“Thanks.” A surge of my magic exploded from the empty abyss within me, bright and aqua.

It was brief, but prevailing before the split swallowed it whole.

My lightning malfunctioned and sent wave after wave of electricity into the young man’s chest until there was nothing but a chard slab of flesh that thickened the air.

I shrugged, smiled, and thanked my magic for its slip up. I stepped over what was left of the man, ready to walk straight into the hostile Cidris hive with my split magic by my side.