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Rebecca said I needed to talk to myself. To figure out how to come to terms with my dark side so that I could control my powers. Which was all well and good if I knew how to even go about it.

My fingers twisted in the folds of my dress. How did one have a chat with their inner self?

“Hello?” I murmured and then cleared my throat and tried again this time firmer. “Hello? If you’re there, I’m guessing you’ve been watching everything that’s been going on and well...” I trailed off, feeling a bit ridiculous. “Can you just talk to me?”

I waited for a moment, listening for any kind of answer. When it was clear I wasn’t going to get one, I blew out a long breath and sank down on the bed. How the hell was I supposed to communicate with my other self if she refused to respond?

Closing my eyes, I let my mind drift, falling back onto the bed.

The evil queen. Or rather the queen. I supposed it was all about perspective. To others, the mages, to Snow, she was evil. To herself? What was she doing and why? I could understand. I did understand.

Sometimes good people end up doing bad things to save others, whether they liked it or not.

What if villains were really heroes, but they were just willing to do the things the heroes weren’t brave enough to do? They let their morals dictate how far they could go, and the queen said no. To beat a villain, she became something else, something worse.

It was hard to think of myself as that kind of person. It was like I was the queen before she had all the rage and trauma, fighting a battle inside of her. The question was... did I want to be like her, or did I want to stay the way I was?

If I embraced the queen, would that change me? Would I be angry and full of hate for the mages? For the men that had saved me and had grown dear to my heart? Or would I still be me, just with a bit more of a villainous side? How would the others handle that side of me?

Thinking about how they would respond to the possible new version of me, caused something to swirl inside of me. Magic. My face scrunched as it shifted in me.

Normally, when the magic woke it was because of something that made the queen mad. This time, I wasn’t thinking anything bad, if anything it was more sadness because whatever Rebecca and the rest of the world thought, I missed them.

Then go see them.

My body jerked at the thought that wasn’t my own. Go see them? Rebecca said I shouldn’t leave. But... I’d seen them once before without being there, right? At least, my mind was there. Though the queen was the one who had done that. I wouldn’t begin to know how to do it.

Thinking about them made the queen speak up, so maybe that was all I needed to do? Focus on the mages, and see if I could get the magic to take me there.

They were on the television a moment ago. Would they be home by now? Probably all gathered together in Adam’s office, talking about what had happened and what they were going to do.

I wanted to be there. To tell them everything was going to be okay, even if I didn’t believe it completely myself. Filled with so much confusion and worry that I just wanted them to be the ones to tell me it was going to be okay. To make me believe. I wanted to see them. I wanted —

Power shifted inside of me, and I felt lighter, detached from my body as my mind flew from Rebecca’s home and across the city. I was moving so quickly I couldn’t keep up with my surroundings until I found myself before the familiar house.

In my mind, I held my hand out to the door, reaching for the panel that would open it.

The panel on the wall lit up green, disabling the magical security they had in place. I tried to look down at my hands, but there was nothing. I wasn’t there. Not physically at least.

With that thought in mind, I sent myself forward through the door and down the hallway until I stood outside of Adam’s office.

Voices came from inside. Some muffled and others shouting. I hesitated. Were they angry with me?

“We can’t just do that,” Luke’s raised voice broke through the others and suddenly I was inside the room.

All five of them stood before me, laid out across the room. Adam sat behind his desk, his jacket discarded and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, I forced my eyes away from the way they flexed before he shoved his hand through his hair. The fact that he didn’t have one of his dirty books in his hands right now showed how serious he was taking the discussion.

“I don’t see how we have any choice,” Adam sighed, sitting back in his chair. “We don’t know where Eva is, or if she’s even still our Eva or the queen now.”

A fist clenched around my heart at his words. I understood what he meant, but it still hurt to hear. Not to mention the way my pulse fluttered at being called theirs.

“But to send the mage force after her? That’s going too far, Adam, and you know it.” Luke fisted his hands and slammed them on his desk. “They won’t care that she’s innocent in all this. They won’t care that it's complicated. They will just kill her. Or do you not care, now that you’re Arch Mage? Did your new position destroy your heart as well?”

Adam shoved his chair back, knocking it to the ground, his own hands pounding on the desk so hard that the wood fractured. “Don’t act like you’re the only one who cares about Eva. I’m trying to do the right thing, and —”

“And that includes saving your political ass, right?” Luke shot back, his magic crackling around him.

Blake shoved away from his position by the window and placed a hand on Luke’s arm. “Luke, come on. You know that’s not what he means.”

“Isn’t it though?” Luke shrugged his brother’s hand off, glaring at Adam. “He only took the mission to investigate the tower so it would look good on paper. Let’s not forget the fact that he’s fucking engaged to Medusa herself.”

“So this is what this is about, huh?” Adam huffed a laugh out. “You think I betrayed you all by tying myself to Rebecca.”

“Well, if the shoe fits,” Luke snapped and then his eyes softened. “How could you do that to us? To Eva? That woman hates humans. Hates them. And you promised to marry her just so you could get what you wanted. Well there ya go. You’re Arch Mage. Drop the bitch, and let’s go find Eva. Together.”

“You don’t understand...” Adam began until Gage moved from his place by the wall.

“I understand. More than you would probably like. She’s a means to an end. I know. However, she’s now an obstacle that’s going to have to be dealt with.”

Luke huffed and pointed at Gage.

“Later though,” Gage responded with a hard look. “Right now, Eva is more important. But I do think we should only use the mage force as a last ditch effort.”

I cocked my head or at least thought I did, since I wasn’t completely there. Who knew Gage would be someone on my side? I hadn’t given the big lout enough credit.

Blake snorted. “Of course you’d think that, since you’re part of their secret force.”

Gage shot him a glare.

Zane fiddled with his glasses in his hands before pulling out a cloth to wipe them off. “Whether we use them or not doesn’t change the fact that Eva has completely disappeared. No one saw who took her from her cell, and no one has seen her since.”

The worry in his voice made my chest ache, and I found myself closer to him, wanting to stroke the worry lines off his face.

The cleric jerked, his eyes widening, and it was as if he was staring right at me. His lips formed my name but didn’t say a word.

Could he see me? Or maybe he felt me? Either way, he knew I was here.

“Zane. Zane!” Luke chucked a pen at the cleric. “What are you doing?”

His hazel eyes blinked and then focused on the younger mage. “I thought I felt...” He shook his head. “Never mind. What?”

“Can we do a spell to find her?”

Zane glanced back to where I was before clearing his throat. “No. Not unless we have something personal of hers to trace. Even then, if she’s working with another mage or if she’s figured out her powers,” he stared hard at me. “it won’t work. They’ll have cloaked her.”

I didn’t know why Zane was hiding that I was there, but I was grateful.

“Well, it’s worth a try,” Adam conceded, putting his chair right and sinking back into it. “I won’t call in the mage force until we have exhausted all other options, alright? Will that make you happy?”

Luke grunted. “And the she-bitch?”

Adam pulled out his book from some magical pocket and threw his feet up on his desk. “Don’t worry about Rebecca, she won’t be a problem.”

I almost laughed. No. She won’t be a problem. At least, not in the way they thought.