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As if she wasn’t going to attack him anyway.

A new sensation washed over Jamie like a rippling wave of heat.

He shuddered and drew in a sharp breath at the feeling, putting a hand to his head as a heavy fog filled it.

‘Don’t back down,’ whispered an echoing voice in his mind.

‘Fight her. Fight this violent attacker before she kills the people who matter most to you.’

Jamie’s breath hitched as the whisper wound deeper into his head.

Driven by the sheer force of fear and instinct, he summoned a gale of winter ice—having finally perfected the art of drawing it from the water in the air rather than needing a source—and sent it flying toward Eleanore in the form of a dozen deadly knives.

At once, white formed at Eleanore’s crown, spreading down her long hair. Her eyes flashed and gleamed a bright, icy blue as she waved her arms in a wide, sweeping arc and redirected each icicle to crash against the concrete.

For a second, Jamie’s mind refused to accept what his eyes were seeing, a shudder rippling down his spine .

They had been wrong.

They had been wrong all this time!

She wielded ice, just like him!

But… they’d thought her red hair indicated she was wielding fire! This had been her safe form?! It didn’t make sense! Had he just confused things in his nightmares?!

‘It doesn’t matter what kind of powers she has.’

Eleanore took a measured step forward.

‘She’s going to kill you. You, and everyone you love, if you don’t take her down.’

Jamie’s muscles tensed, his heartbeat hammering against his ribs as he felt a strange pull toward Eleanore that he couldn’t place.

They stared at each other, a strained silence between them, like the silence before the storm.

Eleanore took another step closer, and thinking of Jesse and Austin, Jamie mirrored her—his hands rising again, ready to fight her until his very last breath.

A low, eager laugh sounded from behind him. The laughter echoed in his mind, in a voice that was all too familiar. He slowly turned to look over his shoulder, confusion and shock flooding through him at the sight of Dr. Alevera making her way across the lot toward them, a wide grin on her face.

“Ezra!” growled Eleanore, her tone hardening into a cold rage.

“I knew you’d find him eventually,” Dr. Alevera—Ezra?

—said with a grin. “Took you a little while, huh?” She strode to Jamie’s side, her stance shifting into something battle-ready.

And then, right before his eyes, her appearance shifted; her brown hair and eyes both darkening into a bright, rippling purple.

Smirking, her eyes gleamed with anticipation before she took a deliberate step forward, positioning herself protectively in front of Jamie, her body angled like a shield. “Showtime,” she murmured.

Fire burst from her hands, hungry and red-hot.

What the hell was going on?!

Jamie barely had time to think before the battle exploded around him .

Alevera—Ezra—shot toward Eleanore with a streak of fire, like a blazing comet of pure destruction casting an eerie glow over the lot.

Eleanore countered in an instant, her ice forming massive, yellow-tinged spears that erupted from the ground and slammed into the inferno.

Anger flashed in Eleanore’s blue eyes as she summoned a barrage of ice to rain down upon Ezra—who melted it in a blast of flame.

The two elements continued to clash in a sizzling explosion of steam, detonating in violent bursts that hissed and swirled around them and turned the battlefield into a chaotic haze.

They were moving so incredibly fast that Jamie could barely keep up with what was happening.

But then, a whip of water lashed out and slammed into Ezra’s side with brutal force, throwing her into a spin. Her body twisted midair before she crashed onto the pavement, a choked cry escaping her lips.

She lay there, motionless for a second too long, and something deep in Jamie’s chest snapped.

“No!” he screamed, ice erupting from his hands as he lunged into the battle in a desperate frenzy.

It didn’t matter any longer what he’d seen in his nightmares—or what he’d thought he’d seen, or even what any of it had meant.

Dr. Alevera had been there for him all this time, guiding him, helping him.

Even now, she’d been standing between him and death itself! He couldn’t let her down!

Ezra, staggering back to her feet, reignited her flames with a furious battle cry—and together, they struck.

A tempest of fire and ice roared through the night in a dazzling, deadly dance.

Jamie hurled jagged shards of ice towards Eleanore, Ezra whipped her fire through the air like living serpents, while Eleanore herself moved like a blizzard given human form, her long hair whirling around her as her golden-tinged frost sliced through the battlefield with ruthless accuracy.

Ezra dove forward to roll out of the way, a spurt of flames following her along the ground, and when she arose with a flourish of the wrist, more fire rained down upon Eleanore from above.

The white-haired woman let out a growl, seemingly undeterred, but her distraction gave Jamie the opening he needed to form another attack of his own.

Calling upon the deep sense of power he had felt when dancing along with the ocean, he sprang forward, pillars of ice forming beneath his feet and climbing ever higher to give him the advantage over his foe.

Eleanore looked back to him for a split second, panic and frustration evident in her face, but Ezra went into another fierce attack, forcing her to turn away from Jamie once more.

He jumped towards her from above, the pillars of ice immediately melting back into streams of water that whipped towards her as he delivered his strike.

Eleanore let out a pained shriek, turning back to Jamie as her eyes flashed in desperation. “STAY OUT OF THIS!” she yelled to him, throwing out her hand—and a sudden wave, stronger than any Jamie could summon himself, knocked him off his feet and sent him flying backwards away from her.

As soon as Jamie was out of her reach, she turned immediately back to Ezra, and continued her onslaught against her.

Her command over water and ice was incomparable, and as she raged against Ezra in cold, frigid hate, her movements only grew more aggressive.

The only chance Ezra had against Eleanore—the only chance either of them had—was if they worked together.

So Jamie pushed himself back to his feet, ignored the sting in his hands from scraping the concrete, and jumped back into the fray.

Together, he and Ezra managed to hold their own.

And yet, as he tried to mirror Eleanore’s fluid movements, his strikes more and more felt like wasted energy against an opponent far beyond his skill.

The dark night blurred around him as his mind struggled to keep up with the impossible speed of the battle.

Then, with chilling precision, Eleanore turned on him, and the air turned deadly cold.

Jamie barely had time to react before a powerful blast of water struck him like a battering ram.

Once again, the force sent him hurtling backward, his body twisting mid-air just like Ezra’s had done before.

He crashed against the pavement with brutal force, the impact knocking the breath from his lungs.

His vision momentarily darkened as pain splintered through his ribs.

Dazed, he lifted a trembling hand to his cheek—just to find warm, slick blood smearing across his fingertips.

Ezra bellowed in fury, her flames surging higher.

With another battle cry, she darted forward, wheels of fire burning across the ground behind her.

Her purple hair and eyes both gleamed brightly in the glow of the flames, shining like the hate Jamie could see deep within her gaze.

But she was clearly no match for Eleanore.

As Jamie watched, the woman—cold hate reflecting in her own icy eyes as well—twirled out of the way right as Ezra reached her, and unleashed a blast of golden power so bright and so strong that it nearly blinded Jamie in the flash.

This wave hit Ezra hard, and with one final yell of pain, she was thrown backward.

She hit the concrete with violent force, a loud resounding crack filling the air as her head hit against the hard ground.

She didn’t get back up.

Jamie’s breath hitched as Eleanore now turned toward him once more. Slowly, deliberately, she advanced. Jamie pushed himself up onto shaking legs, his limbs screaming in protest.

“S-stay back,” he rasped, barely able to keep himself upright. He summoned another wave of sharp frost, hurling it at her in desperation with everything he had left, but she dismissed it with a flick of her wrist, the shards shattering uselessly against her barrier.

Then, before he could react, the ground beneath his feet turned to slick, glistening ice, and a spear-like jet of water, sent hurtling by Eleanore, slammed into his shoulder.

He lost his footing, and his body lurched backward, weightless for a terrifying heartbeat before he crashed back onto the pavement. The impact sent a shuddering shockwave through his skull, and his vision began to swim.

“Will you stop fighting back now!?” Eleanore hissed, her voice shaking with something deeper than rage .

Jamie barely had the chance to catch his breath before she sprang into action again. She shot toward him in a blur of blue and white, and before he could so much as raise his hands in defense, she grabbed tightly at his head, and every muscle in Jamie’s body locked.

Eleanore let out a deep, panting breath, staring down at him for a moment as if half expecting him to somehow keep fighting. But he couldn’t. Try as he might, he just could not move—frozen in place, helpless and defenseless.

“Finally,” Eleanore murmured through her heavy panting.

A crushing weight settled in Jamie’s chest, and for a split second, it was as if the world had stopped moving around him.

It hadn’t been enough.

He hadn’t been strong enough. He hadn’t even come close to standing a chance.

Jesse…

The name crashed through his heart like a breaking wave.

Everything was crumbling. Jesse and Austin, still locked in the car at the other end of the parking lot, would have no choice but to watch as Eleanore killed him right in front of their eyes.

And when it was over—when Jamie was gone—there would be no one left to remove his powers from Jesse’s body.

No one left to save him.

Tears burned in Jamie’s eyes, his breath trembling.

He had failed.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he braced himself for the inevitable as Eleanore’s grip tightened. A single tear slipped down his cheek, hot against his skin.

“Prepare yourself,” Eleanore said, her tone detached and unreadable. “I’m afraid this is going to hurt.”

Agony suddenly erupted through Jamie, sharp and overwhelming and slicing through his mind like a blade of frozen fire.

Everything went black.