Jasmine:

I couldn't find Brae anywhere. Brody was laid out on the ground, Devon and Erica tending to multiple burns, Cameron was locked in battle with two burly Helians and Imogen was helping Rowan with a third. But Brae was nowhere to be found.

There was chaos all around me. Fire, water and wind on all sides and the ground was still trembling after the assault of Erica's earthquakes. The sky was dark and menacing and I could see no further than the glare of the flames allowed.

I had started towards a group of trees when a glint of silver caught my eye. Brae. I ran towards him at once, stumbling over fallen figures and torn up chunks of earth, desperate to reach him, to know that he was alive. Safe.

But when I got to him he was standing motionless, staring straight ahead blankly. His eyes were as eerily vacant as Lorelie's and Nolan's.

I tugged uselessly at his arms but he refused to respond. "Brae come on! Snap out of it! Please. We need to go."

"It's no use. A Helian Protector needs to break the Control." She spoke quietly, as if unsure of what I might do. But she was standing at his side protectively.

"This is all your fault!" I wheeled on Roxy, more furious than ever. "He trusted you! How could you do this to him?" Tears began to fall down my cheeks and my vision blurred. I knew that my hair had come loose and that I was showing off my freakish purple streaks, but that wasn't important right now; only Brae was. Lightning flashed overhead again, striking the ground inches away from Roxy's feet.

She jumped back alarmed and held her hands up. Two heavy looking manacles glinted in the light from the flames. "Whoa! Calm down - there's no need to toast me - this isn't my fault. It was Cinaer - he put these things on me and now I can't use my powers. I was trying to save Brae, but Cin Controlled me into telling him what was going on. I want to help Brae too, but I can't get these manacles off."

I blinked, clearing some of the tears from my eyes. She looked sincere enough. If she was lying, she probably would have placed me under Control by now. "But why would you help us in the first place?"

"Because I... because... So that..." She was extremely distressed. Her eyes kept glancing towards Brae despairingly.

It suddenly made sense. "You have feelings for him don't you?" She pulled a face but didn't deny it.

"I didn't mean to hurt him. I was trying to help you all escape - I couldn't let them kill him." Her voice was small, lacking all the confidence it usually carried.

I wasn't really sure that I could trust her, but her desire to help Brae seemed sincere and she was probably our only chance of getting out of here. "Well you can still help now. We need to fix him. Lorelie too. And Nolan."

She shook her head. "You need a Helian Protector. It's really simple to do, but none of the others are going to be willing to and I can't."

I stamped my foot in frustration. It was stupid and childish but I couldn't help it.

Roxy gasped. I followed her astonished gaze to my fingertips, where tiny flames had sparked. "What the flames are you?" she asked, looking at me more in awe than fear.

I waved my hands frantically, unsure what to do. The flames weren't burning me, but they were unsettling none the less and this time I was completely certain that I had sparked them.

"Calm down," Roxy said quickly. "You've got to feel the tingling. Focus on that, then force it to subside. They'll go down."

I tried what she said, willing the tingling to stop, but still flapping my fingers as it felt like it should help. The flames died down and I sighed with relief.

Roxy was looking quizzically at the vibrant purple in my hair. "I think maybe you have some Helian in you somewhere. Perhaps you could reverse the Control."

"You think?"

"It's worth a shot - it's our best chance at saving him. I'll talk you through it, it's fine. Then maybe I can explain what's happened..."

"I don't know if there's time for that." I looked at the almost forgotten battle still raging around us and the lights turning on in the castle. "We need to get out of here - Fast. Brae will only want to help you and he'll get himself killed in the process."

She looked devastated. "Perhaps I could-"

"I can explain everything to him after," I cut her off quickly. I wasn't sure that I wanted to hear what she was going to suggest. "Once we're back on the boat. It will be fine. But for now, we need to focus on getting out of here. Not that I even know how to do that..."

"There's a side entrance not too far from here - it was the one I was going to take you through originally." She pointed to a high wall to our left. "Head for that, follow it south. There's a gate. It's never locked or guarded. From there it's only a few minutes to the harbour - you'll get there before anyone figures out what's going on."

I nodded. "Thank you, Roxy."

She shrugged. "I need to teach you how to fix the Control first. We'll try on Lorelie, so that I know you can do it, then I'll leave so that you can free Brae. It's all about tone of voice, you have to make it smooth and thick like honey. Because your powers are so new and untrained, you'll probably find it easier as it will come of its own accord. Using that tone, all you have to say is 'Do as you will' - it really is that simple."

I took a deep breath and tried to make eye-contact with Lorelie. "Do as you will." My voice sounded lower but definitely not honey-like.

"Soft, gentle, persuasive - this is something she really wants to do, you're just giving her a gentle nudge."

I tried again, this time my voice was a lot smoother and Lorelie gave a slight start, but still remained vacant.

"That was almost it. Come on."

I tried once more and this time my voice oozed out like honey. Lorelie blinked a few times then looked around in panic. "What's going on? Where am I?"

"Yes!" Roxy grinned, the first genuine smile I had ever seen on her. "That's perfect. You can do Brae too and then you're home free. I'm going to try and see if I can round up the other Helians and convince them that there's been a change of plan." She had one last, lingering look at Brae, taking his hand softly and whispering something in his ear which I couldn't hear, then she was gone, vanishing into the melee.

"Brae," I said, as soft and sweet as I could manage. "Do as you will." This time it worked straight away. Brae blinked and shook his head, as Lorelie had done, before focusing on me. I sighed with relief.

"Jazz? I don't know what happened - one minute I was fighting and the next... I don't know."

I took him by the hand and led him and Lorelie through the fighting. "We need to get out of here now. I know where the exit is, but we need to round up the others."

"I'll get the Brizans," Lorelie said, rushing over to Euphrasia. Brae and I headed for the small crowd around Brody. He was awake but looked very weak, his body battered and burnt.

The battle was beginning to thin around us. Roxy had been true to her word and had somehow got most of the Helians to retreat.

"Can he walk?" Brae asked.

Devon shook her head. "He can stand though and Cam and I can support him between us."

Brae nodded. "We need to move now."

"What about Nolan?" Erica asked, concerned.

"I saw him over there." Cam pointed a little way over to the right. "He said something about needing a nap and lay down on the ground and started snoring." He had a few wounds of his own, I noticed, including a nasty looking gash running down the side of his face.

"Cinaer put him under Control," I explained. "But I know how to help. You guys head over to that wall - there's a gate we need to go through. I'll catch you up in a minute."

Brae grabbed hold of my hand. "I'm coming with you."

I nodded, knowing that it would waste more time to argue. It didn't take us long to find Nolan, curled up in a ball, snoring just as Cameron had said. I bent down beside him and quickly repeated the same release that had worked on the others.

As he came round, sitting up with a start, Brae took hold of my hand again. "How do you know how to do that?"

I shook my head. "I'll explain when we're out of here - it's not important right now."

He seemed to agree but was still reluctant to move. He looked around expectantly. "You won't find her, Brae," I said quietly. "And she's not worth getting killed over."

He didn't respond but allowed me to lead him away by the hand, Nolan with us. We quickly caught up with the others who had only just made it out of the gate after rounding up all the other members of the delegation.

It didn't take us long to return to the Tielle-Marie, as it was late enough that the streets were deserted. We woke the sailors, who were easily persuaded to leave given the Brizans' presence and Brody's injuries.

As we set sail, I stood at the bow of the ship, watching the Helian Realm slowly retreat into the distance. Brae came to stand beside me. He needed to have a meeting with the other leaders, to decide what their best course of action would be, but for now he was content to stand at my side, his hand wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me close.

"I don't understand," he said quietly. "She was going to help us."

I shrugged casually but my insides were in turmoil. I couldn't tell Brae the truth about Roxy - he would want to go back there and rescue her, getting himself killed in the process. There wasn't anything he could do anyway; it wasn't as though she could come to the Arcan Realm with us. She was better with her own people.

I couldn't bring myself to say anything to Brae though. I couldn't lie to him outright.

"I suppose I should have expected it." He continued after a while. "I guess I had her wrong. She wasn't really different to the rest of them." He sighed, but turned me to face him, his fingers running along one of the purple strands in my hair, which I was no longer trying to hide.

"Speaking of different, it looks as though you have some explaining to do." He smiled for the first time as he curled a strand around his finger.

So I told him everything, as we looked out across the water.

{Want to read on? Water, the second novel in the Elements of Power series, is available to read now on Wattpad - you can find it on my profile!}