Hi All! Thanks for your understanding in the delay of this chapter. The Dream Weaver has now been sent to the editing company I'm working with. So, my focus is back on The Dream Traveler! Expect another update on Friday. Hope you like this one. :)

(Jaxon speaking)

Damn. I might be good, but there was no way I could take all of them on at once. I took a quick scan of the alley. A garbage bin with some wooden crates stacked in front of it and a metal fire escape. The fire escape's ladder was too high for me to reach the bottom rung to pull-down. That only left me one option. I started running down the alley right at them.

"Don't just stand there you idiots!" Mel yelled.

As I got closer, I drew a hot molten ball and threw it at the crates. Then I ran right into the flames and pushed off the ground and landed on the top of the metal bin. I launched myself at the bottom rung of the fire escape. The ladder slid to the ground, and I started to climb as fast as I could. The flames blazed around me. When I got to the platform, I began to pull the ladder up, but one of her thugs grabbed hold of it and dragged it back to the bottom. Shit.

Mel looked up at me then hollered to the guy on the ladder, "Go Demitri! I'm right behind you."

"Don't worry, he can't get far," he replied.

I dashed up the stairs and could see the fire had stopped most of her group, but there was still four of them who made it through the blast—they had to all be fire circle. There was no point throwing flames at them. It wouldn't hurt them. When I got to the top, I stepped onto the roof and wrapped my hand over the bolts that secured the escape to the roof.

"Hope you can fly, Mel," I said under my breath. Then I melted the bolt clean through and gave the metal bracket a kick loose. The railing groaned and pulled away from the wall into the alley.

A high pitch scream pierced the night. Followed by men yelling. When I looked over the edge, Demitri hung from a railing by his hands. Mel and one of her other goons weren't as lucky. They had hit the cobblestones below and weren't moving.

"Jaxon, you may think your safe up there," said the last of her fire thugs, "but you still have to get down!"

He had a point. I ran over to the door, wiped my hand over the metal the frame and welded it to the door. Well, at least no one's coming through that way.

Then I jogged around the top of the roof and surveyed my options of getting down. The front of the building lined the street. The two sides had wider alleyways than I could jump.

Bang! Thump, thump! They pounded on the door. "Get Rylan. He can burn through this thing," someone said on the other side. Rylan had to be the fire talent that didn't make it up the ladder.

The back of this building was attached to the one behind it. I jumped down onto its roof and ran along the side of it. Woo, score. This building was wider than the one I was just standing on, so the gap between it and the adjacent one was smaller. I backed up, took a running leap off the edge and held my breath. Landing in a crouch, I sprung up to standing and jogged to the other side of the roof. This gap was a little farther, but do-able. I looked over my shoulder hearing the commotion back on the first roof. It sounded like a door slammed against a wall.

I backed up and ran as hard as I could and pushed off the roof with everything I had. My toes hit the ledge of the adjacent building. I swung my arms forward and landed on my hands and knees. Wasting no time, I got up, jogged over to the metal ladder attached to the side of the building, and climbed down.

I needed to back to the tavern. I rounded the corner out of the alley and ran right into one of the largest guy I've ever seen.

"Jaxon." He grabbed me and slammed the side of my head into the brick wall.

My ears were ringing, and my sight blurred. "And you are—?" I ran flames up and down my body, trying to burn him off of me.

He laughed and water flowed over his arms. "That little trick isn't going to work on me." An icy bite of cold pushed at my flames.

Just my luck—a water circle giant. I clenched my hands behind the guy's neck drew my knee up into his stomach hard. I dropped my hands when he took a step back, and I threw my elbow across his cheek.

His eyes went a chilling blue. "I might have to kill you myself, you little piss-ant." Blood trickled from his nose. "Forget the others." His wiped the blood across shirt sleeve.

God if he throws my head into the wall one more time, he might just succeed. His movements were clumsy and unskilled. When he took a step, the ground shook. I faked a kick to his right leg. When he reacted, I pivoted and extended a roundhouse kick on the same side of his face I hit with my elbow.

He growled and lunged at me. "You're dead, fire boy."

I dodged out of his reach. "Ahh, but then you'll never get off this god forsaken planet now will you."

His lips curled. "Got news for you, I'm a lifer. I'm never getting off Racine. So killing you would only make me legend around here." He had both arms spread out like nothing was going to get past him.

Amateur. I turned and swiped my leg at his front foot but missed. When my foot touched the ground, I picked it up again and threw a back kick in his face. I followed the move up with a round of flames that singed his eyebrows. His friends hollered in the distance. They were getting closer. I turned to dash the other direction and felt a vine loop around me.

"Oh no you don't," the forest mage yelled.

I ignited my entire body in flames, and the rope burned away. "That's what you think."

Then I felt an icy burn wrap around my ankles and yank me to the ground. The ice rope bit into my skin like it was chewing on me.

"Stings doesn't it?" He ran a wave of water over his massive frame, then piledrove me into the ground. His heavy fist slammed into my head. My vision blurred and his image faded to black. The last thought that drifted in my head was of Wren.

Whoosh! A swell of water hit me. "Wren!" I screamed. I shook my head and looked around trying to figure out where I was. My hands were cuffed and chained to the outside wall of a concrete building. I could burn through the cuffs, but not if I wanted my hands later. While the scorching heat wouldn't affect me, the melting metal sure would.

"Who's Wren?" said the guy with the scar across his face.

The other scrawny dude shook his head and gave Scarface a pointed look. "She's his promised, stupid."

I closed my eyes and ignored the banter of the two idiots next to me. I figured they weren't ready to kill me yet, or they would have already done it. Wren? I pushed to find a connection. Wren—please answer me. Blood dripped down my face and dripped onto my shirt.

"Damn it. I don't think he's even listening." Scarface swung his leg to kick me. I threw up a hot flame over me to get him to back off. He yanked his leg back from the fire, but not before I managed to light his boot up in flames.

Scrawny dude was laughing his head off as he watched Scarface stomp up and down trying to prevent his toes from roasting off. "You really are stupid."

Ugly-guy just growled and stomped out the last of the flames. Smoke wafted from his boot as he unsheathed a blade from his leg. "There's more than one way to skin a—"

"Whoa! What do you think you're doing?" Scrawny dude yanked on his arm. "We swore we'd wait till they got back."

"No way. Let go of me." Scrawny tugged on his arm. But it was too late, Scarface had flicked the knife from his grip toward me like he was aiming for a dart board.

"Oh, shit."

(Wren Speaking)

A thick layer of disappointment hung in the air. I felt like the most horrible person on the planet. Jax was pouring his heart out to me, and I was lying here with Kellan's ring plastered all over me. I sighed and wiped my hands down my face.

Tucking the pillow under my head, I rolled over. There wasn't anything I could do tonight about any of this mess. My eyes were heavy with sleep. No sooner than I closed them, I faded into a dreamy world. It was like I was watching on the sidelines of a memory unfold in front of me.

"Tell me!" A younger version of Vega squealed closing the door behind her.

"Tell you what?" My younger self smirked and rolled her lips like she was trying to hold back from saying anything.

"You go out for a ride with Kellan, and you come back with your dress torn to shreds and his arm in a sling." She gave me a long stare. "If you were anyone else I'd already know the story and you wouldn't have to tell me."

My double laughed. "You love that you don't get every fleeting thought that comes out of my head."

"But this is Kellan we're talking about. If you were broadcasting thoughts of him, I'd happily tune in. He's so dreamy." Vega flopped onto the bed. "Oh, and don't think I've missed the way you look at him."

"Shhh, don't let anyone hear you say that." I watched my double sit on the bed next to her. "Ever since the Fire throne has been vying to partner Jaxon off, I feel like I've been followed everywhere I go."

"What? You think Jaxon is interested?" She sat up looking somewhat alarmed.

"Yeah—I think he is." My twin opened a drawer and pulled out a box. "Last time I was there, he gave me this." In the palm of my hand rested a white stone.

The memory swirled, and wrenched me from the scene. Someone was calling my name in the murky distance. When I turned to look around, a tunnel of clouds formed around me and dragged me in the direction of Jaxon's voice.

Wren—please answer me, he called.

I tried to respond but I couldn't, something was blocking me. Then my feet slammed into the dirt, and the clouds evaporated leaving me on the outskirts of a desolate looking town.

When I dragged my eyes from my bare feet, I saw Jaxon's hands chained to the wall. Blood dripped down his swollen face. The two guys bickering in front of him said something about killing him. I may be angry with Jax, but I didn't want him dead. The more I thought about it, the more my hands tingled and itched. I wanted to smack these two goon's heads together until their ears rang.

I crept around the side of the small building that I was standing next to and slipped inside. I shivered and rubbed my arms. My pajama's were hardly something warm enough for outdoors. A quick glance revealed, paint and chemicals lining the metal shelves in front of me. A shovel and broom leaned against the opposite wall. Perfect. I plucked the broom from the wall, spun the head from the wooden handle and headed back outside.

Hiding in the shadows, I watched in horror as a knife flew from big guy's grip. Every nerve ending in my body flared wanting to stop what I was seeing. I felt my feet peel from the pavement and my body fade. The next thing I knew I was standing in front of Jaxon facing the oncoming knife.

Holly crap! I jerked the stick I was holding toward the blade. When the wood struck the tip, the knife started tumbling end over end. Its sharp metal caught my arm and sliced a path through my flesh before clattering to the ground.

"What the—? Where did you come from?" the skinny guy said, looking around.

But before he could do anything, I drove the end of the stick as hard as I could into his foot.

He screamed. "You wench!"

I leaned on the stick. "Don't tell me you kiss your mom with that foul mouth of yours?"

"Honey, with you wearing that? Forget my mother, I'll kiss you where ever you like," the big guy next to him said interrupting. Then the huge lug lunged at me leaving his skinny friend standing there to watch. I flicked the stick up with as much force as I could muster. The end of the wood slammed into his groin. His eyes went wide, his knees buckled and he crumpled to the ground moaning.

"Wren, behind you!" Jaxon yanked at the chains trying to pull them from the wall.

Skinny guy wrapped his arms around me. "Nice try, girly. You ain't going nowhere."

My anger burned through me. "I don't need to." I looked for the fire within and let my anger take hold of it. My hand was hot with the low flame flickering against my palm. "But I am warning you. You might want to let go of me."

"No way, so you can do more damage with that stick of yours?"

I wrapped my fingers around his bare arm and heard his skin sizzle against my palm. "Who said anything about a stick?"

He screamed, yanked his arm from me and backed away.

I took a step closer to Skinny and held up my hands like I was going to shoot a flaming torch at him. Which I was pretty sure I didn't have the foggiest how to do it, but he didn't know that.

"Get the keys!" Jaxon yelled from behind me.

"You heard him. Where are the keys?" I demanded.

He shook his head. "No way, they'll kill me if I give them to you."

"You can either give them to me, or I can pluck them off your crispy burnt body." I wiggled my fingers. "Either way I'm getting them."

Behind me, his buddy was starting to stir. But before he could get up, Jaxon managed to chuck one of his molten fireballs at his leg.

The guy with the ugly scar screamed and yelled, "Give her the keys, already. By the circle, just give them to her!"

"Okay, time's up." I pulled back my hands like was I was going to blast him.

"Wait!" He reached into his pocket and threw the keys at my feet. When I bent down to pick them up, he took off running as fast as his legs could carry him.

"What were you going to do? Tickle him to death?" Jaxon asked while I picked up the keys. When I glanced over at the guy on the ground, I noticed he had stopped moving. I crinkled my nose. The smell of burnt flesh simmered on the night air.

"It's called a bluff. Besides, it worked, didn't it?" I unlocked the cuffs, and he pulled me into him, holding me close.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I'm so sorry. About my temper, my reaction, about everything." He rested his head on top of mine. "I should have never asked you to make that payment to Kellan. I don't care if he's plastered marks all over you. Keep them all—I just don't want to lose you."

"I think your father will have something to say about that." I sighed and breathed into his chest.

He pulled back to look at me. His eyes were glassy, and blood encrusted the side of his face. "I don't give a damn what my father thinks. He can throw me in the dungeon next to you to teach me a lesson, but it still won't change my mind." He cupped my face and kissed my forehead.

"But—" Before I could say another word, the ground shift and he melted from view. Someone's hands were on my shoulder shaking me.

"Wren?" Sage said leaning over me. "Wake up... I think you're having a nightmare." She flicked on the light next to the bed.

"Yeah. And it was a doozy."

Her jaw dropped open, and she stared at me like I'd grown horns. "Well, it must have been pretty realistic. Look at your arm..."

The blankets tangled around me were stained crimson. When I lifted at my arm blood dripped from a gash on my forearm. I winced at sharp stinging pain when I move it. "A little too realistic."

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