October 30th

1332 EST

Olive's eyes flew open, tearing her from her long needed nap and directing all her attention to the snap of a nearby twig. The alarming noise could have been an animal, but Liv wasn't too sure.

A brisk chill infiltrated her snug area of the woods, elevating her fear to a new level. Her heart began to beat rapidly, pounding against her chest in sporadic thumps.

Instead of calling out to the invader, Olive remained quiet, hidden in the camouflage of the forest. She channeled every thought she had into praying the figures weren't malicious, but she knew her pleas were futile.

The earth began to shake under Olive's feet. Leaves from the trees that encompassed her began to rapidly fall around her until she was hiding behind a bare shrub.

"Would you stop that Terra?" A gruff voice whispered to his companion. "The girl is going to run," he growled.

The girl? She questioned. She was the only one in the area, but why would strangers be after her?

At that moment, Olive realized the quake wasn't natural, but a woman controlling the earth. Olive peeked her head around the wood to get a closer look at the woman.

The only others she knew of with abilities were her own family members. She and her twin brother shared opposite powers; fire and ice. And if that wasn't enough, before her parents were murdered, her mom and dad were members of the legendary league of heroes, the Contingency.

A week or so ago, Olive left her twin with a group of strangers claiming to help him. They called themselves the Union and their purpose was to train heroes, but Olive felt she just wouldn't fit in there. She knew in her gut that her older brother was alive, and she'd rather dedicate her time to finding him.

From the second Liv left Tristan, every rustle, every movement, every person that looked at her the wrong way terrified her. Ever since Aaron went missing, her twin was all she had.

For the past year, Tristan hardly ever left her side. They learned to use their powers together and he was the only one Liv could trust with her life. But he had chosen strengthening his powers over finding their brother, and at the time, Olive couldn't stand with him for that.

Olive wouldn't abandon Aaron, but in doing so, she abandoned her best friend. She left to prove to Tristan and herself that should could do something with her powers without the training of people she didn't know or trust.

Now, with powerful strangers after her, all she did was endanger herself. The infiltrators searched the forest for her, malice evident in their wandering gaze.

Tristan lost his parents, his brother, and now he was going to lose his sister too. How could Olive be so thoughtless? Why couldn't she have opted for the safer route and stayed with the brother she knew was alive? Her brother that was there for her through everything. In return, she abandoned him.

In a spur of the moment decision, Olive turned around and began to run in the direction she came from. She had to get back to Tristan. She wouldn't lose him too.

All of a sudden, every feeling escaped Olive's body, replaced by an absence of physical control. She collapsed to the ground in a limp pile, unable to control her limbs.

"Going somewhere, Miss Dahl?" A stringy dark haired man appeared above her, malevolence twinkling in his eye.

"Hello? Earth to Ollie?" Tristan called, a concerned expression displayed across his features. He waved his hand in front of Liv's face, pulling her out of her daydream.

Liv's lips curled into slight smile, but failed to meet her desired lightheartedness. Whatever vision she'd just pictured was unlike any dream she'd had before. Recently the dreams had occurred more often, rarely when she was sleeping anymore.

"Ollie? Really Tris? You haven't called me that since we were kids," Olive rolled her eyes. She tried to pay attention to him, but her eyes wandered away from his face, immersed in the memory of her hallucination.

Tristan sat back in his chair and burrowed his eyebrows at his twin sister. "Well when you didn't respond to Olive or Liv," he paused. "What's up with you?"

Olive laughed uneasily, the sound seeming more like a choke than a chuckle. "What do you mean? I'm fine, Tris."

Though it was obvious he didn't believe her, Tristan knew better than to argue with his stubborn twin. The skin between his eyebrows stayed permanently creased into his usual concerned expression. What with all of the stress in the past day, and with CJ unconscious in the infirmary, things were even more tense than usual.

"It's okay to tell us, we're your friends Liv," Avi piped up at her side, reaching out to take her hand.

Olive jumped at the sound of Avi's voice, recoiling unintentionally from them both. She hadn't even realized Avi had joined the conversation. How out of it was she?

"I appreciate it guys, but I just need to be alone for a little bit," Liv mumbled, standing up. Her knee hit the table as she rushed out, nearly sending the slab on top of her companions. "Sorry," she mumbled, too quiet to hear.

All Liv could do to keep herself moving forward was to concentrate on each step one at a time. A million thoughts attacked her mind, sending it spiraling in hundreds of directions, each elevating her anxiety further.

The walls of the corridor seemed to close in around her, slowly constricting further and further until she could no longer breathe. Olive threw her hands to her head and tugged violently at the roots of her hair, trying desperately to get the voices out of her consciousness.

Liv ran through the shrinking hallways, her hands pressed firmly against the walls to keep from falling. She needed to collapse in her bed, but her room was on the other side of headquarters.

As Liv rounded the sharp hallway corner, she collapsed against the first door, catching her hip on the handle. Shooting pain raced up her body and it took all her will not to cry out in pain. She threw her head back against the door and concentrated on her breathing.

The sharp pain withdrew her from her thoughts and cleared her mind of the disturbing dreams plaguing her conscious.

A flicker of recognition entered Olive's mind as she realized whose door she was in front of. It was the same door she opened every time to see her brother.

Liv stood up slowly, careful to not place weight directly on her bruising hip. She brushed the dirt from the floor off her black pants and turned to the door and placed her fingertips on the scanner stuck to the wall.

Each of the team members had a fingerprint scanner specifically designed to only allow selected people into each room. Tristan had programmed Avi and Liv into the machine as soon as it was installed.

A laser swept across her fingertips, scanning the unique grooves of her skin. Dahl, Olive appeared on the screen as the door clicked open.

Olive strolled into Tristan's striking clean room; not a single detail was out of place. That's how Tristan was and how he had always been, completely clean in every possible way.

Dust enveloped her as she let herself fall onto his bed. "Why...?" She wondered aloud. Didn't Tristan sleep in his room?

But the lint was the least of Liv's concerns as she felt her consciousness slowly slipping away until she was watching her memories unfold in front of her.

Liv looked around wildly. Metal bars surrounded her, trapping her in the small enclosure. Her hands and feet were bound with ice cold iron cuffs, chaining her to the broken concrete ground.

Channeling every ounce of her powers, Olive's hands began to warm up, sparking at the tips of her fingers. Orange light reflected onto the walls as fire began to dance across her palms.

With a flick of her wrist, Olive heaved a ball of fire ricocheting around her cage in an attempt to melt her chains, but they remained cold as a glacier.

She tried again, feeling the familiar heat wave flow over her. The temperature of her body rose rapidly, but not enough to even shift her bounds.

"Liv?" An unfamiliar voice called down the hallway, the sound echoing off the low walls of the dark chambers. Loud footsteps pounded down a hidden staircase frantically.

The silhouette of a tall boy came into Olive's vision, his features shrouded by the shadows that encompassed him.

As he walked further into the light, Olive noticed his eyes first. Irises so dark brown they were almost black stared at her with a mixture of apprehension and beguilement. He clutched a lantern so tightly his knuckles were a pale white, matching the shade of his hair.

"I brought you some food, Liv," he whispered, keeping his voice low as if he were afraid of something, or someone.

"It's Olive," she snapped. The only thing she could remember was the man and woman in the forest. This boy wasn't there, was he?

A smirk formed itself across his lips, ceasing his worry as he found amusement in her stubbornness. "As you say, Olive."

"Who are you?" Olive whispered, backing further into her cage, away from the slender boy.

The boy fiddled with his bandana placed at the edge of his snow white hair. "My name is Calum." He sat down on the cold, concrete floor with ease, allowing himself to be eye level with Liv.

He placed his arm on the bars of her prison and leaned closer to Olive's retreating figure. "So what's your story Blondie? White hair," he paused, "ice powers? Look we match," he sneered, pointing to his frosted locks.

The crease between Olive's eyebrows pinched together furiously as she studied the mysterious boy in front of her. Her lips remained strictly clasped, not willing to tell the boy any of her secrets.

"Fine, don't talk," he laughed bitterly, pulling himself off the ground with the bars. "Just thought you'd like a little companionship since you're all alone down here," he gestured to the damp, dark jail she was trapped in. "But, I guess I was wrong," he chuckled dryly.

Olive quickly weighed her opinions. Be completely alone in her dungeon, or talk to the boy, no matter how infuriating he was quickly becoming. "How do I know I can trust you?"

Calum laughed out loud, his nose creased together and revealed his stunningly white teeth. "Oh Liv," he grinned, "you don't, but considering I'm the only one in this mansion who doesn't want you and your brother dead, you don't have a lot of options."

Her heart leapt in her chest. "What do they want with Tristan?" She growled, pulling forward, but the chains dragged her back to the wall.

"Why should I tell you anything if you're not willing to share anything?" Calum taunted. "I'll share my story when you share yours. Your call, love."

Olive's vision morphed into a different scene. The same dungeon encompassed her daydream, but it was later in time. Her clothes were new and clean, but she was still locked with familiar cuffs.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair," Calum sung from the top of the staircase, pounding his way down the steps in the way Liv had become accustomed to.

Liv rolled her eyes at the boy she was growing quite fond of. "Why Rapunzel?"

"You know, trapped in a tower, or," he paused searching for the words, "basement," he smirked. "Also, hate to tell you Liv, but your hair is getting long," he laughed, raising his eyebrows in a challenge.

Her hands began to heat up as she returned his smirk with her own. "What was that?" She asked with mock inquiry.

"Your roots are growing out too," he simpered. "But don't worry babe. You're still, hot."

A ball of fire formed quickly in Olive's grasp, growing with each of Calum's taunting words. "You want to see hot?" Liv threatened. She slowly raised her hands, the impact lessened by the weight of her chains, and let the fire grow warmer until it appeared a smoldering red, the blaze warming the chilled cellar.

Liv threw her hands forward with every ounce of strength she had. The inferno surrounded her, expanding over the stretch of her jail. The fire dissipated at the edge of her cage, not allowing the blaze to touch Calum.

His eyes widened, shocked from the flames that almost scorched his body. "How did you know that wouldn't hit me?"

"I didn't," Olive jeered, even though she did know. She had figured out a long time ago that her powers could not surpass her enchanted cage.

Calum scoffed at her, seeing through her bluff, but his face remained permanently tinted pink. "I brought you these," Calum said, pulling a pair of shiny silver scissors out of his pocket. "I know you like you hair short. I would have gotten bleach too, but I think Rune prefers his natural golden locks."

He tossed them to her and Liv caught them easily. "What is this? Pompous Calum doing something out of the kindness of his heart? I didn't know it was possible."

Rolling his eyes, Calum grinned, unable to deny the accusation. "I'm trusting you not to shank me with those," he teased.

Olive smiled, "Watch out, babe."

Her dream morphed quickly into another day.

"Lower your voice!" Olive whispered urgently to Calum, pressing her soft hand between the metal bars to cover his mouth. "Your dad will kill us both if he finds out you come down here, much less what you just said!"

Calum's eyebrows creased together in fury. "Let him!" He yelled. "Death might be better than this cage, Liv! They treat you like an animal, you wouldn't even eat if it weren't for me sneaking food down," he began tugging at the lock keeping them from each other.

"Why are you doing this Cal?" Olive cried, not willing to endanger him for the sake of herself.

"I don't know? I love you?" He whispered, barely loud enough to hear.

Suddenly, footsteps began to plot their way down the long staircase, softly at first, growing louder with each angry step. Calum stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes matching the same level of absolute fear as Olive's.

"You should have listened to the prisoner, Cal, kept your voice down," Psyche sneered, hatred enveloping his eyes.

Liv awoke with a start, her heart hammering in her chest. A million thoughts raced through her darting mind. She soon realized they weren't dreams, but memories of the time she spent in Rune's captivity all coming back to her at once.

She stood up quickly, needing to see Calum. Anger bubbled in her veins, her blood literally boiling. How dare he remember this and not tell her, how could he keep it a secret? She thought.

Olive threw Tristan's door open and sprinted down the hallway in the direction of Calum's room.

Once she reached her destination, she pounded her fists on the wood, leaving scorch marks in the shape of her grasp. "Calum open up, I swear to God," she growled through the door.

"What's wrong?" Calum asked, swinging open the barrier, fear written all over his face. He reached out to take Liv in his arms, but recoiled instantly from the heat of her skin.

She laughed out loud, "you really have the nerve to ask me what is wrong? You have been my boyfriend for the past three months and didn't think to tell me what happened in Rune's mansion?" She screamed, her voice rising like the heat in the room.

Calum raised an eyebrow. "I've been your secret boyfriend. Which means I can keep secrets," he smirked at the fiery girl before him.

Olive slammed her hand against his chest, burning a hole through his shirt. "Drop the act," she snarled.

He raised his hands in surrender. "I thought keeping it hidden would protect you," he mumbled, refusing to make eye contact.

"How could you think that?" She spoke through clenched teeth, trying to cool herself off.

Despite the heat blazing from her fists, Calum reached down and held her hands gently. "Because I didn't want to jeopardize you or any of the others."

Olive laughed wryly, sharp noise piercing the tension between them. "You? Caring about anyone here? Please."

"I care about you." Calum said fiercely, a flicker of determination in his eyes. "I wouldn't do anything to hurt you."

Olive met his gaze sternly, flames flickering in her eyes. She pulled out of his grip, stalking away from him yet deeper into his room. She ran a hand through her platinum hair in frustration. "And yet you let me live these past few months in a--a mental block? I could have helped them! I could have...oh god, I could have helped prevent so much." She whirled around, a block of anxiety around her heart like ice.

Calum rushed her, sucking in a breath. They were inches apart, and while his eyes were normally dark, they seemed to be...lighter. Filled with concern and sorrow. For her.

"Liv, I know it must have been hard. It's killed me to watch you stumble around without knowing just what you could do." He took a ragged breath. "It had to be done."

"Then why didn't you remove the block sooner?" Liv tried to snarl, but her voice broke. She folded her arms over her chest and looked away.

"I just did, didn't I?" Calum tried to lighten the mood, but a sharp look from Liv caused him to shut his mouth. "Liv, I'm sorry. If it is one thing I will regret for the rest of my life, it's this. I didn't want to do it, as soon as I laid eyes on you here. But..."

"But what?" Liv glared at him.

Calum raked a hand through his white hair, causing it to stick up on end. He sat down on the edge of his bed. "You're not the only one in the dark, Liv. All this time, my father sent me here to keep altering your memory so you wouldn't remember. But...what he didn't know was that I've been slowly trying to repair it. He thought that the mental block would stay but it hasn't. He tries to get information from me, but I lead him astray each time."

Liv blinked at her boyfriend, fury and understanding washing over her in waves, keeping her from a comeback. "What?"

"I've been a double agent in the Union's favor, Liv. I've been trying to fight my father and his allies as much as possible. I've been on your side this whole time. Ever since I fell for you to begin with." He looked up at her slowly, and the look on his face, of pure hurt, caused Liv's heart to pang.

Liv took a breath. "Then why keep up the act? You could have gone on missions, could have helped us all." She sat down beside him.

Calum shook his head, a cynical smile on his face. "They wouldn't have let the son of one of their enemies anywhere near them with a ten foot stick." He gave her a sideways glance. "Need I remind you they had me on a leash?"

Liv's caramel eyes darted to his wrist, where the ring of Priscilla's powers had once hung as a way to neutralize his powers. It had been removed as more trust had been built in him, but she saw his point clearly.

"Don't worry, I've been doing what I could from behind the scenes." Calum sighed. "It's been hard, but it's the only way to take down my father and his buddies." He turned to face her, their faces only inches away.

Liv bit her lip, unsure of what to say. "So... the ploy about knowing CJ? Was that all fake?"

Calum shook his head. "No, that bit's true. CJ and I did know one another as children. When my father heard of his recruitment into the Union, he--" His eyebrows furrowed suddenly, as if he lost his train of thought.

"What?" Liv asked.

Calum shook his head slightly. "Forgot what I was going to say. Anyways, I've meddled in your friends' lives and memories only to protect them from what they knew that had to stay buried until it was time." He looked at her again and tried for a weak smile. "Now do you see?"

After a pause, Liv nodded. Her anger had melted to exhaustion, and all she wanted to do was forgive her ridiculous boyfriend and do what she could to destroy those that were ruining their lives. "I do," She said. "But telling me this comes with a price."

Calum narrowed his eyes at her, rubbing his wrist subconsciously. "Don't tell me I have to wear another bracelet."

Liv tossed her head back and laughed. "No, no bracelets." She gazed at him with a soft smile on her lips. "You have to help me help Tristan and the others defeat Rune."

"Done," Calum said without a moment's hesitation. "But my telling you this has a catch as well."

Liv arched an eyebrow. "What?"

Calum smirked and leant forward, pressing his lips to hers. Instantly, that familiar fire within Liv ignited, racing around and around in her heart and flooding her veins. He cupped her cheek in one hand, kissing her softly. She kissed back, her eyes fluttering shut. In that moment, Liv managed to forget everything that had just happened, and all that filled her mind was Calum.

However, as soon as the fears had disappeared, they were replaced by new ones. Primarily the suspicious gazes of the Contingency members as they had seen Calum at headquarters, the hushed discussions, the conspiracy theories.

"Cal," Olive pulled away, realization flooding over her. "You can't stay here anymore."

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "What are you talking about? This is my room."

Liv shook her head. "No, I mean here. Headquarters. The Contingency...they're onto you. They might know about your contact with Psyche, but they don't know what for. They'll punish you. You have to go."

"Go where?" Calum asked. "Back to my father and Rune? They'll both be bound to discover that what I've told them has been a bunch of lies."

Liv looked away, thinking of a plan. An idea blossomed in her mind and she lit up. "Aaron."

"Calum," Calum corrected lazily.

Liv ignored him. "My brother, Aaron. When Terra--Aetna--and Phobos found me, I was looking for my brother, Aaron. Tristan thought he died in the explosion that killed our parents but I didn't think so. I went to look for him." She grabbed Calum's hand. "We can go look for him. That way, I'll be with you and we'll have somewhere to go. Maybe we'll even find your dad and we can kick his ass together."

Liv could see the two aspects at war in Calum's eyes. She stared into them pleadingly, praying that he saw eye to eye with her. Finally, he sighed and nodded. "Okay. Let's do it." He smiled.

Liv flung herself forward and pecked his lips. "We should leave soon." She sprang up, but the image of her brother filled her mind. "Oh. Tristan..." She whirled back around to face Calum. "I need to tell him I remember."

Calum stood up with a long exhale. "I'll join you. I bet he'll either want me as a popsicle or there to lecture, and I'm hoping it's the latter." He laced his hand in Liv's.

Liv smiled up at him. For the first time in her life, as she stared up at Calum and he smiled right back, she felt truly and 100% safe.

~~~

"Tristan? Can I talk to you?" Liv asked her twin, unable to mask the hesitation laced in her tone. She glanced at him uneasily, as she interrupted his light laughter with Avi.

Tristan's eyebrows knitted together as he studied her distraught expression. "Yeah, of course," he murmured. "Is he included too?" He asked, jerking his thumb toward Calum at her side.

Taking his ice cold hand, Liv shook her head and guided him aside to an area of the cortex outside of hearing distance of the others. Her eyes fluttered to the tiled floors as she ran through how to tell Tristan the truth about what happened.

"I remember, Tris," she whispered, her voice shaking as she spoke. Liv took a deep breath, through her nose, and out through her mouth like her mom had always instructed her to do when her anxiety took over. "What had happened in the time I was gone."

Tristan's eyes widened in shock, paling to a lighter shade of cobalt. "How much do you remember?" He probed.

"All of it." Liv mumbled toward her feet. Her body temperature rose with the weight of sharing her traumatic experience.

Steam sizzled from their grasp as Tristan took Olive's hand in his own. "Are you comfortable sharing?" He asked. His eyes darted to the rest of the group trying not to blatantly stare in their direction.

Olive took another deep breath, letting the warm air that surrounded her fill her lungs. "Phobos and Aetna captured me a week after I left you." She laughed uneasily. "Somehow Rune knew we were separated so he sent them looking for me. I wasn't conscious for most of it, but I remember glimpses of being trapped in his dungeon."

"Did he hurt you?" Tristan asked too calmly, his face white as snow. His expression remained stoic, but his hands began to ice over.

Liv's face contorted into a grimace as she tried to smile. "I don't think so, other than the lack of food," she added as an afterthought, "but Calum brought me some whenever he could, I think--"

"Calum was there?" Her twin snarled. Tristan's eyes darted to the lanky boy leaning on the edge of the table surrounded by his teammates. "He knew?" He asked, emitting a gruff sound from within the depths of his throat.

Olive squeezed Tristan's hands tighter, directing his attention back toward her before he attacked her boyfriend. "He was going against his dad the entire time, Tris," Liv pleaded, desperately trying to convince him. "He still is, well, was. Tristan, the entire time he's been here he has been working with Rune as a double agent of sorts."

"Working with Rune? Explain. Now, before he becomes a popsicle," Tristan rumbled, his muscles visibly tensed underneath his shirt.

"Psyche thought he erased me from Calum's memory, but because he's a telepath, it didn't work. Ever since he's arrived here, my memory has improved because he had been working against his dad to restore my anamnesis. He's not telling Rune anything about us," Liv squeezed Tristan's hand for support. "Please tell me you believe me?" She begged.

Tristan sighed heavily. "It's not you I don't trust. Ol how do you know you can believe what he tells you?" He spoke rapidly, leaving no time to process the new information.

A breath of air caught in Liv's throat as she tried to execute her desired words. "Um, you see... Calum and I have had a secret relationship for the past few months. Um, he is still in contact with his dad," Olive paused. "He doesn't want to be though!" She corrected herself as soon as she saw the distraught look on Tristan's face. "We don't exactly know how to cut ties," she rambled, trailing off toward the end.

Tristan nodded gradually, his lips pressed tightly together, as if the movement pained him. "Can Psyche see us through Calum?"

"No not exactly, he's been feeding them as much false information as possible, but they're starting to get impatient," Liv argued. "Cal thinks the Contingency might be onto him as well."

Frost escaped from Tristan's lips into the air as he sighed fiercely. "Olive," Tristan moaned, cradling his head in his icy hands. "How are you going to fix this? This is the first place the Contingency will check!"

Olive bit her lip anxiously until she felt torrid blood bubble to the surface. "That's why Cal and I are leaving headquarters."

"You're what?" Tristan yelped, the temperature surrounding both of them dropping instantly. "You can't leave, just take time to think this through," he mumbled, his words rambling together. "Just leave when they come."

Olive wrapped her arms around her brother's frozen solid waist and laid her head softly on his chest. "Tris it's not safe for him here, they can pop in any time unannounced."

"If we explain the situation to Paul, maybe he could convince the Contingency," Tristan offered, willing to give anything for her to stay.

Liv smiled sadly, "even if we did persuade Specter, you know the rest of the team would lock us up on the spot. Paul is one member of many." Olive sniffled into Tristan's shirt, pulling him closer. "Tris, I'm not the same girl that left you last year," she murmured into his arm. "I won't make the same mistakes."

Deepening to a navy blue, Tristan's eyes locked with Olive's, silently begging for her to stay. "Things were going so well Olive, I can't lose you again," he pleaded.

"You're not going to," Liv assured the frigid boy in her grasp. "I need to do this for Calum and for myself," she gestured around to the cortex. "This team is your thing, not mine. I love you Tristan, but we all know I was never fully accepted here."

Her twin kept his mouth closed, unable to dispute the point. The veins in Tristan's temple throbbed as he nodded, his jaw firmly clenched. "I love you Olive," he whispered, pulling her closer. "Come back with your memories fully intact this time."

A tear rolled out of Liv's eye as she smiled sadly at her brother. "You got it Tris." She bit her lip lightly, "can I offer a bit of advice?"

Tristan nodded, "of course."

"Don't wait for her to come to you," Olive smiled, glancing over her shoulder toward Bristol. "Life's too short to waste your happiness." She glanced back again, but this time at Calum who was watching her with a grin plastered across his lips, adoration showing deep in his confident gaze. She looked back to her brother brightly. "You didn't hear it from me but...rumor has it she broke up with CJ."

Tristan's deep blue eyes lit up and Olive could see the excitement within them. Within a second, he had assumed his brotherly position, although Liv stifled a laugh at it. "Interesting status update." He mused.

"You'll be changing yours soon enough after that, I suppose." Liv winked.

Tristan laughed lightly, a blush on his pale cheeks. "What am I going to do without you, little sis?"

"Suffer," Olive joked, poking him in his stomach. "Bye Tris, I'm really going to miss you," she whispered, choking on the last word.

Without realizing he had walked up behind her, Calum placed his palm on the small of Liv's back, nearly startling her. "Are you ready to go?" He asked her.

Tugging Tristan closer one last time, Liv pulled away from her brother with tears in her eyes. She smiled dejectedly at him through the tears that blurred her vision.

"Take good care of her," Tristan ordered Calum, desperation present in his always cool eyes.

Calum threw his arm around Liv's shoulder. "I always do," he smirked, glancing down at Olive.

Before they could walk away, Tristan grabbed Calum's arm, forcing him away from Liv. He whispered something inaudible to Olive in Calum's ear, staring intently at her the entire time.

"Bye Ollie," Tristan whispered as he waved goodbye for what could have been the last time, his eyes seeming to grow darker and more forlorn with every passing moment.

Olive took Calum's hand and led them away from Tristan, refusing to break eye contact until he was out of vision. "What did he tell you back there?"

"It was nothing," Calum mumbled, suddenly not as sure of himself. "We have to get out of here before the others realize something is up," he rushed as they ducked around corners trying to find the portal entrance.

Calum found it quickly, having already set it up. The edges of the gateway glowed a dull green, Avi's work. The sight of the portal terrified her, though she had stepped through them many times before.

Taking Calum's hand, Olive took a deep breath and stepped slowly into the passageway that carried her away from safety, friendship, and her brother, and into uncharted territory.