The Art of Fighting the Inevitable

didn’t know if it was all that talk with SJ or if it was just my subconscious’s way of warning me to be ready, but for the first time since arriving in Bermuda I did not dream of Natalie Poole.

Streaks of lightning and bursts of lava were intercut with flashes of my friends running through the Adelaide Castle orchard. Eventually all these tumultuous images faded to one—dream me in Adelaide’s cliffside tunnel system.

Shadows followed her as she ran until she reached a dead end. Her path had taken her to a cavern that was half-submerged in water. She stood on the edge and looked down at the forty-foot drop to swelling waters. The ceilings were high and curved. The only light came from the tunnel dream me had just entered from.

“No place left to run, princess.”

Arian and a cluster of his men approached from the tunnel. His expression was a perfect cross of smug and resolute, while dream me’s was cold and focused. He had something in his hand. It was the magic mirror, its glass glaring at me like a verdict.

Dream me backed up toward the brink. The water below rose and fell from the tides that must’ve been feeding into it from the outside. I could almost hear the sound of my doppelganger’s heart beating—hard, fast, anxious.

More flashes came. I saw the gray dragon that had stalked us from Century City. His sharp scales and ferocious golden eyes stood out against the powder blue and white backdrop of the sky he was soaring through.

Then there was Mauvrey. She was in a black gown leaning against the wall of my school’s ballroom—a monthly ball in full swing. Following her eye line, I saw she was watching Blue and SJ. My friends (like all the other girls in the vicinity) were in similar black attire. Mauvrey checked her watch impatiently, clearly waiting for something as she kept an eye on them.

When that scene faded, I entered the void—still, quiet, eerie. My consciousness stood in the empty chasm for a second. Then the purple vortex consumed my vision. It took my breath away and surged everywhere. I felt someone grab my arm as it tried to swallow me, but the scene vanished just as curtly.

I was left with the same dream I’d had earlier of Arian talking with the cloaked girl through the Mark Two compact mirror.

The words in their conversation were the same as before, only this time I found myself comprehending most of their meaning. For example, I understood that their “small, wicked friend” was the witch in the Forbidden Forest, and that the tool she’d given them to track me was the magic mirror.

In turn, this vision caused me to finally realize that the cloaked girl must’ve been the mysterious thief who’d broken into the Treasure Archives earlier in the semester. She had been the one to smash the cases and take those other items. It only made sense given that Arian was now berating her about the witch being able to provide the very prize that she’d “failed” to acquire (i.e., the mirror again).

But who was this cloaked figure? Who was this girl who’d attempted to steal the magic mirror from the Archives? Why had she taken the enchanted pea, cursed corset, and genie lamp? And what was this new object Arian was planning on using to capture me with?

“Now then,” Arian said in the dark chasm of my nightmare. “The other item you have is just what we’ll need to take the girl when we cut her off at the beaches of Adelaide tomorrow. I’ll be coming by tonight to pick it up, so meet me in the usual spot at half past two.”

“All right.” Cloaked girl nodded. “But why exactly? I understand its purpose in regards to Paige Tomkins, but how can it possibly be useful in this situation?”

“Four words,” Arian responded like he had before. “Crisanta. Knight. Has. Magic.”

It was there that the dream ended, as it had previously. But after the scene faded I came upon a new vision. Arian was there, only this time he wasn’t talking out of a Mark Two. He was talking in person to his men—whose numbers had increased significantly since the magic train.

“I don’t want any screw ups this time,” Arian barked. “Make no mistake, if any of you lets her get away, Nadia will have your heads. Assuming I don’t take them first. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” the soldiers replied in unison.

“Good.” Arian nodded. “Now, according to the mirror and the Earth timetable, she should be here within the hour. So be ready. And remember, we want her captured alive. We just have to be within fifteen feet of her for our tool to work, so do whatever it takes to get the job done. Meaning if any of her friends get in the way, what are you to do?”

“Kill them!” the soldiers bellowed.

“Exactly,” Arian said.

That was the end of my dream, and the end of my night’s sleep. I rolled awake but there was no sunlight streaming from under the curtains. It was too early for that.

I slid on my boots and wrapped myself in a blue blanket. From there I quietly slipped into the hallway and down the stairs. The orange sunrise was just beginning to peak out over the edge of the water, so I unlocked the screen door of the kitchen and made my way outside.

The sky was gray, gold, and empty. The gulls that usually flocked across it had yet to start their day. Not even the flowers seemed to be awake. They just drooped bashfully while waiting for a more sensible hour to arrive. Something I probably should have been doing. But I just had too much on my mind to allow it.

Of all the scene fragments that had flashed through my dreams, the only one I didn’t understand was the purple vortex. Everything else revolved around Adelaide, but the vortex had appeared out of the void. The thing made me feel uneasy, but as I strode across the Inero’s dock I decided to let the matter go.

My dreams often got flashes of random, out-of-order junk—bronze animals running about, Bruce Willis scaling a vent, a log cabin in the snow. So more than likely the vortex had nothing to do with my imminent Adelaide timeline. Given that, I convinced myself not to worry about it. Especially since I had much more concrete visions to worry about.

I sat down on the edge of the dock and let my boots dangle over the water as my mind swirled with possibilities.

Arian was somewhere on Adelaide waiting for me. He had the magic mirror, so regardless of what direction I took when we got there, eventually he would find me. Once he did, he’d utilize this new mystery object to capture me. And if anyone I was with tried to stop him from doing so, he and his men were fully intent on showing them no mercy.

My mind churned. I was beginning to get ideas of how to handle Arian and the mirror, but no matter how I spun the issue I realized I could not have my friends with me when I inevitably confronted him. What I wanted to do had a much higher chance of success if I was alone. Which meant I needed to figure out a way to shake the others loose once we got to the beach.

My dreams assured me that I would be able to do this; my visions of the situation had shown me alone in that cavern. However, the big question was how to go about achieving that.

Lying to others didn’t seem like a good option given that (a) I had to stop doing that, and (b) none of them would believe me after all the ways I’d individually burned them.

But telling the truth—that in my dreams I’d foreseen Arian cornering me with a bunch of his men—hardly seemed like it would convince the others to let me go off alone. As proven time and again, they always came back to help me no matter what it meant for them.

Much as this had saved my skin on multiple occasions, I just could not have that here. Not this time, not with Arian coming for me the way that he was. Letting my friends get close to me would only draw them closer to a danger that was meant for me.

Moreover, asking them for help at this point would be like putting the final nail in the coffin of how they viewed me—sealing me within the identity of this weak girl who couldn’t fight her own battles forever.

I grunted as I cracked my neck a bit—the tension there beginning to stifle me in more ways than one. The sun was getting higher, but my spirits were not rising with it. We were leaving this afternoon and I felt a great unease about what approached.

Soon a radiant sun began to fill the world with warmth. As the sounds of local Bermuda merchants opening their shops and kids coming out to play filled the atmosphere, I understood what I had to do.

My best course of action would be a half-truth. It was the only way to keep my friends out of harm’s way, give my plan the best odds of success, and prevent the universal view of who I was from being permanently defined by weakness.

Settled on this, I looked up and saw the horizon had become dotted with the multicolored sails of passing ships. Amongst the collection I spotted the slender gray boat with the scarlet sail I’d seen in previous dreams.

I rose from my seat and stood there motionless. Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply. The smell of the salt water and the caress of the ocean breeze were not nearly as calming as they’d felt in my dreams of this moment all those nights ago. They, like so many other things, were ruined for me now—tinged with the knowledge of what was to come.

A sensation I would have to get used to, I supposed.

“Hey, you sleepwalking or just taking in the sights?”

I spun around and found Blue trotting toward me. It was my final confirmation that there was no getting around how things were about to play out. SJ had been right; the futures that my dreams predicted could not be so easily altered.

“Just getting an early start to the day,” I responded.

“You sure you’re okay?” Blue asked. “You look pretty beat. And SJ’s been looking out the kitchen window to check on you all morning with this worried expression on her face. But when I asked her what was up, she wouldn’t tell me.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I nodded.

But wait, why does she care?

The confusion I’d seen on dream me’s face in this vision suddenly made sense. Blue had been avoiding me all week due to her Die Hard obsession and her residual irritation with what I’d done on the magic train. So why on Earth would she be expressing any concern for me now?

“I’m surprised though,” I said. “Between your Bruce obsession and what happened back in Book, I wouldn’t have expected you to notice . . . or even care for that matter.”

“Well, I’m not over either,” Blue said slowly, “but I think Bruce would want us to move forward. Don’t you?”

“I do,” I agreed.

I bit my lip and glanced in the direction where my subconscious form had watched this scene unfold. I knew now what she hadn’t known then—what I needed to do next. In preparation, I exhaled deeply as I gathered my courage to go forward with my plan.

Step one: tell the others about my ability to see the future.

“Which is why,” I began hesitantly. “Which is why I need to tell you something, Blue. Something important.” My eyes dropped to the floor.

“Blue, I can see the future,” I stated simply. “All those dreams I have, well, lately they’ve been coming true. I knew about the magic watering can in the Forbidden Forest, the Therewolf cave and theatrical production, the room beneath the Capitol Building, Ashlyn’s heart-shaped locket, and a whole lot of other stuff too. I even had a short Die Hard vision when we were on the magic train. Although I didn’t really know what that was until a couple of days ago . . . Anyway, the point is that I can see the future. So, um, yeah. There it is.”

I took a deep breath and wrung my hands as Blue stared at me.

To be honest, I thought she was going to punch me. It’s what I deserved for not telling her the truth sooner. But, much to my surprise no punches were thrown. Instead her arms were thrown. And they were thrown around me. Blue hugged me for a solid few seconds and then stepped back and smiled.

“Crisa, I know,” she said.

I blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“You and SJ think I’m such a sound sleeper because I’m always buried beneath, like, five pounds of comforter. But, girl, you don’t just talk in your sleep. Sometimes you, like, shout in your sleep. I hear it all the time. At first I thought they were just dreams too. But when what you yammered on about in your sleep kept matching up with what was actually happening, I put two and two together. It wasn’t that hard.”

I was dumbstruck. “Blue, if you knew why didn’t you say anything?”

“Hey, it’s your secret. I figured you would tell me when you were ready.”

“And you were okay with that?”

“For sure. I’m not all talk you know. Like Jason and I were telling you on the train—everyone has stuff they prefer to keep to themselves. And everyone has reasons for doing it, even from the people they are closest to. I knew it might take a while, but I was sure that you would tell us about your dreams when you were ready. Secrets are a lot like bandages—some people like to rip them off quickly, and some people need to do it slowly so they can prepare to deal with what’s underneath. You and me, we tend to prefer the latter.”

“What, you have some big secret too?” I teased.

“Yeah, actually,” she said seriously. “I do.” Blue sighed in a way that indicated more frustration than sadness. “It’s about my prologue prophecy,” she said slowly. “I may not have given you guys the most accurate description of what it actually, technically said.”

“Ladies!” Ashlyn suddenly shouted from the screen door of the house. “Soup’s on! Get in here before the waffles get cold!”

“We’ll be right there!” I called back.

When Ashlyn had vanished inside the kitchen, I looked to Blue expectantly. Much to my dismay, she did not pick up the conversation where she’d left off. Rather, she linked my arm through hers and began to steer us back toward the house.

“Come on; let’s join the others. We’ll stuff our faces full of waffles, you can tell the boys the truth too, and then you can share with us whatever crazy plan I just know you’ve been cooking up out here.”

“All right, let’s go,” I said. “But after I tell the others about my dreams, I need to talk to Ashlyn for a minute before I explain the whole of my plan. Oh, and remind me after breakfast that I have to ask Jason for a favor.”

The two of us started across the dock, but a few seconds later I stopped and raised my eyebrows at Blue. “Wait, what about your little confession? You didn’t finish before. What did you mean when you said you didn’t give us the most accurate description of what your prologue prophecy said?” “Tell you what,” Blue countered. “Don’t do anything to tick me off from here on out and I’ll tell you and SJ later, deal?”

I extended my hand dramatically.

“Deal,” I said.

Blue and I shook on it. However, while the gesture had initially been extended in jest, at the last second it curtly transformed into something much more somber. Blue tightened her grip around my hand at the last shake—replacing the silliness of the gesture with an earnest solemnity as she looked me straight in the eyes.

“I’m serious, Crisa,” she said. “No more lying. No more diverting. No more of this severance game you’ve been playing with us since the start. It’s like I told you on the train, if we want this to work, we have to trust each other. But that’s a two-way street. We’ve trusted you. Now you need to stop pushing us away and trust us too. And this, right here, is your second chance to do so. So don’t blow it.”

Surprisingly, the boys took my revelation rather well. They were confused at first. And they required a bit more convincing from SJ and Blue. But eventually they believed me.

With that first step of my plan completed, I proceeded to move on to step two: telling them some of what I’d foreseen waiting for us on Adelaide.

I explained that Arian was in possession of the magic mirror and that he would use it to track me down within the cliff’s tunnel system. But I left out the number of men he had with him, the whole “trapping me at a dead end” bit, and that he apparently had some sort of special tool to capture me with. This was necessary if I had any hope of getting the others to go along with my plan, the most important aspect of which being that we needed to split up in the tunnel system.

When I came to this part of the plan they freaked out with objections. But I had expected their qualms. And I was ready with the right responses to calm them. That—combined with the trust points I’d earned for being honest about my dreams—eventually got them to agree to it.

Based on some of my other visions about Adelaide, I knew they would eventually catch on to my misdirection. But I also knew that by the time they did it would be too late for them to turn back and come after me. They would be forced into being safe while I handled Arian and his men on my own.

That’s where step three of my plan came into play: mastering Ashlyn’s secret route.

Our hostess had mentioned she’d used a hidden path to get from Adelaide Castle to the seashore. Her route went through several underwater caves, the likes of which I’d seen in my dreams. So I figured we could utilize them to escape the beach and elude my enemies as we made our way back to the castle.

This was a simple idea. What was not was passing on its details. Both Ashlyn’s route and the other elements of my plan had to be whispered to one person at a time.

I’d learned all too well on the magic train that Arian was able to watch my every move through the magic mirror. And (by extension) he was able to listen in on our conversations too.

In order to combat this advantage, I decided to communicate the key aspects of our plan in a way that—even if Arian was keeping an eye on me—he would not be able to overhear. It wasn’t like the magic mirror had a zoom in button or a control for volume like the remote to Ashlyn’s TV did.

The idea received a gold star of approval from both SJ (our logic goddess) and Blue (our fairytale history whiz). Both my friends knew plenty more about the magic mirror than I did, and both assured me that the tactic was sound.

Once Ashlyn whispered to me how to find and navigate her route, I passed on these instructions, and my own, to each of my co-conspirators in the same way. It was a brilliant solution, and I felt confident it would allow me to debilitate Arian’s hunt until I was ready for him.

With that, our plan was set. We were ready. I was ready.

I did feel bad about misleading my friends and capitalizing on their faith in me.

I’d allowed myself to appear vulnerable with my dreams so they’d have no reason to doubt me and think I was concealing something else. But in truth it was a trick. Like a magician, I’d had them concentrate on what I presented in my hands and not what I had up my sleeves.

This made me feel kind of gross. For although my intentions were good, I knew it was a deceptive means to an end. And I also knew from my visions that when they figured it out, they would not be happy.

Nevertheless, none of the grossness or guilt changed the fact that this was the way it had to be. It was the best course of action if I wanted to stop Arian from ever following me again, protect the others from his wrath, and keep “damsel” out of the universal perception of who I was.

Blue had been right. This was my second chance, my last chance in more ways than she knew. And I really had better not blow it.