With a curse, I reached forward and put my hands on her bare shoulders. Her skin was hot and clammy yet prickled with goosebumps. Her heart was beating too fast. Now that I was holding on to her, I realized that wind I’d heard wasn’t wind but her real-life breath. I slid my hand over her heart to try and count the beats, but it was too fast. There were too many too quickly for me to count. This may have been a dream, but she was about to give herself a very, very real heart attack if I didn’t get through to her.

I pushed my magic into her.

The world around us vanished. Gone was Headquarters and her balcony. We were suddenly on our knees in what seemed like clay. Fire surrounded us from every angle. Flames towered into the sky like skyscrapers. In the distance I heard screaming and wailing. Something seemed to fly through the black sky peeking out between the flames, but it was gone before I could make out what it was.

Savannah gasped, bringing my gaze back to Frankie. My eyes widened.

She still sat on her knees, but in the light off the flames, I realized it wasn’t clay but blood-soaked sand. She wore golden body armor on every piece of her body from the neck down. The flames danced in its reflection like they were mocking her pain. Her hair now fell down to her hips in the palest pink shade I’d ever seen. There was some kind of white cape dangling from her back, but it was blood-soaked and stained with dirt.

Her hands were grimy with black dirt and blood, her fingers caked with red blood from cracks in her knuckles. Yet she gripped both of her bloodred sais in her hands. Then she threw her head back and screamed. Not in terror or anger, but in despair. That was a sound only pain could ever make. Tears streaked rivers down her dirt and blood-stained face.

“No, no, no—” Savannah’s whisper’s cut off with a pained sound. “Get us out!”

“Frankie?”

“I’m sorry, Everest, I have to. I have to,” she cried, her voice breaking. “Im sorry. Everest, I’m sorry⁠—”

“Make this stop, Cooper. Now,” Savannah said in a panic, her voice rising. “Get us out of here. Her soul is not okay. It’s going to break. Get us out!”

I pulled my magic back and pushed us out of the dream, yet nothing happened. I tried again and again. It always worked. Always. I’d never not been able to get myself out of a dream.

“Everest, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Forgive me⁠—”

“KIWI, COOPER! GET US OUT!”

“We’re stuck! I don’t know! This has never happened!”

“Christ on clearance, ionwanna be here no’mo,” Savannah drawled with an accent thicker than sludge. “Get us⁠—”

“Everest!” Frankie screamed.