The incessant beeping was driving me nuts. I had to find out what it was. I cracked my eyes open and shut them again.

  “What’s with the light,” I muttered cracking my eyes open a smidge and looking around.

  “Jonah? Honey, are you awake?”

  I glanced at my mom who was sporting a black eye and growled low in my throat. Yeah, I was back. Back to an abusive father and back to protecting my mother. A strange breeze blew into the room and I smiled. It wasn’t all a dream! I really went to Sapherine and I really knew runes too! I could heal my mom at least and protect her better! I was a wind/Ether Kin and a forsaken prince and I finally knew who I was but what about Datha? Was she still on Sapherine with the council members at large?

  Would the oracle take her? Would she be safe from the council? Would she miss me as I would her and what would the others do? What about the children? Our job wasn’t completed on Sapherine and I knew one day we would have to return. Images played in my mind. A kin child in the mines, a slave being turned into a Morgan, The council, the others, the voices and the man. The mountain and a new image of Myra standing before a volcano and talking to a goddess. The images shifted to form new ones,

  Myra standing before a large shrine, Myra crying on my shoulder under the stars. Myra and I laughing at the movies, Myra and I standing in front of a grotesque monster and one more. A little boy with emerald eyes ringed in brown and dark brown hair smiling at the chocolate-eyed girl. Who was the boy?

  “Honey? Are you alright? Are you in shock? They told me it could happen, after all, you were swimming with sharks. What you did was very brave,” she said.

  I sighed and shook my head. “No Mom. What I did was cowardly and lame,” I said and I told my mom for the first time what I really was, a bully. I put my head down waiting for her to say something.

  “I’m glad that you’ve admitted your faults, Jonah. Your father never has. It’s always someone else’s fault,” she said.

  “It took me a near-death experience to find out I don’t want to be like him,” I lied. It had taken nearly a month and a half and several near-death experiences and Myra’s help to change. It had taken a lot to open my eyes to the truth. I was still changing though and I had a ways to go. The first thing was to get rid of my friendship with Katilia and Ralf. I didn’t want to be a bully anymore except maybe to them one final time.

  “I guess I better apologize to Myra then huh?” I said smirking and my mom nodded her blonde head. “That would be best and hope her brother doesn’t sue us. That girl is apparently terrified of sharks. You might’ve caused irreparable harm.”

  “Myra’s stronger than that, “ I muttered, sitting and standing with a little help. I was sore from the battle another thing to prove the validity that Sapherine wasn’t a dream. I summoned Ether to my hand and it came. I would be more careful this time as I didn’t want to be erased again. I walked down the stark halls listening for Myra’s voice. I found it two doors down. I still had my super hearing to a degree. I wanted to try going into the shadows but I doubted Myra would appreciate me coming out of the wall or floor right now. I knocked on the door and was faced with her older brother.

  “Yes?” he asked staring right at me. I fidgeted.

  “Sorry, I thought she might be awake,” I said.

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  “She’s…”

  “Juaquin! Let him in!” shouted Myra and I smirked as the older boy sighed and folded into himself opening the door. I peered inside and there she was dark eyes shining with unshed tears.

  “I could come back later,” I muttered, not wanting to see her cry. I was absolutely vulnerable to crying females.

  “We’re back,” she muttered, and I nodded.

  “Yup,” I said.

  “Juaquin? Can you get me some water from the machine?” she asked.

  “That’s like on the other side of the hospital!” he whined.

  “Please?” she begged and her puppy face was devastating.

  “Alright! Mige and Mama should be by soon,” he said ruffling her hair and she smiled.

  “You're the best big brother,” she said.

  “And don’t you forget it. Don’t move from that bed while I get your water,” he said.

  “I’ll watch her,” I said and he nodded exiting the room.

  I turned to her smirking. “So did you keep any of your abilities?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “None but I do have the original four voices I started out with. Yay for me,” she muttered and I smirked showing her my abilities.

  “I wonder why you kept yours but I didn’t keep mine? She said.

  “Would you rather have eleven voices,” I asked raising my brow.

  “Good point,” she said smiling sheepishly. “So what now?”

  “Now I drop Katilia and Ralf for good. Do you want to help me play a prank on Katilia?”

  She crossed her arms. “Haven't you learned anything?” she said.

  “Of course I have, but those guys need to pay for today,” I muttered.

  “I can’t believe it's still the same day still!”

  “Told you time was different there.”

  “What about the children? I never got to free them and the council hasn’t been stopped. Detained but not stopped.”

  “I foresaw our eventual return. I don’t know when though.”

  “At least this time we might be ready for the kidnapping,” she muttered and I chuckled.

  “I promise it won’t be because of me next time,” I said, and she laughed as Juaquin came through the door with a bottle of water in his hand.

  “What’s so funny,” he asked with a raised brow.

  “Nothing, Juaquin. Jonah was telling me a joke,” she said, smirking.

  Way to throw me under the bus! ”Yeah, it was about a fisherman and...fish,” I said, glaring at Myra who chuckled.

  “I think I know that one!” he said, and Myra burst out laughing.

  “No, brother I don’t think you do, “ she said, winking at me and I winked back. Sapherine was our secret. Whatever happened on Sapherine changed us both for the better and I was glad for it, although it would have been another story if Myra had remained dead. I still felt that emptiness from her dying as if a part of me had died and been reborn with her. It was an emptiness I never wanted to feel again.

  I smiled at Myra glad that she came back with me, glad she was alive! For a brief period of time, I knew what it was like to be without her and the world was a much darker place than I had ever known it to be without her in it. I promised myself that she would never face the fear of dying again. I would save her from that fate this time. I couldn’t before but I would try from now on because life without her wasn’t living.