Mount Haku roared like a living furnace.

  Akhiro staggered backward, clutching his hands as sparks flew from his fingertips. “Ah, how did I turn into fire?” he shouted. “Satoshi, help me, you idiot!”

  “I’m not coming near you!” Satoshi yelled, jumping away. “Do you want to roast me alive?”

  Akhiro glared at him. “Wow. Incredible friendship. Truly inspiring.”

  “I am your friend,” Satoshi snapped, “not a sacrifice.”

  Akhiro inhaled sharply to argue again, but he ended up sneezing.

  A jet of flame shot from his mouth.

  “AH! MOM!” Satoshi screamed as the fire singed past him. “You did that on purpose, you jerk!”

  “If I wanted to do it on purpose,” Akhiro shot back, panic creeping into his voice, “I’d have burned you, not the air. I can’t control this!”

  “Don’t move,” Satoshi said, backing away carefully. “Let me think.”

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  He grabbed a bottle of water and hurled it at Akhiro.

  The water never reached him.

  It hissed in midair and turned into thick white vapor.

  “…Great,” Akhiro muttered. “Why didn’t I listen to my mom when she said choose friends with brains?”

  Satoshi grimaced. “Funny. My mom said the same thing about you.”

  His eyes darted around until they landed on a red fire extinguisher bolted to the ship nearby. He ripped it free and sprayed Akhiro without thinking.

  “What are you doing? Are you crazy?” Akhiro shouted.

  The moment the foam hit him, his fear exploded.

  Flames shot outward in a violent wave.

  The ship caught fire instantly.

  Satoshi ran.

  “HELP!” Akhiro screamed, chasing after him with flames trailing behind like a living storm.

  The fire spread, racing across the ground, climbing the rocks, devouring Mount Haku itself. Heat consumed the air. The mountain burned.

  Then—

  Silence.

  The flames vanished as if they had never existed.

  Satoshi collapsed to the ground, breathing hard. “How did it all disappear?”

  Akhiro stared at his hands. Normal. No fire. No heat.

  A calm voice echoed through the smoke.

  “That,” the voice said, “was my magic.”

  Both boys froze.

  A woman stepped forward from the fading mist, her presence bending the air around her. She stood tall and composed, dressed in black that seemed to absorb light. Her dark hair fell freely, and her blue eyes were sharp and unreadable.

  “Nice to meet you,” she continued. “I am the Queen of the Magic Realm.”

  She looked at them like someone examining a problem that was already solved.

  “And from now on,” she said, “you two belong to me.”

  “My name is Dianthia Watson.”