Trying to Survive Sucks: A Tiana KOTLC adventure.

A battle with the Neverseen

Tam's POV

I really love Biana.

She makes everything better somehow, even battles.

Like, who makes frickin' battles seem better?

Biana.

She's got one mean hand with goblin throwing stars. And she can vanish and then appear behind you with a knife pressed to your throat.

Note to self: Don't get on the girlfriend's bad side.

I know she makes battles better because the day after everyone figured out we were a thing, or whatever people call it, the Neverseen decided to attack Foxfire.

Trigger all the horrible nightmares and terrible flashbacks.

You'll never be enough for us.

Fail. Again.

If you don't cooperate, we will find Linh, and we will torture her in front of your face.

But Biana was there to pull me out of it.

"Tam, come on, we need to run."

She pulled me along, past the screaming prodigies frantically light-leaping away. A group of level ones was frozen with fear, and I saw Anetla, a level six beguiler, trying to calm them down.

It was complete chaos.

To add to the fear factor, alarms were going off and goblins were running to battle stations, shoving prodigies out of the way and making things worse. I spotted Sandor in the middle of them, ordering them around and guarding Sophie, who looked extremely angry that she couldn't go beat the Neverseen up.

I couldn't blame her.

She was trying to dart around Sandor, with several throwing stars already in her hand. 

I would've been over there if Biana wasn't pulling me in the opposite direction.

She was blinking in and out of sight, running towards the library, where I had once found a secret shadow portal that led off campus.

It was where everyone agreed to meet if this ever happened.

It kind of scared me that we had to make these kinds of plans. This particular one was 'Plan W, the one where we hopefully don't die'.

The glass Foxfire pyramid rumbled, making it very hard to run as fast as you could go. Right before we made it to the library, a huge rumble and crash shook the building and tripped Biana and I up, and we fell.

Right on top of each other.

Talk about awkward.

"Sorry."

It was a default response for me. I'd said it too many times to my parents. Biana sighed and kissed me before helping me up.

"It's okay. Come on, let's get out of here."

We raced into the library, where books and artifacts were falling off shelves. I spotted Dex and Fitz racing across through the rows to meet us there. Only I could open the portal, and we would have to wait for everyone to get there to do it.

Dex beat Fitz to the shelf where the portal was hidden and tagged me.

"Beat you," He said when Fitz trotted up behind him.

"Come on, Dizznee, I let you win."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Boys!" Biana threw her hands in the air. "We are in the middle of escaping! Quit arguing!"

They both also knew not to mess with Biana. They stopped arguing, and we waited for the others too arrive. Linh was next, closely followed by Marella and Stina, unfortunately.

Sophie and Keefe were last, both breathless and being trailed by Sandor. 

"Sorry," Sophie said between breaths. "Got caught in a wave of level twos."

Everyone stared at me. Biana took my hand encouragingly.  

"You got this," She said with a smile. "I believe in you."

I could swear that a tiny look of anger passed through Fitz's features, but it was quickly gone. I turned to the portal. I could feel the dark energy pounding through my veins, surging to break through.

But I couldn't let that happen.

I focused all of my energy on my shadows, pulling them all toward me and swirling them together. A flash temporarily blinded me, but I kept pulling shadows into the portal until it flashed blackish purple, and was big enough to fit a goblin. 

Sandor grunted like he knew what I was thinking. "Come on, boy, the Neverseen are closing."

Sure enough, I could hear footsteps pounding down the hall. Hopefully all the prodigies and mentors were gone. The portal was finally big enough. 

Keefe gave a cheesy salute and pulled Sophie through with him, despite her weak protests to stay behind and fight. 

Dex sighed and stepped through next, followed by Marella and Stina. Fitz jumped through with Grizel and Sandor, and Linh ruffled my hair and walked through the swirling shadows like she would a normal doorway.

"You're up next," I told Biana. 

"Together?"

"Together." 

We stepped through the shadows just as the portal started to close, and the last thing I saw was a black Neverseen cloak swishing into view.