Accepted

It's the final countdown

I nodded slowly, frozen in place as my mind raced.

"You're excused," she said, motioning towards my friends who had lingered behind, chatting amongst one another while they waited for me.

I turned, heading towards them. Esat saw me coming, running up to congratulate me.

"You did it!!!!" She squealed in delight, pulling me in for a hug.

Laughing, I hugged her back before letting go and walking towards the others.

"I knew you'd win," Tom said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, I couldn't have done it alone," I reminded them.

"You could've DEFINITELY taken them alone," Star argued.

"I agree," Joel said.

"My favorite part was when the shield went down and you knocked out everyone around you with your dark magic. The scared looks on their faces when they knew they were dead meat," Jeremy recalled, laughing at the memory.

"I got so scared I was about to stop time when I saw the bird girl falling," Esat admitted.

"For starters, she's an alkonost. But I'm glad you didn't, Oreres would've killed us both."

"How are you not exhausted?" Bonnie asked curiously.

"About that," I started. I quickly told them what Oreres had told me about the dark magic.

"So now you really are unkillable," Jeremy said, whistling in astonishment.

"I doubt that," I replied.

"We should go eat," Zion said, taking my hand in his and forcing a smile. I rose an eyebrow at him, confused as to why he was in such a sour mood.

"I'm fine," he said, noticing the expression on my face.

"Hey, you guys go ahead. We'll meet you there," I said. Star looked at me in a 'is everything okay' manner. I nodded to her and watched as they left.

"Okay, what's wrong?"

"I have a bad feeling about the dark magic."

"What do you mean?"

"Your dark magic has no limits. How is that possible? Even if your dark magic has no limits, you do. If you use too much, it'll kill you."

"We don't know that. You can't think like that."

"So what am I supposed to do? Just stand by and watch as you risk your life?" He snapped, turning away from me angrily.

"Zion, I don't have a choice. I barely won this battle with help. Don't you remember when we rescued Edward and Esat? We could barely fight off one of them. There are thousands of them and they're coming for us. I need to get stronger if we're going to win."

"Saron, it's not all on you. We'll ALL be fighting in this war."

"But I'm the one with the dark magic. I need to train how to use it. Oreres wouldn't push me this hard if she didn't think I could survive."

"Oreres will do whatever is necessary to win this war, even if that means putting you in danger," Zion said coldly.

Taken aback by his sudden frostiness, I looked at him in shock.

"I don't want to argue with you anymore. Especially now."

"Fine," he agreed, flitting off. I raced off after him, following him until we got to the Cafeteria. It hurt to see him shutting me out like this but there was nothing I could do.