"Sorry sir. The museum is closed." I call out firmly.

"I know that." His voice is raspy. "I'm gonna need you to let me in anyway, sweetheart."

"I can't do that. And don’t call me sweetheart." I grit my teeth, and rest my hand on the handle of my knife concealed on my hip.

He stops a foot away from me. "Oh, really? And what's a little girl like you gonna do to stop me, huh?"

"You don't wanna find out. Leave." I hear Declan saying something in my earpiece, but I cant make it out.

The man chuckles and grabs my shoulders to push me aside. In an instant, I spin around and crouch, using the momentum to drive my elbow into his sternum. For a moment he freezes, trying to regain his breath. I use that pause as an opportunity to kick his knee as hard as I can. The force of the kick knocks him to his knees. I draw my knife and hold it to his neck.

"Put your hands up where I can see them- unless you want to know just how much blood is in a human neck."

He raises his hands up, but chuckles as he does so.

"Hey boss! This is the wrong one. Let's move on, yeah?" He calls out.

"Shut it." I hiss, pushing the knife more firmly into him. I'm worried- Is there someone else here?

And then a new voice appears from the darkness.

"No, let's stay here. I have a feeling the target is going to come help this one if she screams loud enough."

I look up, and see another man coming toward us. A fabric mask covers his nose, mouth, and neck- and a hood covers his head, so only his eyes are visible.

"Don't come any closer." I command.

"Or what? I know you're not allowed to kill my friend. You're bluffing."

My blood runs cold. Does he know about mages? Does he know about our rules?

I pull out another knife with my left hand and get ready to throw it. "I'm warning you. Stay back."

He takes another step foreword and I pitch the knife at his shoulder, hoping to incapacitate one arm. It hits, but bounces off. He must be wearing some sort of armor under his jacket.

"Nice throw. But not nice enough, it seems." He continues to approach slowly.

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Before I can decide whether or not to throw another, I hear hurried footsteps coming around the corner.

The masked guy narrows his eyes as Declan and Pepper come running towards us. In that moment I notice that he has one brown eye, and one blue.

"Pepper! Run back to the car and call The Order!" I yell. "Hurry."

Declan sees that I have the first guy handled, and turns to the one in the mask.

"I don't wanna hurt you." Declan warns. I can see a familiar glow forming around his hands and feet.

"Don't worry. You can't." He laughs. Declan kicks at him, shooting flames from his foot. The man dodges and reaches forward. A blast of ice comes out of his hand, covering Declan's left side in frost. I gasp. The masked guy… is a mage? Or a renegade.

I see Declan stumble and try to brush the ice off of his body, but it spreads as the masked man concentrates his power. The frost effectively keeps Declan from producing any more flames.

I start to panic. Declan is in trouble- if I go to help him, this guy I'm holding hostage will get away. Or worse, attack me from behind as I run to help.

The masked man approaches Declan confidently. His ice is apparently too strong for Declan to melt. He holds up the knife I threw moments earlier.

"Hmm… now this is ironic, isn't it? Getting stabbed by you friend's knife." The masked mage chuckles.

"NO!" I yell.

But it's too late. He plunges my knife into Declan's side. Declan crumples to the ground. The ice fades away. The sight of him falling with a knife in his side scares me more than anything I've ever seen. I need to save him. I need to save him. As my adrenaline spikes, I feel a burning sensation on my wrists. A buzzing, pulsing power rises in my core growing like a water balloon about to burst. And then it does. I feel a blast of energy explode from me.

The force of the blast throws the man in front of me ten feet away and knocks the masked man to the ground. The two of them chuckle, get up, and start escaping down the alleyway. I go to pursue them, but then I see Declan. He is lying in a sizable pool of his own blood, grimacing. I sprint over to him.

"Azalea- don't… argh- don’t let those guys get away." Declan pants.

I peer into the alley, but the two men are already out of sight. "You're bleeding too much. I need to get you out of here." I respond. My hands shake as I kneel next to him to examine the wound. "Okay, okay. Everything's gonna be fine. You'll be okay, just don't panic, don't panic-"

"You're the one panicking." He inhales sharply. "This is pretty painful."

His face is pale. He has lost too much blood already. Think, Zale. Declan doesn't have much time.

My earpiece fell out after the blast. The blast? I look down at my wrists. Two black bands are there now on each one. My halos. I don't have time to wonder why there are two bands instead of just one.

I pop the earpiece back in and desperately call out. "Pepper. Are you there? Declan's badly hurt. I need you to bring the car down here."

Her voice crackles through the speaker. "I'm already on my way."

I kneel by Declan, trying frantically to staunch the flow of blood from his side. Only a few moments pass before our car speeds around the corner, braking a few feet away. Pepper launches out of the car. The headlights illuminate the pain in Declan's face.

"We need to get him in the car and take him back to Headquarters immediately." I tell her. She grabs his legs and I lift his shoulders. He is barely conscious as we lay him in the backseat.

"Shouldn't we go to a hospital?" Pepper asks.

"We are only supposed to get treatment at the infirmary at headquarters. The doctors there have more experience with these types of wounds anyway."

I quickly get in the drivers seat, and Pepper stays in the back to try and keep Declan conscious. I step on the gas, going well over the speed limit. We have to get back in time. I keep thinking. I don't want to think about losing Declan but I can't help it. I'd be alone. Completely alone.

"Pepper, did you call the order?" I ask frantically.

"I called a bunch of times, but no one answered."

I bite my lip. "That’s weird. They usually always have someone monitoring the phones."

As the roads pass through less populated areas, my speed is well over a hundred miles per hour. If he dies its my fault. We have to make it back in time. We have to make it back in time.