I traced a crack in the table and avoided the eyes of Piercey's graduates sitting in the conference room with us. Somehow it reminded me that I belonged here and yet didn't, that it was true of everywhere I'd ever called home. I didn't fit in anywhere.

Piercey used his teaching voice as he continued with the end of his report. It grated at me today. "Flare has united six Prophets who have formed a council and agreed to work toward combining their lands. Others have refused, including the Prophet of the Valley. There's talk of war brewing." Piercey settled his clipboard onto the table. "We need to decide our next steps."

"I say we ally with Max." Val nodded at me. "She's proven to be very capable and she has the people's best interests at heart."

"I agree." Another graduate spoke up from the far end of the table. "Flare is an enemy to us all. If she uses the Prophets to conquer lands and create nations, they'll never be nations for the people. They'll be nations of terror and oppression."

I held my breath as the next graduate spoke. They were all in agreement. I'd assumed they would fight me, maybe because Piercey always had in his own way.

"Then it's settled." Piercey's eyes shifted to each person at the table. "We ally with Max against Flare. We'll need to keep her alive while sabotaging her efforts."

Nash gripped my hand beneath the table.

"It's tempting to kill the Prophet," Piercey said, "But Flare will use it to her advantage. It's better to isolate the major players and keep them busy defending against us."

I should have known Piercey would come up with an excuse to not kill. So, I rose, and nodded at Nash. "Show them your back."

Piercey drew back at the interruption. "Max–"

Nash pulled his tunic over his head and turned so the overhead lights shone against the scars weaving down his spine.

"Eskel." I watched the graduates take in the devilishly elegant script running down the middle of his back. "Written in blood."

Piercey lowered his head. The table fell silent.

"I could tell you as many stories of Eskel's ruthlessness as their are days. Not only did he conscript Nash and use the threat of hurting his daughter to force him to serve a cause he didn't believe in for years, but the Prophet also tried to force Nash to bind himself to him."

The graduates murmured at this violation, because binding yourself was meant to be sacred.

"He used his power to carve his name into Nash's spine, healed him, and did it again. How many times must you do this before it leaves behind scars not even power can heal? This was done to one man. What else has he done? What will he do if left in power?

Val looked at Nash as he put his shirt back on and sat down.

"The Prophet of the Valley, Eskil the Ruthless, must not remain in power. He is poison to the people. He uses his power against his people. Do not abandon them to suffer another day beneath his crushing rule. We should kill him now."

Piercey raised his head again with his eyes unyielding. "The Prophet of the Valley has refused to surrender or join forces with Flare. It'll mean war. He will be fighting Flare and keeping her distracted. That's the best chance we have of holding Flare off."

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"Innocent people will die." My voice hitched.

Piercey's eyes shone with tears. "And if the Valley falls to the Flatlanders? Into Flare's hands? Are you prepared to handle the vacuum of power it will create while we also battle Flare?"

"I can't turn my back on my people," I said. "My chief agreed to hold off on attacking the Prophet until we all join, but they are prepared to defend themselves at a moment's notice."

"No one plans to abandon your people."

"You already did it once." I slammed my fist against the table. "Cowering on this mountain while the world is at war is unthinkable."

Piercey straightened, matching my stance. "Then don't cower. If you can control your power over space-time, you'll be able to travel anywhere instantly. Think of all you can do then." He drilled into my eyes. "We will not help you with the Prophet until we know the Valley will stay out of Flare's hands. So focus on what you have power over."

It didn't matter that I understood Piercey or even whether he was right. Leaving the Prophet in power defied the justice and vengeance every ounce of my blood cried out for. I'd spent years fighting him.

Nash reached for me, but I stormed out of the room. I didn't need Piercey's permission to seek my vengeance, not when I'd vowed to Nash that I would kill the Prophet. The problem was that I couldn't say for certain that he was wrong. I had destroyed so much in my life and the two before this.

How could I trust myself? This doubt plagued me always, now, worse than ever.

----------------------------------------

It had taken me several days to stop shooting daggers at Piercey and even longer to warm back up to him during our training sessions. While I had not yet decided whether to kill the Prophet on my own, I did know I should not abandon my training sessions with Piercey. His knowledge had always helped me to control my power.

"Focus, Max." Piercey breathed out slowly.

"I am."

"No, you're obsessed and angry. It distracts you."

I slammed my palm against my knee. "I can't make myself slip through time."

"You've learned how to stop yourself. That's something."

I gripped the back of my neck as I bent forward and stretched my back. "Val said that Flare is trying to unite even more Prophets. She's using me and the threat of other demons like me to get them to join together. And who knows how close she is to breaking back into this world. I'm not progressing fast enough."

"You're training for battle with Nash, Leif, and Wren for four hours a day and sometimes five with me. You're doing plenty."

I shook my head. "There's so much more this power of mine can do. I have move beyond just ripping people's bodies apart. I need to learn control of myself, our world, time. All of it."

"It's going to take Flare time to accomplish her mission. It doesn't matter that she helped create this world. The path we took in to gain control wasn't easy to find. She's also having to live here full-time without the luxury of all the god powers she's used to and she's playing politics. She's a scientist. She'll play it safe and want to be sure. I'm sure we have months, at least."

"The Prophet doesn't need months. He's as impatient as I am."

Piercey nodded. "He has many eyes on him. We should practice teleporting more so that you can get to him quickly if you need to."

That I did need to do. Traveling was my skill set though. I had unwittingly played with space-time repeatedly in my life. I could learn to do it on purpose.

I focused on Leif to search for his heartbeat and imagined peeling away the distance between us to travel to him. Heat swelled in my palms and I snapped forward. I opened my eyes in the hallway just as he slammed right into me.

"Ouch!" Leif sprang back and rubbed his chin. "Where did you come from?"

"Sorry. Practicing."

"Are you teleporting again? Make sure you know where we are before you do that. You terrified Wren when you popped up on her bed. She was napping. I think–"

His voice droned on as I listened for Wren and imagined myself standing in front of her. That was all it took to travel to her.

She screamed so loud I thought my ear drums would burst as she pulled her blankets over her head. "Max! Not again!"

"It's your fault for sleeping so much." I rubbed my ear.

"Teleport to Nash next time."

"I don't want to scare Elsie."

"Oh." She ripped the blanket down. "I'm glad there's someone you don't want to scare. Must be nice."

I grinned. This time, when I focused on Piercey, I hardly even had to think about it before I appeared in front of him.

"That's a record." He clapped. "Now we add in greater distances."

I didn't need to think about where I should learn to travel. My people were rebuilding our village, and I was long overdue for a talk with the Chief about all that I'd hidden from her. Wren had already told me that as soon as I learned to travel that far, I had better speak with her. The Chief would be an excellent person to discuss killing the Prophet with.