Chapter 2 By Green How much control do I really have? I’d always thought that I was the only one—yes, like that sense of “specialness” that a child clings onto. Maybe I was just a child in Eric’s eyes, a novice at my craft. I sure as hell didn’t know how to conjure cigarettes or flaming spears. And I definitely was not responsible for this hole we were about to fall into, that made my stomach drop and my arms flail on instinct. Strips of my clinic’s tiled floor bursted upwards, closed in, and sealed above our heads like the peals of a banana to form a dome. I fell on my back, just as the ground trembled again and my gut tingled as we plunged into—I didn’t know where, but it was down and below the floors of my clinic. Then, just as abruptly, I felt the surface beneath me lurch upwards, and the complete change in direction churned my breakfast up to my throat. It was over before I could vomit. The walls of the dome peeled back, the tiles crashing onto the pavement and revealing the front parking lot outside my office. How did we—But we were just inside…. I didn’t have time to think much more because the figure—the woman—standing in the middle of the empty lot caught my eye. She wore a blood-red studded leather jacket. From this distance, her platinum blond hair was almost white if not for the sunlight that shed some hue on them. A string of foreign words that sounded like cursing came from my right side. I’d almost forgotten Eric was still there and had fallen through the same horrid, elevator experience I had. He fared better though; at least he was still on his feet. “Well, well,” the woman called, sauntering towards us, her movements smooth and casual. “If it isn’t the infamous fire-breathing Eric Zhang. I guess the Wang Group finally learned to be on time.” “Freya,” Eric hissed. He pointed his burning spear at her. “Back off before things get ugly. This boy’s coming with me.” I am? I thought, but I was cut off by Freya’s giggling laugh. “Back off? No, no, we’ve been here much longer than the Wang Group has, backing off isn’t an option when San Francisco belongs to the Sunside. In fact, didn’t you just arrive a few months ago?” She shook her
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