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He didn’t believe her. Reaching out, he grabbed her arm, his fingers biting into her sleeve. His other hand fumbled in her pockets, looking for the phone.

Randa tried to freeze him in place, but the manacle made it impossible. So, she hit him instead. Balling up her fist, she smashed it into his face, just like that video Kahn sent her instructed. The cheerful host had been wrong. Punching did hurt her hand, but it was worth it.

Yuan cursed and stumbled back, gripping his nose. He had her phone now, but he was also bleeding. She’d hit him hard enough to make him bleed? Wow! The Light Phases would be proud…

Wait. Randa’s eyes widened. It was Kahn who’d hurt him.

Underneath the elegant, tuxedoed façade, Yuan would be covered in bruises. He had to be. He could disguise them, but they didn’t fade from his actual body. Everything about him was just a layer of illusion masking what he wanted hidden.

That realization made her reevaluate her surroundings. Wherever she was standing, it was an actual room. If she could see beneath the illusion, she might have a chance to run.

“Bitch!” Yuan fingered his sore nose, sending her a fuming look. “You’ve spent too much time with that Light Phase animal.”

“He’s a barbarian. Not an animal.” Randa said vaguely, trying to pinpoint where she was being held. There had to be a way to break his artifice.

Yuan was focused on her phone. “I think less of you for carrying such a repellent toy. Did you believe it would help you stay in the human realm? I’m strong enough that I didn’t even notice jumping with plastic.” He tried to pry the blinky thing off the case. “What does this even do? Is it what made the noise…? Fuck!”

It turned out the blinky thing was not the buzzing tracker. It was some kind of defense mechanism.

Electricity arced out, sparking in the air. Kahn must have rigged it to shock anyone who wasn’t Randa. He really needed to discuss his inventions with her, before he attached them to her phone. There were liability issues.

Yuan’s whole body spasmed from the ruthless current. However his powers worked, the electricity interfered with them. His face became a jigsaw puzzle of mismatched pieces, like he couldn’t hold any form. His nose and lips switched places. His eyes disappeared. For one horrible second, there was nothing at all. Just smooth skin over his skull.

He dropped the phone, screaming in pain, although he had no mouth. The image of the Council Hall vanished, and suddenly they were standing in a very familiar place.

The Heart Stone Academy.

Randa would’ve recognized it anywhere. They were in Grandmother Viola’s office. The actual office. This was a real place.

It was deserted, of course. There were no students left to attend Heart Stone now. It sat high in the Stone Kingdoms mountains, its silent dormitories carved into ancient cliffs. Not even Stone Phases would have a reason to visit here.

Yuan must have chosen the school for its isolation and because he was caught up in some fantasy of redoing their past. He wanted to go back to when she was ninety-three and make her choose him over Hekktor. He really was insane.

And he’d given Randa her best opportunity to escape.

She took off running towards her grandmother’s open balcony.

“No!” Yuan stumbled after her, sounding frantic. Somehow, he got his powers under control. The image of the Council Hall flickered back, obscuring Heart Stone Academy.

It didn’t matter. Randa could navigate the school with her eyes closed. She squeezed them shut so the illusion didn’t distract her, using her instincts to gauge where she was in the office.

“There’s nowhere you can go that I won’t find you!” Yuan shouted, following her.

The Council Hall was familiar to every Elemental. Yuan had been there hundreds of times, so of course he could exactly copy the subtle patterns on the curtains and the exact number of imposing columns. But he’d never lived in the Stone Kingdom. He didn’t understand the cliff dwellings, like Randa did. He didn’t respect the towering stone monoliths or the unforgiving canyons below.

In pain, and frenzied, he only saw his own pretty illusion and forgot about the rock-hard reality underneath. “You’re mine! You were always supposed to be mine!”

She was navigating by instinct and memory. At the very last second, Randa shot left. Two extra steps in any direction would be disastrous. Stone Phases didn’t believe in railings, so she’d go careening off the side of a balcony she couldn’t even see.

Yuan lunged for her.

Calling on all the adventurous impulses she’d ever repressed, Randa leapt towards the invisible cliff face. For one desperate moment, she clawed at the nothingness. …And then her hand seized the bottom rung of the ladder affixed to the stone wall.

Safe.

Her chest expanded on a huge rush of air. She was safe. Once you knew where that ladder was, you could grab onto the rungs and climb even higher.

Yuan had no idea where the ladder was.