“Such feeble lies!” the queen barked. “It is your fault, it is all your fault, and you cannot ever escape it!”

  Kenneth whimpered, and Lucy looked down to see him about to break into sobs again.

  “No, it’s not your fault!” Lucy said, struggling to raise her voice just enough to sound firm and believable without frightening Kenneth further. “You did nothing wrong. You’re fine, Kenneth.”

  Kenneth’s face, contorted and red with anguish, softened into the bright curiosity of a child asking a question with all the sincerity in their heart. “Really?”

  “No, not ‘really!’” the queen huffed, her loud, infernal breathing becoming laboured as she grew red with rage. “Don’t you dare listen to the putrid lies of this pathetic little witch! Some pretty words aren’t going to change the fact that this is all your fault!”

  “It’s not true,” Lucy said immediately afterwards, cutting off the lingering silence that would have let the queen’s words hang over Kenneth like a poison cloud. She gazed deep into his eyes, bringing his attention away from the queen entirely. “It’s not your fault. It never was. Don’t listen to her.”

  Saying this with such conviction was more than a little difficult, as Lucy had not an inkling of what “it” was. But she could see in Kenneth’s face, feel from the deepest reaches of his soul, that this was what he needed to hear, more than anything. So she did not falter as she held his gaze after speaking those words.

  “Not my…fault…” His eyes filled with tears again, spilling down over his cheeks, but this time his body didn’t tremble. In Lucy’s arms, she could feel his entire body relax, and shortly afterwards, his misty eyes closed, heavy with exhaustion but also a deep relief that undid his knitted eyebrows and finally, finally closed the mouth that had been uttering an endless stream of apologies.

  Lucy gazed down at him, her own adrenaline about to give out upon seeing the boy sleeping so soundly in his arms—if not for the guttural shrieking that suddenly erupted before her.

  “How dare this miscreant sleep on our watch?” the queen roared, searing orange flames sparking from her mouth. “As if there could be any rest for the wicked! He ought to have sleep taken away for the rest of his miserable life—and even that would not one percent of repayment for all the damage he has wreaked! But no matter. If it is sleep this scoundrel so desires, we shall make it eternal!”

  “Lucy!” Keilani screamed from where she and Ricardo were about to turn tail. “Get out of there!”

  The queen raised one of her massive fists, and though the sheer size of it made the movement sluggish, it was clear the surface area of its strike would thrash anyone who dawdled for even a second.

  Lucy’s legs were in motion before she knew it, her arms cradling Kenneth to her chest as he slept. Pain shot through her left arm, but she grit her teeth, relying on her adrenaline and stubbornness to pull through. After all she and the others had been through, she was not dropping Kenneth here to perish all alone.

  She reached the others in no time flat, noting quickly that those extra points in Ideation seemed to have paid off. But the moment she looked at Keilani’s and Ricardo’s faces, the very earth beneath their feet shook as what sounded like an explosion torched Lucy’s ears.

  Her vision went black for a split-second, then it was a jumble of wavering sights and after-images until she regained both her physical and mental footing again. Looking over her shoulder, Lucy saw that the queen had punched into the ground, right where she had been kneeling with Kenneth only moments ago. The queen’s enlarged hand was barely visible, for it had sunken into the bus-sized crater she had formed.

  If the queen had been filled with contempt before, now she was broiling and practically overflowing with it, as her red skin prickled with veins and fire and smoke seethed from her fanged grimace as she glared down at Lucy. Although Lucy knew she could get further away again, she nonetheless was struck motionless by the sheer intimidation the queen exuded, watching helplessly as the queen’s arm shook and she raised her fist.

  Except her fist didn’t raise off the ground.

  The queen’s eyes bulged out of their sockets as she pointed her monstrous gaze down at her arm, which she wiggled violently over and over. Dust and debris stirred up, but no matter her wrathful and desperate movements, her fist would not dislodge from its crater.

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  “Hmph…”

  Despite everything, Lucy couldn’t help but smile and struggle to contain a chuckle. The queen’s struggle had made all the tension in the air disappear like air leaving a whoopee cushion.

  The queen’s eyes flashed to Lucy’s smiling face, the heat of rage building within her to such an extent that steam whistled out of her nose and ears.

  “SEIZE THEM!”

  The command blasted through the castle town like a thousand strikes of thunder. Metallic clattering swamped the airwaves afterwards, as the royal guards all shook as if the queen’s voice had eletrocuted them from the inside out. Then they readied their weapons in unsettling synchronity, marching forward and closing in from both sides on the Dream Knights who dared oppose their ruler.

  “Come to me!”

  Keilani, who had evidently been thrown back a few feet by the queen’s punch, clambered back up to her feet. “I have a Feat that can teleport us somewhere else. Come take my hands!”

  Lucy wasted no time sprinting to her, Kenneth in her arms. She took one of Keilani’s outstretched hands, which trembled in her grip. Lucy felt bad for her, but the most she could do was give a hasty nod of reassurance. Then she looked to where Ricardo had been—and gasped.

  Ricardo was lying on his stomach, the unconscious Diana having tumbled about a foot away from him. An armoured troop with a club stood over him, the weapon still hanging in the air from where it had struck its target.

  “Ricardo!” Lucy shouted.

  He grunted and breathed raggedly, but then climbed back onto his feet with surprising speed. The guard with the club pulled back, and for a moment Lucy felt a glimmer of hope at seeing the guard intimidated. But that wasn’t the case: the guard looked at some of his nearby comrades, barked something at them, and they all crowded around Ricardo and Diana, who was still lying on the ground.

  Ricardo glared at them, then bent down, scooped Diana back onto his back, and shot a glance at Lucy and Keilani.

  “Go on ahead!” he shouted.

  Before Lucy could say anything, he closed his eyes and took in a big inhale. As he exhaled, his skin rapidly turned into a shining silver. The guards were taken aback, hollering about witchcraft, but one unfazed guard lobbed a throwing knife at Ricardo.

  The knife struck Ricardo’s metal skin with a plink, then fell uselessly to the ground. There wasn’t so much as a dent on Ricardo’s skin, let alone a scratch.

  “I’ll be fine,” Ricardo shouted to Lucy and Keilani. “Just let me know where you’re going and I’ll be there. Soon.”

  “What?” Keilani’s voice was filled with disbelief. “I’m not leaving you and Diana behind!”

  One of the guards charged at Ricardo with a spear, only to stumble when the blade met his torso and was deflected. Ricardo turned, then side-checked the spear with his hip to send the guard hurling away.

  “Seriously: go on ahead!” Ricardo shouted. “This Feat’ll last long enough for me to run over, I promise. And if I need more firepower, well, Diana should be waking up soon.”

  Lucy locked eyes with him. She still had reservations about leaving him and Diana behind with the guards and their giant of a queen, but she knew he was prioritizing getting Kenneth, still dormant in Lucy’s arms, as far away from the heat of battle as quickly as possible. For that reason, Lucy gave him a solemn nod.

  “Keilani, let’s go!” Lucy shouted.

  But Keilani’s hand had gone limp in Lucy’s grasp, and when Lucy looked at her, she saw that her eyes were wide open and staring straight at Ricardo—but also far beyond, thousands of yards away.

  “No!” she cried. “I’m not—I can’t—I’m not running away again!”

  Her grip on Lucy’s hand became like a vice, and her chest heaved rapidly as her teeth clenched in a mixture of anguish and anxiety that quickly reduced her face to one of wide-eyed fear.

  Lucy was at a complete loss. Up to now, she hadn’t seen Keilani anywhere close to losing her cool like this.

  “Keilani,” Lucy said firmly. “Keilani! We need to go now!”

  “I’m not running away! I’m not running away!”

  Lucy stared at her. Though Keilani’s eyes were wide, she didn’t seem to be looking at anything in front of her. She was stuck in her own little world, one where no one could reach her, just like Kenneth had been.

  Lucy bit her lip so hard it bled, hearing Ricardo parry the endless swarm of guards, and seeing in her peripheral that some of those guards were coming toward her and Keilani as well. What could she do? What could she possibly do? She’d been able to snap Kenneth back to his senses with an embrace, but there was no way the same thing would work here. In the midst of this hopeless fight, Lucy looked down at Kenneth nestled between her arms.

  And Kenneth’s eyes opened.

  “M-Miss Kei…?” His voice was groggy as he looked up with sleep-ridden eyes at Keilani.

  Keilani locked eyes with him, and in that moment, Lucy saw her gaze returning from whatever far-flung dimension it had wandered off to, focusing now on the little boy in Lucy’s arms.

  “Kenneth…” she said, gasping, her breathing soon stabilizing.

  “Keilani.” Lucy looked at her, her voice calm but firm, and tightened her grip on Keilani’s hand. “Let’s go.”

  Keilani stared at her, her eyes wide with worry. She looked over at Ricardo, barely visible now through a crowd of guards. She seemed frozen there, but then she took a deep breath and shouted: “The church on the hill!”

  She nodded her head off to the side, where a large intricate building loomed over the castle town from a nearby hill.

  Ricardo didn’t look back—he couldn’t look back—but he raised one hand to shoot her back a thumbs up.

  Seeing this, Keilani sighed, held tightly onto Lucy’s hand, and said: “Let’s hope his knees are built for that incline run.”