After the last class of the day, Winter wandered mindlessly. She paused and found herself staring at her fingers as she let her mind race. She surveyed her surroundings and saw that her feet brought her to the setting of last night's dream. She stood in the garden alone, watching the dream replay in front of her. Aliana was here once too. The dreams she kept having were her memories. The secret room and the little boy belonged to her. What was her story? How did she die? What was Winter's connection to it all? She fiddled with her bracelet as a conversation she had with Leo during the mock war popped into her mind, "Has anyone ever died during the mock wars?" "One person did." Was it her? Winter's head throbbed. But if it happened during the mock war why did Leo say he knew nothing about it? Winter scratched at the skin underneath her bracelet anxiously. Her mind kept running in circles around the same questions. The pain in her head intensified. She sat down in the grass. "Winter?" She looked up and saw Lucas peering down at her. "I've been looking for you. What are you doing here?" She twisted the ring on her finger, "Looking for me? Why?" He eyed her skeptically before handing her a piece of paper, "The sketches we talked about earlier." She examined it. He had drawn three monsters. The first one had thousands of eyes on its body and was tall and lanky. The second one was big and burly, with rough orange fur covering it and horns. The third one was draped in bandages with black eyes and charred, rotting skin underneath. Winter read the notes he had written about his observations on each one and said, "Where did you see them?" Again he averted his gaze, "One in the halls, one in the library, and one in the courtyard." "Do you mind if I keep this?" He shrugged, "I drew it for you." She folded it and put it in her pocket. Winter considered him for a moment before asking, "Do you know anything about the girl who died?" His eyebrow twitched and his face went pale before he quickly regained his composure, "Sam's soulmate? I don't know anything about that. Why do you ask?" Winter sighed. Why did he keep lying to her? "No it's nothing. I'm just curious about her is all." He stared at her sharply as though trying to peer into her thoughts, "I wouldn't look into it too much." Winter could tell that something about her question had rattled him. Lucas lingered a second more before leaving Winter sitting alone.
Winter stayed there meditating after he left. She tapped into her magic, waiting to see if it would lead her to any clues. She sat patiently, her magic gently greeting her. Again she familiarized herself with it, became one with it. Suddenly, she jerked from the intensity of her magic's pull. Winter stood looking around. She spotted Sam practicing his sword fighting alone at the courtyard. She looked at his hand. In it was the same sword she left by the note in the secret room. The sword she had engraved in her mind. The sword her magic always drew her to. She approached him, blatantly confused. Winter took another hesitant step towards him, her magic coaxing her forward. He stopped swinging the sword when he noticed her and scowled. They looked at each other, "What do you want?" She glanced down to where his hand held the hilt of the sword. Every fiber in her body told her to touch it. She had never felt more compelled to do anything in her entire life. Winter shot her hand out and wrapped it around the sharp edges of the blade firmly. She felt a surge of his magic pass through her body and gasped. Her eyes began to glow and she gripped the blade tighter, droplets of her blood splattering on the ground. The edges of her vision began to darken, the world began to fade as it all came rushing back.
Winter awoke in the infirmary. Her head was pounding. She tried sitting up but realized that she was straddled to the bed. Winter struggled against the restraints and her body ached in kind. It was strange though. Winter was confined but she couldn't feel more free. "Winter what the hell you scared us!" Mandy approached the bed and clamped her hand around Winter's carefully. Winter glanced at Layla who shrugged, "Apparently, they're running some tests." Della entered the room without looking at Mandy or Layla and said, "You may go." Layla shot her a concerned look before dragging Mandy out of the room. Della clasped her hands behind her back, "I thought I told you there's no use in trying to take it off?" Winter glanced at her bracelet. The burn on her wrist was still in the process of healing itself. A man appeared from the shadows and carelessly drew blood from her forearm. Winter didn't have any intention of taking the bracelet off so why did it burn her? Della yanked her wrist and Winter winced, "Try that again and you won't see any sunlight for a month." When the man finished filling the vile with her blood, he handed it to Della and dissolved back into the shadows. Della turned to the door, "You'll be staying here for the night so we can keep a closer eye on you." With that, Winter was alone. She closed her eyes though it didn't dull the intense pain in her head. Della had unintentionally revealed so much. Something she did made them nervous. The bindings and surveillance were evidence of that. It also told her that they didn't know everything she did. There were some places that their eyes couldn't reach. More importantly though was what her magic had unveiled to her. When she touched the sword and her magic mixed with Sam's, that's when she knew. Her magic had been trying to tell her the whole time that Aliana was not dead. She was Aliana.