“No one, and nothing, will ever hurt you as long as I'm alive.”

“I drop the other Chest to the ground in shock. "What number are you? I'm Four." He squints at me and then offers his hand. "I'm Nine. Good job staying alive, Number Four.”

“I'm so sorry, Henri," I whisper in his ear. I close my eyes. "I love you. I wouldn't have missed a second of it, either. Not for anything," I whisper. "I'm going to take you back yet. Somehow I am going to get you back to Lorien. We always joked about it but you were my father, the best father I could have ever asked for. I'll never forget you, not for a minute for as long as I live. I love you, Henri. I always did.”

“I don't like bullies. No one has a right to take or to hurt just because they can.”

“You lie long enough and you start to get used to it.”

“I've been waiting a long to to meet you”

“So I'm guessing you're Seven and Ten; What can you do?" I say as I find our rifles in the sand and hand each of them a gun."You can call me Marina," the girl with the brown hair says. "And I can breathe under water and see in the dark and heal the sick and wounded. And I have telekinesis."Call me Ella, I hear ten say in my head. Aside from my telepathy, I can change ages."Awesome. I'm four, that nut job with the long black hair is nine and the beast is my chimaera, Bernie Kosar.”