The song stopped, and Eli poked his head out of the studio, "Nora?"

She needed to get out of here.

Grabbing her backpack, Nora flew on unsteady legs to the door. She struggled with the handle, her hands now shaking for an entirely different reason.

"Nora, wait!"

Her shoulder clipped the door frame as she rushed out. The girls in the hallway stopped and glanced up as she passed.

"Nora!" Eli grabbed her elbow. "Please. Stop for a second."

She stopped. But her brain didn't. Her mind flew a million miles a second—all the while joy, elation flew through her. Only to be followed by outright horror.

She should be able to enjoy this moment. This was life-altering. And yet, her brain already came to the conclusion her heart didn't want to hear.

She couldn't tell him. Oh, Creator, she couldn't. She would die before bringing anyone else into her world of lies and manipulation, and she would do anything not to put more on Eli's already full plate. Or into his life. Nor could she ever expect him to be her savior in a battle he'd never been meant to fight. He had his own battles.

Her soul screamed at the thought of leaving him in the dark.

But her heart, her mind told her she needed to at least try to find her way on her own.

If Felicity and Mallory found out, they would use her, and through her, him. She couldn't let that happen. Couldn't let their poison touch him too.

She would have to remove the poison, then come back to him.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have been in the studio during your session."

Eli had removed the tie of his uniform and unbuttoned the first few buttons of his white collared shirt, exposing the collar of the light blue tee he had underneath. Surprisingly, he did not have a hat on despite it being after school hours. A few strands of his dark hair dipped over his forehead in the front.

Eli glanced back at the girls by the studio who now stared at them. "Can we talk for a second?"

Reluctantly, Nora nodded. That was the whole reason she wanted to find Eli – to talk to him. But now she had his attention, she didn't want it. Not after what she just discovered.

Eli led them back up the hallway to one of the empty music classrooms. Despite being after school, the muted tones of singing and music drifted from one of the rooms further down.

His hand touched her arm as he guided her into the first empty one they came upon. The touch, something so simple, sent electricity shooting up her arm.

The door shut tight, he turned to her. His gaze slid over her. "So, what is it?"

Her heart pounded. "Sorry?"

"What did I do to make you angry at me?"

Maybe it would have been better if she were angry at him. If she was mad, then perhaps this conversation would be a lot easier. "I'm not angry, I—"

To her surprise, she spotted frustration and something far heavier behind his gaze. "Then why are you avoiding me?"

Now. Just say it – tell him you need space. That you need to focus on your studies. But when Nora opened her mouth, nothing came out but air.

When she didn't – couldn't – answer, Eli said, "I set up something this weekend that you would've loved. But you missed it because you were avoiding me."

"This weekend?" Nora frowned. She didn't know of any plans between the two of them for the past weekend.

He crossed his arms over his chest, his pressed white shirt stretching over his biceps. Instead of answering her non-question, Eli pressed on, "You didn't show up, and I was left there having lunch with Felicity."

A boulder sank in her stomach. She should've known Felicity was up to something – ever since this weekend, she'd been quiet. Too quiet. Not even hounding Nora for a new song or nit-picking the ones she presented to her.

What else was Felicity up to?

Hot steam entered her bloodstream, followed by renewed determination. If she was going to protect him and take care of her family, then she needed to give him the tools to understand why he needed to defend himself in the first place. But she also needed to play this carefully. Because the other side still had more power over her. Until she took her own control back, the other side would win. "Eli, I'm sorry for this weekend. I think...I think you've gotten mixed up in something. And you don't deserve to be treated this way."

She needed to go – to get out of here before her mouth slipped and she said something she shouldn't. Something like, Eli, did you know you're my Destined? Or maybe, Felicity is lying to you about everything and using you to get to the top. If she said either of those things, it would get back to Felicity and then Mallory, and she might as well throw her entire future away.

Or you could tell him the truth. All of it. Her mind whispered the idea to her.

But then what? She thought. Eli would be overjoyed they were mates, sweep her off her feet, and rush her off to the safety of the palace? Maybe.

Could she guarantee that? No. She had no idea how he would react.

Nor did she want to be the damsel in distress. She was in distress – that was a fact – but she would try and save herself first. If that didn't work, then she would bring him in.

But for now, she wanted to protect him, in whichever ways she could.

Nora took a steadying breath, her heart already a solid ache, "Eli, I think it's best you and I don't hang out for a while."

Eli shifted his weight. "Do I not get a say in this decision?"

To her dismay, she caught the quick flash of hurt in his eyes before it disappeared. "I have to focus on my studies," she quickly lied. It was alarming how good she was getting at lying. It just rolled off her tongue. Almost like Felicity. "And you need to focus on your music."

Eli stepped forward, then stopped abruptly, as if a chain were wrapped around him and tethered to the whiteboard, pulling taut. "So that's it then? I'm too much of a distraction from your studies?" The gritty pain in his voice made her jerk slightly. "It's always school. Always. Is there anything you care about other than your schoolwork?"

If he'd taken a rusty knife and thrust it into her stomach, it probably wouldn't have hurt as bad. But she knew – this defensiveness was a result of his own hurt. She recognized it and had reacted similarly when her mother died when she was a kid. People often struck out when they were in pain.

And so, understanding that, she tried to steady herself, and pressed her lips into a fine line to stop their shaking. "I care about a lot of things, Eli," she told him softly. "But I also care about myself and my future. I can't fault you for being angry – especially after this weekend," though she didn't know what had happened, "but I need to take care of myself first. And right now, that means focusing on my studies," and finding a way to remove Mallory's shackles. "Just for a little bit," she said. "After the Winter Showcase, my workload will be lighter."

After the Winter Showcase in two weeks, she'd have a plan in place. Or better yet, be free.

She turned to leave. Then stopped. "Eli," she turned back around to him, "if your future was in the hands of other people, what would you do?"

Eli wouldn't look at her, he seemed to have shut down, his entire body still. Deciding she wouldn't get an answer out of him, she nodded and turned to go.

"I would take control of what I could," he said to the back of her head. "It's my life."

She smiled sadly to herself. "Yeah. I think so too."

Once she was in the doorway, she hesitated, "do me a favor?" She paused, "please be careful around Felicity."

Eli didn't respond.

❆❆❆

Later that night, after an exhausting session with Bashful in which they had to rerecord the same verse seven times, Nora logged into her laptop to take a look at Tessa's contest entry. Although a decent vocalist herself, Tessa struggled when it came to organizing the right elements into a piece. Nora was of the mindset that anyone could sing if given the right song, and unfortunately for Tessa, the entry had too much going on. The beat switched halfway through. There wasn't a cohesiveness to the song as she had three different themes running through it. However, her lyrics were strong. Strong enough to keep with the elimination of a few lines and a bit of organization. Nora made her notes and sent them back to Tessa. She hoped Tessa wouldn't have to worry too much about how to correct or where to start if she gave her enough specifics.

After sending off her notes, she checked up on her artist's Musetune pages. She made a few comments for the fans on Grumpy's page, made a teaser for Bashful's upcoming ballad, and loaded up Dopey's new song that would drop tomorrow night.

She logged out for Dopey and brought back up the log in screen again to enter in Felicity's username and password.

A red error popped up once she hit enter.

Invalid password.

She frowned and tried again. And again.

Invalid password.

Invalid password.

What?

She could have the password reset, but she didn't have access to Felicity's email. Only her Musetunes account. And since she hadn't been the one to change the password, that meant Felicity had.

Why?

Nora logged back into Dopey's account and brought up Felicity's page. She'd hopped up two numbers on the trending chart, but other than that, there was no change.

She pushed up her glasses and narrowed her eyes at the screen. Just what was her stepsister up to?

Exhaustion pulled at her muscles. Whatever it was could wait until tomorrow. She didn't have the energy to question Felicity tonight. Thank Creator, there wasn't anything "due" today for Felicity. Otherwise, she'd have really been frustrated.

Whatever. Nora logged out and brought back up her email. There were 10 emails in her inbox aside from Tessa's: 3 from the school notifying students and parents of the events coming up soon, 6 from Musetunes advertising new music and general chart information. The final email made her gut clench.

It was received at 11:04 am from Cavenaugh Productions.

Her body temperature skyrocketed. She hesitated briefly before clicking on it.

To: Nora Davis <[email protected]>

From: Cavenaugh Contest <[email protected]>

RE: Your Cavenaugh Contest Entry

Dear Ms. Davis:

Thank you for your entry for the Cavenaugh Song Contest on Musetunes.

Please be advised that your entry, "Kaleidoscope Emotions" has been flagged for plagiarism and rejected as a submission at this time. Per the contest entry rules, each submission must be of each artist's individual work and cannot be submitted by more than one party.

We have removed your entry from our submission pool.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our contest team at [email protected].

Best Regards,

The Cavenaugh Contest Team

Nora slowly closed her laptop and sat back in her chair. There was an anvil on her chest, and her lungs were quickly filling with concrete. She couldn't breathe.

She couldn't breathe.

Nausea curled her stomach; she put her head between her legs and tried to take deep breaths.

The tears hit her bedroom carpet with a silent splash.