Nathan sat down in the cool, green grass and patted his hands against the ground. Across from him, Mara, Chad, Emi, and Bree were each staring at a glowing translucent cube.

  The Pandora 2.0.

  Wait, there were multiple.

  Pandoras 2.0?

  Pandora 2.0(s)?

  Nathan mentally ignored the travesty to english occuring in his mind.

  While Nathan had considered allowing Bjorn and Sarah to view what was happening, he knew that it would require introductions and a fair amount of trust for Bree and the rest to be comfortable with those two watching. Emi, especially, wouldn't allow Bjorn within five miles of her while this was happening. In fact, Bjorn wasn't even allowed back inside the Soulbound Town. Emi had put her foot down, and Nathan had conceded. It wasn't worth the fight. Sarah had been allowed inside, but instead of being here, Gius had offered to give her a tour, noting that she was "the Lord's heir."

  Nathan didn't really like that they were planning for his death, but whatever.

  He shook off the thoughts. It was time to play watchdog while they each consumed a Pandora.

  "So you've done this before," Bree said. She looked up at Nathan. "What did it feel like?"

  Nathan put a finger to his chin. He thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded.

  "Hell. Pretty much just liquid hell."

  Emi picked up the Pandora and rolled it around in her hands. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

  "It is," Nathan said. "If you've ever wanted to know how it feels like for your blood to be on fire, this is the way."

  "But it did give you a rank up, right?"

  "Yup. It was probably worth it."

  "Are you planning to consume yours after we do ours?" Chad asked.

  "Probably not ow. But later."

  Mara, who up to this point had been twitching, her face falling more and more, finally growled and picked up her Pandora. "Screw this, let's just get it over with!"

  Chad reached out his hand to stop her. "Mara, wait—"

  Mara chomped down on the Pandora and the crystalline structure cracked. She jammed the thing down her throat and chewed like it was nothing more than a giant ice cube.

  Mara kept on chewing, then swallowed, the mass of mysterious translucent cereal going directly down her throat.

  She stiffened.

  Chad tensed and Bree reached out a hand.

  Mara stood up abruptly and took a few steps back. "I feel something, something happening—"

  Chad backed off.

  Bree tensed.

  Nathan got ready with his healing abilities.

  Mara scrunched up her face. She took a few deep breaths—

  Then she burped.

  Nathan squinted his eyes. That had not been the expected response, obviously.

  Chad watched her for a few seconds before he relaxed. "Can you check your stats?"

  Mara shrugged and pulled it up with a wave of her finger. Chad stood up and walked behind her and poked his head over her shoulder.

  He blinked. "It worked. She's C rank now."

  "Just like that?" Nathan asked.

  "Yeah." Mara poked at her stomach. "I definitely felt something. Like, mild constipation? It definitely hurt, but not nearly as much as I was expecting."

  "That's weird, Nathan's reaction was way worse," Chad said.

  Nathan frowned and thought back to his first time consuming the Pandora. It'd been absolutely hellish. Unbelievably painful. Even now, months later, he could still feel it as if it happened yesterday. It was probably worse than the time he lost his arm, which was saying a lot.

  He slapped his palm against his forehead. "Wait, I know what's happening."

  "What is it?" Bree said.

  "I'm a freak of nature, remember? Even before I received that divine blessing, I had a freakish affinity for water. I bet . . . Because I was so unbalanced, it made the experience significantly worse than it was supposed to be?" He shrugged. "That, and I bet that our bodies are just a lot stronger than they'd been in the First Circle."

  With proof from Mara that their insides wouldn't explode upon consuming the Pandora, each of Nathan's other friends ate theirs one at a time. Each time, they had vague expressions of discomfort, but quickly reassured the rest that it was not nearly as bad as they'd been expecting.

  After ten minutes, all the procedures were done. Every single one of Nathan's friends were now C rank. The only one left was . . .

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Nathan himself.

  "Are you sure you don't want to eat yours yet?" Chad said.

  "No, I think I want to wait until the right time."

  Chad shrugged. "Suit yourself."

  When they got back to the front gate of the soulbound town, they were greeted by Gius and Sarah. The grey stone walls of Nathan's town stretched toward the sky, a reminder of all the effort Nathan had put into his town.

  Sarah walked up to Nathan and crossed her arms.

  “So, how did that super secret ritual go?” she asked.

  Chad looked between Nathan and Sarah, then back to Nathan again.

  “Wait a second, is that . . . ?” He trailed off.

  Mara clapped her hands together and her eyes widened. It almost seemed like there were sparkles inside of them.

  “Nathan’s niece!”

  “What, no,” Nathan said.

  Mara tilted her head. “Your aunt, then?”

  Sarah’s smile dropped like a rock and she stared at Mara. “How old do you think I look?”

  “Oh, oh, I’ve got it!” Mara nodded to herself. “It’s your sister-in-law.”

  Nathan’s jaw flapped open and shut. “Who exactly would I even get married to?”

  “Emi, obviously.”

  At that, Emi squeaked and jumped back. “M—Mara! This is the second time today!”

  “That doesn’t even make sense. Sarah is clearly a human.” Nathan voice raised. “And besides that, you met her before. This is my sister.”

  Mara leaned in toward Sarah and inspected her closely, as if she was a porcelain vase.

  “Oh, yeah, I thought you looked familiar. I almost accidentally shot you back during that whole tower battle fiasco.”

  Nathan winced at the mention of that fight. He liked Mara, maybe even considered her family in the same way that she did. They’d been through hell together.

  But holy goodness, she had absolutely no sense of tact.

  Sarah’s smile twitched, and Nathan knew that it had took her by surprise. Not enough to make her lose composure, but enough to make her uncomfortable.

  “You almost shot me?” Sarah said.

  “Yeah, it was nothing personal. I just wasn’t sure who's side you were on.” Mara shrugged. “Nice to see that you finally woke up and listened to your brother.”

  Nathan blinked. Those last few words had been borderline venomous. And the look in her eye had been sharp, almost cutting.

  She’d intentionally brought up the tower and the Harrowed Hand. She’d been trying to make Sarah angry.

  She… disliked Sarah. Personally. But why?

  Chad stepped forward between the two and let out a strained laugh. “Classic Mara, always with those awkward questions.” He slung a hand around Sarah’s shoulder. “So you’re his sister, yeah? I’ve been wanting to meet you for a while.”

  Sarah clenched her jaw, and breathed out and relaxed her shoulders.

  “Oh?” She smirked. “Little me?”

  Nathan internally weighed whether or not he should say what he was about to say—but if it would break the tension, it would be worth it.

  “I think he actually asked if you were hot the first time I told him about you,” Nathan said.

  Chad, his cheery smile on his face, froze in place. His expression seemed to lock in place, almost painted on.

  Sarah’s eyes widened and she blinked before a slow, devilish smile grew on her face, stretching from ear to ear.

  She leaned in toward Chad. “So? What do you think?”

  Chad seemed to grasp for the words to make a response. He looked at Nathan, a pleading expression in his eyes.

  Nathan glanced off to the side and acted like he hadn’t seen it. It looked like Chad was actually capable of being embarrassed. Nathan internally noted that down for future use.

  “You see, that comment—” Chad took a step back. “It was really kind of a . . . spur of the moment thing?”

  Wrong response. You give her any sign of weakness, and she’s going to strike at you faster than a speeding bullet.

  “You didn’t answer my question.” Sarah made a little pout. “Am I really that ugly?”

  Chad looked off to the side and coughed into his hand. He straightened his back.

  Nathan raised an eyebrow. Had he managed to get a hold of himself?

  “. . . I'm actually late for a meeting, goodbye.”

  Energy flared up around him and he burst into a run, the wind beating at his back. In a few seconds, he’d already disappeared into the city, completely beyond their ability to track.

  The group stared after him for several seconds before Sarah burst out laughing.

  “Nathan,” she wiped a tear from her eye. “Your friends are ridiculous!”

  “Tell me about it.”

  On the one hand, Nathan was happy that Sarah was capable of laughing after everything she’d been through. On the other hand, the fact that it was Chad had him rather concerned.

  If he actually tries to go after my sister, I’m going to break his kneecaps.

  Not that that would happen. It’d only been, what, a month, two months since she lost her ex-fiancé? There was no way she was already over that. And even when she was, there was zero reason to believe that either her or Chad would be interested in pursuing a relationship. Nothing more than a random idea of Nathan’s.

  But Chad did give off the feeling of being a playboy. And he hadn’t heard Sarah laugh quite like that in a while.

  …whatever, Nathan was overthinking things, as always.

  Nathan sat back in his office chair. The bust of his head in the middle of the room almost seemed to be looking at him.

  I really need to get that thing thrown out.

  The room was dark, the curtains drawn, the main source of light coming from a small, glimmering, translucent cube atop his desk. Nathan reached out and picked it up, then rolled it between his fingers.

  After everyone had settled in his town and night had fallen, he'd retired to his office.

  He thought about waiting until another time to use the Pandora 2.0, but he realized that he was just putting it off for no reason.

  No, there was a reason. He was scared. It hurt so much the first time that he'd done this, and it seems that there had been consequences to his mind as a result. A subtle fear that he hadn't even noticed until he'd really sat back and thought about why he was refusing to consume it.

  He wrapped his fist around the cube and squeezed. The sharp edges dug into his palm and waves of pain went up his arm and into his spine.

  He opened his mouth, tilted his head back, and dropped the cube into his gullet.

  His teeth crunched against the Pandora and ground it into dust. He swallowed, his mouth dry as the desert of the second Circle.

  He put his hands against his armrests and squeezed.

  Pain exploded on every square inch of his skin. The wood shattered between his hands and splinters went directly into his fingers and wrist.

  He didn't care. Every part of his body seemed to be burning, all at the same time. Sweat dripped down the back of his neck and his forehead in droves.

  The world turned and spun—and he was very glad that he was sitting down; otherwise, he definitely would have fallen over.

  The pain increased, the burning turning into a sharp stabbing. He stifled a scream and bit his bottom lip. Blood trickled down his chin, mixing together with sweat.

  His heart beat faster and faster. So fast, he thought it was going to explode.

  The edges of his vision started to turn a bright, searing white.

  He messed up. Something had gone wrong—he should've done it while the others were there; what was he thinking? Why had he decided to do it on his own? Stupid, stupid, stupid—

  The white increased. His vision was narrowing to a circle. With every millisecond that passed, the circle decreased, his vision concentrating to a pinprick.

  Hurriedly, he activated Ocean's Kiss—

  As soon as he did so, the pain only increased. He could feel it; it was like the energy that he tried to redirect out simply went straight back into his core and lit everything up even further. He opened his mouth to scream, but no noise came out.

  The last of his vision disappeared, leaving him alone in a world of white.

  And just like that, the pain stopped.

  Nathan looked around from left to right. He looked down, and saw his arms.

  He'd been . . . teleported? Was this a dream?

  Heaven?

  “Not this shit again,” he muttered.