Infrared

The Meraki Clan dungeon reeked of sweaty, drunken bodies and dirt. It consisted of a long, stone hallway that had cells on either side. Aside from them, torches brewed from their perches.

Eva and Gawain were tossed into a cell at the very end of the hallway. The rocks on its walls were crumbling away, but it wasn't enough to break through. Gawain fell onto the dirt-covered, leather bench in the corner of the cell, and Eva landed on the floor. The flames in her hair started to return, now that it was drying. Yet, she hopped to her feet and snatched the bars.

"Let us out!" she yelled at Elaine.

"Sorry, no can do." Elaine mocked her by waving the keys in Eva's face. She tossed them into the sky, caught them, and attached them to her belt. With a stomp of her boot, she left Eva and Gawain.

Eva called after her: "At least tell us what you did with the horses!"

No answer.

"Argh!" Eva said, letting go of the bars.

Gawain refused to get up from the bed. He lay on his back and lifted his knees.

Eva glared at him. "How can you just lie there when Axis's life is on the line?"

Gawain said nothing. He merely yawned and closed his eyes. He looked a little too comfortable.

Eva tried to think. She had to find a way to bust down the bars and rescue Axis. If he died, she at least wanted to take his oh-so-perfect, symmetrical face home. That was if she won the money to rebuild her bakery. The minutes progressed, and her hair glowed brighter and brighter.

Eva's fire spoke to her. The embers moved down to her eyes and changed her vision altogether.

"Whoa!" Eva yelled, shocked. She tumbled onto the dungeon's hard stone. The area switched from gray to blood-red and black. Infrared. Gawain was red, but the bars were black. Eva studied them for a good while, and then she got an idea. "Wait, I know!" She returned to the bars and kneeled.

Eva picked up a chunk of her fiery hair. It was there she noticed her hands, too, were red and no longer tan. Was she scared? Yes. Yet, did she give up? No, she did not. Her flames did not hurt her. Eva tied a ponytail of her hair around a bar.

"What are you doing?" Gawain asked. Curious, he sat up on the bed.

"Infrared," Eva whispered. "Help me. Give thy Evangeline's Flame."

"Are you going nuts?" was Gawain's next question.

Eva did not answer. She was too focused.

Gawain's eyes widened. He noticed that the bar the girl tied her hair around had turned bright yellow, like when a blacksmith heated a sword. The cell rose in temperature.

Eva leaped to her feet and took a deep breath. Lifting her foot, she kicked the bar.

Snap! It broke into two pieces and fell with a clang.

"What the–?" Gawain's jaw dropped. "How did you do that?"

Eva did not answer. Her focus remained on Axis, the shapeshifter, and her bakery. "I'm going to make you proud, Mother," she told herself. The second she said that, her eyes glowed red, and her hair extended like Medusa's snakes. She repeated what she did with the first bar: tied her hair around the others and melted them. Snap! Snap! Snap! Before Eva and Gawain knew it, they were free.

Eva ducked into the infrared hallway. She released her sword from its scabbard and ran. "Infrared. Evangeline's Flame, guide me," she begged.

"Hey, hey!" a prisoner called. He reached his arm through his own bars. "Can I have some of your magic hair?"

Gawain nervously stepped out of the cell. He clutched the wall and peered out from behind it. At the sight of Eva, he only said one thing: "That girl is badass."