Hazel McAllister looked at the clock. It was two in the morning. So why was someone banging on her window? Hazel sat up groggily, rubbing her (ironically) hazel eyes. Flipping the light switch on, Hazel saw that her midnight visitor was Klaas Tynwart, her neighbor. Pulling a sweatshirt on over her pajamas, Hazel opened the window and crawled outside. "Klaas. What the heck?" she asked, still blinking sleep from her eyes. "You're going to be attacked, Hazel!" Klaas hissed, terror engulfing his blue eyes. "What are you talking about?" Hazel asked weakly. "These-these guys said they were coming to attack all the minors-under 18-on  East Avenue! I came to warn you!"

Any exhaustion that was in Hazel left, and she opened her eyes all the way. "S-so these guys are in your house right now?" she asked tremulously. Klaas nodded, his blond hair falling in his eyes. "What about your parents?" Hazel hissed incredulously. "They're gone," Klaas whispered wildly. "And yours probably are too." Suddenly, Hazel and Klaas heard a thumping noise. "They're coming!" Klaas yelped. Hazel and Klaas had darted off into the cold, pitch-black night, guided by the stars, when a dark void started closing in, forcing the two closer and closer together until Hazel felt suffocated. A raspy voice whispered in Hazel's ear: "You can't escape the Blackstars."

Minutes, hours, or days might have passed-Klaas didn't know. He and Hazel had run away from six adults in black. But they had been caught. Klaas had just awakened-but not where he expected. He felt the chill of a concrete floor seeping through his shirt, sending a shiver through his body. Hazel was still asleep. "Psst. Hazel," Klaas whispered, jabbing her in the shoulder. She jolted awake. "Klaas? What happened?" Hazel asked, looking around. They appeared to be in some sort of cell. "I don't know," Klaas replied. "The last thing I remember was running away from your house." 

"Welcome," a light, airy voice said beside them. Klaas turned to the cell to the left. A girl was looking at them. She looked...different. Her skin was so pale it looked white, and her hair was white blonde. Her eyes were pale blue. 

"My name's Emberlynn," the girl said. "But you can call me Ember." Ember twirled a strand of her hair around her finger. "Ember, what is this place?" Hazel asked. Ember's protuberant eyes were questioning. "They didn't tell you?" Hazel shook her head. "Well, of course this is the Kingdom!" Ember said as if everyone knew this. "Whose kingdom?" Klaas  inquired. "The Blackstars', of course!" Ember replied, a note of exasperation in her voice. When Hazel and Klaas looked confused, Ember explained, "Years and years ago, long before your great grandparents were born, there was no moon," she paused to let this sink in. "And so a group of people banded together and called themselves the Blackstars. There were twelve of them. They thought there needed to be a "Night sun". So the Blackstars crafted the moon by hand and hung it in the sky."

Ember cleared her throat and continued. "The problem was, they couldn't decide whose idea the moon was. So they split up into two groups of six. One group remained the Blackstars. The other named themselves the Zooms. And there's been an ongoing war between them since."  "Well, okay," said Hazel slowly, processing this new and shocking information. "But why were the Blackstars kidnapping the minors on East Avenue?" "Wasn't just East Avenue," a firm, bold voice spoke from a few cells down. Hazel peered down and saw a boy with spiky black hair and eyes the color of the sky right at noon. "I live on Sandsworth Drive, and they held me down until I relented." The boy's eyes clouded, as if he were remembering a dark day long ago. Suddenly, Hazel saw a younger version of the boy. He had a terrified, pleading expression. 

A growling man stood over him, and the boy shrieked and screamed in fear, struggling against his captor. "Come to prison, Mason Campbell," the man growled. "Or I force you to- right here, right now."

And then the vision broke.

Mason looked at her expression. Her horrified hazel eyes; her blanched face that made her freckles and brown hair stand out. One glance, and Mason knew that the girl a few cells down had seen. She'd seen the starring actor in his nightmares. The reason he hadn't had a full night of sleep since he was eight. Four years ago.

The horror that Mason had felt that day swept through him once again, even worse at its return. Then he realized his eyes had been fixated on the girl during the entirety of his thoughts. "I'm Mason," he managed. "I'm Hazel," she replied briskly. Hazel gestured to the boy in the same cell as her. "This is Klaas-" "-And I'm Ember,"  a girl in the cell next to Klaas and Hazel interrupted quickly. Ember was exotic-looking with white skin and hair that was just light enough to still be a natural color on a human being.

"And as I was saying," Ember said through gritted teeth, shooting daggers at Mason. She really hated being interrupted. "We're all here because we're the next generation of Zooms. The Blackstars are planning to take down the moon, drop it down onto Earth, and kill everyone here. They're afraid us, the descendants of the first Zooms, will try to stop them." "Pfft. What could we do? We're twelve," Klaas said scornfully. "Exactly," Hazel said, rising to her feet. "You guys, I'm breaking out of here. How would you feel when the world ended, knowing we could have prevented it? If there's a chance we can save the world, we should take it. Don't you think?" "I agree with Hazel," Mason said, standing up. "I'm going." Gradually, Ember and Klaas stood up as well. Ember, Klaas, Hazel, and Mason were breaking out of prison.

After all the justice and determination was out of their systems, Klaas, Mason, Hazel, and Ember realized something: They had absolutely no way of getting out. The excitement quickly fizzled down. "Ember and Mason, you guys have been here longer. Do you know any possible way of escape?" Hazel asked. Mason shrugged. "Nope. Been trying for four years," he said. "No you haven't," Ember scoffed. "I've been here for eight years and you just sit there, staring at one thing or another." Mason's face turned red. "Well, you try being enslaved at eight years old by some dude with long hair," he said. "How about YOU try having your parents murdered at four years old and the only safe place being a prison?" Ember retorted. Mason's face changed-he almost looked sympathetic. "I didn't know about that," he said softly. "Well, you 

never bothered to speak to me, did you?" Ember asked, staring at him in a patronizing way. "The first thing you said to me was 'Your hair looks like Grammy Jane's because it's so white' ".  "I was nine, okay? Lay off," Mason threw his hands in the air. "Will you stop with the bickering!" Klaas said loudly. Ember and Mason looked at him with surprise. "We're trying to stop the moon from exploding, and you guys are fighting over who had the more tragic past. Stop," Hazel added. Just then, one of the prison guards came rampaging through the prison, followed by a young group of kids who looked really beaten down. A girl, five years old maybe, locked her dark eyes with Hazel's. The girl looked so scared and so helpless that Hazel knew she had to escape to help her and the other kids. A prison guard showed up at her cell door. "Blondie and the other kid 

are moving in with you," he said gruffly. "To make room for these ragamuffins." He walked over to Ember's cell and let her out, grabbing her roughly by the arm because she was gazing wistfully out the prison's tiny window. "You ain't goin' anywhere, blondie," the man barked. Ember scowled. He shoved her forcefully into Hazel's and Klaas's cell, and then did the same with Mason. The four who would someday start the claiming of the Fallen Kingdom were trapped, together at last.

It was around midnight, and all four future heroes were awake. Ember thought that they needed to start devising a plan if they were going to stop the Blackstars from exploding the moon. "You guys," Ember whispered. "We need to figure out what to do." Hazel nodded, not at all drowsily, in agreement. "Does anyone have some scratch paper and a pen?" she asked. Mason reached into his pocket, pulled out a wadded up piece of paper and a pen, and handed them to Hazel, who unfolded the paper and spread it between them. "Somehow getting a hold of a guard's keys would be our best bet," Klaas said. "There's four of us. We can cause a lot of mayhem in one prison if we want." He grinned mischievously. The plot to break out was well underway.

By morning the next day, they had a plan. Hazel would talk to the guard to distract him. During the same time, Mason would yell out that he was sick to his stomach and had to use the restroom. The guard would let him out, and Mason would pretend to trip, snagging the keys from the guard's hand. Then he would dart off to the kitchen, next door to the bathroom, and turn on the stove, causing the room to fill up with gas. Mason would then open the kitchen window and run back to the cell, yelling "Fire! Fire!". At which point the guard would be distracted and looking around for smoke, Mason would unlock the door, and he, Hazel, Ember, and Klaas would jump out the window. Ember and Klaas had come up with most of the tactics for this plan, so Hazel and Mason would do the actual carrying out. Now, it was show time.

A guard started walking down the aisle, whistling a merry tune. Klaas, the lookout, turned and gave Mason the signal. Mason clutched his stomach like he was sick. "I think I'm going to be sick," he said. It wasn't a lie. The prison food mixed with the nerves was making his stomach very queasy. "Can I please go to the restroom?" The guard stopped at their cell. That was Hazel's cue to start talking to the guard about the weather, which she did promptly. The guard made conversation with her while simultaneously unlocking the door. Mason faked tripping on the guards shoe and snagged the keys from his hand. "So sorry, sir," he said before dashing off to the kitchen. The keys grew moist in his hand. Mason skidded to a stop in front of the stove, opened it, and then turned it as high as it could go. He darted across the room and tossed the keys

Peering around the kitchen doorway, Mason caught sight of Ember and Klaas looking at him. He gave them the signal, and they slipped out out of the cell soundlessly. Hazel made an abrupt end to the weather conversation, saying "Thanks! Gotta go!". She, Klaas, and Ember rushed to follow Mason down the hall, into the kitchen, and out the window. And then they were free.

The moment Ember caught her first breath of fresh summer air in eight years felt like the breath of life. She almost cried with relief as she landed on all fours outside the prison window. Ember didn't want to stand up; the earth felt so good pressed against her palms. But when she looked up and saw everyone staring at her, Ember sheepishly rose to her feet. Mason nudged her. "I get it," he said so Klaas and Hazel couldn't hear. "I haven't been outside in four years. But you haven't in twice that amount of time." Ember nodded, grateful that someone understood. Hazel and Klaas had only been there one night, after all. "Um, guys," Hazel said, turning around and pointing. "We have a problem." Ember, Mason and Klaas turned, and what they saw was the start of a police chase.

Angry, coughing guards burst out of the prison, shaking their fists and yelling. Behind them came the group of ratty-looking kids. Hazel found the brown-eyed little girl and gave her a smile. She smiled back. "We have another problem," Klaas whispered to Hazel. "And it flies." Hazel followed Klaas's gaze to the sky, where a police helicopter hovered overhead. "You kids get back inside," the driver of the helicopter said over the microphone. "No." It was Ember's bold voice that spoke. Then she darted off in the direction of the building, which was baffling to everyone around her. But Ember had a plan.

Klaas saw Ember sprinting in the direction of the prison and yelled, "What the heck is she doing!?" That got Mason and Hazel's attention and they jerked their heads around. There was a guard, bending over on the ground, coughing from the smoke. Ember was running toward him. She planted a foot on his flat back and pushed herself up onto the roof of the building. The guard's eyes flicked upward, mystified. Klaas was the first to see what she was doing. "Come on!" Klaas cried. He took off toward Ember, zipping by the frantic guards and police officers. Klaas stole a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure Hazel and Mason were following. They were tearing through the madness as fast as they could to reach him. Ember was dangling her hand over the side. Klaas sprung upward as high as he could, stretching his arm to the max. 

Ember caught hold of it and gripped it tightly as Klaas pulled himself up. "Are they coming?" Ember shouted over the roar of the helicopter just feet above them. Klaas looked down and saw Hazel's wild brown hair flying behind her as she thundered toward them. He flung his hand out and she just grabbed it. "Where's Mason?" Klaas yelled. That's when he noticed the intense fear in Hazel's hazel eyes. "We-we were running and we got separated," she began in a quavering voice. "I was looking around for him, and I saw one of those-one of those Blackstars tying him up. I tried to fight her, but she pushed me down and took Mason away." "Did you see where?" Ember asked, brows knotted together with concern. Hazel shook her head, causing a tear to fall out of her glassy eyes. "I'm so sorry," she said, a second tear joining the first. "Hey. It wasn't your fault,"

Klaas said kindly. "Right, Ember?" Ember just looked away. That made Hazel feel even worse. She crooked her arm over her face to hide the quickening drops of remorse sliding down her cheeks. "It was your fault," Ember muttered. "You should have been quicker."

"Leave her alone," Klaas said sharply. They were shooting daggers at each other when- "Mason!" Hazel screamed, pointing. Ember and Klaas looked upward and saw Mason banging on the window of the helicopter. 

"Quick, quick!" Klaas shouted. "Hazel, get on my shoulders!" (He was not eager to have Ember on his shoulders after that scene.) Hazel frantically obeyed. Ember then climbed up onto Hazel's shoulders. She was the tallest. Klaas struggled with the weight of the girls. "Can't-drop-them," he whispered tersely. Ember leaned forward and, with Hazel clinging for dear life onto her shins, managed to get hold of the landing skids on the helicopter. "Hazel, keep holding on to my legs! DO NOT LET GO," Hazel nodded. "Klaas, grab Hazel's waist and HOLD ON TIGHT." Klaas heeded her, clasping his arms around Hazel tightly. "HANG ON!" Ember's voice rang out. She jumped, and with the weight of the three twelve-year-old kids dangling over the side, the copter swerved back and forth until finally, it crashed onto the ground. Hazel and Klaas both got a faceful of concrete,

but it was better than plummeting down from the rooftop. "Ember, that was genius!" Hazel cried. "Thanks. Are you guys okay?" Ember asked. "Yeah. That was pretty smart, Ember," Klaas admitted. "Thanks. But we have to get Mason!" Klaas and Hazel clambered to their feet. They were about to pry open the helicopter door, but the Blackstar driving it beat them to it. "WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU GUYS THNKING!?" she screeched. Mason scrambled to the door and in one fluid motion shoved the Blackstar onto the floor. "Quick, guys, get in!" Mason cried. Ember, Klaas, and Hazel rushed to get inside the copter. Hazel slammed the door behind her and threw herself into the driver's seat. "Do you know how to DRIVE this thing!?" Ember shrieked. "NO!" Hazel screamed in reply. Yet she grabbed the  joystick and started propelling towards the sky.

"Hazel," Mason said, voice panicky. "How is this going to work?" Hazel was steering the copter (more or less), Mason was trying to tackle her to get them back down to ground, and Ember and Klaas were both pressed, inert, against the side. Hazel made the copter zoom up towards the sky. Clouds were rushing past the windows. "HAZEL!" Ember screamed. "HOTEL, INCOMING!" Hazel saw through the window that a sizable hotel was rapidly spiraling toward them. "GUYS, THEY'RE CHASING US!" Klaas hollered, looking below. Three black cars were speeding down the road beneath them, having left the dilapidated prison far behind. Hazel had bigger problems than the Blackstars. She glimpsed a fleeting view of a hotel window and a bewildered old lady, heard a deafening crash, and then the world disappeared.

Klaas woke up and did not recognize his surroundings. There was a bed, covered in rubble, a crumbling wall, and a broken lamp. There was an eerie stillness that made Klaas feel as if he were the only one left on earth. He was racking his brain, trying to figure out why he was here. Then, in a burst of memory, it came back: Hazel had been steering a helicopter (ah, so that was why there was a propeller lodged into the wall) and crashed into a hotel. But Hazel, Mason, and Ember weren't awake. They were all lying, unconscious, in different places of the room. One by one, Klaas woke them up. The four of them stood in the middle of the demolished hotel room. Suddenly, the silence was disturbed by the Blackstars. They burst into the room, panting. "JEMINI!" one lady screamed. "These kids crashed our helicopter!" A man wearing all black came out of 

nowhere. He was wearing shades, and his arms were huge. His skin was redder than lava, and he was about seven feet tall. "It is I, Jemini," he said in a deep, serious voice. The woman rolled her eyes. "I told you, Jemini. That sounds corny." Jemini didn't seem to care.  "I heard you crashed our copter. Whoever was steering it will be held captive until you agree to let us explode the moon. Now, who was it?" Hazel walked up to Jemini with quaking legs. "It was-" she started, but Klaas cut her off. "She was about to say it was me," he said dauntlessly. He couldn't let his friend get taken. Klaas didn't want to be held captive either, but it was better than seeing Hazel suffer. "No, it wasn't!" Hazel said, her voice reaching a new decibel. "I was flying the copter, Jemini." "Hazel, please!" Klaas begged. 

"No!" Hazel remonstrated, whipping around to face Klaas. "Klaas, I'm not going to break. You know I won't. There's nothing they can do."

"It's not about that," Klaas said. Hazel gave him one last sad glance, and let herself be led away by Jemini. Klaas was about to just let her fight this battle, but his sense of protectiveness and caring for Hazel he'd always had won over.  He seized her by the shoulder and pulled her back. Hazel turned to him with a fierce determination in her eyes. "What are you doing?" "I'm not letting you get taken away," Klaas said. "Klaas, no. I have to." He reached out to her, but she was gone. Ember came up behind him and let an arm rest on his shoulders. It was cold comfort. Klaas found himself wishing it was Hazel's arm instead and that Ember had been taken. No, he told himself furiously. Mason stood beside Ember and they tried

futilely to console Klaas. "What do you three think you're doing?" the Blackstar lady barked at them. "You're going in the cellar."

Ember was blind. That's what it felt like, anyway. She opened her eyes as wide as they would allow her, but she still only saw complete darkness. Then she heard an odd clicking noise, and a stick ignited. Klaas and Mason's faces were now perceptible. Thank goodness she hadn't gone blind. Klaas's head was resting on his knees. "It could be days before they let Hazel go," he said weakly. "I know she won't say anything. She's tough. But they could be starving her!" The thought of what Jemini and the others could do with her was horrifying. Klaas, Mason, and Ember could only hope that Hazel was okay. 

It was nearly midnight, and Hazel was shivering cold. It was pitch-black outside. Hazel spotted the full moon and wondered how much longer it would hang in the sky. It was detained, but sleep eventually found her. 

When Hazel woke up again, it was 5:30 AM. The air was chilled, and an owl hooted in the distance. It was probably about to go to sleep. Hazel wasn't inside a room. Rather, she was on a roof of some sort. Her stomach groaned as it was hit with an acute pang of hunger. Hazel itched to see Klaas, Mason, and Ember. She wondered where they were and what they were doing. She hoped that Jemini and the others weren't hurting them. Little did she know they were not far away, hoping the same for her.

Mason had decided. He was busting out of the cellar. Now he just had to get Ember and Klaas on board. Which wouldn't be hard to do, because Ember was probably fed up at being in the cellar with so short a time window from the prison breakout, and because Klaas was dying to know if Hazel was okay. At the moment, Ember and Klaas were both asleep. Mason slapped his hands together in front of each of their faces. "Wake up," he said brightly. "We've got a cellar to bust out of and a team member to rescue." "How?" Ember asked groggily. "Haven't gotten there yet," Mason said in the same falsely cheery voice. "Dude. It's like 5:30 in the morning," Klaas said, not entirely awake. "Do you want to get Hazel or not?" Klaas was on his feet in less than a second. Time to break out of another room.

There was no plan, and Ember, Klaas, and Mason couldn't seem to think of one, so they were winging it. Sometimes, winging it was the best way to go. Not this time. So far, all they had done was bang their heads against the wall in the vain hope that it would give. Ember was struck with an obvious idea that one of them should have thought of a long time ago. "Let's try throwing our entire bodies against the wall at the same time," she said. "Good idea!" Klaas exclaimed gratefully. The three of them backed up, charged straight at the wall, and body-slammed into it. The next thing Ember knew, she was spitting pebbles out of her mouth, lying face-down in the dirt.

Hazel heard a bang and strained to see over the edge of the roof. She saw Ember, Mason, and Klaas sprawled out on the ground outside the cellar roof. So they had been right underneath her this whole time! "Let's go find Hazel!" Klaas exclaimed from down below. "Guys!" Hazel yelled wildly. "I'm up HERE! On the roof!" Ember, followed by Klaas and Mason, whipped around. "HAZEL!" Klaas shouted. Hazel offered her hand to Ember; then Mason; then Klaas, who promptly untied her. The four of them leapt off the building and dashed away. 

The four heroes were running along a dirt road with no food, no water, and no fresh clothes. They were exhausted. But they refused to fall asleep for fear that the Blackstars would find and capture them once more. But Hazel couldn't take it any longer. She dropped to her knees on the side of the road. "I can't go on," she panted. "I'm so tired." Klaas sat down beside her to rest his lungs and his legs, and every part of him, really. Ember and Mason sat a few feet away because they had run farther. Suddenly, Hazel's head felt like a boulder. She let it drop onto her knees. Something trickled down her face. Hazel wondered what it was. Then it hit her that it was a teardrop. Instantly she was furious at herself for crying, but she let the tears fall. What was the use of pretending she wasn't sad and scared and wishing to go home?

Klaas was always bad at consolation. And he still was. But now Hazel was crying weakly onto her knees beside him. He supposed he ought to comfort her. But he had no idea whatsoever to do. Klaas said tentatively, "Hey. I know this is scary, but we'll be okay." "But how?" Hazel asked, her voice muffled. "We have no food or water or shelter. It's not okay!" Klaas didn't disagree. She was right. Ember and Mason trudged over to where the other two were and dropped down next to them. They sat in silence until the stars came out and glittered the dusky sky, and it became dark enough to close your eyes.

"First, you're going to tell me who you are and what in the world you were doing out there. Then you can eat, shower, or whatever." Hazel, Ember, Mason, and Klaas looked at the red-haired, steely-eyed woman in front of them. They were currently seated on a neat, brown leather couch. They seemed to have fallen asleep, and when they woke up, they were in a strange house with some strange lady demanding to know their whereabouts. Mason opened his mouth, at a loss for words. "It doesn't have anything to do with this, by any chance, does it?" The lady turned on the television. News about the moon and the Blackstars popped up. The four heroes exchanged surprised glances. "My name is Felicity Jean Prince," she said stoutly. "And now you will tell me who you are."

Hazel decided to start. "I'm Hazel McAllister-" she began, only to be cut off by Felicity. "Middle name?" "Huh?" Hazel asked. "Your middle name!" "Matilda. Hazel Matilda McAllister." "My name is Klaas-er-Sebastian Tynwart." Ember bit back a giggle as she told Felicity that her name was Emberlynn Rosa-Bella Dawson. "Mason Carter Campbell," Mason said. Before they knew it, the secret was out and they were showered, fed, and clothed. Despite her controlling demeanor, Felicity Jean Prince was the nicest person Ember had ever known. But she couldn't think about that now. Because when Felicity was watching the news, Ember caught a glimpse of the top story: The Blackstars were planning to drop the moon anytime during the next few days. Ember, terrified, ran back to the room where Mason, Klaas, and Hazel were. 

"Guys!" she exclaimed. Hazel, Mason, and Klaas looked up at her, alarmed. "The Blackstars are going to drop the moon in a couple days! We have to leave!" "WHAT?!" Hazel shrieked. "I saw it on the news," Ember said breathlessly. Mason, Klaas, and Hazel scrambled to their feet. They were dashing down Felicity's hallway when she called out, "Where do you kids think you're going?" Hazel skidded to a stop by the front door. In all the rush, they had forgotten entirely about her. Klaas spoke for them. "Um, Ms. Prince," he started. "Thank you so much for your hospitality. We really have to leave, though. Thanks again!" And they were gone. 

"What's in that backpack, Ember?" Hazel asked because Ember was carrying a large backpack Hazel didn't remember seeing. "I stole it from Felicity and put snacks in it," she replied. "Good thinking," Mason said. It wasn't much of a compliment, but Ember beamed. "Is there anything else in there?" Klaas asked, eyeing the heavy-looking bag. "So I may or may not have taken her laptop to see where the Blackstars are," Ember started. Klaas, Mason, and Hazel were instantly in an uproar. "Why would you-" "You can get into serious trouble!" Ember attempted to raise her voice above her friends'. "Okay, but how would we stop them otherwise?" she screamed. "We don't know where they are." That changed their minds. If they didn't know where the Blackstars were, they might as well give up.

"Clatra Springs," Hazel said as the four were huddled under a tree in a park. They were tracking the Blackstars on Felicity's computer. "They're in Clatra Springs!" Hazel turned to face Klaas, who was sitting beside her. Elated to have found a location, Hazel shut the laptop and slid it back into Ember's bag. Then her smile disappeared. "But wait," she said. "Clatra Springs is a long ways away from here! We can't get there on foot in less than three weeks!" Hazel stood up and started pacing back and forth, clutching her head. "Let's just go to the nearest bus stop and hope for the best," Mason suggested. Everyone thought that was a good idea. The nearest bus stop was about a block away. The four of them sat on the bench, waiting for a bus to go by. One finally stopped. The driver looked at them and said, "Clatra Springs?" Ember, Hazel, Klaas, and Mason, eagerly