An hour before dawn, he placed the flowers on the grave. They brought with them something more permanent to mark the location with. The heavy stone, engraved with a name, "August Glenwood", rested beneath the roses. Sky sat down in front of the red and grey, his mind full of memories growing ever hazier with the passing of time. For the first time in four years, the stinging, constant pain inside his chest had dulled to a point he could look at photos of August and reminisce. He could say his name again while smiling or laughing. It still hurt, but the deep sadness no longer consumed him. He stood up and turned to face his parents. "We should get going." Sky said. "It's alright if we stay a little longer. It's not as dangerous out here as it used to be." Alex said. "You don't have to rush off." Sky shook his head. "If Aurora's coming back here, everywhere is unsafe again. It's fine. I can come back another day. At least I have that now." The three men drove off from the grave. Sky sat in the back of the SUV, staring out at the passing scenery. He wanted to roll down his window. Alex was right. It was much safer than it used to be. It would probably be fine. He wanted to feel the cold, morning air on his face. Out of nervous habit, he refused to. Tired, he settled for a nap instead. He fell into a dream almost immediately. Eric and Alex's voices carried over into his dream. He saw the two of them sitting at a table talking and eating dinner. Their words came in clearly, but Sky didn't process what they were really saying. They simply existed in the background of his dreaming space. He was sleeping in his dream too, on the sofa of their shared unit at the Sanctuary. Another person was there with them. The voice of the person was as familiar as his parents', but the person's appearance was vague and shadowy. No one spoke the person's name, nor seemed to be speaking to that person. They existed somewhere at the edge of the room near the door to the hall, as visible and untouchable as mist. 'It's time to get up.' Sky heard Eric's voice loudly in his head. He felt something touch him. Sky opened his eyes. "Hey, we're here." Eric said, lightly shaking Sky's shoulder. Sky rubbed his eyes. He looked out to see they were inside a garage now. The door was closing behind him. Alex had taken them to one of Aurora's safe houses. Sky had been here before. The last time he was here, he tried to kill himself. Little time had passed since then, yet his thoughts in that moment seemed unreal to him now. He couldn't imagine going through with something like that. He wanted to spend as many days as he could with his family. He wanted to make his own. Dying now would end that dream. When they got inside the house, Sky dropped his bag off in the bedroom upstairs. In a state between sleep and waking, Alex carelessly fixed a pot of coffee and three sandwiches. Eric rested his head down on the table, barely conscious. Sky returned downstairs to join Eric at the table. The family of three attempted to have an early breakfast. Sky couldn't finish his sandwich or his drink. He watched Alex. The circles under Alex's eyes seemed darker than when they left. Alex wasn't supposed to work anymore. How was that going to be, Sky thought, with Aurora coming back? As much as Eric and Sky may try to stop him, Alex would put up a struggle. He wasn't someone who could sit by letting everyone else do all the hard work. If Alex went on as he had been, Alex likely wouldn't be sitting here with him in a year. Alex could have stayed behind. Eric didn't need to come either. Sky knew them both being here meant they were prepared to die. He turned his gaze to his reflection in his mug. There was no reason to die for him, he thought. He knew what both of them would say to him if he said that. A parent is supposed to be willing to die for their child. If he was to call them family, he had to accept that, much as he hated it. 'I know you love me, but I don't know how I convinced you to.' He watched their tired faces closely. They both looked so much older than when he first met them. They didn't look their ages, just like Kathy. He wanted to reverse time for all of them and undo all the pain. Sky was morbidly amused at his own wishes. 'Do it all over again without the pain...that's what got me here, isn't it?' Sky got up from the table. "I think I'm gonna sleep for a while." "Okay. Night. Or, uh, morning. Haha." Eric laughed. "I'm about to turn in too." Alex got up from the table. Sky hugged him, then hugged Eric. "Night. Love you." Eric smiled at him. "Love you too." Alex chuckled. "You're awfully affectionate today. Did you want something?" "I want a lot of things." Sky said, laughing too. "Hey, I heard before everything happened, you were supposed to wait until you're twenty-one to drink alcohol. Is that true?" "Supposed to is right. That's not really what happened for most people though, haha." Eric said. "But yeah, that was the law. You couldn't buy it until then." "I read over my medication information. If I only have a little, it should be okay." Sky said. "Since I turned twenty-one recently, I thought maybe I should have one drink. I might've done something like that if things were how they were before." Eric and Alex exchanged looks. Alex said, "One drink. Alright. I'll see what we can get you. We'll all have a little to celebrate you turning twenty-one." "Is that stupid for me to ask for?" Sky asked. Eric shook his head. "No." When he was younger, he would never consider doing something like that. Anything that might alter his mind in any way around another person was unsafe. There was no reason to have that fear around them. Sky settled down in the bedroom upstairs. The last time he was here, he stayed in the room downstairs directly beside the one Alex and Eric took. He didn't feel the need to be so close this time. Somehow, the house felt safer than before. In the bedroom upstairs, there was a sky light in the middle of the ceiling. Sky uncovered it. The warm reds and oranges with scattered gold and pink lit up the shadows in the room. He smiled at the light. Faintly, he could hear birds outside. While most of the birds in the area had died, he started hearing them again recently. The last he heard from field researchers, the RM virus commonly found in reptiles was now a harmless variant, no human intervention required. The news was a happy one. Reptiles had been the most dangerous infected animals to encounter and the most difficult to use as a food source. It was lucky for them. Between the vaccine they'd created for human use and this news, the areas where RM had dominated were becoming much safer to live in. They were not having as much luck with the Rust. For now at least, the Rust still remained contained to the areas of its initial infections. There had never been any known cases of RM or Rust infections outside of their initial zones. If they couldn't stop the Rust, at least there might be some places they could live safely in again. 'So long as the Moon doesn't get in the way.' Sky thought. He undressed down to his underwear and threw himself on the mattress on the floor. 'And now Aurora too...can't you all let me live?' Sky didn't get under the blankets. He was too tired to bother with the blankets or closing the bedroom door. Eyes heavy, he quickly drifted off into sleep. Sky woke again around in the afternoon. His stomach woke him. Hungry and still a little tired, Sky lazily tossed on a shirt and brushed his hair. He went downstairs to the kitchen. Alex was at the table working on something on a laptop. Sky walked up behind him. "You know, you're not supposed to be working much." Alex looked back at him. He closed the laptop. "I'm not working on anything." "Why'd you close your laptop?" Sky asked. Alex laughed, face slightly red. "I'm keeping a journal." "Oh. I didn't know you kept one." Sky laughed with him. He went to the fridge. "Just you awake?" "No, Eric's outside. He said he wanted to see what plants were around." Alex opened the laptop. "Is it safe for him to do that alone?" Sky internally sighed at the amount of bamboo and kudzu in the fridge. Alex cleaned his glasses. "That guy fixed everything but his eye. He should be fine." "If we see those...people again, we should have them fix his eye." Sky said. He grabbed a peach, a bag of muscadines, and some deer jerky before joining Alex at the table. "Hey, do you think we'll see those people again soon?" "I dunno." Alex leaned back in his chair. "Thinking about those people again scares the shit out of me. But if they're on our side and Aurora's coming back, we better hope they'll show up soon too." "What did you think of them? I didn't really get to, uh, speak to anyone during all that." Sky said. "I mean...I had a heart attack and missed most of it myself." Alex shrugged. "They were something. I don't even...I don't even know what to think about that. God, if I could go back in time and tell my younger self all the things I've seen...I'd probably have a heart attack then too. The blond guy seemed like he was more powerful than the other guy. That's the impression I got. Shit, I'm really going to see a unicorn one day? Is that real? How can that be? There's a clearly logical explanation for the origin of that myth. That can't be a thing that exists." Sky smiled, laughing under his breath. "I'm not sure what a unicorn is. It's got one horn, right? It's a horse-looking animal, isn't it?" "That's how it usually is. But I dunno. Who knows what the hell whatever he shows up with will look like." Alex shook his head. "I don't know anything about anything, clearly." Sky yawned. "Think I'm going to go out for a while today. See what I can find." Alex looked under the table. "You are going to put some pants on before you go, right?" Sky looked down at himself. "Haha...yeah. Hey, we have running water here. Do we have a washing machine?" "No, but we can do it the old fashion way, by hand. There's some poles on the back side of the house to run a line on to dry them." Alex said. "Glad we have a proper bathroom out here. I'm gonna take a bath later." "Think I'll take one when I get back." Sky ate his lunch. When he was done, he got dressed and went to the front of the house. There, he saw Eric kneeling down by a bush. A large basket rested beside him. Sky walked over to him. "Hey." Eric looked up. The finch design on his eyepatch shined in the sunlight. In the basket, Sky could see Eric had already collected a lot of plants. Sky didn't know the names of most of them. Eric stood up. "Hey. Did you sleep alright?" "Eh, I guess. How about you?" Sky asked. "I slept about two hours. Couldn't get back to sleep. This is my third time coming back out." Eric said. He picked up the basket. "About to be the fourth. Did you want to join me?" Sky shook his head. "I was going to go farther out to see what I can find. I haven't been around here much in years, but I do remember where some things where. I wanted to see what those places look like now." "Oh, okay. Don't go too far. Try to be back here before sunset." "Actually, I was going to ask you if I can borrow the car." Sky said. "Oh. Yeah, that's fine." Eric grinned. "Is there a reason you asked me instead of Alex?" "He'd probably tell me if I wanted to go somewhere I needed to drive to, it's too far and unsafe right now." Sky said. "It would be safer if you stayed close." Eric agreed with the sentiment. "Yeah, but you'll let me go anyway." Sky gave him a smirk. Eric sighed. "Leave me to take the fall for you when he gets mad about it, huh?" "Sorry. You'll forgive me, right?" Eric tossed him the key to the car. "You better get going now." "How did you know I was going to ask about the car?" Sky asked. Eric put his hand on Sky's shoulder, then walked past him. "Because I know. I'll keep Alex busy while you leave." "Thanks. Uh, tell him I'm sorry for worrying him. I'll be safe. Promise." Sky walked with him back toward the house. "If anything happens, I'll send out an alert." Eric turned back. "I know you're taking the car, but don't go too far from here, okay?" "I won't." Sky waved as he opened the garage door. He had no destination in mind. Sky wasn't sure he should re-explore this area. This was the last area he and August travelled through before his death. For all the progress he made since changing his medication, going to those old places may set him back. It was risky, even more so with the development about Aurora. He wanted to anyway. He wanted to know what his reaction would be. No matter how much he may want to avoid places tied to those or any of his other memories, he couldn't guarantee he wouldn't have to see those places or the things that reminded him of those times. Avoiding it often made it worse. Sky wanted to face those spaces now, with his mind clear, and let his mind show him what pains were lurking deep within him. He drove around for half an hour. Sky expected he would easily recognize places, but time concealed the past from him. His memories of back then had faded. Nature had slowly crept over human objects and buildings. What existed in his mind couldn't be found in reality anymore. Those places were now frozen inside him along with August, unchanging and gone. There were a few spots here and there along his drive he thought he sort of recognized, but he wasn't certain. Nothing looked right. He may as well be driving through an unknown land. Sky sighed. "I wish I could talk to you right now. What do you think we'd be doing?" He waited for a voice to break the silence. Sky looked to his right. There was no one there. Tears welled in his eyes. He wiped his face as they fell. Sky tried to keep driving. His throat felt tight. His vision blurred. Defeated, he pulled over, lowered his head against the steering wheel and cried. Out of habit, he wanted to bury the feelings back down. He let himself cry until he couldn't cry anymore. Sky took a deep breath. "It's not fair." Sky sat back up and leaned back against the driver's seat. He stared up at the ceiling, then looked back over to the empty space beside him. August was only seventeen then. He would be twenty-one now. When they were together, Sky daydreamed about them seeing seventy. At this point, August had been gone longer than the two of them had dated. There was no going back to then. He couldn't see August ever again, outside of in his mind, in his dreams, and in the photographs they took together. His voice would stay on the videos they made just as Sky's mother's voice remained on the tapes Kathy gave him. Echoes of another time and place, they existed there as lingering ghosts. Late night conversations and little jokes between them, those moments were left to decay inside him. It wouldn't be the same to bring them up to anyone else. "Decay..." Sky thought on that word. He was decaying now himself, as much as he was returning to life. Those parts of him from then were dying. Death didn't mean something had to be forgotten. He thought about Alex, then had an idea. Sky took out a notebook and pen he brought with him in case he needed to jot anything down. He wrote the date on the first page and started writing everything he could remember about all the private moments he shared with August. Perhaps, he thought, if he couldn't stop time and death, he could preserve their moments for someone else to see. He had read many diaries since beginning his investigation into his family and the two companies, some from centuries past. One he read had been his own from another life. Half-heartedly, he smiled. "I wonder...how will this one end? Will you finally be happy, Leon?" When Sky felt he had written enough for the day, he put the notebook back away. Ready to head back, he finally looked to his left. A white building, half covered in kudzu, stood at the edge of a forest. Sky took the key out of the ignition and got out of the car. He carried his backpack with him. This was a place Sky was sure he had been before. The white building once belonged to Moone & Wolfe, one of their single race, single sex research facilities. As the Moon continued on after collapsing everything, they found new ways to divide people down further. This particular facility had only white men with medium brown hair and medium brown eyes who were all between five ten and six feet tall and the same BMI as one another. They all dressed in the same clothes and had the same haircut. No freckles, no birthmarks, and no scars were allowed. This facility had been taken down as a combined effort between the Sanctuary and another group, the people who called their home place the Hills. The Hills were located at Kennesaw Mountain and had been a major contributing force to getting communication working between many of the sheltered locations outside of the Moon's control. Sky and August participated in this location's destruction. It wasn't the only location they took out. In the time he and August had been together, they helped destroy five locations. Sky took in a deep breath. He smirked. "We did a lot of damage together before you bastards took him from me. You couldn't even attempt to rebuild this place." He walked up to what remained of the building. Nearly all of it had collapsed. Most of the dull, white walls were stained. One spot, an area mostly intact, was as pure white as when he first saw it. The roof appeared to be holding up well in that area. From what he could remember, the attack they did on this building was primarily from the opposite side. The other side was where the majority of the research labs and offices for higher ranked members of the Moon would be. Sky wondered if he could get on top of the building somehow. 'There wouldn't be any stairs up there on this side. The sides are too smooth to climb.' Sky looked around. Then, he had an idea. He had gotten pretty good at controlling rainstorms and all the conditions that included as part of a storm; and when in danger or overwhelmed, he had managed to pull off some things he couldn't normally do when he concentrated. Sky decided to see what he was able to do. Maybe he could learn to control that too. The Moon associated Delilah only with storms. This power was inherited from Leon. He knew Leon could do more than make it rain. Even if those at the top of the company had figured out who he was, he doubted they would assume he had any abilities beyond what they knew of Delilah's rain making. Sky concentrated his mind on wind and the ground beneath him. At first, the clouds darkened over him. He focused his thoughts more clearly on his intent. A small gust of wind began to whirl around him. He pushed to see how big he could make it. After June's death, he accidentally summoned a tornado and set ablaze the field he was standing in with a shower of lightning strikes that eventually turned into the tornado itself being engulfed. He was so emotionally distraught in that moment he couldn't control the weather he summoned. That was the most violent storm he had ever created. The Moon could manipulate weather via devices, including tornados to a degree. If he could do that consciously, he mused, that would be quite useful in stripping away that threat they held over all communities outside their walls. When he summoned storms, he could only shift the intensity some or change the direction. The rotational motion and concentrated, directed movement of a tornado was much too difficult for him to manage. 'But maybe...if I can control the wind on its own...' Sky increased the power of the wind beneath him. The intensity became strong enough to lift him slightly off the ground. Excited and a little scared, he lost his concentration and fell down. Heart racing, he took a deep breath and tried again. This time he got a foot off the ground before falling. Sky kept at it until he managed to lift himself high enough to just barely grab on to the roof of the building. Sky pulled himself up over onto the top of the building and looked down. He was impressed, then nervous. "I hope I can get back down..." Sky looked around. There was more left of the roof than it appeared from the ground. Carefully, he walked around. He glanced up above him. A perfect blue, not a cloud in sight. He smiled. He made a mental note he should eventually work on controlling lightning too. His mind unconsciously could when he was in danger sometimes, but he couldn't do it right now. Sky thought of what might be easier. He focused now on mist. He was able to create and control that much easier than wind. Sky shifted the mist to fog and back again, then manipulated the height up and down. He heard a strange buzzing in his mind. A place appeared in his thoughts, one he had only ever seen in his dreams. Sky looked around for anything reflective. He found a piece of metal on the roof. Sky stared at his reflection. His eyes were glowing blue. "So, you're reacting to something about this. What's so special about mist and fog?" Sky spoke to Leon. He made the fog as dense as he could, so thick he couldn't see through it. The buzzing noise grew louder. He covered his ears, but the noise wouldn't go away. Sky's eyes widened. A few feet in front of him, he saw red in the grey. He couldn't distinguish what the shape of it was, but it was moving closer. Sky quickly dissipated the fog. Without thinking, he reached for his gun. When the fog had cleared, there was nothing there. The buzzing stopped. He looked at his reflection again. His eyes had returned to their normal shade of brown. Nerves getting the better of him, Sky decided it was time to leave the area. He didn't bother trying to use wind to get down. He hung off the side of the building, then jumped down from there. Sky ran back to the car and drove off in a different direction from the house in case he was followed. After driving around randomly for an hour without seeing anyone, Sky shifted his path back in the direction of the safe house. Sky stopped the car and got out. His body felt exhausted from earlier. Nothing had come after him. He was starting to think whatever he saw was an illusion or a mix of Leon's memories blurring with what was really in front of him. "That's enough of that for today." He grabbed some bags out of the car to see what he could gather. Eric had gotten a lot before he woke up, but they could always use more food. Sky had stopped in this spot because he noticed several blackberry bushes. To his luck, there were still plenty of berries left. Sky filled two bags full, then went searched farther out. He found a plum tree and filled up another bag. Sky drove around more. He found a couple of apple trees, a few peach trees, and so much muscadine he didn't bother getting more after two bags full. Sky got back in the car. He didn't have any bags left to fill, but he had room in the SUV for more if he left it out in the open. Sky looked up. It was getting dark. He checked the clock in the car. It read five. "Five? Shit, the clock's wrong." Sky started the car. He wrote a note to himself to set it to the correct time later. On the drive home, Sky watched blue change to deep reds and amber, then black and white in his rearview mirror. Presuming the car's clock was right, he had miscalculated the time. He hadn't thought to check it was the right time when he left. Sky could see Alex in his mind pacing by the door. It was all too easy to picture. He shouldn't have given him new reasons to worry. The moon hung in the sky ahead of him, full and bright, still clinging to the dying light. Its placement on the horizon doubled its size. Directly beneath the moon, the safe house came into view. Two beams of light searched the deepening shadows. He knew those lights belonged to his parents. Sky drove faster toward the house, the SUV's headlights sending back two beams in respone. He hoped his light would reach them quickly to ease their fears. Within a few brief, agonizingly long minutes, he could finally see them. Sky stopped in front of the garage door. He rolled down his window. "Sorry I'm late. I lost track of the time. Did anything happen while I was gone?" "Other than Alex freaking out, not really." Eric smiled. Alex walked up to the window. "Next time, you're wearing a watch." "I'm sorry." Sky apologized again. "It's alright. I'm not mad." Alex said. "We're having spaghetti and salad tonight. Hurry up and come inside. The sun's nearly gone now." "I'm going. Thanks for waiting for me." Sky said. Alex opened the garage door. The weariness in his eyes betrayed his smile. Sky smiled back, doing his best to disguise his own fears. Sky hurried to the living room with the bags of everything he collected. Alex went through them. He grabbed the bag of blackberries. "A lot of fruit. I'll make us something to drink for tonight with this." "Kay." Sky sat down on the sofa. He watched Alex work at one counter and Eric at another. "Hey, do you think I have enough time to take a shower?" "Yeah, go ahead." Eric answered. Sky went upstairs to his room to grab a change of clothes before heading to the bathroom. He took a quick shower, then put on a tank top and shorts. The shorts were originally pants. Sky had cut and hemmed them to be shorter than the men's shorts he typically came across. When he was younger, he never thought about clothing preferences. His goal was to cover himself up as much as possible. He still did that now when he went out, but he found he much preferred to wear very little when he was at home. With the humid weather throughout most of the year, a thin tank top and shorts he modified or wearing just his underwear felt most comfortable. When he went out, he always chose clothes he saw as disposable. The clothes he wore inside were the ones he didn't want to lose. Since they had a home to stay in for now, he could keep both sets while out here. He looked at himself in the mirror, amused at his appearance. The clothes weren't the only items from home he'd brought with him to make this house feel like it belonged to him. He hadn't taken it out yet, but he brought one of the blankets Eric made for him. Kathy's tapes of her and his mother were tucked away along with his mother's picture. He likely wouldn't listen to them, but he didn't want to risk losing them either. His favorite coat of Alex's to steal was also upstairs. In the kitchen was his favorite mug and another one of Eric's blankets rested over the back of the sofa in the living room. The last time they were here, the house felt strange and unsafe. Right now, it didn't feel quite like home, but he didn't feel as far from it either. When he went back to the kitchen, Eric was still cooking. Alex sat at the table drinking a glass of juice. He looked up at Sky. "Did you get hot?" Sky nodded. He noticed Alex had changed into shorts too, though much longer ones. "Do we have a fan?" "There should be some in the basement. The basement has a ton of supplies." Alex got up. "Oh, I made some popsicles earlier today. Do you want one?" "Yeah." Alex took two popsicles out of the freezer. He turned to Eric. "How much longer?" "It'll still be a while." Eric said. "I'm gonna sit outside for a bit." Alex said. "Kay. I'll come get you when it's ready." Eric kissed him on the cheek. Alex handed one of the popsicles to Sky. "Wanna sit with me while we wait?" Sky nodded. He followed Alex outside. Alex unfolded two chairs near the front door. Alex took the chair farther from the door. Sky tossed his flip flops onto the ground and sat with his legs crossed in the half lotus position. The light of the sun was long gone now. Distant stars shone down above them with the moon. A heavy silence filled the space between Alex and Sky. Sky cleared his throat. "Um, hey, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't realize it was so late. The clock in the car was a few hours off. I didn't notice until it was getting dark." "Don't worry about it." Alex said. "You're safe. That's all that matters." "I wanted to...apologize for something else too." Sky nibbled at the popsicle. The humid air was melting it quickly. "I've been...awful to both of you for a while now. I'm sorry. I don't know why I was acting like that." "You stopped taking your medicine. That's why." Alex said. "You weren't thinking straight." "About that...I...I don't know if you'll be mad at me or not. I'm sorry." Sky looked down at the ground, then up at the stars. "I actually stopped taking my medicine regularly around when I left when I was eighteen. That first night I was away, I skipped a dose. I did that on and off for about a year. Then, I stopped taking it, but I kept getting the bottles in the supply kits to pretend I hadn't stopped. I hadn't been taking my medicine for about three years." Alex leaned forward. He sighed. "It's okay. You're taking it now and the new one. Please, in the future, if you want to stop taking your medicine, talk to me or a doctor first. It can be really dangerous to do that." "I know." Sky spun the popsicle around with his fingers nervously. He looked over at Alex, then away. "I tried to kill myself several times in those three years. With my gun. Obviously, I never actually pulled the trigger, but I got really close to going through with it a few times. I don't know why...I don't know why I started skipping doses to start with. I just...that night I left, I felt so awful I thought, does it matter? If it's working, why do I feel like this?" Alex put his hand on Sky's shoulder. "You probably needed a higher dose then. It wasn't working. That was the problem. I wish...I wish you hadn't left then. I know I couldn't stop you. You were an adult, but...I should have stopped you. God, I spent so many nights terrified of something happening to you. I'm sorry. I should've done more back then." Sky took another bite. The cold, icy sensation kept him in the present as his mind resurrected images of other nights and the nightmares that accompanied them. "I was an adult then. But I knew I shouldn't have left. I left because I wanted to be in pain. I told myself and you two I was leaving to go get revenge for August, but I wanted to be out there alone. I wanted to be lonely. I wanted to feel how empty the world was without him there because I wanted a reason to give up and die." Alex said nothing. Quietly, he wiped the corners of his eyes. "I'm sorry. I know you probably don't want to hear me say this stuff. I don't want to stress you out more." Sky apologized again. Alex shook his head. "It's okay. Say whatever you need to say. I'd rather you tell me this than hide it." Sky continued. "When I was alone these last four years, I had a lot of strange thoughts. Thoughts I wouldn't have had before. I started to hate my mom and my sister for not escaping my dad. I started to hate the both of you for loving me because there was no point in having a family when everything's destroyed. And me, for every emotion inside me. I started thinking maybe Tom Summerfield was right. My emotions were in the way. If I didn't love August, if we were never together, maybe he'd still be out there fighting. Somehow, me being in his life and loving him caused him to die from getting infected. I didn't have anything to do with that moment. We were just unlucky, but my mind was filled with all these thoughts that didn't make sense. I really did believe it. Somehow, I killed him because I loved him. And if there was no love in me and I pushed everyone away, no one else would die. Just saying it sounds so fucking stupid. You think it's stupid, don't you?" Alex put one arm around Sky and pulled him closer. "No. You're not stupid. You have an illness. And I'm going to be here to help you, we both are, to make sure it doesn't trick you into hurting yourself more. I'm sorry I didn't intervene more. I wanted to give you your space. But I should've pushed certain things more before things got so bad. I'm sorry." "It's not like I was telling you all this stuff then. I was hiding what I could from you. Because I knew you'd try to help me." Sky leaned against Alex. He looked up at Alex. "I don't want to go back to how things were then. If you think I'm...starting to lose it again, you have my permission to do whatever you need to do to stop me from hurting myself. Even if I'm mad at you in the moment, I know I'd be glad you did it once my head was clear." "I promise. I'll do whatever I can to protect you. No matter what it costs me." Alex said. Sky sat back up. He finished off his mostly melted popsicle. "I don't want it to be at any costs. Now that I can think clearly again, I know why I was angry at you back then. Really, I was afraid. I was afraid of you dying. I'm still afraid of that. This stuff with Leon, if you think that'll lead us all somewhere dangerous, stop me. I don't care what Leon wants or about finding that girl. I don't want to lose the family I already have right now." Alex smiled. "Oh, I don't care what Leon wants either, but right now, I don't know what we can stop from happening. We're out here right now because Aurora's coming back. I don't know what's going to happen from here on out, but if they bring it to something dangerous and your life is on the line, you're going to have to forgive me at my funeral. I'm not letting them hurt you." "I know." Sky tossed the wooden stick out in the grass. He pulled his knees in against his chest. Alex tossed his stick in the same direction. Sky raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you didn't eat any of it. You just let yours melt." Alex shrugged. "Wasn't really in the mood for it." Sky looked at him strangely, then understood. He wrapped his arms around his legs. "Thanks for talking with me. I know I said a lot of...awful stuff. Are you okay?" "I'm alright. I mean, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't really sad, but I'll be alright. All that stuff is over with." Alex leaned back in his chair and stared at the moon. "I am afraid too, about protecting you and Eric. And well, dying. Everything's been so dangerous for so long I'd grown numb to the fear of that, but this heart thing...it's really putting my mortality back in perspective. I'm not trying to upset you...it's just, well, we have to have an honest conversation about it. I don't know if my body's going to hold up through all this. I'm still afraid of dying, but I've started to accept it's not something I can really control. All I can do is follow medical advice and hope for the best. But I don't know what will happen. So, you know, if it ends up like that...let's all try to be happy together until then." "It's not fair." Sky wiped away the tears starting to form. "I just finally got over losing August and now you might die too. I don't want you to die. I want you to live forever." "I can't do that, even if I wasn't sick." Alex forced back his tears as he smiled. "I'm not giving up yet. I don't intend to die young. I'll be here with you for however long I can. Who knows. Maybe that guy will fix everything. Eric said he would bring me medicine at some point. If it doesn't cure me, maybe I'll at least have a better prognosis after that. I hope he comes back soon with that...My heart hurts right now." "Do you need me to get the emergency medicine?" Sky got up from his chair. "No...I'm sure it's..." Alex clutched his chest tightly. Sky's eyes widened in panic. Alex shook his head. He reached in his pocket. "It's alright. I have it on me." Sky let out a deep breath. He sat back down and watched Alex take the medicine. "Did I cause that?" "No. I've actually been...feeling this pain on and off for a while now. Before we got you to come home again. Been about...maybe two years now." Alex laughed in shame. "Might be three. Or five." "Five?!" "I know, I know." Alex took several deep, steady breaths. "Looks like neither of us have been taking care of ourselves." "Yeah." The front door opened. Eric peeked outside. "It's ready." "We'll be right in." Alex said. Before they went inside, Sky stopped Alex. Quietly, he asked. "How many? Tell me the truth." Alex looked over at him, then sighed again. "I'm not sure. It's been getting worse. I think the first time it started to worry me...might have been about seven years ago...It went away and I assumed that'd be the end of it. Five years ago is when it started happening at least once a month. It wasn't until this year that it's really gotten bad. I've never passed out before until recently." "Why didn't you tell anyone?" Alex smiled. "I didn't want to worry anyone. I'm sorry. Let's go in and eat." Sky nodded, his heart ringing in his ears. As he locked the front door, Sky felt a heaviness inside the house. He sat down at the table. Three plates of meatless spaghetti, three glasses of blackberry juice, and three glasses of muscadine wine were placed on the table. Dinner was filled with quiet small talk and long silences. Eric sensed the uneasiness between Alex and Eric. He raised his glass and took the first sip of alcohol. Alex followed. They both looked to Sky. Sky raised his glass and brought it to his mouth. A loud, familiar, strange noise echoed above them. It took all three of them a moment to recognize what the noise was. It had been so long since any of them had heard it. The sound above them was a plane. The three of them immediately got up from the table and went outside to search the sky. The plane was now moving away from them, headed in the direction of Atlanta. Eric ran back inside to get in contact with the Sanctuary via radio. Alex went in shortly after to listen in. Sky remained outside, continuing to watch the plane. Sky watched where the plane had flown toward. He expected something would happen, that there would be some kind of sound or something he could see. His heart rang louder in his ears than earlier. Most people would be asleep right now. He had no way of knowing the intentions of whoever was inside that plane. It wasn't likely to be Moone & Wolfe. Outside of the initial incident, the Moon hadn't bothered using any aircrafts since. The skies were empty. As his body tensed, Sky concentrated on controlling the flow of his fear. Clouds were already starting to form over him. Then, he had an idea. He wanted to see clearly as much as he could from where he was, but whoever was on that plane didn't need to. Sky focused on the city to create heavy fog all around. He smirked as he watched the fog rise higher and higher. 'Let's see you find anything now.' Fog crept up behind him too. Sky refocused his thoughts. 'Not here. Over there.' The fog wouldn't move at his command. He turned around. The fog lightened to mist, a grey sheet pushing through him with a bold red hidden behind it all. There, in the mists of red and grey, Sky heard his own voice call out to him. "It's good to see you again, Leon." The voice said. Sky stepped back. "Who are you?" The mist dissipated, leaving only the red figure remaining. The man in red approached him. "This is the third time we've met in this current life of yours. You really don't remember me, do you?" "You're Leon's uncle, Wren Blackwell's older brother." Sky said. "Why do you sound like me?" "When you went by Leon, your voice was the same as mine then too." Rowan said. Unlike their last meeting, Rowan was dressed in ordinary, modern clothes. He wore a tank top, a pair of bike shorts, and sneakers. Everything he wore was in a shade of red. His long black hair was cut shorter than their last meeting. Rather than resting below his knees, his hair hung a few inches above his elbows. His bangs were cut differently as well, parted more to one side. "We were closely related then. You didn't look much like me the way your older brother did, but we had all of the same magic. Perhaps it's that. It seems you still have that same magic." "You know where the magic in the Blackwell family comes from, don't you?" Sky said. Rowan nodded. "Of course. It comes from my mother. Her father's family cannot claim it either. The magic comes from my grandmother, who was not human. She was killed, but her father, my great-grandfather, is still alive." "Not human? What are you then?" "I am mostly human. That quarter that isn't is where the magic flows through me." Rowan put his hand on Sky's shoulder. "Now's not the time for discussing that. We should go inside now." "But I..." Sky started to say. "Sky, come back in. We..." Alex walked back outside to get Sky. He locked eyes with Rowan and froze. "Y-you...you're..." "Shh." Rowan put a finger up to his lips. "Calm yourself. I can't heal you if you have another heart attack, and my husband's not here with me today. He's gone to visit those other people you associate with." "He went to the Sanctuary? What for?" Sky asked. "To warn them of Aurora's return." Rowan said. "He's been with them for a few hours now to help prepare." "So, that plane...that was Aurora. Do you know how many people they brought with them?" Sky asked. "On land, only three." Rowan said. "They have others in the sea waiting. The three they sent are here to gather information to send back. They're looking for Delilah, and you." "Why are you here?" Alex asked, finally able to say something. "To let you know." Rowan answered. "I'll be staying the night. Tonight is dangerous. Robin will be staying with your friends for the night. He'll contact me later. Come, inside." Sky had to nudge Alex inside. Rowan was last to enter the house. He locked the door without touching it. Eric had switched from radio to phone call. "Do you know when they'll land? Yeah, I didn't see anything else." Eric spoke on the phone to someone. He looked back when he heard the front door close. "Alex, I just...Ah...you...hello." "Hello, again." Rowan said. "Um, are you alone or is that other man...?" Eric asked. "My husband's with your allies at the moment." Rowan pointed to the phone. "You can ask them." "Hey, is that blond guy with you? The one who can do magic? Oh, he is? Ah, yeah, cause his husband just showed up at our door. Yeah, I dunno. I'll ask him." Eric put his hand over the phone and asked Rowan. "Did you want to talk to your husband?" "We can communicate telepathically." Rowan said. He sat down in a chair. "Oh...huh. Nevermind that then." Eric put the phone back up to his ear. "Uh, he says he doesn't need to because they can read each other's thoughts." Alex sat on the sofa, watching Rowan. "Telepathy? Can you...do that with anyone?" "Don't worry. When it comes to humans, I can't read others, only his." Rowan said. "But that might be an issue for us. From what I hear, one of those who came with Aurora can read anyone's mind, up to a hundred miles away. That one isn't on that plane. He's at sea, but we don't know if he'll stay there." "How can he do that?" Sky asked. "It's a natural ability of his. Captain Jacob Moore. They call him Neptune." Rowan leaned back in the chair. "But he is the least of our worries. Out of the lot, he and Coyote's son are the only two we might be able to negotiate with." "Do you know how many people they've sent?" Alex asked. Rowan nodded. "Three by plane, the three I already told you about. Magnolia, Mockingbird, and the new Coyote are who they're sending first. At sea, they have six others, a ship, and a small fortress they've built on the sea. We weren't able to get all their names, only the aliases they go by. Aside from Neptune, the others at sea are Willow, Gale, Apple, Typhoon, and Permafrost. I know that Permafrost is a Beaumont, but not much more than that." "Any idea what they look like?" Alex asked him. "Your friends will be meeting the ones on the plane soon. I'm sure they'll be able to tell you. As for the others, I know without a doubt that Neptune is fair with blond hair and very tall. Though I doubt he will venture far from the sea. Willow is an older woman. Gale is an older man. Apple and Typhoon are identical twins. They're women, but younger than Willow. Permafrost is likely a man, but we couldn't verify that information well enough to be certain. I can't tell you much more than that beyond their aliases somehow being related to their talents." Rowan remembered something else. "Oh, do you have a map, by any chance? If you have one of the coast, I can mark where they are." Alex got up from the sofa and sifted through a stack of papers. He pulled out an old map of the southeast United States and handed it to Rowan. "Will this one work?" "Yes. Do you have something I can write with?" Alex quickly got him a pen. Rowan looked over the map, then circled an island and made an X in the sea near it. He pointed to the X. "This is where their fortress is, but we know they've been in regular contact with the people on this island. Those people appear to be aiding them, but we don't know if they're actually working for Aurora or helping them for other reasons." Alex looked closely at the map. The place Rowan had circled was St. Helena Island in South Carolina. "St. Helena...why there? Hmm..." "I don't know. But it seems they've been assisting each other for a long time. Robin was able to confirm that there are no people or animals infected with either virus there. And there never have been." Rowan stretched. "If I were to guess, once Aurora left, they may have maintained connection to that place to keep up with what was happenning here and to have a place to possibly return through. From what Robin was able to find, it doesn't appear like any islands off this coastline were ever targeted with infections. I don't know why." "We always wondered. It wasn't until a few years ago anyone could even get to the sea. They have so many barriers up in those places." Alex sat back down, map in hand. His mind focused on deciphering the new information, he had forgotten about Rowan not being an ordinary person. His heart beat a little slower. Sky went to the table. He grabbed his glass, hoping it might calm his nerves. Rowan got up from the chair. "Don't drink that." Rowan said in a stern voice. "Why?" Sky asked. "You can't do magic if you have alcohol in your body." Rowan answered. Alex looked up from the map. Curious, he asked, "Why's that?" "Your mind needs to be clear to do magic, as does your blood." Rowan said. "Outside of a very, very talented sorcerer, you cannot perform magic with alcohol or any other substance in your body that may distort your mind." "I've been doing it while taking my medication. Does that not count?" Sky asked. Rowan shook his head. "If what you're ingesting improves your health, then it will make your magic stronger than if you are without it. Alcohol is always a poison to the human body." Sky put the glass down. "Huh...didn't know that. Glad you told me. Does that mean I can't ever drink?" Rowan shook his head again. "Right now, it is too dangeorus. Once things are settled and all this mess dealt with, then it would be alright if you are somewhere safe. Save the drink for another time." Sky put the glass down and sat beside Alex. Eric hung up the phone. Eric turned his chair around to face everyone. "They're going to call me back later. Aurora's already at the outside gates. They're planning on meeting with them soon. They'll call me later tonight to tell me how it went." Alex looked over at Rowan. "So...you knew they'd be landing there. Why are you here? Is...someone going to come here tonight?" "Not that I know of. I'm here as a precaution. Robin will come here tomorrow. You plan on continuing to use this location, correct? He should be able to get a protective barrier up around it so neither of those foolish groups can find you." Rowan shrugged. "I am not so gifted when it comes to things like that." Alex looked over Rowan more closely. He had seen him before, but he was so out of it at the time, he didn't really get a good look at the man. The more he looked over him, the more flustered he got. His heart raced again. He was exactly his type. Alex's face went a deep red. The heat building in him was tempered by an opposite force within Alex as soon as Rowan spoke. Rowan's voice was identical to Sky's. Alex's attraction immediately turned to repulsion. "Is something wrong?" Rowan asked Alex, noticing his staring. "Ah, no. I'm...sorry. I dunno, you look normal. It's hard to believe you're centuries old." Alex hid his real thoughts. "Exactly how is that possible? You're gonna say magic, aren't you?" Rowan shrugged. "It's the truth." "But how does it work?" Alex asked. "Um, well..." Rowan crossed his arms. "I'm not sure how to explain it to you. In what way do you mean specifically? There are many types of magic and many methods of doing them and forces behind them. I'm not a scholar on the subject either. I can explain what it feels like for me, but I can't answer you on a grander scale than that. You'd have to ask my husband. He's spent more time learning about that. I simply do it. I don't really care how it's possible." "I guess that makes sense. But your husband could explain it to me?" Alex forced his gaze to stay at Rowan's eyes. Rowan nodded. "You'll have to forgive me that I haven't much kept up with what humans have been getting up to. Most of what I know about humans these days comes from my sons, their spouses, and my granddaughter. I believe the fields of science you're searching for me to say to you are physics and biochemistry." "So there is science behind it." Alex's heart beat at a steadier pace. "So, are there, uh, formulas for this stuff?" "Yes." Rowan said. "I'll ask Robin to show you a simple one tomorrow. Perhaps it'll make more sense then. I can't read any of it. I wasn't a particularly bad student when I was younger, but the sort of mathematical equations I learned in those days are nothing like that and so many fields of science didn't exist in the human realm yet back then." "You don't want to study any of that now?" Alex was surprised. Rowan shook his head. He said bluntly. "I like hunting, shooting my bow, and training my body. I don't really care much for academic things. The most I do with books is read works of fiction my sons gift me." 'Why do you sound like Sky so much? If you had any other voice...God, you're so hot. What the hell am I thinking? I'm married. Ugh, I wish I was blind.' Alex's thoughts circled back to his earlier dilemma. Alex quickly glanced down, then back up, hoping Rowan wouldn't notice. Rowan did notice. He intentionally spread his legs out to give Alex a better view. "I think it would be better if we left this discussion to my other half. I doubt there's much I can tell you that would satisfy you." Eric had his own questions. "So, uh, earlier you said one of the people with Aurora can read minds up to a hundred miles away. Even if this guy's still at sea, he can read a hell of a lot of people's minds. If he even got half way through Georgia...we're in deep shit. Is there any way we could...stop him from reading our minds?" "No." Rowan said. "But he will pay less attention to your thoughts, especially since you're much farther away in distance." "Why's that?" Sky asked. "He's a selkie. He'll naturally pay more attention to women's thoughts." Rowan said. "All male selkie are like that. Though the women, I hear, don't pay much attention to the thoughts of men either." "What the hell is a selkie?" Alex asked. "A being born of the sea, who can be in appearance like that of a seal or a human." Rowan said. "The man who trained me to fight was half-selkie, actually. It wasn't always this way, but nearly all selkie are blond now. The men are very tall and quite muscular. There's some historical reasons why, but I wasn't really paying attention when Robin explained it to me." "What, like something killed off the ones that weren't blond?" Alex asked. "Something like that. A deadly beast enjoys eating them. Apparently, the blonds are harder for the creature to see." Rowan scratched his chin. "What was it called? Mmm...I dunno. I can't remember." "But how do they turn into seals if...you're just gonna say magic, aren't you?" Alex sighed, stopping himself from finishing his question. Rowan shrugged. "It's true." Eric had a question. "Given what I know about Aurora and the Moon, it seems weird someone like that would willingly work for them. Is he being forced?" "Can't say. It's possible. Robin couldn't confirm this, but it's likely Willow is his mother, but we're certain she's entirely human. He's likely been raised by a human woman. It's possible either she's been manipulated by them to work for them and he's there to protect her, or they are directly threatening her life in a way he cannot save her from." Rowan said. He added. "But again, I cannot confirm this. It's unlikely he's been enslaved. Robin sensed no such evil magic involved." "Enslaved...?" Alex blinked his eyes several times. He leaned back. "Hold on. So...so, let me get this straight. I've had to accept there's weird shit I can't understand out there, that the Moon has deals with these things, and now you're telling me there's magical slavery. Do...do you know if they do have any slaves?" "Oh, yes. They have for generations." Rowan confirmed. He looked Alex dead in the eyes. "The real leader of the Summerfield side of the family presently has a fairy enslaved to him that used to be a friend of mine. I'd personally like to see to that man's end." "Man? The last two heads of the company have been women. Tom's dead." Sky said, confused. "The man who controls Moone & Wolfe does not allow the public to know his name, but I met him before a century or so ago. Robin confirmed to me he is still in charge now." Rowan added, knowing what Alex was going to ask him next. "And no, he is not immortal. He is taking something to prolong his life." "What's the guy's name? I assume he's going by Summerfield instead of Blackwell." Alex sighed. He darkly joked to himself. 'This shit is definitely going to kill me.' "Jen. That's the name he told me. He's old enough he was born Blackwell and changed to Summerfield." Rowan put his hands together. Light shone out of them. When he pulled them apart, a golden scroll appeared between them. Rowan unrolled it. "Now, that one, I can show you what he looks like." "What is that?" Alex asked. "You ask too many questions." Rowan rolled his eyes. "It allows me to show you memories of whoever is holding it." "What's it made...ah...you probably don't want me to ask, right?" Alex stopped himself. Rowan sighed deeply. "It's made of my husband's hair." "What?" Alex's eyes widened. "I'm not explaining. Please, pay attention to the scroll." Rowan held the scroll before them. Slowly, an image began to appear of a man who looked no older than his mid-twenties. He had wavy, blond hair and wore glasses. There was a great emptiness in his eyes. Alex, Eric, and Sky exchanged looks with each other. None of them recognized that man. Sky had spent so many days and nights pouring over every single piece of information they had about the families and the companies. Not once had he ever seen that man. There were no diaries, no letters, nothing from a Jen Summerfield or a Jen Blackwell. But, Sky thought, he had seen many names. Most of the people connected to the family were not people who went on to do much of anything of note. If he didn't have a reason to think that name was important, he may have missed something that was right in front of him. "Is Jen his birth name? Sky asked. "I don't know. That's the name he gave me. He still goes by this name." Rowan closed the scroll. "He also intends on ensuring your death. You are, after all, a potential obstacle in his way of maintaining control." Sky made a mental note to research that name through the records again later. "So, uh, do you guys have a plan of what we should do next?" Eric asked, hoping Rowan would have something reassuring to tell them. Rowan used magic to vanish the scroll away. He took a deep breath. "Not really. Well, not right now. I asked Robin's grandfather to help us find some path forward to protect Leon, but it involves him giving me information he's not really supposed to. He wasn't happy about that. Leon running off from him after death already got him in trouble...twice now...But he'll give me the information. He can't say no to anyone who begs." "How is this guy going to know this stuff?" Alex asked. Rowan said bluntly. "He works for Death, so he has access to all potential outcomes of all life on earth. If he searches through that information, he might be able to find us a solution." "Works for...Death...Like the Grim Reaper? I...I'm gonna need to lay down...for a while." Alex steadied himself, his chest hurting again. "I told you not to have a heart attack. I can't save you." Rowan sighed again. "Why is this so frightening for you? It was accepted as reality when I was young." "Alex? Are you okay?" Eric rushed over to Alex. He helped him lie down on the sofa. Sky's own heart was making his chest hurt out of fear watching Alex struggle. He couldn't say a word. "Dad?" "You know, if you do die right now, you might get to see him. If you're that afraid of him, I'd suggest not dying." Rowan shook his head. "So fragile and dramatic. I suppose you're not any different from your last life either." "Last life." Alex tried to sit back up, but he couldn't fully balance himself. He felt dizzy. "Eric told me something about that before we left. Can you get that thing back out? I'm finding it hard to believe past lives are possible. I've had to accept...something like that has happened with Sky, but I assumed he was just special. Could you show me what I looked like before? Does your scroll come with sound?" "No sound, I'm afraid." Rowan brought the scroll back out. He titled his head to the side. "Are you sure you want to see? You're already panicking again. I really don't want to tell Robin I accidentally killed you." "No, I think it'll make it less weird for me. Somehow. Wait, am I going to meet this grim reaper guy? He's not a skeleton, right?" Alex asked, trying to calm himself. "Ah...well..the Lord of Death does look like that...but he's...not frightening. He has a calm, comforting aura about him to most. But if such an image frightens you that much, he'll send someone else in his place anyway. Either one of his servant animals or one of his apprentices. The apprentices all look like normal humans. Robin's grandfather looks the exact same as he did before he came to work under that old one." Rowan held up the golden scroll again. "You needn't fear death. For all but the most disturbed and wicked, death is quite gentle. It's the act of dying itself that isn't. Are you certain, Hollis, you wish to see your former face?" "Hollis..." Alex wanted it to feel familiar, but it didn't. "It sounds weird to think that was ever my name. Doesn't feel right." "Hollis Winter. You had a lover...your personal servant, Finch, who you've married this time around. You were married to a woman, as was expected of you as a nobleman, and had a son named Roibín. Your son was lovers with my nephew who shared my name, Leon's older brother. They quite masterfully deviced a plan to ensure they did not have to be involved in sham marriages themselves. You were quite supportive of it. You came from a family of warriors, the only poet. After a lengthy war that cost you an arm, you focused your life on diplomacy in an effort to maintain peace between the lands. You were a close friend of my younger brother for most of his life. Leon thought of you like an uncle." Rowan recounted what he knew about Hollis, but nothing Rowan said jarred anything in Alex's mind. He hoped something would make memories stir from some unknown place within him. The words Rowan was saying to him sounded no more real than reading a fairy tale. As Rowan spoke, shapes began to form in the scroll. A man with medium brown hair and green eyes stared back at him. His skin was quite pale. He was dressed in green with embroidered holly berries and leaves decorating his clothes. Alex could see someone like that being named Hollis. To dress up with the plant on one's own clothes like that seemed comical to him, but he presumed it was normal back then to do that. "Well, what do you think?" Alex looked into Hollis's eyes searching for himself. His disappointment grew. He could not conjure anything magical within himself to happen at the sight. The face did not make him feel anything divine at the knowledge of it previously belonging to himself, as he secretly hoped it might. The person in the scroll was an ordinary stranger from some other time. He might as well be looking at a photo in a history book of a random prince attached to a number he would struggle to remember for a test. Alex wondered if it was because it was his own face. Perhaps, he thought, seeing Hollis's lover might bring something forward. "Could you show me...what was it? Finch? Could you show me his face?" Eric was interested in that as well, though he didn't say anything about it. He quietly watched on, eager to see his previous self. "Finch...He had no last name. He was born in your family's castle, destined to be your servant from the moment of his birth. He was blind in one eye because of an accident you caused. He was the only person you could ever be truly honest with." The scroll in Rowan's hands shifted the forms contained within it to show another man. When the shapes settled, Eric, Alex, and Sky were shocked. They saw Eric, with the same haircut as now, in clothes from centuries ago. "Why do I look the same?" Eric asked. "That seems really unlikely." Sky added. "It is indeed...strange." Rowan looked at the scroll, then over to Eric. "Couldn't tell you why. It's pretty amusing. I can't make it so you could hear your previous voices, but...you actually sound the same as back then too. It's very unusual. Typically, if someone is reincarnated, very little stays the same about them. Certainly not things as specific as faces and voices. Leon's already odd, but Finch, you've practically come back as your own twin. Well, at least you didn't lose your arm this time." "Nearly did." Eric sighed. He put his hand over his eye. "Wait, I'm blind in one eye too!" "Same eye, even." Rowan laughed. "The same injury that caused Finch to lose his arm also made him walk with a limp for the rest of his life. Before my husband healed your bodily pain during our last visit, you seemed to have had a limp then too. But I notice it is gone now. I suppose you can thank advancements in medicine for you getting to keep your arm this time." "Just barely." Alex laughed with him. "When it happened, we were seriously debating on whether to cut it off or not. Luckily, it didn't come to that." "What does it mean that Eric's so...similar to his past self?" Sky asked. "That, I do not know. This planet is quite young, comparatively speaking. Our oldest beings are still practically infants compared to life beyond this world. There is much even they do not know about the workings of things." Rowan answered. "Other life...out there...right, that Maa thing is from space or whatever...Other life forms...No, it's not weird, Alex. They'd just be other life forms like you. Humans aren't special. Earth's not special. You know this. Calm down." Alex rambled to himself in fear. Rowan noticed his rising fear. Alex was clearly a naturally curious person, but not necessarily one able to handle information without explicit answers behind them. It would make him a good researcher amongst humans, Rowan thought, but ill-fitted to encounters outside that sphere. Nervous himself that Alex's own curiosity might literally kill him, Rowan chose to distract him. He approached Alex and caressed his face. Alex looked up at him, his previous thoughts about disturbing looking aliens and the vastness of space immediately replaced with more base thoughts. Heat rose in Alex's face. "Calm yourself." Rowan said to him. "Let's stop with the questions for now. Come, you haven't finished your dinner. Why don't we move to the table while we wait on your allies' call?" "I do have one last question." Alex gazed deeply into Rowan's eyes. "Two, actually. I promise I won't ask anymore." "What are they?" Rowan asked. "You're not using magic on me right now, right?" Alex asked. "No, I'm not." "Okay." Alex took a deep breath, somewhat relieved and embarrassed that his dirty thoughts were coming from himself. "Second question, and this is kind of a question and a request if you can do this. Can you change your voice? It's confusing with you and Sky sounding identical." "My voice? Well, that I can do. Hmm...who's voice should I use?" Rowan thought it over. 'Luke? No, I always use Luke for things like that. Perhaps I should use Alan's voice this time. It's doubtful they'd ever meet.' Rowan cleared his throat. He spoke with an even deeper voice than his natural one. "What do you think of this one?" "That one's fine." Alex said, his mind more freely running with thoughts he intended to keep to himself forever. Eric noticed Alex's behavior. He rolled his eyes. He put his hand on Sky's shoulder and motioned toward the table. "Let's go eat. No sense in letting it get cold while we wait." Sky nodded and went back to the table. Alex walked over with Rowan, eyes never leaving him. Rowan sat across from Alex at the table. He gazed at Alex with desire in his eyes. Eric distracted him. "Since you're staying here over night, do you want anything to eat? We have some pasta left." "Yes, that would be fine. A glass of water, as well." Rowan said. Eric fixed a plate and a glass for Rowan. As they ate, Rowan continued to give flirty looks towards Alex. Flustered throughout the dinner, Alex tried to avoid talking to Rowan for too long. Eric shot Rowan a few glares, but Rowan made subtle passes at Eric as well. Confused, Eric simply let it go and ignored Rowan's advances. Sky didn't notice any of this. After dinner, the phone rang. Eric answered it. He received an update from Alan about the situation at the Sanctuary. The ones Rowan told them would arrive had stopped by. The trio claimed to be searching for Sky Summerfield, and intended to kidnap or kill Sky. Alan had tossed them out at gunpoint after confiscating their plane, their weapons, and all of their supplies. Rowan's husband, Robin, was staying there for the night to protect the location. He reaffirmed that Robin would visit them in the morning. Kathy was staying up to go through the files they had gotten off of the three. When the call ended, the four discussed what to do next. "You all should get some sleep for now. Robin will set up a protective barrier in the morning. I doubt they will reach us before then. It's unlikely they know you are here in the first place." Rowan said. "We should sleep in the living room. That way we're close to the phone if we get a call again." Eric suggested. "Good idea. I'll get the bed ready." Alex said. He went to the sofa and converted it to a fold out bed. He put some blankets and pillows down on it. "What about you? Where will you sleep?" Sky asked Rowan. Rowan pointed to the chair he sat in shortly after he arrived. "I'll stay awake through the night. If anyone does manage to find us, I can handle them. I don't need to sleep as often as you. Go ahead and rest." "Are you sure?" Alex asked. Rowan nodded. "You two go ahead to sleep. I'll stay up a little longer in case Alan calls again." Eric said. "Alright." Alex said. Sky was already heading to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Alex laughed under his breath. "He must be tired. He didn't resist that at all." When Sky returned, he was wearing only his underwear. He had some fresh clothes for the morning folded up in his arms. He placed them beside the sofa-bed and got under the blankets. "Night." Alex said to him, sitting not far from where Sky was laying. Sky rested his head on Alex's lap instead of a pillow. "Night." It didn't take long for Sky to fall asleep. Alex watched him sleep for a while. "He's quite affectionate. He was before too, when he wasn't in one of his meloncholic moods." Rowan said. "Oh, he gets those too." Alex laughed darkly. "He wasn't like this when we met though. The first time we met, he pointed a gun at me. He didn't want to get close to anyone. He'd already been through a lot by then." "As have you. I can see it in your eyes." Rowan said. "Yeah. This isn't really how I thought my life was going to turn out." Alex said. He looked down at Sky. "But it's not all bad." Eric cleaned up in the kitchen. He quietly listened in on Rowan and Alex's conversation. Alex's mind was filling with questions again. He dared to ask something he would have dismissed as nonsense to even consider. A little embarrassment hit him thinking on what his younger self would think of him now. "Hey, um, you know a lot about all kinds of...stuff we clearly haven't discovered yet. This is probably a stupid question, but is...is there a god? Or is that bullshit?" "What do you mean by a god?" Rowan asked. "I have a small group of people who pray to me, under a few different names. You could say, to some, I am a god." "You have...worshippers?!" Alex was shocked. "Do you...um...answer requests? How do you get requests?" Eric listened a little more closely, also curious. Rowan shrugged. "I do sometimes, if I feel like it. Depends on what they're asking for. None of them use my actual name. I don't allow for that. But I can hear the requests when they invoke the names they know me by. I couldn't initially. They would have to talk to me directly. As my magical abilities have increased, so has my ability to hear these things. They usually leave me offerings of berries and other small things like that. I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do with them. I don't take them, but I suppose I haven't told anyone to stop either. I think it makes them feel better about asking for something." "So...um...how many people 'worship' you?" Alex asked. "I don't know. I've never really counted. It's not many at this point. Though there have been times, here and there, where I'd get many new ones at once. Seems to align whenever theres a wave of moving away from Christianity in the west." Rowan crossed his arms. He looked down at Sky. "Speaking of deities, your boy is a goddess to those fools, whether he likes it or not." "But Sky doesn't hear any requests...they don't seem to respect him as an authority either." Alex said. "No, they don't. But they have declared his previous self as such regardless. It's not merely the calling of someone a god that makes them one. Leon can't hear any requests, and he does not grant them. It is a title, nothing more. Though not all whom you could call a god answer requests. I would say the more powerful one is and the greater one can hear those voices, the less likely they will answer back. The creator almost never speaks even to the older beings, much less bother to answer individual prayers of mortals." Rowan said what Alex was actually wanting to know. "Creator? You're certain there's an actual creator to the universe? How do you know that?" Alex asked with interest and skepticism. Even though Rowan had displayed plenty of magical ability in front of him, Alex was not going to take that as proof the man couldn't have supserstitious, unfounded beliefs. "I have met him before. He took an interest in me when I was put on trial for destroying a person's essence in this plane and sending the energy of their soul to the place they call the Void. To do such a thing without just cause is a crime itself punishable with soul destruction. However, apparently, only those who work for Death using his tools should be able to do that in the first place and I didn't do it intentionally. The old ones weren't sure what to do with me. He actually showed up to decide my fate, as he found me interesting for having done it. Obviously, I was not punished for what I did." Rowan recounted the incident. "God is a man?" Alex asked. "If you want him to be, he is. He has many forms, and he can conceal from you his presence. It would be inaccurate to say he has a gender at all. Robin always refer to him as 'she' rather than 'he'. I've met some that spoke of him as 'they'. But to attempt to define him in any of those terms is not quite right. He doesn't have a physical form, unless he wants to show you one. You'll know it's him if he wants you to know. I can't describe the feeling to you." Rowan struggled with his words. He rubbed his chin. "When he makes himself known, you can feel a weight existing in the world you couldn't notice before. It's inside you and outside you at the same time, it's overwhelming. Robin told me for him it felt like he was drowning and floating at the same time. There's a strange feeling in your chest...a mix of fear and yearning. Afraid of the power before you, but not wanting to be away from it. I don't know...how to really make this make sense. It's like something is peeled back from the world that you can't unsee, something terrifying and beautiful at once." Alex gently moved Sky over to a pillow. He got under the blankets beside him, hiding that he was starting to get afraid again under the guise of sleepiness. Rowan was well aware of what he was really feeling. "We can talk about something else, if you're beginning to feel afraid again." Rowan said. "I'm not afraid. I'm just tired." Alex lied. A thousand more questions were in his mind, but each new one frightened him more than the last. He laughed. His heart was pounding harder than when he took his medicine earlier. The room was spinning. "None of this feels real." Rowan got up from the chair and walked over to the sofa-bed. He knelt down beside Alex. "I can put your mind at ease. I know a lullaby that will send you off into a pleasant dream no matter what's on your mind." "Is that some kind of magic too?" Alex asked, disoriented. Rowan appeared to sway back and forth to him. "Does it matter?" Rowan switched back to his real voice. He put his hand over Alex's eyes and hummed a lullaby. Without his sight, hearing Rowan's voice made him picture Sky. The humming turned to wordless singing. Then, rain accompanied the song. Alex was already asleep by the first drop against the roof. Eric returned to the table where the phone was. He watched Rowan. "What did you do to him?" "Nothing that hurt him. It's a family spell that puts the person being touched when the song is hummed or sung to sleep. My mother used to hum if for me when I was small. I don't think she knew she was doing anything magical then. Nor did I until I left the human world." Rowan went back to the chair he was sitting in before. "Would you like me to sing you to sleep too?" "No, thank you." Eric said. He glanced over at the phone. "I don't think anyone is going to call again until morning." Rowan said. "I know." "If you stay up all night, you'll likely miss the call in the morning. Go to bed." Rowan told him. "I will. Just a little longer." Eric rubbed his eyes. For a second, he thought Rowan looked different. He saw white hair with the eerie blue glow of the ghostly lights Eric could conjure up. When he blinked again, Rowan's hair was jet black. "You're a god, right? Could you answer my request? I don't really have anything to offer though." Rowan went quiet for a moment. "What is it you desire?" "I'm really tired...of all of this. Can you make it all stop?" Eric spoke quietly, not wanting Alex or Sky to hear him. Rowan looked away. "I'm sorry. I'm not that powerful." Eric smiled. "Figured you'd say that. Then, can I ask you what kind of requests you can do?" "If you want good food or a storm, I can do that. My early worshippers usually asked for those two things. I am sorry. I'm not very useful." Eric started to fall asleep. He forced his eyes open. "Not really hungry..." Rowan got up again. He pulled back the blankets at the edge of the bed. He offered his hand out to Eric. Eric took his hand. He moved over to the bed, cuddling up against Alex. Rowan knelt beside the bed again. "I'm sorry I cannot make this nightmare go away just yet." Rowan petted Eric's hair. "I'm not a very impressive god, huh? But I've never thought of myself as one either. Someone powerful enough to grant your wish, I would call out to them." "How would I do that? What name do I call to?" Eric asked. "Meh. It doesn't matter." Rowan said. "No name is needed. Call with your heart. I can't promise you you'll get an answer, or that it'll be exactly what you wanted." "Can you protect Sky?" Eric asked. "I heard that the family is cursed to destroy itself for power..." "A curse? That horrid man Jen told me something like that when we met. Sounds like nonsense to me." Rowan lifted his arms and made a crescent shape out of light. "If that were so, then either I have broken from it or it does not exist. This power is one I can only use on those who are part of my family, by blood or by love. It's the only healing magic I can do, and I can heal any injury or illness with it, except those of the mind. This power came to me after my seventieth birthday." "Can you make that light heal Sky when you're away?" Eric asked. Rowan shook his head. "I can make it so that if he is seriously injured, I will be summoned to him. I am not powerful enough yet to heal him distantly." "What do I have to give you in exchange?" Rowan lowered the crescent light onto Sky's body. The light surged through Sky's body, then faded away. "Promise me to love him until the end of your days and beyond. I want you to promise all of your eternity." "You're giving me this for free then." Eric reached over Alex to touch Sky's face. Rowan smiled. "If you say so." Eric couldn't fight back his body any longer. He fell asleep. His hand fell down, sliding over Sky's heart before slipping away to rest across Alex's chest. Rowan intended to go back to the chair again, but he was too tired to move. He rested his head against the bed and started to nod off. From within Rowan's shadow, a figure rose out of the darkness. Dressed in all black, a blond man carrying a large scythe stood. He looked down at the four men sleeping. The blond man leaned forward, his long braid draping itself over Rowan's shoulder. He whispered in Rowan's ear. "Have you given up being a guard dog that easily?" Rowan answered him without opening his eyes. "Well, of course. I'm no dog." The blond man moved away from him. He laughed under his breath. "So, you were only pretending to sleep." Rowan opened his eyes. He turned around. "You didn't think I'd really be sleeping, did you?" The blond man shrugged. "I wouldn't blame you. I am always tired." "I would tell you again to quit, but I need your professional knowledge for the moment." Rowan said. He rubbed his eyes. "Tell me, Conrí, what were you able to find out? Good news, I hope?" "Well...that depends on how you look at it." The blond man, Conrí, said. He looked to the side. "I was able to find the path that would minimize the most amount of deaths and ensure Leon will leave this world peacefully with his beloved." "Minimize...not eliminate?" Rowan asked. "We'll get to that. I've already taken some measures before coming here to begin moving pieces into place. We will need specific people, in both realms, in specific places on the fated day that seals everything." Conrí said. "Would you like to hear what I've learned?" Rowan nodded. "All of this will occur over a time frame of twenty-four hours. July 7th, next year in 2033 AD. Mr. Lou and Maa must be defeated in this same day." "The same day?!" Rowan raised his voice slightly, then lowered it back down. "How the hell are we supposed to do that?" "Leon must break through Heather Smith's brainwashing to speak to the one who went by Tiffany. If she can maintain control of the body long enough, Leon must then kill her. Neither Lou nor Maa will stay inside a corpse. They will flee the body, and both will be injured from leaving a corpse. Maa does not have thoughts, only instincts and feelings. It will attempt to regain its strength by devouring the most powerful being nearby. Maa will take care of Lou for us. Leon must allow it to escape outside. We'll entrap it then." "Maa will eat the monstrous wolf for us...that's convenient. But how is Leon to bring out this 'Tiffany' out of that Heather woman?" Rowan asked. "By song." Conrí answered. "He must sing to her one of her own songs, specifically one called 'Samson and Delilah'. She will briefly regain her original, unaltered consciousness." "Then what?" "We let Maa escape. It will take the corpse with it." "Why?" "Maa can still feed off the body. It will consume her body. I will ensure it does not take her soul with it." Conrí looked at the blade of scythe, then back to Rowan. "She will be the first sacrifice of the night. Under a waxing gibbous, as a storm approaches, we will perform our own ritual. Three will be sacrificed to end Maa. We will be waiting for it in the field with a trap." "Oh? How will we contain it?" "We will need people in both realms forming a line. Those in the other realm will be sending their energy to one of two we will keep behind Maa to amplify the appearance of his energy above all else. In both realms, we must have one being of life and one of death. I will stay on this side. Thorn and Osán will be on the other side." Rowan interrupted. "Who will be the being of life on this side? Llywlyn?" "No, another. We will not bring that person here. He will arrive with the second sacrifice on his own." "So, another man then." Rowan said. "Yes, actually that is another part of it. We must achieve a specific balance of energies. In this realm, we must have only two women present. The rest will be men. It will be the opposite on the other side. They must all be women, except for two. Osán and Thorn will be the two men over there. The two women on our side will be Roísín in her current form and little Robin in her current form. There is more. Four dragons must be present, two in each realm." "For dragons...surely they wouldn't count..." Rowan started to ask. "You'll need to convince Luke and Alan to come back to the human realm for a night." "There's no way in hell they'll agree to that. They really count for that? Alan's only half...and Luke is human. He merely has dragon blood in his body." Rowan gave Conrí a strange look. "You know the laws of dragons. A dragon is always a dragon, even if they change forms and no matter how diluted the blood. Likewise, anyone who marries a dragon or makes a blood pact with a dragon, even if they never change form to that of a dragon, is also a dragon in their eyes. What others may call a dragon does not matter. A dragon is what a dragon says a dragon is. Luke has both made a blood pact with and married a dragon." Conrí reminded him. Rowan put his palm to his face. "I'll worry on that later. What else is there?" "Fifteen must be present in both realms, for a total of thirty, excluding the chicken." Conrí said matter-of-factly. Rowan blinked. "The...the what?!" "So, we're going to need a hen. A very particular kind of hen. She needs to be immortal." "Luke is going to kill us." Rowan shook his head. "He'll kill us for even suggesting bringing one of his damn, precious little pet birds here in the way of one of the most dangerous creatures on this earth. He'll never agree." "You'll have to find a way to persuade him." "What do we need a chicken for?" Rowan took a deep breath. "For Maa. Remember, it is only afraid of two things. Unicorns and chickens. We'll keep the chicken on our side to stop it from moving forward, and a unicorn behind it. The unicorn is where we will have all the energy flowing to, to give the illusion there are more unicorns present than reality. We will have one unicorn present in each realm." "Do you know all of who we need to assemble over here?" Rowan asked. Conrí nodded. "Myself, the being of Life who will arrive separately from us, the dark being to be swallowed by the darkest darkness who will bring the being of Life with him..." "Wait...who is that?" Rowan stopped him. "I think you know well who that would be. He will be after Leon." "Then the being of Life is...Oh god." Rowan leaned back. He sat up more straight. Rowan took a moment to compose himself. "Continue..." "Roísín, little Robin, Luke, Alan, and myself, as I've already mentioned. You and your beloved will obviously be there, along with Leon himself. And these two behind you now. It would be impossible to stop them from coming along. The unicorn will be Elios. His mother will assist on the other side." Rowan counted in his head. "You didn't mention two." "We need a being who is capable of swallowing something as horrid as Maa. There is only one being on Earth that can eat anything." "You don't mean..." "The Black Deer, the tainted one." Conrí said. "The one released from the black well that gave you your family name." Rowan laughed. "Well, I suppose it is fitting it ends with him there. Who is the last one?" Conrí swallowed hard. His tone changed from serious to anxious. "Now, remember, I am merely a messenger. I am only telling you what I saw as the only path to save Leon's soul from destruction." "Spit it out." "The last person is Shin." Rowan's eyes widened. His heart stopped briefly. "What do you intend to do with my dear great-grandfather?" "He is one of the only beings on earth capable of accomplishing what we need to do. This task can only be done by a fox with very specific abilities. There are maybe ten who have the strength to do this task on earth. Out of those ten, he is the only one who would take the risk of his soul." Conrí explained, clutching his scythe against his chest. "His soul? What do you intend for him to do?!" Rowan stood up. Conrí took a step back. "I am sorry. There is no other way. To defeat Maa, the hen and the unicorn will hold it in place to be swallowed, but Kier won't be able to kill it inside himself immediately. It must be possessed from within to be held in place to die inside him. Shin must allow himself to be intentionally swallowed by Maa to get inside its body to contain it from inside. No ordinary fox could possess Maa. Maa's innards access the void itself. We need a fox who can stretch his energy across every known realm of existence without being destroyed by it." "And what happens to him after Maa dies?" Rowan asked angrily. "Shin is very gifted. It is possible, since he can already travel freely through realms others cannot and without becoming ill from such a journey, he may be able to return on his own. He has about a fifty percent chance of surviving." "Fifty?!" Rowan grabbed Conrí's black cloak. "You're leaving his fate to the odds of a coin toss?!" Conrí pushed away Rowan's hand. "Look, I don't like it either. But it's we either risk his soul and hope he beats the odds, or I definitely take Leon's." "I will stand in your way, if you do. And I will end you in a way no reaper can reach you. You know very well I can." Rowan threatened him. "I am certain I will." "I know you will. I've already seen it, but it is my duty to fix my failures. If he will not come willingly in death, I will destroy his soul." Conrí swung his scythe and held the blade above Sky's neck. "I will perform my sworn duties to uphold the balance of the world, even if it costs my very existence. There is no path forward where someone you love's soul is not on the line. You cannot avoid this fate. Which one you choose to potentially lose is all you can do. You must pick, Leon, who I will destroy in all paths except this one, or Shin, who has a chance of surviving this." Rowan turned away from Conrí. He spoke with sorrow in his voice. "Tell me the rest." "To return to this realm, the being of Life must use his energy to bridge a path for Shin to travel across in his weakened state. He dies before then, Shin will die after Kier swallows Maa. Whether the being of Life survives this encounter will depend on if any light remains within the heart of the second sacrifice." Conrí said. "He will die, regardless, same as Heather. Whether his soul can be saved or not, he has three fates. If we save Shin, it's possible his soul may be saved from the Void. If Shin is lost, his soul may also be lost there in that space. But whether Shin lives or dies, there is a chance in both paths he becomes one of the parasites that torment ones they steal from our realm. It is on his death that Shin will use his body to slip into Maa. Once Maa is inside Kier, the body can be killed, but we must kill the soul. Shin must be saved by the being of Life in the moment between those two points." "How will I help?" Rowan looked back at him. Conrí raised his scythe. "Only beings of Death can destroy the soul." "I don't work for your master." "I said what I said." Conrí reached out to Rowan. He lightly grabbed some of Rowan's hair. It shone white for a moment before returning to black. "Your body is in the process of gaining a new form of magic right now. When the day comes, you will be able to use it." "You said there were three sacrifices earlier? My great-grandfather is the third one, isn't he?" Rowan asked. Conrí nodded. "Yes. He must allow himself to potentially meet with death and total destruction. There are several crossroads at this point. How many deaths occur that night will be from two to five. Heather's death is unavoidable. She will wish for it in that moment anwyay. The other will cause his own death. As for the other three...the being of Life may or may not live. If he dies, Shin will also die." "Who's the fifth?" Conrí pointed his scythe at Alex. "How?" Rowan asked. "From the shock of it all." Conrí said. He lowered the blade. "I said two are certain, but in truth, it's really three. The only path in which he survives this is if the creator herself intervenes and even then, he has two paths at that point. He may reject even the goddess's grace and accept his death. He must be convinced by a reaper who will arrive solely to collect his soul to reject the collection and the grace of the goddess to stay in the realm of the living. If he happens to somehow survive this, the odds of that fate are so unlikely, he wil have no further crossroads along his path. I actually called out to the goddess herself to ask about this and she told me in every single universe he has existed in, he is always fated to die young. This is the only one in which he has even a single chance of ever passing forty." Rowan took another deep breath. "Leon's not going to take this well." "I am sorry I cannot give you better news than this, but that is the reality of the situation." Rowan knelt down. He touched Sky's face. "I am sorry, nephew. I'll do what I can." "I haven't spoken to Shin yet." Conrí said. "I'll talk to him myself." Rowan glanced back at him. "You know if his soul is lost, I will also..." "You'll end me for that too. I know." Conrí gave a small smile. "To be honest, that might be a better alternative than my fate if I survive this." "What do you mean?" "It's nothing. Take care. I must get back to work." Conrí shook his head. He left through the shadows. Rowan wondered on what he meant, but quickly turned his thoughts back to Sky. "Oh, what a mess you've gotten us all into, my little lion." Sky couldn't hear Rowan's words. In his dream, he was somewhere familiar and far away, in a field he always seemed to find himself in. The girl he was searching for, the girl in the white dress, was sleeping with her head resting against his lap. He watched a storm coming in across the horizon, darkening the empty field. There, he watched from beneath the shade of a single, lonely oak. 'I'll find you soon.' He whispered to her. The girl woke. She looked up at Sky. 'I'm scared.' 'What are you afraid of?' He asked. 'I'm on the outside now.' 'You've escaped?' Sky asked. 'Where are you?' 'I don't know. I don't think I'm very far. I ran for so long, but I don't know where to go. How do I find you?' She asked him. 'Head toward Atlanta.' He said. 'I don't know when I'll be able to find you, but go in that direction. There are people there who can help you. If I can reach you first, I'll get you myself. But they're looking for me too.' 'You are real, aren't you?' The girl sat up. With shaking hands, she put them to Sky's face. 'I always feel like you are, but when I wake...I know you can't be.' 'I am real. Search for me.' He put his hands over hers. 'I want to. I want to believe you.' She started to cry. 'I don't want to die out here.' 'I won't let you die before me for a third time. Whatever you have to do, survive. Survive and call for me.' 'But how?' 'In here.' He put his hand over her heart, then kissed her. When he broke the kiss, he had taken on Leon's appearance. 'I would destroy myself and the world to get to you.' 'I know I am dreaming. I don't want to wake up again.' The girl cried more. She became faint. A heavy mist turned to fog, separating them. Sky woke from the dream in tears. The light of dawn shone through the living room window. Eric and Alex were at the table eating breakfast. Eric had brought the phone over to the kitchen table. Rowan, sitting on the bed, looked down at him. "A bad dream?" "She's on the outside." "What did you say?" Rowan asked. Sky sat up. His eyes glowed an ethereal blue. He quickly got up from the bed and headed for the door. "She escaped them. She's on the outside. I have to look for her." "Leon, wait. We have things we need to discuss before then." Rowan grabbed his arm to stop him. "There's no time. I..." Sky tried to break free, but Rowan was stronger than him. "Sky, calm down. He's right. Aurora's in Atlanta. And we can't just pick up this girl without a plan. If she's escaped, the Moon will be after her too." Alex got up from the table. "I have...part of one." Rowan thought over how to explain everything to them. "Last night, after you went to bed, my grandfather-in-law visited and gave me some very important information about how we can deal with several of the obstacles in our way. It will not be easy though..." "Why didn't you say anything about that until now? We've been up for two hours." Eric asked. "I wanted to wait until everyone was awake." Rowan led Sky over to the table. "Please, sit. This isn't going to be a pleasant discussion." Once everyone was at the table, Rowan explained everything Conrí had told him. Eric held back tears. Sky let them flow. The strange blue light in Sky's eyes disappeared. They returned to their normal shade of brown. He shook his head and looked at Alex. "No. We can't do that then. I'm not risking your life for this. I don't even know this girl." "This is the only way to begin unraveling the Moon, isn't it?" Alex asked. "Without those two contracts protecting their fake goddess, they will be much weaker. She's currently playing the role of head of the company as well. Take out Heather and the monsters protecting her, and the viruses plaguing you will also vanish." Rowan said. "Wait, what do you mean?" Eric asked. "If you kill Maa and Lou, that means all of it goes, because they are all of it. Every sick person is filled with them. You get rid of them, and the land opens back up for you to safely travel, even without vaccines. They will be eradicted." Rowan said. "They won't be able to make any new strains. It'll all be gone." "And all it would cost would be my life?" Alex took the news surprisingly well. "Alex..." Eric turned to Alex. Alex placed his hand over his heart. "It's alright. There's a chance I live anyway, right? I'll do whatever you need me to." "Dad, you can't. I won't let you." Sky rejected the idea. Alex put his hand on Sky's shoulder. "I want you to have your happy ending. And for everyone else to get that chance too. This is what I've wanted more than anything. I've been prepared to die for this chance for a long time." "No...this isn't fair...why is it always like this..." Sky broke down in tears. His eyes shifted between blue and brown. Alex got up from his chair and held him. Rowan bowed his head. "I'm sorry. I'll do what I can to reduce the risks as much as I can. But you should prepare for the worst, so it doesn't hurt as much if that is the way it goes." "I've already been getting used to the idea I might not have much time." Alex hugged Sky tightly. "Nothing needs to change between us. Let's make sure our moments together are happy ones, okay?" Sky hugged him back, crying into his chest. "I love you." "I love you too." Alex said. He looked over at Eric. Eric was quietly crying too. Alex smiled at him. Eric forced himself to smile back. "We'll do whatever you need us to do." "I guess I should...start getting ready..." Sky wiped off his face. The tears kept falling. As Sky got up from the table, the phone rang. Eric answered it. When the call was over, he told the others that they should expect Rowan's husband, Robin, to arrive shortly. As soon as Eric had finished saying that, Robin appeared behind him. "Good morning." Robin said. "I've come to set up a barrier for you. This is the location you three wish to use as your home for now, correct?" "Uh, hello...Um, we've met, right?" Alex asked. "I am the one who kept you from death. Oh, that reminds me..." Robin reached in a bag he had at his side. He took out a smaller bag. "I've brought some medicine for you. It should help strengthen your heart. Please, take it every night with a meal." Alex accepted the bag. He looked inside. "Um, thank you. How much of this am I supposed to take?" "Oh, it's already portioned out. That should be enough medicine for a month. I'll return in a month to reassess your condition." Robin said. Alex jokingly asked. "Are you my magic cardiologist now?" "I can do more than treat the heart." Robin boasted. "But yes, consider yourself under my care going forward. Oh, I have something else for you too. This is from your allies." Robin got out two flip phones and their chargers from his bag. He gave one to Sky and one to Alex. "They said you would know how to use these." "A cell phone? Will these even work?" Eric stared at it. "Damn, these are old. I think I had one like this in elementary school." "He said your friends in the Hills have ensured they'll work." Robin said. "Your allies contact informaton is already inside the device. I'm not sure how it works though..." Rowan took one of the cell phones and opened the contacts. "It's in here. Luka showed you this before. Don't you remember?" "I'm not really interested in this sort of thing." Robin shrugged. "I'll leave you all to figure it out. I need to set up the barrier. It'll take me a while to cover this area. I'll need to make the barrier first, then an illusion for anyone who is not your allies to see when they pass by here." Alex spoke to Eric. "Is this a good idea? Wouldn't we be easily trackable with these?" "I don't know. I doubt they would know we even have anything like this working. The Moon doesn't use phones themselves. Everything's emails, printed papers, and internal digital documents. I don't think I've ever encountered a phone anywhere but their old, abandoned buildings. They probably wouldn't think to even pay attention to anything like this." Eric countered. "Well, we'll just have to hope for the best." Alex noticed Sky was already in the contacts of the phone Rowan was holding. "This one must be ours. Sky's listed in here." Sky compared contacts. He found them under "Eric Alex". He tried calling the number. The phone Rowan was holding rang. Rowan answered it. "Hello there, Leon." Sky heard him clearly through the phone, though not as clearly as on the landline phone. He said. "I hear you, but could you stop calling me Leon. I'm Sky." Rowan hung up the phone. "My apologies. It's hard to see you are someone new. I can only see my nephew when I look in your eyes." "I know. Thank you for trying to help us." Sky put the phone on the table. "I guess I better get ready. At least I'll be able to talk to you whenever I want." "You'll need to call us every day we're apart." Alex said. "I will." Sky felt the tears coming up again. He pushed them back. Alex led Sky away. "Come on. I'll help you pack everything." After getting dressed, Sky packed his backpack full of supplies. He went outside with Alex to check the car for anything he might need in there. Eric and Rowan followed them outside while Robin, who was already outside, continued working on the barrier. Eric watched Alex and Sky from afar from one of the chairs by the front door. Rowan sat in the chair on the other side of the door. "Are you sure you can handle this?" "I'll have to." Eric answered. "You do understand, don't you? Alex is your soulmate. Leon losing his so young after meeting her is why he went mad. Connecting with your other half itself begets a certains amount of madness in the person. If he dies, you may lose your mind." Rowan warned him. "I don't have the option to allow that." Eric kept his gaze ahead at his family. "I have a son to take care of." "Leon was a father of seven. That didn't stop anything." Rowan reminded him. He added. "I don't think I could handle it, and I've been gifted centuries." "Then I'll have to be stronger than you." Eric looked over at Rowan. When their eyes met, Rowan saw a glowing blue light instead of brown shade. Eric's tone changed entirely. Rowan knew the person speaking was no longer Eric. "After all, I've already raised someone who could handle such a separation in all of this time, in all of these worlds, in this entire universe. Hollis and I are the only two to ever raise such a person so strong in spirit. If I can do that, I can surely give that strength to myself." "You are right. Roibín's spirit was unbreakable." Rowan looked away to where Robin was, then back to Eric. "I hope you will not need that same strength." "As do I." Blue flowers sprouted up from the ground around them. Most of them were hydrangea, roses, and forget-me-nots, but a different flower appeared in Eric's hands. Nearly white, except the outer edges that were twinged with a blue they should not possess, Eric held holly flowers in his hands along with a flower Rowan had never encountered anywhere he had travelled in any realm. The flower felt familiar and alien, ancient and sorrowful. Briefly, he saw another face over Eric's that gave him the same feeling as the flower, but when he blinked, the vision of that face and the flower itself was gone. Only the holly remained in his hands. Rowan did not ask him about it. He doubted Eric would answer, and if he could, Rowan wasn't certain he wanted to hear it. After Robin finished the barrier and the illusion on the house, he and Rowan left to investigate the members of Aurora further. Robin promised he would update them again in a few days. Sky put his backpack on. "I won't wander too far. Please, stay close." "We will. We'll have meeting spots. As you travel farther out, so will we. This will be our home base. If things get too dangerous out there, we'll keep you safe here." Alex assured him. "We'll meet once a week, at least." Sky said to them. "We will. Should we try to get you a car?" Eric asked. "No, that'll make me easier to see. I need to do this on foot." Sky hugged Eric, then Alex. He said to Alex. "Make sure you take your medicine." "I won't forget." Alex promised. Sky put his hands on Alex's face. His eyes watered. Alex took hold of Sky's hands, then kissed him on the forehead. "It's going to be okay. I promise. Whatever happens, you're going to be okay." "I want you to be okay too." A tear fell from Sky's cheek. "I am okay right now. Every day, I think about how lucky I am that you're in my life. I'm not thinking about when it'll end. Let's enjoy right now, okay?" Sky hugged him again. He nodded. He wiped his face off. "Please, be safe." "You too." Alex said. "Call us tonight." Eric reminded him. "I will." Sky waved goodbye to both of them and walked away. When he last left them to wander, he was filled with so much hatred, rage, and sadness. Right now, only sadness remained and a faint glimmer of hope. He didn't want to lose sight of them, but it didn't take long until he had walked far enough to no longer see the house. Sky looked at the clouds above him. "Tell me, where are you wandering right now?" With Sky and their guests gone, Alex and Eric were alone again. Alex had moved the two outside chairs together. They sat in them holding hands. Alex started to cry. Eric held him close. "I can make him change his mind if..." "No." Alex shook his head. "This is what I want too. I'm just...scared of dying." Eric started crying too. "Hey, you know, we've known for a while now there's something after death. You'll see me again. Maybe even right after. You could use that power of yours at night. We could see each other until..." "I want you here where I can touch you." Eric caressed Alex's face. "He did say...there was a chance, right? Let's hope we're lucky. If I don't...if I die, do you think I'll see Juan again? God, I can only imagine what he'd say to me now. I could see my parents..." Alex tried to make himself feel better. He couldn't shake his fear. "Eric, I'm really scared." "I am too." Eric held him tighter. "It's not fair." "If you want me to go with you, I will." Eric offered. "You can't." Alex's chest started to hurt again. "You have to look after Sky." "He'll be alright once he finds her." "I'll feel worse thinking you might join me that soon. Please, don't." Alex pulled away. "Please, promise me you won't." "Is that what you want?" Eric asked. "Yes. If the only family I can save is you and Sky, then that's enough for me." Alex wiped away his tears. "I just...it's...I thought I'd have more time than this." "We'll make sure you will." "I know you'll try, but don't...blame yourself if you fail." Alex kissed him. "I love you." "I love you too." Eric broke down in tears. He coldn't say anything else. His words all got caught in his throat. Only tears flowed from him. Alex held him close as he cried with him. Far from them in what was once Rome, Georgia, a young woman dressed in white wandered through a field. Her body was tired from running yesterday when she escaped. She hadn't eaten anything in that time. She didn't know where she was going. She had never been outside of the Bubble, the place she used to call home. There, with her assigned family and the mother she was not allowed to admit was her mother, and that monstrous man with his monstrous, beautiful creation he intended to force on her; that place had been the only thing she had ever known of the world. Anything beyond that was something that only existed to her in pictures and videos they allowed her to see of the time before, the stories from her fake grandmother of the memories that slipped past her medication's memory-repressing effects, and what she overheard from Heather, Jen, and the fairy. She didn't know where to go or how to find any help. Her stomach ached with hunger. "Julia." A voice called out to her. She turned around. A man dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans stood behind her. He looked like an ordinary human, but she knew he was a fairy. Jen had permanently removed the fairy's wings before she was born, costing the fairy his immortality in an attempt to remove the illness destroying the fairy's body. Like Jen and her mother, Heather, the fairy took the same age-supressing drug every day to push off death. The illness destroying the fairy's body returned in spite of the operation. It was an illness, the fairy said, the scientists at both companies could never produce a cure for, as they were the very cause itself. The fairy had heavy bags under his eyes. His already light skin was paler than before. His white hair looked shorter than yesterday. She assumed he had cut it again to appease Jen. Given he was standing before her now, he must have done many things to appease Jen after helping her escape. "Fairy, it's you again." Julia lowered her voice. "Is Jen here?" "No, he's busy at the moment. I've slipped away, but I can't be gone for long." The fairy put his hand on her head. Her body glowed for a moment. "I've given you some protection, but I am too weak to do more. This body is dying faster than I expected. He's to the southeast in Marietta." "Who?" "The one you seek, the one who seeks you. Survive. Keep yourself hidden. Aurora's returned. Jen and Heather are desperate." The fairy looked up at the darkening clouds above them. "The final ritual, next summer, July 7th. We'll meet again then, likely for the last time." "Can't you stay?" She asked. The fairy held up his wrists. Red marks covered them. On the inner part of each wrist, a number glowed. One. "Should he command me once more by my name, my mind will die even if my body carries on. If he calls my name, I will return and in that return, I will cease to be. My body will go on doing his bidding with no mind to remember anything. No matter how far I leave, should he call my name, I will always hear it. Don't worry on me, child. Go somewhere far from us. May their downfall never touch you, daughter of Coyote." "Fairy, is there nothing you can do to escape too?" The fairy smiled at her, then shook his head. "It'll be over soon enough. Perhaps Jen will let me enjoy some time to myself in between then. I don't know if I will be me the next time we meet, but if he does call my name again, my body will live a little longer. If I don't speak to you then, it will be because I am gone. So, I will say my goodbyes to you now, little one. May you find happiness. I am sorry I could not do more to protect any of you." Julia hugged the fairy. "I'll find a way to save you too." "Kind child, your words are sweet. But you must ensure you save yourself first. Do not worry about me. I have already lived for centuries now. I am not afraid of death." The fairy kissed her on the forehead. "I give you one last gift." All around them, plants grew rapidly from the ground. The trees and bushes that sprung up bore fruit. "Goodbye, Julia." The wingless fairy vanished. Julia reached out for the space where he once was. The silence after his departure was more frightening than the first silence she experience yesterday. Fear and sadness overwhelmed her body's other aches. She stared at the gifts the fairy had left her. She knew she was hungry, but she did not want to eat. Through tears, she forced as much as she could down her throat. Under different circumstances, she imagined she would enjoy the taste of the fruit more. It was sweeter than anything she had ever eaten, but she thought little of the flavor. Other thoughts filled her. She couldn't bring any of this with her. What would she eat tomorrow? She didn't know what she could eat out here. She had never left that place before. The images she saw of the outside world in pictures and video looked beautiful. Seeing in person, everything was even more beautiful, but the ground hurt her feet and she couldn't sleep peacefully out here. She was always anxious inside the building, but out here she was afraid. Every new discovery was tempered with the fear of what unknown danger could be lurking that her lack of experience would prevent her from noticing. She knew little of the way things worked when she was under Heather and Jen's control. Out here, she knew nothing at all. But she had wanted to escape them. She wanted to find him, that man she had always seen in her dreams since as far back as she could remember. Leon. There was also the boy she sometimes saw, but his face always escaped her. She thought they might be one and the same, but she wasn't certain of that. She often thought he might be an invention of her mind, like many other dream "characters" that repeated in the landscape of her mind. Whatever the boy meant--whether real, symbolic, or noise--he didn't matter. She wanted to find that man she always saw under the rainstorm. Thunder echoed across the horizon. The orange and pink hues of morning were long gone and the wind, warm and wet, dragged her forward as it called out a sound she had never heard before. For a moment, Julia's terror subsided. She walked forward in awe of the electric darkness building over her. She felt like she was dreaming again. This was the first storm she had ever seen in her waking life, but had walked under thousands in her dreams. "Are you near?" She asked to the sky. "Are you real?" The sky replied with spider lightning and deep, deafening rumbling all around her. The wind howled, and then another howling from behind her broke through the sounds of the storm. Julia looked back. There was nothing behind her. Someone instead walked past her to her left. A coyote walked ahead of her. It paused, turned back to face her, then kept walking toward the horizon. Julia didn't know the name of the animal. Few animals were important enough to learn the face and sound of, according to the company. Somehow, it seemed familiar. She followed the beast as the rain followed behind her, never quite getting close enough to drench her. The girl chased the coyote through the overgrown field while the boy wandered at the other end of the storm. As the two walked towards one another, a second small plane landed in what was once called Athens, GA, over a hundred miles from Rome, where the girl wandered from and less than eighty from where the boy wandered from in Marietta and from where the first plane landed in Atlanta. A second set of three were aboard the plane. The three were known within Aurora as Apple, Neptune, and Permafrost. "Jacob, do you sense where they are?" The man known as Permafrost asked. "Team one has made contact. They're headed toward Rome now, on foot. Those people at the place called the Sanctuary have taken the plane for themselves." Jacob, who was known as Neptune, said. "No one was injured in the meeting." "What about the boy? Do you sense him?" He asked. Jacob hesitated to answer. "Distantly, to the west. He's moving towards the outer range of my abilities." "So, he's going farther west then." The man said. The only woman in the group, who was known in the company as Apple, sorted through her supply bag. "You can't sense my sister anymore this far away, right?" "No, Ami and the others are too far away." Jacob answered. He read through her mind. "I'm sure they'll be alright, Lily. The real dangers are here." Lily doublechecked her special bag of tools. She checked off each rare poison she had brought with her on a list. Lily turned to the other man. "Hey Dante, what are we doing with our plane anyway?" "We'll try to keep it hidden, but we can't count on it. Going forward, work from the idea we've lost it and plan accordingly." Dante grabbed his own bag. "Let's go. If we're lucky, we'll meet up with Team A eventually. Right now, we focus on our targets, Delilah and Jensen Blackwell or whatever the hell he's going by these days. Do you sense where he is?" Jacob shook his head. "He's not within my range, but I would suspect he's farther west. Reading the minds of others here, I can tell you main headquarters of the company is still where it was before Aurora left. We need to head to where Rome once was." "Delilah will be around there for sure. I'm sure he doesn't let her stray too far from him." Dante said. Jacob glanced over at Dante. As usual, he couldn't read the man's mind. That was how Dante gained his nickname. Through intense mental and phsyical training, the man could not be broken through. No magic had been found yet to work on him, no one could read his mind nor his body language unless he allowed it, and no torture could break him. His mind and body were impenetrable. In the years Jacob had known the man, he knew next to nothing about Dante. He trusted him the least out of anyone in the company, as did the current company head. No one knew where his motives and allegiances stood, but he was too valuable of an asset to lose. The only one who had ever trusted him was the first Coyote. 'What did you know that I do not?' Jacob wondered. As the three left the plane, Jacob sensed Lily's increasing anxiety. He offered her his hand. She understood what he was doing and accepted, both of them hoping Dante wouldn't notice and say something about their mutual fears. Dante was well aware of all of Jacob's natural abilities, including his touch-related ability. Jacob's body enduced a calming effect in whomever he touched. He wondered if it worked on Dante, but he couldn't ask and he knew Dante wouldn't answer him anyway. Jacob thought over their team. Lily could not harm Dante with her talents, as Dante had trained himself to be immune to every poison Aurora had studied and beyond that. Jacob could not be harmed by Lily either. Selkie were naturally immune to all poisons and venoms humans had discovered. Dante could only harm Lily with a weapon, and it was unlikely she would die. Lily had also trained her body, through her poison related training, to withstand pain the average person could not and heal herself from injuries that would normally kill a person. She had studied poison and the body to such a degree she had effectively achieved the ability to do magic without natural magical talent nor needing to train under a master of magic. She would likely survive anything Dante attempted to do to her just as easily as Dante could survive an attack from her. Dante had no magic himself, beyond being able to block magic. He was useful in that way against magical beings and those with magical technology, but he was a man of slightly above average strength outside of that. He would not be able to kill Lily nor Jacob. Jacob could not kill either of them. As a male selkie, he lacked the venom, claws, and dagger-like fangs the females possessed along with lacking their aggression. His hands could only calm, his bite was no more dangerous than a human's, and male selkie were docile. He did not have it in him to fight except in defensive situations. His strength was greater than an average human's, but not by a large degree. His large size was mostly for show. In hand to hand combat, he and Dante would likely be roughly evenly matched, and Jacob wouldn't bother fighting with anyone unless he had to. The only thing Jacob could seriously injure the team with was not an ability of his own, but of a friend he possessed, a sea dragon named Ebb that currently guarded the sea fortress his human mother, Linda, was stationed at. Their team was perfect to ensure that even if one betrayed the other two, the two would survive. Team A was also created to decrease the odds of betrayal. Magnolia, Mockingjay, and the second Coyote were all fiercely loyal to the now gone first Coyote's ideals. They would not betray each other. That did not mean they, as a unit, wouldn't potentially betray Aurora, Jacob thought. He mused that was the real reason there was a Team B and Team C. Team A could not be fully trusted in the first place. He presumed that was also why Team A was sent to recover Sky Summerfield while Team B was to target Moone & Wolfe's upper ranks. Aurora wanted to take down Moone & Wolfe Corp. Sky was merely a potential obstacle in the way of that. There was of course, another person of interest, the new candidate for Delilah, Julia Lowell. Dante had not asked him about her, and Jacob had no intentions of answering questions about things he hadn't been asked about. Dante had not followed up with questions about Sky's location either. Jacob knew exactly where he was, but Dante didn't ask for that information. So, he simply didn't tell him. Jacob couldn't help himself. He was, after all, a creature born originally in the other realm and it wasn't in his nature to give information freely.