Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Last warning. Stand down, golden guard.”

The tip of Hunter’s staff glowed red. “You know I can’t do that.”

Hunter stared groggily at a light blue ceiling, painted boards rather than the cold arching stone of the keep.

Where am I?

The last thing he remembered was a flash of red light, and Belos shaking his head in disappointment. He’d always felt that disappointment, but to see it so clearly on his uncle’s face… There was something else, though, something he’d been more worried about, something worse than his impending death…

The harsh, metallic click of metal gloves tapping on stone.

“You’ve been spending valuable time with that little mentee from the coven training program lately. Darius, the abomination witch, isn’t that right? If you want him to have any chance at a bright future, or any future at all, then I suggest you forget whatever it is you think you’ve seen and fall back in line.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!”

“Darius!” Hunter sat bolt upright. Almost immediately, a wave of pain swept over him, his skin burning and itching, chafing against bandages. He fell back again with a groan, sinking into pillows too soft to be the ones in his room at the keep.

“Oop! I wouldn’t move too much right now; you got blasted pretty good.” A mane of auburn hair appeared over him, accompanied by a smiling face. “Hey, there!” A healer? She had to be, but who would have brought him to her? Not Belos, not after their confrontation. And no scout would be stupid enough to challenge the emperor’s judgement and execution.

“How long?” Hunter whispered weakly.

Is Darius okay? Has Belos gotten to him?

Can I still save him?

“Hm. That’s… complicated.”

Hunter tried to sit up again. Complicated? How complicated could it be? Hours? Days? Surely he hadn’t been out for more than a week—the pain might have made his body shaky, but he didn’t feel the weakness of lying stagnant. “I need to—to—”

The witch gently pushed on his chest, shoving him back into the pillows effortlessly. “You need to rest. I’ve done my best, but you’re still not fully healed.”

“Where are w—Who are—” Really, who was she? Did she know who he was? What had hurt him? If she did know, then what kind of criminal was she, helping him against the emperor’s wishes? Was she dangerous? She had to be, to get this far.

“We’re going to explain, I promise, but it’s a lot to process, so we need to make sure you’re physically okay enough to handle it.”

“I doubt it’s more to process than the last couple of days,” Hunter said bleakly.

Uncle killed our family. He killed all of them, and he’s probably already gone after Darius. I can’t sit around here.

“You’d be surprised.”

Wait.

Hunter squinted, replaying her words in his head. “We’re going to explain?”

“Yeah. We. CALEB,” the witch called, “HE’S AWAKE!” She held her hands up. “Okay, try not to freak out, this is going to be… a little weird.”

A man poked his head in the room, and Hunter’s heart just about stopped in his chest.

He looks like me!

He didn’t look quite the same—the newcomer’s nose was bigger than Hunter’s, his eyes wider, and his hair shorter. He was older, somewhere in his late thirties, if Hunter had to guess, but overall…

Did Uncle not kill us all after all?

What is up with those ears?!

They sat rounded and too small against his head—Hunter had never seen a pair of witch ears like that. Surely he wasn’t a demon—he looked too witchlike for that. A shapeshifter, maybe?

“Hi,” the man said awkwardly, “Uhhhh sooooo… I’m Caleb. This is Evelyn. I’m the original.”

What.

“Wow, somehow this never gets easier. Yes. Hi. So. My brother. Philip. Belos. Whatever you want to call him. He—”

“Your brother?! But—”

“It’s weird, I know, it’s… I’m explaining this badly.”

“Yes, you are,” Evelyn teased. She reached out, as if to take Hunter’s hand, then faltered. “Permission to touch?”

Hunter nodded distractedly. Uncle has a brother—of course he does, I had to get here somehow. But he can’t be—he’s not old enough. Uncle is ancient; this can’t be his brother! And if he was, that would make him…

It just didn’t add up. Caleb and Evelyn were too young. Was that why he’d grown up without parents? But they couldn’t possibly be his parents, they weren’t old enough to have had him even at a young age, not unless they looked far younger than they really were. Was there a third sibling? Someone in between Belos and Caleb? Someone who had died before he could meet them?

Evelyn gave his hand a squeeze, the touch dragging Hunter’s spinning thoughts to a stop. “How much did Belos deem too much?” she asked quietly.

Hunter wanted to bury his head in the blankets just thinking about it. He’d never meant to uncover their family’s past, but he couldn’t have sat around and done nothing once he found out. “He’s a witch hunter,” he whispered. The words felt like a betrayal—to himself, to Uncle, and to the Isles Hunter had thought he was serving. A witch hunter. And not only that, but… “He killed our family. But if you’re his brother—did I have it wrong? Did I betray him for nothing?!”

Did I misread?

It was possible, knowing his abysmal track record with written texts. But he’d pored over those confiscated documents for hours, reading and rereading just to make sure he had it right. Surely he hadn’t misunderstood that badly. Surely he couldn’t have read it that poorly.

Did I put Darius in danger for a mistake?

“No,” Caleb sighed, “You had it right—or, at least, Philip’s version of right. He thinks I’m dead. And that’s the way I want to keep it. Look, what you didn’t find out, what he didn’t tell you is that… you’re only his nephew in a manner of speaking. I’m… you’re a grimwalker. Of me.”

Hunter stared blankly at him. Was the word supposed to hold some kind of meaning? In all his time as the golden guard, he’d never heard of a grimwalker.

“He doesn’t know what that is,” Evelyn chided, “What he means to say is, you’re a copy. A—a replica, if you will.”

“Philip wanted to replace me after I chose the Isles over him—his words, not mine.” Caleb held up his right hand, which was missing the last three fingers. “Fun, huh? Stabbed me, mutilated my hand, and left me to die. Much like he left you to die. But… I survived. Evelyn saved me. And we saved you, too.”

I’m… what, a clone?

Am I even real?

“I know it’s a lot of information to process,” Evelyn started, “But—”

None of this matters.

Hunter tried for a third time to get up, fighting back dizziness. “Thank you for saving me. But I have a kid I need to get back to—well, he’s not my kid, but he’s in danger, and he doesn’t even know it. I have to let him know I’m okay!”

The two exchanged a glance, and Evelyn gave Hunter’s hand another squeeze. “We can’t… quite let you do that. It’s—”

Should have seen this coming. There’s always a price.

Hunter ripped his hand out of hers, lunging out of the bed. He bowled the man over easily, limping for the door. Every muscle screamed in pain, and his skin protested every rubbing movement against the bandages, but he pushed out the door anyway.

“Wait!” Caleb called, “Let us explain!”

They can’t keep me here.

They can’t—

He stepped into a long hallway, lined with doors. A kid stared at him with magenta eyes to match Hunter’s own, his neck covered in heavy scarring, like someone had tried to rip his throat out. How old was he, twenty, at the most? That was being generous. Hunter’s hand went up to his own neck, covered in bandages and healing patches.

He looks like me.

“Uh-oh. Mom and Dad botched the explanation again, didn’t they?” the other chuckled, “Hi. I’m Auric. Welcome to the weirdest day of your life.”

Hunter backed away, his head whipping around as he tried to find the exit. More magenta eyes peered out from behind the doors—bedroom doors, he realized—watching him curiously.

There’s another one.

And another.

This is impossible.

They all died, and even if they hadn’t, the time in between—

This is impossible.

A few came out into the hallway, approaching him cautiously. Hunter stumbled backwards over his own feet, but Caleb caught him before he could fall. “Whoa, there. I’ve got you. Look, it’s complicated, we told you—we wanted to get you used to the idea before we introduced you to everyone, but I guess now’s a good time as any.”

“H-How,” Hunter whispered, “How is this—how are they—”

“They all used to be the golden guard. All of them, at some point, were ‘Hunter.’”

“That’s… I’m Hunter!”

“Not anymore,” a couple of the grimwalkers chorused.

Hunter shook his head, his thoughts whirling around unfinished. “This is—”

“Impossible. I know. But I’ve rescued every single one of my brother’s copies after he left them for dead. Every single Hunter.”

“But I’m—I’m—they’re not—I’m Hu— I’m—”

Caleb sighed. “I’ve got something to show you. If you’re up for it?”

Hunter nodded, numbly following him down the long hallway to another room where Caleb pulled out a crystal ball. He touched the surface, and it lit up, the mist inside forming the familiar hallways of the keep. Despite what Belos had done, indignation flared through Hunter.

“That’s not supposed to be possible; there’s anti-scrying measures.”

“Evelyn’s a talented witch. Besides the point. Look here.”

Hunter peered at the glassy surface, sick to his stomach at the sight of the hallways he’d walked down a thousand times.

Someone else walked down them now.

Someone wearing a uniform he recognized, although the cloak wasn’t quite the same, missing his sigil on the back.

It looks too big on him. Too heavy.

“That’s—”

“Hunter the latest.”

Hunter glanced back at him. He looks the most like you. “He’s just a kid! Why’s he already the golden guard?!” Belos had rescued him from his orphanage at age thirteen, but he hadn’t become the golden guard for at least another four years, and this kid wore the uniform like it was all he’d ever known.

He can’t be older than Darius was when I first met him.

“The youngest one yet,” the original said sadly, “The most obedient, too.”

Hunter shook his head. “This—it doesn’t make sense. Where did he come from?! I think I would have noticed him wandering around!”

A deep sigh. “The reason you can’t go looking for your kid, is because… it’s been years.”

What? No, I just woke up, and I’m still injured from the fight—how has it been years?

“I escaped Philip by fleeing to the future. He’s still here, but he’s not looking for me. Have you ever heard of a time pool?”

This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t!

“Those are just an urban legend!”

“They’re real. And they’re how I was able to rescue the other Grimwalkers. It’s been years since your ‘death.’ Belos replaced you.”

What if he comes looking for us?

“Where’s my time pool?! I need to go back.”

“You can’t. I don’t know where they went, and you’re the last one I had to rescue, so I’m not going looking. They don’t always open up to the same times, anyway. Even if we did find one, there’s no guarantee it would take you back to the time you died.”

“But they always open up here?!” That seemed awfully convenient. “Why don’t you run further? Why don’t you run to a time where Belos is gone? Aren’t you worried he’ll find out you’re alive and come after you?”

“Well…” Caleb sighed, suddenly looking much older. “Think of it like… time is a river. It flows forward, in one direction. The time pools are like docks where you can get out of the river, walk up the bank, and hop in at another dock. You continue the way the river flows, or you can get back out and try to run back to the front of the river.”

“Why here? Why this time?”

Caleb shrugged. “Best I can figure, this is where the river stops. This is the front. The river is constantly expanding and we’re at the edge. I can’t go any further, because there’s nowhere else to go.”

“If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew you needed to save us, why didn’t you use the time pools to stop him from killing us?!”

If you’d stopped this earlier, I wouldn’t have been taken from Darius. If you’d warned me, I wouldn’t be here!

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“Then how does it work?!

Caleb waved a hand back and forth. “If we go back to the river metaphor… Say that I stick my finger in a river. It causes a disturbance, but the water just flows around my finger and back into the original flow. That’s how it is with time. Even if I try to disrupt something—like saving one of you—time would correct itself. Say I did rescue you before Philip left you for dead. He still would have made the current Hunter to replace you, and you’d still be gone. And Philip probably would have spent more time trying to track me down and kill me, and then I couldn’t save anyone else. By taking you after he thought you were dead, after you should have died, I took you after your impact on time was over. There was no need for time to correct itself.”

Hunter’s head hurt. What Caleb said made sense, mostly, but it all just felt like excuses. What did Caleb get out of rescuing them after their ‘deaths?’ There had to be a motive to rescuing them at all—what was the return price going to be? And what did they do now that they were in the ‘present?’ Hunter nodded to the crystal ball. “What’s going to happen to him?”

“I don’t know. I had an idea for the rest of you, or at least I could piece together roughly when Belos tried to kill you, but for him… nothing. It’s a bit terrifying, actually, not knowing when I’ll have to save him. I keep an eye on him, just in case. So far, he hasn’t given Philip any reason to kill him, but… he’s getting older. I’m worried about him.”

Someone else wandered through the hallways, a man with startling green eyes and living, moving abomination for hair. Hunter seized the ball. “Darius?!”

He’s okay!

He’s older than me, now.

It sank in like a punch to the gut, and Hunter’s legs wobbled, giving out beneath him. Caleb caught his elbows, lowering him gently to the floor.

“Oh my titan,” Hunter whispered, “He grew up. Look at him, he’s so big!” He laughed, tears pooling in the corners of his eyes. “He got a cape. Look at him! Is he the head of a coven?!”

He’s alive.

But Belos still has him.

Hunter rocked back and forth, gripping his hair. “He grew up, and I wasn’t there. And he probably never knew what happened to me, he never—” A sob built up in the back of his throat, and a gentle hand pressed against his back.

“I know it’s a lot to process. You’ve had a rough few days, and a rough life before that.” Caleb heaved a deep sigh. “I know it’s… hard… not being able to return to the people who do love you. I know you want to go back to Darius. But this house… we’re hidden, we’re safe. Belos hasn’t found us yet. If he does find out about us…”

“Everyone’s in danger,” Hunter responded dully, “I can’t leave, because it could get everyone here killed, and put the current Hunter in worse danger.”

Caleb shrugged apologetically. “We won’t… stop you… from leaving if you really want to. I’m not going to be Philip part two. But I do want you to be very, very, very sure that leaving is worth the risk not just to you, but the rest of us as well.”

Hunter glanced back at the crystal ball.

He’s all grown up.

He’s okay.

He… doesn’t need me anymore.

Hunter deactivated the crystal ball, erasing the image of his replacement, and the walls that made him sick to his stomach.

“No. I’ll stay.”

“You’re sure?”

Hunter folded his arms, bandages pressing against his skin. “Maybe I have the option to leave. But it’s not like there’s anywhere else I could go.”

Caleb flinched. “I’m sorry. I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”

“I’ll figure it out.”

Somehow.

Chapter Text

“Titan, he’s huge. Do you think he’s bigger than Cherry?”

“Grab Sam’s tape measure and we can check.”

“You’ll wake him up!”

“I’m not going to wake him up, you’re going to wake him up with your snakelike hissing!”

“I’m already awake,” Hunter grumbled. He’d been awake for at least half an hour, but his body felt too heavy to move, and his eyes remained glued shut, no matter how many times he told himself he couldn’t stay in bed. “Darius, Alador, whatever it is you’re planning, don’t. I will make both of you wash all the dishes in the keep. Twice.”

“Who’s Darius? And Alador?”

 Yesterday came rushing back to Hunter in a flood. He groaned, rubbing his eyes and sitting up. The two Grimwalkers peering at him over the edge of the bed with their huge magenta eyes yipped and scrambled out the door before he could get a real look at them. Hunter put his head in his hands, an overwhelming wave of smallness sweeping over him.

I’m stuck years and years from my time.

Darius is all grown up. Alador, too. I wonder if the two of them are even still friends.

A gentle knock sounded from the door, and another Grimwalker stuck his head in the room. This one was the youngest Hunter had seen yet (besides the current Hunter). Not a single scar marked him, not that Hunter could see. Instead, sun-freckles dotted his face in a splash across his nose.

Lucky.

Even without the scars and with the freckles, the resemblance between them was uncanny. Same nose—although this grimwalker looked more like Caleb, complete with a nose a bit bigger than Hunter’s own—same stupid strand of hair that wouldn’t comb back.

Why do they all have to have my face?

“Hi,” the Grimwalker said brightly, his wide smile revealing a gap between his two front teeth, “I’m Jason.”

Hunter rubbed his eyes again. “’thought we were all called Hunter?” he grumbled, “Or was I the only one with a stupid pun name?”

“Ha! Can you imagine if we were all still going by Hunter? We’d have to take numbers. No, I didn’t want to be Hunter. None of us did anymore. So we changed our names. Any idea what yours will be?”

“I’m staying Hunter,” he snapped, “I like who I am.” Staying here for now didn’t mean he had to leave everything he’d been behind—he couldn’t do that. Not after everything he’d gone through to get there.

“Okay,” Jason said simply. He held out a package of clothes. “Those are for you. Dad said if you’re feeling up to it, breakfast would be in five. I can bring something here if you need, though. Just say the word.”

He scurried out, and Hunter plucked at the fabric of the clothes. Civilian clothes. No defensive value. If he got stabbed wearing this, it would go right through him. They were soft, though, softer than any of his uniforms ever had been, despite their worn, secondhand look. He slowly, slowly got changed into the shirt and pants, careful of rubbing against the bandages that covered up burns. A pair of suspenders made up for any size difference, but his bandaged hand fumbled the right strap, too stiff to buckle it in place. His own boots sat at the foot of the bed, and he slowly tugged them on, wincing at the ache in his muscles.

Hunter’s stomach growled, and he got out of bed, opening the door. Jason waited for him outside, leaning against the wall. “Oh, good,” he said brightly, “You’re coming! Permission to touch?”

He barely waited for Hunter’s nod before grabbing his uninjured hand, dragging him along. Being Darius’ mentor had given Hunter enough practice not yanking away or attacking when someone touched him, but his muscles still tensed, ready to fight or run. And just like when Darius had pulled him along, Hunter felt sick at the instinct to lash out.

It was just a part of being the golden guard, he told himself, Being, well… on guard was in the job description.

Jason tugged him past the hall of bedrooms through a small, clean kitchen, into a dining room. A long table held a buffet-style meal, complete with eggs, toast, even fresh fruit. Hunter’s mouth watered. He’d known he was hungry, but he hadn’t realized just how hungry until the smell hit him. He could eat everything on this table and then some.

Evelyn ruffled Jason’s hair as she passed, balancing a tray of utensils on one arm and several jars on the other. “Make sure he gets a plate, okay?” Her nose crinkled. “Elbow your siblings out of the way if you have to.”

“Will do.”

Jason handed Hunter a plate, wiggling between bigger grimwalkers. “Cherry, move! You’re blocking half of the table.”

The Grimwalker he’d addressed—one who had a patch covering one eye—stuck his tongue out, but lifted one arm so that the smaller Grimwalker could fit underneath and grab six slices of toast. The two grimwalkers before had been justified in their curiosity—Cherry stood close to Hunter’s height and broad-chested, towering over the other Grimwalkers. “Hungry there?”

Jason wiggled back out, dumping three of the slices on Hunter’s plate. “Always. Where’s Dad?”

“Outside; he’s grabbing some more eggs from the griffins.” Cherry nodded back towards Hunter. “You’re in charge of him?”

Hunter bristled at the statement, but Jason grinned proudly. “Yep!” Jason blinked, then turned back to face Hunter. “Oh, yeah. Dad said I’m supposed to show you around and get you introduced to everyone—well—as many as I can without exploding your mind, anyway. He’s got errands to run today, so he can’t do it himself.” He pointed to the one-eyed Grimwalker. “That’s Cherry.”

“I gathered.”

Caleb burst in with three big griffin eggs. “What do you guys think, scrambled, or poached?”

“Scrambled!” Jason demanded at the same time three other grimwalkers yelled “poached!”

Hunter would have covered his ears if he wasn’t holding the plate. “It’s so chaotic,” he half-yelled to Jason over the din.

Jason grinned. “Yeah, nothing like the coven, I bet.”

“I bet?”

Jason shrugged. “I was the golden guard before that came with a coven attached. But from what I’ve heard, it sounded a lot stricter.”

That was an understatement. In the coven, all the scouts had lined up neatly, been served the exact same thing, then had made their way to their assigned tables to eat. Here, Hunter could count at least five kinds of toppings for the toast, two types of eggs, and 3 kinds of fruit, as well as a salad that combined them all. It was a little overwhelming—or maybe his head was still spinning at the idea this kid had been golden guard before the emperor’s coven even existed.

Jason must have caught the look on his face, because he handed Hunter his own plate—that he’d somehow managed to load with fruit in the time Hunter had scanned the room—and grabbed Hunter’s. He squirmed back through the ruckus around the table, scooping eggs and some of the fruit salad onto Hunter’s plate, as well as a pat of butter, then squirmed back out. “The salad is good,” he proclaimed, “And butter is nice on toast—we’ll get you started with that before I introduce you to jelly, it’ll blow your mind. We don’t have to eat in here, let’s go out—”

Crash

A grimwalker fell against the table, dragging silverware to the ground after him. A hush fell over the remaining Grimwalkers as they formed a wide half-circle around one of their brothers. He convulsed on the floor, twitching and gasping. Caleb shoved the griffin eggs on the counter and ran over, kneeling next to the fallen grimwalker. “Someone grab a pillow.” He gently turned the Grimwalker on his side, sliding the proffered pillow under his head. “You’re going to be okay, Steven,” he told the Grimwalker in a calm, steady voice, “I’ve got you, buddy.”

The hunger in Hunter’s stomach turned to sickness as Steven continued to seize up in frantic movements. Jason quickly grabbed Hunter’s arm again and pulled him into the quiet hallways away from the scene.

“Can Steven even hear him?” Hunter asked in a low voice.

“Sometimes,” Jason replied, all of his earlier energy drained away into a tired, sad voice, “Most times…no. But on the off chance he can hear, Dad wants to be reassuring.”

“What was that?”

“Seizure. Steven gets them ever since he woke up. He’ll be okay, he always is, it’s just… scary. For him, especially, but also to watch. ‘specially for your first time.”

What, that’s just a normal occurrence? “Why? What happened to him? What’s…?” Hunter bit back the rest of the statement “what’s wrong with him”.

Jason shrugged, but it was more subdued than his earlier easy shrugs. “Uncle used a faulty, prototype branding glove on him. It put him in a coma.” He chewed on his lower lip. “It’s a miracle he even woke up at all. Belos really hurt him.” He heaved a sigh. “It’s kinda messed up, you know? But that’s how it is with all of us here. Steven, it’s obvious, others… not so much.”

Hunter rubbed the bandages hiding his own wounds from Belos. Always a mark. That had been his way, his lessons. Steven’s condition seemed… extreme, though. What else had Belos hidden? “And you?”

Jason grinned again, all his seriousness banished in the blink of an eye. “Me? Nothing going on here, I’m so normal. The normalest one here. Why do you think I’m in charge of you? They’re all sad all the time, they’d make awful tour guides. Anyway. C’mon, c’mon, c’mon.” He shoved open a door. “Hey, Mole! I brought breakfast. And the new guy.”

Another grimwalker looked up from a potted plant with a grin, waving. Dirt smudged his tan face, and his hair sat a shade closer to tawny gold than the bright blonde Jason’s did. A long scar stretched from his left eyebrow across his nose and ended under his right eye—a souvenir from Belos, Hunter was sure.

Jason nudged him. “Hunter, this is Mole. Mole, this is Hunter, future name to be determined.”

“I’m not changing my name,” Hunter insisted.

Mole and Jason exchanged glances, then shrugged. Mole held out a rough, calloused hand, covered in tiny nicks and scars, and Hunter shook it. Jason gave both of them a thumbs-up, and then kicked open another door, this one going outside. “C’mon, we can eat, and then we can do the garden.”

Mole’s eyes lit up, and he ran after Jason, snatching up one of his pieces of toast and scarfing it down, before taking half of the fruit salad. Jason ate the rest of the food, and Hunter struggled to follow suit as quickly. The toast melted in his mouth—the butter really did make it taste better. And the fruit… part of him wanted to go back in and reload the plate, but he wasn’t sure if seconds were allowed. And besides, Mole and Jason were already off; they’d opened up a wire caging, ducking inside to rows of carefully planted vegetables and fruits. The two yanked up weeds, delicately digging around the other crops to tear out the roots. Hunter ducked under the “door” to come in next to them.

“What’s this?”

“Food gets expensive, and trips to town are always a risk,” Jason explained, “We grow our own food or hunt where we can. Oh, you should see the griffin coop; there’s not a lot Dad can eat here, but the eggs are fine, so we have a whole coop. They’re great.”

Mole pulled a face, and Jason laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, I know you don’t like them, but we can’t just eat veggies all the time, Mole.”

Mole. “That’s uhhhh… an interesting name.”

Mole and Jason both laughed. “He got buried alive,” Jason explained, “So now his name is Mole!”

Something about that sat badly with Hunter. He’d picked up enough mean-spirited nicknames in his childhood to last him a lifetime, and he didn’t intend on using one for someone else. And Jason didn’t really seem the type to name-call, either—although, he reflected gloomily, Belos had more than proved that his character judgement skills might not be the best. “That seems… a little wrong.”

Jason shrugged. “He chose it.” He wrinkled his nose at Mole. “Apparently, it’s the only thing he’s ever said. ‘My name is Mole’ and then he hasn’t spoken since.”

Mole nodded serenely and went back to weeding the garden.

Well, if he’d picked it… “What’s this whole… picking a name thing?”

Jason shrugged. “The first thing we ever get to decide for ourselves is whether or not we stay. The second is what we want to be called. Belos gave us the name Hunter as a sick joke, and… all of us decided we didn’t want it anymore.”

Hunter could see why—it was a shorthand for “witch-hunter,” after all. But still, replacing his name just felt wrong. He was still Hunter. Maybe the name was a sick joke, but he was still the same person, wasn’t he?

“Why Jason?”

Mole groaned, but Jason bounced up to his feet. “I am so glad you asked! Dad has all this human realm literature he bought from the owl lady in the Bonesborough market, oh, it is great, and I picked a name of this hero, okay. So. Like, there was this king, and his brother killed him, and his nephew had to flee! So he lived with this centaur for a while, and then when he became an adult, he went to go take his dad’s throne back from his evil uncle! On the way, he helped this old lady cross a river, but he lost his shoe on the way—oh, the nephew’s name is Jason, by the way, and the Uncle’s name was Pelias. Anyway, turned out, the old lady was a goddess. So she blessed Jason for helping here, and then he went to his uncle’s palace, and the uncle was terrified of him—”

Hunter was starting to see why Jason had picked his name.

“—because there was this prophecy that he’d be defeated by a guy with one shoe. So he sent Jason on this quest to go get a golden fleece, whatever that is, Dad says it’s a sheep skin, but anyway, Jason had a whole bunch of adventures, he tamed fire breathing bulls and married this magic lady who killed his uncle and also her own brother, anyway, it’s just awesome.”

Hunter was relatively certain he was missing large chunks of the story, including why the wife killing her brother was okay but the evil uncle killing his brother wasn’t, but he nodded along. “Sounds exciting,” he agreed.

“It is. Thank you. You can read some of the books sometime, I’ll let you borrow them! Maybe you’ll find a name you like in there.”

Hunter barely kept himself from making a face, remembering just in time that he wasn’t wearing a mask. He’d let himself into that one—maybe Jason would forget the offer.

Mole threw a weed at Jason’s head, and Jason turned back to the garden, digging up clumps of plants. “Anyway, I chose Jason because it was my favorite story, and I liked the hero. Mole chose his name because of how Belos tried to kill him. Presumably. Might just be because he likes digging in the dirt. Your name can be whatever you feel fits you best. You can even stay Hunter, if that’s really what you want. The rest of us picked our names when we started figuring out who we were without Uncle, when we finally started sorting out how we felt about him.”

“And you wish that he’d be quaking in his boots when he saw you?”

A faint smile crossed Jason’s face. “Something like that.”

“Hm.”

Hunter kicked up a weed with one scuffed boot. It tore, but remained stubbornly rooted in place, not letting go of its grip in the garden.

Who am I without Belos?

Chapter Text

“You ready?”

Hunter fidgeted as Evelyn plucked at the edges of the bandages. “Mhm. Yes. You’ve taken them off before.”

“Sure, to check on the healing, but this is it; they’re coming off. You’re done. Are you ready?”

“I’m ready.”

Still, he tensed as she unwrapped the bandages, exposing the healed skin to the air. Blotches of his arm were a reddish brownish color, puckered. He could trace lines from the bolts of artificial magic that had done this to him. His hand drifted across his scarred chest and up his neck to his face, puckered and scarred all the way up the left side of his face, even stretching across his ear.

Evelyn drew a circle in the air, and a mirror appeared. “I did my best, but… uh, do you want to look?”

He caught a glimpse of a half-singed-off eyebrow, and quickly turned the mirror over. “Not just yet.” Hunter ran a hand over the scars on his arm. “Not my finest features!” he joked, but his voice shook, and he ran a hand through his hair. “Titan.”

“Permission to touch?”

Hunter nodded, and Evelyn wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly. “You’ve been so brave about this,” she murmured, “and I am so proud of you. I’ve cared for so many of you kids after Philip hurt you, and I just…”

Hunter’s shoulder became damp as tears dripped from her eyes, and he slowly put his own arms around her. She needed the hug the more than he did, he thought. “I’m not a kid,” he reminded her gently, patting her back. “I’m twenty-seven.”

She pulled back, wiping at her eyes. “Oh, I know, I know.” She sniffed, giving him a wobbly smile. “Sorry. I’m just…” she sighed. “I wish there was something else we could do, that isn’t just waiting for people to get hurt, is all. I wish we could swoop in, push Belos out a window, and take all of you away from him forever. But it’s… it is what it is, I guess.” One more swipe at her eyes, and then she got up, straightening her skirt. “Sorry about that, I just… Never mind. If you need any help about the…” she waved her hand vaguely around her face. “…just let me know.”

She swept out, and Hunter poked his head out after, watching Jason peel himself off of the wall outside his room, chasing her down and grabbing her in a hug. She wrapped one arm around him and they disappeared out the door.

“Yeah, he’s kind of a mama’s boy.”

Hunter jumped, dropping down and swinging his leg out in an arc to knock over the intruder. He hopped neatly over the leg, and Hunter recognized him as another Grimwalker, with thick, short scars covering his arms. And his torso, he realized as he caught sight of another one on his collarbone.

“Startled you?”

“A little,” Hunter admitted. He didn’t like that the Grimwalker had managed to approach unnoticed, but he supposed that if anyone could, it would be another golden guard. “Which one are…?”

“Horus. Congrats on getting the bandages off. Have you been able to face yourself in a mirror yet?”

“No,” Hunter grumbled.

How common of an occurrence is that?

Common enough that Horus’ nose wrinkled in amusement, apparently. “Oh, you know what? I know a great way to blow off some steam, shake some of the angst out. Come on.”

Hunter followed him outdoors, squinting at the house from the outside. “Horus? Do you know what that’s for?” He pointed to a small part of the house he’d never been in, a bit that stuck out, but looked older, like it was part of the original building and grimwalker’s bedrooms had been built on the opposite side of the house.

A shadow crossed Horus’ face, but only for a second. “Yeah, no one goes in there. Don’t worry about it, let’s go.” He pulled a notepad and pencil out of his pocket, handing them to Hunter. “You’ll want these.”

Not cryptic at all.

What’s in that room?

A group of three others waved to Horus, each holding their own notepad and pencil, and Horus jogged over. “Hey, he’s going to join us this go round, ‘kay? Hunter, these are Meleager, Venari, and Hamlet.”

They each raised a hand as Horus called out their names. None of them were particularly scarred—at least, not the way Hunter and Horus were, just the usual kind of scarring that came from the golden guard job.

Hunter absentmindedly twirled his pencil between his fingers. “What… exactly is it that we’re doing?” He hoped they didn’t expect him to write. The paper of the notepad was unlined—maybe they were mapping the woods. That, he could handle. But the papers were awfully small for a map.

Meleager grinned. He looked the oldest, and had two notches in each ear, as well as a silver-white scar going across one cheekbone. “Are you any good at hunting, Hunter?”

“’course he is,” Venari piped up with a chuckle. Their hair was tied back in a braid, and three long scars like clawmarks dragged down the center of their face. “he’s one of us!”

The four grimwalkers laughed, like this was some kind of hilarious inside joke.

I suppose we did do a lot of hunting. Demons. Wild witches.

Hunter waved the notepad and pencil. “What’re these for?”

Meleager shook his head. “Didn’t you read anything about wild magic?”

“No.” Was he supposed to have? Had he already failed some hidden expectation of this house, or at least one these four held? Reading forbidden books and scrolls had been one thing Belos never had to worry about with him. Well, almost never, he supposed.

“Meleager did,” Hamlet offered. A scar stretched over this grimwalker’s left eye, and his nose was a different shape than Hunter’s, a little closer to Uncle Belos’ nose than Caleb’s. “A little too much. Belos squashed him for it. Literally, he got stuck between two metal plates, and Belos added weight until—”

Meleager elbowed him. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know his weird obsession with horrific human realm punishments, we don’t need to hear how he tried to kill me again. ANYWAY, jock, lemme show you possibly the coolest thing on the planet—” He scrawled an odd circle on a piece of paper and tapped it. A ball of light rose up, and any lingering ‘what?’ thoughts Hunter had from the ‘obsession with human realm punishments’ comment was immediately replaced with a numb blanket of disbelief at what had just happened.

“That’s magic.”

That couldn’t be right. He couldn’t do magic—which he knew now was because he’d come from a human. But if that were the case, Meleager shouldn’t have been able to do magic either. Had he just missed out? Were some of them capable of performing spells?

Could my predecessor do magic? Was that why I could never live up to him?

“You should have done an ice one,” Venari complained, “then it would have actually been the coolest thing on the planet.”

Hunter waved a hand at the light. “That. Is. Magic! How did you do that?!”

Meleager shook his head sadly. “Today’s youth just don’t read,” he sighed dramatically.

“They’re called glyphs,” Horus filled in, “They use lines inside of circles and draw on the isles to make magic. If you want a real lesson, find Sam, but for now, here are the basic ones.”

Meleager scoffed offendedly—did he not like Sam? Or was it more to do with the implication that whoever Sam was, he could do better?—while Horus doodled more, showing the page to Hunter and pointing to each in turn. “Light. Fire. Ice. Plant. You can combine them for different things, but we mostly use the plant and ice ones for hunting.”

So it wasn’t innate magic. It was just… another thing Hunter hadn’t figured out until too late in the game. The grimwalkers here all seemed younger than he was. Maybe he really was just slower than the rest—something that had kept him alive, but a constant disappointment.

If I’d known about this sooner…

I don’t know, I just feel like things would have been different, somehow.

Meleager sketched the glyphs in Hunter’s notepad and tossed it back to him. “Ready to go? We’ll start with just checking our traps. We try not to actually chase anything down too often because, well, we don’t want to overhunt. If we did, there would be nowhere to go afterward. Plus, we don’t need to be chasing things down too close to town. The traps catch most of the meat we eat.”

The four of them pulled hoods up, tossing an extra cowl to Hunter and hopping over the fence that separated the neat garden and orchard of the Calebs from the wild forest beyond. Hunter pulled up his own hood, jumping after them.

“And where does the stress relief come in?”

 “The safer the area seems, the more game comes this way,” Hamlet explains, “Joseph will get on our case if we start killing too many predators, so we try to just scare them off, but chasing a big ‘ol demon with an ice spear while yelling ferociously is incredibly therapeutic, you wouldn’t believe.”

Venari drew and activated a glyph, and an ice spear of their own appeared in their hand. “And as for the prey…”

They bolted forward to a snare trap where a ratworm writhed, hissing angrily. One clean thrust of the spear through its head almost immediately stopped the wiggling. Venari sighed.

“It’s kinda nice to picture that it’s Uncle there.”

Hunter shuddered at the thought of driving a spear through Belos’ skull. It didn’t sit right, despite everything he’d done. He couldn’t picture himself doing it, not like this. And not with a helpless, tied-up creature. “I mean, I know he hurt us, I know he needs to go, but you guys think you would… actually be able to do it?”

“Without a doubt,” Meleager said immediately.

“Titan, Hamlet already tried,” Horus offered.

Hunter twisted to look back at the grimwalker. His magenta eyes almost seemed to glow as a crooked smile dragged across his face. “Yeah. I tried to poison him when I found out about what happened to our family.”

“What happened?” Hunter breathed. Clearly it hadn’t worked. But why?

“Oh, he swapped my food with his without me realizing. He knew. He always knew. He was just waiting for me to make a move. But I could have done it. I would have.”

Venari held their arm up. Scars tore through their coven seal, as if someone had attacked it with a knife. “I tried to get mine off. He chained me to a rock and tossed me in a lake. If it weren’t for Dad, I… yeah, anyway, if I ever saw our uncle again, I wouldn’t hesitate.”

Horus chuckled. “As if any of us would actually be a match for him.”

“Did you try to kill him?” Hunter asked quietly.

Horus shrugged. “I tried to defend myself. Caught mixing magics, you know how it is. Fought back and got knifed for it. Just like Dad. Like to return the favor one day, but let’s be real. If Belos found us, he’d do the same thing again. And this time, there wouldn’t be a miracle to save us. But that’s why we stick together, isn’t it? There’s safety in numbers.”

“I’d end him if he tried it again,” Venari growled, summoning another spear, “I’d…” their ears twitched. “Did you hear that?”

Hunter strained his ears, and then he heard it. A small cry for help. “Do you think someone got caught in one of your traps?”

The other grimwalkers summoned ice spears to match Venari. “Probably setting a trap of their own,” Meleager growled, “No one comes out this far—why would they be out there? A mimic demon, maybe?”

“I’ll check it out while you guys fan out to look for traps or hidden enemies?” Hunter suggested.

They glanced at each other, and nodded approvingly. Hunter ran towards the call. If there was another witch out here, he wasn’t sure he wanted the others to be their first contact. As he got closer, he could hear creaking and thrashing. Something was caught in a trap, and as he came closer, he caught sight of a white cloak flipped over a head, and a grey mask lying on the ground.

“Patrol the outer forest,” the scout grumbled, firing a spell at the rope around his ankle and missing, “It’ll be easy! Nothing but a few beast type demons! But nooooo where there are demons, there are bounty hunters, and… HELLO? HELP? ANYONE?”

Hunter spotted Venari creeping around to flank the scout, and he waved. “It’s alright,” he called to the circling grimwalkers, “Just a lost scout!”

He jogged towards the trapped scout, but the other Grimwalkers surrounded him first.

“What are you doing out here?” Meleager demanded.

“I’m just on patrol, if you could let me out—”

Horus jabbed at him with his spear, drawing a yelp. “Liar. No one patrols out here.”

“Hey!” Hunter protested, “They probably just started a new patrol route, let him—”

“Go?” Venari asked, “No way. He’s up to something.”

“I’m really not!”

Venari gave the scout a poke with his spear. “Shut up! Why did Belos send you out here?!”

“Bel—I mean, it’s just a new patrol route, my captain assigned it, I guess the emperor could have asked we patrol more thoroughly, but I—”

The next jab from Meleager drew blood. “Quit hiding the truth.”

Hunter knocked the spear from his hands. “That’s enough! He’s just a scout on patrol; he’s not up to anything sinister, and you don’t need to hurt him!”

Hamlet snorted in disbelief, pointing his spear at the scout. “Why not? He’s probably hurt people! He deserves it, he works for Belos!”

Hunter grabbed his spear. “That doesn’t make him evil. You should know that more than anyone. He’s just a scout. Let him go.”

Venari jabbed at the scout again. “They stood aside,” they snarled, “They let Belos do awful things, they HELPED him do awful things, and they never once questioned!”

“Neither did we! Not until it was too late, anyway. I said, that’s enough.” Hunter wrenched the spear away from Hamlet and used it to knock away the other spears, spinning it in his hands.

The other golden guards were fast—they’d all been trained the same way he had—but he had the benefit of having been a guard only a week or two ago, while they’d been living here for months or even years, their battle-trained muscles and instincts softening under the Caleb’s care. He disarmed them quickly, throwing the spears to the side. They glared at him mutinously, but didn’t try to make another. Good. He didn’t want to hurt them any more than he wanted them hurting the scout.

Hunter gently bopped the top of their heads. “You can’t just go around hurting anyone and everyone because you’re angry at Belos!  We’re going back to the house.”

Hamlet glanced at the scout. “But what about—”

“We’re going. Back. To the house. You can pick the ratworm up on the way.”

Hunter herded them back towards the neat fence, in through the gate this time, and into the griffin coop where Caleb was feeding the creatures. A twinge of discomfort made him hesitate. Should he tell? Would they be punished? He didn’t want them to try something like this again, but what if he made things worse for them?

Before he could change his mind, though, Caleb grinned and waved. “Hey, guys. Have a good hunting trip?”

Hunter crossed his arms, pushing the four grimwalkers in front of him. No going back now. Caleb seemed to be in a good mood—they’d be fine. Hopefully. “Tell him what you did.”

“Caught a scout,” Venari grumbled.

“Tried to get information out of him,” Hamlet continued with a sigh.

Hunter nudged Horus after a moment of silence. “Ugh, fine, we maybe poked him with our spears a bit.”

Caleb’s mouth opened and closed, and he heaved a sigh. “Thank you, Hunter. Can you show our resident expert witch where the scout is, please?”

Hunter nodded and left the coop, lurking outside the door. The discomfort from before nestled in his stomach as a seed of guilt. What would happen to them?

“We’ve been over this, boys,” Caleb’s voice said with another sigh, “You can’t just… hunting is supposed to be a semi-constructive outlet, but if you’re going to hurt people, it’s going to stop.”

“They’re scouts,” Meleager burst out, “They work for Belos. We can’t just let them…”

“Let them what? Were they hurting you?”

“No,” Meleager grumbled, “But the patrol routes are drawing in. They’re making us less and less remote. If they get too close-!”

“Then your mother will wipe their memories. There is no need to attack them, and you know that. We don’t hurt people. We’re not like that, okay?”

“They work for Belos,” Venari reiterated, “They’re—they’re—”

“They’re not Belos,” Caleb said gently, “Hurting them doesn’t hurt him. You know that he doesn’t care about the lives of the scouts.”

“We were just trying to protect the house!” Hamlet responded defensively, “Even if the scout WASN’T up to something, what if he saw us and brought Belos back?”

“Would you even protect us?” Horus asked, “Would you hurt Belos if he showed up to kill us again? Would you kill him to protect us?”

Hunter winced. Ouch.

A heavy pause hung in the air. “If my brother showed up, my first priority would be to protect all of you,” Caleb said in a grief-stricken voice, “I would make sure all of you got to safety first.”

“But if it were just you, and Belos, in a room, and all of us were safe?” Horus pressed, “If it were just the two of you, and you had the chance to make sure he couldn’t hurt any of us ever again, would you do it? Or would you let him live?”

The last words were loaded with so much venom Hunter was surprised that Caleb didn’t collapse on the spot. He slipped off to find Evelyn without waiting for the answer. Jason and Mole were with her in the garden picking vegetables and dropping them in a floating basket. The two of them waved, turning her attention to him.

“Hello, Hunter. Everything okay?”

“Scout in the woods. Stuck in a trap,” he explained.

The basket dropped. “Show me.”

She kept up well—he hadn’t expected her to be able to stick with him and had started at a slow pace, but now he sped up, and she followed suit, vaulting over tree logs and ducking under branches with ease. She looked like she belonged here in the forest, her hair whipping out behind her but never getting caught.

Maybe that’s why they’re called wild witches.

Hunter skidded to a halt. The scout had managed to get down by himself, but the rope had rubbed his ankle raw and he leaned glumly against a tree. He started to scramble away when he saw them.

“Stay back!”

“Sleep,” Evelyn commanded, drawing a spell circle. The scout collapsed, and she took out a pair of tweezers, pulling out a photograph memory of the grimwalkers surrounding him and lighting it on fire with practiced ease. She held glowing hands over him, and his wounds started to heal over as the memory burned to ash.

“This is NOTHING compared to what she had to deal with for us,” Jason’s voice said at Hunter’s elbow.

He jumped, pulling his arms in close to himself before he could lash out. “Don’t startle me like that!”

“Sorry.”

Mole scrambled up the tree to dismantle the rest of the trap, cutting it down with a pocketknife. Jason shook his head.

“They did it again, huh?”

“Again?!”

Jason shifted. “Some of us have… trouble adjusting. All of us went through an angry phase, I think, once we had time to process what had happened to us. Scouts are pretty easy targets for that frustration, especially when they wander out here alone. Dad can usually talk us down. But some of us stayed angry. I guess I get it.”

He shrugged. “Maybe more of us should have stayed angry. But it’s kinda nice to let that go, you know? It’s not like we have to see him again. We’re safe here. Mom and Dad will protect us.” His nose crinkled. “Not that any of us are exactly helpless. I think I’d be able to fight off anything that came our way.” He bumped Hunter with his shoulder. “You know. In case you were scared of him coming to get us.”

Hunter bumped him back, lost in thought.

Would you hurt Belos if he showed up to kill them again?

He’d tried before—but that had only been to protect Darius. Not himself. Jason could joke about it all he liked, but Belos could crush him like an ant if he wanted. Hunter had disarmed Meleager, Horus, Hamlet, and Venari with ease—they wouldn’t stand a chance either. Had anyone ever gotten close? What if Belos did find them?

Mole hopped down from the tree, the trap dismantled in his hands. Evelyn ruffled his hair, and shepherded the three of them back towards the house. She broke off to go into the griffin coop, and in the moment just before the door swung shut, Hunter caught a glimpse of Caleb sitting alone with his head in his hands.

I think I could do it.

If I had to.

“I’d protect you from him,” he said out loud to Jason, “If he ever found us. You too, Mole.”

Jason jumped. “Oh! Aw, thanks. That’s nice of you.”

Hunter’s hand drifted to the scar on his face. He hadn’t seen it yet, but he could feel it stretching across his skin, a permanent reminder of what Belos was capable of.

I won’t let him hurt any of us again.

Chapter Text

What is behind this door?

Hunter tapped his foot, examining the door. He’d been able to pinpoint which door led to the mysterious section of house, but now he had to wonder if the room was trapped. He didn’t see any of those glyphs on the door, but who knew what was on the other side.

What are you hiding, Caleb?

Hunter reached for the doorknob.

“Hey, Hunter!”

Hunter jumped, yanking his hand back from the door as if he’d been burned. He whirled around to face the Caleb. “What are you doing here?!” he demanded.

A soft chuckle. “I was looking for you, actually.”

Suspicion flared in Hunter’s mind. Convenient, that he wanted to check in just as Hunter had been about to open the mysterious door. “Why?”

He rubbed the back of his head, sheepish. “I haven’t really been able to check in on you much. I’ve been so focused on keeping an eye on the current golden guard that I haven’t really paid any attention to you. I’m sorry. How are you settling in?”

“Fairly well, thank you,” Hunter said stiffly, “Evelyn and Jason have been looking after me.”

A faint smile crossed Caleb’s face. “Oh, good. He hasn’t been… too much?”

“Too much?”

“He gets excited. Some of his brothers get overwhelmed. I thought he’d be a good match for you, though. And maybe a little bit the other way around.”

“Because I’ve mentored before?”

“Yes.”

Hunter didn’t know how to feel about that. Did you send Jason so that I’d forget about Darius? As a replacement? He eyed Caleb. He’s smart enough to stay out of uncle’s reach; uncle doesn’t even know he or any of us are alive. Clever and gutsy enough to rescue all of us at the brink of death. It was easy to forget all that with how goofy and innocuous he seemed most of the time, but this human was a match for Belos brainwise, and apparently had a better understanding of people than Hunter had originally given him credit for.

A little too much like Uncle.

Caleb grinned at him. “Uh-oh, are we reassessing my threat level?”

“I—uh—” Hunter sputtered, mind whirling. Then there was that tendency to just say whatever popped into his head, instead of filing away spotted information for secret use. Why would he say that?! Just to knock Hunter off his guard, to prove that Hunter couldn’t hide anything from him?!

“Hey—” the original reached out, as if to take his arm, then faltered. “—Uh, sorry—look. Deep breath. Focus on the moment. Sorry, didn’t mean to set off the overthinking. You’re definitely not the first child soldier I’ve taken in, Hunter. You’re all unique, and have your own personalities, but… a lot of you share habits.” His nose crinkled. “If I tried to list every time I’ve gotten that exact appraising look as you decided I was more dangerous than I look, we’d be here all day. Enough about me. What’s on your mind?”

Hunter took a deep breath. Follow his lead. He’s candid with you, reciprocate. This isn’t the coven. There are different rules and expectations here. “You wanted Jason to replace Darius?”

Caleb’s face crumpled. “Oh. Well, I—no, that’s not… not how I intended that.” He gave Hunter a small, sad smile. “I think I know better than anyone that loved ones can’t be replaced, no matter how hard you try. There’s always going to be that little gap they left behind. I just thought… it might be more familiar to you, I suppose? I don’t know what your kid was like, but I just thought it would be better for you than a bunch more adults. Something to focus on so you didn’t lose yourself.”

Hunter shook his head with a small smile. “Darius wasn’t much like Jason. He was… he liked to take the easy way out, to find the quickest way to do what was required of him. He was bright, very clever, very good at what he did. Sometimes that made him a bit of a slacker. He liked to have fun, to do the things he wanted, you know? But when he saw something he wanted, he buckled down and he got it. I liked that about him, if he cared about something, he defended it passionately, no matter how silly someone else might think it was, like his clothes. Or his friends.”

“Yeah?”

Hunter shook his head again. This felt… easy to talk about. Comfortable. “The only major disagreement we ever had, over his friends. Alador and Odalia. I…” suddenly, the reason behind their argument swept up to him in a rush, and he blinked. “Oh.”

“Oh?”

“Oh, I—” Hunter squeezed his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That was a. That was a Belos thing, I…” he looked up at Caleb. “I tried to separate them,” he said in a low voice, “I thought it would hurt his chances of success if he was attached, and… it was a bit of a sore point between us. I dropped it when I realized how much he cared about them, but… titan, I wish I could apologize, that was… that was just Belos talking, wasn’t it?”

Caleb took in a deep breath. “I would say it’s… a product of your upbringing. Yes.”

Very non-committal. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s… easy… to blame my brother for every wrongdoing. And, in fact, he is the reasoning behind most things the people in this house did that they regret. Philip tricked, manipulated, and forced us into a lot of the terrible things that we did, and that's on him. But there are some things that… we did on our own. And that's where… you have to acknowledge and take responsibility for your own actions. No one told Melgear, Venari, Horus, and Hamlet to torture that scout, did they?”

“No.”

“No. I understand where they come from, of course, but… that was their action, and it was wrong. Yes, these things happen with his upbringing to blame, but I don’t think my brother told you to try and break Darius from his friends, did he?”

Hunter heaved a sigh. “No,” he admitted, “I… it really was me, huh? I mean, I WAS spouting off what I’d been taught, what they told me I joined the coven, but…” It had been simple, easy, for him to forget about any connections he’d had before—they hadn’t been that strong, after all. He hadn’t considered that Darius might actually be attached to his friends. He understood now, though. He hadn’t been able to keep a cool head when Darius was on the line, either.

Caleb shrugged. “You’re sorry for it. That’s what matters, isn’t it?”

“Not if I can’t ever tell him.”

A head shake. “What if he never forgave you?”

“What?”

“What if he never forgave you?” Caleb repeated, “What if you could apologize to him, and he said ‘okay. I don’t forgive you?’ Would you keep feeling bad about it, if you did everything you could to make up for it, and he didn’t forgive you?”

“I—” Hunter stuttered, “I ca—I don’t—”

Caleb shrugged again. “No one is obligated to forgive you. It’s more important that you’re truly sorry for you past actions and try to be a better person than it is to be forgiven. Don’t fixate on not being able to apologize to Darius—focus on being someone who would have supported him instead.

If you define yourself by someone else’s attitude towards you, well… that’s how we ended up here, huh? Defining ourselves by Philip’s wants and desires and feelings towards us? Not that that’s your fault, but… it is something that everyone here struggled or still struggles with. What my brother did will affect all of us through life, but it doesn’t have to be the only thing about us. You can’t erase the past, and you shouldn’t forget it, but you can try to make something new out of it.”

“The others… they chose their own name to find their own definition of themselves,” Hunter said slowly. Jason had said something along those lines, of course, but it just now sank in.

“Sure. It’s not a necessary step, and even when they DO choose their own name, it doesn’t flip some magical switch. But yes, that’s why they change it.” He sucked in a deep breath, dusting off his hands. “Whoof. Bit of a heavy conversation, huh?”

Hunter felt a tiny smile approach his face. “A bit.”

“How about some tea? Or—”

“That’s alright. Thank you, though. You should… probably check in on the current golden guard again?”

It was an easy escape route, but Caleb took it. “Yeah, I suppose I should. Let me know if you need anything?”

“Yessir.”

Caleb gave the mysterious door a long look, then shrugged, and moved back towards his oracle room. Hunter examined the door again.

What could be so bad that someone so open and honest would hide it?

He heard a scuffle behind him, and he whirled around to see a Grimwalker with huge glasses, a bun, and a scar over his right eye sneaking out of a different room, dashing down the hallway.

“What is he…”

Hunter was about to call after Caleb, but then stopped. If this Grimwalker was hiding from the Calebs, then maybe they knew some information that Caleb wasn’t willing to share.

What’s going on around here?

Hunter opened the door the Grimwalker had snuck out of, then almost immediately started backing away.

There was a stone statue of a golden guard in there. Hunter could recognize the signs on the stone—a petrification. The whole scene was eerily familiar. Just looking at the statue made his stomach nauseous.

Did the other Grimwalker…?

Did the original?!

How?!

Broken stone flowers and living flowers in varying states of decay littered the floor around the statue told the story that this wasn’t a rescue—someone had done this to him while he was here.

I have to get out of here.

It’s not safe—do Jason and Mole know?! Or are they next?

He backed right into another person, and he whirled around to see the bespectacled grimwalker again. He looked stretched out, nearly as tall as Hunter but not as bulky, giving him a thin, unhealthy look.

“See something you didn’t like?” the grimwalker asked.

Knock him out, or play it cool? Would that raise an alarm? Is he rogue, like Horus and the others, or is this part of the Caleb’s plan?

“I—you—”

Too late to play it cool.

“Sam, you’re sounding threatening again,” a voice said cheerfully at his right shoulder.

“You could ask ‘are you okay? You look kinda freaked out’ like a normal person, you know,” another voice agreed at his left.

Hunter’s head whipped back and forth to see two more grimwalkers. Pinned.

“I am not,” the glasses grimwalker—Sam—protested, his voice getting higher pitched.

The grimwalker on the right—who didn’t have any arms, and COULDN’T grab Hunter, even if he’d wanted to, Hunter realized—grinned, lowering his voice to a sinister tone. “See something you didn’t like?” he whispered creepily.

“Locke! I do not sound like that!”

“I thought it was an excellent impression,” the Grimwalker on the left piped up. This one had a scar across their forehead.

“Thank you, Lake.”

“Plus, your lab is kinda creepy when you’re not in it scurrying around like your head’s on fire.” Lake nudged Hunter. “That’s what freaked you out, right? His spooky room with the billion flowers?”

Sam pushed his glasses up. “Well, fine, then, I will explain the lab.” He grabbed Hunter’s arm, tugging him back into the room and turning on the lights before Hunter could quite react or begin to protest. He let Hunter go, and gestured at the stone statue. “Behold! Petrified Hunter, or Petro for short!”

“Can you please just call him Peter?” Lake chuckled.

“I’m begging you,” Locke agreed.

“No. Anyway, this is… our biggest problem, at the moment.” Sam walked around the statue, shaking his head. “Belos petrified him, and I’m… well, I’m trying to figure out how to undo it.”

Hunter shook his head, his muscles starting to relax. So there really wasn’t anything sinister going on. Not here, at least. Still, his scars ached just looking at the unfortunate guard. “Petrifications are permanent.”

“Sure, that’s what you think, but! Hey, we should all be dead, but we’re not. Anything’s possible.” Sam picked up one of the stone flowers. “I discovered the petrification glyph mostly on accident, but—”

“Wait, it’s a glyph?!”

“Yes, I—hang on a moment, how much do you know about the glyphs?”

Hunter shook his head. “Not a lot. Horus showed me a few.”

Lake and Locke both plopped down on the ground. Lake patted the ground next to them. “It’s gonna be a long explanation, make yourself comfy.”

Hunter slowly sat down next to them. “How many times have you heard it?”

“A lot,” they chorused.

“And yet, you continue to return every time a new Grimwalker appears for me to explain it,” Sam responded, “Curious.”

“You explain it different every time,” Locke piped up, “What if we miss something new?”

Sam shook his head. “Ignore them. Alright, so there are the main glyphs, of course, but you can combine them in specific ways to do something new. If you’d like later, I can show you some, or maybe these two clowns can, since they’ve listened to me explain this about a billion times apparently.”

“I can’t,” Locke said serenely.

“Liar, I have seen you put a pen in your mouth and write with better handwriting than some of your siblings. Anyway, point being, long story short, for the purposes of further explanation of this lab, one of these combos is how good ol’ Uncle Bels petrified and is still petrifying people! Hooray. Anyway, I’m trying to figure out the anti-glyph, a glyph that will do the opposite.” He gestured to the half dead and stone flowers around him with the flower in his hand. “As you can tell, it’s going marvelously.” He gathered up the stone flowers, laying them at the feet of the statue like a bouquet on the grave.

“Why were you acting all suspicious earlier?”

“Oh, that’s just how he acts all the time,” Lake commented, “Like we said, Sam has a problem with looking and sounding threatening and fishy all the time.”

Locke nodded. “Pretty much all of us have always been in high golden guard trouble alert around him until we got used to it.”

“I’m used to sneaking around,” Sam said matter-of-factly, “I studied wild magic LONG before I came here, and it wasn’t exactly a supported subject. I was quite good at it, too, before our dearest Uncle Belmont figured out I wasn’t always using my staff and broke my neck for it.”

Hunter’s hand went up to his own neck. So maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference if I’d known about the glyphs sooner.

Sam waved his hands. “But hey, I got better! And now I’m doing this, and I can study wild magic to my heart’s content, provided I do all of the experimenting myself. Wow, it’s a mess in here.” He scooped up the dead flowers and tossed them onto a glyph that he activated to incinerate them. “Any questions about my apparently ever-so-creepy lab?”

“Can’t you just… write the opposite glyphs in the same pattern? Or something?”

“Mmmm, that would be nice. Unfortunately, the glyphs don’t have a natural opposite, ice, fire, plant, light, no, there isn’t a clear choice there. Plus, the glyphs can get HUGE and complicated. In some cases, it’s easier to just do without them because of how long they take to draw. I’m sure I COULD make a glyph that would create all the ingredients and cook a meal for you, but to do so would take up as much time as simply cooking the meal myself. Petrification is one of the more complex glyphs, and I’m sure the glyph that undoes it will undoubtedly be just as complicated.” Sam threw his hands up in the air. “Or randomly simple! I don’t know. Which is why I’m testing it on these flowers before I irreversibly mess up our brother.”

“And we are so proud of you for your restraint,” Locke said seriously as Lake nodded.

“Okay, if you two are just going to tease me, then out.” Sam shooed the three of them out. “Go experiment with some glyphs. I hope you blow your faces off.”

“That’s very insensitive,” Locke said in a hurt voice, “Given how I lost my arms!”

“And given how I died,” Lake agreed.

“You got sealed in a well and left to starve or asphyxiate, and your arms were ripped off, neither of you exploded, now leave!” Sam shut the door.

“Rude,” Locke said amiably.

“Very,” Lake agreed, “I’m still so very hurting over all that, how could he bring it up?” They turned to face Hunter with a grin that belied their words. “Do you want us to teach you some glyph combos?”

Hunter rubbed his temples. He could feel a headache coming on. “I think that’s enough long explanations for one day, thanks.”

Chapter Text

“—and then when he makes it to shore, he finds out Clerval has been murdered, and he’s suspect number one! He ends up getting sick for some reason? He’s just weird like that, not my favorite protagonist, but—”

Hunter sprang to his feet, scattering discarded weeds everywhere, as he spotted a glimmer of movement in the mysterious section of house, disrupting Jason’s ‘summary.’ “There!”

Jason jumped. “There what?!”

Hunter gestured with his trowel. “There’s someone in there!”

“Oh. Yeah, it’s probably Mom. Or Dad. They go in there to cry sometimes.”

Why could he say that so casually? Sure, Jason seemed to be more open than Hunter thought was healthy, but how could he be so dismissively normal about something so strange? “What’s in that room?”

Mole scooped up a pile of weeds and stomped away, towards the compost, throwing each plant in one by one, a little more aggressively than Hunter thought was necessary.

Jason gave Mole an uneasy glance. “Oh. Nothing. It’s… an empty bedroom.”

Hunter frowned. “Why’s it empty?”

“Because no one lives there,” Jason replied matter-of-factly.

Hunter reached out, tousling his hair and rubbing dirt from the garden in it. “Alright, smart-alec.”

Jason ducked away with a yelp. “Hey, kind of an obvious answer! That’s on you! Anyway, as I was saying—”

“Help—Mom—Sam—”

Forest side. Hunter and Jason glanced at each other, then ran for the gate, opening it just in time to see Meleager, Horus, and Hamlet stumble out of the trees, carrying Venari between them. Hunter ran to meet them, scooping the Grimwalker out of their arms easily. Blood seeped from a gash in their side. Their eyes were already closed.

“I’ll get Mom.” Jason dashed off towards the house.

Hunter hefted Venari in his arms, moving as quickly as he could from the forest—and whatever had done this. “What happened?!”

“It was a demon,” Hamlet half-sobbed. Unease coiled through Hunter—how bad could it be to make a golden guard cry? “It came out of nowhere, and—and—”

Evelyn already waited for him at the door, rushing them into another room and directing Hunter to a bed where he gently laid the injured Grimwalker down. “Will they be okay?”

“Not the worst injury I’ve seen.” She drew a circle and held out her hands, now glowing soft blue with healing light.

Caleb burst through the door, and Meleager whirled around to face him, face pale. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, it’s my fault, I should have—I should have been watching better, they’re my responsibility when we’re out, I’m sorry—”

Caleb reached out towards him, but stalled and put his hand down when Meleager flinched. “It’s not your fault,” he said in a low, steady voice, underscored with what Hunter was pretty sure was barely-contained panic, “Meleager, it isn’t your fault, okay? You couldn’t predict or prevent this, it… things just happen sometimes.” He knelt next to his wife. “What’s the rundown?”

She shook her head, glancing back at the grimwalkers. The others were all crowding around the door, peering in at Venari. “It was venomous,” she said in a low voice, “They need an antidote. I can delay the venom with my magic, but without an actual cure…”

Caleb stood up. “Okay,” he said in a firm, businesslike voice, “Meleager, Sam, Joseph, you’re with me. Grab a couple of concealment stones, we’re going to town. Meleager, can you describe the demon you saw?”

He nodded. “I can do that. I can—yes. I can do that.”

“Okay. We’re going to visit every potion brewer, beast keeper, and healer until we find an antidote. If you three can piece together what that thing was, we’ll have a starting point, but even if not, I’m sure a beastkeeper will know. In the meantime, no one goes out past the fence.”

“Couldn’t we make an antivenom from the venom of the thing?” one of the grimwalkers (Chryses, if Hunter remembered correctly) piped up, “If we could find it, then… never mind,” he broke off hastily as Caleb turned towards him.

“No, it’s a good idea. But I don’t want anyone else getting bitten, not for a maybe. Everyone stays inside the fence.” He nodded to Cherry. “You’re in charge while your mother and I are busy. No one goes into the woods.”

The one-eyed Grimwalker snapped a small, serious salute. “Yes, sir.”

Caleb nodded to Meleager and Sam. “Let’s go.”

Evelyn jumped up to follow them as they swept out, and Hunter followed, pressing himself against the wall outside a door as she pulled her husband into another room.

“Be careful. Be safe. Please. Make sure they all come home.”

Hunter peered around to get a glimpse of Caleb gently pressing his forehead to hers, holding her face in his hands as she squeezed his wrists. “We’ll make it back. All of us. I won’t fail another kid. I won’t.”

He took Petro’s condition hard, Hunter realized, The only one he couldn’t completely save.

If he loses another one, it’ll kill him.

He had to do something. Hunter peeled himself off the wall, sliding back into place with the other grimwalkers outside of Venari’s room. The two Wittebanes walked out of the room, but went opposite directions down the hallway. The front door slammed, and just like that, they were gone.

Evelyn wiped at her eyes, then shooed the grimwalkers away. “Okay, okay, all of you go back to whatever you were doing before, they’ll be fine.”

Hamlet and Horus planted themselves firmly in the room next to Venari’s bed. “We’re staying,” Horus announced.

“Of course. But the rest of you.”

They filed off, gathering silently in the kitchen instead. Cherry gave all of them a stern look, then went outside. Through the window, Hunter saw him plant himself where he could watch the major points of exit from the house.

“You think they’ll be able to find an antidote in time?” Jason asked in a small voice.

There was a chorus of “yes”s and “of course”s from the other assorted Grimwalkers. Steven waved his hands at Jason frantically. “Mom’ll keep the venom from killing them, Dad’ll get the antidote, it’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.”

The other Grimwalkers chimed their agreement, then looked at each other, and wandered off in separate directions, leaving only Mole, Jason, and Hunter behind. Jason rested his elbows on the counter, putting his chin in his hands. “Bunch of liars,” he said gloomily, “Sometimes they act like I wasn’t a golden guard, too. I’m not stupid, I know they’re in real danger, I just...”

Sometimes I kind of forget that you were, too, Hunter thought, fidgeting with his hands, You don’t exactly look or act the part. “Yeah,” he agreed softly, glancing towards the door, “Situation’s bad.”

Jason perked up, his eyes flicking back and forth between Hunter and the door. “You’re going after it,” he breathed, “You’re—”

Hunter put a hand over his mouth, glancing around to see if anyone heard.

“Mrgh!” Jason protested, tugging at his arm.

“Shhhhhh,” Hunter hissed, “Look, I can’t just sit around and—” something slimy touched his hand, and he yanked it back from Jason’s mouth. “Did you just lick me?!”

Mole snickered.

Jason made a face, then spit in the sink, rinsing it away. “Your hand tastes like dirt,” he complained.

Hunter washed his hand in the sink, scrubbing. “That is disgusting!”

“Anyway. How are you planning on getting past Cherry? He might be half blind, but he’s really perceptive. He’ll know.”

“You’re not going to try to stop me?”

Jason twisted the bottom of his shirt in his hands. “Like you said, situation’s bad,” he said softly, “There’s no guarantee Dad and the others will be able to find a cure, or that they’ll get it back here in time. If you think you can get its venom for an antidote…” He shook his head. “Don’t get bitten?” he pleaded.

“I won’t.”

“Can I…”

“No. You need to stay here.” He couldn’t put Jason in danger—and he couldn’t ask him to disobey orders. No, the punishment for that would be his alone.

Jason sighed. “Okay. Figured it was a long shot.”

Hunter glanced out the window at the silent sentinel that was Cherry. “Any ideas?”

“Mmm… I could distract him, so you could sneak out?”

“That’ll never work, he’ll suspect you in a heartbeat. Darius got scouts to help him sneak out at night by being a distraction all the time, and I always caught him.”

“Yeah, alright, that’s fair.”

Mole tapped the table to get their attention and jerked his head towards the dining room window.

Jason’s eyes lit up. “If I made it look like I was really attempting an escape, he wouldn’t realize it was a distraction! I’ll go out the window, and you wait for him to follow. Don’t worry, I’ll be quiet enough he thinks it’s real, but not so sneaky I actually get out. Mole can go out a different window, just in case. That way, if he does figure it out, he’ll think it’s just a distraction for Mole, or if he figures Mole was a distraction, then he’ll assume it was for me. You just have to be sneakier than the two of us.”

How had he gotten all that from a tap and a head nod? Hunter bit his lip, thinking. “You two won’t get in trouble, will you?”

“From Cherry? Pflbt. Nah, he’ll just make us come back inside. It’ll be fine. Venari needs this, so come on, it doesn’t matter.”

Mole nodded in agreement, and the two of them split up, Jason clambering out the dining room window and Mole going down the hallway to try a different one. Hunter took a knife and a discarded broom handle, watching as Cherry suddenly sprinted off in the direction of the dining room, yelling something that sounded like “JASON, I CAN SEE YOU”. Hunter shook his head with a small smile, opening the door and slipping out, carefully sticking to the shadows of the house and keeping an eye out for Cherry. He reached for the gate handle, and with the sound of a deep inhale, Cherry appeared on top of the fence, crouched on a post.

“I can’t let you leave.”

Hunter’s head whipped around as he looked backwards to where Jason had gone. “How—?”

“Jason and Mole aren’t conceited enough to think they can beat some monster that took out Venari, and they’re not stupid enough to try. I knew they wouldn’t actually be trying to get away.”

Well, he’d already known a distraction wouldn’t work, hadn’t he? But someone had chased after them. “Then who…?”

“Dagger’s on it. He’s wearing one of my eyepatches.”

“I’m not Jason, and I’m not Mole. I can handle this.”

Cherry shook his head. “I can’t let you. Dad said to keep everyone out of the woods until he came back. So I am.”

Hunter threw his hands up. “You’re not even a little worried?!”

“Of course I’m worried about Venari,” Cherry replied, his voice aggrieved, but still even. “But I can’t just let you run off and get yourself poisoned, too. I won’t risk more of us dying.”

“So you admit it, then?” Hunter asked in a low voice, “You know Venari is dying, but you won’t do anything about it?”

“We have to trust Dad. He’ll come back with the antidote. I just have to believe in him, and make sure no one else gets hurt. He trusted me to do that—it’s my job, and I’m not going to let him down.”

Hunter ran a hand through his hair. “You’re not at all thinking maybe you just replaced Uncle with someone else? Following his every order, worried about messing up? Believing that he’s some higher being that we can trust to fix all the problems, we just have to trust him?!” Maybe that wasn’t fair, but it did scratch at a doubt that had been circling around his mind for a while. What if they couldn’t trust him? Certainly they couldn’t leave, which was the exact thing that had kept them in the coven for so long.

Cherry shook his head again, still deadly calm. “Dad is not Uncle Belos. Even if I did fail to keep one of you from running off to kill this thing, he wouldn’t punish me.”

“Prove it. Let me go.”

Cherry glanced at the woods behind him. “I can’t do that. This is to keep the rest of you safe.”

“I can take care of myself. I won’t take any unnecessary risks. Is it really worth Venari dying to keep me from maybe getting hurt?!” Hunter took a deep breath. “You guys saved me. You took me in. Let me do this for you, let me save them.”

I can’t just sit by and do nothing while someone dies.

Cherry looked up towards the house, then gave Hunter a long look, and hopped off of the fence, leaving the gate free. “Be quick. Be safe. Like you said, no unnecessary risks.”

Hunter opened the gate, slipping out. “Thank you. I’ll say I slipped past you so that you won’t get in trouble.”

Cherry just shook his head as the gate swung shut.

Hunter quickly found the trail of blood leading into the woods. It’s not much, but it’s a starting point. The trail wasn’t a direct line, just splotches of blood here and there, but they were relatively consistent in their spacing, and he was able to find each one easily. This didn’t bode well for Venari. How much blood had they lost?

“Look, see, there it is!”

Hunter pricked up at the voice, ducking behind a tree.

“Oh, yeah, you’re right. Good eye!”

“Thanks.”

Grimwalker voices. Hunter peered around his tree. “What are you two doing out?”

The two—Hunter racked his brain for the names Jason had drilled him on until he came up with Cyrus and Matt—jumped, whirling to point weapons at him.

“Oh,” Cyrus said finally, without lowering his knife, “It’s you. Hi. Here to get some venom from the big bad whatever it is?”

The dim light of his glyph glinted on his earrings and lit up one long, silvery scar that stretched across his nose. His shadow didn’t look any less striking in the flickering light—his short, bushy ponytail gave the effect of flames behind him. Matt, by comparison, looked exceedingly normal, with his undercut and plain clothing, save his own scar cut through his forehead.

Hunter crossed his arms. “How did you two get past Cherry?”

“His room is slapped right up against the fence,” Matt said casually, “We figured that if he was outside watching the main exits, he wasn’t in his room, so we snuck out that way.”

“You weren’t worried he might have set up a trap in there?”

“He did,” Cyrus responded, equally casually, “We disarmed it.”

Hunter shook his head. “This is dangerous. You need to go back.”

“Bit hypocritical of you,” Matt shot back, “What are you doing out here?”

“Exactly what you said. I’m going to get some of that thing’s venom so they can make a cure for Venari, and I’m going to kill it.”

“That’s what we’re doing, too. Why don’t you just team up with us?”

Did they think this was some kind of game? “This thing took out Venari, and Meleager couldn’t do anything to stop it. It’s too dangerous for you.”

They both stared at him for a moment, as if they couldn’t quite understand what he was talking about. Then Matt palmed his forehead. “Oh! Oh, you thought…” he turned to face Cyrus, who still looked confused. “He thought Meleager, Hamlet, Horus, and Venari were the strongest in the family.”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

Hunter felt like the rug had been yanked out from under him. They were the hunters, they were the ones that went out into the world—of course he’d thought they were the strongest. Sure, he’d bested them easily, but he’d just assumed they were out of practice fighting another witch.

“Are they… not?” he ventured tentatively.

Cyrus laughed. “Nah, they’re just the angriest.”

“In terms of strength and combat prowess, plenty of us are better,” Matt explained kindly, “But we don’t use those skills often, because we don’t have to. They’re competent, to be sure, and they can handle themselves just fine, but they’re far from the strongest.”

“Oh,” Hunter said faintly, “So you really think you can take on this demon?”

“Oh, yeah, absolutely.” Matt blinked at him. “Wait. Did you even bring a jar to collect the venom in?”

Hunter shook his head. “I just figured I’d bring its decapitated head. Or rip out a venom gland.”

“Gross.”

“Violent,” Cyrus agreed. He handed Hunter a jar with cloth covering the opening. “There, now all of us have one. Just get it to bite on the cloth.”

Hunter blinked at the jar. “Did you see the size of Venari’s bite?! If it bites on this jar, it’ll shatter!”

“Well, we’ll restrain it first,” Matt commented, “Don’t worry, we have traps.”

“And I grabbed some sleeping nettles,” Cyrus volunteered, “We’re going to go to where it attacked Venari, set up camp, and wait. We’ll surround the area with traps, wait for it to come for us, knock it out, get the venom safely, then kill it, just to be sure. If the sleeping nettles or the traps aren’t strong enough for it, we’ll have to fight it, but it should be—”

“Um, Cyrus?” Matt interrupted faintly, looking over Hunter’s shoulder, “Do we have a plan for if it ambushes us?”

Cyrus froze. “Hunter, don’t. Move.” He slowly pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, then lunged forwards with a war cry. Matt grabbed the front of Hunter’s shirt at the same time, yanking him forward. Hunter heard teeth snap in the air behind him, followed by a hiss of anger. He whirled around to see a lizardlike demon with sharp teeth and eyes all along its back get tangled up in vines from Cyrus’ glyph. Cyrus brought his leg in a furious kick that cracked into its jaw, making it shriek.

Matt jumped forward, slapping down a glyph of his own. Hunter eyed their surroundings, and the beast, and clambered up into a tree, swinging down almost immediately and landing on the creature’s back. He started smacking and poking its eyes with his makeshift staff, making it shriek in pain. Its tail whipped around, and too late, Hunter realized there was a scaly hand on the end, one that grabbed his arm and threw him to the side. Hunter relaxed his muscles and rolled with the impact when he hit the ground, then sprang back up. Matt threw a crumpled piece of paper at him, and Hunter snatched it out of the air, spreading it out and smacking it. Vines pinned the tail down, and Cyrus opened a pouch, throwing a handful of sleeping nettles into the demon’s face. It dropped almost immediately to sleep.

“Hah,” Matt panted, “Well, that was closer than I wanted it to be.”

Hunter nudged it with his foot. “How do we know this is the same demon? Or that it’s venomous?”

Cyrus gestured to a yellowish liquid dribbling out of its mouth. “Pretty sure that’s the venom. Does the jaw look like the same shape as the bite?”

Hunter examined it, tracing the shape. “Yeah.”

Cyrus pressed the monster’s jaws to the cloth of the jar, and venom streamed in. He repeated with different sections of the jaw, until the jar was full. “That should be enough.”

There was a glint in the creature’s eyes, and Hunter grabbed Cyrus, yanking him backwards. “Watch out!”

It lunged out of the vines, and Hunter brought his broom handle swinging with an almighty crack down between its two face eyes.

The broom handle splintered and broke.

“Uh-oh,” he said in a small voice as it turned its attention on him. He dodged a swipe of claws, pulling out the knife he’d taken to replace the broom handle. Matt created a spear out of ice, hurling it as hard as he could. It shattered against the creature’s skin. The demon lunged out, and Matt dodged its bite, only for the thing’s claws on the end of its tail to slash across his chest.

Matt dropped with a muffled scream, and Cyrus leapt forward with a growl, driving a knife right through its tail, pinning it to the ground.

“KILL IT!” he hollered, “KILL IT NOW!”

Hunter jumped forward with his own knife. Dodged a snap of the jaws. Stabbed it in the eye with the splintered broom handle. He twisted away from a half-blind swipe of its claws, then lunged, bringing his knife home in its throat. It dropped with a gurgle, thrashing and twisting weakly until finally, it just stopped.

Cyrus knelt down next to Matt. “Are you okay?!”

“Just a scratch,” Matt wheezed. Blood had already spread across the front of his shirt, and Hunter hissed in. Those scratches looked deep. And who knew what this thing had in its claws?

Cyrus handed the jar of venom to Hunter. “Take it to Mom. I’ll get him home.”

“Are you sure? What if—”

“Go, before it’s too late for Venari!”

Hunter gave him a brief nod, and sprinted back in the direction of the house, vaulting over logs and rocks. He burst in the gate, running past a startled Cherry and all the way back to Venari’s room, holding out the jar to Evelyn, panting.

“Oh! Hunter is—is that what I think it is?!”

“Venom,” he panted, “Antidote. Hurry. Matt injured.”

“Matt?! Oh—never mind, tell me later.” She took the jar from him, shooting to the kitchen.

Hamlet and Horus blinked at him from Venari’s bedside. “You… you killed it?” Hamlet asked slowly.

“With help.”

They both nodded, then went quiet again. Hunter let out a deep sigh, then stretched, wincing. Ow. Getting tossed around by that thing had hurt more than he’d thought it would. He checked for injuries, spotting a couple of scrapes on his elbows and legs. Cyrus limped in, hauling Matt with him. Vines secured scraps of fabric to his injuries. Hunter wordlessly helped carry him to his room. The first Grimwalker Hunter had ever spoken to (Auric, he was almost certain) came in with bandages, a washcloth, and a bowl of water. He shooed the two of them out and closed the door. Cyrus sat down outside with a whump. Hunter slowly lowered himself down to sit next to him.

“No one knows you were gone. You don’t have to…”

“Nah, I’ll own up. Can’t let you and Matt take all the blame, huh?”

“Is he going to be okay?”

“Sure.” Cyrus’ voice wobbled ever-so-slightly. “Auric’s great, best doctor we’ve got. Besides Mom, of course.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, how are you coping with losing your kid?”

It was an obvious change of topic, but it still threw Hunter off guard, making his heart clench at the thought of his student. “I—I mean, he’s not dead, I—”

“He’s not?”

Hunter picked at a new hole in his shirt from the fight, unraveling loose threads. “No. Thank titan. I thought for sure Belos would kill him after I attacked him.”

Cyrus ‘hm’ed in agreement. “I’m surprised he even let you have an outside friend in the first place. A witch friend? Man. Guess he’s gotten more lenient.”

More lenient?

“He used to be stricter about it?” Hunter’s eyes widened as he started connecting the dots. “Oh. You had…”

Cyrus rested his chin on his knees. “Mmm. Wasn’t the same as you and your kid.”

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. It was… I just wanted to check, because I know it can be… tough… at first. Pain fades eventually, though. I guess.”

Hunter thought of the bittersweet feeling he got whenever he remembered Darius. Maybe he wasn’t dead, but he’d never see him again. Never talk to him again. It was almost like he WAS dead, except with that melancholy maybe someday that echoed in his mind.

“I guess,” he echoed softly, then, after a moment of hesitation, “Tell me about them?”

A brief smile flitted across his face. “He was… smart. And sweet. And he felt… safe. If I got hurt on mission, or by Belos, I’d go to him. To hide for a bit. To be healed.” Another soft smile, this one staying. Hunter watched with a smile of his own playing at his lips, watching Cyrus’ tension fade, remembering. “He’d always give the wound a little kiss, always said it made it heal faster.”

“He sounds… nice.”

“He was.” Cyrus brushed at his eyes. “Guess I was kind of an idiot for thinking I could hide him from Belos, huh? If I’d really loved him, I would have made him go away, I would have…” He swiped at his eyes. “Ah, what does it matter. Can’t change the past, right? In the end, I wasn’t enough to protect him. I got left injured on a mountain to die. Belos said that if I could make it back in time to stop him… But I collapsed, and when I woke up here, I was eighty years too late.”

A shock ran down Hunter’s spine, and he jolted upright. “What?! You mean they prevented you from…”

Cyrus twirled his forelock between his fingers. “Ah, I would have died on that mountain anyway. I wasn’t making it back, Belos knew that. He just wanted me to wallow in my failure for a bit first. You know, the usual.”

“The usual,” Hunter repeated. Suddenly, Darius being alive felt like a blessing. There was still a chance for him. A chance Cyrus would never get. Eighty years… Cyrus had been a guard before the Empire had even been founded. Most of the guards had to have been—the thought of how long Belos had been doing to them made his head spin. Out of everyone here, only his predecessor would have been around for the Empire as he’d known it. The thought made him feel suddenly very small.

Who was that, anyway? Cyrus was the first grimwalker he could place in time. Did the last guard know he was here? Did they know how he’d been compared and never measured up? Did Belos constantly compare the most current guard to him? He couldn’t imagine that, but maybe Belos remembered all of them that bittersweetly.

Evelyn ran back towards Venari’s room, interrupting his thoughts. Hunter scrambled to his feet to follow. Cyrus didn’t get up, his eyes fixed on the door, fingers still twisting his hair.

“Hey.” Hunter offered him a hand. “Venari’s going to be okay, thanks to you. We’re not going to lose anyone else.”

Cyrus grasped his hand, hauling himself up to his feet. “No one else.”

Chapter Text

Hunter and Cyrus both waited outside of Venari’s room. Cyrus kept twisting and combing his forelock, and Hunter’s foot wouldn’t stop tapping. Finally, finally, the door opened, and Evelyn brushed past them, holding blood-stained rags and an empty potion bottle. “They’ll live. Antidote’s neutralizing the venom already. Leave them to rest, they still have a rough road ahead.”

Hunter caught Cyrus’ arms as his legs wobbled and he fell. “Hey—whoa!”

“They’ll live,” Cyrus said in a half daze, “They’re going to be okay.”

“They’ll be okay,” Evelyn re-affirmed. She gestured for the two of them to follow her to Matt’s room, where Auric sat beside Matt’s bed, bloody bandages of his own crumbled between his hands. “How’s the patient?”

“Dying,” Matt replied weakly.

“He’ll be fine,” Auric responded, “I cleaned and stitched up the wounds, and I put a salve on it to prevent infection. He’s weak from blood loss right now, but I gave him some painkillers, so he’s feeling better. Just a little woozy.”

He scratched at his scarred throat, and Evelyn nudged him. “Do you need some of those painkillers?”

“Maybe. I’ll be okay. Thank you.”

“Thank you for taking care of him. I always know I can rely on you.”

Auric flushed, muttered something about washing all the blood away, and left the room. Evelyn took a deep breath and faced the three of them. “Since everyone’s alright… what were you thinking?!”

“We couldn’t let Venari die!” Matt protested.

“So you nearly get yourself killed instead? Oh, yes. This sounds like a most excellent plan.” Evelyn inhaled deeply again. “Matt could have gotten killed. Any of you could have been killed.”

Hunter realized uneasily how right she was. Without Matt and Cyrus, he would have died. He was probably the best option to die—after all, no one was seriously attached to him just yet. Still, it would have been irritating to die to something so stupid after he’d just narrowly escaped Belos’ attempt.

“We’re used to it,” Cyrus piped up, “We’re used to this, we wouldn’t have gotten seriously hurt. It looks bad, but we would have been okay, we always are.”

“Things are supposed to be different here! You don’t need to go on dangerous missions to prove yourselves. We don’t want you going on dangerous missions! You spent so long being a guard, please, just… let someone else do the protecting for once. Trust us to do that. You’re adults, I understand that. You can make your own decisions. But you’re also a part of this family, and while you might not like every decision Caleb and I make, we make those decisions to keep you safe.”

“That’s what Belos would say,” Hunter said softly.

Cyrus hissed in, and Matt winced in a way that Hunter was almost certain had nothing to do with his injury.

Evelyn froze for just a moment then shook her head, staring at him with steely golden eyes. “Caleb is afraid of being like his brother. He’s afraid that he’ll become another Belos for you; it haunts his every moment. He’ll let you get away with anything short of murder with nothing but a gentle rebuke. But I’m not Caleb.”

She took a step closer to him, and for the first time since arriving, Hunter actually felt nervous, started to wonder if maybe there was some truth behind what Belos had always said about the dangers of wild witches. “We make hard choices to protect you,” she said quietly, but firmly, “I know Belos said the same. The difference between Belos and us is that we mean it. I don’t know how to convince you of that, except to tell you to watch. To try to see the difference. And if you can’t, well… maybe we aren’t doing as good a job as we think. But I think asking you to stay inside when there’s a dangerous demon with venom that we don’t have an antidote for is reasonable.”

Cherry cleared his throat in the doorway, holding his hands behind his back. “I’m sorry,” he said shortly.

“It wasn’t his fault,” Hunter interjected, “I snuck past him, I—”

Cherry shot him a look. “No, he didn’t. I let him go. I judged that I thought he could handle it, and that it would be worse for him to be cooped up in the house unable to help.” He turned a confused eye on Matt and Cyrus. “I don’t know how they got out.”

“Oh, no, we did sneak out,” Matt volunteered, “We went through your window.”

“Through my—ahhh.” Cherry made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. “I should have thought of that.” He turned back to Evelyn. “I take full responsibility for Hunter leaving. I should have stopped him.”

She bit her lip, then squared her shoulders. “You thought it would be worse for him to stay out of it?”

Cherry nodded. “He hasn’t been here for long. All of us had that… need to be useful at the beginning. Or still do. I shouldn’t have let him scratch that itch by going into a dangerous situation, though, and I’m sorry.”

Evelyn sighed. “Ah.” She turned back to Hunter, her eyes seeming to sum him up and analyze him in quick glances. “If you needed something to do to help—” she turned so that Cyrus and Matt were in her line of sight, too. “If any of you are feeling antsy about something, please, tell us. We figured Meleager would need something to do, that’s why he went to town, but it didn’t occur to me that…”

“I didn’t just want to do something like getting clean water,” Cyrus said softly, “I had to save him, I had to—”

The front door opened with a wham. “Got it!” Caleb’s voice called, “Sweetheart, we found it, thanks to the boys, Venari’s gonna be… oh? What’s going on?”

Evelyn stuck her head out the door. “We got the venom,” she told him, “I made an antidote.” She scooped the bottle out of his hands, giving him a peck on the cheek. “But this is good to have on hand, in case there was a nest, or this demon is starting a migration pattern through the area.”

“How did you…?”

“Some of the boys snuck out. It’s been dealt with.”

Cyrus shuffled his feet, and Cherry gave Hunter a small smile. “I told you Dad would get it. You should have put a little more faith in him.” He nudged Hunter’s shoulder with his own. “You can trust them. I promise. They really are better than him.”

“Then what’s in that room no one ever goes into?” Hunter demanded, “What are they hiding from us?”

Hunter heard a collective hiss from the Grimwalkers in the room. Fine, so everyone knew but him—why? Cherry shrugged, but his eye avoided Hunter’s. “It’s just an empty bedroom. No one lives there.”

Hunter through his hands up. “Why? Who used to live there? What happened to them?!”

“We… we almost had a sister.”

A chill ran down Hunter’s spine. “Almost?! What happened to her?!”

What aren’t you telling me?!

“It happened a long time ago,” Cherry brushed him off, “We don’t talk about it because it upsets Mole. And it makes Mom and Dad sad.”

“Okay, well, can I at least know the story? Mole was the first Grimwalker, right? It’s not like he’s telling everyone. You had to hear it from somewhere.”

Cherry nodded. “Dad.”

“Mom,” Cyrus said softly.

“Dad for me, too,” Matt piped up, “It’s their story to tell, not ours.”

Cherry caught Hunter’s arm as he started to leave. “Hunter, don’t… don’t ask them about it just right now, okay? Not after we almost lost Venari. Wait for the right time.”

“And when’s that gonna be?”

“When you stop seeing everything as a threat?” Matt suggested, “No one here is out to get you. Sometimes people close doors for privacy. Not because they’re plotting behind them.”

“The story behind that door isn’t a threat,” Cyrus added, “Ask when you want to understand our parents because you care about them, not because you’re trying to figure out whether they’re a danger to you. I promise that nothing behind that door will hurt you. So please… wait until your head’s in the right space before you ask them.”

Cherry slowly let go of his arm. “We want to protect them as much as they want to protect us. From physical and emotional harm. I know you don’t trust them just yet. But can you believe us?”

Forget about it until my ‘head’s in the right space?’ Hunter glanced at Cyrus. I guess it does hurt to talk about things sometimes. And no one likes being accused. If everyone else seemed to know about it, and none of them had run off yet, maybe it wasn’t a threat.

“Yeah. Okay. I believe you.”

Chapter Text

“Here is your prize!”

Perseus pulled the head of Medusa from the sack Hermes had given him, and instantly, the king and his court were turned to stone.

Mole tapped the top of the book he’d picked off of Jason’s shelf, and Hunter set it down gratefully. He’d thought the illustrations of heroes on the front looked interesting (and he had a distinct impression Jason wanted him to be exposed to some new names) but he’d never been much of a reader, and the pages were sorely lacking in illustrations like the front had promised.

“Hey.”

Mole jabbed his thumb towards the door, and Hunter followed him. He shoved open Jason’s door, and wandered into the closet.

“Whoa, hey, are you really going to dig through his stuff?!”

Mole poked his head back out and tugged Hunter into the closet, revealing a ladder that went into the ceiling. He scampered up, and Hunter followed, climbing through a trapdoor onto the roof. Jason sat close to the edge, knees curled to his chest. Cherry sat next to him, legs dangling off of the roof and aimlessly kicking back and forth. He glanced back, spotted Hunter, and nudged Jason’s shoulder before getting up and striding back towards the two of them.

“Thanks, Mole.” Cherry gestured back towards Jason. “All yours. I’ll be back with reinforcements.”

He climbed back down the ladder with no further explanation, and Hunter took his spot next to Jason. He wasn’t brave enough to dangle his legs over, though. Even being this close to the edge made him want to scoot back until he found the safety of the ladder.

“Hey.”

“Mm.”

Hunter gave him a second, then, with no further response from Jason, cleared his throat. “What’s eating you?”

Jason’s fingers tapped his arms. “It’s the anniversary,” he said softly.

Anniversary? Anniversary of wh—oh.

No wonder he was so down.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, pressing his shoulder against Jason’s shoulder, “That can’t be easy.”

“Last year Dad sat with me, but Chryses is having a bad one, and that’s usually a two-person job.” Jason’s fingers kept tapping, and he stared off the edge of the roof, over the treetops. “I was really good at it, you know?”

“At what?”

“Being the golden guard. Being his golden guard. I was really good at… managing his moods, at being whatever he needed at the moment. Everyone else has these stories about him lashing out, about him hurting them for little offenses, but I…”

Hunter’s hand went almost unconsciously to the scar that ran through his right eyebrow, where his failure to capture a group of wild witches had made Belos so angry it had set off his curse. The blow had been so heavy he could barely even remember the incident, but he’d remembered from then on not to upset Belos.

Unless the curse was a lie, too.

Jason rubbed his own face. “I never made him that angry,” he whispered, “I was always good at making him happy. I watched, and I saw what the right things to say to him were. When to be familiar and show affection and when to stand silent and be a soldier.” His eyes latched onto Hunter’s, strangely desperate. “I was good,” he insisted, “I was really, really good. I passed all the tests, I got through all of the training with nothing but minor scrapes and bruises, I was good at being the golden guard, Hunter, I was.”

“I believe you,” Hunter said softly. He’d never thought he was a good golden guard himself, at least not until Darius had told him so. Belos had always seemed to think he’d never be as good as the guard before him. With all the other Grimwalkers here, though, it made him wonder if Uncle Belos even had an idea of what a “good” golden guard was. Everyone here had failed him somehow in a way that had been worthy of his death. Everyone here had scars from failing him.

Except Jason.

Maybe you were a better golden guard than the rest of us.

But then, why are you here?

For the first time, Hunter felt a wriggling worm of doubt about the youngest grimwalker.

Why are you here?

He shook himself. This was JASON he was talking about. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. He’d been nothing but helpful and friendly since the moment Hunter had met him.

If he could be what Belos wanted all the time, who’s to say he isn’t doing the same with you?

Hunter knuckled his forehead.

No. Stop that.

No one here wants to hurt you.

Especially not Jason.

No one here will hurt you. Everyone here is like you, betrayed by Uncle Belos and thrown away.

They’re not like him.

Not everything is a threat.

Jason’s hands started to fidget again, his face scrunched up like he was holding back tears. “I just… I only messed up once. And I thought—I don’t know, I guess it was arrogant of me to think I could read him so well.” He rested his chin on his arms. “I was stupid to think he actually cared, for sure.”

Hunter opened his mouth to respond (with what, he didn’t know), but the trapdoor swung back open, and Cherry clambered back through, with another grimwalker, Joseph. He was built stocky and muscular, and his almost-white blonde buzzcut displayed clawmark scars that covered almost every inch of him. A cheerful grin plastered his face, though, as he marched across the roof and picked up Jason. He threw the smaller grimwalker over his shoulder unceremoniously, like a sack of potatoes. “Griffin time for you.”

Jason kicked and wriggled. “Nooooooooooo!” he protested, pounding Joseph’s back with his fists, “Let me go!”

Joseph carried him, struggling, down the ladder. “Nope!”

Hunter followed, bemused, as Joseph carried the still-struggling Jason outside and to the griffin coop. He’d intervene, but the tears had disappeared from Jason’s face. And he was relatively certain that he could trust Cherry, at least, not to hurt him. Joseph set Jason down with a thump on the ground, and squawked. Hunter blinked, surprised at the animal noise coming out of the grimalker’s mouth. A resigned look sat on Jason’s face now, and he looked expectantly towards the griffin nests.

One of the griffins poked its head out of its coop, examining the grimwalker in front of it. Hunter took a step forward—those things could be dangerous, if they decided to—

The griffin lunged forward in a flash, its beak closing around the back of Jason’s shirt. Joseph put an arm out to block Hunter before he could take another step.

“He’ll be FINE. Lucy won’t hurt him.”

Jason swung in Lucy’s beak, yelping, and then Lucy stood up, revealing a litter of baby griffins underneath her for just a moment before she tossed Jason under with her chicks and sat back down, hiding him completely from view. Joseph patted her beak.

“Awwww, good girl. Do you have a new baby? Yes, you do!”

Hunter eyed the griffin. “Is he… going to be okay under there?”

Lucy’s feathers ruffled, and she shifted, and Jason’s head emerged from the fluff, his arms wrapped around a griffin chick. “Can you tell her to get off?”

“Nope,” Joseph replied serenely, “Brooding Grimwalkers get put in with the brooding griffin.

“You’re the worst,” Jason grumbled, but he didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to escape, his fidgety fingers gently stroking and scratching the griffin chick’s head.

Joseph just grinned in response, giving Lucy another pat. “Dad’s human, so he can’t eat much here,” he explained to Hunter, “I take care of the griffins so that we’ll have plenty of eggs. But we bred Lucy here because she gets lonely if she doesn’t have chicks to take care of. She loves being a momma. In a few months, when they’re out of her care, we’ll probably take the babies to a stock show, or a pet store. Or there’s always a beastkeeping teacher who will buy them for their students, they make great companions.”

Hunter was relatively certain there was a high chance of griffins attempting to bite your face off when upset, but he supposed that went for MOST animals, and ‘hm’ed his agreement.

Joseph blinked. “You know, I wonder if there’s an overlap between creatures that are in human realm stories and things humans can eat? I mean, they don’t always get their facts right, but still. Did you know human realm griffin stories always leave out the spider breath? And their phoenixes rise out of the ashes as a new phoenix when EVERYONE knows that after bursting into flames, phoenixes just continue their lives in the next stage, ashbirds. Somehow I think the giraffes live there, though, which is… strange. I’d love to see one one day.” He made kissy faces at Lucy. “Griffins are my favoritest though, yes you are!”

“You’re babytalking again,” Jason remarked from his place on the floor.

“Hmph. That’s because they’re the bestest little demons, aren’t you? Yeah?” Joseph scratched Lucy’s head, and she clucked happily.

“Was one of the griffins the one who…?” Hunter gestured vaguely towards the heavily scarred Grimwalker.

“These sweethearts? Nah, they’d never. No, that was the slitherbeast Belos locked me up with.” Joseph stroked Lucy’s beak, and the griffin warbled softly, nuzzling him. “I didn’t really like the way he treated beast type demons. He said if I loved them so much, I should spend some quality time with one and see how I felt after.” Joseph put his hands on Lucy’s cheeks, gently wobbling her head from side to side. “But I don’t hold a grudge, do I Lucy? No, that poor old Slitherbeast was just upset at being in a small room, he didn’t mean it. Nooooo he didn’t.”

She squawked in agreement and then picked him up in her beak, tossing him under with the chicks. Jason quickly rolled out from under while she was standing, the chick still clutched in his arms. “Ha!” he crowed, pointing, “Now you’re the brooding grimwalker!”

Joseph wiggled out, spitting out a feather. “Yeah, yeah.” He leaned against Lucy’s feathery side, sinking back into the plummage. Jason plopped down next to him, rubbing the baby griffin’s belly. His face had relaxed, and Hunter didn’t see tears in his eyes anymore.

“Thanks.”

“Aw, it was nothing.”

Jason stuck out his tongue. “I was talking to Lucy. You are a rotten brother, and I hope your griffins eat you.”

Joseph grinned. “Fair enough.” He patted the ground next to him. “Plenty of space in the nest, Hunter. You can even feed the baby griffins grubs!”

“Yeah,” Jason chimed in, “Joseph has great big, huge grubs he feeds them, they’re DISGUSTING. It’s great!”

“I’ll pass, thanks. You two have fun.”

Hunter headed back up towards the house. Mole hovered between the coop and the house, giving the coop nervous glances. Hunter remembered what Jason had said about Mole not liking the griffins, and gave the grimwalker a pat on the shoulder. “He’s alright. Feeling much better, I think.”

Mole smiled, and Hunter went the rest of the way inside. A bang and an ow sounded from Jason’s room, and he poked his head in to see Caleb, sprawled on the floor near the ladder.

“Are you okay?”

Their original rolled up to his feet, rubbing the back of his head. The bags under his eyes looked darker than usual. “Slipped off the ladder. Have you seen Jason? It’s a rough day for him today. Usually he broods on the roof for a bit, but—”

“He’s outside with the griffins. Joseph made one of them sit on him.”

“Oh, did he? That’s great. That’s great.” He passed a hand over his face. “I should go. Yeah, I’ll go check on him. Although I’m sure the griffin is doing wonders, but… yeah.” He didn’t move, rocking back and forth like he was summoning the energy to take another step.

“Yeah,” Hunter echoed, then paused, taking Caleb’s appearance in. “Are you okay? You seem… tired.”

“Oh. Well. You know. Lot of mouths to feed. Lot of kids to check up on, don’t want to leave anyone out. Chryses is having one of his worse days, I think what happened to Venari triggered him. He’s asleep now. And it’s Jason’s day, ah, you know, he wouldn’t complain if I spent the whole day with Chryses, he won’t want to ‘bother’ me, but I don’t want to leave him alone today.”

“You’re overextending yourself,” Hunter realized, “You’re trying to be in too many places at once.”

Caleb laughed nervously. “Ah, it’s just a weird combination of events right now. Usually it’s not so much, but. Just the last couple of days have been… busy. I’ll be alright, don’t worry about me.”

Busy because of me, Hunter noted. His arrival had thrown off their rhythm. And now Venari’s injury had worsened the situation. “How’d you fall down the ladder?”

“I just slipped. I wasn’t paying enough attention. Hunter, really. Please. It’s very sweet of you to worry, but I’m alright, I promise.”

Hunter eyed him, but let him brush past.

He can’t be there for everyone all the time.

How long does he think he can keep that up?

Xxx

Burning

Red magic crawling over his skin, devouring him alive

Hunter blinked at the pillow that took up half of his vision, slowly stretching his legs out and rubbing his eyes.

Just a nightmare.

He scratched absentmindedly at the scars littering his face and arm, padding down the hallway and checking the front door to make sure it was locked. The house was too dark to really see his reflection in any mirror, just his silhouette. It looked the same as it ever had. If he just looked in the mirror, if he ignored his surroundings, he could pretend nothing had happened. That the nightmare was just that—a figment of his imagination.

But it had really happened, hadn’t it? He wasn’t in the keep. He was here, with dozens of others that shared his name, and his face. Even the ones who seemed fine broke down on days that their past came back around to them. Jason had been here long enough to have an anniversary of his death, enough that others had a routine and a plan in place for when that happened. How long would he be here?

As Hunter turned around, he saw a flickering glow coming from the door of the oracle room. He pushed it open to see Caleb slumped over the table, snoring. The crystal ball tuned to the current Golden Guard, kneeling silently while Belos berated him. He watched as the boy spoke up, then moved to the side to avoid a blow.

Hunter flinched with him, shuddering. He wandered back to his room to get a blanket and pillow, gently easing Caleb off the table and laying him on the floor with the pillow under his head. He draped the blanket on top, then settled down in Caleb’s place, watching the golden guard get up and back respectfully away.

It was all so painfully familiar, but it looked so wrong on him. He was too small, too young to have eyebags that matched Hunter’s own. His uniform fit, but somehow also seemed to be several sizes too big, or too fake, like a toddler getting into their parent’s shoes, or a costume from an overenthusiastic fan.

I was, what, eighteen? Nineteen when I officially became the golden guard?

Did I look that small?

Hunter shook his head as the golden guard retreated to his room My room, flopping on his bed.

Does he have any friends?

Does he even know how wrong this all is?

That, at least, was doubtful. Hunter hadn’t figured it out himself until he’d met Darius, seen how regular childhoods were. By then it had been too late.

How long does Uncle Belos plan on continuing this cycle?

Hunter’s stomach churned, looking at the too-small grimwalker in his room.

Hunter. His name is Hunter. Just like me.

How long before Belos doesn’t want him, either?

Jason had been a good golden guard. In his own words, it had only taken one mistake. And it seemed like this Hunter had already made several, judging by the scar on his face. Hunter’s fingers traced his own scars again.

How many more can he make?

Chapter Text

Shnk

The sound of the window opening was faint, but it sent shivers down Hunter’s spine.

Someone’s trying to get in.

His ears perked up, twitching to locate the origin. Cherry’s room. He grabbed the nearest broom, creeping towards the sound. A muffled “shshshshshhhhh” noise came through the door as he grabbed the knob, turning it slowly… slowly…

Wham

He kicked the door open. A.T. yelped, dropping the window. “Titan!” He stood up straight, trying to block the view and nervously tucking his mane of hair behind his ears.

The window crashed down on Cyrus’ back, and he let out a wheezing, gasping “ow!”

Hunter slowly lowered the broom. This almost made more sense than someone breaking in—but why would they need to sneak out? “What are you two doing?”

“Nothing,” Cyrus half-grumbled, half-wheezed, “Just going outside. Geeze.”

Hunter crossed his arms. “And you’re going out the window.”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you going out the window. We have a door.”

“He just happens to like the window better,” A.T. piped up, “Windows are much healthier to go out of, you know. Ever tried crashing through a wooden door? Splinters are awful. Shards of glass from a window? Also ouch, but it takes WAY less force to get through a window, so there are fewer bruises. And it’s faster!”

Hunter blinked at him. “What—I don’t even know where to—what?!”

A.T. nodded seriously, and for a moment, Phoenix almost saw Belos in the shape of his face and nose, before the next words came out of his mouth: nonsense. “Have you ever tried crashing through a door?”

“No, I usually just—I turn the doorknob and open—what?” What was he talking about? Hunter had talked to gibberimps that made more sense than A.T. was making right now.

“The doorwhat now?”

“The door kno—the round thing on the door—you can—I—” A flash of movement caught his eye, and Hunter grabbed Cyrus’ belt as he tried to wriggle the rest of the way out the window, hauling him back inside. “Oh, no you don’t.”

“Rats,” A.T. muttered.

Cyrus patted him on the shoulder. “It almost worked, thanks.”

“Where were you going?”

“Um…” Cyrus fidgeted, twisting his loose hair strand around between his fingers. “Out? To… the town?” he winced. “I was taking a concealment stone!”

“Why?”

“To hide my appearance?”

Hunter had to roll his eyes at that one. “Not why you were taking a concealment stone, why you want to go to town?”

“Oh.” Cyrus twisted his forelock even more violently, giving it a little tug. “Uhm. So. The thing is.”

“He’s got a date!” A.T. burst out.

“A.T.”

“Sorry, you were taking too long.”

“Yeah, because I was trying to think of a plausible lie!”

“Oh.”

Hunter blinked. Whose side was A.T. on, anyway? “A—a date.”

“Maybe sort of a little bit?” Cyrus rubbed his arm. “It’s not a date exactly, just… kind of. There’s this stallkeeper from the marketplace. I’ve talked to him a few times when I’ve gone with Dad, and he’s really kind, and he likes to make jokes, and he asked if maybe I’d like to go to a festival with him, and I… said yes?”

“Why?!”

“I…” Cyrus’ eyes darted up to the ceiling, and around the room. “I was just… I was talking to you the other day about him, and I started thinking about it all over again, and it—I miss him, and it sucked, it sucked a lot, what happened, but when I was talking about him, about the good parts, it made me realize how much I loved it, loved being with him, and I just… is it too much to want something like that again?”

“Yes,” Hunter replied bluntly, “What if it’s a trap?” He wasn’t staying hidden and out of contact with Darius just so that the others could run amok for, what, romance? With total strangers?

“Belos isn’t setting up traps in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere for a Grimwalker he thinks is dead, I’ll be safe, I swear.”

“Well—what, are you just going to lie for the rest of your life?” Hunter gestured to the concealment stone in his hand. “He doesn’t even know what you really look like! What if he just thinks your fake face is attractive?!”

“The concealment stones are designed to make everyone’s eyes slide right off of you. No one ever remembers our faces, or who we are, or that we’ve been there before. They always forget, but he didn’t, Hunter, he made an effort to remember!” Cyrus curled his hair around his finger. “It’s not serious, it’s just one sort of date, if it gets more serious than that I… I don’t know, I’ll figure it out, but the point is, he doesn’t need to know everything about me immediately. I’ll be careful, I promise.”

“Are you going to tell your parents?”

“If I was going to tell Mom and Dad, do you think I would be sneaking out through the window?”

Well, when he said it like that… “Ah. Right.”

“They’d probably let him go as long as he promised to be careful,” A.T. piped up, “But Cyrus has baggage attached to boyfriends and telling people.”

Cyrus swatted him. “Hey! Who said you got to overshare about my life?! It’s just one date. If it goes too much further, I’ll tell them, okay? I don’t want to put anyone here in danger, I don’t want to worry anyone, I just… don’t want to make a big deal out of it until there’s something to make a big deal about, alright?”

Not sure what the appeal of this guy is.

But I guess I get wanting to see someone again.

Hunter sighed. “Be careful.”

“My middle name. Thanks, Hunter. And A.T.”

A.T. held the window open, and Cyrus wriggled out, disappearing into the treeline. “Chances that he’s actually careful and doesn’t do some stupid lovesick thing?”

“Practically zero,” A.T. remarked cheerfully, “I predict that he’ll mention his dead boyfriend at least once and immediately kill the mood.” He patted Hunter’s shoulder. “I don’t think there’s much to worry about.”

“Mmm. Thanks.” Hunter locked the window. “What’s A.T. stand for, anyway?”

“They made me promise not to tell. Also, you just locked Cyrus out. Part of your brilliant plan to expose him and his little tryst?”

Hunter knuckled his forehead. He’d just been trying to re-secure the house. He hadn’t thought about how it would look to A.T. “Didn’t think about that. Why are you helping him?”

“Belos killed my best friend. I kind of get wanting to bond with someone again.” A.T. pulled his sleeve up, displaying scars that matched the ones Hunter had from Belos’ staff. “Hey, look, twinsies!”

He unlocked the window again, then bounded out of the room before Hunter could say anything. Not that he’d know what to say, or even how to START responding to any of that information.

Seems to be a talent of his.

Hunter bumped into another Grimwalker on the way out, and the one he’d bumped into flinched, rubbing his arm. “Ow.”

“Oh—sorry. Hey, Chryses. Uh… heard you were having a bad day a couple of…”

“I’m okay,” he responded softly, wrapping his arms around himself. “Doing better. Thanks for asking.” The dark circles under his eyes and the tangles in his long hair said otherwise to Hunter, but he couldn’t think of a way to press that wouldn’t spook the other grimwalker.

“Chryses, I am approaching at faster than average speeds!”

A slight Grimwalker with a long braid barreled down the hallway towards them, skidding to a halt. They grinned at Hunter. “Hey!”

“Hey?”

They slung an arm around Chryses, although they didn’t actually make contact with him, a space between their arm and his shoulders. “Hunter. Right? No new name?”

“Not yet.”

Still haven’t found one, if I want one. The question didn’t bother him as much as it had used to, though.

“Right, right. Mine’s Silver, as I’m sure you’ve forgotten, don’t worry, it’s very easy to remember, it’s just the opposite of gold. Anyway, I have a very serious question for you. Did you know. That if you went to the beach and got all sandy. You would be edible. Do you know why?”

Why is this important? Are we running low on food? “I’m already edible to several demons without going to the beach and getting sandy. And I’m edible to other witches, I suppose, but you’d have to manage to kill me first, which I hope I’d be able to prevent.”

“It’s because…” Silver continued, unphased, “it’s because you’d be a sandwitch.”

I’d be a… oh. Hunter shook his head at Silver. “That was bad. That was very, very bad.”

“Chryses liked it. I saw him smile.”

Chryses shook his head, but he did have a tiny smile on his face. “It was really bad,” he whispered, extracting himself from the air hug and continuing on his way down the hallway, “I’m going to the kitchen. If you want to come.”

“Yeah, be just a minute.” Silver watched him go with a small smile. “Someday, I’m gonna make that guy laugh.”

“I doubt that.”

“No, no, I am. Just wait. I’m going to make him laugh for the first time since he’s gotten here. I just need to find the right thing to say.”

Hunter shook his head, walking down the hallway. “I don’t think any joke is going to make Chryses laugh.” Sure, he hadn’t talked to the grimwalker much, but based on his number of “bad days,” and the general gloom he carried himself with, he didn’t have to jump very far for that conclusion.

Silver jogged to keep up with his long strides. “That is very defeatist of you. Won’t know if I don’t try, right?” They tossed their braid back and forth in their hands. “You just want him to drown in indescribable emptiness forever? Cold, man. I, on the other hand, am planning joy and humor in his future, he’s going to have a fun time, I think he deserves it.”

A tiny smile tugged at Hunter’s lips. “You talk a lot.”

“You hang out with Jason, but I talk a lot? Hey, question, why was Cyrus trying to crawl over the fence? Where’s he going?”

“Out.” Whether or not he approved of Cyrus’ plan, Hunter didn’t intend on tattling.

“Descriptive, I like it, thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Follow up question: why does Cyrus sneaking out involve you AND A.T.?”

“Because we’re fun to have around. What does A.T. stand for?”

“You don’t want to know.” Silver ran ahead and turned around to face him, trotting backwards. “Hey, what did one titan corpse floating in the boiling sea say to the OTHER titan corpse floating in the boiling sea?”

What was he doing now? “Nothing, I hope, or they wouldn’t be corpses.”

“Nope, it said I’m steamed at you. Eh? Eh? Alright, I’ll work on it.”

Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose. “Silver…”

“Ah, gotcha, my cue to leave. Hope Cyrus makes it back from wherever he’s going and that he doesn’t get caught by someone more serious than me. You know, I’m kind of surprised you didn’t follow him to make sure nothing happened.”

Hunter knuckled his forehead. “Follow him. Why didn’t I think of that?” He’d never have gotten away with such sloppy behavior in the coven. “Do you know the way to town?”

Silver twisted their braid in their hands. “Uh-oh. Y’know, I mean, I wasn’t making a suggestion, just commenting on your growth. Maybe we could just trust Cyrus? Just a thought.”

“Do you, or do you not know the way to town?”

“Oh, geeze,” Silver whispered, “Uhhhhhh…”

“That’s a yes, then, and you’re trying to figure out if you can lie at this point?”

“I mean, I don’t know if Dad really wants you going to town just yet, you’re still relatively new, and—”

“We wear concealment stones, right? Try not to draw attention to ourselves? This isn’t my first tailing mission, I used to have to keep tabs on coven heads.”

“Well. Yes. Sure. If this isn’t too horribly private and deep, uhhhhh why did you let Cyrus go in the first place if you don’t trust him?”

“I let him go because I do trust him, but I’d also like to keep an eye on him.”

“Hm. Yes. Sounds like a plausible definition of trust.” More braid twists. “You’re not going to get upset at him, are you?”

“I already let him go. I’m just making sure that if anything bad happens, he’ll have backup.”

“Yep. Okay. Sure. Right. Let’s go grab those concealment stones, then. You want to go out the window and over the fence like Cyrus, or do you think you can sneak out the front door?”

“We can go out the door. You’re not planning on leading me the wrong way to buy Cyrus some time, are you?”

“What? Nooooooooo.” Silver tossed him a stone. “Let’s go, come on.”

Very convincing. But he didn’t really have another choice, did he? Not without getting Cyrus in trouble. Hunter followed them out the door, and then out of the gate, and towards the town. “You’re awfully willing to help me track down Cyrus.”

“You never told me where he’s going. I’m a curious, curious creature. Like a cat, but hopefully without the dying part. Hey, why is he going out?”

“Tell you? And risk you refusing to take me to the town?”

“Well, okay, that’s not the only reason I’m helping you, you can tell me. You know, so I can help better.”

Hunter squinted at the Grimwalker. “What’s the other reason?”

Silver shrugged. “I prefer making people happy to upsetting them. Hey, did you know that the trees around here hate riddles?”

“Huh?”

Silver nodded wisely. “It’s because they always get stumped.”

Hunter groaned. “I thought your goal was to make Chryses laugh.”

“You, too. You’re very tense, and I don’t think you laugh easily.”

“I don’t think cheesy jokes are going to do it for me. And I’m not a challenge.”

“No, you’re not. Neither is Chryses. I just think that both of you could use a good chuckle. Don’t think either of you have laughed for a while.”

Hunter pushed ahead. “I think things are funny. Just…”

“Just… not since Belos?” Silver guessed, “Yeah. We’ve all been there. Huge can of worms. Kind of like uncle’s face!”

Hunter barked a laugh at the sheer disrespect. That kind of comment was exactly the kind of thing that would have gotten them killed at the coven.

“Gotcha.”

Hunter reached out and pinched the end of Silver’s braid, shaking it back and forth gently. “Alright, you got me. How much further is it?”

“Not too far. Concealment stone on.” Silver slipped their own over their head, but didn’t change.

“It didn’t work.”

“Yeah, because you live in a house full of guys that look like this, this IS average and unnoticeable to you. Also, of the people in our vicinity at the moment, this is the most common appearance. Why bother changing it? Obviously it’s the average.”

Hunter’s head spun at the idea. He squinted at the stone. “That’s… complicated.”

“Most of Mom’s really solid enchantments are. It’ll make Cyrus easier to find than if it were just hiding his appearance from everyone, though.” Silver led him out of the forest and onto a solid path. “Here we go!”

Hunter slipped the concealment stone necklace onto his neck, tucking it under his shirt. “Wonder what festival is going on right now, anyway? Some local thing? Or…” He spotted a huge, glowing spot of gold, hung up on a billboard. “Oh. Oh, no.”

Silver had already peeled off to examine a nearby stall selling tiny coven symbol keychains, but they bounded back at his cry. “What? What is it?”

“We have to find Cyrus and get out of here.”

“What? Why?”

Hunter jabbed a finger at the billboard. “This isn’t some local harvest festival, this is the biggest coven sponsored event of the year. It’s the coven day parade.”

Silver seemed notably unconcerned by the revelation. “Okay. What’s that?”

“It’s a celebration of the coven system becoming mainstream, a celebration of Belos’ victory over wild witches.” The words that used to flow naturally felt sour in his mouth now. Victory over witches like Evelyn? “It’ll be CRAWLING with scouts, AND with coven heads.”

“We have the concealment stones. So does Cyrus. Look, everyone’s enjoying themselves, no one is going to hurt us.”

“Crowds turn fast. It’s why there’s so much security. One more thing I’m worried about. Tell me which sigil is on that billboard?”

“I know about crowds. I was a golden guard too, remember?” Silver squinted up at the sign. “Emperor’s coven.” Their face dropped as they continued to read the sign. “Oh. Oh, I recognize that uniform.”

“Exactly. The current Hunter is going to be here. We can’t risk him seeing us, concealment stone or no.” What if the enchantment wore off? What if he saw them? Would they be able to explain in time? If they didn’t, would he go straight to Belos for answers, or would his doubts be enough to keep him safe?

Silver held their hands up. “Okay. Okay, let’s find Cyrus. Why is he here today?!”

“Got invited by a cute guy. He didn’t know what it was for, let’s just find him and get him out of here before something happens.” Hunter pulled Silver to the nearest alley and held his hands out in a cradle. “I’ll give you a boost.”

Silver stepped in, and Hunter launched them upwards. They scrambled up to the top of the roof easily and offered Hunter a hand up.

“I’m too heavy for you.”

Hunter backed up, sized up the walls of the alley, and took a running jump, bounding off of one wall to the other and grasping the top of the roof, hauling himself up. “Let’s go. Do you see him?”

“There!” Silver pointed at a puff of blonde hair lined up at the side of the road. “Go, go, go!”

Hunter took a running leap to the next rooftop, then another, then bounced down. He grabbed Cyrus’ arm. “Time to go.”

The demon boy next to him, a light blue skinned guy with huge fangs, jumped. “Uh—who are you?”

Cyrus jumped, his face contorting into something complicated, but undeniably upset. “Are you kidding me? You followed me?! Siblings,” he grumbled to his date.

“Yeah, look, I’ll explain later, for now, we… have to…” Hunter’s hand fell away from Cyrus’ arm as a purple profile came into view, waving with a bored expression on his face. His eyes slid over the crowd, and locked onto Hunter’s.

I’m here, Hunter wanted to scream, I’m here, I didn’t mean to disappear. He was almost certain Darius was looking right through the concealment stone’s enchantment that he could suddenly feel over himself like a film. Surely he’d be able to pick him out, even with the spell? But his green—green? Hunter could have sworn they’d always been purple—eyes continued to wander aimlessly over the audience.

The next float’s inhabitant looked too small on his huge golden monstrosity His waves were well practiced, but stilted, in that professional way Hunter’s own arm remembered. He almost waved back, it’s okay. We’re rooting for you. You won’t have to live like this forever.

The demon boy nudged Cyrus, who was looking at the float like he’d been punched right in the gut. “What do you think he’s like under the cloak and mask?”

“Overworked and under a lot of pressure,” Cyrus replied softly, “Like he’s got everything he’s ever wanted, but it’s slowly crushing him.”

“Eesh. Yeah, I guess it’s a tough job.”

Cyrus shook his head. “I’m not feeling too well. I think I will go home.” He reached out, his hand stalling before taking his date’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “I’m sorry, I’d stay longer if I—”

“Aw, don’t go just yet: the emperor is supposed to give an address!”

Silver yelped at Hunter’s shoulder, making him jump. He hadn’t realized the other grimwalker had come up behind him. Crowds really were the worst. “The emperor?”

“Well. A broadcast, you know. Obviously he can’t be in all of the towns at once. You didn’t hear?”

Before they could answer, the floats came to a halt, and a huge glowing image of a mask Hunter knew too well appeared in the sky. Silver gripped his arm, and he felt Cyrus squeeze his other hand, staring silently at the projection. Hunter wrapped one arm around Silver and squeezed Cyrus’ hand back, his stomach roiling.

Goodbye, golden guard.

The assembled crowd cheered, and the glowing image nodded. “Thank you, everyone. Together, we are perfecting the Coven System as the Titan intended. The day of unity will be in exactly one month, when the tide is at its lowest, and the moon obscures the sun. At that time, we will journey to the head of the isles, and there, the worthy shall inherit a utopia free of wild magic.

Everyone around Hunter gasped, and he shook his head.

It’s a lie. How could they all believe… but then, he hadn’t been any better, had he?

“There is one more thing I’d like to share with you,” the projection continued, “I’ve always hidden my face out of fear. But because of your support, I can finally take off this mask.”

That was…

He only ever showed US his true face.

Now he’s showing it to the whole Isles?!

Hunter felt Silver start to fall, as if their legs couldn’t hold them up anymore. Projection Belos pulled off his mask, revealing the familiar crooked nose, the gaping green scar. The crowd started to cheer, roaring wildly while the three Grimwalkers caught in the middle of it all held their breath. Cyrus and Silver’s pulses beat in wild time, matching Hunter’s.

“Thank you, Boiling Isles.”

The projection disappeared, and the coven heads filed off. Hunter tugged on Cyrus’ arm. “Time to go.”

“Yeah,” he said softly, “Yeah, I… sorry.”

His date slumped. “Oh. Yeah, if you’re not… feeling well.”

“It’s not you,” Silver assured him, “It’s totally our fault, sorry for ruining your d—”

“WILD WITCH,” a voice in the crowd hollered. Someone barreled towards them, dodging grasping hands. Hunter planted himself in their way instinctively before thinking what are you doing?! just in time for the witch to slam into him, knocking him to the ground and then scrambling to their feet. The crowd turned, shifting and muttering angry “At the coven day parade? The nerve! Get them!”

They gave chase, and Hunter rolled to his feet, struggling back towards Silver, who’d frozen solid. They put their hands over their ears and crouched down as the crowd surged around them, shouting and clamoring and buffeting them around. Hunter pushed towards them, pulling them up and moving with the crowd, hustling them through and then ducking into an empty alleyway. He put his hands on the smaller Grimwalker’s arms, gripping them tightly, but not too tightly. “Hey! Hey, are you okay?”

They shook their head, eyes wild and panicked. “I can’t—I can’t, they’re all angry, I—”

Hunter glanced around. He shouldn’t leave them like this—right? But… they weren’t the only person he needed to worry about. “I’m going to get Cyrus. Stay here and wait for me.” Hunter climbed back onto the roof, scanning the streets and jumping down when he spotted Cyrus tugging on the arm of the wild witch. “What are you doing?!”

Cyrus crossed his arms. “I’m not going to let her get hurt!”

“Thank you,” the witch gasped, “Thank you, thank you…”

“You need to get out of here,” Cyrus told her, “Hunter, give her a boost up onto the roof so she can get out of the crowd.”

Hunter looked back towards the street. People stampeded by, but no one was checking their little side street just yet. “Argh…” he hopped from one foot to another before putting his hands down in a cradle again. “Hurry!”

She put one foot in his hands and her hands on his shoulders for balance.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

“THERE! I FOUND THEM!”

The crowd turned back towards the alley at the cry and Hunter stumbled at the interruption, sending the wild witch crashing to the ground.

Their accuser pointed one damning finger. “Why are you aiding her?! Don’t you know she’s dangerous? How could you help someone like her after just seeing what our Emperor’s been through at the hands of people like her?”

Anger burned hot behind Hunter’s eyes. After what “people like her” had done to Belos? What about what Belos had done to him? Or to Evelyn and anyone else who practiced their magic freely? He opened his mouth to retort, any concern for keeping his true identity secret completely forgotten, but the witch at the alley’s mouth didn’t care about his answer.

“Doesn’t matter, just grab ALL of them, the coven will be here soo—”

“HEY!”

Hunter heard a mic screech, and then everyone slowly turned back towards the central square as if in a trance. Silver had clambered atop the stage, the microphone clutched in their hands. Hunter heard a gulp, and then.

“Hey, does anyone know what you’d call a crossover between the emperor’s coven and the tiny cat coven?”

Silence and mutters.

“The empuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrors coven!”

There were a couple of coughs, and then a couple of laughs.

“Bet you weren’t expecting a member of the comedian’s coven tonight! Oh—well, I bet none of you have ever heard of that coven. It’s kind of a laughingstock.”

A few more chuckles.

“Haha, got you there. I see you laughing, yeah, you. I see you.”

Cyrus flapped his hand, reaching and eventually smacking Hunter’s arm. He pointed up. Caleb waved from the roof, putting a finger to his lips. Hunter gave the wild witch another boost, and this time, she grasped Caleb’s hand, letting him pull her up onto the roof.

“When I was like, eight, I had this babysitter,” Silver continued, “And every time it rained, she was like ‘the rain boils! It’ll hurt you, don’t go into the rain!’”

Hunter gave Cyrus a boost before turning back towards Silver.

“I’ll get them,” Caleb whispered, “You get out of town, wait for us there.”

Hunter nodded, switching spots with Caleb, and the three of them slid over the edge and out into the streets. Silver’s voice followed them, boosted by the mic.

“But you, know, I’m eight. The world belongs to me. What does my babysitter know, she’s only way older and more experienced than I am, right? Anyway, she was like this cranky old lady, she hobbled around most of the time and FORGET about playing tag, absolutely pointless. She’d just put on the crystal ball on a good day, and make me do chores around her house on a bad day. I’m gonna say that again, my uncle paid her so that I would do her chores.

Sounds fair. Sounds fair. Anyway, one day, she’s taking a nap, and it’s raining, and I’m like “I’m gonna touch it. I’m gonna go out there, and I’m gonna dance in the rain. Because I was eight, and nothing could possibly hurt me.” A heavy pause. “When I tell you, that old lady practically BOUNDED across the room. I didn’t have time to even get the door open, she was like WHAM, ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU WANT TO GET COOKED ALIVE?!’ That babysitter put the fear of titan into me. Almost everyone I know is like ‘yeah, I touched the rain at some point’ and then there’s me, who was absolutely TERRIFIED for the rest of my life that if I tried to touch the rain, my old babysitter would just appear out of nowhere like she did that day and toss me back inside.”

Hunter heard laughter rising up, and he let out a sigh of relief. Crowds. Hunting a wild witch one minute and laughing the next. Looked like Silver had gotten their head straight just as he was about to lose his.

“Haha, yeah, very funny. I was scared to death of this lady, and you’re laughing. Hey, laughing is good, laughing is good. Last town I was in they chased me out with pitchforks.”

Cyrus winced next to Hunter at that. Silver’s voice faded away as they hit the outskirts. The wild witch gave them a nod.

“Thanks. For saving me. Tell those other two thank you, too.”

“Stay out of the cities,” Cyrus warned, “But, uh, stay out of the woods around here, too, there are some really dangerous demons lurking around here.”

“Alright. I’d say I hope to see you again, but…”

“Best if we never meet up again,” Hunter agreed, “Oh, and—about the day of unity? They won’t be getting rid of you that easily. Don’t join a coven out of fear.”

The witch nodded and dashed off. Hunter ran a hand through his hair. “That was…”

“Not what I envisioned when I said yes to a date.”

“Chyyyyyyyeah.”

A few minutes later, Caleb tapped down in the street, Silver in tow. The two slipped into the woods like shadows. Silver’s legs wobbled, and they crashed down to the ground. “Whoa. Man, get the jars, because my legs are JELLY right now.” Their voice shook, despite the joke, and Caleb picked them up, carrying them piggyback.

“Time for you to get home. All three of you.”

“Sorry,” Cyrus said in a small voice as they started walking back.

“I wish you’d told me. Any of you.”

“I—I’ll give you a heads up next time. I’m sorry. I thought I would just be in and out.”

“The Day of Unity is coming soon,” Hunter blurted in a rush, “That’s—it’s bad.”

“Bad?” Caleb echoed, “I mean, obviously, I can’t imagine any big day for Philip is good, but…”

“I don’t kn—I didn’t find out specifics, that’s what I was sniffing around in when I found out about you and confronted Belos, but it’s—it’s not going to be good, and not just for the wild witches.”

Caleb made a small, frustrated noise in the back of his throat. “I can’t—we can’t—if we don’t have enough information…”

“Some of the others might have done their own sniffing,” Silver piped up, “You could ask around, we might be able to piece it together.”

“And make them relive that?”

“Might not have a choice,” Cyrus said softly, “It’s in a month.”

Caleb hissed. “We need to keep a closer eye on the youngest Hunter. If Philip is getting closer to his big plan, Hunter might be in trouble. Might be time to start having an extraction team ready…” he mused, “Wearing concealment stones, of course. Maybe scout disguises?” Caleb started lagging behind, and Hunter dropped to keep pace. “I can take a turn with them.”

Caleb nodded, and transferred Silver over, jogging back forward to join Cyrus. “That was pretty brave,” Hunter murmured, “Getting up on the stage and drawing their attention like that.”

“Mmm.” Silver rested their chin on his shoulder. “People usually aren’t mad if they’re laughing.”

“Got chased out of the last town with pitchforks?” Hunter guessed.

Their arms tightened around his neck, but not enough to cut off his breathing. “Didn’t get chased out. Just…” a deep sigh. “I started looking into wild magic, and… Belos blamed me for the next time he burned down a town, pinned it on me after he exposed me to the public as a wild magic user, a traitor in his own midst. He didn’t even have to kill me himself, the crowd…”

“Oh. I’m… sorry.”

Silver sighed again, their breath tickling his ear. “s’okay. I know it’s technically been a long time. No one who was there is alive now, but… wasn’t that long ago for me.”

“Must have taken a lot for you to get on that stage.”

“Oh. Well. You guys were in trouble. Like I said, if people are laughing, they forget that they’re angry. Or sad.”

Like Chryses.

The now-familiar lights of the Caleb house glowed, and Hunter moved a little faster to catch up to the others. It was almost hard to believe that seeing Darius and the current Hunter hadn’t even been the most stressful part of the night. But he had room enough to worry about both.

One month.

One month before Belos does something that will change our world, one way or another.

I hope you can get out of there fast, little guard.

Chapter Text

“You followed us.”

Caleb looked up from the toolbox he was packing up for just a moment. “Huh?”

Hunter leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms. “Last night. You followed us to the town.”

“Oh. Yes.” He went back to packing up the toolbox, handing it to Hunter and grabbing a ladder.

“Got there just in the nick of time?” Hunter continued to press.

“Hm? Oh, no. I was following you for a while, but you were doing fine. Didn’t need to step in. Can you bring that outside for me?”

Hunter followed him out the door. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you let us go? If you were just going to follow us?”

“Why did you follow Cyrus?” Caleb countered

“Just in case.”

Caleb shrugged, sliding the ladder up to its full height and leaning it against the roof. “Same reason. I just wanted to make sure you were safe. It was your first time out in a crowded area since I brought you here, and Silver isn’t exactly well known for their ability to think clearly when there’s a large crowd. I was actually about to leave before everyone started to shout about a wild witch.” He started the climb up the ladder.

Hunter blinked, taken aback. “You were?”

“You seemed to be doing alright.” He chuckled. “Plus, I was a little worried you’d notice me tailing you and get upset. Hand that box up to me? Skip the second rung to the top, it’s rotten, I need to replace it. Next on the list.”

Hunter climbed halfway up the ladder and handing up the toolbox. He eyed the distance to the ground before coming up the rest of the way (skipping the rotted rung), sitting on the roof. He watched Caleb nail a loose shingle into place, carefully holding the nail between the forefinger and thumb of his maimed hand and wielding the hammer in the other. “So, it was a test? To see how well I could function out there? Did I pass?” he added, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“What? Oh, Hunter, no, of course not. Of course it wasn’t a test, I mean, not of course you didn’t pass.” Caleb grinned, waving his hand in a so-so gesture. “If it had been a test, you would have gotten an okay grade on it. Did great with blending in up until the point you angered a mob by helping a wild witch, but you get bonus points for heroism and making sure Silver got out of the crowd safely.”

He sighed at Hunter’s stony face. “Look, I know you’re an adult who can handle yourself, but things aren’t the same as they used to be for you, and you haven’t been here that long. I just want to make sure you’re okay. If I’m being totally honest, you seem to be doing relatively well, at least, on the general scale of how well you and your siblings tend to react, but there are still things that worry me about you. You don’t need to prove yourself to me.”

“Things that worry you? Like what?” He’d thought he was doing pretty well blending with the rest. What had he done wrong?

Caleb put the hammer and nails down, sitting back on his legs to face Hunter properly. “Like… thinking you need to fix every problem in the house without me finding out there was ever a problem? Covering for your siblings even when they don’t need covering? I’m glad you want to protect them, and I understand why you feel like you need to hide things from me to protect them, titan do I understand, but it’s still something I’m hoping we can work on.”

Hunter folded his arms, shuffling away from him. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. I don’t trust anyone if I don’t have to. Besides, taking care of things myself means you don’t have to do as much work. You’re already wearing yourself thin.” And following us to town didn’t help. Who did you send to watch the other Hunter? A wave of guilt swept over him at the thought that the crystal ball might have been left unattended while Caleb came to their rescue. Sure, we had eyes on him, but what if we hadn’t? What if that had been the moment?

What if Belos had asked Darius to kill smaller Hunter after the parade?

The sudden, awful possibility felt like a slap in the face. Darius wouldn’t… right? No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t have changed that much. Right?

If he did, what if he had to fight his student? Would he be able to? Even to save little Hunter?

A smile drifted onto Caleb’s face. “That’s not true. You trusted Silver to take you to town. You relied on Jason and Mole to help you slip past Cherry to get into the woods, even if it didn’t work. And when you WERE there, you trusted Matt and Cyrus to help you take that demon down.”

He really had been paying attention, hadn’t he? That was… unsettling. Hunter was relatively certain by now that Caleb and Evelyn didn’t mean him any harm, but they’d certainly have the ammo if they changed their minds. “That was—it’s not the same. They’re reliable allies. It’s not like…”

It’s not like they could replace Darius.

Titan, I hope I never have to fight him.

I couldn’t.

Caleb picked up the hammer and nails again. “I’m just saying. You rely on your siblings, even as much as you think you need to hover over them to protect them. And I’m glad for it. It’s a good thing, Hunter.”

Hunter jumped to his feet. Maybe Caleb wasn’t paying as close attention as he thought. “I am not relying on them, I—”

His foot hit a loose shingle and his feet slid out from under him. Hunter yelped. The world spun and tilted as he tumbled down the roof. He heard Caleb shout. He rolled over the edge. Something snagged around his waist, halting his fall. Whatever it was slowly lowered Hunter down towards the ground, and Hunter’s wobbling legs hit the earth, nearly giving out. He slowly untied the—oh, they were vines—around his waist and sat down, giving the safety net a tug.

Caleb’s head poked over the edge of the roof, the other end of the vines wrapped around his wrist. “Are you okay?!”

Hunter gave him a weak thumbs-up, not trusting his voice to stay steady. This was why he tried to stay away from heights.

“Okay, I’m coming down, I’ll be right there, just…”

Caleb shuffled to the ladder, stepping on the top rung. He stretched his foot downwards towards the next one, hurrying towards Hunter. A warning sparked in Hunter’s mind, but before he could call out, the second rung splintered under Caleb’s weight. Hunter jumped to his feet, grasping at his belt for a staff that wasn’t there but would have let him move immediately to catch him. He ran towards the falling man knowing, just knowing that he wouldn’t make it in time.

Caleb crashed to the ground. Only a second later, Hunter was there, kneeling down next to him. The human wheezed for air. Blood flecked across rocks under his head, and one of his ankles twisted the wrong way.

“Hang on, just hang on—” Hunter started to slide his arms under his knees and back, then stopped. “Wait—don’t move—”

Hunter tore into the house, grabbing the shoulders of the first Grimwalker he found, Matt. “Where’s your mom?!”

“Huh? What was that sound? Is every one ok-?”

“Where is she?!”

“In the garden with Mole, I think, what-?”

Hunter dropped him and sprinted towards the back door. My fault, my fault, my fault—

He crashed into the garden mesh, lacing his fingers through the wire to steady himself. Evelyn dropped her basket. “Hunter? What’s wrong?”

“Caleb,” Hunter wheezed, “Ladder. Fell off.”

She was out the door in an instant, running around the front of the house. Mole touched his arm, then ran after her. Hunter clutched the mesh like his life depended on it, pressing his forehead against it.

He wouldn’t have fallen if he wasn’t so worried about you.

It’s your fault.

“Hunter?” Jason tugged on his arm. “Hunter, it’s okay. Mom will heal him, he’s going to be okay. It’s okay.”

“No it’s not!”

Jason jerked back, startled. “Whoa—”

Hunter ran a hand through his hair. “I made him fall off of that ladder, I was being stupid on the roof, why would I pick the roof to argue, of all places?! He was going to check on me, even though I was okay, thanks to him, and that’s why he fell. I made him fall off.” He stalked towards the gate. “I’m just making things worse. You don’t deserve for me to do this to you, I just—”

Jason ran in front of the gate, holding his arms out. “You can’t go!”

“I thought that was the first choice every Grimwalker got to make for themselves? I’m changing my decision. I’m nothing but a hazard. I’ll send the other Hunter your way if I can, I’ll watch over him as best as I’m able, but…”

“Hunter, it was an accident, no one’s blaming you but you, and he’ll be okay. You don’t have to go!”

“It’s not just this!” Hunter’s hands clenched into fists. “He’s looking after too many people, and it’s wearing on him, and I don’t have to be here! Maybe most of you need him, but I don’t. I can look after myself, so if I leave—if I leave, that’s one less person he has to worry about.”

Jason snorted. “Like he’d stop worrying about you if you left. He’d just have mom make another crystal ball so he could check in on you. Or send you raven phones to make sure you were okay.”

“That doesn’t make it better, Jason!”

“Right. Yeah.” Jason shook his head. “You think Cherry should leave, too?”

“What?”

“Do you think Cherry should leave?” Jason repeated, “Or Joseph? They’re both pretty self-sufficient, they’d probably be alright on their own. Do you think they should leave, too?”

“What?! No! He needs them, they can help him, they do help him with the rest of you, and with the griffins, if they left he’d have more work.”

Jason reached up, squishing his face in his hands. “That’s you.”

“What? I’m making more—”

“Nope. You are causing no more trouble than any other new Grimwalker. Except me, obviously I was a perfect angel.”

Hunter chuckled at that, despite himself.

“Got you. Anyway, you’re not making trouble for us. Even if you were, we’d still want you here. And… you’ve been doing a pretty good job of helping out yourself. Who was it that went out and got venom so that Mom could make an antidote for Venari?”

“That didn’t mean anything, your dad came back with a cur—”

“You did. And who was it who got Cyrus to open up about his boyfriend and start to fall in love again?”

“That caused more trouble than—”

“You did, and it’s a good thing for him. Even if it went badly the first go round. And who sat with me on the anniversary of my ‘death’?”

“Cherry. Lucy the griffin. Joseph.”

“And you. Stick around.”

He didn’t understand. How could he? He hadn’t seen how badly Caleb was injured, because of him. “But I hurt—”

“Okay. Say for 3 seconds, I agree. Say it’s all your fault that Dad’s hurt. Is running away really the way you want to make up for it?”

“It’s not running away. I’m an adult. I’m moving away.”

“Beside the point. Is that the way you’d want to make up for it? Do you really think that helps anyone? Stay. Please?” Jason moved out of his way, leaving the gate wide open. “I’m going inside to make sure Dad’s okay. Go if you want.”

He disappeared into the house, and Hunter sighed, resting his elbows on the fence post and gripping the sides of his head.

Get ahold of yourself. Where would you have even gone? And Jason’s right, what are you solving by leaving? Did you think you could do any good out there? As if you could actually get anywhere close to the other Hunter. You weren’t even taking a concealment stone. Stupid.

Hunter shook his head, heading back towards the back door. Grimwalkers crowded around the master bedroom, and he peered over their heads. Caleb blinked up at the ceiling, his wife hovering over him.

“Wow. Feeling better already. I’m going to—”

Evelyn pushed him down. “Oh, no you don’t. You have a concussion, broken ribs, and your ankle is still healing. You are going to stay right there, mister.”

“Agh. But—”

“We can take care of everything,” Cherry piped up, “We’ll take shifts with the crystal ball. You rest, Dad. It’s okay. Just trust us.”

“Where’s Hunter? He okay?”

Every single Grimwalker head swiveled around to look at Hunter, and they all parted to make a clear path—or a clear line of fire for Caleb’s concern.

Thanks a lot.

Hunter shuffled closer. “I’m fine. Thanks to you.” Could have been me, lying there.

“Oh, good. Thanks for trying to catch me.”

“I missed. I’m… sorry. About causing the fall.”

“Ahhh, I should have remembered that stupid rung.” He chuckled, then winced. “Guess I’ll remember it now. Ow.”

Evelyn stood up. “Okay. Everyone go, leave Mr. Forgetful here to rest. He’ll be okay.”

She steered Hunter out of the room, reaching out, then pausing. “Permission to touch?”

He nodded, and she wrapped an arm around his shoulders, giving them a squeeze. “Are you doing alright?”

“Why is everyone so worried about me? I’m fine. Not even a scrape or bruise.”

“That’s not what I meant. Although I’m glad you’re not hurt.”

“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

She took a step back, putting her hands on his shoulders and looking him in the eye, hers flicking across his face anxiously. “You know that accidents and mistakes happen, right? And we’re not going to hurt you or kick you out for this one?”

Blood flushed over Hunter’s cheeks and across his ears, and he shifted back and forth on his feet. Were they really that predictable? “Yeah,” he mumbled, “I know that.”

“Okay. Good. He’s going to be fine, this is hardly the worst injury of his that I’ve healed.”

“The worst being Belos?” At least there was always the consolation that he couldn’t do worse than Belos. An incredibly low bar.

“Hahhhhhhhh. Yeah.” She gave him a tired smile and wandered back into Caleb’s room, admonishing him to Lie Down The Boys Will Watch Over Hunter.

Hunter felt a tiny smile creep over his face at that. Bad at following your own advice to rely on others, huh?

He made his way to the crystal ball room, taking Caleb’s spot and watching the little guard pace around the keep like a caged animal.

No missions?

That’s not a good sign.

He could see books lining parts of his room, and started to wonder what they were about, the text too small for him to read. Could he and Jason talk about their books? Does he like jokes, like Silver? Or animals, like Joseph? When he gets here, will he be able to adjust? How badly injured will he be? Will he be able to recover, or will he never be the same? Does he know how to use wild magic? Would he want to learn from Sam? Would Sam even like him enough to teach him? Does he know how to reverse petrification?

Hunter rested his chin in his hand, watching him scribble reports and read books.

Do you and Darius get along?

Does he realize you look and sound a little too much like me?

What does he think about that?

I don’t know anything about you.

Is the golden guard title already crushing you, or are you still excited by the honor, flattered by the attention?

Do you know it’s a trap, yet?

A small red bird flew around the room, tugging on the guard’s hair, and Hunter watched with a smile as he set down the report, taking time to eat, and offering the bird some food.

“So you do like animals.”

Is your pet a secret, or does Belos know?

I’ve never seen a bird like that before.

Hunter traced his cheek where the other Hunter had a scar. What was the offense for that?

Did you think you deserved it?

There’s so much I wish I knew.

Why was there a gap between you and I?

Do you have any friends, like I did?

Will you be able to leave it all behind, to live here with us? Especially without a massive amount of time since you’ve been gone?

“I can take a turn,” Cyrus offered from the door.

Hunter stretched, wincing at his sore muscles. That fall had shaken him up a little more than he’d like to admit. “I can stick around.”

“It’s been a few hours. Go get something to eat. There’s a lot of us, there’s no need for one of us to sit here all day, we can switch out. Something Dad could have stood to realize sooner,” he added in an exasperatedly fond mutter.

Hunter nodded and left the room. The door to the unused bedroom was cracked open, and he moved towards it with a frown.

Who…?

It slid the rest of the way open soundlessly, on well-oiled hinges. Hunter caught his breath as he entered.

“Unused” was a… strange word for it. Hunter definitely couldn’t picture any of the residents now using this room. But it clearly had been used, based on every well-loved book on cryptids and creatures of the isles, based on the photographs pinned to the wall of people, people Hunter was almost sure lived in the town (although surely they were older now), of Caleb and Evelyn, of trees and beasts and plants. More photos hung across the mirror that Hunter quickly turned away from. The camera sat on the dresser, which had a few odds and ends lined up on it, old film canisters used as holders for hairpins and pebbles. Strings hung across the ceiling, hung with clothespins for developed film, he imagined, or perhaps for drying plants.

Caleb lay on the bed, staring up at constellations painted in glow in the dark ink. He gave Hunter a brief smile. “Don’t tell her I got up?”

Hunter shook his head, wandering to sit next to him. “Whose… whose room was this?” Who won’t you forget, but won’t talk about? What did they do to you?

Caleb sighed. “My daughter’s.” He traced the shape of a light glyph on the ceiling.

“You had a daughter?”

“Mhm.”

“We almost had a sister.” It had been… an odd remark, one that had never quite made sense.

“What… happened to her?” Hunter shook his head. “I’m sorry, if you don’t want to…”

“I wanted to name her ‘Mercy.’ Short for God’s-Mercy-Flows-Down. That was, ah… well, forget it. Evelyn didn’t like it.”

Hunter couldn’t hold back a snort. “Because it’s awful.”

Caleb chuckled. “Alright, alright, I understand that now. Hey, it’s not any worse than A.T.’s name. But we named her Achsah. She was…”

Hunter looked around the room again, full of knickknacks and photos and random pieces of nature. Pieces of a personality long gone. “I can guess.”

“I didn’t find the time pools again right after my wife and I came through,” Caleb confessed, “We built a home. She was already pregnant with Achsah when we fled our time. She had the baby, we built a life here.” One of his arms flopped over his eyes, hiding them from view. “I didn’t find the time pools at all. Achsah did. She was twelve, she… she came back, came running, telling me about the boy she saw. The boy who looked like me getting buried alive.”

“Mole,” Hunter whispered.

“Mole,” Caleb confirmed, “We… we went to save him. He was weak, confused. Understandably. It took us a while to get back to the portal with him. We had to carry him most of the way. She insisted I go through first, and she would help Mole through to me. I got Mole on our side just as the tide came in, and…” he started to shake, tears leaking out from under his arm.

“She didn’t make it through,” Hunter whispered.

“She’d be sixteen, now,” Caleb mumbled, hands clenching into fists, “Sixteen years old.”

Hunter’s age. “You didn’t… look for her? After the time pools opened up again for your next Grimwalker?”

“Cherry. Of course. Of course I looked for her, but… it had already been twenty-two years for her, even if it hadn’t been that long for me. I found her. She’d… moved on with life. I don’t know how long she waited at the time pool for me, but twenty-two years? Of course she’d moved on. She had a partner. A child of her own. And I knew… I knew I couldn’t bring her back.” Caleb sighed. “It was… hectic. We were mourning the loss of our daughter, we were trying to figure out what it even meant that Mole existed, I… I don’t think I did right by him. I was grieving, I wasn’t there for him as much as I should have been. I mean, his life was turned over, too, but… Every day, I wonder if he thinks I hate him, or blame him and I… I don’t know how to let him know that I never have, not for one second.”

The arm fell away, and tears shone in Caleb’s eyes. “How could I? She was so determined to save him, she was convinced we were related. That she was going to have a big brother. She was excited the whole way back to the time pool, talking about helping him decorate his room, and showing him around… god, I wish she’d gotten to take him to all of her favorite places.”

“And now you can’t lose a Grimwalker,” Hunter said softly.

“I can’t lose another one, I can’t. I owe it to you, I owe it to her. She would have loved having all this family. Would have gone into every time pool to save them with me, if I’d let her.” Caleb dragged his hands up his face with a groan. “Oooogh, I’m a mess. Can’t help anyone like this, least of all little Hunter.”

“Cherry’s right. You don’t have to do this alone. Achsah wouldn’t want you to do this alone.”

“S’pose I am a bit of a hypocrite, huh? Telling you to trust your siblings and I without letting any of the burden go myself. Alright, Hunter, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll let go and let some of you help out a little more with the current golden guard. If you promise that you’ll at least try to trust me a little more.”

I understand you.

The thought came so suddenly and clearly as he looked down at the man he’d been cloned from.

I understand why you are the way you are.

It’s a little like Uncle. Grief. Guilt.

Hunter glanced up, catching sight of himself in the mirror. This time, he stopped to look. The same scars that littered his arms and marred his chest also crawled up the side of his face, singing part of his eyebrow. Wounds that would have killed him, reduced to permanent reminders of who he’d followed. Who he’d been saved from. He looked back down at Caleb, so vulnerable in a way Belos had never been.

But more compassion than rage.

I understand you.

And that made it just a little easier to think about trusting him. Of course he wouldn’t hurt anyone here. He couldn’t even be angry at Mole for being the reason behind the loss of his daughter. If Meleager, Horus, Hamlet, and Venari were right, he couldn’t even summon up enough rage to hurt Belos, would rather hustle everyone else to safety.

“Okay,” he said softly, “Deal.”

Chapter Text

“Hey… Mole?”

Mole sat back on his legs, turning his face up towards Hunter with a small wave.

Hunter picked at his sleeve. Through the fabric, he could see the dark patches of skin he knew to be scars from Belos’ staff. “I… was talking to your dad, and… I found out what happened. The day you were rescued.”

Mole tensed, and before Hunter could say anything else, shot to his feet and bounded away.

“Hey! No, wait, I just want… to talk,” Hunter finished as Mole jumped the fence. “Great.” He should have known—it wasn’t like he particularly wanted to talk about his last day in his time either.

Jason lugged a watering can half as big as he was around the corner, panting. “Hey, Mole, I—oh, hi, Hunter, you didn’t happen to see where Mole went, did you?”

Hunter pointed towards the woods. “I… titan. Cherry warned me talking about Achsah upset him, but I thought…”

“You started talking about Achsah?” Jason yelped, “Oh, that’s bad. We have to find him before... Here, look—you go find Dagger, I’ll go check his regular spots.”

“Dagger?” Hunter echoed, “Why Dagger?”

“Best tracker in the house,” Jason called as he dashed out of the gate, “If I can’t find Mole, we’ll need him. Watch out, he bites.”

“Not literally, right?” Hunter called, but Jason was already gone. I hope not literally.

Hunter checked all around the outside of the house for Dagger before going back inside—back where other grimwalkers could see and ask what was wrong if he looked too frantically. He found the grimwalker in Jason’s room, browsing his bookshelf. “I was going to ask,” Dagger said quickly.

“I need your help.”

“My help? Why?”

What do I know about Dagger?

What can I promise him to get him to help?

He took seconds where he could. He’d also seen him stashing away snacks around the house—so food would be a good motivator.

“You can have half of my dinner?”

“What? No, not why should I help you, why do you need my help? Geeze.”

“Mole’s run off. Jason’s worried he’ll… I don’t know what, actually, but I guess it’s bad.”

“Huh. That’s not like Mole. He doesn’t really like to stray far from the house.” Dagger’s eyes glinted, and he glanced sideways at Hunter. “Should we tell—”

“If you tell your dad, he’ll just want to go out himself. He needs rest right now.”

“Go out to do what?”

Hunter jumped as Evelyn poked her head in the door. Trust them. He took a deep breath. “Find Mole. I… I upset him. I’m sorry.”

“Am I the one you need to apologize to?” Evelyn shook her head. “Do you want me to help look? I know a few beastkeeping tracking spells.”

“It… was about Achsah?” Hunter flinched the moment the words were out of his mouth. Should he have told her that?

Evelyn froze, her hands dropping to her sides. “O-oh. I see.”

“I can do it,” Dagger piped up, “Since no one else can be normal about this.” He grabbed Hunter’s arm, tugging him out the door. “Geeze. Why would you talk to Mole about Achsah, of all things? Didn’t anyone tell you that it upsets him?”

“I messed up, okay? I thought…”

“What? What could have possibly made you think it was a good idea? Was it the fact that you’ve never heard anyone mention her name, ever, huh? Did that have the opposite effect it should have, make you think that perhaps you ought to talk about her to the person who reacts quite possibly the worst to it? Man, I’d think hanging around Jason would make at least some of his people skills rub off, but maybe you’re immune.”

Hunter dug in his heels as Dagger dragged him out the gate. “Well, maybe that’s why! Did you ever think that the reason it upsets him so much is because no one will talk about it? Because he thinks everyone is mad at him for it?”

“We don’t talk about it because it upsets him!”

“Maybe you should!”

Dagger dropped his arm. “Oh, yeah? I don’t see you being too willing to spill your traumas all over the place, Hunter.” He snorted. “What, did you think you could fix Mole by talking about it? Wake up, you could barely tell Mom that you messed up without being sick on the floor. You’re not in any state to try to fix anyone else right now; you can’t even let go of your old name!”

“Hey!”

“Hey, what? Maybe he’s not doing the best, but at least Mole isn’t attached to a name that doesn’t belong to him.”

“It’s my name!”

“No! It’s not!” Dagger waved a hand at the house. “It’s an old name, it’s a joke of a name. We’re not hunters, whatever Meleager and his little gang likes to believe. We’re prey. It’s why we hide out here. Even if we were hunters at some point, we’re not anymore. We lost that role the moment Belos decided we needed to go.”

Hunter crossed his arms. “Are you going to help me find Mole or not?”

“Are you going to immediately start grilling him about the thing he most regrets?”

“What is wrong with you?!” Hunter exploded, “What did I ever do to you?!” Why had Dagger been on him from the moment he’d showed up?

“It’s not about me, it’s about Mole. Jason will just up and forgive you, and Mole obviously isn’t going to say anything. So someone has to be honest with you.”

“Oh, is that what this is? Honesty?”

Dagger scanned the area around them, then headed into the forest, following a trail only he could see. “You hurt Mole. You started talking about something you knew was upsetting to him. Those are the facts.” He shook his head. “You and Dad are one of a kind, huh? You think you can avoid your own problems by fixing everyone else’s.”

“That’s not why I—”

“No? You just accidentally caused our dad to get hurt, and the first thing you turn to do is, what? Keep an eye on the other Hunter, and then try to ‘help’ Mole get over the Achsah thing. Geeze. I know it’s hard to tell other people how you feel, but you take it to a different level.”

“Regretting offering you half of my dinner,” Hunter muttered.

Dagger barked a laugh. “Funny that you’re observant enough to understand what might be a good prize for me, but not observant enough to figure out that doing the thing everyone told you upsets Mole would upset Mole.”

If he hadn’t been focused on finding Mole, Hunter would have stormed away. Even as it was, his hands twitched, ready for the fight Dagger so clearly wanted. Wow, this guy is. He’s something.

Guess that’s what Jason meant by “he bites.”

Time to change the subject.

“Why are you bribable by food? There’s plenty here, you don’t have to worry about getting enough.”

“I’ll give you one guess, you’re smart, you can figure it out.”

“Belos?”

“Wow! You win a cookie.”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have it?”

“Ha!” Dagger gave him a reappraising look. “Belos and his cronies played a little game of keep-away with the food stores. Cookies included. I’m not a starving puppy, though, you know. I have standards. And good luck getting me to help you again, half of dinner or no.”

Hunter ignored his last comment. “What for? Belos doing what he did, I mean.”

“What, you going to try to fix me next? It’s none of your business. What’s your deal, since we’re sharing our mushy feelings?”

“I left someone behind,” Hunter replied softly, “And he grew up without me.”

Dagger snorted softly. “Isn’t that what mentors are for? I mean, you would have had to let him go eventually. You couldn’t keep parenting him forever, he never would have gone anywhere. It was always coming.”

“Hm.”

“Like us and Belos, you know? I mean, not that he let us go. But we were probably all basically the same guy when we worked for him, the guy we had to be to survive. Once we got away, well… we got to be who we wanted.”

“And you chose to be a grouch?”

“Good Titan you’re annoying. Alright, Mole’s close, try not to scare him away again?”

Dagger turned to go, but Hunter caught his arm. “Thanks. For leading me to him.”

“Yeah, well. Couldn’t exactly just leave him out here, y’know? Now scram. Lemme know when the two of you are ready to head back.”

Hunter nodded, pushing past branches into a clearing.

Mole sat at the bottom of a hole. A long, skinny arm reached out to shovel dirt in on top of himself.

Hunter sighed, easing himself down into the hole and plopping down next to Mole. “Hey.”

“Mm.” Mole swiped more dirt down on top of himself.

“Digging your own grave?” Hunter sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought up old wounds. I just… I just wanted you to know that… no one blames you for it.”

Mole wrung his hands, twisting them in the soft earth.

“No, really,” Hunter insisted, “You didn’t ask for Belos to… you didn’t even ask to be rescued. Achsah was just… a good person who got in over her head. But it wasn’t your fault.”

Mole shrugged, pulling down more dirt.

“Hey, are you planning to actually bury us alive down here?”

Another shrug, and more dirt.

“Jason came out to look for you, the moment he heard what happened. He cares about you.”

A smile flitted onto Mole’s face, and then was gone. But he stopped pushing dirt on top of them.

“And Dagger was about ready to bite my head off the whole way here. I think he just enjoys yelling at people, though. Pointy as his name implies.”

“Hm.”

Hunter rested his chin in his hands. “Point being, I did a stupid thing. I approached you when you weren’t ready, and that was… it was my fault. But there are people who care about you a lot, enough that they’re willing to drop everything to help you.” Hunter stood up in the hole, dirt cascading out of his lap. “Let’s go home?”

Mole sighed, and nodded, scrambling out of the hole. Hunter hoisted himself up, brushing more dirt off. “Pretty impressive hole for the time you’ve been out here.”

“That’s because it’s one of the meat squad’s pit traps,” Dagger commented from a nearby tree, “You two have a good heart to heart inside of the death trap designed for demons? Ready to rejoin society, or at least what passes for it out here?”

“Ready,” Hunter said quietly.

Mole took his hand with a nod.

“Oka—actually, you know what, you two go back on your own. Jason is liable to be burning down the woods looking for Mole right now. Idiot. I’ll find him.”

Xxx

Evelyn put a washcloth under the running water, wringing it out with a smile. “Thank you for bringing him home.”

Hunter rested his arms on the table and his chin on top of his arms, heaving a sigh. “I’m the one who scared him off in the first place. Some help I am around here, huh? Seems to be one stupid mistake after another this week.”

She sat down next to him, gently lifting his face up and scrubbing at a patch of dirt on his cheek. “But you always pick yourself up after. And you always make things right.” She shifted the washcloth in her hand so that she had a new clean patch and brushed at his ponytail, knocking dirt out of it. “No matter how many times you get knocked down, you always get back up. And that’s the important thing, right?”

Hunter snorted. “I’m barely getting back up. I almost quit after what happened to Caleb because I was being stupid.”

“But you didn’t quit. And that’s what I love about you.”

Even if we were Hunters, we’re not anymore.

Hunter sighed. “Do you… if you were going to choose a name for me, what would it be?”

“Oh, sweetheart. That’s your decision. Not mine.”

“Just some ideas,” Hunter pressed, “I’ve never picked my own name before. I’d like some input. I mean, how did A.T. choose his?”

Evelyn winced. “Hm. Maybe some suggestions… wouldn’t be a bad idea. We had a book of baby names when we…” her hands went to her stomach, and then she shook her head. “I can try to find it for you, if you like? See if anything fits. Or I’m sure Jason has a plethora of character names that he would be more than happy to tell you; I believe that’s how Frank got his name. It’s short for Frankenstein, and Jason takes every chance possible to remind him that Frankenstein was the scientist and not the creature made in a lab.”

“Ha. That sounds right. Maybe I will ask him. Thank you.”

“Anytime. If you come to a decision… just let us know?”

“I will.”

I think… I’m starting to figure out who I am without Belos.

But…

Hunter sighed, looking out the window where Mole and Jason had returned to their gardening. Jason threw a clod of dirt at Mole with a laugh, and Mole dumped the contents of the watering can over Jason’s head in retaliation, sprinting away with a grin as Jason chased him around the yard. In the glass of the window, he could just barely see a ghost of a reflection.

Who is it that I want to be?

Chapter Text

Hunter took a deep breath. Rocked back and forth on his heels. Raised a hand to knock, then withdrew it again. Trust them. Ask them for help.

This time, he knocked. “Jason?”

The door swung open before he’d even put his hand back down. Jason beamed at him. “Did you find my note?”

Not the welcome he’d been expecting. A note? Where? “What?”

“Oough. Never mind.”

“What note?” Hunter pressed, “Have you been leaving notes around for me?”

“Don’t worry about it. What’s on your mind?”

Fine. Yes. There were more pressing issues at hand. “The day of unity. It’s coming.”

“Oh. Yeah. Silver told me about that.”

“Caleb is… out of commission.” He refrained from adding that it was his fault—he didn’t need to waste time arguing with Jason again. “So I thought… maybe we could figure out what it is?”

“Okay,” Jason said slowly, “How? We could use the scrying orb. Right now it’s attuned to Hunter, but he spends enough time with Belos that we might get some information. We did say we’d take turns watching Hunter. I think Cherry is right now—or what time is it? Could be Steven. Either way, we could—”

“No,” Hunter interrupted, “Well, maybe later. Wouldn’t hurt to get Cherry in on it. But I was thinking we could start a little closer to home.” Hunter waved a hand at the house. “Us. The grimwalkers. We had to have picked something up. And that’s why… that’s why I thought I’d ask for your help. You know everyone better than I do.”

“You want to know who died because they sniffed too much out,” Jason guessed, “I can help. Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

Jason snatched a notebook and pen off his dresser, plopping down on the floor. “I don’t know the exact specifics of everyone’s deaths, but I’ve got some idea. A lot of us figured out the grimwalker thing—Uncle was bad about leaving his books around for a while, and plenty of us were too curious for our own good. And a good number of us were offed for practicing magic.”

“Sam,” Hunter remembered.

“Most notably.”

“Cyrus and A.T. made connections outside of Belos,” Hunter added, “Who’s left?”

“Right.” Jason scribbled two names on one piece of paper, laying it gently on the floor. “Venari and Steven. Both of their deaths had to do with their sigils. I don’t know for sure that it’s related, but it can’t hurt to check.” He scribbled “sigils” on the paper.

“Belos wants witches in covens,” Hunter agreed, “Why?”

“Exactly. Secondly, Matt, Locke, and Chryses. Those first two found out Belos was a witch hunter, which definitely has to do with his plans, and Chryses… well whatever he found out resulted in a pretty harsh death, so it must have been bad.” Jason set the second piece of paper across from the first one, writing “witch hunter” on it. “Finally… Dagger.”

An instinctive hiss squeezed itself out of Hunter’s lungs.

“Wow, not a fan. Look, I have no idea what Dagger’s deal is. Almost everyone else, I have a bare-bones idea of why Belos killed them. Dagger? Not a solitary clue. So I don’t KNOW that what he’s got is relevant. But I don’t want to rule him out, either.” Jason wrote Dagger’s name, followed by question marks, and placed it below the other two, forming a triangle. He put one last scrap of paper in the center of the triangle, this one labelled simply “DoU.”

“And what about you?” Hunter asked, “Which category do you fall into?”

“Nothing that will help,” Jason replied cryptically.

Fine, then. Venari, Steven, Matt, Locke, Chryses, Dagger. It was a shorter list than he’d like for points of information, but he supposed that made his job easier. “Thanks.”

“Of course.” Jason dusted his pants off. “Who do we start with?”

“We?” Hunter echoed.

“Sure. I mean. If you want more help.” Jason gave him a sly smile. “Am I right in assuming you’re thinking of going through the list as ‘interrogations’?”

“No,” Hunter grumbled, although that was closer to the truth than he’d like to admit, “What would you call it, then?”

“Conversations. We could split up. Matt and Locke aren’t too tricky to talk to, and you saved Venari’s life, so they might be willing to spill. And then I could take Steven, Chryses, and Dagger.”

“No.” Hunter heaved a sigh. Much as he’d like to leave Dagger to someone else, it didn’t seem fair to pawn that off on Jason. Besides. “We should stick together. We’ll pick up different cues.” That had always worked well with Darius—they’d always taken different perspectives, focused on different aspects of information. “You knew the inside of Belos’ head better. I was the golden guard longer. We’ll get more out of it this way. And we won’t lose any information in transit.”

“Good point.” Jason nudged him with one elbow. “Man, you’re good at this teamwork thing. I never did any investigating with a partner before. Come on, let’s start with the hardest one. Dagger’s probably slinking about the kitchen.” He dashed out into the hallway, carrying his notebook and pen with him.

“You should probably do most of the talking.” Hunter caught up quickly. “I… don’t think he likes me very much.”

“Oh, Dagger doesn’t like anyone,” Jason said easily, “Don’t take it personally. But yeah, I’ll do the talking.”

Dagger was, in fact, slinking around the kitchen, and he eyed the two of them with what Hunter could only interpret as disgust. “Did you lose Mole again?”

Hunter’s ears flushed, but Jason took his comment right in stride. “Nope, we were actually looking for you. We were curious about something.”

“Whatever it was, I didn’t do it.” His eyes slid lazily downwards, and he let out a cough that sounded like a poorly-stifled snort. “You seriously brought a journal? What is this?”

“Why did Belos try to kill you?” Hunter stepped in. They didn’t have time to waste on sparring with Dagger. He wasn’t even the most important corner of the triangle.

“I told you, none of your business. Who put you up to this?”

Jason put an arm out, blocking Hunter. “No one. Dagger, look. We’re not trying to… I don’t know. Whatever it is you think we’re doing. This isn’t about you—and before you snap at me, you know I don’t mean it that way. We’re not trying to pry into your life. We just want to know if there was any information you saw that could help us figure out what Belos is planning. To help us stop him.”

The muscle in Dagger’s jaw twitched. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told Belos, then. I didn’t see anything.”

Before Jason could ask another question, he turned on his heel and stalked away.

“Well.” Jason heaved a sigh. “That went about as well as I expected. That’s okay. Still, plenty of other leads. Let’s do an easy one next. Matt should be… I don’t know. In his room, maybe?”

“You knew Dagger wouldn’t be helpful,” Hunter remarked as they headed back into the hallway, “But you put him on the list anyway.”

“Maybe I like to give people chances to prove me wrong.”

“Uh-huh. You really haven’t done much investigating before, have you?”

Jasons ears tilted downwards, just ever-so-slightly. “Well. No. I mean. Not sanctioned, anyway. Pre-coven, remember? Belos didn’t exactly need me for sleuthing around and solving crimes. Maybe causing them.”

Hunter held his hands up. “Right. Sorry.”

Jason pushed open another door without responding. “Hey, Matt, quick question, why did Belos kill you?”

Hunter stifled an incredulous laugh. So short and direct compared to how he’d spoken to Dagger. He looked to Matt, sure that he’d be angry, or at least cagey, but the other grimwalker just grinned lazily. “Questioned the Titan’s plan a little too much. Turned out, Belos was just looking to sucker as many witches as he could to kill them. He was always trying to figure out some way to kill more of them at once—luring them out a few at a time was starting to get too tiring, I guess.” Matt stretched. “I was pretty happy when Caleb told me that witchkind was still alive and thriving in his future, even if they were all under Belos’ rule. Meant he never figured out a faster way.”

“Hm. Yeah. Okay, thanks.”

Jason darted back out, but before Hunter could follow, Matt caught his arm. “Hey. Just because he hasn’t managed to cause an extinction event yet doesn’t mean he stopped looking. Wild witches or coven—it doesn’t matter to him, you got it?”

“Got it.”

“Yeah. Well. I’d hate to have been pushed into the boiling sea for nothing, so whatever it is you and Jason are trying to piece together over there… just ask, okay?”

“Got it,” Hunter repeated, “I should…” He gestured vaguely over his shoulder, and bolted after Jason. “Who’s next?”

“Chryses.” Jason hissed out. “Hey, Hunter? Be gentle with him.”

“Oh. Yes, of course.” Hunter shook his head. “Did I say something or…?”

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong, I’m just… be gentle. A lot of our siblings get mad if you walk on eggshells around them. Chryses isn’t one of them.”

Hunter wracked his brain for anything he knew about Chryses, but all he could come up with was Silver’s determination to make him laugh. Before he could recall anything else, Jason knocked softly and slowly on another door. “Chryses? It’s Jason. Can I come in?”

“Yes.”

“How did you know he’d be in there for sure?” Hunter asked. Jason just gave him a sad shrug in reply and opened the door.

“Having an okay day?” he asked.

Chryses still sat in bed, despite the sun being high in the sky. He gave Jason a watery smile. “Just about. Thanks for asking.”

Hunter studied Chryses out of the corner of his eye, careful not to look at him for too long. He seemed almost too thin to be a golden guard. Dagger had a half-filled out look to him, like he’d gone without food, and had been trying to make up for it since. Chryses seemed almost like the opposite, as if he’d been bigger once, but the flesh fell off of him now. Too thin, too pale. Hunter could only easily spot one scar traced down the right side of his forehead. Surely that couldn’t be the one that had killed him.

“Have you really met Hunter before?”

“Mmm… we bumped into each other in the hallway. Silver was there.” Chryses blinked at him. “Are they okay? I heard they went to town, and there was a mob.”

“They’re alright,” Hunter promised, “They were incredible, actually. They calmed and distracted the crowd all by themselves. Saved our lives.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.” Jason nudged Hunter with one elbow, subtly. “They were stirred up by a Belos message, I think.” Another nudge.

Ah. They were steering the conversation. He could work with this. “Definitely. Because it was about the day of unity, and, you know. How there’s some big eclipse, and he’s going to destroy wild witches.”

“Which we for sure know he’s lying about,” Jason added, “I mean, we know it’s not just the wild ones he’s after.”

“No.” Chryses sighed. “He’s not lying about the eclipse at least.” He rubbed his chest. “You can do powerful magic with the heavens.”

“Like moonlight conjurings,” Hunter recalled. Darius had sniffed that there was nothing too impressive about them—after all, he could already animate abomination without needing the moon, or two friends. But he’d always gone anyway.

“Yes. He’s been… tracking the eclipse for a while. Something to do with…” Chryses squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay,” Jason encouraged, “You can tell us. If you want to.”

“Um… something about how celestial events can enhance or decimate our magic, since our magic is tied to the Isles themselves. I think the eclipse will be bad. For our magic, I mean. That’s all I really found out before…” Chryses shuddered again. “Anyway. The eclipse is bad news.”

“Definitely.” Jason beamed at Chryses. “Thanks for sharing. Hey—if we see Silver, we’ll tell them to come and see you, yeah?”

Chryses gave him a wan smile. “Thank you.”

Jason moved more slowly in this room—he didn’t bolt the way he had for Matt. Instead, he turned calmly, tugging Phoenix’s shirtsleeve slightly to pull him out the door. “We’re getting closer,” he announced once they were safely down the hallway, “Kill all witches, eclipses can mess with magic.”

“We already knew it would be bad,” Hunter reminded him, “We need something solid. But hey. Nice job back there. You really knew how to talk to him.” It was almost unsettling to watch him slip in and out of different personas with different Grimwalkers. Direct with Matt. Gentle and sliding around the topic with Chryses. They hadn’t gotten far enough with Dagger to make any judgements, but Hunter was almost sure he’d figure it out.

Jason beamed at the praise. “Guess I’m picking up on this whole investigation thing after all. Come on, one more on that list, and we’ll have a full side of the triangle.” He knocked twice on the door to Sam’s lab, and pushed it open without waiting for an answer.

“Yes, please do come in,” Sam remarked dryly from his place at the desk, “I’m not busy.”

“That’s true,” Lake commented, “You’re not.” They sat cross-legged on top of the desk, peering at the paper Sam currently hunched over. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Jason grinned at Sam. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“No you’re not,” Sam grumbled, “Out with it. What do you want my help with?”

“Not your help we’re after.” Hunter scooted inside. Locke lounged at the base of Petro’s statue, idly stacking stone flowers using his feet. Hunter eyed the petrified golden guard. Could he hear them? Did he know Sam was working on a way to free him? The scar tearing through Phoenix’s right eyebrow ached looking at him. Did he have key information to the Day of Unity? Was that why Belos had petrified him, so that the truth could never get out?

“Well—I—” Sam sputtered, “Why are you here, then? Just to interrupt?”

“Locke.” Jason leaned forward. “Hey, what mess did you get into with Uncle Belos? Did it have to do with the Day of Unity?”

“Pretentious name,” Sam muttered.

Locke eyed Jason with bright, curious eyes. “Day of Unity? Doesn’t ring a bell.”

A faint smile tracked onto Jason’s face. “How about an eclipse?”

“Still off.” Locke’s voice almost had a singsongy quality to it. Like this was all a game to him.

Hunter stepped forward, his fists clenching. “Do you not get it? Belos is going to hurt people, and we’re the only ones who know enough about it to stop him! How can you mess around?”

Locke blinked at him, big, and slow, but it was Sam who stepped in. “Jason,” he said calmly, “I think Hunter needs a break. Break in with demands some other time.”

“Yep. Right. Got it.”

Jason tugged Hunter’s elbow. He refused to move for just a moment, just long enough to consider staying and demanding answers, before deciding it wasn’t worth losing Jason’s goodwill. He followed Jason into the hallway, and down to the kitchen.

“That was rude,” Jason said finally.

Hunter blinked. Locke was keeping information that could save the world, and he was the rude one? “We need what he knows.”

“We’re not golden guards anymore, Hunter. Our siblings aren’t our enemies. They haven’t done anything wrong. We don’t need to interrogate them.”

“But he’s just… joking around! While everyone out there is in danger?”

“He would have told us,” Jason insisted, “Look, Hunter, I… You’re probably better at investigations and interrogations than I am. But these guys… I’ve known them longer. I know how they act. And I know that even the ones that joke around… it’s still painful for them. What Belos did. Locke hasn’t even… he only got here maybe 6 months before you did. Mischief aside, it’s still fresh. And joking about it, making it into a game, that’s how he talks about it. So please… please understand what he’s going through.”

Guilt settled like a lump of arsenic in Hunter’s stomach. Only six months? “Was Locke… was he the guard before me?”

“Time travel,” Jason reminded him, “Dad didn’t exactly rescue us in chronological order.” He sighed. “Maybe just… let me handle this one, okay?”

Hunter slid down the wall to sit on the floor, numbness taking over his lungs. “Fine.”

Jason disappeared, and Hunter thumped his head back against the wall. Maybe he really wasn’t very good at investigations. Maybe he’d always just been able to scare people into telling him things. Jason, though. He could see the golden guard who Belos had never scarred in him. In the way he slipped in and out of different roles. Which one was the real Jason? Did Jason even know?

Hunter hissed a long breath out. We’re not golden guards anymore. Six months. Six months, and Locke already seemed like he’d lived in this house for years. Like he’d been a part of the family for years. How did he do it? Who else hadn’t been here long? Hunter couldn’t pick anyone out. Everyone already seemed to have a dynamic, like a complicated dance, and he was the only one tripping over the steps. Was he just terrible at being part of this, the same way Belos had always seemed to think he was a terrible golden guard compared to his predecessor?

Without warning, a wave of homesickness swept over Hunter. Not for the keep, but for a little training room tucked away on its grounds. For after-school Hexside pickups. Mentoring Darius was the only thing he’d ever felt like he was doing well. Even when he’d messed up, it had always felt so easy to right things.

“Well, we got something interesting from Locke.” Jason shut the lab door behind him. “He said he found a diagram of a glyph with 9… I don’t know, points? Sam got all huffy and questioning if there were smaller glyphs inside, or if they were just spaces for more, or… who knows. It was labelled ‘draining spell,’ though. That’s when Belos got him.” Jason shrugged. “So… we don’t know for sure that it has anything to do with the day of unity.”

9 points… why did that sound familiar? “But if Belos was willing to rip his arms off, it must have been important,” Hunter finished. “Not to mention that anything called a ‘draining’ spell can’t be pleasant.”

“Yeah.” Jason offered him a hand up. “Hey, you want to take the next one?”

“You’re doing a better job of it than me,” Hunter said gloomily, “Maybe you should just interview the whole list and report back.”

“Not on this one. It’s Venari.”

Hunter winced. “I stopped them from torturing a scout. I don’t think he has the best impression of me.”

“You also saved their life getting the venom Mom needed for a cure. And killed the thing that attacked them. Don’t focus on the negative. Come on.”

Hunter eyed Jason skeptically, but let the younger grimwalker pull him to his feet. He didn’t ask where to find Venari—that one, he had a pretty good guess. He tensed when he walked out the gate—no one would stop him. He knew that already. Still, he waited expectantly for a call to come back that never came. Instead, the woods swallowed the two of them up in leafy green coolness.

The two of them plodded through the forest in comfortable silence. The forest hummed with animal activity that cut short with every twig crunched beneath their feet. Jason took another step and Hunter saw it in the bend beneath his feet that sank just a little too deep. He lunged forward, seizing the back of Jason’s collar and dragging him back just as the cover over the pit trap collapsed inwards. Jason’s feet scrabbled along the edge until he managed to take a step backwards.

“Hah—Found where they were,” he remarked cheerfully, “Thanks for the rescue.”

Hunter peered into the hole. Much like the one Mole had attempted to bury himself in, this was a plain pit trap, nothing lining the bottom to make it dangerous. So Jason probably would have been fine, maybe a broken bone or two.

“I swear I heard—” Meleager seemed to melt out of the trees, breaking off into a disappointed sigh when he saw the two of them. “Oh. No. It’s a couple of ours.”

“Maybe make a map of these things?” Jason suggested, “I know you worked hard on it. I’m sorry.”

Meleager waved a hand. “Ah, whatever. It’s fine. We’ll fix it.” He gave a sharp whistle, and the rest of his hunting party trickled towards the trap, grumbling and hauling pieces of it out of the pit. “What are you out here for, anyway?”

Jason nudged Hunter, and he took a step forward. “We were looking for you. For Venari, actually.”

Venari’s ears pricked up at their name. “Me? What for?”

What did he know about Venari? They hated Belos. He’d tried to attack his sigil. They’d been incredibly willing to take out a scout…

“We’re trying to figure out what Belos’ plans are so that we can wreck them,” he announced. Really, what better option than to just tell them the truth? If anyone wanted to take Belos down, it was these four. “Why did you try to take your sigil off?”

Venari glared at the offending scars gashed through their wrist. “They do more than seal our magic,” he spat, “I wondered why I needed one, since I didn’t have any magic to seal, anyway. I thought maybe it was just to hide that fact. To pretend that I was one of them. But then I saw…” They glanced around, as if Belos would jump out of the trees at any moment. “I wasn’t supposed to be there, but a follower of his was caught stealing from the funds. So Belos took her aside and… I don’t know, he did something, and the witch’s sigil just lit up. I watched them collapse slowly. Never saw them again. That’s when I took a knife to my own.”

Hunter itched his own sigil, skin crawling. Belos could have activated his at any time—drained him of life at any time. Even though he hadn’t done anything worthy of a treason label until the end, it was still disconcerting to think about.

“Huh.” Jason frowned in the general direction of the town. “I wonder why he didn’t give one to all of us.” He glanced at Hunter. “Well… I guess there is one more of us that got a sigil a little early. You ready?”

“Ready.” Hunter waved to Venari. “Thanks.”

They nodded, eyes steely cold. “When you figure this out, when you make a plan to stop him? I want in. All of us do.”

Hunter inclined his head, and walked away before his face could betray him. A plan to stop him? What was Hunter’s plan, exactly? He’d been so focused on finding out what Belos was up to, he hadn’t thought of his next steps. Did they reveal their findings to the current Hunter and hope it would sway him to their side? Did they attempt an assassination? Did they warn citizens? Would anyone believe them if they did?

Jason nudged him, tugging him back to the present. “Hey. See? Told you you could do it.”

Hunter shoved him back. “Yeah, yeah.” The back of his neck prickled, and he slowly swept his eyes from side to side. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dagger disappear around a tree. “Uh…”

“Noticed Dagger?”

Embarrassment heated Hunter’s ears. Jason had already noticed—he was getting rusty. “How long has he been watching?

“Since Locke, at least.” Jason chewed on his lip. “That’s when I noticed him anyway. But if I had to bet? Since we talked to him.” Jason pushed open the door to the crystal ball room. “Hey, Steven. Anything happen so far?”

Hunter studied the grimwalker in the chair. Steven, he remembered—his seizure had made for an eventful first day. Closer to him now, he could see thin scars crawling their way up Steven’s arm and face like a web of creeping vines. They ended at a perfectly-triangular burn scar. Hunter’s hand drifted to his own sigil.

“Nothing yet.” Steven stretched, flicking his long ponytail over his shoulder. “You here to replace me?”

“Hunter is,” Jason volunteered. Before Hunter could so much as shoot him a dirty look, he pressed on. “Hey—we were talking to Venari, and he said Belos could make sigils light up, make people collapse. Do you know anything about that?”

Steven’s eyes traveled to Hunter’s sigil, his eyes burning with a dull light. “They weren’t always so harmless.” He gestured to Hunter’s arm. “At first, Belos used them to kill.” He scratched at the scars on his face. “I… helped. Until I couldn’t do it anymore. But he was working on a way to… I don’t know, slow it? Make it something that actually sealed some magic instead of draining it all? They were still putting people in comas, whatever the case. I think he meant to use his first type, the killing type on me. But he used the wrong branding glove, and… well. I survived.”

Steven stood, offering Hunter the chair. “I don’t know why he made them less immediate. But I doubt it was out of the kindness of his heart.” He tapped Hunter’s sigil. “If you can figure out a way to get this thing off? Do it.”

The door swung shut behind him. Hunter collapsed in the abandoned chair, legs unusually shaky. They were marked for death, weren’t they? Every single adult witch on the Isles. Darius. His friends.

Me.

Venari.

Who else?

“Alright?” Jason asked quietly.

“We don’t know enough. We know that the sigils are bad, but what is he going to do? Why the eclipse?”

“I’ll get my notes. Watch Hunter.”

Jason was barely gone a minute before Hunter felt eyes on the back of his neck. “Dagger,” he said evenly.

“You and Jason are being awfully nosy.”

“Says the one tailing us.” Hunter twisted strands of hair between his fingers. “I get that you don’t like me.”

“Good guess.”

“This isn’t about me, though. It’s about the Isles.”

“The Isles didn’t care about me.” Dagger’s voice held a rough edge. “They let me die. Why should I work to save them?”

Not the heroic type. Hunter switched tactics. “Fine. Don’t do it for the Isles. Do it to spite Belos.”

“Cute. You think we have a chance against him?”

“Not if we don’t know what we’re facing.” Hunter twisted around to face Dagger. “Isn’t it better to go in prepared?”

Dagger folded his arms. “I don’t know why he killed me. I didn’t find out some big secret. I don’t have all the answers you’re looking for. And I won’t apologize for it.”

Hunter’s heart sank. Jason would bring his notes. They would make theories. But none of it would matter—they just didn’t have enough information.

“There’s a disk that’s important to him. It looks like it’s got a crescent moon on it.”

Hunter’s head snapped up. That was something, at least. “Important? Why?”

“I told you, I don’t know. I don’t know why he was upset I touched it. But my death—it was an interrogation gone on too long. Much like you, he wanted answers that I didn’t have.” Dagger looked away. “Whatever that disk was, he was willing to kill over the idea that someone might have been able to use it. If you want an impossible solution to your impossible problem? That disk might have it.”

“Oh.” It wasn’t the information they’d been looking for, but a glimmer of hope sparked in Hunter’s mind. Maybe they didn’t need to have all the information as long as they had a solution. As long as they had a next step to look for. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I just thought you should know before I went off to track our current Hunter. Since we’re running out of time and all that.” Dagger turned to go. “Don’t say I never help out.”

Jason passed him in the doorway, a quizzical look glancing across his face before disappearing back into determined excitement. “Okay! So! Here’s what we got.”

He recreated the triangle from before, adding his new notes to it. “Okay. So, Belos has some kind of spell circle with nine points…”

“Nine covens!” Hunter burst out. That was why it had seemed so familiar. “Nine covens, nine points. That’s important, right? Has to be.”

“Oh definitely. Good catch! Okay, okay, nine covens, each arranged on this sigil—hey, that’s the same word that he uses for the brands, isn’t it? And we know the brands are bad, we know that they used to kill you automatically, but then by the time we got to Venari… it was on demand.”

“The eclipse. How does that fit in?” Hunter twisted strands of hair between his fingers. “Celestial events… they can help or hinder magic… So which is it?”

“Maybe both,” Jason suggested, “Maybe it’ll strengthen Belos’ sigil but weaken everyone else. Locke called it, what, a draining spell?”

“Okay. Okay. So, the sigil—it activates all the coven marks at once. And the eclipse… makes it worse? Makes it easier to activate all those brands?” Hunter hissed. “That’s… bad. I mean, in my time there were still a lot of wild witches. A lot of people were grandfathered in, allowed not to get a brand. But now…”

“Not the case,” Jason confirmed, “Almost everyone—every adult anyway.”

Hunter clutched his arm. “Do you think we could warn people not to go? I mean, do they have to be at this… trap at the head for it to work? Who will listen to us, though?” Can I warn Darius?

“They have to. They have to, right? Do we have time?” Jason ran a hand through his hair. “We can save them. We have to save them. We can do it this time—he can’t get all of us.”

“This time?” Hunter echoed.

“I mean—you know—a lot of us tried to stop him in the past. That’s all I meant.” Jason took a deep breath. “We’ll figure it out.

We have to.”

Chapter Text

“Hunter. It’s my turn for watch.”

Hunter stood up, stretching. After Jason had left, the night had settled down into the dull monotony of watching the crystal ball. Little Hunter was on the case of some wild magic users. He wished he could reach through the crystal, shake him, and tell him not to chase after these witches. That wild magic wasn’t the danger he’d been taught. But all he could do was watch Hunter make the same mistakes he had. “Dagger, Cyrus, and Joseph are still out there nearby, right? Are they coming back soon?”

Cherry shook his head. “I might swap out for Joseph soon—the griffins are getting antsy without him—but after the stunt that our little guy pulled with those Hexside students… Dad wants eyes on him at all times, close enough to interfere if necessary. Making friends is… sort of usually a big step in the danger direction. That and the whole incident with the key… he’s on a slippery slope.”

Despite the danger, Hunter gave the crystal ball a fond smile. “At least he has Darius now.”

Although I wish he hadn’t scared the living hell out of him with that scythe first

He needs to work on what he thinks is a funny joke.

Still.

They found each other, I won’t…

I’m not going to have to choose.

That had been more of a relief than he’d thought possible. Darius was looking out for little Hunter—in his own way. He could have both.

Cherry winced. “Hunter, I’m not sure a single head pat is exactly… I mean, they’re on the same side for now, but if that changes, when that changes—”

“You don’t know Darius like I do.”

He has to be on our side, he has to.

He wouldn’t side with my murderer if he knew. He had to believe that—that Darius hadn’t changed that much. That he still cared. And he did. He wouldn’t have gotten upset with little Hunter over that sigil if he didn’t—another thing Hunter wished he’d handled better.

“Alright, alright. But if Belos sends Darius after Hunter, we’ll have to deal with him as a threat. You know that, right? You don’t have to fight him, no one is expecting you to, but… don’t get in our way?”

“If,” Hunter emphasized.

I have to believe in him.

“Yeah. If. I mean, who knows, he might decide to pick someone else!” Cherry gave him a lopsided grin. “Go get some sleep. I’ve got this.”

Hunter trudged off to bed, curling up on his side.

It would be just like Uncle to send Darius to kill him, after Darius started actually liking him.

Would he do it, though? Could he do it?

Darius had always had a strong sense of justice. But he’d also always wanted to be exactly what he was now. Powerful, respected, the top of his field. Would he give that up, for some kid?

Would he have given it up if he’d known what had happened to me?

Creeeeeak.

The sound cut into Hunter’s spiraling thoughts, dragging them to a stop. He held his breath, eying the shadow in the door.

“Hunter?” Jason’s voice wobbled, “Are you asleep?”

“No,” he mumbled, sitting up. He wasn’t sure if he should thank Jason for stopping him from thinking about Darius, or be upset he’d interrupted his attempts to sleep. But one look at him made both possibilities melt into a well of worry.

Jason twisted his hands in front of himself. “Would you… would you mind if I stayed in here tonight?”

Hunter yawned. Would nonchalance make Jason feel like not a burden, or did he need someone to fuss over him? Hunter realized with a start of unease that Jason would act like he was fine with either, and he would never be sure. “Nah. Go ahead, there’s plenty of sp—”

Jason clambered up into bed next to him, pressing against his side.

“—oh okay not on the floor, up here, got it, sure.” Hunter sat up more completely so that Jason fit under his arm. “Nightmares?”

Jason let out a tiny laugh. “I mean, not as bad as Chryses, or Alex. They’re barely nightmares, more like just… not good dreams. Usually I’d go to Mom or Dad, buuuuuut… well, Chryses AND Alex are having a bad one tonight, and I… didn’t want to bug them. Not for mine, it was stupid, the other two need them more right now.”

Hunter almost laughed at the irony. Despite everyone telling him to rely on others and not feel like a burden, here Jason was, doing the exact same thing. Well, he could be the shoulder Jason leaned on, even if he pretended he didn’t need it. “Mmm. What was it about?”

“Alex has bad falling dreams, you know the ones where you wake up and you feel like you were falling? Theirs are really bad, though, and—”

He was too good at reading people to play this dumb. “Jason.”

“It was about him,” Jason said in a small voice, “About the night I…” He drew his knees up to his chest, resting his chin on them. “It was my first mission, you know.”

He didn’t need to clarify what he was talking about. Still, Hunter almost reeled back in shock. “Your first?”

Explains why he’s so young.

Jason sniffed. “Yeah. I mean, I didn’t lie about being a good golden guard! I did pretty well for the actual guarding part. I protected him from threats, I helped around at home, I provided security at his gatherings. But it was the first time he ever sent me out on my own to do something for him.”

Hunter held his breath, as if Jason were a bird that would fly away if he moved.

“He wanted me to gather some palisman because he was out, and, you know, I thought, no big deal, they’re just animals, and he needs them, right? I can do this for him, he needs them to survive.”

Yeah. No big deal. I did that all the time, usually just collecting them from new recruits.

“I chickened out, though. I caught some, I had them all ready to go back to him, and then… I saw someone looking for theirs. They were so distraught, and they were calling for it, and I realized… I realized they were like family to their witches, that I was sacrificing someone else’s family to save mine.”

Jason shook his head. “I ran away. I couldn’t… I couldn’t go back empty handed, but I couldn’t just give those guys to him, so I ran. I thought, I’d just release them and… then I’d figure it out from there. He wasn’t… I knew he wasn’t great, I knew how his moods got, but I thought, I thought I could just keep managing things, I could find an alternative for the palisman, or else I’d just… go. I’d quit managing him and just go do what I wanted to do, leave him and his near outbursts behind forever.”

Jason ran a hand through his hair, tears building up in his eyes. “Guess that was pretty stupid of me. Guess it was pretty stupid to think he wouldn’t know, that he wouldn’t come after me. He was watching. He’d been watching the whole time, and he showed up just as I was about to release the palisman.”

He looked up at Hunter with desperate, watery eyes. “He said he wasn’t mad. He said he’d expected too much of me for my first time out on my own, and he never should have put that burden on my shoulders. He said we could go home, that we could—and I believed him, I believed him like a great big idiot.” Jason buried his head back in his arms. “The instant I turned around to go home…”

Hunter reached out towards him wordlessly, hand hovering over his back for a moment before finally coming to rest. Through the thin fabric of Jason’s pajamas, he could feel a singular thick scar on his back. Just the right length and thickness for one of Belos’ “outburst” blades, the ones that had given him the scar that marred his right eyebrow.

They’d never gone this deep before.

Hunter rubbed a gentle circle on Jason’s back as the younger grimwalker’s shoulders shook. “You’re here now,” he murmured.

“He just left me to die there,” Jason whispered, his voice breaking, “He stabbed me, and then he just left. He took the palisman. I didn’t even manage to save them, and he just left me there and I was all alone and—” He fell back against Hunter’s side, and Hunter wordlessly wrapped one arm around his shoulders.

We can save them all this time

He can’t get all of us.

Everything he knew about Jason started to click into place. Why he was always ready to help. Why he was determined to save the other witches. Why he was so young, and why Hunter couldn’t figure out who his “real” self was—the last time he’d shown it, it had gotten him killed.

“I only made one mistake,” Jason whispered, confirming his thoughts, “It was the first time I ever did anything wrong.” Jason scrubbed at his eyes. “I don’t belong here.”

Hunter sat up ram-rod straight. “What?! Of course you do!”

“No, I don’t. Everyone here, they—they fought back. They confronted Belos. That’s why he killed them. Me? I just ran away. They did so much, they went through so much, they endured him for so long and did things for him for so long, and I… I chickened out on my first mission. I couldn’t even get past that. Everyone else in this house went through so much at his hands, and I… I didn’t.” He sniffed. “You thought you were the one who should leave, but if anyone doesn’t deserve to be here, it’s me. I didn’t go through anything as bad as everyone. The Jason in the stories came back to fight his uncle, just like the rest of you, but I’m not like him. I just ran away. I’m just a coward.”

“No—No, Jason. Jason, listen. I collected palisman for Belos, too. And maybe, deep down, I figured it was wrong. But I pushed that part down and did it anyway.”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

Hunter shifted so that he was facing Jason, brushing his hair out of his face. “No. It wasn’t brave of me to do what Belos wanted. I did it because I was scared. I mean, sure, maybe I was proud of being the golden guard at first, but that didn’t last long. After a while, I was just scared of what he’d do if I didn’t follow orders. But you? You realized what he was asking you to do was wrong, and you acted on it. You didn’t push down your doubts and just keep on doing what he told you to do. You were brave enough to run away from him, smart enough to run away from him instead of picking an impossible fight.”

Jason rested his chin on his knees. “Doesn’t matter. I went right back when he asked.”

“He was going to kill you, Jason. Whether you agreed to go back with him or not.”

“I’m just… scared,” Jason said in a very small voice, “I’m scared that if he shows up again, if my family is put in danger… that I’ll run away again. That I won’t stay and fight to protect everyone. That I’ll leave you all behind to save myself. That I’ll be a coward all over again. Dad and Mom and all of you guys are always there if I need you. I’m scared that I’ll fail them when they need me.”

Hunter opened and closed his mouth. “I… Jason, I…”

Jason curled up in a ball, turning away from Hunter to face the wall. “It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything. It’s stupid.”

Hunter folded his arms. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Pretend like what you’re going through is less important than what everyone else is going through?”

Jason snorted. “’Coz it is. Everyone else here has all these horror stories about Belos, about what he’d do if they failed, about the horrific way they died. Meanwhile, my life was pretty okay, and my death was pretty straightforward. Nothing horrific there, just a basic stab in the back. I don’t have the right to ask for the same help they do.”

“That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it? I didn’t make a stand against him, and I wasn’t killed as badly as everyone else. I shouldn’t need the same help they do.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t. And hey. Whether you can stand up to Belos or not… You’ve always been there when I needed you.”

“Mm.”

“Jason?”

“Mhm?”

“Thanks for trusting me.”

Jason heaved a sigh. “Thanks for listening. Even if it is ridiculous.”

“Jason.”

“Yeah?”

Hunter put a hand on his. “Stop saying that? Please?”

“But—”

“Just try?”

“Okay. I’ll try.”

Hunter’s door slammed open. “Hunter, wake up!” Cherry yelped urgently “Hunter—oh, hi, Jason—Hunter, he’s gone.”

Hunter sat bolt upright. He didn’t need to ask who. “What?!”

“Dad’s talking to the others right now, but he just disappeared!”

Hunter leapt out of bed and tore down the hallway to the crystal ball room, Jason on his heels. Caleb’s grip nearly crushed the raven phone held up to his ear, his face pale.

“—and he stepped on the potion, and there was a flash of light, and he was just gone!” Cyrus’ voice echoed frantically from the phone, “We don’t know where he went! I don’t think anyone does! The Owl Lady’s kid disappeared, too, so they’re together, but—”

“The Owl Lady?” Caleb squeaked, “Never mind. Is Dagger on the trail?”

“There is no trail!” Dagger yelped, “Magic leaves a trace, usually, but not this spell. Wherever they’ve gone, it’s not a place I can follow!”

“Okay. Okay, I’m coming, we’ll find him. Just hold on.”

Caleb hung up the phone. His eyes moved wildly around the room. “Cherry!”

“Yes, sir?”

“I need you to let your mother know what’s happening. We might need her healing abilities, I don’t know yet, but… just be prepared. Hunter?”

Hunter snapped to attention. “Yes?”

“You’ve been to Bonesborough before?”

“I have.”

“Grab a concealment stone, you’re with me. We’re going to get to the bottom of this. We’re going to find him. And we’re going to make sure he’s safe.”

Hunter nodded, his pulse pounding in his ears. Hunter was gone. Hunter had disappeared. He’d been chasing wild witches, and now he’d disappeared with the apprentice of the most notorious wild witch of all.

“Dad?” Jason asked quietly, “Is this it? Is it happening?”

Caleb stopped his flurry of movement, briefly laying one hand on Jason’s shoulder. “I don’t know. But we’re going to be ready if it is. We’ll make sure he gets out of this. Whatever it takes.”

Chapter Text

“What do you know?”

Dagger paced around a set of circles drawn in the ground. “Not a lot. Stepped on potion, disappeared in a flash of light. No traces, no magic trail, just gone. Wherever he is, it’s not somewhere we can get without the same spell.”

“Then we need the same spell,” Hunter piped up, “Can you track the witches who made it?”

“We don’t need to,” Joseph piped up, “We saw them follow after the—the owl lady?”

Caleb made a squeaky noise. “Okay,” he managed, “Okay. Hunter and I will take it from here.”

“You sure?” Cyrus piped up, “What if you need us?”

“Too many people will draw attention. Go back to the house, I’ll stay in touch. We’ll be back soon.”

The three exchanged a worried, knowing glance, but nodded, moving towards the nearest sky boat. Hunter followed Caleb out of the city, off towards the woods.

“The owl lady? You know where she lives?”

Caleb sighed. “She’s… Achsah’s descendent.”

Hunter skidded to a stop. “Are you going to be okay?”

Caleb chuckled nervously, then put a finger to his lip, ducking into a bush. Hunter dove after him as footsteps crunched towards them. That wasn’t an answer. No wonder the others had seemed worried. Maybe Caleb should have been the one to go home.

“Are you sure the owl lady will be able to get them back?”

Hunter made a squeaking sound not unlike Caleb’s.

I’d recognize that voice anywhere.

Darius.

Caleb put a hand on his arm, and Hunter settled back, staring at the cloaked figure crossing his arms.

A smaller hooded figure shook their head. “If I know Eda, she won’t give up until she does. And she’s the only one with a link to the kids. We had the return potion. She had the connection. Neither of us could do this on our own.”

“Yes, and if someone wasn’t so intent on keeping her in the dark, we could be doing it together instead of skulking around in the shadows hoping she can find a power source to use it! Face it, Songbird, our last hope was to see if the emperor’s mind held any answers to stopping his plan, and that chance has been wasted. Those kids didn’t know what we were looking for!”

Belos’ mind? Hunter mouthed at Caleb. The original shook his head, his eyebrows scrunched together.

“We need the owl lady.”

The shorter cloaked figure shook themselves. “No. I won’t involve her. Not again. Involving her kid and… the golden guard… was an accident.”

Darius threw his hands up in the air. “And now that it’s happened, we may as well ask Edalyn to join up! We’re leaving them with more questions than answers. Do you honestly think they won’t seek us out? And the golden guard! We don’t even know what he’s seen or how he’ll react to it! We should be in there, helping her cast the return spell and finding out what we can instead of skulking about out here!”

“We can come back to check on him. Secretly.”

“It’s not about checking, it’s about—hey, I did not say—”

“It’s okay, Darius. I know you’re worried about him.”

“I am no—worried about what damage that little try-hard will cause, maybe.”

“Uh-huh. Alright.”

Whoever Darius’ ally was, Hunter liked the way they saw right through him. Not that he was being PARTICULARLY subtle about his feelings right now, but it was still amusing to watch. And a nice confirmation that Darius did care about little Hunter—that it hadn’t been wishful thinking on his part.

“We’ll stick around, in case he goes back to the keep after all this. After all, if he HASN’T seen anything in there to spook him, we wouldn’t want to reveal that we were the ones to send him in, would we? Or are you thinking you’d like a petrification ceremony?”

“Please. Even HE couldn’t get out of that madman’s mind without losing faith in him. I hope.”

The three of them passed by the bush, and Hunter reached out. He was so close. He could touch Darius’ cloak if he wanted to, he could let them know the truth right now.

I’m right here

I’d help you

With Hunter, with whatever you’re planning against Belos…

I’ll help. Just…

Darius disappeared into the woods, and Hunter shook his head.

“I’m sorry,” Caleb said softly, “That can’t have been easy.”

Hunter rubbed his arms. “At least we know he’s not on Belos’ side.”

He’s not

He’s still the Darius I left behind. The relief threatened to drown him—he didn’t have to worry about Darius and Hunter. He didn’t have to worry about being pitted against his student.

“Are you going to be okay?”

Hunter shook himself. Right. The task at hand. “I’m fine. But I’m not so sure about the other Hunter. Belos’ mind?”

Caleb shuddered. “If Philip kills him in there… There’s absolutely no way we could save him, unless we got our hands on some of those potions AND found a time pool to go back, and—”

Beams of light glittered through the trees, and Hunter pushed towards the owl lady’s clearing, watching the door intently.

“He knows we were in there!” came a wail, “I can’t—I can’t go back!”

The door slammed open, and the golden guard ran out, followed by his palisman. A girl ran out right after, wearing a grudgeby jacket. A gasp tumbled out of Hunter’s mouth. Her ears—she was human.

“HUNTER!” she shouted, reaching out.

Little Hunter ignored her, charging into the woods. Caleb’s eyes tracked Hunter’s palisman as he ran by, clouded over with confusion for a moment, then, “Flapjack?!” he yelped.

Hunter turned at the sound, eyes wide. His foot tangled up in tree roots, sending him crashing to the ground. The palisman stopped short too, flipping around in the air as Caleb pulled off his concealment stone.

“You didn’t tell me his palisman was a cardinal!”

Hunter tugged off his own stone, tucking it into his pocket. “We didn’t know what kind of bird it was!”

The bird’s head twisted back and forth, looking at its witch, then back at Caleb, eyes wide.

Little Hunter sputtered, scooting backwards. “St-stay back! I’m—I’m—you’re—” The whites of his eyes shone in the darkness, open wide. “No—you’re dead, you’re—but if you’re dead, then I—”

“You’re not dead,” Caleb told him, “Hey—we’re not going to hurt you. We’re here to help. I’m sorry if we scared you. I know you’re confused, but I promise we’ll explain.”

Hunter held his hands up, approaching slowly. “This is Caleb. I’m Hunter. We—”

“You’re—you’re not—I’m Hunter.” His voice cracked, and he struggled to his feet. He favored his left leg, limping backwards, and holding out his hand for his palisman, who cast one last look at Caleb, but swooped down to little Hunter. “I’m Hunter, I’m—I’m—”

He swung one leg over the staff and kicked off, shooting away through the trees.

“Wait!” Caleb called, “Hunter—”

“We can protect you from Belos!” Hunter yelled after him.

The golden guard twisted to look back at that, his eyes still wild, but oddly… hopeful. Caleb’s eyes widened. “LOOK OU—”

The palisman—Flapjack—tried frantically to slow down. The younger Hunter turned around just as the staff soared under a low-hanging branch that his head slammed into with a thump and an oof. Hunter flinched at the sound, feeling the dull ache in his own head. Little Hunter tumbled off the staff backwards, and it turned back into its animal form, flapping around his head and chirping frantically. Hunter and Caleb ran forward, kneeling down next to him. A lump had already swelled up on his forehead, the skin torn open.

Caleb tugged a handkerchief out of his pocket, pressing it to the gash. The golden guard groaned, but didn’t open his eyes. Hunter scooped him up, saying a silent apology in his head. “That went well.”

Caleb winced. “Usually I don’t have to do any explaining until after you’re home. First time I’ve ever had to chase one of you through the woods trying to convince you that I’m friendly.”

The palisman landed on Caleb’s shoulder, chirping and chirping and chirping.

“I know. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to leave you, I never meant… I’m sorry.”

Hunter got to his feet, hefting the teen in his arms. Even with his armor on, he didn’t weigh much, at least not to him. “‘Chase’ and ‘friendly’ aren’t usually paired together. I think he got more badly injured running away from us than he did from whatever happened in the emperor’s mind.” He nearly dropped the kid as a thought occurred to him. “Wait—Belos doesn’t think he’s dead, he said it himself in there, he said Belos knew he was in there—Belos will be looking for him!”

Caleb hissed in. “That was… always a possibility with this one. And he’s seen us now, we can’t just leave him with no explanation. We can’t leave him here at all, look at him, he’s probably got a concussion, and I think he’s hurt his ankle!”

“I didn’t think we should, I just… Do we bring him home? We could always just stay out here. If he wants to stay out, if we think he needs to stay out, he won’t know where to find us.”

“We can’t stay in the woods. If that human comes looking for him, if the scouts come looking for him… we need to go. Taking a new Grimwalker home is always a risk, but one we have to take.”

Hunter took a deep breath. Caleb was right. Still, every time the kid stirred in his arms, he flinched, sure he would yell out, or wake up fully and demand answers Hunter didn’t think he was ready to give. But if Hunter was conscious, he wasn’t giving it away. By the time they made it back to the house, the gash had stopped bleeding, and the lump had settled to the stable size of a fist, ugly purple. Evelyn met them at the door, her lips pursed, and she took the teenager from Hunter’s arms, turning back towards the house.

“Will he be okay?”

A dry laugh escaped her mouth. “I’ve seen worse,” she said, and ducked into another room. A trail of grimwalkers followed her, the palisman fluttering above their heads. Hunter pushed through them into the room, where Evelyn already worked on his head wound, her healing magic sealing up the gash and shrinking the lump. Her eyes narrowed at her partner. “I’ve seen way worse. Caleb? Why is he so… not on the brink of death?”

Caleb rubbed the back of his head. “He… he ran afoul of Philip, but… he got away.”

“WHAT?!” Jason yelped from the door.

The smaller Hunter flinched in his sleep, and Caleb put a finger to his lips. “He didn’t have anywhere to go, and we couldn’t risk losing track of him. He already knows he can’t go back—this is as good a time as any to show ourselves.”

Cherry shook his head. “Dad, I don’t want to leave him out on his own, but is this a good idea? If Uncle doesn’t think he’s dead…”

“Belos doesn’t know where we are, and he doesn’t have any reason to suspect that Hunter will be in this area. Even if he’s looking for him, we just have to lay low. He’s not going to find us.”

A few of the grimwalkers grumbled to their neighbors, but Caleb shooed them away. Jason scooted further in, looking down at Hunter. “What happened?”

Hunter shook his head. “I… I don’t even know how to start.”

“Going to be interesting. Two Hunters around.”

You’re not—I’m Hunter!

Hunter sat down, watching Evelyn turn her attention to the golden guard’s left ankle. “I… I don’t know. Maybe it’s time to change?”

Jason froze, then blinked. “You said it’s your name, and you wanted to keep it.”

You’re not—I’m Hunter!

Hunter sighed, resting his chin in his hands. “I think… I think he needs it more than I do right now.”

Jason plopped down next to him. “What’s it gonna be, then?”

Hunter glanced at Evelyn. “I’m thinking… Phoenix.”

A small smile crossed her face, but she continued wrapping up Hunter’s ankle without a word.

“Phoenix? Like the bird? The ones that burn up?”

“In human legends they… rise up again after they die, they burst into flames and turn into something new. The same bird, but… different. Better.”

Jason stared at him for a moment, then snorted. “That’s pretentious.”

Phoenix reached over and tousled his hair roughly. “As if you didn’t pick the name of an ancient hero, commander of armies, killer of evil uncles.”

Jason pushed his hand away. “That’s different, I’m trying to be like him, not claiming that I already am!”

Hunter groaned. Phoenix and Jason fell silent as if on cue, shuffling closer to the bed. Jason hid slightly behind Phoenix, peering around him at Hunter. Suspicion seemed to radiate off him in alarming waves. Hunter’s eyes slowly blinked open, and he stared up at the ceiling for a couple of seconds before sitting bolt upright, putting his hand to his head.

“Hah—uh—huh—”

“Morning!” Evelyn said cheerfully, all signs of doubt or worry erased from her face, “You gave everyone a scare!”

“I—it… It was just a…” Hunter’s eyes slid across the room, widening when they caught sight of Phoenix and Jason. He buried his head in his arms. “Oh.”

“Not a dream,” Phoenix said softly, “Sorry about what happened back there. But we were telling the truth. We really do want to help you.”

“Is that why you kidnapped me?”

“Would you have preferred they just left you unconscious in the woods for Belos to find?” Jason snapped.

Phoenix blinked at the sudden venom. “Jason, hey.”

Hunter didn’t answer, instead burying his head deeper, fingers tapping on his arms.

“We can get you some fresh clothes,” Evelyn said softly, “Some food, if you’re hungry. Or… just some space?”

He didn’t respond to her, either, and she got up, gesturing for Phoenix and Jason to leave with her.

“Jason, be nice. You of all people should know what he’s going through right now. Running away from home isn’t easy, especially when he’s the person you’re running from.”

Jason’s hands twisted in front of him. “Belos knows he’s alive, it’s not the same! What if… what if…”

“You heard your father. Philip isn’t going to find us any time soon. So just… treat him the same as you would any other new Grimwalker. Permission to touch?”

Jason nodded, and Evelyn cupped his face in her hands, giving his forehead a gentle kiss. “I’m counting on you. If anyone can help him feel at home here, it’s you.”

“Okay,” he mumbled, but his hands still wrung the end of his shirt.

Evelyn smiled at them both, then padded down the hallway towards the door, murmuring a protective chant as she drew a circle in the air. Casting a shield around the house, Phoenix realized.

She’s not as confident he won’t find us as Caleb.

If he’s even actually that confident.

Jason took a deep breath, and reopened the door to the room.

The window was open, and Hunter was gone.

Jason winced. “Mmmmmyep, definitely should have seen that one coming.

Phoenix poked his head out of the window. A hint of gold glittered in the trees—Hunter hadn’t gotten far. “We’re going to go after him, right?”

Jason shrugged. “It’s either that or we tell the whole house he’s gone with no explanation on who we are and why we have to stay secret.”

“Going after him it is.”

Phoenix hopped out the window, running towards the woods with Jason on his heels. “Hunter?” he called.

He ducked to the side as a blast of magic nearly slammed into his head. Hunter peered around a tree, pointing his staff at them. “Stay back!”

Phoenix held his hands up. “I know you’re confused. You don’t know who we are, what we want from you. And earlier was… not the greatest first impression. But we’ll explain, if you give us the chance.”

The staff didn’t dip or waver even a little. “Then explain.”

Phoenix took a deep breath. “How much… do you already know?”

“Enough to know that you’re supposed to be dead. That Belos killed you.”

Phoenix gestured to the blotchy scar on his face. “He tried.”

“He tried to kill me, too,” Jason piped up, “But we were saved at the last minute. He left us for dead, and… someone else came along to pick us up. Do you… know about what you are?”

Hunter nodded.

“Well, our ortet, our dad, he… he came for us. He rescued us.”

“That’s impossible!” Hunter burst out, “You, being here, being this age, him being alive, all of it is—it’s just impossible!” He ran a hand through his hair. “I saw you die, I saw memories of your deaths, this is just…”

“A lot to process?” Phoenix suggested.

He let out a hysterical laugh. “Finding out I’m a copy of someone was a lot to process. Finding out that my uncle’s been making and killing nephews for centuries was a lot to process. Finding out that the man I thought was doing good is planning a genocide was a lot to process. This? This is impossible!”

A chill ran down Phoenix’s spine, and he snapped up straight. “You know about Belos’ plans? Do you know how he’s going to do it?” More information—Hunter had gone into Belos’ mind. Surely he knew more than they’d been able to piece together.

“I—how much do you know?”

Phoenix shook his head. “Not enough. We know he can activate sigils and drain magic, but we don’t know how exactly how the eclipse factors in, or what that disk Dagger saw does.”

Jason shot him a quizzical glance at the mention of the disk, but before he could elaborate, a buzz went off. Hunter startled, fumbling his staff, but finally stepping out from behind his tree. “Ah—not again—”

Phoenix blinked. He knew that sound. “Is that a penstagram?”

“Yeah, I—” Hunter summoned the scroll, still eyeing Phoenix and Jason while he looked at the notification. His face paled. “It’s Da—it’s one of the coven heads. I…” He twisted it around to show them. Phoenix’s heart thudded in his chest.

Darius.

Little Prince, where are you? There are scouts looking for you.

Are you alright?

Answer me if you’re not dead

Hunter?

Answer me right now, Hunter, are you alright?

Stay where you are, I’m coming to you.

Hunter lowered the screen. “That’s—how is he going to come to me? He doesn’t know where I am, right?”

Phoenix frowned at the scroll. “He doesn’t have guardian remote access to your penstagram, does he? He could turn on your find my friend if he did.”

“He could turn on what?”

“Find my f—oh, titan. Did you look at your settings at all?!”

“I could barely change the profile picture!”

Phoenix snatched the scroll out of Hunter’s hand, opening the settings. “You do. You left it on. You left your find my friends on?!” Really, weren’t teens supposed to be better than him at technology?

Hunter snatched it back. “I didn’t even know that was a feature!”

“What are you two talking about?!” Jason yelped.

Phoenix pointed at the scroll. “Darius can track us.”

“He can track us here?! Well, turn the find my friend thingie OFF!”

Phoenix shook his head. “He’ll just head to Hunter’s last known location, which will take him way too close to us. I need to take it somewhere else first, lure him off the trail.”

He might be on our side, but… him knowing is dangerous for the rest of the family. Especially if he stayed close to Belos. Phoenix reached into his pocket and pulled out the concealment stone. “I’ll be back soon. Hunter, I know we haven’t given you any reason to trust us, but if you know something about the day of unity… please. Let us know. We want to help, I want to help.” He held his hand out. “Let me take care of this.”

Hunter bit his lip, then put the scroll in his hand. “Don’t get caught.”

Phoenix nodded, dashing through the woods and into the town, pushing his way to a crowded square and settling down to wait. It didn’t take long. There he was, across the square. Frowning at a penstagram scroll of his own and scanning the crowd. Phoenix put a hand to the concealment stone around his neck, clutching it tightly. Darius looked around again, and Phoenix held up Hunter’s scroll.

Darius crossed the square in a few quick strides. “Excuse me, have you seen a teenager? About yay high, blonde hair, he might be wearing a golden guard costume, you know how kids are with their cosplay.”

Phoenix stood up, showing him the penstagram. “I know who you’re looking for. He’s safe.”

“Fantastic, why don’t you take me to him?”

Phoenix shook his head. “He’s safe. And that’s all you need to know.”

Darius gave him a tight smile. “I don’t think you quite understand the situation.”

Phoenix met his eyes. “I know who he is. And I know why he’s running.”

Darius dropped the smile, his eyes narrowing. “Then you know why I need to find him now.”

“He’s safe,” Phoenix repeated, “We will protect him.”

“Yes, well, people have a habit of telling me that he’s ‘safe’ when he’s actually lying dead in an unmarked grave somewhere, so why don’t you just tell me where he is.”

Phoenix felt his heart tug in his chest.

I’m sorry

I didn’t mean to disappear on you.

“He’s safe. We will protect him. You don’t want to start a fight here.”

“Oh, I don’t, do I?”

Phoenix took a deep breath, steeling his nerves. “You don’t want to fight me, I promise. He sent me to talk to you. He is safe. He is taken care of. And the people he’s with want him to be happy.” Phoenix opened the settings of Hunter’s penstagram and showed Darius the screen as he turned “find my friends” off.

“He’ll contact you when he’s ready. When he’s ready to explain where he went. When he’s ready to apologize for disappearing on you, and not telling you where he’s been all this time, and making you worry. I’ll g—he’ll get in touch with you. Let him have that space. To… figure out how he feels about all of this. To figure out how to tell you.” Phoenix put the scroll away. “Don’t follow me. I’ll know.”

He ducked away, weaving through the streets.

Darius didn’t trail him.

And no guardian access suddenly turned the tracker back on.

Phoenix let out a sigh, and leaned against a wall, sliding into a sitting position as his legs wobbled and gave out. He grasped his hair, pressing his forehead to his knees. Tears burned at the corners of his eyes.

“I’ll tell you someday,” he whispered, “I promise.”

Chapter Text

Caleb glanced up as Phoenix entered the crystal ball room. Hunter’s palisman sat on his shoulder, preening happily. “So, I hear it’s Phoenix now.”

Phoenix yawned, plopping down in an open seat. “Jason told you?”

“Yep. He helped Hunter limp home while you were out. Hunter’s asleep now.”

“Good. He needs it.”

“Mmm. Not sure he’s having a very peaceful one, but at least he’s sleeping.”

“He’s had a long night. So have you.”

Caleb’s eyelids drooped, but he was awake enough to be trying to focus the crystal ball back on the keep, and the emperor. “Hey, you too. Running all the way to town and back on top of everything.”

“Hm. What’s the story with the bird?”

Caleb reached up to touch the cardinal on his shoulder with a smile. “I carved him. He was my palisman. Philip… hid him from me. I thought he’d just gotten lost. I was… asking if he’d seen him, checking everywhere, when… it was a trap, the whole thing was a trap, and when we had to run… Flapjack wasn’t with us.” A smile twitched across his face. “Found me in the end anyway, though, didn’t you?”

The cardinal chirped an affirmation, butting against his face.

Caleb’s hand dropped with a sigh. “Not that he’s… really my palisman anymore.” He shook his head. “Been a while for both of us, huh, Flapjack? Longer for you. Bigger family for me, new witch for you. I’m glad you found someone else.”

“I guess it makes sense why he’d pick me,” Hunter mumbled from the doorway, “I reminded him of you.”

“No!” Caleb exclaimed at the same time Flapjack chirped an outraged chirp, fluttering back to Hunter’s shoulder. Caleb took a deep breath. “Sorry. That was… loud. Point being, Flapjack didn’t just pick you because you looked like me. Palisman… don’t work that way. They choose you, they bond with you over what’s inside. Over what you need, what you want. Not over what you look like.”

Hunter scooped the bird off of his shoulder, holding him cupped in his hand. “It’s hard to say that it’s coincidence, though. I mean, what are the odds that he’d just happen to pick a Grimwalker of you, out of all the witches on the isles? Not likely.”

Caleb smiled. “This whole house is full of Grimwalkers of me who, by all rights and respects, should be pretty dead about now. I think when it comes to this family, statistics tend to go out the window.”

Hunter jerked back at ‘family,’ but then took a deep breath, holding Flapjack out towards Caleb. “Here. He’s your palisman. I… thank you for letting me borrow him.” His voice cracked, and he looked away, but not before Phoenix saw tears bubble up in his eyes.

Flapjack let out a shrieking trill and pecked at Hunter’s fingers before flapping up, casting one apologetic glance at Caleb, then settling into Hunter’s hair, warbling fiercely at him.

Caleb chuckled, but Phoenix could see a tightness and pain lurking around the corners of his smile. “Looks like that settles that. He’s your palisman, Hunter. You need him more than I do. I made my escape from my old life. Looks like yours is still pending.”

Alarm flashed through Hunter’s eyes, and he took a step back. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you kicking me out, or—or t-turning me in? I mean—for your own security, it makes sense, I’m a liability, I—I understand—”

Caleb held his hands up. “Whoa, Hunter, it’s okay. No one is kicking you out, that’s not how we work here. I just meant that… sometimes a place sticks with you. And if Flapjack thinks you need him, well, you’re his witch now. I’ll miss him, but I’ve spent the last sixteen years without him. I think I’ll survive.”

“I’m… not really a witch, though, am I? I mean… I’m human?”

Caleb twisted his mutilated hand back and forth. “Sort of. What’s really important is that you’re family.”

Hunter shuddered slightly at the word—that was the second time. Phoenix glanced at Caleb, then at Hunter. “Hey, uh… give me a second, Caleb? Please?”

Caleb nodded, taking the crystal ball out with him. Phoenix rubbed the back of his head. “He doesn’t mean… I know it’s all a little overwhelming.”

Hunter crossed his arms, looking away. “It’s fine. I’m… fine.”

“Ha!” Phoenix shook his head. “I’ve been where you are. Not exactly where you are, but… it’s confusing. You don’t know how to feel, what to feel. Let me guess, there’s a part of you that wants to go back?”

Hunter startled. “I never said—”

Phoenix held his hands up. “I know! I know. No such thing as a clean split when it comes to Belos, though. You barely got out of your last ‘family’ alive. It’s not weird for you to not be ready to join a new one. And no one is going to make you join ours.”

Hunter glanced back towards the door. “But…”

“He’s getting ahead of himself—he’s just happy you’re finally here. The last Grimwalker. No more worrying, not for a while. What he means is… we’ve got your back. And we’ll help you if you need help.”  Phoenix sighed. “I know trusting people is the last thing you probably feel capable of right now. I didn’t trust anyone here either. You can ask any of them, I was snooping around trying to figure out everyone’s ulterior motives for a while. So from one paranoid guard to another… you can trust them. We can trust them. It’s not going to be easy. But they’re a pretty good place to start trying.”

Hunter rubbed his arms. “Okay.”

Phoenix inhaled deeply. With that taken care of… “About Belos.”

Hunter’s eyes widened, and his shoulders tensed. “What about him?”

Phoenix let out his breath in a long hiss. “Caleb… would want to not make you talk before you’re ready. He’d want you to feel safe first, to feel comfortable with sharing the information you saw in Uncle’s mind. And… if we had that kind of time, I’d agree with him.”

“But you don’t,” Hunter said softly, “The day of unity is in a week. Do you really think you can stop him?”

“Not without knowing what he’s up to. I know it’s hard to talk about, it just happened, and Caleb would want to give you space, but…”

“But he wasn’t a golden guard. And never commanded scouts. And he doesn’t realize, really realize that information as soon as possible saves lives and wins battles.”

Phoenix sighed. “Yeah.” You shouldn’t have that already internalized. Titan, you’re just a kid.

But I guess we were all just kids.

“We need to know the whole story. Anything you’ve got. If we’re going to stop him, we need to know now.”

“I… okay. Okay.” Hunter took a deep breath. “I’ll tell you everything.”

Xxx

“You got a look at Philip’s whole plan?”

Hunter shifted back and forth in his chair, his eyes flicking across the faces of the Grimwalkers watching him. Phoenix had barely had time to tell the last one before the first people he’d told were already gathered in the little crystal ball room. “I did. I… the emperor—he’s not a witch, he’s a… witch… hunnnnnnter.”

What little color he had drained from his face as he said the words, his eyes fixed on Caleb. The human shook his head, putting one arm around Evelyn. “Oh, no, there was only one witch I ever hunted, and I’m happy now that I’ve caught her.”

She kissed his cheek, and Mole made an “ick” noise next to Phoenix, his nose wrinkling.

Hunter blinked. “Uhhhhhhokay. He… he wants to…” Hunter took a deep breath. “The day of unity is… it’s all a trap, a lie. He wants to steal the magic of everyone on the isles in one big sweep, killing them all. Anyone with a seal, everyone.”

Phoenix’s hand went to his own arm, clutching at the brand. He saw some of the others do the same, and Steven started scratching at the burn scar where his faulty one (or had it really been faulty?) had been. He and Jason had pieced this much together on their own, but for everyone else, this was their first time hearing it.

Caleb frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“What?”

The ortet started pacing. “It won’t work. The required age for getting a seal isn’t until you’re eighteen. There’s a whole generation of witches out there that don’t have a sigil. He’ll deal a devastating blow to witchkind, for sure, traumatize the whole generation, leave a lot of orphans, but as far as his goal goes, he won’t even get close. There will be more than enough witches to repopulate. He’s got to know that, he’s not stupid, so why would he…” Caleb’s face paled. “The schools,” he breathed.

Evelyn frowned. “Love, what are you talking about?”

“The schools,” he repeated louder, “All or most of the children on the isles, gathered into four or five convenient places on the isles. He’s going to target the schools, tell them that they need to be branded now to participate in the day of unity, or else it may affect them negatively, brand all of them…”

Jason jumped up. “Then we have to warn them, Dad! We can’t just let it happen!”

Caleb nodded. “Right—of course not. Split into teams. Take a school. Take concealment stones, do whatever you have to in order to convince them not to trust the seals. Take out the scouts on their way if you have to.”

“Um.” Hunter shifted in his seat. “I… may have an inside person at Hexside?”

“One of the students?” Caleb guessed.

“Yes. But she’s a leader, people will listen to her. I think. If she’ll listen to me, anyway.”

“Any advance warning we can give them is good. Let her know as much as you can. Everyone else, find a team.”

“We’ll take Epiderm,” Meleager suggested, “Mountain area, easily defended.” Hamlet, Horus, and Venari nodded in agreement.

“I can go to Hexside,” Phoenix volunteered, “I’m… familiar with the area. Just in case Hunter’s contact can’t get the word out.” He turned towards Hunter. “Let me know what’s changed?”

Hunter nodded, following him out of the room and fiddling with his Penstagram. Phoenix got a glimpse of the username HELLO_WILLOW before Hunter held the scroll up very close to his face, squinting at the letters as he typed.

“This… contact. Friend of yours?”

“Willow? Maybe—I don’t know if she… it’s complicated.”

“Hm.”

Hunter fussed with his scroll in a way that suspiciously looked more like fidgeting than typing. “Should I… go with you?”

“Do you want to? We’d take concealment stones, you wouldn’t have to worry about a scout seeing you. But if your ankle—”

“I can handle it!”

Phoenix stopped, turning to face Hunter. “Listen to me. If you’re injured, you don’t need to be going. I know that’s hard to hear, but the best thing you can do for everybody is to rest and heal up.”

“It’s fine. I had another healing session. It feels fine. I… I need to be doing something.”

Yeah. Sounds about right. And really—was Phoenix one to judge? It wasn’t like he’d ever acted much better. “Only if you can get clearance from our resident healer. If she says you’re not going, you’re not going.”

Hunter nodded and headed back towards Evelyn. She looked up as he approached, nodded along to what he said, then looked over to Phoenix, flashing him a smile and then nodding again to Hunter. The guard strode along, brushing past him. “Let’s go.”

Phoenix chased after him, grabbing two concealment stones. “Hey, wait up. I don’t have to worry about you running off, do I?”

Hunter summoned his staff. “Do I have anywhere to run to?”

“Fair point.”

Hunter mounted up, then nodded to the space behind him. “It’ll be faster if we fly.”

Phoenix balked, eying the staff. “Oh—I don’t know about—”

The palisman flapped around, swinging into him so that he half-fell, half-sat down on the staff, then took off. Phoenix clung tightly to the wood with a yelp as they soared through the sky.

Hunter glanced back at him, his face a mixture of surprise and amusement. “Have you… never flown before?”

Phoenix shook his head. “I teleported everywhere if I could help it. Not a flier. Especially not on skinny, easy-to-fall-off-of staffs.” He gripped tighter. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“I will once I get some height.” Hunter spun slowly in the air, then dove. Phoenix yipped, holding the staff so tightly he thought he might crack the wood. Finally, they leveled out, and Hunter dragged them across the sky for what seemed like an agonizingly long time before coming to a halt in the trees outside of Hexside. Phoenix slid off, and handed Hunter a concealment stone, slipping his own over his head and looking at his new uniform.

“I’m a student?”

Hunter shrugged, putting on his own. “Makes sense, if you want to blend in.”

“Shouldn’t I be a teacher?”

“I mean, everyone knows all the teachers, it would be weird if a new one suddenly showed up.”

Phoenix tugged at the uniform. “Still. It feels strange, given that I’m a little bit past the age range. Feels… creepy.”

One of Hunter’s eyebrows crept upwards. “You watched me through a crystal ball and stalked me on patrol, but this is creepy to you?”

“Touché. I’m just… something seems off.”

“Nervous?”

“Maybe a bit. I’ve never actually… been… to school.”

Hunter shrugged. “Oh, it’s not actually as hard as you’d think to blend in. I was really good at it, no one suspected I was the golden guard at all. Just follow my lead, no one will even notice you.”

Hunter stepped out of the trees onto the path, and after a second, Phoenix followed, still tugging on his sleeves. Hunter pointed out a couple of students. “Skara. Viney—she multi-tracks, if anyone tries to give her a brand, I don’t think it’ll go well, so she’d be an easy re…” Hunter shook his head. “We’re here to protect, not recruit.”

He seemed to be talking more to himself than Phoenix, but he agreed out loud anyway. “They’re not soldiers, and they shouldn’t have to be. Let’s find your contact.”

“Yeah, just—hide.” Hunter grabbed Phoenix’s arm and yanked him behind a wall.

“What? What are we hiding from?” I didn’t see any scouts.

Hunter peered around the corner, pointing at a boy in the blue of illusion track. “Gus. He’s an illusion witch. If anyone is going to see through these stones, it’ll be one of them.”

“Friend of yours?”

“I… don’t think so. I… it’s… complicated.”

For someone who’d been chomping at the bit to come, he seemed awfully dodgy about it now. “What happened the last time you were here? Is that the real reason you don’t want him seeing you?”

“No. Let’s just… keep moving. Find Willow.”

Hunter moved around the outside of the building, peering into windows, then finally stopped outside the greenhouse. “There!” He tapped on the window, and a girl with huge round glasses looked up from her plant, frowning. She strode over to the window, resting her arms on the sill. “Uh… do I… know you?”

Hunter looked around, then slipped the concealment stone off. “Uh. Hi.”

“Hunter?! What are you doing here?! What was up with that message this morning?!” Her eyes narrowed at Phoenix. “That’s not a scout in disguise, is it?”

“No! No, Willow, he’s… it’s a long story. He’s auhhhhhh cousin. Of mine.”

              Phoenix gave her a tiny wave.

One of Willow’s eyebrows rose. “A cousin. I thought Luz said your family was—”

“He’s not a scout. I promise. Speaking of scouts, you haven’t seen any, have you? Here? Today?”

If that eyebrow climbed any higher, it would disappear into her hairline. “Wouldn’t that be something you’re supposed to know? Hunter, what is going on with you? You haven’t seen Luz, have you?”

That startled him. “Luz? She’s not… with the owl lady?”

Before Willow could answer, the intercom crackled on, calling for an assembly. Willow jabbed a finger at Hunter. “Don’t go anywhere. You’re going to explain yourself. And your… cousin.”

Hunter gulped as she disappeared out the door. “Do you think the assembly is about…”

Phoenix knuckled his forehead. “Sloppy. Should have watched the main entrance while you found her! They’re probably already here.”

Hunter wriggled in through the window without hesitation. “Are you coming?”

Phoenix squeezed through after him. “Who’s Luz?”

“She’s… I don’t know. It’s…”

“Complicated?” Phoenix guessed.

“Yeah.”

“Seems to be a running theme.”

Hunter shrugged. “I’m the golden guard. Making friends isn’t my job.” He led Phoenix to the auditorium, and they slipped in, squeezing past students. “Graye?” Hunter murmured, frowning at the man on the stage.

“Who?” Phoenix whispered back.

“He’s the illusion coven head—but what is he doing here?”

Graye was talking about hiding seals, and Phoenix shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense—he wasn’t there, I don’t recognize that voice. He’s not one of the rebels.”

“Rebels?!”

“Oh. Yeah. You weren’t there. The group that… accidentally sent you into the emperor’s mind. They’re coven heads.”

“They’re what?!”

“Darius is one of them.”

“Darius is what?!”

“STOP!”

Before Phoenix could explain what he’d seen, the boy from earlier—Gus—jabbed one finger up at the stage. “Don’t trust him! He’s hiding behind an illusion!”

“Told you he’d be able to tell,” Hunter muttered as Gus drew a circle, wiping the illusion off Graye. Phoenix hissed in, his fists clenching as scouts popped into sight

“They’re already here, we have to—”

“CUT!”

In puffs of smoke, scouts appeared all around the gym, and Phoenix whirled around.

They’re everywhere!

Graye—the real Graye, not an illusion—stormed towards Gus, and Phoenix pushed towards them. No, no, no—

A scout grabbed his arm, and Phoenix whirled around, punching him in the face and wrenching his arm away.

The world started spinning, trees appearing and disappearing, landscapes from all over the isles flashing in and out of sight at the speed of light. Phoenix saw Hunter charge through the illusion, tugging Gus along behind him, and then they were gone.

“No!”

Phoenix ran after them, then slammed immediately into a wall that had looked like open hallway. “Ow.”

The landscape kept shifting and changing, and then, inexplicably, he was in a child’s room.

Gus’ Rare Treasures, a sign read.

Gus.

He’s the one who put up the illusion.

They’ll be looking for him to stop all of this.

And Hunter’s with him.

Phoenix felt all along the walls, looking for a way out. Finally, his hand swiped through empty space, and he pushed out of Gus’ room into a forest.

More illusions.

Phoenix tugged on his concealment stone. It was glowing slightly, reacting to the magic around it. I wonder…

He pulled off the stone, holding it close to an illusion. It reflected a locker in its shimmering surface. Phoenix took a few more steps—still lockers, lockers—door! He yanked it open, and found himself in a classroom with no illusions.

Thank you, Evelyn. Phoenix slipped the stone back over his neck and climbed out the window. He needed to find Hunter, but he’d have an easier time of it if he could find spaces clear of illusions. He made his way around to the front entrance and walked into a clear hallway. Footsteps tapped against type, and Hunter and Gus sprinted down the hallway towards him, Graye not far behind them.

“Hunter!” Phoenix called, “This way!”

Hunter blinked and pulled up short. “Belos?” he whispered.

A shadow loomed over Phonix, and he pivoted, a golden mask gleaming menacingly at him.

Goodbye, Golden Guard.

He’s here

He’s here, he’s here, he’s here—

A grunt of pain from Hunter yanked Phoenix back to reality, and Belos turned into two scouts that grabbed him. Phoenix kicked back, and a kneecap cracked. He wrenched away from the scouts, lunging towards Graye.

“Get—off—of—him!” He howled. All the fear from seeing Belos dissolved into blind fury. He’d kill Graye for this trick. He knew—he had to know how scared of Belos Hunter was to try it. And he’d done it anyway. And he stood by Belos anyway. Vines tangled up around his legs, snaking up his body to hold him. His hand stopped just inches away from Graye’s face. Phoenix yanked against the restraints, snarling, straining.

“Let him go!” Hunter yelped, “That’s an order!”

The vines started to slither back, and something that might have been fear flashed through Graye’s eyes. “He’s not in charge right now, he’s a runaway. You take orders from me! Tie up both of them!”

Phoenix tore out of the vines before they could regrow, tackling Graye off of Hunter and Gus. “I’m gonna—”

There was a sharp whistle, and a yelp from Gus, and Phoenix twisted around just enough to see a killing spell held inches away from Hunter’s face, a huge scout gripping both of his arms. Walls of stone pinned Gus between them—construction magic.

“You wouldn’t,” Phoenix whispered, but the momentary distraction was enough for Graye to kick him in the stomach, pushing him back into the lockers. New vines sprang up, securing him in place.

Graye glared, brushing off his sleeves. “I don’t know why you’re so determined to bail the brat out, and I don’t really have the time to waste figuring it out. But this stops now.”

He removed his earring, drawing a circle. Pain spiked through Phoenix’s head. Belos’ voice whispered in his ear, and images he’d done his best to forget flashed before his eyes.

Failure

You’ve got a little abomination witch you’re mentoring, right?

Goodbye, golden guard

Stupid

You’re getting in the way!

Just fall back and do what you’re told, Hunter.

Phoenix felt a bright dart of pain against his hand. Then another. He blinked back the visions, the world a hazy blue that finally settled into regular colors. He put a hand to his head with a groan, sitting up. Flapjack fluttered around his head, chirping frantically. The vines had been torn apart, marked with viscous peck marks that matched a red mark on his hand.

“Hey… why aren’t you… with…” Phoenix jolted up, his head still swimming. “Hunter! And the kid, Gus! We’ve got to—” he lurched to his feet, leaning against the lockers for support. “Ngh—” He stumbled down the hallway until he spotted an unconscious guard. Flapjack pulled on his hair, yanking him towards a door. The door opened, and a teacher caught his arm, helping him inside and guiding him to sit down on a bench.

“Are you alright? Where are you hurt?”

“I…” Phoenix pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have to…”

Flapjack fluttered over to another bench, chirping mournfully at the kid laid out on it.

“Hunter! Is he okay?!”

“He just got hit with a sleep spell,” the girl standing over him assured Phoenix. It was the multi-tracker—Viney, if he remembered right.

“Hang on,” came the growl from Bump (well, he’d aged since Phoenix had last seen him), “I know all of my students—and he’s not one of them.” He drew a circle, and before Phoenix could react, an abomination hand rose out of the ground and snatched Phoenix’s concealment stone, yanking it off his neck. Phoenix lunged for it too late, the illusion covering him turning to smoke. Bump stared at him, mouth dropping open, and gasps rose up from students now looking back and forth between Hunter and Phoenix.

Phoenix gave Bump a small wave. “Hiiiiii, Vice Principal Bump. Youuuuuuu’re looking… the same.”

“It’s… principal now, actually. Excuse me if this comes across as rude, but you’re supposed to be dead.” Bump jabbed a finger at Hunter. “He’s supposed to be your replacement.”

Phoenix sighed, dropping back onto the bench and putting his head in his hands. “Guess that cat is out of the bag.”

“And you’re looking pretty young for… how old would you be now? Whatever your age, you don’t look it.”

“I know. I know, I…”

“Does Darius know you’re alive? I assume you didn’t come here to pick him up from school.”

Phoenix chuckled at that, despite himself. “Aha, no. And… he doesn’t know. I didn’t really intend for you to know. It’s…”

“Complicated?” Bump guessed, then sighed. “Oh, it always is with you golden guards.”

“He’s waking up!” One of the girls near Hunter yelped.

“T-This…This is an illusion! Gus! Phoenix! Are you- ah!”

Phoenix turned just in time to see Hunter fall, caught by Viney and the other girl—Skara. “Hey—Hunter, easy, it’s okay! It’s okay, this isn’t an illusion.”

“You’re in the healing homeroom,” Skara volunteered.

Hunter gestured at Phoenix helplessly. “Uh… your…”

Phoenix rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah… Whoa, hey!” he yelped as Bump pushed him to the side.

“Well, Mr. Golden Guard.”

Oh, this isn’t good.

“Bump—”

“Hush, oh…”

“It’s Phoenix now.”

“Hush, Phoenix. Anyway, Golden Guard—”

Hunter rubbed his arm. “Hunter.”

Oh.

“We saw you being dragged around, and the flyer derby was determined to save you. But I am not yet convinced of your innocence.”

“Bump,” Phoenix tried again, “He’s not—”

“Phoenix, you’re not cleared of suspicion either. You’re a golden guard, too. Where have your scouts taken Augustus?”

“That’s not fair!” Phoenix protested.

“I’m not with them, I swear!” Hunter insisted at the same time, “I came here to stop them!”

“We did,” Phoenix agreed, “We knew they were coming for Hexside, and… well, we didn’t know this specifically, but we knew that they’d try to brand the kids before the day of unity!”

“What? Why?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Hunter’s contact burst out in the corner, “Right now, we need to save Gus! Hunter’s not lying, he sent me a message this morning asking me to stay away from school and to tell everyone else. I was already here, and I didn’t get a chance to respond before… everything.” She looked Phoenix up and down. “Cousin, huh? Yeah, I see the resemblance now.”

“It’s… weirder than that, but that’s a long story. You’re right, we need to save your friend first. Explanations can come after.”

“Graye said he’d be in the gym,” Hunter volunteered, “But… he’ll be guarded.”

A girl with purple hair stood up. “That won’t be a problem. Willow can bust through anything.”

Willow grinned. “Yeah. But I’ll need help.”

Bump sighed. “Let’s just come up with a plan.”

Skara clapped her hands. “Yes! That’s my favorite part!”

Phoenix made his way over to Hunter as Skara cleared illustrations of a nervous system off the chalkboard. “Hey. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

Hunter shook his head. “Just a sleep spell. Thanks for… trying to rescue me.”

Phoenix snorted. “Lot of good it did.”

“If you hadn’t been worried about me, I… I think you would have been able to take them. I’m the only reason you didn’t kill Graye right then and there.”

“I hope that’s the only reason, that guy is pathetically weak.”  Phoenix nudged him. “Don’t beat yourself up, skill can only make up for so much when it comes to opponents twice your size and…” he shuddered. “That Belos illusion was something, huh?”

Hunter nodded, rubbing his arms despite the mild temperature. “Are… you okay? I mean, whatever that spell was that Graye did to you, it… you looked… really scared.”

Goodbye, Golden Guard.

Phoenix offered him a small smile. “It was just… unpleasant memories being dragged up. I’ll be fine.” He nodded back towards Willow. “For what it’s worth, I think they really are your friends. I don’t know what happened that made things so complicated, but—”

“They don’t want me as their friend. I mean. I think Gus was trying to at least work with me today, but…” Hunter sighed. “I messed up, okay? I tried to force them to join the emperor’s coven, and now, I just… I keep thinking about what would have happened if I’d succeeded. Belos would have gotten their palisman. They’d have brands now. And on the day of unity, they would have gotten hurt, and it would have been my fault.”

“But you didn’t succeed,” Phoenix said softly, “And you’re stopping it from happening to them now.”

Hunter rubbed his coven patch. “What… what do we do next? I mean, if we stop them here, if we keep them from getting branded, then witchkind will survive, and that’s the goal, but… we’re still dead. I saw you holding your arm earlier. You have a brand, too. Do we just… wait to die?”

“No,” Phoenix said firmly, “We’re going to figure this out. We’re going to stop him, somehow. We’re not just going to take this lying down. I promise you, we’ll figure out a way. Together.”

“Okay!” Skara said cheerfully, “Everyone gather round!”

Her plan was simple. They’d walk up under an illusion, and ambush the scouts outside the gym, then head inside to deal with Graye and rescue Gus. Easy. Simple.

xxx

Of course it wouldn’t turn out easy and simple, Phoenix thought wryly, eying the glowing blue bubble. “How do we get rid of it?”

“I don’t… like… these memories…” Graye whimpered.

Phoenix couldn’t stop his derisive snort. Oh, wow, big surprise, seeing your worst memories is painful. Maybe don’t do it to other people next time.

The door splintered inwards, and some kind of. Creature. Creaked through. It almost looked like an abomination, but wrong. Armor plated every inch of it, and if he listened carefully, Phoenix could hear the click of gears.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!” Phoenix backed away, throwing his arms out to shield the students. Not that his body would be much of a shield from this thing.

Amity groaned. “I really have to talk to my parents about this.”

“WHAT?!”

Willow and Amity summoned their staffs. “We’ll hold them off. You save Gus.”

Hunter blinked. “But—how?!”

Willow and Amity didn’t answer simply pushing past Phoenix and towards the abomination. Phoenix turned to help Hunter, but he was already running towards the glowing blue bubble. “Hunter—wait!”

“You heard them. Save Gus. I can only do that from the inside.”

“Can you… Hunter, if that thing is showing people their worst memories, I—”

Goodbye, Golden Guard.

“I have to try.” Hunter touched the bubble, and his eyes glowed blue. He clutched his head, and Phoenix reached out, his fingers stalling just over his shoulder.

“Hunter?”

Hunter shook himself and pushed into the bubble. Within seconds, the blue glow swallowed him up completely. Phoenix planted himself outside of the bubble, ready to defend the two if the… whatever that thing was got past Amity and Willow.

Not that there was any need to worry. They absolutely tore the creature apart in minutes, reducing it to a sparking pile of goo and vines. Phoenix wasn’t sure if he should be underwhelmed by the monstrosity, or scared of the two girls. He decided on scared of the two girls.

Phoenix glanced back at the blue bubble. How long had they been in there? Should he go after Hunter? He remembered how Graye’s spell had overwhelmed him with a shudder. Could he even get past the first layer if he wanted to? What would he tell the others if he couldn’t get Hunter out? Could Evelyn undo the spell? If he thought anyone could, it would be her. Or maybe Sam.

Look at you, he thought wryly, trusting others. Jason would be ecstatic.

For a beat, Phoenix wondered how long it would take to get back home without Hunter’s staff, but before he could worry too hard, the blue bubble shrank in on itself before disappearing completely. Hunter and Gus stood slowly in the middle. Willow ran to hug Gus, grabbing Hunter into the hug as well. Phoenix smiled, waiting for him to extract himself before jabbing his thumb at the door. “Well, I don’t think anyone’s going to want a coven seal after this, so our job is done. You ready to head out?”

Hunter looked back and forth between Phoenix and the students, twisting his thumb in a circle.

“I…”

Phoenix sighed. He couldn’t say he hadn’t expected this. Hunter had been so much more sure of himself here, more comfortable with the people even when he wasn’t sure if they wanted to be his friends. “Want to stay?”

Hunter rubbed his arm. “I… think they deserve the truth. Or as much of it as I can tell them, anyway. I won’t betray your family. Speaking of which, how come you call the ortet Caleb instead of Dad, like the other Grimwalkers?”

Phoenix choked. “Well—I—I mean, he’s, like, what, ten, maybe fifteen years older than me? At most? And I haven’t known him that—I mean—it’s—”

“Complicated?” Hunter guessed with a tiny grin.

Phoenix crossed his arms. “Yes. That.” He sighed, looking back at Gus and Willow. “You trust them. A lot more than you trust us. And I guess I can’t blame you.”

“It’s not just that, it’s just… Belos told me our whole family was dead from wild magic. And then I found out that was a lie, and that he was the one who killed our family. And now I find out they’ve been alive this whole time? Belos lied about so much, and talking to Gus made me realize just how many lies I still have to sort through and figure out how to feel about. I’m still trying to find out the truth about a lot of things, and adding all of… this… into the mix is just…”

“Too much?”

Hunter nodded, twisting his shirt in his hands. “Yeah. I think it’ll be… easier. If I stay here, keep my distance, have some time to process everything, do my own research instead of getting all of that information at once. I want to get in contact with Darius, too. Since he’s a rebel and all. He might have more information about the day of unity.”

Phoenix hissed. “Oh. Yeah. Don’t… tell him about me?”

Hunter frowned. “I won’t, but why would it… matter… to… oh.” He blinked at Phoenix with wide eyes. “Oh, you’re his… oh.”

“Yeah…” Phoenix rubbed the back of his head. “Not quite ready to get in contact again. Guess I have some stuff to figure out, too. I just wish I had a way to communicate with you. In case something goes wrong.” Part of him couldn’t believe Hunter was getting in contact with Darius before him. On the other hand… Hunter had a little less explaining to do.

“You… have a Penstagram, right? I could just message you?”

“The way you type?” Phoenix grinned to take the bite out of his words.

“Hey! Well, maybe I’ll have Willow type for me.” Hunter shook his head. “Anyway, what’s your… thingie. Your name.”

Phoenix flushed. “Uhhhh… it’s…”

“What? What is it?”

Phoenix buried his face in his hands. “therealgoldenguard,” he mumbled as quickly as he could.

“What?”

“The real golden guard,” he repeated louder, “Each word capitalized, underscore between each of them.”

Hunter stared at him for a moment. “What?! You’re the reason I couldn’t get that username?! Thirty years and you couldn’t let someone else have the name?!”

“I didn’t want to open my scroll and let everyone know I was alive!” Phoenix protested, “Give me a break! I didn’t know you were going to make one in thirty years when I set it up!”

Hunter shook his head, settling down as he sent the follow request. “You could stick around too, you know. You’re a solid fighter. We could use your skills.”

“No can do. I’ve got to get back to the others.”

Hunter sighed. “Yeah. I figured.”

“I’ll let you know if we figure out a way to neutralize…” Phoenix waved a hand at his sigil. “This.”

“Good luck.”

“You, too. And… if you change your mind…”

“I know where to find you.”

Phoenix gave him a small grin. “Stay safe. Don’t get killed while I’m not around.” He slipped out the door, leaning against the wall and running a hand through his hair. “Whoooo. Alright. Alright. Now I just have to… tell them that I lost Hunter. Yep. That will be fun.”

By the time he got back, only the St. Epiderm team was back, huddled around a fire with blankets wrapped around their shoulders.

“Successful mission?”

“The scouts didn’t even make it to the school doors,” Meleager said with a grin, “Weird freak avalanches kept taking them out.”

“Ow.”

“Ah, they’re coven scouts,” Horus piped up, waving his hand, “They’re used to weird mountains.”

Caleb cleared his throat from the door. “Hun—sorry, Phoenix? Everything go alright?”

“It went… well, it was actually pretty bad, but no one got branded, and the scouts left Hexside, so mission accomplished.”

“And… where’s Hunter?”

“Stayed behind.”

Venari jumped up. “And you let him?”

Caleb shook his head. “You all got the choice to stay here or not. Hunter is just… the first to choose not to.” He sighed, dropping into a chair. “Hard to believe, though. For however much thought I put into making sure we could get to him in time and bring him home, it never occurred to me that he wouldn’t want to stay.” He gave Phoenix a tired smile. “Glad to see you’re back safe.”

Goodbye, Golden Guard.

Stupid.

Failure.

“Yeah,” Phoenix responded softly, “Safe.”

Chapter Text

Hey, where are you?

The scouts just keep telling me you’re on mission, but they won’t say where.

Do you have anything for me to do while you’re gone?

Is this a silent mission?

It’s been a couple of days, how much longer do you think this mission is going to take?

Are you alright?

Hey, answer me, I’m getting worried. Everyone just keeps saying you’re out on mission, but no one knows where.

Please come back.

You’re not avoiding me, are you?

You don’t have to stop your mission, just answer me. Please?

Please tell me they’re wrong.

Please come back.

They don’t have a body, please tell me you’re alright. Please tell me you got away from whatever it was.

Please answer me.

Phoenix couldn’t tear his eyes off the last message, dated nearly three decades ago. The scroll’s light burned his eyes in the dark room, and he pulled his blanket tighter around himself, the fabric cocooning him in a soft envelope.

I’m sorry, Darius.

He finally closed the scroll.

He didn’t get any kind of closure. Just one day… I was gone.

Ding!

Phoenix reopened the scroll, heart beating in his throat. He’d turned off any settings that would show others he’d been active the moment he’d taken it out. He knew that. It had been the safest thing to do. And yet, he hoped beyond hope that he’d somehow missed something, that Darius had seen him online and reached out again. Taken the step he’d been too scared to take.

Message from Hunter.

You don’t have to worry about neutralizing the sigils anymore. Darius and the others found a way, they’re going to use the owl lady’s curse to corrupt the draining spell.

Oh, Caleb wasn’t going to be happy about that.

Phoenix sighed and wiggled out of the blanket. The light in the hallway blinded him, but he resolutely made his way to the kitchen, wordlessly showing the message to Caleb.

 “Well. That solves that problem, at least.” The human scratched his head. “There’s going to be a lot of unrest, though. The entire population has been looking forward to the Day of Unity. I hope they have a plan for getting out of there. Maybe we could stay on standby, or…” Caleb cast a questioning look to him. “Hey, Phoenix, are you… did something happen at Hexside? Besides losing Hunter, I mean. You’ve been… reclusive since you got back.”

Stupid.

Failure.

He’d noticed. Phoenix didn’t know how he’d thought staying in his room would go unnoticed—Caleb seemed to have a second sense for knowing when something was wrong. Instead of answering, he shrugged. “What are we going to do after?”

“What?”

“After the day of unity,” Phoenix pressed the distraction, “Even if Darius’ plan succeeds, it doesn’t say anything about Belos. They stop the day of unity, and then what? Do we come out of hiding? Belos is still going to be out there.”

Caleb let out a long breath, leaning against the counter. “I… don’t know. And… I’m not sure he will be here.”

“Huh?”

Caleb beckoned Phoenix to the crystal ball room, activating it and guiding the image to a strange lab-looking room. It reminded Phoenix uncomfortably of Sam’s lab. “Look here. See that door? It goes to the human realm.”

Phoenix blinked at it. The human realm. “To your home?”

“Eh. Just where I used to live. But it’s home for Philip. I don’t think he’s planning on sticking around after the Day of Unity.”

“So, what, we just…”

“Let him run?” Caleb sighed, dropping into a seat. “I don’t know. Do we want to chase him down and drag him back, even if that might endanger everyone here? If he’s leaving the isles anyway, is it better to just be rid of him, or is it better to make sure justice is administered? I just…” He plunked his elbows on the table, putting his head in his hands. “I just want it all to be over,” he groaned, “I just want to be free of all this.” He looked up at Phoenix, eyes pleading. “Is that so wrong? That I just want him to be gone, without a lot of fuss and drama? That he’d just disappear? I know people think he should answer for his crimes, and they’re probably right, but as for now, I’m… I’m tired of dealing with him. I’m tired of hiding because I’m scared he’ll find us. I’m tired of living like a mouse, scurrying away at tiny sounds. I just want him to go away, and if he leaves forever for the human realm, then good riddance.”

“You’re not worried about what he’ll do to the human realm?”

Caleb snorted. “He thinks the human realm is the epitome of perfection. And last I checked, the human realm was full of people just like him, selfish and paranoid and murderous. He won’t hurt anyone. I hope. He won’t have the same power there that he has here. And he won’t have palisman, either.”

Phoenix’s legs wobbled, and he sat down in a chair next to Caleb. “You think he’ll…”

“Die pretty fast? I don’t know. And at this point, I’m tired of caring.”

“But you do care?”

“I don’t know if I care or if I just think I’m supposed to.” Caleb’s voice cracked. “I don’t know how to tell.” He buried his head in his arms. “Hunter’s gone, the day of unity is tomorrow, my great granddaughter is going to be on the front lines… I’m not a soldier. I never was. But I feel like we should be doing something, that I should be doing something. One last mess of Philip’s to clean up before I’m free to just live with my family in peace.”

“Okay,” Phoenix said softly, “You weren’t a soldier. But we were. Let us help you figure it out.”

“I can’t ask you to—”

“I’m not saying everyone. I know you want to protect them. But me, Cherry, maybe Meleager—this is something that we’re capable of, something that we want to do. So tell us. What is it you’re most worried about when it comes to the day of unity?”

Caleb took a deep breath. “Panic. I’m worried when people realize what’s going on, they might stampede and hurt themselves or others.”

“Okay. We can handle crowd control. We’ll make a plan. What else are you worried about?”

“Philip isn’t an idiot. He’ll be expecting last-minute interference. What if Darius’ plan doesn’t work? What if he gets caught?”

The thought plunged a dagger into Phoenix’s gut, but he pushed it down. Planning for problems was one thing, panicking over something that hadn’t happened yet was another. “So we need a backup shutoff plan.”

Caleb ran a hand through his hair. “Sam would be your best bet. We don’t know enough about the spell to come up with a plan here, but if anyone could take it apart and come up with a counter on the spot, it would be him. If he’s okay with getting that close to the whole thing.”

“I am okay with that, actually.”

Phoenix twisted in his seat to see Sam standing in the doorway, arms crossed. “Were you planning on inviting the rest of us to this war meeting, or…?”

Caleb sputtered for a moment before finally spitting out “I didn’t want to—”

Sam held one finger up. “No. Nope. You want us to make our own choices, don’t you? So give us the option to take part in your little treason instead of deeming some of us too fragile to know. I’m telling everyone. I will see you in five to ten minutes.”

He disappeared, and Phoenix leaned back in his seat. “He’s right.”

“Hm?”

“About giving them the choice. Protecting us is one thing. Keeping us in the dark is another. They should have the option to join in or not.” Even if some of them joining would be disastrous. Even if Phoenix wouldn’t put some of them on the front lines in a million years. Hopefully they all knew themselves well enough. Knew the stakes well enough.

“If any of you get hurt—”

“We’re used to it. Besides, we’ve got a great healer waiting in the wings.”

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful.”

“We will be,” Phoenix assured him, annoyance flaring up in his belly, “Either trust us or don’t, Caleb, you can’t do it in half measures.”

“You were planning a rebellion without us?” Dagger’s outraged voice sounded from the door. “Betrayal.”

He moved into the room, followed by about ten more Grimwalkers. Jason wriggled through them to Phoenix’s side, tugging Mole behind him. “Hey! You left your room!”

If he should have expected Caleb to notice, then he really, really, really should have expected Jason to notice. “Was I really gone that long?”

Mole shook his head, tilting one hand back and forth in a so-so gesture.

Jason blinked up at him. “What happened at Hexside that spooked you so bad?”

Stupid.

Failure.

“Nothing. Nothing happened. I mean. I was just upset that I couldn’t convince Hunter to stay is all. Let’s just focus on this, okay?”

Before Jason could press any further, the final batch of Grimwalkers piled in, and Sam shut the door behind them. “Look at that. Everyone wanted to come. Who could have predicted this turn of events.”

Phoenix counted heads, crossing off names—it really was everyone. Even Chryses. “Your family’s waiting,” he said quietly to Caleb.

Caleb took a deep breath, pushing his chair back. “The day of unity is tomorrow. Luckily, there is a group of individuals with a plan to stop it, but they may end up needing our help. Phoenix and I already plan to go. None of you have to come with us. No one expects that of you. But if you want to help, if we can make a plan together… you’re more than welcome.”

“How are we going to get there?” Lake piped up, “Most roads will be watched closely for wild witches. The concealment stones will help, but there’s a lot of us, and we’ll lose the element of surprise.”

“I can fix that,” Joseph offered, “The adult griffins are all okay with riders. We can fly in.”

Caleb nodded. “That does limit how many people we can bring.”

Joseph tallied up on his fingers. “We have four adult griffins, and each are big enough to fit about three riders on their backs. So, twelve of us.”

“Sam’s going. Phoenix, too. So am I. And Joseph, we’ll need you to keep the griffins in check, since they trust you the most. That leaves us with eight more seats.”

“I should go as well,” Evelyn offered from the back of the room. Phoenix jumped—he hadn’t seen her come in. “If anyone gets hurt, I’d prefer not to wait for you to get back to begin healing.” She cracked her knuckles. “And I’m more than capable of cracking a few skulls.”

“Seven seats.”

“Me,” Cherry offered, “If they’re okay with it, I think Meleager and Cyrus are a good choice to come along.”

They nodded.

“Alright. Four.”

“I’m going,” Jason announced.

Caleb shook his head. “Jason, are you su—”

“You have to think about weight, too. Even if there’s space on the Griffins for three people, you, Phoenix, and Cherry are all bigger. You can’t overload the griffins, or they won’t make it. But I’m a good fighter and I’m light.”

“Me, too,” Silver offered, “I can ride with one of you guys—I’m at least as light as Jason.”

Caleb hissed in. “There’s going to be a lot of people, and they’re going to be angry, or frightened. Will you be alright?”

“Hey, you need someone good with crowds, right?” Silver joked, “I’ve already tamed one mob, what’s the entire population of the boiling isles, huh?”

Phoenix saw the battle in Caleb’s eyes—a moment of hesitation, before he took a deep breath, and nodded. “Okay. If you’re sure. Two more spots.”

“We could all squeeze onto one with Meleager,” Horus offered, pointing to himself, Hamlet, and Venari, “I’m sure we could all fit, it’s only one more person.”

Joseph shook his head. “Three is the maximum. There’s not a lot of space, and like Jason said, we have to worry about weight.”

Caleb took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, but… Venari, you have a sigil. If one of the four of you has to stay behind—”

“That’s not fair!” Venari burst out, “Phoenix, Sam, and Cyrus all have sigils, too, and they’re going! Kick Phoenix or Cyrus off!”

“Venari—”

“I want to—”

“I know,” Caleb soothed, hands up, “I know, but we’re not going there to fight Philip, anyway.” He shot Meleager, Horus, and Hamlet a look. “The three of you need to stay on task, okay? We’re going to help with crowd control, and make sure everything runs smoothly. Hopefully, we won’t even see him.”

“We’ll get him for you,” Horus murmured to the fuming Venari.

“I’m serious. If you’re only after Philip, you are off the team.”

“After we make sure there isn’t any horrible panic,” Horus amended.

“Good. Thank you, everyone. I know this isn’t easy—and I know it’s not easy for some of you to stay behind. Hopefully after tomorrow… well, things are going to be different, one way or another. However things change, we’ll figure it out. All of us.”

Grimwalkers slowly trickled out, murmuring to themselves. Phoenix opened his Penstagram scroll, rereading the message from Hunter. Was he part of this plan? Surely Darius wouldn’t risk him like that. Not after what had happened in Belos’ mind. Where are you going to be?

On a rescue/protection mission in Bonesborough.

Jason tugged on his arm. “What’s that?”

Phoenix pulled his scroll out of reach. “Communication device. Hunter’s going to be far away on the day of unity.”

“Good.” Jason tapped Phoenix’s forearm. “Are you going to be okay? I mean, the sigil—”

“If everything goes to plan, the sigil won’t matter.”

“And if it doesn’t go according to plan?”

“Then we’ll figure it out. Hey.” Phoenix ducked his head to catch Jason’s eyes. “We will. You’ve taught me that.”

Phoenix didn’t sleep that night. Could anyone?

What if I mess up? What if I can’t protect them?

Failure

Phoenix shook himself, padding out the door. Sam’s lab glowed, and when he went in, he saw globes of light surrounding Petro. Sam himself scurried around, drawing glyphs and packing various odds and ends into a satchel.

“Getting ready?” Phoenix asked in a low voice.

“Oh!” Sam ducked his head, wafting some of his light around. “Yes. There’s no telling what we’ll find up there. The only way to prepare is to prepare for everything.”

“Do you think you can stop it? If Darius’ plan doesn’t work, I mean.”

Sam absentmindedly rubbed his own sigil. “I wish I could say for sure. I’d prefer to study the sigils when activated, to run tests, to make sure it’s safe before I do anything that could affect others, but… we don’t have the time. Whatever I do, that’s it. It works or we die. Or maybe it works and we all die anyway, because the cure is deadlier than the disease. If only we knew more.”

Sam pushed the lights towards the statue with a sigh. “I wish I could free him before we leave. If anything happens to me… well, maybe whoever tries next will have more success. I suppose I didn’t do much good for him anyway.”

Phoenix sat down at the statue’s base trying to banish the uneasy feeling in his gut. There wouldn’t be a miracle to save them this time. If something did happen to Sam, or anyone else, that was it. And it had been his idea to include them. “It’s supposed to be permanent. I think the fact that you tried so hard at it means something, whether it worked or not. It has to, right?”

Sam sighed, sitting next to him. “I hope so. I really do.”

“Time to go,” Caleb whispered from the doorway. Phoenix sprang up, making his way outside. The sun already climbed through the sky, and the moon rose with it, creeping closer and closer to extinguishing the light.

Meleager handed Phoenix a sticky pad with glyphs drawn on each piece of paper. “Most of them will just create a spear or staff, that seems to be your speed. Hopefully, you won’t need to use all of them.”

Joseph led the griffins out of the coop making gentle shushing noises and holding their heads in his hands as their team climbed onto the creatures’ backs.

“No one with a sigil drives,” Joseph warned, “I don’t need everyone going down because one person is incapacitated.”

Mole stood in the doorway, watching, and Jason grabbed him in a hug. “I’ll be back in a bit.” He let go and tugged Phoenix up to the griffin with Sam. “Let’s go.”

Jason wriggled up front, patting Lucy’s neck. The griffin jumped up into the air, muscles rippling underneath her soft feathers with each wingbeat.

No one said anything. The only sounds were the wingbeats of the griffins, the wind rushing by. The house fell behind quickly, and the moon loomed towards them.

We should have left earlier, Phoenix realized. The moon moved faster than they did, eating the face of the sun. We’re not going to make it in time.

“Oooo boy,” Sam muttered from behind him, “Phoenix? Yours, too?”

Phoenix glared at the glowing mark on his own. He didn’t feel anything yet—no sudden exhaustion, no cold edge of death. But it still couldn’t be a good sign. “Yeah. Mine, too.”

“Making us invisible now,” Evelyn’s voice called, “There are a lot of places for scouts to hide around here.”

Jason and Sam disappeared in a puff of blue, leaving just Lucy beneath Phoenix. His seal sputtered and went out.

“It’s working,” Sam crowed, “The corruption plan is working!”

Ding.

Phoenix checked his scroll.

Change of plans. Luz captured. On way to head. Don’t respond, driving.

“WHAT?!” Phoenix nearly dropped the scroll.

Stay where you are, we’re going up. We can get her.

No response.

“Be irresponsible for once in your life and look at your scroll while driving!” Phoenix yelped, shaking his own scroll.

“What?” Jason yipped, “Phoenix, what’s going on?!”

“Hunter’s on his way to the head!”

“What?! Why?!”

A jolt of pain pricked at Phoenix’s forearm, and he nearly dropped the scroll as veins of gold erupted up his arm. Behind him, he felt Sam start to slide off of the griffin, and Phoenix fumbled for his invisible arm, yanking him back.

“Hey! Stick with us! If it didn’t work, then we need you!”

“What’s going on?” Jason’s disembodied voice asked, and Phoenix felt him trying to shift and twist around. “Are you guys okay?”

“Eyes on the road!”

A beam of gold erupted into the sky, twisting around the kissing moon and sun. The sigil stadium loomed into view, entrances sealed off by those abomination creations. The illusion keeping them invisible disappeared in a puff of blue, and Caleb wheeled around in the sky to face the rest of them.

“Sam, get to the middle and see what you can do. Jason, Phoenix, protect him. The rest of you, help me destroy those creatures, and we’ll start evacuating people. Go.”

Jason took the griffin over the wall and to the center, but Lucy squawked and flapped to avoid the pillar of magic, forcing them to land to the side and run up the stairs.

The coven heads had all collapsed, and Phoenix skidded to his knees next to Darius. “No! Darius, wake up, please wake up!” Darius didn’t move, only fell limp in his grasp, and tears pricked at Phoenix’s eyes. He couldn’t die—not like this. Not after how he’d been fighting against Belos all these years. “I should have told you I was alive. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I should have…”

“This isn’t a normal glyph,” Sam announced.

Phoenix wiped at his eyes. “Wh-what?”

“It doesn’t use the basic glyphs. Whatever it’s using to give the command, it’s not something we’ve seen before. It doesn’t follow the rules I know.” Sam scuffed his foot through the sand, disrupting the lines. “And messing it up isn’t helping. I need to know where this came from: I need dear old Uncle Pip’s journals.”

He erased the rest of the glyph, drawing something new in the center. Phoenix removed Darius’ cloak, folding it up and sliding it under his head as a pillow. “We’re going to fix this,” he promised, his voice wobbling, “We’re going to—I’m going to save you. I’m going to save you. And then I’ll explain everything, I promise.”

“All aboard that’s coming aboard,” Sam remarked, and Phoenix pressed his forehead to Darius’ for a moment before standing up and joining Jason and Sam in the center. Jason took Phoenix’s good hand, giving it a squeeze, and Phoenix gripped him like a lifeline.

“He’s going to be okay,” Jason said confidently, “Sam will find an answer.”

“No pressure or anything,” Sam muttered, tapping the glyph he’d drawn.

The world dissolved into a flash of gold, and when it faded, they stood in a completely different room, mechanical ends and odds sharing space with dusty old journals and the portal door.

“Have you been able to do that this whole time?!” Phoenix yelped.

Sam beelined for the journals. “It only works with places I’ve been, I can’t just go anywhere willy nilly. I was hoping Uncle’s skull-lab was still in place. What a dump.”

A shiver ran down Phoenix’s spine. The skull. The very tip of the Isles. “You’ve been here before? On the head? Isn’t that kind of sacrilege?”

“Mmmmonce. It didn’t go well. Oh, don’t fall over the edge of the bridge outside, it’s a long way down.”

Phoenix swept around the room, tossing stray journals to Sam as he went. The disc Dagger had mentioned—was it here? His eyes fell on a clean circle inside a field of dust. He’d taken it, wherever he’d gone. Phoenix closed his eyes. It had to be Sam, then. He was their last hope.

A roar shook the room, and Phoenix moved towards the door, numbness sweeping through his body. “That sound…” he murmured, lips barely moving.

Run.

Stupid

Failure.

“Guh,” Jason yipped next to him, trembling.

Phoenix put his good hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Stay here. Protect Sam while he works. I’ll…”

What? Die fighting Belos again? But he had to, didn’t he? He couldn’t let that monster in here. He couldn’t let him ruin Darius’ only chance—and Sam and Jason’s as well.

“Hunter? Why are you hurting me? I only wanted to help you!”

“No,” Phoenix hissed, running out the door. “No, no, no, not here, why are you—”

“You—you’re lying!” Hunter yelped.

Phoenix heard a snarling “CALEB!” and summoned a spear of ice as Belos reared back to strike, hurling the spear as hard as he could. It struck the monster in the hand. Phoenix skidded to a stop behind Hunter and Gus, yanking the two of them backwards and out of the strike zone.

Belos’ eyes widened. All fifty of them. “You should be dead!”

“Oh, that is rich, coming from you, you slimy fossil,” Sam snapped from the room at the end of the bridge. His voice echoed in the empty space like a ghost. “Guess it runs in the family.”

Phoenix summoned another spear, the shaft awkward in only his left hand. “Are you okay?” he asked out of the side of his mouth, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on Belos.

“Ish,” Gus replied shakily.

Vines snagged Belos, dragging him back, but he easily snapped them in two, turning with a roar towards Willow. Phoenix darted forward, jabbing the spear at Belos and making him turn around again. “Eyes on me!” He darted to the side. Rolled to avoid Belos’ slashing claw. Two girls he didn’t recognize sent blast after blast of ice and abomination at Belos, but the impact didn’t even slow him down. Phoenix ran at a pillar, running halfway up it and arching his back in a flip, landing squarely on Belos’ back. He stabbed the spear into Belos’ shoulder, but before he could summon another, Belos shook himself, and Phoenix flew backwards, twisting into a somersault.

“Okay!” Sam’s voice called, “Everybody, stand back!”

Phoenix rolled away from another slash of Belos’ claws, darting back. Two ice stars the size of Phoenix’s head whirled across the room, cracking into pillars across from each other. Vines spread slowly across the stars, hitting glyphs etched into the ice and activating them one at a time. The stars erupted outwards, forming a box around Belos. Then, the vines sprouted into flowers, just as a fire and ice glyph activated, hissing out in a mist. Belos swayed and roared in confusion, waving at the smoke.

Sleeping nettle flowers, Phoenix realized, just as the vines hit the last glyph, and stone crept over the ice, turning the entire enclosure into solid rock.

Phoenix twisted around to stare at Sam in the doorway, smiling the smuggest smile Phoenix had ever seen, his glasses lit up by the golden veins creeping up his face. “Have you been able to do that this whole time?!”

“It takes a while to draw and calibrate right, geeze. And I can’t make it beforehand, the ice will melt. You did a great job keeping him distracted long enough for me to make it, though.”

The three girls came around from the other side of the box, and Willow nodded to him. “Hey, again.”

“Hey.”

One of the other girls, one with purple hair, waved a hand at them. “Hunter?! Explain?!”

“Later. the important thing is that they’re on our side. Phoenix, Amity and Luz. Amity and Luz, Phoenix and…”

“Jason,” Jason offered, “That’s Sam—Sam?”

Sam was already half a journal deep, flipping through entries and grumbling to himself, dashing around the room and picking up ingredients and tubes, flipping open his own belt pouch and taking out a few more things, then consulting the journal again.

“Whaaaat’s he doing?” Amity muttered.

“Coming up with a cure for… this.” Sam shook a small vial up and down, tucking the journals away. “Alright, kiddos, neat little bit of information, Belos based his sealing magic on the basilisks. Now, a fact not a lot of people know is that the basilisks didn’t just go extinct, they were hunted. And in fighting a creature that could eat your magic, you needed another way to defeat them.”

“Could you get to the point, please?” Phoenix grated out as the veins shot up his arm further, and his whole right side went numb.

“Right, well, this is a poison that would cause the magic a basilisk ate to turn in on itself. It SHOULD act like a magic antibody, clearing your system of any magic that doesn’t belong to it. A.K.A., the sigils.”

“So do it!”

Sam twirled the vial around in his fingers. “Right. Yeah. Do it.”

“What’s the matter?” Jason sighed.

“Mmmmmm I don’t know what it will do? It tended to explode the basilisks. And I think I made a milder version, and it should act externally, but…” Sam took a deep breath, filling an eyedropper and holding it over his own arm. “Oh, boy.”

“Wait—” Phoenix held out his right arm. “Do mine. That way if something DOES happen, you can fix it and not be. Uh. Exploded.”

Sam scoffed. “I’m not strong enough to carry your great big unconscious body out of here, we need you awake. And I’m not quite terrible enough to test something dangerous and new on someone else, thank you very much. This’ll work, don’t worry about it.”

And before Phoenix could move to stop him, a drop of liquid splattered onto his coven seal. Sam flinched, his whole body tensing.

Nothing happened.

“Maybe it needs to be injec—”

The droplet sputtered, steaming, and Sam howled as black char spread out from the seal, eating away at the golden veins, racing up his arm and to his face, quelling the glowing. Sam slumped forward, his breath heaving in his chest.

“Hngh—agh—”

Phoenix caught him. “Sam? Sam!”

“Mmmmmokay,” he hissed out through gritted teeth, “I’m—it’s fine. I’m good. Ah—ow. That stings.” He poked at the smoking black burns racing up his arm. His face paled, and he blinked hard, going heavy on Phoenix again. “OW.”

“Is there enough in there for the whole isles?” Luz asked, eying the vial.

“Do the coven heads first,” Jason offered, “If the magic is being channeled through them, it might stop the whole spell.”

Sam lurched to his feet, tucking the vial safely into his belt. “I’ll… get your kid first,” he muttered to Phoenix, “Don’t worry. Ow. Worry a little.”

“Hey—just draw the glyph—”

“Need dirt,” Sam muttered, stumbling towards the door, “Need to get outside.”

Phoenix followed him out the door and across the bridge. The stone shell rumbled, exploding in a hail of sharp shards. Belos lunged for Sam, tearing at his pocket.

“Too clever for your own good,” he hissed.

Phoenix yanked Sam to the side, summoning a staff and throwing Sam towards the exit. “Go!”

Sam scrambled away, and Phoenix moved to block Belos, catching his blow on the staff with a grunt. Maybe if he’d had both arms, or even JUST his right one, he’d have been able to push back, but the force of Belos’ strike sent him reeling back. Belos pounced, knocking away his staff and pinning him to the ground under one claw.

“You always were my biggest failure,” he hissed, pressing down. Phoenix gasped for air, fumbling for his glyphs. “Soft. Stupid. You never even looked like him.” His claws dug into Phoenix’s arms, and something in his chest went crack. “Petrifying your predecessor and keeping you was a mistake. I would have killed you sooner, but it wasn’t worth the effort until you started poking around.”

“GET! OFF! OF! HIM!” Jason’s voice yowled. Phoenix heard the crackling of ice, and Belos’ weight disappeared. He gasped in a shuddering breath, his ribcage tearing at his lungs. Jason skidded between him and Belos, tears running down his face. “Leave him alone!”

Belos blinked, his monstrous face transforming to a familiar one.

Somehow, that was more horrifying.

“You’re alive?”

“No thanks to you.”

“I never meant for that to happen. It was the curse. That was why I needed those palisman so desperately, so that I wouldn’t hurt you.”

He’s lying, Phoenix thought desperately, gasping for the air he’d need to say the words out loud, Jason, he’s lying.

Belos reached towards Jason, his claw turning to a hand grasping for Jason’s shoulder. “Hunter, you can come with me, to the human realm. I’ll overlook your treachery. You always were my favorite out of all the grimwalkers, even if you didn’t look quite right.”

Phoenix struggled to sit up, his whole right side, arm, and leg completely numb.

DON’T TOUCH HIM!

A crackling, splintering noise split the air, and ice rose up at Jason’s feet, knocking away Belos’ hand. “That is not a very nice thing to say in front of your other grimwalkers,” Jason quipped shakily, “And my name is Jason.”

Hunter appeared behind Phoenix as Belos snarled, his face transforming from human to monster. Willow was right in tow, and each of them took one of Phoenix’s arms, half-carrying, half-dragging him away.

“Jason,” Phoenix gasped.

Luz, Amity, and Gus joined Jason, trying to push Belos back. Willow and Hunter made it to the titan’s eye before Hunter’s right leg spasmed, and he fell, dropping Phoenix. Willow sagged under the sudden weight, lowering Phoenix to the ground.

“The sigil?”

Hunter managed a nod, hissing in and clutching his arm.

“Guys?” Willow called.

Belos swiped and lunged at the four teens left fighting him, pushing them back.

We can’t beat him, Phoenix thought woozily, not like this.

Belos advanced on them, all huddled together, and Phoenix forced himself up, his whole body shaking, begging to just rest. He pushed in front of Jason, in front of Hunter, in front of all the kids as Belos raised a scythe.

I’m sorry, Darius.

This time it’s for real.

He braced himself, but the blow didn’t land. Phoenix opened his eyes to see a… child, holding Belos’ scythe between his fingers like it was nothing.

“Whatcha playing?” the child asked brightly.

Phoenix’s legs gave out, and he collapsed again as Belos took a step back, fear flashing in those blue eyes. “Collector.”

Jason knelt next to Phoenix, opening a belt pouch and cinching bandages tightly around the gashes left in Phoenix’s arm by Belos’ claws. “Who is that?”

Phoenix shook his head wordlessly, grunting as a jolt of pain raced up his spine from his otherwise-numb arm.

Belos continued to back away from the child. “You’re free! Just as promised.”

“As promised?” The child put a finger to their chin. “I remember someone throwing me off a bridge. I’m not angry though. Say, you want to play tag?”

They twirled their finger, and Belos was dragged closer, the mud that made him up swirling around like a noodle on a fork. His face sat inches from the child’s now, and they held up one finger. “I’m it.”

They touched Belos’ forehead, and he flew backwards, slamming into the wall with a crack. Phoenix gagged as mud dripped down into the doorway, and Jason’s hands dropped away, the grimwalker staring at the puddle with a sick, horrified expression.

“No,” he whispered.

The child giggled. “Too slow!”

Phoenix chest tightened as if Belos was pressing on his ribcage again. What is this thing?

“You guys look slow, too,” the child mused, turning to face them. “Do you need a head start?”

I can’t protect them.

Phoenix couldn’t move. He’d put everything into the fight against Belos—and still hadn’t gotten anywhere CLOSE to winning, or even protecting anyone.

What am I supposed to do against a monster like this?

A small demon ran between the child and the seven of them. “Whoa! Hey, Collector, buddy! Pal!”

The… collector… raised their arms up. “King!”

King nodded. “Remember what we talked about? You gotta help all my friends outside, or we won’t get to play owl house?”

He looked back towards them. Luz straightened. “Ah, owl house? Ah, gosh.” She chuckled, a nervous sound masked by humor. “I love that game!”

“The memories last a lifetime!” Amity agreed.

“Iiii play it every day!” Willow added.

“I play it every hour!” Gus yelped.

Hunter let out a strangled whine, his eyes still fixed on the remains of Belos, wide with terror.

He can’t run if he needs to.

I can’t, either.

“I’ll explain the rules later!” King promised, “But remember, we need lots of players!”

The collector shrugged, moving towards the eyehole. The kids scrambled away, Gus and Willow helping Hunter move. Jason grabbed Phoenix’s arm, hauling him to the side as the child peered out the hole. He groaned, looking up at the eclipse, then leaned on the wall, kicking his legs.

“Hmmmm…” He stood up. “Okay!” He lifted one hand, pointing at the moon, then moved his finger to the side. “Boop!”

The moon moved with his finger.

The moon moved with his finger.

Phoenix sagged against Jason, his legs weak for a reason that had nothing to do with the sigil that was now fading, the veins dematerializing.

What can we do in the face of someone who can move the moon?!

“Hm…” The child snickered. “If we’re gonna play owl house, we’re gonna need an owl house!”

They jumped into the air, clapping their hands, and the walls around them started to crumble and fall, before the pieces circled around to the collector. The child threw out their arms and legs. “We’re gonna have a blast, everyone!”

Phoenix stumbled on the unsteady, shaking ground. The head had become a death trap around them, falling to pieces around them. And there were no stairs left to take them out. No Sam to teleport them away.

Willow pointed back towards the lab. “I think there’s a way out!”

The kids ran for it, and Jason helped Phoenix hobble along, gasping as every step jostled his aching ribs.

Darius—I can’t just leave them.

The floor crumpled, and the kids all leapt to the next piece. Jason skidded to a halt. Hunter twisted back to look at them, and Jason waved a hand.

“Go. We’ll find a way down!”

He set Phoenix down, drawing an ice glyph that shattered in all of the shaking. “Okay. Okay, we’ll get there. We’ll…”

Phoenix coughed, wincing as it grated against his ribs. “Jason…”

“We’re getting out of here, we’re going to get back to the others, just hang—”

“Jason, we both know I can’t make that jump. You still can. That door… it goes to the human realm.”

Jason shook his head, tears running down his face. “Then we’ll find another way.”

“Jason, listen. You need to go. Now. While you can still make it.”

“I can’t—Phoenix, I can’t run like a coward again, I can’t leave you, I can’t leave them, I can’t—I can’t—I need to get you out, if anyone needs to leave, it’s you, I need to save you, and…"

Phoenix reached up, brushing Jason’s face. “Jason. I need you… I need you to protect them. You’re not running. You’re not a coward. You never have been. You already protected me from Belos, and you did it without a second thought. You’re braver than you could possibly imagine. You’ve already saved me. Now I need you to make sure that Hunter—that the other kids… that they’re safe.”

“No—no, you do it, you protect them. You’re coming with us!”

Phoenix shook his head. “I’ve disappeared on my loved ones with no explanation once. I can’t do it again, I can’t do that to them. I need to tell them where you went, tell Darius where I’ve been—I owe him that. And I need you to protect them. Since I can’t.”

“Phoenix—"

Panic disguised as anger roiled through Phoenix as the gap to the other side widened. “Jason, please. Before it’s too late.”

Jason scrubbed at his face, tears pouring down. “I—I don’t think I can. I—”

“You can. You can do this, Jason, I need you to do this.”

Jason took a deep breath, and stood up, taking a running leap to the crumbling hallway. He ran towards the door, towards safety, tugging on Luz’s arm. The demon Luz was holding onto shouted. The two of them flew through the portal door.

And then it broke, falling in pieces to the floor.

Phoenix collapsed against the stone still floating up, finally giving in to the exhaustion.

He’s out.

He, at least, is safe.

Even if I’m trapped.

Phoenix chuckled breathlessly, a chuckle that broke off into a hiss of pain.

Maybe that was stupid and soft of me.

But at least I won’t fail again.

Xxx

Luz opened and closed the door to the house, with no effect.

The portal was gone.

“I promised Mole I’d be back soon,” Jason whispered. Rain poured down his face, flattening his hair to his head. “I promised…”

Mom.

Dad.

Mole.

Cherry.

Phoenix.

Jason hauled himself up to his feet, swaying. One of the kids cried softly, and tears were seconds from falling from Jason’s own eyes.

I don’t know how to do this, Phoenix.

I don’t know how to take care of them.

It should have been you.

Jason took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair to plaster the wet strands back.

Be what they need you to be.

Act how they need you to act, no matter how you feel.

That’s what you’re good at.

Chapter Text

This wasn’t the first time Jason had been yanked away from everything familiar. It wasn’t even the first time he’d travelled through a magical portal to a place far different from everything he’d ever known.

But the first time, he’d been rescued from certain death and brought to a better, safer place. The first time, he’d had Mom and Dad, who’d been there every step of his recovery, and Cherry, who’d provided a shoulder to cry on, and always knew exactly what to say to him. And he’d had Mole, who’d been a willing ear, who’d given him something to do to take his mind off of what had happened to him.

Now?

Now he’d been yanked away from his family into a new dimension.

Now he had to be Mom, and Dad, and Cherry, and Mole to a bunch of kids who’d never gone through this before.

Phoenix gave the job to you. Don’t mess it up.

Jason wasn’t stupid. He knew that mostly, Phoenix had just wanted him to go through the portal. That it had been a lot of fancy talk about protecting and looking after the kids in order to get him to agree, and leave Phoenix behind.

But that didn’t mean Jason wasn’t going to take the order seriously.

I’ll make it back, I will.

Jason pushed himself to his feet, slowly climbing up the stairs to stand next to Luz. She stared at the empty doorway, tears falling down her face. She’d left people behind, too—the demon she’d been so desperate to take with her. The owl lady.

“Luz,” he murmured softly, “I know it’s a lot right now. But they need to get out of the rain. This is your realm. Is there anywhere nearby we can take shelter?”

She nodded bleakly, trudging slowly through the mud. The others got up and followed her without much urging. The one kid had stopped crying, but pressed against Hunter’s side. Jason brought up the rear of the group, scanning ahead for threats, and checking behind for a tail. Going through the motions, as if a pit hadn’t opened up in his stomach and threatened to swallow him whole.

Rain had never burned Jason the way it burned normal witches.

But this rain was cold, instead of the normal, familiar warm. It stung his cheeks in a way that the boiling rain didn’t.

Or maybe that was the sting of saltier water.

Luz finally came to a halt, ringing a doorbell of a house sitting in a line of near-identical houses. The door opened, and a woman gasped, putting one hand to her mouth.

“Hey, Mom,” Luz’s voice wobbled, “I’m back.”

The woman grasped her in a hug, and the pit in Jason’s stomach yawned wider.

I hope Mom got out okay

I hope they all did

Do they know where we are?

“Um,” Luz continued after a moment, “These—these are my friends, uh—I’m—”

Jason had heard enough horror stories about the human realm from Caleb. How humans were distrusting, paranoid. How they’d shun what was different, or even destroy it. But as Luz’s mother surveyed the five of them, scratched up and dull-eyed, her face molded into something sad and compassionate.

“Come in.”

Jason watched everyone file in, scanned the yard one last time, and then let Luz’s mother put a hand on his back and gingerly steer him into the house. Her hand was comfortably warm, like a touch of sun, but still, he flinched as it pressed against the scar on his back that had started aching from the moment he’d seen Uncle Belos.

A snakelike creature stood in another doorway, watching them. He should have been surprised, but the pit in his stomach seemed to be eating any emotion, leaving only heavy bones. Sure. Basilisk in the human realm. Why not?

Luz’s mother sat them all at the table and set down a plate in front of each of them. Jason stared at the food, pushing it around with his fork before finally taking a bite at a worried glance from Hunter. The pit in his stomach warmed, and it took every ounce of self-control not to scarf the rest of it down while Luz explained what had happened in the demon realm and introduced each of them.

Willow and Gus. That’s their names.

Willow gingerly poked at a scratch on her arm, then winced. “Ow.”

Amity sighed. “I wish my sister were here. She could heal all this with a wave of her hand. I just wish…”

Her eyes filled with tears, and Jason shook his head, following Luz’s mother to the kitchen and snagging a washcloth. He dabbed at the cut on Willow’s arm with gentle, light touches.

“My mom, uhhhhh… she always says that… she had a little rhyme, she would say that ‘healing is feeling.’” The ghost of a smile floated onto Jason’s face. “I don’t know, maybe it’s just one of those things that moms say, like that kissing a scratch better works.”

Camila wandered back in, looking from Jason to Hunter, who was talking with Luz in the next room. “Ah… so are you and he… brothers? Cousins?”

Jason tugged on his forelock, twisting it in his fingers. Had Hunter told them what he was? “It’s…”

“Complicated,” Gus and Willow chorused in a sigh.

Jason winced. “Sorry. We’ll explain, just… it’s one thing out of a lot of things.”

Hunter and Luz rejoined them, passing around bandages. Luz’s mother wrapped her hands around a mug of tea. “Okay, so in the demon realm, you fought the evil Emperor Belos—”

Jason flinched at the descriptor. Of course he knew that his uncle was bad, of course he knew that ‘evil’ just about summed up every action the man had done. That didn’t make it any easier to hear the words.

“—who turned into a monster…”

You were always my favorite out of all the Grimwalkers.

Jason shook his head, squashing down the tiny glimmer of satisfaction he’d gotten from the words.

I don’t want that

I don’t.

“Well, he started out human,” Gus volunteered.

“…Right. But he was defeated by a… newer, smaller bad guy?”

“The Collector,” Willow growled, “We don’t know what he is, or how Belos found him.”

Luz’s eyes darted around, and her shoulders hunched. “Whooooo knows if we’ll ever figure that out?!” she yelped

Jason’s eyes narrowed, and he glanced at Hunter, who did a truly abysmal job of avoiding his eyes.

They went into Uncle’s mind together.

Luz knows something, and Hunter knows it, too.

What have the two of you gotten yourselves into?

Luz relaxed slightly. “But they’re creating a lot of chaos.”

Jason’s hand curled into a fist.

Phoenix.

I hope he got away.

I hope he got back to Mom and Dad.

“We have to do whatever it takes to get back,” Amity declared.

“And you will,” Luz’s mom soothed, “But for now, you should rest. You’re all safe here.”

Amity cleared her throat. “Before we… head off, I think we need to maybe talk about the elephant in the room.” She jabbed one finger at Jason. “What’s up with this guy? And the other one who was at Hexside? Hunter, why do they look like you?! Where did they come from? Are they your family? Are they related to Belos, too?”

“Phoenix was the golden guard before Hunter,” Jason offered softly, “And I was the golden guard…” he squinted, trying to do the math in his head. “I don’t know, 200 years ago?”

Everyone’s jaw dropped but Hunter’s. “What?!”

Jason shrugged. “Time pool.”

“Those are real?” Gus yelped.

Luz flinched.

Amity threw her hands up. “But who are you?!”

“I…” Hunter twisted the front of his shirt in his hands. “I wasn’t sure how to… I mean, every source I read said that they were just myths, or that they were extinct, so I didn’t know if you guys would believe me, but, Iiiiii, uh. I’m…”

“You want me to say it?” Jason asked softly.

Hunter took a deep breath. “No, I can do it. I’m a… have you guys have heard of a grimwalker?”

Willow squeaked. “Like…” she seemed to bite down on her tongue.

Like the monsters of legend? Jason finished dully in his mind, Like the creatures that pretend to be your loved one, but are really just perverse imitations? Magenta-eyed monstrosities?

At least she wasn’t saying it out loud, but if she knew what they were, then the chances were that she’d read the same books Jason had, none of them flattering, all of them making him wish he’d just stuck to Dad’s simple explanation of ‘you’re a clone of me.’

“It’s uhhhhhhh…” Hunter hissed out. “So. Um.”

“Belos killed your ortet,” Gus burst out, “He killed some guy who looked like you and stole his bones and made you, and I’m sorry, I saw his memories, and I didn’t want to say anything, but…”

Hunter buried his head in his hands, plunking his elbows on the table. “Uhhhhhh yeah, so the thing about that is… he’s sorta kinda not dead?”

“He’s my dad,” Jason offered, “I mean—like—in the raising someone sense. Obviously I’m cloned from him like Hunter—”

“Not obviously?” Willow yelped, “Can we slow this down?”

Jason took a deep breath. “Okay, quick and dirty rundown.” He started ticking points off on his fingers. “Uncle Belos stabbed his brother Caleb and cut off his fingers, luckily Caleb survived and fled through a time pool to the present, Uncle Belos has been using the fingers to make Grimwalkers of his brother and trying to kill them after any and all perceived betrayals, but his brother has been using time pools to rescue said Grimwalkers from certain death, and we’ve been living in secret from him ever since up until now-ish when we sort of showed up at the day of unity, but that doesn’t matter because he’s dead, have I missed anything?”

“Sounds about right,” Hunter said gloomily. He laced his fingers together, staring at the table. “Sorry for… not telling you.”

Gus yawned, and Luz’s mother put a hand on his shoulder. “You guys should get some rest. Luz, if you could show the girls your room, I’ll get the boys settled in the basement.”

Jason, Gus, and Hunter all filed after Luz’s mom down a set of stairs to a room full of old stuff packed away in boxes, or wrapped up. She dug out a couple of sleeping bags and then disappeared back up the stairs, saying something about blankets. Hunter started spreading out one of the sleeping bags while Gus flitted around the basement, his eyes sparking as he picked up the things lying around, pressing as many buttons and switches as he could get his hands on.

“Whoa! Hunter, look at all this awesome human stuff!” He pulled out a roll of something that popped when he poked it. A snowglobe rolled out of the bottom, and Jason lunged forward to catch it just before it hit the ground.

Gus made a ‘yikes’ face. “Whoops! Thanks, Jason.”

A smile flitted across Jason’s face watching him. He was excited about something. Good. Human realm literature had helped Jason through his own rough patch. If Gus could find something to be excited about, he’d probably be okay.

Hunter smiled, too. “I think it’s just ‘stuff’ here.”

Luz’s mother came back with blankets and sheets. “It’s not much, but I hope you three will be comfortable.”

Gus looked over to her. “We will, Luz’s mom!”

Hunter cleared his throat, shifting into a kneeling position that Jason knew all too well. “Thank you for providing us with shelter, ma’am.”

Jason’s heart ached in his chest seeing him kneel like that, making himself a small target, ingratiating himself to the nearest authority figure.

Titan.

He really did just get out.

Luz’s mother backed away, eyes practically bleeding concern. “Please… never do that again. And you can call me Camila,” she added with a wink, “Buenos noches.”

Jason blinked at the unfamiliar phrase, but before he could ask what it meant, she was gone.

Gus continued to pop the sheet of material then stopped with an ‘aw’ as he reached the end.

Jason stood up, dusting himself off. “I’m going to take a round outside. Just in case.”

Hunter’s brow crinkled. “Do you think something followed us in here?”

“No. But it’s a new realm, there could be other threats.”

I’m not going to be caught napping.

Phoenix is counting on me.

Jason trudged back up the stairs and out into the rain, the cold, stinging rain. He walked around the outside of the house, checking points of entry, examining the metal carriage in the driveway. Strange. He hadn’t seen any place for Camila to keep an animal to pull it, and the carriage itself didn’t seem to be alive.

One more round along the house’s perimeter, noting plants in pots and beds.

Rosemary. Sage. Lemon tree.

Plants they’d had in the garden at home—Mom must have gotten them specially so that Dad could eat.

The pit in his stomach reopened, tugging Jason in as he gently brushed his hand against the familiar plants.

“I want to go back,” he whispered to the cold sky, “I want to go back to Mom and Dad and Mole and Cherry and Phoenix.” His voice got louder as he said the names. “I’ll even let Joseph throw me to his griffins, I just want to go home, please!”

Warm tears mixed with the cold rain, and Jason sat on the porch with a whump, curling his knees to his chest. “I just want to go home,” he repeated in a whisper, his shoulders heaving.

“Jason?” Camila’s voice said behind him, “Sweetheart, what are you doing in the rain?”

Jason wiped his eyes and took a deep breath, standing back up.

I can do this.

“Sorry.”

“Hey…” Camila gently brushed his wet hair out of his face. “It’s okay to be homesick. Everyone is feeling it right now.”

Jason leaned into the touch. Her hand was covered in callouses and little scratches that rubbed against his face, but he was no stranger to the feeling. “My whole family was left in the isles,” he mumbled, and tears welled up in the corners of his eyes again. “One of them was right near the Collector, and he was hurt, and I don’t know if he’s okay, and—” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I told them I’d be back soon.”

“And you will,” Camila said firmly, “My Luz didn’t stop looking for a way back to me, and now she’s here. And I don’t think you’ll stop trying to get home to your family until you succeed.”

And what if I’m too late for some of them?

What if the Collector got Phoenix?

What if he got Mom, and Dad, and all the others at the head?

What if they’re hurt, or worse?

“Hey. Jason, look at me.”

Jason dragged his eyes up to meet hers, and she gave him a small smile.

“You’ll find a way back. And your family will hold on until you do. They’ll be there.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.”

“How?” His voice cracked, and Jason scrubbed at his eyes. “How could you possibly know that?”

Camila smiled. “I get the feeling that the people in your family are… survivors. They survived Belos, despite his best efforts. They’ll survive the Collector. They’ll be waiting for you when you go back.”

“Promise?”

The word escaped Jason’s lips in a whisper before he could stop it, small and childlike. As if Camila had any control over whether his family lived or died. As if her promise could do anything more than provide some fleeting comfort.

Still, he searched her face for any sign of deception, his breath still in his chest as he waited for her answer.

“I promise.”

Chapter Text

Jason frowned, opening and closing the door to the old house. The other kids had run to get more supplies, leaving just he and Luz at the house, looking for traces of magic that weren’t there. “Run me through why it has to be here?”

Luz pinned a poster of the portal door up on the wall. “It’s always been here. If any spot is going to make a portal, it’s going to be this one.”

“Is it place-based? You said the old door used titan’s blood, so surely—”

“Well it’s my only lead,” Luz burst out.

Jason shut the door with a quiet click. “Luz?”

She rubbed her arms. “I had all of these notes, back in the demon realm, and I had access to materials that I just don’t have here. This is my only connection to ANY kind of magic! I don’t know anything about trying to build a portal from this side, Philip’s journal—” She cut off, glaring at the ground.

A chill ran down Jason’s spine. “Philip’s journal?” he echoed, “You had…”

“I should have realized. I mean, the British accent in the journal, the oozing admiration for the isles that matched Belos at that stupid parade, the fact that Belos even knew the portal existed and wanted it in the first place—”

“Whoa—Luz, it was just a journal, and it had information you needed. There was no WAY you could have known that a journal from four hundred years ago belonged to the current emperor. Unless…” she’d been awfully cagey last night about the Collector… “Luz, did the journal say… how he met the Collector?”

Luz’s eyes darted around the house. “Haha, whaaaaat?”

Well, that all but confirmed his theory. “It just seems like… the kind of help Uncle would have used to build his portal. Luz, if you went looking for the Collector to help you build your portal I—”

The door handle turned, and Luz pushed past him on the way to meet the rest of her friends. “HEY! You’re back, awesome!”

I understand, Jason finished in his head. Uncle Belos must have had contact with the Collector for CENTURIES, if Steven’s sigil experience was any indication. Even if Luz had gone looking, it wasn’t like she’d been the one to free them; it had been that other kid, King. And if she had gone looking, then so what? She couldn’t have known what the Collector was capable of.

I’d free an eldritch deity myself if it meant I could get back home right now.

Well. Probably not actually.

But still.

Flapjack fluttered through the doorway to the ground, pecking at the floorboards. Willow, Gus, and Amity all picked up pieces of paper from Luz’s stack, plopping down on the floor. Gus offered a piece of paper to Jason. “We’re drawing our families. Do you… want to draw Phoenix?”

Jason took the piece of paper, but shook his head, turning it over and over in his hands. “I don’t think my family will all fit.”

Luz wordlessly handed him a bigger piece, like the one she’d drawn the portal door on. Jason gave in and sat down, pencil tapping on the page.

An eyepatch

A hand missing a few fingers

A poof of unruly hair that somehow always seemed to have what she needed tucked inside

Constantly dirty, a patient smile.

Jason sketched face after face, his fingers trembling on the pencil. He offered a pencil to Hunter. “Do… they’re your family, too.”

Hunter took the pencil, but he didn’t sit down next to Jason. “Not the way they’re yours. I don’t… I didn’t know them. Except Phoenix, I guess.”

Jason felt a pang in his chest. Hunter was the only family he had here—but both of them knew it wouldn’t be the same. Jason pointed to one of the figures. “That one’s Cherry. He’s the second oldest, technically, but he’s been there so much longer than Phoenix that everyone pretty much considers him the oldest.” He sketched another face. “This is Auric. He got really into healing. He doesn’t have magic, of course, but he’s pretty good at medicine, and stitches and stuff like that.”

He continued to show Hunter each of his family members, acutely aware of Luz, Willow, Gus, and Amity watching over his shoulder. A blossom of warmth sparked in the hollow pit as he talked, pointing out each of his family members and saying a little bit about each of them.

“Which one’s that?” Luz asked, pointing to the final person, the one with the patient smile and face smudged with dirt.

Jason’s stomach dropped. “Mole,” he said quietly, fidgeting with the corner of the paper, “He’s… my best friend. He likes to garden, and he’s a great listener. Even though he never says anything, he always knows how to make you feel better. I… before I left, I promised him I’d be back soon.” Jason got up, pinning the paper to the board under everyone else’s pictures. “And I will be. We are going to build this portal, and we are going to see all these people again.” He nudged the picture Amity had drawn. “That’s your sister? The healer?”

“Emira,” she answered with a smile, “Do you think she and Auric would get along?”

“I bet my dad would like Silver,” Gus piped up, “He likes dumb jokes, they always make him laugh.”

“I’d like to meet Mole,” Willow chimed in.

“He’d love to show you the garden,” Jason confirmed, “And he will. Because we’re getting home.”

Luz nodded. “So let’s start brainstorming. We don’t have any titan’s blood, what are our other options?”

Gus tugged out a golden earring set with a blue stone. “I picked this up from Greye. He called it a magic amplifier, and based on the way he was obsessed with finding galderstones, I’m guessing the stone is a piece of one. They amplify magic, do you think we could use it to make a portal?”

Willow snapped her fingers. “Hunter, your teleportation. It moves you from one place to another, how does that work?”

Hunter’s hand strayed to his chest, fiddling with his clothing. “I—you know, it’s always been something I’ve just done. But it’s sort of like bending one place to another? Folding two points next to each other, eliminating the space in between. But if it were that easy to travel between dimensions, someone probably would have done it by now.”

“What about with the galderstone?” Amity suggested, “It amplifies magic. It might make your palisman magic strong enough

Jason frowned. “Would he be able to take us with him, though? What if he gets stuck in the demon realm and can’t get back?”

“If I can get there that way, I can probably get back. I could find some titan’s blood, maybe? I could get titan’s blood and come back and we could build a portal. Or, you know, I could try to build one on the other side.”

“Would you be able to get titan’s blood?” Amity interjected, “There wasn’t exactly a lot of it lying around when we were there last.”

“King,” Luz said softly, “King’s a titan. I…”

“King is a WHAT?!” Willow yelped.

Jason dropped his pencil.

That demon kid was a TITAN?!

“Yeah—Yeah, King is a titan. If Hunter found him… I mean, obviously don’t be like draining his blood or whatever, but—”

Jason shook his head. “Absolutely not, last we saw King, he was with the Collector. You want Hunter to go on a solo rescue mission against that?”

“I could get Phoenix, too,” Hunter suggested quietly.

Jason whirled around to face him. “Do you think I don’t want you doing it just because I don’t have personal stakes?! Hunter, he killed Uncle Belos with a flick of his finger, do you have any idea what he could do to you?!”

Hunter took a step back, eying him, and Jason realized that his fists were clenched. He took a deep breath, relaxing his muscles. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I’m just… the Collector is powerful, and I’m nervous about you going without any way to contact us. We’ll get them back, both of them. But we’ll do it together. Not by sending you into the slitherbeast’s den alone. Is there anywhere else we might be able to find titan’s blood?”

“I don’t know if there is an anywhere else on the isles anymore,” Gus said gloomily, and a quiet fell over them.

Hunter’s jaw set, and he took the earring from Gus, holding out his hand for Flapjack. “Look, I’ll just try it. I’ll come right back if I CAN do it, and then if I can’t, no big deal.”

Before Jason could say anything else, he disappeared in a flash of gold

Only to reappear in the same spot. He shook his head, then disappeared again. Reappeared.

Hunter handed the earring back to Gus with a sigh. “I guess it was a long shot anyw—”

Scritch scratch

The wall behind the poster of the portal door rasped. Before Jason could so much as ask “what is that?” a creature burst out of the wall, tearing through their picture of the portal door. A long, snakelike-tail whipped around behind it. Its short snout crinkled up in a hiss, revealing needle-sharp teeth, and Jason scrambled out of its way as it bolted across the floor, chased by a chirping Flapjack.

“What is that?!”

“’Possum,” Luz said casually.

“Those are urban legend!” Hunter protested.

“So are time pools,” Jason reminded him, “Yet, here I am!”

A wince from Luz.

What is up with her and the time pools? Once could have been a coincidence, but this was the second time she’d reacted negatively to the mention of them.

Luz tapped her chin. “I think we might have been onto something with the palisman. Even without it being Hunter’s teleportation, palisman have a lot of magic, right?”

Jason flinched.

That’s for sure.

Hunter’s hand went up to his palisman. “What are you suggesting?”

“We could find a way to harness their magic, I bet. We just… have to figure it out. Back to the drawing board.”

“Mija?” Camila poked her head in, wrinkling her nose at the hole in the wall, and stepping gingerly around the nails sticking out of the floor and walls. “What happened?”

“Possum.”

“Ah. Please, please, please be careful about the animals. I doubt your friends have had rabies shots. Hey, I was thinking we could get you guys some new clothes today?”

Luz glanced back at the busted diagram. Amity took her hand. “We’re not going to figure it out in one day,” she said quietly, “And we could probably use a change of clothes.”

Luz nodded, and they all marched back after Camila, who clicked a button on a set of keys.

The metal carriage in the driveway beeped and clicked back.

Gus yelped, clinging to Willow, who bravely put herself in front of he and Hunter. Jason snatched up a stick, gingerly poking at the carriage. It didn’t respond, didn’t growl, or give any other indication that it was alive.

Vee put her hand on Jason’s, pushing the stick down. “Okay. I’ve got this. This is a car. We’re going to take a ride in it. It isn’t alive, but it does move on its own, without anything pulling it.”

“I got a magazine full of pictures of them once,” Gus said almost reverently, coming out from behind Willow to gingerly lay a palm on the ‘car’s shiny surface, “I thought they were just statues!”

“How does it move if it’s not alive?” Willow asked skeptically, “Is it like the blimps back home? But I don’t see any boiler, and you made it respond to your clicker!”

Jason tapped his index fingers together. “Novus made these wind-up toys that were full of gears that made them move. Is it like that?”

“Uh… sort of like both of those things?” Camila tried, “It’s… it’s a lot of machinery, and fuel, and… it’s not dangerous, not if you’re a safe driver, I promise. And as long as you don’t run out in front of one.

Vee opened the side of the ‘car,’ and after looking at each other, they all climbed in, squeezing into the seats. Camila put one of her keys into a little panel and turned it.

The car rumbled under Jason, not entirely unlike sitting on a purring griffin, and Camila slowly backed out of the driveway.

The car swiveled around, and they took off. It didn’t feel like they were going fast at all until Jason looked out the side window and saw the side of the road passing them in a blur. He gripped the seatbelt, knuckles pale, until they came to a stop in the middle of a huge stretch of black pavement, divided into little boxes by white lines.

“How far did we go?!”

“I don’t know, a few miles?”

“That fast?! It was only a few minutes!” Jason paced around the outside of the car. The face of it was warm to the touch now. “How do you work?” he murmured under his breath.

“Hey, Camila!” A man waved, putting one hand behind his head sheepishly. “Uh, seems my car battery is dead, any chance…”

“Again, Dave?”

“I’m going to get it checked out, I swear. I probably need a new battery, I know, I know. I’ll drive straight to the nearest auto shop, I promise.”

Camila shook her head. “Alright, you guys run inside and start looking around. I’ll be along in a minte.”

Jason hung around, watching as Camila drove her car closer to Dave’s, which was cold and still. Camila pulled a lever in her car, and the front of the car popped, startling him. Camila opened up the car, exposing a mess of wiring and metal. Jason poked his head under.

“Whoa. Hey what does—” He smacked his head on the lid of the car as he pulled his head out. “—ow—what does all of that do?!”

“Uhh… I mean, I don’t know about the exact mechanics of everything in there. Mostly it makes the wheels turn.” Camila dug a couple of long cords out of her trunk, red and black. “Here we go.”

Jason stuck his head back in to watch her. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to transfer a little bit of electricity from my car to his. Electricity—ah, it’s energy.”

“Won’t that kill our car?”

“No, no. It’s not an exact… I’m just sort of giving his car battery a little kick to get it going. Like shaking it awake. It’s not going to hurt our car at all, and the battery charges as we drive anyway.”

“What are the cords for?”

“They’re called jumper cables, and they transfer the electricity.” Camila clipped the red clamp to Dave’s car, then to hers. “Red goes on positive, black goes on negative.”

Jason knew what all of those words meant, but the combination might as well have been another language.“…What?”

“Right, uh, so, this box looking thing? It’s a battery. One side is positive and the other is negative. The cables are very specifically designed. Red goes to the positive side, black goes to the negative side.” She clipped the black cable to her battery, then to Dave’s. “Jason, could you turn the key in the ignition for me?”

Jason hopped back into the car, gingerly wrapping his hand around the key and turning it. The car hummed under his touch.

I did it!

Dave’s car coughed and came back to life, and Camila gave Jason a thumbs-up. He turned the key back the other way, and the car turned off. Camila undid the jumper cables, and Dave drove off with a wave and a thank you. Jason turned the key again.

On.

Off.

On.

Off.

Camila poked her head in. “Oh, just pull the key out once the car’s off.”

Jason removed the key with a frown, peering at the, what had Camila called it, the “ignition?” “How does the key make it work?”

Maybe if we can figure out how THIS works, we’ll be able to figure out how the portal key worked to power the door!

“Uh… it just sort of… does… It just starts the engine…”

“How come we could start his car with ours? They’re not the same kind of car.”

“I mean, the batteries are similar, it’s all electricity. Hang on, here.” Camila opened a hatch in the passenger seat and handed him a little book.

Owner’s manual.

“I think there might be a few books on circuitry and engines back at the house, Luz’s dad was… If you’re interested in machinery, I might be able to help you get started.”

Jason followed her into the big building nearby, reading the manual for the car. It wasn’t anything like the human realm books he’d read before about adventures and heroes, it was more like Sam’s heavy books on the theory of wild magic and glyphs. Still, it almost seemed impossible.

Anyone could learn how to use this.

He’d been able to turn on the car with no training, easy as that. And he was willing to bet that all of the strange metal boxes in the Noceda house would be equally easy to use. Nothing like the magic he’d never been able to work without help.

Makes sense. They don’t have magic to use here, they had to come up with another way to get things done.

What would it have been like, to grow up in a place without magic?

The door hissed open in front of him of its own accord, and he jumped. Camila put a hand on his arm. “Just an automatic door. It’s safe.”

Jason eyed it.

Door.

Doorway.

Electricity used to open a door.

Palisman energy opens a door?

“I need to know how it works,” he announced.

Camila laughed. “Okay, ask Luz to show you how to use the internet later. For now, let’s just focus on getting you some clothes without rips all through them.”

The kids already popped in and out of the changing room with armfuls of clothing by the time Camila and Jason found them. Hunter kicked the door open dressed head to toe in some kind of bird costume, and a laugh burst out of Jason’s throat.

“What is that?!”

Hunter sniffed, tilting his face up and away. “High fashion.”

Jason tugged on the hood of it, pulling it over his face. “Awwww, you look like your palisman. It’s cute.”

Luz nudged Jason’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s find something for you. I’m sure we can rustle up a matching bird onsie.”

Jason shook his head, but followed her. “Hey, Luz?”

“Yeah?”

“About what we were talking about earlier—”

“Oh, look, here, I bet this’ll fit!” She dumped a couple of pairs of pants in his arms.

“Luz. Hey.”

She shifted from one foot to the other. “Yeah?”

“What’s going on with you? What’s wrong?”

“You mean other than the fact that my friends are all trapped away from their home, I left King with that thing, and I don’t even know if Eda’s okay?”

Jason winced. “Yeah. Besides that.”

“Nothing. Nothing at all, why would you ask that?” Her voice rose in pitch as she spoke until it was a squeak.

Very convincing.

Jason sighed, picking up a couple of solid-colored shirts. “Luz. Look. You’re… kind of a horrible liar.”

“Hey!”

“That’s not a—Luz, I just… you’re a bad liar, and the fact that you’re being so dodgy about this is… whatever it is you’re hiding, my brain is probably making up much worse scenarios trying to explain why you would be avoiding the topic like this. So please, please. Just tell me what’s going on. I can’t help if I don’t know what the problem is.”

Luz sighed, the fight falling out of her in a whoosh of breath. “Hunter and I… when we were in Belos’ mind…”

Jason couldn’t quite describe how he knew, he never could describe the shifts in people’s tones and moods and demeanor that clued him in to where he stood, but Luz’s whole being seemed to change. Her resignation shifted to cunning and slyness. Not necessarily in a malicious way, he thought, but he knew that the next words out of her mouth weren’t going to be the truth. She would hide whatever was bothering her from him for as long as she could manage.

“… we saw what the Collector was like. How they were happy to help Belos destroy the isles. I should have done a better job warning King about the Collector. I knew they were dangerous, and if I had warned him, then maybe… maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Even though he knew it wasn’t the whole truth, something about it rang right. She was upset about something about the Collector being her fault. It just wasn’t that in particular. Jason nudged her shoulder.

“I mean, we’d all be dead if it weren’t for the Collector. I don’t think I can emphasize enough that Uncle Belos would have killed us all, and the whole isles with us.” Jason sighed. “It’s not… great… that he’s out. I’m worried about everyone at home, and I know you are, too. I wish that we’d never ended up in this situation. I wish Uncle Belos had never found them. But King did what he could in the moment to save us, and… that has to count for something, right?”

Luz shrugged. “Does it?”

Jason nodded, picking up a jacket. It was checkered in black and red, with a grey hood made of another material. There was so much variety in this store, and so many identical versions of the same thing that simply changed a size. He quickly discarded a skirt on discovering that it had no pockets, but picked up a vest made from wooly, warm material.

“I mean, look. I would way prefer if Belos had never hurt anyone in my family. Of course I would prefer that! But… if he hadn’t, I never would have met any of them. I wouldn’t have Mole, or Mom, or Dad if Belos had been… good. So, I… I don’t know. I’m not saying I should thank him for what happened, but… I can recognize that some good came out of all the bad that happened.”

“Is it worth the good? Really, Jason? If someone’s done something so bad, so horrible and ruined so many lives through their actions, even if they believed they were doing the right thing, is it worth whatever tiny piece of good they might have achieved along the way?”

Ohhhhhhhh we are not talking about Uncle Belos anymore.

Jason hissed out. “Ah… I mean, it doesn’t really matter, does it? Whether it was ‘worth’ the good things, I mean. Measuring actions in how much good or bad they do isn’t always the best option, especially after it’s done, justifying everything you do, justifying your existence is… it’s a slippery slope. At the end of the day, the bad thing happened, and we can’t change that. You can’t ignore that a bad thing happened, but you can also find good things in it that… they don’t fix what happened. They never do. But they can make the bad thing just a little easier to bear.”

Luz stared at him blankly, and Jason rolled a hand. “A… a bit ago, Phoenix kind of accidentally caused our dad to fall off of the roof. And I told him… I mean, it happened, and he couldn’t change that. There wasn’t a lot he could do in the moment, either, sure, maybe there were some things he could do that would have changed the outcome, but overall… it just kind of happened. What he did after was the important thing, yeah? What he did to help fix his mistake and help Dad was the thing that mattered.”

Jason shrugged. “Bad things happen, sometimes we cause bad things, whether accidentally or not. And we can’t take them back. The best thing we can do is… try to make up afterwards and try to do better in the future.”

Luz ‘hmph’ed. “And if Belos showed up today and apologized for everything and really wanted to make up for everything he’d done, would you forgive him?”

Jason’s gut clenched.

You always were my favorite of all the Grimwalkers.

Jason twisted the fabric of a shirt in his hands. “I don’t know. I don’t know, I don’t…” He set down the pile of clothes, putting the heels of his hands over his eyes. “Rrrgh.”

Focus. This is about her, not Belos. It doesn’t matter how you feel about him, treat it like we’re talking about her directly and not through this weird metaphor.

What would Dad say?

Jason put his hands back down. “I don’t know, Luz, I really don’t. But even if I didn’t forgive him, I mean, on his side, would it matter? On his side, he’d just need to make up for what he did. I don’t know if he ever could. But if he did, it doesn’t MATTER if I’ve forgiven him. That’s on me. That’s about my feelings. What would be important for… Belos… is that he do what’s necessary to fix what he’s done. Whether I forgive him afterwards or not.”

“Mm.” Luz picked up his pile of clothes. “Thanks, Jason. That… helps.”

Did it help enough?

“Yeah. Anytime. And if you need to talk to me about how… King… let the Collector out… Just let me know?”

She gave him a long look, searching his face. And for a second, Jason thought she understood. For a second, he thought she was about to tell him what was really eating her. But then she just nodded, and turned away.

“Yeah. Okay.”

Chapter Text

Click

Twist

Jason slowly set his tiny version of an automatic door on the kitchen counter. It was a simplified model, without a sensor that would let the door ‘know’ when to open and shut. Instead, it would simply open when electricity flowed through it and had to be shut manually once the power was off. Jason plugged it into the outlet.

The lights in the house flickered and went out.

“Jason,” Amity groaned from the kitchen table. She and Luz were brainstorming possible human realm equivalents and replacements for portal door ingredients, and everyone else had gone out gathering the things that the human realm already had.

“Sorry!” Jason unplugged the door and padded to the basement. He picked up a flashlight and pointed it at the fuse box. “Let’s see…”

Something dark green and gooey leaked out of the fuse box. Jason jumped backwards, dropping the flashlight. He scrambled for the light, his hand smacking into it and sending it spinning across the floor.

No, no, no, no—

Jason’s grasping hands finally found flashlight again, and he pointed it at the box.

Perfectly normal. No mud at all.

Jason took a deep breath, tugging his fingers through his hair. “Okay. Okay.”

He pulled the box open, shining the light inside. He flipped each of the circuit breakers off, then back on. The light in the basement flickered back on. Jason examined every inch of the box, looking for any sign of green mud.

Nothing.

Just the dark playing tricks on your mind.

“Eeeeesh.” Jason closed the box, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I need to get more sleep.”

He climbed back up the stairs to see that the other kids had returned, holding an antennae and an animal skull. Gus was examining the tiny electric door. “Did it work?”

Jason shrugged. “If it was supposed to trip all the circuit breakers in the house? Yeah, it worked great.”

“Aw, you’ll get it,” Willow promised, “At least it didn’t explode, or try to eat your hand!”

“Which the portal door won’t do either,” Hunter followed up quickly. His hair was getting long. Jason trimmed his own hair carefully, meticulously, every time it threatened to go over his ears or collar. Hunter wasn’t doing the same. Jason shook his head with a small smile. It was almost comical, watching another Grimwalker go through the exact same steps he’d seen a hundred times before from his siblings, even this far from home. Letting their appearance go, growing out their hair, distancing from everything golden guard. Some of them didn’t ever cut their hair short again—Alex, in fact, hadn’t gotten a single haircut since they’d arrived.

Luz rubbed her eyes, and Amity put a hand on her shoulder. “Time for bed,” she said gently, “We have some of the ingredients, we can try tomorrow. This is going to be it. Jason, I know you think the electric door powered by palisman magic is the answer, but have you figured out the power source, yet?”

Jason stretched. “Yeah. Yeah, generators like windmills and watermills generate electricity through nature turning a wheel. Luz suggested we use the palisman to turn the wheel in order to generate electricity and hopefully, magic. I got… Okay, I think I have the individual little generators set up, Luz and I built them this morning, I just need the turning bit.”

Hunter wordlessly held up a set of wheels with pictures of “hamsters” on them.

“Bedtime,” Amity said again, this time more firmly. She, Willow, Vee, and Luz disappeared upstairs. Hunter paused at the top of the stairs to the basement while Gus went down. “Are you coming?”

Jason waved a hand. “Just be a minute.”

Hunter went down, and Jason took out the little generators. All the other lights in the house went out, except the kitchen light. Jason squinted at the tiny screws on his generators, slowly fitting them onto the wheels. He spun the wheel.

Please work, please…

It sparked.

Jason rubbed his eyes. He still didn’t know how to connect the magic. They could hope that the palisman energy would just flow, but there wasn’t anything else he could do. He connected the rest of the generators, twisting the wires that came out of them into a single thick cable that went to the bigger generator Amity had built.

Jason put his head down on the table for a moment, taking a deep breath. He retrieved his little electric door and opened it back up. Now to make sure nothing exploded.

“Alright. Alright, where… did I…”

“Huuuuuunter…”

Jason’s ears twitched at the sound. “Gus?” he called, “Hunter? You okay?”

No response.

Jason pushed up to his feet, wandering down to the basement. Hunter and Gus snored softly, and he sighed in relief. His foot hit a puddle at the base of the stairs, and his toes instinctively curled in away from it.

“Ugh, do we have a leaaaaaa—”

The liquid dripped from the fuse box, a puddle of mud instead of water. It gushed out like a horrific green waterfall, creeping towards the sleeping Gus and Hunter

“No. No, no, no—” Jason shook Hunter’s shoulder. “Get up, get up, get—”

The mud swirled around his ankles then crept up to his face, forming a hand over his mouth.

“Shhhh,” Uncle Belos’ voice crooned, “You were my favorite. You don’t need to die like them.”

Jason’s limbs were heavy, lead. He couldn’t move to tear away the slime; it just kept pouring and pouring and pouring from the fuse box, dragging him back from Hunter and Gus who slept on, how were they still sleeping?!

I’ll keep you alive to watch.

Jason stared at the hard wood of the kitchen table, blinking. Someone had turned off the light and removed the tools from his grip. The generators sat a safe distance from him.

Camila.

Jason rubbed his eyes, slowly sitting up and stretching. His shoulders popped. He pushed the chair back and padded into the hallway, squinting at a faint ray of light coming from upstairs. He crept up the stairs, footsteps completely silent.

Snip

Snip.

Jason poked his head into the open door to see Willow trimming Hunter’s hair, which hung in absolute shambles, random pieces swooping longer than each other, cut in jagged slants.

“Mrgh?” he managed.

“I tried cutting my hair,” Hunter mumbled in answer, “Willow is… fixing it.”

“Mmm.”

“I don’t have a lot of experience,” she said apologetically, “But I’ve gone with my dads to hair appointments, so I kiiiiinda know how to do it? Or at least what it looks like when someone’s doing the right things.”

Jason yawned. “Doing okay?” he spit out. His voice was still gravelly from sleep, and he cleared his throat. “Sorry. Hunter?”

“How about you?” Hunter shot back, “You just like sleeping at the kitchen table?”

“Heh.” Jason rubbed his eyes again. “I asked first.”

“So?!”

“Quit trying to make me lose focus. Geeze, do you know how many emotionally closed off guys I live with? I’m not going to get dragged into an argument to dodge the question.”

“I’m not one of your siblings,” Hunter burst out.

Jason blinked, taking a step back. “Whoa—”

“I’m not one of your siblings, so stop acting like I am! You don’t know me, you don’t.”

“Hunter, it’s not—I mean, I’d like to know you!”

“No, you don’t,” Hunter’s voice cracked, “You don’t want to know me, if I didn’t look like—like this, if I weren’t a Grimwalker, you wouldn’t talk to me! You only want to help because you think I’m one of you.”

Has he felt this the whole time?

“That’s—Hunter, that’s not fair. Of course I want to help you because you’re a Grimwalker like me, but that’s how people work. You only meet people and form relationships because there’s something you share in common, even if that something is just a place, that’s just…”

“I wouldn’t have met you if I didn’t want you for my flyer derby team,” Willow offered. She snipped at his hair. “I was totally self-interested. But we’re friends now, aren’t we?”

Hunter brushed hair off of his shoulders. “I—” he made a frustrating growling noise, “It just feels like—rrrrgh… you think that… I don’t know, like that I’m just… that I’m one of… you all look like me, and I just… That’s what he…”

Oh.

It’s not about me.

“You can be a grimwalker and your own person,” Jason offered softly, “All of us… I know you only spent a couple of days with us, but we’re not a collective. It… I mean, you’re sharing an appearance with a whole bunch of other people and that’s… it can be hard to get used to. But if you spent more time with us, you’d see that  everyone has their own thing. Their own personalities.” He chuckled. “It can be a lot. But I promise you wouldn’t fade into the background. It can get hectic, sure, and it’s hard to keep up with everyone all the time. But you wouldn’t get forgotten. And you wouldn’t just be one guy out of a bunch of guys. That’s what Uncle Belos wanted, what he thought we were, but, I mean, he thought we were failures for choosing not to hurt people. We’re kind of over doing and being what he wanted.”

Jason scratched the back of his neck. “And who knows! Uncle is gone, and Luz seems bound and determined to get rid of the Collector, so when all this is over, we… we’re going to get to go out in the world again. Go make friends who aren’t our siblings. Set out on our own. Cyrus can finally go on a normal date—any of us could go on a normal date if we wanted to!” He shrugged. “Anyway, I guess all of that was to say… I want to help. Not just because you’re a Grimwalker, and we’re related, even if that is part of it. I just want to. And if you don’t want to live with us, that’s okay! That’s fine, that’s great! You can live wherever you want; it’s your life! But we’re not going to stop being your family. And we’ll be there to support you if you need it. Whatever you want to be, whoever you want to be, we’re cheering for you.”

“Finished!” Willow set her scissors down, dusting hair off of the back of Hunter’s neck. “What do you think?”

His hair was short, now, cropped close to his head, but still fluffy. Hunter smiled, brushing at the back of his head. “Yeah. Yeah, I like it! Thanks, Willow.”

Jason grinned. “Hey, as far as any of my siblings go, you’re the first one to have a haircut in another dimension.”

Hunter smiled briefly. “What are you doing up so late?”

Jason shrugged, taking the distraction. “Trying to get my electric door to work. It tripped the circuit breaker, which either means that it uses too much electricity for the outlet to handle or…” Jason smacked his forehead. “Or hot wires are touching. Or touching a neutral wire. Ugh, literally had my wires crossed.”

“You can fix it in the morning,” Willow said firmly, “Go to bed, Jason. That goes for you, too, Hunter.”

“Yes ma’am,” Jason grumbled, making his way back down to the basement. He turned on a flashlight, shining it on the fuse box and watching it for a long moment.

Completely normal.

“Everything okay?” Hunter asked. He stood at Jason’s side, peering at the fuse box. “I’m sure you tripping the breakers didn’t cause that much damage. It’ll be fine.”

“Mm.” Jason switched the flashlight off, climbing into his sleeping bag. “Yeah. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Xxx

“Everyone ready?”

Hunter clipped the jumper cable to the doorknob. The door seemed to mostly be held together with Willow’s vines, but Luz had been meticulous in their placement, so Jason assumed that was part of the construction. Even so, it looked… haphazard at best, taped and strung with odds and ends. Nothing like the stately (if crumbling by the time they got to it) structure that they’d come through.

The palisman began to run on their wheels, and the generators sparked and hummed. Something flowed out of the big generator, nebulous and strange. It was almost impossible to look at, impossible to perceive. Jason’s eyes slid right off of it every time he tried to look.

Magic.

The magic traveled up the wire and to the door.

Which promptly burst into flames.

Jason jumped forward to grab his brother, but Hunter was already out of range, patting his hair.

Good thing he cut it last night.

Vee put out the fire, and Luz dropped to a crouch on the ground, putting her head in her hands.

Gus poked Jason. “Hey. Hey, put the automatic door in.”

Jason glanced at Luz. Amity had knelt next to the human, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Gus, I don’t think right now is the best t—”

“There’s no better time! Come on, just try it!” Gus lowered his voice. “Either it works, and our problem is solved, or it doesn’t work, and Luz feels better about her own attempt.”

Jason picked up the tiny door, carefully detaching one of the wheel’s wires from the main cable and clamping it to his own door. “Okay…”

Emmeline started to move, not quite trotting, more like BOUNCING around the wheel. But regardless of how she’d done it, the wheel turned, and the magic started to sizzle, then flow across the wires, lazily curling into the door.

To the door’s credit, it didn’t light on fire.

No, instead, it exploded, sending shards of metal and wire flying everywhere. Jason yelped, throwing up his hands to protect his face. Tiny slivers of pain sliced across his hands.

“Jason!” Gus grabbed his arm. “Are you okay? Emmeline, are you okay?”

“Fine—I’m fine.” Jason examined his hands, wincing and yanking out a shard of metal from his hand. “Ow. Okay, so, that’s a bust, too.”

Luz perked up, pulling Jason back towards her house. “C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up, get some bandages on that.”

Her hands were firm and gentle when she cleaned the cuts on his hands, and she was so focused on his wounds that Jason was surprised beams of magic didn’t shoot out of her eyes.

“You okay?”

“Fine. I’m fine. We’ll think of something else, it’s fine.”

Jason tugged his hand out of her reach. “Youuuuuu are acting like my dad.”

“Thanks?”

“Luz. Are you okay? Are you really, really okay? It’s just that…” Jason took a deep breath. “You kind of seem like you’re taking this even harder than everyone else? And I’m worried you’re trying to take on too much.”

Tears welled up in her eyes, but didn’t fall. “Well, what am I supposed to say to that?” she whispered.

Amity appeared in the doorway behind Luz. “Hey, your mom had the idea of a picnic. She says there’s a really nice spot she knows?”

Luz wiped her eyes, plastering on an ‘I’m okay’ face and turning to face her girlfriend. “That sounds great. I could use the break. Jason?”

Jason raised a box of bandaids like a toast. “I’ll catch up. I’m going to pick up all the pieces of my door before someone steps on them.”

“I’ll send Ghost for you,” Amity promised, and then they were gone. Jason plastered bandages on the tiny cuts on his hands, and locked the door of the house with the spare key Camila kept under one of her rosebushes. Which, he reflected, shaking his hand as he gained a new cut, was very defensible, but not fun to get.

Jason headed back up the path, gingerly picking up spare bits of twisted metal and holding them cupped in his hand.

“Is the input too much?” he murmured, examining a burned wire, “Would a restrainer help? Or maybe adding more paths for the energy to travel? Maybe if the door was bigger? It was a pretty small model.” He sighed, picking up the animal skull from Luz’s door, slightly scorched. “Or maybe trying to mix magic and tech was just a bad idea in general.”

A blue eye blinked at him out of the skull’s socket.

Jason let out a strangled scream and dropped the skull, punting it into the woods. He shook his hands, checking them for any sign that something had been left behind.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Jason took a deep breath. The cuts on his hands throbbed in time with his heartbeat, angry and fast. He dragged out a giant chunk of wood that had used to be part of the porch railing, and swung it up on his shoulder, cautiously approaching the skull.

He brought the beam down on the skull with a crunch, lifting and stomping it again, and again, and again. Finally, he nudged the broken pieces with his beam.

Nothing.

Just bone fragments and dirt.

“Mmmmmmmmmmmm…”

Jason shuddered, his skin crawling as if a thousand spiderwebs had been draped over him. He spun in a circle, looking for any sign of the glowing blue eye. No tracks on the ground. No residual magic. No disturbed or dying wildlife. Just the haunting, watched feeling.

The tree above him rustled, and Jason swung around with the beam, whacking at the air.

Ghost hissed, fur puffing up.

Jason let out a sigh, setting down the beam and reaching up. “Sorry! You startled me.”

The cat leapt down, stepping lightly on his arms and winding around his neck, paws on his shoulders. Jason scratched its fur absentmindedly, still looking around the forest. “You didn’t see anything weird, did you?”

Ghost purred in response.

“Huh. I mean, if he…” Jason shuddered, mind skirting around the possibility. “He’d hit a palisman, right? To regain his strength? And if you don’t feel threatened, then…” Jason pinched the bridge of his nose. “Then Hunter’s right, and I need to sleep somewhere that isn’t the kitchen table,” he grumbled. He reached up and picked up Ghost, setting them on the ground. “Lead me to Amity?” he suggested.

The palisman padded off, and Jason followed, still glancing around the forest. He scratched at the bandaids, checking the wounds again. Just bright red slashed across his skin. He didn’t know what exactly he expected—he’d have noticed green slime crawling across his hand, and he hadn’t had contact with the skull for very long.

Ghost led him to a sunny park, where the others had already set out a late lunch. Camila jogged up to meet him. “Hey, Jason. You okay? You look like you’ve seen a…”

Ghost rubbed against her legs, purring, and Camila gave the cat’s head a scratch with a chuckle. “Pardon the turn of phrase, baby. A ghost other than this angel.”

Jason rubbed his eyes. “I think I’m just tired. Thank you.” He nodded to Hunter. “Hey, can I talk to you?”

Hunter glanced at Willow and Gus, then shrugged, following him. “What’s up?”

Jason rubbed his arms. “You haven’t… seen anything weird, have you?”

“We’re in the human realm. Everything is weird. Yesterday? I saw a creature this big.” Hunter held his fingers very close to each other to illustrate. “It’s called an ant. Can you imagine if we had bug demons that small in the isles?! They’d eat us alive, and we wouldn’t even know they were coming!”

Jason reached out, then paused. “Permission to touch?”

Hunter’s eyebrows squished upwards in a very confused look, but he nodded.

Jason grabbed his shoulders, staring him in the eye. “Hunter, focus. Have you seen anything from our world leaking into this one? Any magic, any creatures, any… eyeballs?”

Hunter coughed. “What?”

“Eyeballs,” Jason repeated, “Or… any weird feelings? Like you’re being watched, or that something’s not right?”

Hunter shook his head. “Did you see something?”

Jason let go of his shoulders, rubbing his eyes. “Maybe? I don’t know, it’s just… I see something out of the corner of my eye, but every time I try to look closer, there’s nothing there. And I don’t know if there’s really something stalking me, or if it’s paranoia, or if I just haven’t been sleeping enough, or… I don’t know, the human realm has a hallucinatory effect on me? I just figured I’d ask. But if you haven’t seen anything, then it’s… it’s probably nothing, right? Or maybe I’m just going crazy?”

Hunter eyed him. “You need a nap.”

“No offense, but I’m not taking self-care advice from you.” Jason stretched. “Oh, yeah, on that note, you know Luz better than I do, is she okay?”

Hunter’s shoulders tensed up. “Hahahahahahahaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh yeah, Luz is doing fine. Great. She’s finally home after being stuck in our realm, she’s doing spectacularly.”

“Mmmmmmhmmm.”

Hunter waved his hands back and forth frantically. “She’s just really focused on getting us home is all! Why would you think, uhhhhhhhh… yeah. She’s fine. We’re fine.”

Wow. You are the worst liar in either dimension. “Okay.”

Hunter squinted at him. “Okay?”

“Okay. Like I said, you know her better than I do.” Jason gave him a wan smile. “You’re a good friend to her, Hunter.”

“Oh… I wouldn’t say… I mean…”

“No. You are. I…” Jason shrugged. “I hope she knows that she can trust you to watch her back.”

Hunter flushed, crossing his arms, then ran back to his friends. Jason sighed.

Guess it wasn’t very fair to ask him to snitch.

Maybe I should ask Luz if she’s seen anything weird. Might explain why she looks so tired and haunted.

But first…

Jason plopped down on the picnic blanket next to Vee. “Whatcha pack?”

She scooted over, pushing the basket towards him. “Some fruit. Cheese! Wait, can you eat cheese? Luz is lactose intolerant, so I have to check.”

“I can eat cheese.”

“Okay, yeah, fruit, cheese, some peanut butter. Soda.”

“What’s that?”

Vee’s face lit up, and she handed Jason a bottle full of brown liquid. “Be careful, sometimes it fizzes up.”

Jason eyed the bottle and slowly unscrewed the lid. The bottle hissed threateningly, bubbling as if it had been boiled, but stayed in the bottle. He tilted it back, and almost immediately, a fuzzy feeling crept up his throat and into his nose.

Jason coughed and snorted, slamming the lid back on and pawing at his nose. “What—Vee, I don’t think people from our realm are supposed to drink—” he coughed again. “Vee!”

“No, it’s supposed to—well, it might be the way you’re drinking it. But it’s supposed to do that.”

“I think my nose is on fire. Humans drink that for fun?!”

“Alright, alright. No soda for Jason. Got it.”

Jason nudged an apple, just to make sure it was dead, before stretching out and crunching down. “So.”

“So.”

“The door didn’t work. Either of them.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

Jason sighed. If only he could be that calmly sure. “Yeah. Yeah, we’ll figure it out.

The picnic blanket had been spread out in the shade of a tree, but sunlight filtered through, making a dappled pattern on the blanket. Jason’s eyes started to drift shut as the warmth of the sunlight seeped into him, banishing the lingering cobwebs from the forest.

When he opened his eyes again, there were leaves covering them.

Jason sat up in a shower of leaves, dusting the green off. The sun had started setting, streaking dusty pink across the sky. “What the…?”

“Vee got you, too?” Willow asked with a grin, plucking a leaf out of her own hair, “Guess we know who we can’t trust around here.”

“I wanted to see how many I could pile on before you woke up,” Vee replied serenely, “Not my fault you’re both such heavy sleepers.”

“You should pour water on her when she’s asleep tonight,” Jason suggested to Willow.

Vee gasped. “Don’t you dare!”

“Guys,” Luz called in a hushed whisper, “Over here! Look, the fireflies are out!”

“Uh-oh,” Willow mumbled.

Jason jumped up, making his way over to Luz, who was catching one in her hands. The little creatures lit up the grass in gentle sparkles as far as the eye could see. Jason snatched one out of the air, and it sat on his palm, glowing agreeably.

“Don’t touch those!” Willow yelped, smacking Luz’s hand. Hunter’s staff whooshed just above Jason’s palm, and the bug tumbled off.

“Are you crazy?!” Hunter yelped, “Are you looking to get burned?!”

Jason laughed. “Oh, there are so many weird things about yourself that you don’t know.” He caught another bug. “I catch ‘em all the time. Fire doesn’t hurt us, not unless it’s really hot. Neither does boiling water.” He frowned at Luz. “Not sure what you’re up to, though. You’re not hurt, are you?”

She shook her head, capturing another. “They don’t burn you in the human realm.”

Jason squinted at the little bug in his hand. “…Huh.”

Luz deposited hers in Willow’s hand. “See? Just a little guy!”

“Just a little guy,” Willow repeated.

Luz grabbed Hunter’s arm. “C’mon, look—” she grabbed a jar from the picnic basket and scooped a firefly into it, gently herding the creature with her hand. “Be gentle!” She handed Hunter the jar, and he wafted another bug into the container. His eyes lit up, and then he and Luz were running all over the field, shooing more into the jar.

Willow stood with a variety of plants curled around her arms, and the fireflies landed on them, turning her arms into glowing wreaths. Hunter ran back up, proudly displayed his jar full of fireflies, then settled down to watch them glow gently in the jar, riveted. Luz crouched next to him, watching the little creatures with a smile.

Jason sat down in the grass, and a few of the bugs landed on his arms. “Hello, there,” he said softly.

Do Mom and Dad know about this place?

Did they catch fireflies here?

Did Uncle Belos?

Jason couldn’t imagine his tall, stately uncle running around chasing fireflies, not the way he could picture his parents laughing and competing to see who could catch the most fireflies.

He held his hand out for another firefly. He could see wanting to protect this place, glowing with the soft light of the little bugs.

Did he even remember the little things like fireflies?

Or were they lost to the centuries?

Jason shook his head. In the end, it didn’t really matter, did it? There wasn’t a single person that Jason cared about that Belos hadn’t hurt in some way. Even if he’d really wanted to protect this realm… it hadn’t been worth the damage he’d caused.

Hunter opened the firefly jar, and the creatures slowly floated up and away, like tiny light glyphs streaking up towards the sky where they joined the stars.

Jason traced unfamiliar constellations in the sky.

“You know, they say that fireflies can lead you where you need to go,” Camila commented, sitting down next to him, “Legend claims that they’ll light the way home.”

Jason hummed in response.

That would be nice.

He flopped backwards, watching the fireflies flit out of the grass around him and stream up and away towards the sky. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Luz watching them go, her foot tracing the shape of a light glyph in the dirt.

It would be nice, if some outside force could suddenly whisk them home.

Jason shook his head, reaching up and grasping for the fireflies.

But we’ll have to build our own way back.

Chapter Text

Jason heard the car rumble above him, and he rolled out from under it, popping to his feet. “Augh! Don’t run over anything!”

In the driver’s seat Camila screamed, putting a hand to her chest and rolling down the window. “Were you under there?!”

“Sorry, sorry, sorry—” Jason gathered up his library book and flashlight from under the car. “I lost track of time, I didn’t realize you were going to pick up Luz!”

Camila let out a sigh. “Put a sign in the windshield next time? You could have really gotten hurt!”

“Sorry,” Jason repeated.

“What are you doing, anyway? Not scavenging my car for door parts, I hope.”

“No, no. Not…” Jason twisted his thumbs around each other. “I was thinking I could help out? Financially, I mean. If I could get a job as a mechanic, or—”

“Oh—Jason, you don’t have to…” Camila took a deep breath. “That’s very sweet of you. But most places are going to ask a… lot of questions. About where you were born, who your parents are, your ID… I don’t know if you can feasibly…”

“Well, we have to figure that out, don’t we? If…” Jason’s lip wobbled, and he bit it. “It’s just… we’ve been here a while, and we haven’t made any headway on getting back, so—so—I’m the oldest, and I figure I should find a way to help you, because if we’re going to keep staying here…” Jason twisted the bottom of his T-shirt in his hands. “I… I don’t know if we can get back from this side, which means we might have to wait for someone on the other side to reach over, and they’d have to know we were here, which… Phoenix knows where we are, so if he escaped, he could—but he’d have to have escaped, and… I want to help out is the bottom line. You’ve done so much for us, taken care of us for months—”

“And I’ll keep taking care of you as long as you need,” Camila interrupted, “Until you can figure something out from this side, or until someone on the other side reaches out.”

“But how long can you keep doing that?” Jason shook his head. “Feeding us, the clothing, the pieces for the door—”

“Hey. Hey! Your parents took care of twenty-five kids. I think I can handle seven.” She put a hand on his cheek. “Okay?”

“Okay. But if I can help—”

“I’ll let you know.” Her thumb brushed just under his eye. “Ay. Were you up all night again? Your eyes look like you got punched.”

Jason shrugged.

“Jason. You can’t help anyone if you’re not taking care of yourself. I swear, you and Luz are two peas in a pod, sometimes. Speaking of which, I’ve got to go pick her up. Take a nap, Jason. Car’s going somewhere.”

“Okay,” he grumbled.

Camila backed out of the driveway, and Jason went back inside, locking the door behind him. The kids were at the portal door house again, so the Noceda household was near silent.

It made Jason’s skin crawl. He hadn’t been somewhere this quiet since his golden guard days. Still, the background hum of the refrigerator provided enough noise in the silence that when he sat down on the couch and opened his book again, his head started to nod, and the book tumbled from his hands.

Jason!

“Jason!”

Something shook Jason violently, and he started awake, rolling off of the couch and tripping over his own feet before finally stabilizing. “I’m up!” he yelped, “I’m awake, what’s wrong, I’ve got it!”

“Nothing’s wrong!” Hunter assured him quickly, “Well—Amity might have twisted her ankle falling in a hole Flapjack made, but nothing’s wrong wrong.”

Jason rubbed his eyes. “What’s happening?”

Amity held out a little red box. “Look! It was in the floorboards of the h—”

Jason snatched the box out of her hands. “This is Mom’s!” he blurted out, heart pounding in his chest, “This is Mom’s box!”

“I knew it had to do something with the demon realm!” Amity crowed.

“What do you mean, it’s your mom’s box?” Gus asked, taking it out of Jason’s hand and turning it over.

“There’s—” Jason ran a hand through his hair, forcing his words to slow down. “We have boxes like these in the house, Mom uses them to hold potion ingredients or seeds mostly. This is… what is it doing here?!”

“Not to freak you out even more,” Amity said slowly, “but there was something inside.”

“WHAT?!”

Amity held out a scroll. “It’s some kind of… we don’t know. There’s pictures and writing, but we can’t make heads or tails of it. Any ideas?”

Jason took the scroll, shaking his head as he turned it around and around in his hands. He was almost certain he recognized his mother’s hand, but what did the symbols mean? “I… Uh…” He rubbed his eyes again. “Sorry, doesn’t look familiar. I mean, give me longer with it, maybe I can figure something out, but… have you shown it to Luz yet? Is she home from school?”

Amity shook her head. “We want to make sure it’s not a dead end before we get her hopes up.”

“Do you know how to convince the car to take us to town yet?” Gus piped up, “We’re going to check in town for clues tomorrow.”

“Do I… I can’t drive. No.” Jason moved to the kitchen, holding the scroll up to the light. “Mmmmmmm…

Amity and Hunter glanced at each other, and the kids all filed outside. The wood muffled their voices, but Jason could still hear them through the door.

“I told you we shouldn’t tell him, either,” Hunter’s voice said, “He’s going to obsess over it.”

“And he’ll stay up all night studying it,” Gus agreed, “We didn’t want to tell Luz because we didn’t want to get her hopes up for another dead end, but he might be just as disappointed.”

“We woke him up for it, too. Amity, I don’t think he’s slept in… I don’t know how long. I never see him in the basement.”

“Sorry,” Amity sighed, “I just…” Her voice dropped even further, and Jason had to strain to hear. “You saw how he reacted to the box. It’s starting to get kind of obvious that you two’s… dad? Was neck deep in all of this portal business. If anyone has some kind of subconscious clue or hint, it’ll be him.”

Jason rolled up the scroll.

Great. Instead of taking care of them, I’ve just made them all worry. Good going, Jason.

When they came back in, Jason handed the scroll back to Amity. He practically had to pry his fingers off of it, but he gave her a bright smile, as if nothing was wrong. “We’ll work on it tomorrow?”

“Yeah. We’ll work on it tomorrow.”

Xxx

Jason circled the house, but it was more routine than an actual patrol at this point. There was nothing in peaceful suburbia that would hurt them. There hadn’t been anything (except for a swarm of bees) that had even tried.

Jason rubbed his eyes, and took one last look out into the darkness.

Blue eyes blinked back.

Jason ran towards them, scooping up a big stick as his feet thumped across the ground. The blue eyes vanished, but he could hear rustling in the bushes, and he charged towards the sound, following it into the forest.

Jason kicked at a bush as the rustling stopped.

A raccoon lunged out, hissing, and bit his foot, its eyes shining a reflective blue in the light of Jason’s flashlight. Jason yelped, hopping up and down and shaking his foot to dislodge the creature before it could bite through his shoe. It let go, skittering off into the trees.

Jason shook his foot. Didn’t seem like the raccoon had managed to break skin, at least. He sighed, making his way back towards the house.

There’s nothing out there.

If he were still alive, he’d have done something by now.

Every time you look, there’s nothing there.

You’re just swinging at shadows.

Jason followed Gus down the basement stairs, opting to walk all the way down the stairs rather than swing off of the beam like Gus did. Hunter sat on the side, a machine humming as he fed cloth through it.

“Whoo!” Gus cheered as he landed perfectly on the couch, “We’ve got a big day ahead of us, so I’m going to buenas this noches!”

Jason’s nose crinkled. I don’t think that’s how that phrase works.

Hunter nodded, focused on the cloth in the machine. “Mhm. Ow!” He shook his hand.

Gus sat up. “You okay? That sounded… painful.”

Hunter waved a hand. “I’ve been training in the emperor’s coven for as long as I can remember. I think I can handle a little—”

Jason opened his mouth to warn him that his hand was heading right for the needle, but too late. Hunter squeaked.

“pain!” he yipped, biting his lip.

Gus hissed. “Oooo, that went clean through.” He wrapped Hunter’s finger up in a bandage. “Awwwwwwww, what was it you said, Jason? Healing is feeling?”

“Give his finger a kiss,” Jason suggested with a grin, “It’ll heal faster.”

Hunter snatched his hand away as Gus made an exaggerated kissy face. “Don’t you dare, that is so unsanitary!” He scuttled back towards the machine. “Camila taught me how to use this sewing contraption! Even Darius’ stitches have never been this neat!”

Jason’s grin faded at the mention.

Did Darius make it out okay?

Titan, I hope so, or Phoenix will be crushed.

“Oh, and look at what I made!” Hunter continued. He held up a shirt that was absolutely COVERED in images of the same creature. It looked almost like the balls of fluff and slobber Jason had seen on the end of leashes around Camila’s neighborhood, but bigger, sleeker, and more dangerous. “These are mystical beasts called wolves! And I love them.”

“Oh, I’ve read about wolves in some of the books dad got from the human realm!” Jason piped up, “They were usually villains that eat grandmas, though.”

Hunter gasped, holding his shirt closer to his chest. “Wolves are amazing and they are misunderstood creatures unfairly villainized by small-minded humans! They would never eat your grandma! Unless she deserved it!”

“Alright, alright, I believe you. They were just stories.”

“The shirt looks great,” Gus soothed Hunter. The younger boy tilted his head. “You know, you’ve been smiling a lot more since we’ve been here.”

Jason settled down into his sleeping bag while Hunter shook his head. “It’s not like I don’t want to return! I just… need a way to pass the time! That’s all.”

“No. It’s good to see you happy.” Gus pulled the blankets over himself. “One of us might as well be,” he followed up gloomily.

Jason turned over, facing the opposite wall.

Is he happier here?

Well, of course he was. He’d only been away from Belos for a few days in the demon realm, he’d hardly gotten time to breathe and enjoy his freedom.

But what if he was happier here? What if he didn’t want to go back? What if, even if—when—they made a working door, Hunter stayed in the human realm?

You said you’d support him, no matter what he chose.

So do that.

Still.

“What was it like in the Emperor’s coven?” Gus asked softly.

Jason heard a sigh from Hunter. “I trained a lot. I studied a lot. I wasn’t really allowed to be around the other scouts. But weekends were nice! I got to leave the castle for missions.”

There hadn’t really been a “coven” or “scouts” when Jason had been the golden guard. The Empire hadn’t been anything more than a concept. But he remembered long nights keeping watch, with nothing but the stars and rampant paranoia about every sound to keep him company. He remembered staying close to Uncle Belos’ side on the few trips into town, he remembered being told not to talk to any witches on those outings. Not even stall vendors.

When they’d camped closer to a town, Jason would watch it in the night. He’d see flickering fires, and occasionally hear shouts or music. He’d never doubted that Uncle Belos was keeping him safe by keeping him separate, but sometimes, he wished he could go down where the fires and music were. Sometimes, he even invented a whole story about a threat he’d chased from the camp to the town. In case he actually went, and needed an excuse.

He’d never needed it.

Hunter’s experience somehow sounded the same—even surrounded by other scouts, he’d been alone. Isolated. Not for the first time, Jason’s heart ached for home. For a house full of people who understood what it had been like, to love him and be betrayed by him.

“Do you miss it?” Gus asked.

“I miss knowing who I’m supposed to be.”

Jason’s heart clenched in his chest.

It had almost been nice to have a destiny, for as long as it had lasted.

“I miss my dad,” Gus said softly.

Yeah. Me too.

Jason started to roll over to face them again, when Hunter spoke again.

“We’ll make it back. We have to.”

Gus gasped. “Oh my titan! That’s a line from this book I found. Cosmic Frontier! It’s a story that takes place in the stars!”

Hunter snorted. “Why would anyone wanna go up there?”

“I don’t know. Humans love spreading their junk everywhere. But it’s a story of people trying to get back home, just like us!”

“Uh-huh.”

Jason rolled over the rest of the way to face them, head propped up on his hand. “Yeah?”

“We got Captain Avery, Security Officer Quando, and a Chief Engineer O’Bailey who’s hiding as a clone from an enemy planet!”

Jason poked Hunter. “Sounds familiar.”

“Ha, ha. What, uh. What happens to him?”

Gus grinned, wiggling his eyebrows theatrically and opening a closet door. “I guess you’ll have to find out.”

Hunter shrugged, wriggling under his sleeping bag with the flashlight and the book. Jason turned off the light, and Gus’ breathing slowly evened out, inhaling and exhaling in little puffs. The flashlight clicked off, and Hunter wiggled around in his sleeping bag until Jason could see his outline facing him.

“Jason?” Hunter whispered.

“Mmm?”

“Do you ever miss it? Miss… him… I mean.”

Of course not, Jason wanted to say immediately, How could I ever miss someone who hurt me and everyone I love?

He sighed.

“Sometimes,” he admitted, “Do you?”

“Is that bad?”

“Kind of feels bad. Inside, I mean.” Jason twisted his shirt in his hands. “I don’t know. He hurt us.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“But… he wasn’t always hurting us? And maybe I was always having to manage his moods, and change who I was to whatever he needed at the moment, but… sometimes it wasn’t so bad. He gave us magic.”

Hunter grunted in agreement.

“I guess I kind of miss the good parts, even though they came with the bad. I wouldn’t want to go back, though. If he showed up again.”

“No,” Hunter agreed. He didn’t say anything else for a while, and Jason thought he might have fallen asleep. But then, “I didn’t want to hurt him. I couldn’t hurt him. Even after everything, I… I didn’t fight back.”

Jason hummed thoughtfully.

“Is that bad?”

“I don’t think so. I couldn’t hurt him, either.”

“But you did. You fought him.”

“Yeah, because Phoenix was in danger. I don’t know. I guess in that moment, I just had to protect Phoenix, and that was the only thing that mattered. You didn’t get put in a situation where someone you loved was about to die. And that’s a good thing, I think.”

“I guess.”

Another long silence.

“Jason?”

“Mhm?”

“What would you do? If he showed up again.”

“He’s dead, Hunter.” The words clumped heavy in Jason’s throat, and he blinked back tears. “He’s dead, and he’s not coming back.”

Hunter sniffled. “Yeah. I know. But if he did come back?”

“I’d do whatever I had to. I’d keep you—and Gus, and Willow, and Amity, and Vee, and Luz, all of you—safe. Whatever it took.”

“Not whatever. You can’t die. People are waiting for you.”

A smile tugged at Jason’s lips. “Alright, alright. I’d do anything short of dying. That sounds fair.”

The flashlight clicked back on. “Go to sleep, Jason? I’ll stay up tonight. I want to read this book, anyway.”

Jason laughed softly, rolling over in his sleeping bag and snuggling into his pillow. “Alright, deal. Don’t kill your eyes, okay?”

“No promises.”

Chapter Text

“Alright!” Amity waved the scroll around in the air. “Luz is at her mom's vet clinic putting tiny little bandages on…” her face scrunched up, and she made air quotes. “...’hedgehogs?’ So today, we're going into town to solve this code.”

“Ears!” Gus reminded everyone. He drew a circle in the air, and his hat moved on its own to cover his ears. Jason tugged the hood of his flannel up, hiding his ears from view.

“Routes!” Vee affirmed, holding up a map.

Willow twisted around, displaying a bag full of smaller, crinklier bags. “Snacks, check!”

“Human disguise?” Hunter said from the behind them, “Check!”

“We already said eaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrsssssssssss,” Jason trailed off as Hunter emerged from a back room, wearing… Jason didn’t even know WHAT he was wearing. Some kind of jumpsuit, yellow and black, with a… device on his head.

“Eh?”

Willow grinned, snapping a picture. “Oh, that is a look.”

“What’s that on your face?” Jason asked, “Did you build it?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhh kind of?”

“What’s it do?”

Hunter grinned. “Well, it’s not as impressive as an exploding door electric door, but…” He pushed a button on the side, and the red center lit up. “Ha! Analytical eye!”

“Nice.”

Hunter strode forward, gesturing towards the outfit. “According to Cosmic Frontier, this is what the modern human male wears!”

Vee took the book from him. “This was written in the nineties about the year two thousand eight.”

“Yeah!” Hunter waved a hand. “Can’t wait for that New Year’s Party!”

“Are humans even close to getting to the stars?” Jason asked.

“They went to the moon,” Willow offered, “I saw it in Luz’s science homework.”

“They went to the moon?!” Jason yelped.

“Did you get to the last chapter?” Gus asked Hunter.

Amity clapped her hands. “We’re getting off topic! Hunter, I don’t think the world is ready for the brave fashion choices of the year two thousand eight. Please change.”

Willow gasped, covering Amity’s mouth. “Don’t listen to her!”

Vee shifted to her human form, shaking the map. “We’re going to miss the bus!”

Hunter held his hands up. “Oh, it’s okay! I’ll catch up. There’s a transport worm every half hour!”

“I’ll wait with you,” Jason volunteered. How was he supposed to get on a bus and go back to solving the puzzle when he knew humans had been to the moon?

“Nah, go. No sense getting rid of an extra pair of eyes just to wait here with me.”

Jason shrugged. “Alright. Don’t forget to hide your ears?”

“Go, Jason, you’re going to miss the worm!”

“I’m going, I’m going!”

Jason ran out of the door after the other kids, pushing down thoughts of the moon and how on earth humans had managed to reach it. They raced towards the bus station, barely sliding on the vehicle before the doors started to close. Jason sat down next to Willow, his leg bouncing up and down frantically. He looked back out the window.

“What if he misses the next bus?” he broke out.

“Then he’ll get the one after,” Willow answered calmly.

“What if he doesn’t get off at the right stop, and he goes out of Gravesfield?”

Willow put one hand on his knee, stopping the bouncing. “Then he will get on a bus coming back. He’ll be okay, Jason. He’s a big boy, he can take care of himself.”

Jason nodded. “Right, right. You’re right, I know. He can.” Jason stared out the window again with a sigh. “But what if he gets off at the right stop and then he can’t find us?”

“Jason,” Amity said in a cheerfully threatening voice, her eyes fixed on the scroll, “If you do not quit fussing like a worried mother griffin, we will ditch you at the bus stop.”

Jason shut his mouth, sinking into his seat. “Yep. Okay. Not fussing anymore. Totally cool and fine and not worried about Hunter at all.”

“Good.”

“He’ll be okay,” Willow repeated, “You’re psyching yourself out.”

“Yeah. Yeah, he’ll be fine.”

The bus pulled to a stop, and Amity pointed towards a store. “First stop! The Magic Circle!”

The inside of the store was dimly lit, the walls packed with costume materials and decorations. Jason roamed the aisles while Amity talked to the store owner. Nothing here seemed to actually be magical. Even the crystal balls were battery powered.

Halloween.

If that was an earth holiday, it was newer than Dad’s time. Or at least Jason had never heard of it. He poked at a set of fake horns.

Dedicated to the Boiling Isles?

Stuff had leaked between realms before, Jason knew that, but an entire holiday’s worth of stuff? Given that he’d only ever been told about how much the human realm hated anything to do with magic, it was hard to believe. But things had changed—they must have. Luz was proof of that.

Jason heard yelling from the front of the store, and he ran to the front to see the cashier chasing the kids out of the store. She glared at Jason. “OUT,” she thundered.

He scooted towards the door. “Yep, bye, sorry about them, so sorry, I—”

“Just! Get!”

“Getting!”

Maybe the human realm hadn’t changed that much.

Jason nearly slammed into Willow as she dashed back to drop a couple of snails in the cashier’s hand before running off again. They raced across the street to a park, and Jason stopped dead.

“Whoa,” he breathed, staring up at a huge statue.

Willow and Gus came to a halt next to him, tilting their heads. “Is that…”

“My dad,” Jason said with a small smile, “Ha. This statue makes him look like such a stick in the mud. Look at it!” He struck the pose that the statue was making. “I’m going to go hunt something and mount it on my wall!”

There was a flash of light, and Willow held out the photo, the image still murky. “Here. So you can show him when you get back.”

Jason grinned, tucking the photo into his pocket. “Oh, he’s going to hate it.” The grin faded as his gaze shifted towards the other part of the statue. “Oh.”

Amity circled back. “Come on, guy—oh, that’s weird, it looks just like you and Hunter, anyway, come on. The library. Let’s move it.”

Vee waved for them to follow and led them to a huge building filled with rows and rows of books.

At any other time, Jason would have been ecstatic to be here. He knew that the stack of books on electricity and machinery that Camila had brought him had come from this building. Maybe there were even books that would tell him how humans had gotten to the moon!

But he paced in front of the building instead of skimming over the shelves. “Shouldn’t Hunter have caught up to us by now?”

“The busses go every half hour,” Vee reminded him, “He’s probably just gotten to Gravesfield. He’ll be here, Jason.”

Willow and Gus escorted a bright-red Amity out of the building, shaking their heads. “Nothing.”

“I yelled,” Amity said in a hushed tone, “In a library! I’m a monster.”

“You just got startled,” Gus assured her, “Could have happened to anyone.”

Amity solemnly held out a card attached to a lanyard. “Jason, I need you to destroy this. I don’t deserve it.”

Jason took it from her. An employee nametag for the Bonesborough library with Amity’s name and picture on it. “Have you just had this our whole time here?”

“Of course. I always carry it with me. I wouldn’t want to lose it, or worse, let Ed and Em get their hands on it. I thought if they knew I was a librarian, maybe they’d be more willing to share secrets. But they’d never believe it. Not after my failure to access the card catalogue, and my disgraceful shouting.”

Jason plunked the lanyard around her neck. “I’m not ripping it up. You’re not a bad librarian, Amity. Where else are we checking?”

Amity gulped. “The zoo,” she whispered.

“The zoo?”

Gus’s eyes lit up, and he bounced up and down. “Yesssssssssssss!” He took off down the street, and everyone else chased after.

Jason tugged on his hood, struggling to keep his ears covered as he ran. “What’s at the zoo?”

“Giraffes,” Vee supplied.

“Giraffes? Got themselves jailed here, too, huh?”

“Gus has always wanted to reestablish contact with them,” Willow told him, “It’s been his lifelong dream.”

“You really think they’ll be able to help us?”

“They’re the only thing in this realm that we know came from ours, so it’s worth a shot.”

“You don’t think they’ll… I don’t know, eat our faces?”

“They do that?!” Vee yelped.

“Saw one strip a witch’s bones off their flesh in a matter of seconds once,” Jason said grimly.

“Er—did you mean strip the flesh off their bones?” Amity ventured.

“No. I didn’t.”

The kids gulped, linking arms as they headed towards the enclosure. Jason followed, scanning the area for anything that could be used as a weapon. Gus bowed to the giraffe, offering it the scroll. It didn’t respond except for a flick of the ears.

Jason squinted as they backed away. What are you up to?

Willow snapped a picture, and the giraffe blinked, irritated at the flash, before screeching, its face opening and revealing its mandibles. Jason grabbed Willow’s collar, yanking her back and herding all the kids towards the gate. “Go, go, go!” he yelped, “Before it eats our bones!”

They all ran for the exit, collapsing at a bench. Gus headed towards the food stand, and Jason raised a hand. “Okay, raise your hand if you didn’t get eaten.”

Willow, Amity, and Vee all raised their hands. “Can’t believe you saw one of those when they were still in the isles,” Amity shuddered, “That must have been terrifying.”

Jason winced. “I was lucky I wasn’t the one who got my bones eaten. Belos is the only worse nightmare fuel.”

Gus shook his head, plopping down a plate of nachos. “I don’t blame our ancestors for banishing those guys. Eesh.”

Jason snagged one of his nachos. “Told you. They’re awful creatures.” He took the scroll from Amity, holding it up to the light. Still nothing. Whatever the symbols meant, he didn’t know.

What were you trying to say, Mom?

“Where else can we check?”

Vee sighed. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but… I think I know where to go next.”

“Great. Where?”

“Gravesfield History Museum. I haven’t been there since… I mean, it’s old, if there’s anything, it’ll be there. Hopefully. Yeah. Let’s just go.”

Gus scarfed down the rest of his nachos, and they headed down the road. Jason glanced around. “Hunter’s still not here.”

“This is our last stop,” Vee promised, “We’ll find him right after. He probably just got lost, or is a couple of steps behind us. We’ll all meet up back at the house, I bet.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I bet.”

Jason, Amity, and Gus all headed towards the museum, Willow and Vee following after a moment. Vee kicked down the door.

“HAAAAHHuuuuuh? You’re not Jacob.”

The clerk at the desk snorted. The tag on their desk read ‘Masha.’ “We can all thank Goddess for that. He got fired after he started making ‘edits’ to the exhibits. I work part time now!” They leaned forward. “Say, have we met? Something about you seems… familiar.”

Vee laughed nervously. “Uh, no. I’m new in town. I just have one of those faces.” Her eyes widened. “But—just the one. The normal amount of face.”

Jason winced, but Masha just leaned back with a laugh. “What a coincidence! Me too!” They held out a pamphlet. “If you ever need a tour guide, hit me up!”

Amity stepped forward, unrolling the scroll. “We’re actually here to ask about this old puzzle. Do you know how to decode it?”

Masha reached out, taking the scroll from her. “Oooo, a rebus! They dug up a bunch of these in Old Gravesfield!”

“This is a rebus?” Gus asked, moving around the desk to look at the scroll with them.

“Yeah. It's like a riddle where pictures and symbols make up a word. Like—Come here.” They jabbed at an image of an ear on the rebus, and everyone moved a little closer. “What do you think they were trying to say?”

Gus tugged on his hat. “CHOP OFF AN EAR!”

“No. See the H that comes first? Then combine that with the ear and maybe it means "hear" like, to listen. Or, "here" as in a place. Maybe something is waiting somewhere.”

Bing!

Masha jumped up at the sound. “I’ll be right back,” they promised, disappearing into a back room.

Jason shook his head, peering at the rebus. I’m listening, Mom. What is it you’re saying?

Amity picked up the scroll again, walking away. “If this is a portal door then what about these? A—a ribbon and… tanning a hide?”

“That ribbon is tied,” Willow pointed out.

“Next to that hand with a cut,” Gus supplied.

Willow frowned. “You don’t think…”

Gus’ eyes widened. “This is leading us to…”

“Tie… tans… blood?”

All three of them gasped. “Titan’s blood!” they chorused.

Jason started pacing. “Mom and Dad! They used to jump back and forth between realms, Dad would come and visit her, then go back to the human realm! Of course they needed titan’s blood for that, and of course she must have hidden some here for him to use! There might still be a vial left!”

Vee ran her hands through her hair. “It’s like you’re reading each other’s minds! You must have been friends forever!”

The three separated, and Amity looked down at the ground. “It… wasn’t always like this.”

Willow smiled. “These past few months have been… weird… but…” she pulled out a scrapbook, opening it up to show them a pictures pasted in. “look at all the new memories we have now! It's been nice to finally spend some time together.”

Amity flipped through the scrapbook, a small smile appearing on her face. “Yeah. I can’t wait to show everyone at home.”

Vee tapped her fingers together. “Maybe… the scrapbook could use one more?”

Willow grinned. “Aw, c’mere, Vee!” She pulled out her camera, handing it to Vee and pulling her in.

Gus slung an arm around Jason’s shoulders, yanking him in. “You, too. Everyone sayyyyy ‘giraffes are still terrifying!’”

Jason laughed as the flash went off, warmth bubbling in the pit of his stomach.

Vee squinted at the photo, then jumped. “Hey!” She grabbed the rebus, turning it sideways. “That map of Old Gravesfield looks exactly like this. Do you think it's a map to a stash of Titan's Blood?”

A map!

Thanks, Mom.

Willow turned towards Amity. “With that, we could actually build a portal!” She winked at Jason. “Not that your electric door was a bad idea.”

“It exploded in my face, so I think I’ll take the other.”

“I can't wait to tell Luz!” Amity pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, advertising a Halloween festival. “And I know just how to surprise her.”

“Victory milkshakes?” Gus asked, “Please, please, please?”

Jason raised a hand. “I’m going to go back home. In case Hunter’s there.”

“Alright, go,” Amity told him, giving him a push, “Let him know what we found!”

Jason nodded, dashing for the bus station. His leg bounced up and down the whole way back to the suburbs.

He’s fine.

He can take care of himself.

Jason bolted back towards the house. His hood flew off, exposing his ears, but he’d stopped caring. The car was back—Luz was home. No telling Hunter right now, then. He ran inside, tearing down to the basement. “Hunter?”

He heard a mournful chirp, and his eyes widened as they landed on a cage, a small red bird inside. “Flapjack?!” Jason unlocked the cage. “What happened?! Who did this?! Where’s Hunter?!”

Flapjack latched on the curl of Jason’s hair that refused to comb back, yanking him towards the stairs.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming!”

The bird let go and soared up the stairs. Jason ran after, rushing out of the door and chasing it up towards the old house, his heart pounding in his ears.

Please be okay, please be okay, please…

Hunter and Luz trudged towards him, holding a rake and a baseball bat. Red ringed Hunter’s eyes, as if he’d been crying.

Jason skidded to a halt, reaching out towards Hunter. “Where—permission to touch?”

Hunter nodded, and Jason shook his shoulders. “Where were you?! You didn’t catch up with us in town, and I’ve been wondering where you were all day, and I came back and found Flapjack in a cage-!”

Flapjack chirped at that, landing on Hunter’s shoulder and giving his ear a fierce peck.

“Ow! Sorry, I’m sorry, Flapjack, I shouldn’t have done that, and I’m sorry I worried you, Jason, I just…” Hunter took a deep breath. “I thought I saw Belos, and I freaked out, and Luz was checking with me, but it’s okay! It was nothing, just my mind playing tricks on me!”

The world slowed at ‘Belos,’ and Jason struggled to heave air into his lungs, his legs wobbling. He clutched Hunter’s shoulders tighter, barely able to keep upright. “You saw Uncle Belos?” he whispered.

Hunter winced, grabbing his forearms to keep him up. “Yes—Jason, it’s okay, it’s fine, it was just my imagination.”

“No,” Jason whispered. He shook his head, looking up at Hunter. “Hunter, it’s—I’ve been seeing… I don’t know, flashes of blue eyes, I thought I saw his cursed mud—it’s been happening as long as we’ve been here, but it was only ever out of the corner of my eye, and it was never there when I looked closer, so I… but if you’re seeing him, too, then—then—”

Hunter glanced at Luz, but guided Jason calmly to a fallen log, sitting him down. “Then nothing. We both… look, both of us had to live with him, and both of us were hurt by him. So it makes sense that when we’re stressed… and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first time I saw him was after I spent all night up reading that book. If you were seeing him, it was probably because you weren’t getting enough sleep, and now that I pulled an all-nighter, I saw him, too.”

“Belos is dead,” Luz said firmly, “It was just a possum.”

“He’s gone,” Hunter agreed, “Jason, he’s gone.”

“He’s gone,” Jason mumbled, “I just…”

Luz nudged his shoulder. “Hey. We’ll all keep an eye out, just in case. But if there was never anything there when you looked closer… Hunter’s right. You both were hurt by Belos. It makes sense that you’d share that kind of hallucination when you’re tired and stressed.” Luz offered him a hand up. “Come on. Let’s go back home.”

Jason accepted her hand, glancing back at the old house as she tugged him back away.

No blue eyes.

No mud.

Just a regular house.

When they returned, the other kids and Camila sat in the living room looking through boxes.

“Oh, you found him,” Gus remarked cheerfully.

“Yes!” Hunter said too loudly, “We’re back! And we bought some, uhhhh, cars!”

Luz elbowed him, while Jason nodded vigorously. It was a terrible lie, but that was what they were working with now.

“For me! To take apart!”

Luz let out a soft half-sigh, half-groan.

Amity looked up from one of the boxes. “Luz! We’re designing our costumes for the haunted hayride!”

Gus bounced to his feet, sliding up to Hunter. “Guess what I’ve got planned?” He slammed a pair of headphones over his ears. “I’m gonna be Captain Avery, and youuuu’reeeee…” he held out a little box thing, and Hunter gasped, taking it from him.

“Chief Engineer O’Bailey!”

Camila gulped. “Uhhhhh howwwww do you know about Cosmic Frontier?”

Hunter smiled. “Oh, the books in your basement.”

“Oh. Funny how things just show up in basements, right? Without you hiding or putting them there!” She laughed nervously. “Life sure is full of surprises!”

Beginning to see where Luz got her level of lying ability from.

Gus looked at her for a moment, and then shrugged. “Cool! Humans freak out just like us!”

Willow dug through one of the boxes. “It’ll be fun! We want to experience your weird human traditions.” She popped in a set of fake plastic teeth, cackling.

Amity put a hand to her chest, holding up the TV remote. “And I thought you and I could take inspiration froooooom…Good Witch Azura The Movie 2: The Betrayaning!” she clicked the button, and the TV clicked on, playing one of Luz’s movies. “I could be the Hecate to your Azura. What do you think?”

“Oh, wow,” Luz murmured, “Yeah, let’s do it!”

Gus nudged Jason. “What are you going to be?”

Jason plopped down next to Willow, pushing aside bits of costume inside the box. “Hmmm. Everyone else seems to be matching. Got any more of those teeth, Willow?”

She grinned, offering him another set. Jason bit down on them and hissed at her. The plastic was awkward in his mouth, but that was fine.

She hissed back. “Creatures of the night! I will be the lord of bats, and youuuuuuu…”

“House of crows! How about a dark pact?” Jason suggested, “We are allies, once of houses at war, now we fight against the forces of light that seek to destroy our clans!”

“Nice. While we attack, we find out that we are actually… long lost siblings, our parents torn apart by the war of the clans! Each took one of us with them, hoping that one day, we’d end the war and unite the two.”

Jason laughed. “Perfect.” He glanced out the window, straining to see any sign of blue eyes, or mud oozing across the ground.

Nothing.

He’s gone.

It was all in your head.

Xxx

Jason yawned as he climbed onto the hay cart. He’d been up all night again, occasionally patrolling outside. Not that he’d seen anything. But every time he’d gone into the basement and curled up in his spot near Hunter and Gus, the hairs on the back of his neck rose, and his gut started to churn.

Masha grinned at them from the front of the cart. “I hope you’re all prepared for a truly scary ride!”

“Make us cry!” Willow and Gus chanted, “Make us cry!”

“…because there’s NOTHING scarier than knowledge,” Masha continued.

Gus drooped. “Booo, just lie to me!”

The cart rattled forward, bumping and shaking.

“Let me tell you about the eeriest unsolved mystery of Gravesfield…”

Jason fiddled with the plastic teeth in his mouth, wiggling them into place more firmly.

“The tale of the Brother’s Wittebane!”

Jason bit down on his thumb with a yelp. He shook his hand, looking up at Masha, then to the side as lights clicked on, revealing cardboard constructions that made a picture of an older gravesfield.

“The year is 1613. Two orphaned brothers arrive in Gravesfield.” Two cardboard puppets of children’s profiles dropped down, and Jason traced his own nose looking at the younger image of his father.

“Their names? Philip… and Caleb. Caleb did his best to take care of his younger brother. They tried to fit in with this town, and its unsavory practices. They became witch-hunters!”

Willow and Gus glanced at Jason, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, sinking low into his seat.

A cardboard cutout of a witch swooped down from the sky, flying around. “Local lore suggests that the Brothers Caleb met a real witch from another world! Her name was Evelyn. And the older brother was spirited away.”

A smile started to play on Jason’s face, even though the cardboard cutout of the witch looked nothing like his mother. He leaned towards Hunter. “Mom and Dad’s love story,” he whispered, “I’ve heard this part before.”

Hunter made a discontented ‘hm’ noise in response.

“She dazzled him with magic and visions of a strange yet beautiful place. They used a secret code to travel between worlds. Philip set off to save his brother and bring the witch to justice. But neither were ever seen again! Maybe Philip saved Caleb, and they went on to lead peaceful lives. Or maybe…” Masha turned the flashlight on, pointing the light at their faces. “…he's still chasing his brother, caught in a cycle of horror and strife!”

“Oooooorrr maybe Caleb’s living secretly in the woods with his wife and twenty-five clones of himself,” Jason whispered to Gus. The younger boy snorted.

Masha turned off the flashlight as the ride came to a stop. “Sounds like big bro got a hot witch girlfriend and little bro got upset. But that's just me.”

Jason barked a laugh, then covered his mouth with his hand when Masha’s eyebrow quirked up at him. “Sorry.” How had they gotten it so right?

He got off of the hayride, stretching. He waved to the cardboard cutout of Evelyn.

See you soon, Mom.

Hunter beckoned towards him. “Jason, over here,” he hissed.

Jason glanced around at the other kids, then followed Hunter behind a building. “What’s up?”

Hunter took a deep breath. “I think Belos is here.”

Jason’s heartbeat pounded in his ears at the words, his vision tunnelling in on Hunter. “You’re sure? You saw him again?”

“I did, and I thought I was just imagining things, but I saw him again, Jason, he’s here.”

“Okay.” Jason gulped. “Okay. So—so… okay. Okay, then we need to call off the surprise.” He turned around to go back to the others. “We can’t go after the blood if he’s around, we can’t risk him follo—”

Jason didn’t know what happened. One moment, he was walking back towards the main fair, and the next, he laid on the ground, blinking stars out of his eyes. His head screamed in pain, and his ears rang, but even through the ringing he heard a voice creeping in.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”

Was it a warning?

He’s not just in the area.

He’s here.

Jason rolled to his feet, facing Hunter—but not Hunter, his eyes were blue, horrifically, glowing blue. “No,” he whispered, stumbling back. Something sticky dripped down his neck from his head, and his fumbling hand found a gash where he’d been hit.

“You thought that story was cute, did you?” Belos snarled, advancing, “You thought it was a love story?!”

Jason’s back hit the wall. “Hunter, you’re going to be okay, we’ll figure something out. We will. You’re g—”

Hunter’s hand lashed out, gripping Jason’s throat. His face was uncomfortably close, the smell of decay seeping into Jason’s nose. “Hunter is gone.”

“You’re lying,” Jason gasped, prying at Belos’ fingers. He could still breathe, for now, but it was a struggle. “He’s in there, I know—”

“What are you fighting so hard for?” Belos snarled, squeezing harder.

“We’re—going—home,” Jason grated out. Tears ran down his face, and he tugged on Hunter’s arm. Have to get free. Can’t hurt Hunter. “Back—to Mom—and—Dad—they’re waiting for us—”

Belos pulled him away, then slammed him against the wall. A whine escaped Jason’s throat, and his hand dropped from Hunter’s, too heavy to hold up. “They’re not waiting for you,” Belos hissed, “Your ‘father’ doesn’t wait for people. He abandons them.”

“No—”

“Let me tell you the other side of that cute little love story. Your father abandoned me. He left me without a second thought. Oh, Caleb is a wonderful caretaker, at least until he sees something he likes better than you.” Belos’ grip around Jason’s throat tightened even further, and Jason’s vision started to go black. “Where do you think I got the idea to replace my family?” Belos’ voice hissed, “He left his first family. And he’ll leave you, too. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He pulled Jason back again, but Jason barely felt the impact with the wall, barely felt his body crumple to the ground, barely heard the whispered stay here.

“Jason! Jason, wake up!”

“Do we call an ambulance?”

“Jason!”

Jason stared blearily up at the night sky, partly obscured by faces hovering over him. “Mrgh?”

Why didn’t he kill me?

“Let him breathe!”

The faces disappeared, and Jason sat straight up. “Hunter,” he gasped, “Oh—agh—”

His head throbbed, and Camila’s hands caught his shoulders as he sagged. “Easy! Easy. Take it slow.”

I don’t have the time to take it slow!

Jason’s head felt like it was about to fall off his neck and then explode, but he tried to get back up anyway, leaning on the wall for balance. “We—ah—Hunter, where is—”

“He and Luz disappeared, and so did the rebus,” Amity explained, “I don’t know why he’d do that, he knew we were planning—”

Jason took a couple of steps, blinking. The world spun and tilted, and he squeezed his eyes shut to banish the queasiness. “It’s Belos. It’s Belos, he’s here, and he has Hunter, it’s a trap, he’s using her to lead him to the titan’s blood, I—”

Willow grabbed his shoulders. “What do you mean, he has Hunter?!”

“Hunter wouldn’t betray us to him!” Gus protested, “He wouldn’t!”

“He has him captive?” Amity guessed, “But how would he be tricking L—unless Belos has Flapjack, OH, if he’s threatening Flapjack—”

“Let him talk,” Vee shushed, “Jason, what’s happening?!”

Jason put a hand to his head. “He’s got some kind of… control over him, like possession or something, I—”

Camila put her hands on his shoulders, steering him back towards the main street. “We’ll find them. Stay in the car, sweetheart, you’re hu—”

“NO!” Jason broke away from her. “I have to help you find them! I’m responsible for him, he’s family, I have to—”

I’m so sorry, Phoenix, I failed.

I messed up so bad

I let this happen. I knew something was up, I should have insisted

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry

Vee held up her phone. “I’ve got Luz! We just have to get there!”

Camila took the phone from her. “Vee, take Jason to a hospital, I’ll—”

“I’m going,” Jason insisted, shaking off Vee’s hands, “We’ll get there faster if you don’t try to stop me.”

“Ay. Fine. But stay back, Jason, you’re not okay!”

Camila peered at the phone, then started to run, following the dot on the screen. Jason’s heart pressed against his ribcage, trying its best to burst free.

We’re coming

We’re coming for you, Hunter

Titan, please don’t let him hurt Luz

“Flapjack,” he gasped, “Flapjack, Belos eats palisman, Fl—”

“We’ll stop him,” Willow promised, “We’re going to get him back.”

“I think she’s this way!” Amity called.

“Mija?” Camila yelled.

They emerged from the woods in a sunken graveyard, water flooding the whole area, save a small island in the middle where Luz and Hunter faced off in front of a stone archway. Horribly familiar horns had sprouted out of Hunter’s head, and green mud covered his arms.

Hunter tilted his head. “See, this is why you’re so useful, Luz! You’re so desperate to help people that you even helped me meet the Collector!”

Jason’s heart dropped to his stomach.

“What?” Amity whispered

That’s what was bothering her

That’s what…

Luz took a step back. “I—I didn’t mean to! I th-thought I was doing something good!”

She helped him meet the Collector

And that’s how…

Belos held Hunter’s hands out. “You did do something good. I thought this one was another lost cause. Because of you, we can finish our work as witch-hunters, starting—with—them!”

His arms lashed out towards them, and Amity summoned her staff, smacking the arm apart. Jason froze as the other kids dashed forward, trying to subdue Belos.

Useless.

How do I save him?!

Vee leapt forward. “Hang tight, Hunter!”

She inhaled, and Belos’ magic turned blue, draining away from Hunter. Jason saw Belos rear back, and he jumped forward to grab her, even as Amity shouted a warning and Vee was safely tossed backwards.

It’s not working, Jason realized as the kids were slapped out of the air. Trying to appeal to Hunter hadn’t worked. And brute force wasn’t working either.

Uncle Belos is in a mood.

Manage it.

Jason stepped forward, shaking off Camila’s hand on his arm. “You were right,” he called. Belos paused, tilting his head at Jason.

Jason stepped gingerly over Amity, gesturing for them to stay back. His heart stuck in his throat, but he took another step forward. “Caleb shouldn’t have left you,” he continued. He made it to the other side of the bridge, and stood in front of the fallen vial of titan’s blood, tracing an ice glyph in the dirt with his foot. The vial was pushed up, and he palmed it, holding it behind his back. “It hurts,” he said softly, “When someone you trust betrays you… it’s the worst pain you can imagine.” He took a deep breath. “And you keep going through it, every time a Grimwalker turns on you.”

“You were one of them,” Belos snarled.

“I know. I hurt you.” Jason swallowed back nausea at the words, keeping his face not neutral, but tilted upwards, a small, adoring smile on his lips, his eyes wide. “All you wanted was a brother who wouldn’t betray you. I know I messed up, but I can do it right this time.”

“Jason,” Camila called, shocked.

Jason waved a hand at her behind his back. “I can make up for what D—what Caleb did to you. I’ll stay here, with you. That’s what you want, right? That’s what you’ve always wanted, that’s why you keep making Grimwalkers, to give Caleb a chance to make the right choice and stay here, in the human realm. To choose you.”

“You had your chance.”

“If you gave me another, I’d do it right. I only messed up once, let me try again. I’ll stay here, with you. That’s why you didn’t kill me back there when you had the chance, right? Because y—” Jason bit down the ‘you think.’ “Because I can still be saved.”

Belos’ eyes softened, he tilted Hunter’s head. “Can you?”

Jason swallowed again. “If you save me.”

Don’t drop the face

Say everything right

Be what he wants you to be, what he needs you to be right now.

Jason took another step closer. “It could just be the two of us. Philip and Caleb. Like it’s supposed to be.”

“Philip and Caleb,” Belos muttered.

“Philip and Caleb,” Jason repeated, “Just us. No Evelyn. No witches. No Hunter. Just us.” He took another step forward. “The curse startled me when I first saw it. But I won’t be scared again. Leave Hunter behind, make it just you and me. I won’t be scared, whatever form you have to take, but I don’t think we should have a Grimwalker with us. Just you and me.”

Belos considered him for a moment, and Jason held his breath.

Please work.

Please let him go.

Please

Belos held his hand out. “Give me the titan’s blood, Caleb.”

Jason’s heart dropped in his chest, and he took a step backwards, stumbling over his words. “We don’t need it. We’re never going back, we’re staying here. I mean, actually, let’s use it now, let’s send these witches back to their home, and then there won’t be any witches left in this realm. That’s what y—what we want. To rid the human realm of witches. So let’s just send them back, and we’ll stay he—”

Belos snapped his fingers. “Give it to me, Caleb.”

Jason turned and brought his arm back, ready to hurl the vial. “Luz! Ca—”

His arm didn’t make it over his head. Belos’ arm had extended and held Jason’s wrist. Tears formed at the corners of Jason’s eyes as he tugged. “We don’t need it,” he tried again, “We—”

Belos twisted Jason’s wrist, and Jason dropped the vial with a cry of pain. It clinked to the ground.

“Jason!” Luz yelped. Flapjack fluttered towards her, shifting into his staff form.

Belos whipped his arm around, and Jason was jerked backwards, flying through the air. His back slammed into the stone archway with a crack.

The world went black in a whirl of pain.

Somewhere, Jason heard Luz shout, and he blinked up at the sky, full of unfamiliar stars. He was slumped against the archway. Something dripped down his face from his nose, and he slowly, sluggishly reached up to touch it.

His hand came back red.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Hm.

Jason’s head swam, but he looked up just in time to see Belos’ hand crack into Flapjack, green magic bursting out.

No…

Jason tried to get up, but the world started to go darken again, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

“NO!” Hunter’s voice yelled, and Jason opened his eyes. Hunter stumbled towards the water, moving back and forth unsteadily.

“You know what I'd like, Belos?” he grunted, “I'd like to leave the Emperor's Coven and never step foot in that throne room again. I'd like to study wild magic, and learn how to carve palismen. I'd like to attend Hexide as a regular student and play flyer derby with my friends.” He glanced back at Jason. “I’d like to get to know the rest of my family. But most of all, I'd like to make sure you never—hurt—anyone—again!”

He hurled the vial of titan’s blood into the lake, but immediately howled no, in Belos’ voice, jumping in after it.

DO SOMETHING, Jason’s mind screamed, but he couldn’t, he could barely make himself sit up with the help of the stone archway.

“Move,” Camila yelled, and dove into the water after Hunter. Jason’s heart thumped in his chest, more blood trickling down the back of his neck from his first wound with every beat.

Please

Please

Please

Camila broke the surface with a gasp, hauling Hunter out of the water.

Jason’s eyes closed again, and when he opened them, the archway had transformed into a shimmering gate. Belos’ monster form stood above him, and his hand reached down. Jason flinched, but the hand just rested on the side of his face, slimy and cold and rotten, the scent of decay filling Jason’s nose.

“I’ll come back, Caleb. And we will stay here. But first, I will save you.”

Jason gagged as Belos pulled his hand away and backed into the doorway, disappearing from view. Jason managed to slide his way up the archway, and Gus rushed forward, taking his arm and helping him limp towards Hunter.

Willow sniffed. “Guys! Hunter isn’t moving!”

“Vee, call an ambulance,” Camila ordered.

Willow teared up. “Do human doctors know about possession?”

“Or Grimwalkers?” Luz added. She twisted towards Jason. “Jason, you’re a grimwalker! What—what do we do?!”

Jason ran a hand through his hair. Do something, do something, do something! “Uh—ugh—I—Mom. Mom can—she can fix him, she’s fixed all of us, she can do it, she can fix him! The door’s right there—we just have to go, we have to find her—”

“We need to do something now!” Willow yelped.

“Okay—okay—” Jason slowly moved down, kneeling next to Hunter’s limp body. “I can—okay.” He took a deep breath. “Healing is feeling, healing is feeling—” he held out his hands towards Flapjack. “I know you’re hurting,” he said softly, “But I need your help to save him.”

The bird chirped an agreement and fluttered into his hands. The palisman started to turn into wood, but stopped halfway through with a pained chirp.

“No… no, no…”

“Uh, Jason?” Gus whispered, “Look.”

Jason followed his gaze to his hands. Where the blood on his hands met Flapjack’s green magic, it had started to glow gold, and warmth spread through his hands. His heart beat just a little steadier in his chest. Jason blinked. “Okay. Okay, okay, okay.”

He reached to the back of his head and dug his fingers into the cut on the back of his head. He cried out as his head seemed to split in two, but forced himself to keep his eyes open. He slowly moved his bloodstained fingers to Hunter’s chest, tracing a shaky circle on his shirt, then reached towards Flapjack.

“We’ll fix you up in a moment, buddy,” he mumbled, “But I need you to be my jumper cables first.”

He gathered up a bit of Flapjack’s blood in his cupped hand and poured it onto the circle of blood. He put his hand on Hunter’s chest. “Please,” he murmured, pushing down on his spell circle, “Please!”

The circle glowed, then faded.

Nothing happened.

Until Jason’s heart stuttered in his chest, beating at random intervals. Jason slumped forward, wheezing, clutching at his chest.

“Jason!”

Gus’s voice sounded so, so far away. All Jason could hear was the thudding of his heart as it evened out, beating steadily again.

And he heard another heart start beating.

Hear was the wrong word. He didn’t hear it with his ears exactly. He just sort of felt the beat somewhere in his mind.

Hunter’s eyes slowly opened. “Nnnngh… Hey… guys… is everyone okay?”

Everyone glanced at each other. Gus hissed in. “Jason and Flapjack are… pretty banged up. But we’re all alive.”

“Good,” Hunter said faintly, starting to sit up. “Ungh—”

“Sit up slowly, baby,” Camila advised, “Are you in pain anywhere?”

“I’m okay,” he mumbled, “Flapjack…”

Jason held out the bird. “You need to… stop the bleeding. He might uhhhhhhh…” he lost his train of thought, staring over Hunter’s shoulder.

“Jason?”

“Mm? Right—sorry—he miiiiiiiight go dooooormant for a bit to heal. So you won’t be able to do magic for a while. Sorry.”

“That’s okay.” Hunter started tearing pieces of fabric off of his costume, using them to bandage Flapjack’s wounds. “As long as he’s okay.”

Camila held a tissue up to Jason’s nose, stemming the blood. “Okay, look at—Jason, can you focus on anything? Can you follow my finger?”

Jason blinked, holding the tissue in place and squinting at the moving blur that was her finger. “Mmmmmmmmmmmm…”

Camila shook her head, pulling the hat of Jason’s costume off and pressing the fabric to the gash on the back of Jason’s head. His head throbbed at the pressure, and he slumped against her with a groan.

“Vee, how’s that ambulance coming along?”

Vee shook her head. “I don’t have any reception out here.”

“Ay. Okay. Hang in there, Jason, we’ll get you help.”

“I want to go home,” he whispered.

Amity shifted. “Um, Luz?” she asked quietly, “What did Belos mean when he said you helped him meet the Collector? I mean, that was a lie, right?”

Jason knew the answer even before Luz moved away. Belos had told a lot of lies, but that wasn’t one of them.

“No,” Luz said quietly, her voice cracking, “it was true.” She walked towards the shimmering gateway, but turned towards them before she could go through, hugging herself. “If it weren't for me, the Day of Unity would have never happened. There was this time pool, and I met him. I met him when he was still just Philip, and I taught him the light spell. I introduced him to The Collector. I set everything in motion.” Tears started to run down her face. “I'm sorry, everyone.”

Amity shook her head. “Why did you keep all of that a secret?”

Luz walked the rest of the way to the archway, putting one hand on the nebulous magic stretched across it. “I was scared. I thought you'd hate me for it.”

Camila transferred Jason to Hunter’s arms, brushing herself off and striding towards her daughter.

“’m sorry,” Jason mumbled, “I knew something was wrong.”

“I did too,” Hunter said softly, “But I wanted so badly to believe Luz, to believe that he was gone that I… I ignored the evidence. And you guys got hurt.”

“Ahhhhhhhhh…” Jason tried for a grin. “Hardly the worst injury I’ve ever had. He wasn’t even trying that hard to kill me!”

I’ll come back.

Jason shuddered, his skin crawling where Belos had touched him. He’s not done yet.

Luz sniffed. “Which is why I've… made a decision. I think it'd be in everyone's best interest if—”

“You took your mama to the demon realm!” Camila interrupted her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Luz blinked. “What?!”

Amity hugged her. “I couldn't hate you, Luz. The fact that you still stand up for us means enough to me.”

Camila stood tall in front of the archway. “Mija, now that I've seen what you're up against, there is no way I'm letting you go back there alone. It is our duty to help your friends get back to their families.”

Hunter got to his feet, pulling Jason up with him and hobbling towards the door, one of Jason’s arms around his shoulders, and his arm bracing Jason’s back.

Luz stepped forward. “But—”

Hunter stopped next to Luz. “You were tricked. That's what Belos does. He tricks people. But if it weren't you, it would have been someone else, and then there'd be no one left to fight back. So let's do that. Let's fight back. Please? For Flapjack? And Jason?”

“Easy, we’re not dead yet,” Jason mumbled, leaning his throbbing head on the shoulder Hunter was propping up.

Luz nodded. “For Flapjack. And Jason.”

“Who needs to go to a hospital,” Camila insisted.

The doorway flickered, and Vee gasped. “The portal’s closing!”

Jason blinked back tears. “Please, Camila,” he whispered, “This might be my last chance. I want to go home.”

Her face softened. “Alright.” She held one finger up. “But we’re finding you a doctor, or whatever the Boiling Isles equivalent is first thing!”

Luz gestured towards the portal. “Then we better head in.”

Hunter paused at the doorway with a shuddering sigh. He glanced sideways at Jason. “Ready?”

Jason nodded, and Hunter took another step forward, half-carrying Jason. “Time to go home, Flap,” he whispered.

And they stepped through the portal.

Chapter Text

“Ay, Madre de Dios,” Camila murmured, “He really did a number on you.” Her hands brushed his face. “Those bruises around your eyes… I don’t like this. I really wish you’d gone to a hospital.”

Jason stared intently at his knee, the only thing in the world that wasn’t blurry or spinning. “Mmmmmmmmm, psh, this is nothing compared to the time he stabbed me. Ow.”

“Sorry, but this is going to hurt a bit. It’s a wide cut; I need to stitch it shut.”

Jason hissed in. “Okay. Okay, do it quick, please.”

Willow took his hand. “Stay strong, lord of crows.”

Jason clutched her tightly. “Thanks,” he squeaked at another pinprick. He shut his eyes, biting his lip to hold back any more sounds. Camila was quick and steady, and before he knew it, a gentle hand touched his shoulder.

“Jason? Sweetheart?”

Jason opened his eyes, but squeezed them shut when Camila’s face blurred and spun. “Mhm?”

“Can you open your eyes?”

“Please don’t make me,” he whispered.

“Uh-oh. What’s wrong?”

“Mmmmmmmmm…” Jason forced his eyelids open, blinking hard. “I’ve got it, it’s fine. Just… a little…”

“Jason?”

“Hm?”

“What was it you were saying?”

“Oh.” Right. He hadn’t finished his thought. “…Dizzy. It’s a little bright out here.”

“Mhm. Willow, do you know if are there any doctors nearby?”

Willow shook her head. “Maybe in Bonesborough we could find a healer, but not out here.”

Amity paced back and forth in front of the portal. “Luz has been in there a really long time, right? That’s not just me?”

“Maybe it seems like that to us, but there’s a time-warping effect inside?” Gus suggested, “We don’t know how long we were in there.”

“Well, Camila came through at the same time, so shouldn’t Luz be here? I’m pulling her out.” Amity reached through the portal. “Eugh, it feels weird,” she murmured, then yanked backwards.

Luz tumbled out, knocking both of them over. “Uh?”

“Luz!” Amity helped Luz sit up. “You were in there so long we—we thought you got stuck behind!” She cupped Luz’s face in her hands. “Are you… hurt anywhere?”

Luz glanced back to the fading doorway. “I’m… I’m fine.” She lowered Amity’s hand. “I saw something. Or… someone? But it was probably just in my head.” She climbed to her feet. “Any sign of… him?”

I’ll come back.

Jason shuddered, his face itching where Belos had touched him.

If he knew I followed him in…

“Jason!”

Jason blinked awake. “Ngh?

Hunter slung one of Jason’s arms over his shoulder, helping him to his feet. “We need to get moving. Belos has a head start, and…”

“Jason needs a doctor,” Camila agreed, “Argh, when I get my hands on Belos…” she twirled her bat. “Bam. This mama’s hungry for vengeance!”

Gus grinned. “Now that is a fight I’d watch.”

Jason took a couple of faltering steps with Hunter’s help. “Let’s get mo—” his right leg buckled, and Willow dashed forward to take his other arm.

“Easy. Here—”

The ground split beneath them, and vines twisted out of the dirt, pushing Jason up and moving him in a wave forward. The vines roiled and swayed beneath him, but Willow’s grip held him steady.

“Oh—thanks.” Jason closed his eyes again, shutting out the world that flashed by in a whirl of red trees and grass.

Keep it together.

Hold it steady.

The vines came to a halt, and Jason opened his eyes again.

A world of blue slammed right up against the usual red of the boiling isles. A sparkling star leapt across treetops, leaving behind a trail of light and sparkles that settled in pristine waterfalls.

“Uhhhhhhh…” Jason blinked, rubbing his eyes, but the blue and stars were still there. “It might just be the concussion. But…”

“No,” Hunter replied grimly, “I see it, too.”

“Ah. Fantastic.”

“Ahh!”

Camila dashed forward, throwing her arms out in front of them. “Kids, stand back! Who knows if that monster is alive or not!”

Amity winced. “Actually, the titan skull is normal. Everything else is…”

“Wrong,” Luz finished.

Willow shuddered. “Guys? What’s on top of the skull?”

Jason dragged his eyes up from the fields of blue to the skull, his heart throbbing in his throat. The skull was demolished, half of the bone gone. A floating ring graced the titan’s remaining horn like a crown, eerie and white against the blue backdrop of the sky. Of course he’d known that the skull was falling apart when he’d left, of course. But he hadn’t expected…

“Phoenix,” he whispered, “Phoenix was up there. Is he—”

He has to be okay.

He has to.

Camila promised he’d be there when I got back.

“I don’t know,” Luz murmured, “But maybe we can get some answers in Bonesborough.”

Jason half-slid, half-trotted down the slope of the hill. The sparkles were nauseating, glittering and pulsing and making his head spin and ache worse than it already did.

“Willow? Is there a way you can make… specific plants grow?”

“Yeah, is there something you need?”

“Aaaaany chance you could grow some sleeping nettles and dreamsbane?”

Her face scrunched up in a squint. “That’s an… interesting… request.” She drew a circle, and the plants popped up at his feet. “What do you-?”

Jason pulled three dreamsbane leaves and one sleeping nettle leaf and shoved them in his mouth, chewing and swallowing with a grimace. “Eugh, that’s bitter.”

“Ack! Jason!” Willow grabbed his shoulders. “I’m right here, don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I’m strong enough to carry you when you pass out.”

Hunter and Gus slid down the hill towards them. “What’s going on?”

“Jason ate sleeping nettles.”

“What?! Why?!” Hunter turned from Willow to Jason. “Jason, why?!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” Jason rubbed his eyes. The world was still too bright and sparkly, but the headache was starting to dissipate, as was the sharp sting from the gash on his head. “If you eat sleeping nettles and dreamsbane in the right proportions, it makes a potent painkiller.”

Gus sighed. “Do we want to know why you know that?”

Jason chuckled darkly. “If Mole and Auric ask you to help them test out herb combinations, say no.”

Amity waved at them from ahead. “We’re almost there!”

“Almost… where?”

“Home,” Luz whispered from behind him. She pushed her way through bushes into a clearing where a massive stone house sat. Jason tilted his head back, staring up at a broken stained glass window. Graffiti covered the walls, and a single, round hole marred the door.

Camila frowned. “What is this place?”

Luz stepped forward slowly, as if in a trance. Her hand rested on the doorknob for a moment without turning it. Her shoulders rose and shrank in a sigh, and she pushed on the door.

Creaaaaak

“Welcome… to the owl house.”

Willow, Gus, Amity, and the Nocedas filed in, but Hunter stayed outside, pacing back and forth. Jason half-sat on the windowsill, watching him.

“How’s Flapjack?”

Hunter quit pacing and leaned against the wall next to the window. He opened up the makeshift sling he’d tied out of the top half of his costume, revealing the little palisman. Flapjack had gone completely dormant, green staining his makeshift bandages. Hunter gingerly stroked the palisman’s head.

“He hasn’t woken up. He’s stopped bleeding, but… Jason, how do I know if he’s just sleeping or if… if…”

“Hey—hey, he’s okay, Hunter. He just needs some time to heal. He’s still… mostly? In one piece. I mean, like, he hasn’t fallen to bits. He’ll be fine. I think.” Jason heaved a sigh. “I wish there was some kind of palisman doctor or something we could take him to.”

“What about Caleb? He carved Flapjack first, do you think he’d be able to help?”

Jason’s heart clenched in his chest.

“I…” He twisted the bottom of his shirt in his hands. “Do you think he’s…”

“Oh—I’m sure he’s okay, I mean, if getting stabbed didn’t kill him, I doubt much could, right?!”

“Right, right, I just… do you think he waited?”

“What?”

“Do you think he waited for Phoenix and I to get out? I mean, I hope not, I hope he took everyone and left when the head started to fall apart, but… did they look for us? What if home got compromised? What if he left, and I can’t find him again?! What if… what if…”

Hunter pushed himself off of the wall, waving his hands. “Hey, no, Jason, I’m sure… he wouldn’t…” The color drained from his face, and he ran a hand through his hair. “Oh. Ohhhhhhhh. Jason, Belos is a liar, you know that, you can’t possibly think—”

“That’s the thing! I don’t know if he was lying!” Jason buried his head in his hands. “I’ve heard that story a dozen times, about how Dad met Mom and left witch hunting behind forever, about how Uncle Belos couldn’t accept his new life and chased him down and ended up trying to kill him, I’ve heard them tell it so often, but I never thought to ask…” Jason dragged his hand down his face with a groan. “I always assumed that Dad told him, and he just didn’t agree. But what if he didn’t? What if Dad just… left? Without letting him know why? What if he did just abandon him?”

“That doesn’t excuse what Belos did to him, to us.”

“I know. I know that. But…” Jason sighed. “I don’t know, I guess I always thought Dad was the good guy.”

“He still is. He’s just… complicated.”

Jason leaned his head against the cool windowpane. “There’s so much I want to ask him.”

“You’ll get the chance. You’ll find him. And the rest of your family.”

“Mmm.” Jason lightly socked his arm. “At least I’ve got you, huh?”

“Sap.” Hunter twisted his hands. “Speaking of… him… would you really have done it?”

“Done what?”

“Traded yourself? For me?”

Jason sighed. “It… wasn’t that simple. If I’d offered him an outright trade, he would have known I wasn’t really on his side, and he would have found a way to double cross me and get both of us. I had to make him think that I wanted to go with him regardless, and then convince him that it was just a bad idea to have you along so that he’d let you go. So… I couldn’t really ‘trade’ myself for you.”

“Oh. That’s… pretty smart. I guess that’s why it came so close to working.”

“I just… I couldn’t let him get that titan’s blood, even if it meant giving up the ruse.” Jason rubbed his arm. “But… yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes, if I had been offering a trade, I would have done it in a heartbeat. I promised Phoenix that I’d keep you safe. And I want to keep you safe.” Jason sighed again. “I’m sorry I failed in the first place.”

“It wasn’t your fault. I made my choices.”

A spark of blue streaked across the sky, and Hunter’s spine went rigid. “Was that-? HEY! IT’S EDA AND KING!” he yelled.

The door slammed open, and the others sprinted out to meet them. Hunter pointed to the blue thing. “They were on that shooting star!”

Jason squinted. “How did you see them?!”

“I don’t have a concussion and I didn’t just down sleeping nettles.”

“Fair enough.”

“More importantly, how are we supposed to follow them?!” Camila demanded.

Jason and Hunter both huddled up close to Willow, while Luz stood with Gus.

“Don’t worry,” Amity assured Camila, summoning her staff, “I’m a safe flyer.”

“Flyer?!” Camila yelped.

Willow summoned her own staff. “I think all three of us should fit. You can do it, right, Clover?”

The palisman buzzed in affirmation, and Hunter pushed Jason on behind Willow. “I’ll stay on the end to keep you from falling off.”

“I can—”

“Head injury!” Willow reminded him.

Jason sighed, and let Hunter get on behind him. “I’m fine.”

Hunter clicked his tongue as they took off. “Head wounds result in dizziness, confusion, and often lapsed judgement. Since you’re having trouble walking, I don’t think you have great control over your limbs right now. Even if you took painkillers, that doesn’t heal you.”

“If you were on my flyer derby team, you’d be benched,” Willow agreed, “It’s okay, you can rely on us!”

“I don’t like this team-up very much,” Jason grumbled.

Willow swooped through the sky, coming to a stop in a town square. The streets were empty—not a single witch or demon in any of the stands or houses.

Or, at least, that was what Jason thought until Camila screamed. He whirled around to see her backing away from a perfectly-intact lamppost, then quickly hiding her bat behind her back. “I—I mean… hello, good sir? Heh?”

Luz pressed on, trudging through the streets. The others were quick behind her, but no matter where they looked, it was empty streets, empty stalls. Just endless boarded up windows and graffiti. And if the blue star from earlier had landed here, it was gone now.

“Where are Eda and King?” Willow asked.

Gus shuddered. “Where is… anyone?

Jason brushed his hand over graffitied lines. Hide your children.

“What happened here?”

Hunter stuck his head in an alleyway. “Something’s coming!”

Gus gasped. “Witches?”

“Demons?” Willow guessed.

“No, it’s… sparkles?

Hunter yanked his head back out of the alleyway and started to run. He was followed by a wave of blue, gold sparkles glimmering and rushing through it like fish in an ocean. Jason whirled around, motioning everyone towards another alleyway.

“Go, go, go!”

Hunter grabbed Jason’s arm as he passed, yanking him into the alleyway. Jason squeezed his eyes shut, turning his face away from the dizzying display. The afterimage of the wave danced across the back of his eyelids, burned in.

“Jason?” Hunter whispered.

Jason opened his eyes again. The town had been completely transformed, full of bright pastels and rainbows. And… people. Or, at least, Jason was pretty sure they were people. They didn’t move, instead just stood, as if posed and held by wires.

“What’s wrong with them?”

Willow gasped. “Dad?!”

The people shuddered to life, and immediately started screaming, running around the square as if there was an invisible box keeping them from going into any of the houses, or down any other streets.

Willow dashed forward, trying to push through the streets towards one of the puppets. “Stop! It’s me!”

Hunter ran out after her. Jason started to follow, but one of the panicking people immediately slammed into him, sending both of them tumbling to the ground. Jason’s head hit the ground, and he wheezed, the pastels blurring and tilting out of place. Their glowing eyes stared lifelessly into his, their jaw still open and screaming.

Jason shoved at them, trying to push the witch away, but they kept moving as if they were still up and moving around. Their body didn’t feel like flesh, it felt… hard. Like wood, or maybe porcelain.

Luz and Amity hauled the witch off, dodging flailing limbs. Jason scrambled backwards, not trusting himself to balance on his feet. The moment Luz and Amity let go of the witch, they scuttled onwards as if the fall had never had happened.

“What—” Gus yelped, “—was that?!”

Hunter pulled Willow back to the alleyway just as a nearby wall exploded outwards, releasing some… creature. It was huge, and feathery, and… held together with stitches? Jason blinked, but the little white lines didn’t go away.

“Eda?” Luz whispered.

That’s Eda?

The creature shrieked, chasing the citizens around.

Do we help?

Will we just make things worse?

Can they stop running, even if they want to?

The beast cornered one of the witches, but before it could hurt him, a beam of light slammed into the ground. Jason buried his head in his arms, blinking spots out of his vison.

“Fear not, citizens of Bonesborough!” a high, young voice called.

Jason looked up, and his heart sank in his chest.

The Collector.

And King.

But Phoenix wasn’t with them.

The Collector hopped off of a star—the one they’d seen shooting over them at the owl house. “I’m here to stop this beast’s mad rampage!”

On the star behind him, King gave the Collector a thumbs-up. “I believe in you, Collector!”

The Collector beamed, shooting a return thumbs-up and winking. “Thanks, best friend! Light glyph, go!”

The Collector opened their palm, and bursts of light sparked out of their hands. Jason’s head throbbed, the starbursts throbbing in shifting color even after the light faded. The owl beast shrieked and fell to the puppets’ applause, and an elderly woman crawled out of the skin.

“Oh, hooray,” she said flatly, “I’m normal again.”

Jason’s jaw dropped. “That’s your Eda?” he whispered to Luz.

Her jaw clenched. “No. That is not Eda.”

“That’s Terra,” Amity clarified, “The ex head witch of the plant coven.”

Terra straightened up with a groan. “Who’s got a pint of apple blood? Hoot hoot.”

The Collector groaned. “Time out, everyone, time out.”

All of the citizens went back to their stationary positions, and the Collector stormed towards Terra. “Terra, for the last time, Eda doesn’t sound like that! She’s got more of a—like a-a cool aunt vibe who pretends to be all cold-hearted but actually cares a lot!”

Terra crossed her arms. “Ugh, you’re a real thorn in my side, you know that?” She jabbed a finger at the Collector. “I’ve had it with you and your stupid little dog!” She took a deep breath. 
“Whatever. All I have to do is play Eda the Owl Lady and I don’t get turned into one of those things, right? Then let’s just continue.” She widened her eyes, putting her chin in her hands. “Ooooo, I like musicians!” she singsonged.

The Collector held up one hand, a crescent moon hovering above his palm. “You’re not being very nice.”

Terra’s eyes widened. “Wai—”

The moon shot out, slamming into her forehead. She shuddered, then went still, her body stiffening and going blank like the other witches around her.

Jason’s heart thumped so hard in his chest he couldn’t hear anything else.

Phoenix.

Mom.

Dad.

Cherry.

Silver.

Meleager.

Cyrus.

Horus.

Hamlet.

Sam.

Joseph.

Had this happened to them? They’d been right there, at the head, would they have had enough time to get out?

Did Phoenix even make it long enough to become a puppet?

Did the Collector even notice him, or did he fall?!

“Jason! Jason, breathe, sweetheart, breathe!”

Jason sucked in a deep breath, gasping for air. Strong, warm hands gripped his shoulders, and Camila’s eyes flicked across his face, wide and worried. “That’s it. Breathe. You’re okay.”

Breathe.

Just breathe.

“Where are they?” Jason choked. The square was empty again, the pastels turned back to muted colors.

“They’re gone. They flew off.”

Hunter paced the square. “We should follow them. Belos is probably trying to get back to the Collector!”

Gus shook his head. “I-it looked like they were… playing a game.”

“Yeah, with some kind of… messed up version of my life!” Luz sputtered, “King must have told them about our adventures!”

“Do you think everyone who was turned into a puppet gets locked in the Archives?”

Luz clambered up onto a crushed stone platform. “If they do, then that’s where we have to go.”

Jason staggered to his feet, leaning on Camila. “Let’s go. Let’s go now.”

I have to find them.

“You’ll never make it,” a voice echoed from the rooftops. Two teenage witches and a demon stared down at them, and the one in the middle, face marked by stubble, smirked. “Because you guys are LOSERS!”

Jason squinted at him. “…I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Mattholomule?!” Gus yelped as the teen sputtered.

“Willow!” one of the other teens squealed, jumping down and slamming into her. “You’re here!”

“I’m here,” Willow agreed, hugging her back, “It’s good to see you, Skara!”

Hunter gestured at the town. “What happened? Where did you come from? How are you not…?”

The trio glanced at each other. “We should get moving,” Skara piped up, “We’ll tell you on the way.”

“On the way… where?”

“Hexside,” Skara called over her shoulder, “Come on.”

Jason let go of Camila, wobbling closer to Willow. “Are you okay?”

She caught his arm, steadying him. “I’m not the one who just had a panic attack. Or the one who can’t walk straight.”

“I know, I know, I’m not one to talk. But…” Jason fumbled over his next words. “Your dad… and you don’t know where the other one is?”

Willow’s grip tightened, just a little uncomfortable. “Yes. That… is… the situation I am in.”

“I just… I get it. Not… not knowing where your family is, if they’re okay, and knowing that some of them… aren’t okay. I understand. And… I know it’s hard. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m. Fine.” Willow’s fingers were digging into his arm now, and plants started to sprout at their feet. “I’m not the only one who doesn’t know where family is, I’m not the only one with problems, I—I—I’m fine.”

“Willow, it’s okay if—”

“Yep. I know. It’s okay if I’m not fine, but I am fine, so it doesn’t matter. I’m fine! I’m fine.”

Sure sounds like it.

Jason nodded along. “Mhm. Okey. But if you weren’t fine. Hypothetically speaking. Obviously you are. But if you weren’t. You could rely on us. You know? Lord of bats and house of crows, remember?”

“Right… Glad we got that cleared up.” Willow cleared her throat, turning her face away from him. “So, Skara, what exactly happened here?”

Jason sighed. So that had gone spectacularly. And if the plants still sprouting in their wake were any indication, she was only going to get worse.

Not that you can judge about pushing down your emotions, Jason.

Skara shrugged. “Since the golden guard—I-I mean Hunter—told us about the Emperor’s plan for the Day of Unity, Principal Bump allowed students and teachers to camp out at Hexside.”

“We thought we could handle whatever the emperor threw at us,” Matt piped up, “But when the draining spell hit… we realized things wouldn’t be quite so simple. After the adults recovered…”

Skara shook her head. “That’s when the Collector’s spies showed up. The grudgeby team snuck out and tried to hold them back, but…” She bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes.

Matt nudged her shoulder. “It didn’t work. Bump and the adults were turned into toys and taken away. We’ve been hiding here ever since. And somewhere along the way, I went from being Mattholomule to Mantholomule!” He stroked his chin, smearing his ‘beard’ across his face. Jason heard a snicker from Camila, and Willow made a face next to him.

“Shhhh,” Skara scolded, throwing out her hands and stopping them dead in their tracks. A blue star whirred overhead, its eye roving over the land. Mattholomule beckoned them forward, pushing a piece of wood away from the door of Hexside. Jason tilted his head back. Sure, he’d never been to school in his life, but this dilapidated building covered in graffiti and boarded up windows didn’t exactly seem like one.

“It didn’t use to look like this,” Willow whispered to him.

“Ah.”

Skara waved a hand back and forth. “We did a little redecorating these last few months. So let me welcome you… to New Hexside!”

She and Matt pushed open the doors, revealing the most bizarre bazaar Jason had ever seen. Students ran each other over and yanked resources right out of each other’s hands. Stands sold T-shirts and candy and what looked like they might be illicit potion ingredients.

“Mmm,” Gus gagged, “This does not smell great.”

The three from outside led them past squabbling students and ferocious anklebiters, halting in front of a statue depicting a witch doing a trick on a skateboard. The bottom read “In memory of the coolest principal ever, Principal Bump, AKA, Princey B.” Matt sniffed.

“This is a statue of Principal Bump, who risked his life for ours.”

Camila smiled. “It’s so nice to see teachers getting the respect they deserve.” She surveyed the statue, in all its skateboarding glory. “I think.”

Jason let go of Willow, sliding down the side of the statue with a sigh. His hand landed in something squishy, and he carefully stared up and away from the ground.

Don’t want to know, don’t want to know, don’t want to know.

“Willow!”

A girl in blue hugged Willow from behind. A scrunchie made of thorny vines graced her hair, and a fishhook stuck out of one ear. “I’m so glad you’re back!” She turned Willow to face her. “Your orchids have become sentient and started a war with a roving band of kindergarteners. Please help.”

Willow made a face. “I’ll take care of it. In the meantime, Viney, is the healing homeroom still operational?”

“More or less. We’ve tried to keep it a neutral first aid zone.”

“Great. Do you think you could help our friend Jason here? He’s got a pretty good concussion.

Jason gave Viney a thumbs-up from the ground.

“Yeah, I can take a look. Uhhh…” Viney glanced from Jason to Hunter and back again. “Soooooo, is he… oh, is he like that Phoenix guy?”

Jason surged to his feet. “Phoenix? You’ve seen him? Is he oka—agh—” Jason blinked back black spots, swaying.

Stood up too fast.

Viney whistled sharply. “Whoa—I’m sorry, Jason, I haven’t seen him since before the day of unity.”

Right.

Phoenix went to Hexside to warn them.

Stupid.

A griffin crashed down next to Viney, clucking and nuzzling her. “Ah, thanks Puddles. Good girl!” She tossed the griffin a treat. “Alright, up you go. It’s easier to get through the crowds this way, and I’m… not sure you should be walking.”

She hoisted Jason up onto the griffin, clambering on behind him. “Healing homeroom, Puddles.”

Jason buried his face in the griffin’s neck feathers. “Thanks, Puddles,” he murmured, “I know someone who’d be ecstatic to meet you.”

Puddles squeezed herself into a classroom, tilting to the side and dumping Jason unceremoniously on a cot.

“Puddles,” Viney scolded, “Sorry, we’re still working on being gentle with patients. Alright, let me just…” She drew a circle in the air, and her eyes glowed blue. “Mhm. Mhm. Oh, ow. Alright.” Her eyes faded back to normal, and she grabbed a potion and syringe. “Okay, Jason, along with a few broken ribs, and the gash I’m sure you’re very aware of, you’ve got a pretty bad fracture right at the base of your skull. Concussion, obviously, but the fracture is the real big issue. Luckily, I’m going to take care of it, you’ll be feeling better in no time. This is just gonna be a liiiiiittle priiiiiick—” Viney jumped forward, sticking him with the needle and pushing the plunger.

“Ow!”

“Sorry, the kindergarteners tend to get flighty when they need a shot, forgot I was dealing with a grown person.”

Jason blinked at her, his limbs going heavy. “Uh… what… was… in…”

Viney guided him to a lying position on the cot. “Just a liiiiiittlle sedative while I fix your skull. Nothing to worry about, I’ve got you. You’re going to be fine.”

“Just relax”

…

“Are you a traitor too, ear hook?!”

“Boscha, he’s not a threat, whatever you think the others have done. He’s badly hurt! Just let me heal him!”

…

… “-mora—”

Jason blinked at the ceiling, his limbs still numb and heavy. Beside him, Viney and Skara argued quietly. “I knew she couldn’t be trusted.”

“Yeah, Viney, we all knew, but luckily Boscha knows it now too. It’s all beside the point now—we have to help them.”

“Help who?” Jason mumbled, sitting up, “What’s going on?”

Viney chewed on her lip. “Luz and the others. They’re in trouble. You should stay here—I did most of the heavy lifting on that fracture and concussion, but you’re still in no condition to fight.”

Jason grabbed her sleeve before she could go. They’d gotten in danger, and he hadn’t been there. He really was the worst protector. “I’ll stay on the back lines. Or stick with Puddles or you, or something, I promise. But please—please let me come.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Skara hissed, “Just put him on the griffin, and let’s go!”

“Gah! Fine! I’d rather keep an eye on you than have you running after us on your own anyway.”

Puddles once again threw Jason onto her back, and after Viney and Skara climbed on, they soared away. Through the trees, blasts of purple magic flashed in turn with bursts of flame.

Puddles landed with a thump behind a ragged band of Hexsiders as their leader, a three-eyed demon girl, hurled flaming grudgeby balls at a tiny red demon Jason recognized from keeping watch over Hunter.

“Hey!” Amity grabbed Jason’s arm, pulling him from puddles to her own staff. “Let’s go!”

“I—” Viney started, but her attention was almost immediately drawn back to the fight.

Amity flew down to Luz and the others. Luz held a glowing purple staff in her hand, and to his surprise, Hunter held Flapjack. Jason winced. “I missed a lot, huh?”

“Join the club,” Luz laughed, “My palisman hatched!”

“And Flapjack woke up just when I needed him,” Hunter added, “He’s still not fully recovered or conscious, but I’ve been able to use my flashstep magic, so I think he’s going to be okay.”

Luz dragged a stick in the ground, using a photo for reference. As the lines started to take shape, Jason realized he’d seen this glyph before—when Sam had teleported them all to the head. “We’re going? We’re going!”

Willow and Hunter glanced at each other, and Hunter took a step forward. “I know you wanted to come with us, but I think you should go find your Dad. You need answers, and you won’t find them up at the archive. If we see any other Grimwalkers at the archives, we’ll find a way to let you know, okay? If Phoenix is there, we’ll find him.”

“But—you—”

“You were right,” Willow piped up, “I wasn’t fine. I was… missing my family. And I know you’re missing yours. Go find them.”

Jason couldn’t say he wasn’t tempted. He had questions for Caleb and Evelyn. He missed Mole. He missed home.  But his promise to Phoenix couldn’t mean nothing, just like that.

Willow squinted menacingly at him, as if she knew what he was thinking. “And don’t even think about following us because you think you need to protect us. I’ve got it, house of crows, you can trust the lord of bats!”

She and Hunter hopped onto their staffs, joining Luz in drawing the massive glyph. Jason stayed rooted to the spot, uncertain. “

“We’ll all watch out for each other,” Camila promised, patting his cheek. “We’ll keep each other safe. Promise me you’ll look out for yourself?”

Tears started to bubble up in Jason’s eyes, and he leaned into her touch, already knowing he would give in. “Alright,” he whispered, “Alright, I promise.”

“If you can find any way to contact us and tell us you found your family, please let us know you’re alright.”

“We have to go,” Luz called, “Jason—we’ll miss you. Thanks for all of your help. When all this is over… we’ll meet up again, okay?”

“Yeah,” Camila agreed, “I’m looking forward to meeting your family.”

Jason stepped back, out of the glyph’s range. Behind them, Kikimora and her machine surged upwards, pulling away from the Hexside students. She aimed her canon right for Luz.

“This is my empire now! You have to obey me!”

Camila smiled. “We’ll see you soon.”

Luz slammed down on the glyph just as Kikimora fired. The heat of the fireball scorched Jason’s face, even from where he stood, but the others were already far away, where it couldn’t hurt them. “See you soon,” he whispered, wiping his eyes.

Puddles slammed into Kikimora, knocking her to the ground. Before she could get back up again, the Hexsidians dragged her out of the cockpit, Matt quickly encasing her in stone.

Viney jogged over, surveying the smoldering remains of the glyph. “You need a moment?”

Jason shook his head. “It’s a long walk home. I need to get started.”

“Walk? You’re not walking.”

“Uh?”

Viney laughed. “Pflbt, you think I’d really let a friend of my friends walk all that way alone? Through Collector territory? When you’ve barely been here a day? Come on. You’re flying with me and Puddles.” She peered up at the twilight sky. “Ah, alright, we can go now. The skies will be clear until morning.”

“What? How come?”

“It’s Collector’s bedtime.”

Jason blinked at her. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. Let’s go. Unless there’s still sedative coursing through your veins.”

Jason wiggled his fingers. “Mmmm, seems fine.”

“Great!” Viney boosted him onto Puddle’s back, climbing on behind him and nudging the griffin’s side with her heels. “Sky high, Puddles!”

Puddles leapt into the open sky in a shower of dirt and grass, cawing and unfurling her full wingspan. Viney whooped as the griffin soared through the air. “Awwww, good girl.”

“You’ve had to keep her inside?” Jason guessed, “I bet that made her stir crazy, huh.”

“Yeah, griffins have to stretch their wings, but if she goes out in the day, she’ll definitely get caught. Where are we headed?”

“Nestled under the third rib. There’s a small town, and we live a bit out from there.”

“Third rib, huh? What a coincidence, that’s where Puddles came from.” Viney patted the griffin’s neck. “You ready to go home, girl?”

Home.

Jason mouthed the word to himself.

I hope they’re still there.

I hope they’re okay.

Viney directed Puddles down, steering her deftly between trees and finally coming to a landing with a jarring thud that rattled Jason’s teeth. Viney slid down, offering Jason a hand. “Shhhh, listen.”

The forest was much quieter than it had ever been before. But even so, Jason heard a shout, and the sound of splintering wood, as if something was attacking the trees themselves. He and Viney flitted through the trees like ghosts, ducking around and peering out to see if the area was safe before moving to the next tree. Already, Jason melted into woods he’d explored with Mole countless times, slipping back into who he liked to be. Another crack sounded, this one followed by the thud of a tree falling. Jason saw a blue star embedded in a tree, its eyes blinking repeatedly.

“What the…”

“Who-oa,” Viney gasped, “I want whatever can do that on our side! Come on!”

She darted forward, peering around a tree. “Oh! Jason, Jason, I found Phoenix! Hey, Phoenix!” she called, waving, “Do you remember me? Probably not, but I’ve got someone here who you will recognize!”

Jason sprinted towards her, stumbling to a stop at the top of a steep hill. Happy tears already pressed at the corners of his eyes before he even caught sight of his brother. He was okay. He was alive. He’d escaped.

Phoenix stood at the bottom of the hill, two or three more stars lying prone in the grass around him. Green splattered their smooth surfaces, and as Jason watched, the green slowly removed itself, wriggling and squelching towards Phoenix. Jason’s stomach dropped, and his heart thumped erratically in his chest.

“No,” he whispered, “No, no, no.”

Viney came up behind him. “Hey, what’s the matter?”

Jason threw his arm out to keep her from getting any closer. “We’re too late. We’re—that’s not Phoenix.”

Phoenix turned around to face them as the last of the cursed mud reattached itself to his arms, forming horrible claws and shifting across bone in a nauseating wave. Jason’s head throbbed, and the scar on his back burned like fire, itching and crawling.

I’ll come back.

“Belos beat us to them.”

Chapter Text

Goodbye, Golden Guards.

Belos raised his scythe, but it was Phoenix looking down at a terrified Jason and Hunter, Phoenix who swung downwards at them.

“No!” Phoenix stared up at a starry sky, blinking. A dull ache throbbed in his arms and ribs, but considering the way the skull had fallen apart, he was surprised it wasn’t worse. “Hrngh?”

“HEYA!” A blue and yellow face appeared over him with a grin. “You’re awake! Fiiiiinally! You were so boring!”

Phoenix rolled out of… a bed? with a yelp, scrambling backwards away from the Collector. The image of Belos splattering against the wall clung to his mind. “Stay back!”

Collector laughed, flopping on his stomach in midair and kicking his legs. “Re-lax, I’m not gonna hurt you. Right, King?”

The tiny demon kid from the head waved at him from on top of a spinning blue star, now clothed in starry robes and matching hat. “Uh. Hey. Yep. Not hurting people is our whole thing! Just… just playing games!”a

Phoenix rubbed his eyes. “I’m still dreaming. Right? Wow. The other dream was more realistic than this, this is…” He stood up. “This is… are we on top of a tiny planet?”

Endless space and stars surrounded them, nothing but empty space as far as he could see, save for a window of bright light, and the little planet they stood on.

“It’s real,” King assured him, “I, uh, I saw you falling on the day of unity, and…”

“And I SAVED YOU,” the Collector yelled, punching one fist in the air. “BAM. Our first owl house adventure, swooping through on a star to catch you, and WHAM! Now you’re back here with us! This is our room, in the archive house!” He tapped his chin. “Maybe I should make bunk beds… those would be fun, or even a TRIPLE BUNK BED! Might make story time hard, though. We’ll see. Hm.” Collector circled around Phoenix’s head. “That liar Philip said he destroyed all of his grimwalkers, and I couldn’t play with them, but he was wrong, wrong, wrong! And now you’re here, and we can be friends, like he kept saying maybe one day! Ha, take that, Philip, your grimwalker is my friend now. Right? We can be friends?” They crossed their arms. “I did save you.”

Phoenix glanced at King, who nodded frantically. “…Sure… we can be friends…”

“YES! You can be our Hunter, do you know what he’s like? Yeah, of course you do. I bet you know about lots of adventures we could do, Belos sent you on adventures for him all the time. Hey, are there any more of you? Are all of them alive?”

Phoenix nodded along to the Collector’s nonstop flow of words, his mind racing. So he didn’t get Caleb and the others. Good.

“No. Just me.”

“Awwww, we could have had enough players for any game. Oh, well, I guess there’s always the others.” The Collector sat cross-legged in midair. “Are you hungry? I bet you’re hungry, I think mortals have to eat like every three hours or they die or something. That’s why puppets are easier.”

Puppets?

“…What exactly is it that you want?”

“Huh? What a weird thing to ask. Oh, yeah! I forgot!” Collector snapped his fingers, and a bundle of cloth fell down from out of nowhere into Phoenix’s hands. “That’s for you, new friend! So we can all match! Don’t worry, King and I will leave the room so you can change, no peeking, promise.”

The Collector floated out into the bright light, and King hopped towards Phoenix. “Just… play along with what he says, okay? The alternative is… not great.”

He bounced up into the air and out of the square of light, and Phoenix sat back down on the bed with a whump. At least everyone else had gotten out. The kids to the human realm and… hopefully everyone else had just gone home. 

Phoenix shook out the bundle of cloth. The silky clothes slipped through his fingers like water, a deep blue long-sleeved tunic, and pants in a dark lavender. Stars dotted the hem of the tunic, the collar, and the ends of the sleeves. A golden moon glinted up at him from a belt buckle.

Alright. I’ll play for now.

He changed clothes, checking himself for injuries. He twisted his upper torso, wincing as his ribs protested. Yeah. Those were broken, or at least bruised. Bruises, bruises… Phoenix picked at the edge of the bandages around his arms, but didn’t remove them. He’d have to eventually, he needed to check on those wounds, but with any luck, he’d get out of this… archive house… first.

Phoenix yanked the tunic over his head and retied his ponytail.

“Alright… now how… do I…”

Phoenix jumped, the way he’d seen King do, and he rocketed away from the tiny planet with three beds, soaring through the window of light. Whatever weird gravity ruled that room disappeared, and his feet tapped onto solid stone at the top of a staircase. Collector clapped his hands.

“Yay! You look great! Okeydokey, so, we have a couple of adults around, don’t worry about them, they’re here to help! Mamadalia!”

A woman with bright green hair stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the Collector’s call. She looked oddly familiar, but Phoenix couldn’t quite place where he’d seen her before. “Yes… Collector?”

“This is… Uh, Hunter, right?”

“It’s Phoenix.”

“Oh, whew, that’s way cooler. This is Phoenix! He’s been super sleepy and just woke up, so he’s, like, really hungry! Can you get uuuuuuuusssssss… King, quick, what do mortals eat?”

“Uhhhh, food? Fruit… vegetables… pizza bagels…”

“I don’t really need anything,” Phoenix tried, “I’m—"

“Pizza bagels for Phoenix!”

“Why dooon’t I just go with… Mamadalia?” Phoenix suggested, “That way I can make sure there’s enough for everyone?”

“Awww, okay, yeah. Come back soon!”

Phoenix walked down the stairs as quickly as he could without running. “Let’s go.”

“Mamadalia” raised one eyebrow, but turned heel and clicked down a hallway with no further comment. Phoenix chased after, looking behind him to make sure the Collector wasn’t following.

“How long has it been since the day of unity?”

“A day or so. Relax, you haven’t missed anything.”

Phoenix waved a hand at the hallway. “I think I’ve missed quite a bit!” He took a deep breath, shaking himself. “Sorry. I’m sorry, what’s your real name?”

“Odalia. Odalia Blight.”

“You’re okay?”

“Do you mean besides the fact that I’m wearing the most ridiculous outfit in the world? But oh, I suppose I’ll survive.”

“Alright.” Phoenix grabbed her wrist and ran towards a window, tugging her behind him. “Don’t worry. We’re getting out of here.”

Odalia yanked her arm away. “What on earth are you talking about? Getting out of here? I may be… Mamadalia, but it’s better than the alternative, thank you! No one is ‘getting out of here’!”

Phoenix yanked open the window.

The Isles fell far, far below them, miles down. The closest any land was to the ‘archive house’ was the remaining horn of the titan, and the house floated above even that. Phoenix’s head spun.

“We aaaaare… flying.”

“What an astute observation.”

Phoenix brought his head back in and shut the window. “Okay. We’ll find another way.”

Odalia snorted. “There is no other way. You aren’t going anywhere. Try anything, and I’ll call for the Collector.”

Phoenix stared at her, gaping. “Are you serious?!”

“Listen up… whoever you’re supposed to be… I’m not putting my neck on the line for some half-baked escape plan. I perform the role of Mamadalia and get access to one of the most powerful beings in the universe. If I play my cards right, I not only rule this miserable dump heap, but shape it into what I want.”

Phoenix gestured towards the window and the broken skull outside of it. “Do you really think you can control that?!”

“Oh, please. He may be powerful, but he’s a silly child. I know how to handle children.” Her eyes gleamed. “And if I tell him you tried to escape, then that makes me more trustworthy and removes some of the… competition.”

“You know what else would remove competition? Letting me escape. But fine. Fine.” Phoenix stalked down the hallway. “Why don’t you just show me where the kitchen is, and we can leave each other alone?”

Odalia chased after him. “Or… I’m willing to let you in on the spoils if you help me.”

“And what could I, the competition, possibly offer?”

“I haven’t been picked for the role of ‘friend.’ You have. That gives you a closer position to the Collector. And his best friend. If either of us truly has their ears, it will be you.”

Phoenix’s gut roiled. “Can I just—I would like to point out that they’re kids. Kids with insane powers, sure, but kids.”

Odalia sighed. “Oh, please, I already told you, I know how to handle children. I’ll walk you through it, I just need your position. Here.”

She drew a circle in the air, and a purple gem thudded against Phoenix’s collarbone, secured by a black string.

This way, I can talk to you and hear what you’re hearing, Odalia’s voice said in his mind, I can tell you what to say, you simply need say it.

Phoenix halted in his tracks, yanking the necklace off. “No. Absolutely not. I don’t need your voice in my head, and I definitely don’t want you spying on me.”

I’ve dealt with enough omnipresent watchers for one lifetime.

“At least think about it.”

Phoenix opened another window, holding the necklace out. “No.”

“Drop it and I go straight to the Collector,” Odalia snapped.

Phoenix’s jaw clenched, and he slowly dragged the gem back in.

“Put it on. You don’t have to say what I tell you just yet, I’ll give you time to decide.”

“Do I really get a choice?”

“Of course you do. Here, let me show you the other choice.”

Odalia touched the pendant at her throat, and purple light beamed out, forming a picture of the isles, overwhelmed with strange blue plants and sparkles. The view roamed over Bonesborough, empty and silent, and then finally into the Archive House, stopping at a door. Phoenix slowly turned, spotting the same door to his right. Phoenix reached for the handle, slowly pushing it open.

Lifeless, dull eyes stared back at him. People—or, at least, what used to be people—lay collapsed all over the floor, joints bent at awkward angles. Phoenix backed away.

Puppets

That’s what he meant.

“What happened to them?!”

“They didn’t want to play the Collector’s game. So he made them. Those are your options, Phoenix. You can play the Collector’s little game for the rest of your life. You can make a run for it and get stuck a mindless puppet, still playing his game. Or you can play my game, and stand to actually win something. I’m sure you’re a smart man—you haven’t been turned into a puppet yet—but handling children just isn’t your forte, darling.” She patted his shoulder. “Like I said, I’ll give you time. You don’t have to say yes right away. But the clock is ticking on how long you can keep the Collector happy without me. Now, how about that kitchen, hm? Don’t expect me to cook for you, though.”

She strode away, and Phoenix took a deep breath.

Haven’t had to deal with someone like her in a while.

But every coven head had just been another Odalia Blight. Maybe the setting had changed, but competing with a manipulative snake to get in the good graces of a volatile being that had the power to destroy you? He could handle that. Maybe he’d gotten a little rusty with Caleb and the other Grimwalkers, but this was the same game he’d been playing for half of his life.

And that meant there was a way to win.

Xxx

“Does he… even need to eat?” Phoenix whispered, handing King a dragonfruit.

The fruit spurted a burst of flame, but King didn’t seem to be burned by it. “No idea.”

Collector paced back and forth, waving a squash around in the air like a bat. “Now! Since the real owl lady is… sick… we need a replacement. Phoenix, while you were finding snacks, King and I vetted some possible options, but I want your opinion, too. Did you know the Owl Lady?”

“Only from stories.”

“Hey, me too! Cool, cool, we should both have the same ideas. Candidate one!”

Collector clapped his hands, and a familiar (if older) woman appeared, her eyes darting around and taking in all of her surroundings.

“Terra?!” Phoenix yelped.

She looked him up and down for a moment, then marched over, squinting at the scar that went through his right eyebrow. She gasped. “Rosebud!” Terra reached for his face. “They told us you were dead! But it looks like you haven’t aged a single day.”

Phoenix knocked her hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

“Oh, looks like this rose grew a few thorns, hmmmm?”

Collector floated between them. “Phoenix? Do you know her?”

Phoenix crossed his arms, turning away from Terra. “Unfortunately. You don’t want her to be your Owl Lady, she’s not very nice.”

Terra gasped, laying one hand over her heart. “Rosebud. After everything I’ve done for you?!”

“After…!” Phoenix whirled around again. “You have been trying to poison me since I was thirteen!”

“Oh, please, I never gave you anything in deadly amounts. I was trying to build your poison tolerance, Rosebud! I did it because I cared!” She waved a hand. “I did it for your predecessor all the time. Now there was a man who did whatever it took to win.”

The Collector laughed. “Oh, I remember him! He was really good at statues! Although that miiiiiiight have been because Belos petrified him. Huh.”

Petrifying your predecessor was a mistake.

Phoenix twisted his hair between his fingers. No wonder he’d never been able to figure out which former guard had come before him. He wondered if Sam was back to his search for the cure. If he’d even made it back to the house.

Collector tilted his head at Terra. “You wanna try and find out?”

Her face paled. “No, thank you.”

“You should give it a try,” Phoenix snapped, “See if that builds up your tolerance to petrification.”

“Oh, what is wrong with you? What happened to my sweet little rosebud?”

Phoenix waved a hand. “I don’t know! What did happen to him? Did you ever bother trying to find out?! So much for caring, huh?”

Collector floated between the two of them, holding his arms out. “Neither of you are being very nice,” he said firmly, “You are going into time out!”

The Collector snapped his fingers, and the world around Phoenix blurred into a haze of blue dotted with huge golden stars before settling into an empty void, back on the tiny planet. Phoenix jumped upwards, but the window of light vanished, and he fell back to the planet. He flopped onto the bed with a whump.

“Great.”

Well, that certainly was well-handled, Odalia’s voice said. Phoenix pulled the purple pendant out of his pocket, the gem glowing in the darkness. You need my help more than I thought. Maybe I should rescind my offer before you get us both in trouble.

“Oh, be quiet,” Phoenix grumbled, shoving the necklace under the bed, “You’re the last thing I need right now.”

The window of light opened again, just long enough for King to float down. The little demon clicked a lamp on and sat next to Phoenix, swinging his legs.

“So.”

“So.”

King looked up at the void. “Got kinda heated back there.”

“Even before Belos tried to kill me, I’d started trying to avoid her. Trust me, you and the Collector don’t want to be anywhere near her. Once I started mentoring Darius, I kept him far away from her.”

“Yeah, she seems like a real nice lady.

“She has been through three golden guards,” Phoenix burst out, “She was there when the guy before me was on a bloody conquest in the name of Belos, knew him personally apparently, she was there for half my life, and she was there to see Hunter replace me, and she didn’t once think that something might be wrong?!” Phoenix flopped backwards. “She did notice,” he grumbled, “She just didn’t care. I don’t know why I expected anything better from her, I know what she’s like. Sorry. I know you probably have no idea what I’m talking about.”

“Yeah, expecting good things from the person who routinely poisoned you as a kid is a little weird,” King agreed, “You doing okay?”

“Are you? I haven’t gotten to talk to you without… him… around.”

“Mm. Yeah. He’s… I’m still trying to figure him out. For now, I think if I go along with him, teach him new games, he’ll leave the people I love alone, and that’s… that’s what’s really important. I can figure out details later.”

“So… you don’t want to be here?”

“I’d rather be home. With Eda. And Luz.” King picked up a stuffed rabbit, squeezing it tightly. “But Luz is in another dimension. And Eda’s in her Owl Beast form until I can figure out a way to get an elixir to her. Lilith might have been able to help, but… she’s a puppet. And so’s Hooty. And…” King’s eyes welled up with tears. “And I don’t know when I’ll get to see them again, or if… if…”

Phoenix reached out, but didn’t touch the little demon. “Uh… permission to touch?”

King nodded, and Phoenix scooped him up, holding him in his lap. “I know we… kind of just only met properly now. But… look, I’ll help you figure out a way to turn your Eda and Hooty and Lilith back to normal. And… I don’t know your Luz, but she’s with my Jason, and I know he’s not going to stop looking for a way back to his family.”

King sniffed. “Luz won’t either.”

“Then between the two of them, I’m sure they’ll get back to us. And in the meantime, the best thing we can do is… try to stay alive. And try to get out of here. With our loved ones.”

“How are you planning to do that?”

“I don’t know yet,” Phoenix admitted, “But I’m working on it. And when I do figure it out, I’ll take you with me. We’ll get our friends, and we’ll find somewhere to hide where the Collector can’t find us. Promise.”

“Thanks.”

“Thank me after we’re out of here.”

The window of light opened again, and Collector drifted down, tapping his index fingers together. “Phoenix? Are you… mad at me? I won’t make you play with Terra if you don’t want to. And I’m sorry I put you all alone in time out, it’s not nice to be alone.”

King patted Phoenix’s arm. “It’s all okay, Collector, Phoenix and I had a really long talk, and he feels a lot less mad now. He just doesn’t like Terra very much, and he’s still not feeling too good from Belos attacking him.”

“Okay, then maybe we wait until tomorrow to play? So Phoenix can feel better? And no Terra. Building up poison tolerance did sound fun, though…”

“It’s not,” Phoenix said flatly.

“Really? Man. Okay, we’ll stick to owl house. Do you know how to play, Phoenix?”

Phoenix shook his head. “You’re going to have to teach me.”

Collector’s eyes lit up, and he sat cross legged in the air. “Okay, okay, okay, so first of all…”

He started rattling off rules that sounded more like stories, and Phoenix nodded along, acutely aware of the glowing pendant tucked under his bed, and the fact that Terra was loose in the archive house somewhere.

Just like the coven.

Figure out the rules of the game.

Play your cards right.

Win before they do.

Chapter Text

“Where’s King?!”

Phoenix swept one hand out. “Where you’ll never see him again! Unless…”

The Collector’s eyes narrowed. “Unless what?”

“I might give him back. If you do something for me.”

Oh, excellent, Odalia’s voice echoed in his head, Make him promise something as part of the game? What should our demands be?

“I’d never help you!” Collector shouted, “Never ever in a million years! Eda, now!”

Phoenix braced himself, but nothing happened.

“Eda?” Collector asked, “Hello?”

An older woman shuffled out of the trees, hobbling towards Phoenix. “Ah—you’re surrounded? Golden Guard?”

Collector heaved a sigh. “Awwww, you were supposed to drop out of the sky on him!!!”

The old woman shook like a leaf. “I’m s-sorry, I just c-can’t…”

Phoenix held out an arm for her to balance on. “Hey—maybe a break? Time out? Not everyone can—”

Collector sighed again, this time even bigger and more exaggerated. “Okay, I guess she doesn’t have to be Eda. Since she’s too old.”

The old woman’s spine stiffened. “No, please I can—”

Phoenix pushed her slightly behind him. “You don’t need to make her into a puppet—I’m sure she’d be happy to play another role, one that’s not so… active.”

“Nahhhhhh, being a puppet means her joints won’t be all hurting anymore. We can oil them, and they won’t be creaky and bad! It’ll be good! Boop!” The Collector snapped his fingers, and a moon shot out, zooming around Phoenix and hitting the old woman on her forehead. She stiffened, then fell into a relaxed position, her clothes dotted with stars. The Collector clapped his hands, and she disappeared. Phoenix’s stomach roiled.

Another loss.

Three Edas in as many weeks. Every time, they weren’t good enough for the Collector. No matter how hard they tried, or how hard Phoenix and King tried to make them look better, they couldn’t meet the Collector’s expectations. Phoenix was half-tempted to let Terra give it a try, just so that she’d be puppeted and not a concern anymore.

“Where did you put King, Phoenix? This isn’t very fun now that we don’t have an Eda. I know! We can do one where you’re a good guy next!”

Phoenix squared his shoulders and turned to the blue tree next to him, holding up his hands. “King?”

King jumped out of the tree and into Phoenix’ arms. “Hey.”

“Aw, man, he was just in the tree?! Boy, you two are bad at hide and seek.”

“Why don’t we practice, then?” Phoenix suggested, setting King down,“We’ll hide, you seek.”

“Yeah,” King piped up, “Give us uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh five hundred seconds?”

“Better do a thousand. Just to be safe.”

“Hmmmm. Okay.” The Collector snapped his fingers, and about ten of his star spies appeared around him, blinking their red eyes in unison. “They’ll count, too!” He tugged his hat over his eyes. “One… two…”

Phoenix scooped King up and ran off into the trees. He took the necklace from Odalia off, hurling it into the trees.  “Test run, alright? Look for good places to hide in the area. Where his spies will have trouble seeing us, where he’ll have trouble seeing us—any hiding spot is good, but try to find some that will be big enough for all of us. If we split up, we’ll cover more ground.”

“Have you figured a way out of the archive house yet?”

“Working on it. Any chance Eda could fly us out?”

“Maybe? We need to turn her back first, though. The Owl Beast is unpredictable.”

“Which we need Lilith for,” Phoenix finished, “Right. Alright, see you in a bit.”

He set King down and ran in the direction he’d thrown the necklace, shaking the dirt off of it and dropping it back over his head.

What happened?!

“Dropped it,” Phoenix lied, “You know how it is.”

Mmm. What was that?

“What was what?”

Trying to protect that puppet?!

“She wasn’t a puppet yet.” Phoenix looked up, drawing a mental line from the archive house to his position. “The more allies we have the better.”

Yes, some help she’ll be. Don’t pretend you’re just ever so on board with my plans, you were outright refusing them two days ago. What’s your plan?

“Right now, my plan is to play hide and seek. And you’re noisy.”

Don’t you dare—

Phoenix lifted the necklace back over his head, tucking it in his pocket. Trees loomed on every side of him, but none of them offered much cover. Phoenix dipped his hand in a sparkling stream. Cold water. Definitely the Collector’s. Phoenix followed the stream through the trees. If they needed to stay in the Collector’s domain for long, they’d need a water source—and, at least, it was a feature that wouldn’t change. Hopefully.

The stream widened, turning into a rushing, roaring river that tumbled over a cliff in a waterfall. Phoenix squinted, shading his eyes. The river stretched onwards, snaking all the way out of the blue  trees and into the red.

“We can follow it out,” Phoenix mused out loud. Not that the world outside of the Collector’s territory was much safer, but it was a start.

“ONE THOUSAND,” Collector’s voice called, and Phoenix ducked back into the trees, scrambling into their branches.

He did not count to one thousand.

One of the Collector’s spies whirred through the air, sweeping the area. Its eyes fixed on Phoenix, blinking red.

And then it moved on.

Phoenix let out a deep breath. So. It’s eyesight can be bloc—

“Boo!”

Phoenix yelped, falling backwards. He locked his knees around the tree branch he was on, swinging upside-down. The Collector floated next to him, also upside down.

“Wow, you really aren’t super great at hiding, my sentry spotted you in like. Four seconds.”

Phoenix reached up and grabbed the tree branch with his hands, letting go with his legs and flipping the right way up. He released the branch, dropping to the ground.

Never mind, then. Trees—not a good place to hide.

“Did you find King?”

“Mmmm not yet. He’s smaller, so I bet he found a better place to hide than you.”

“We should split up to find him,” Phoenix suggested, “Cover more ground.”

That way, I can keep mapping the area and looking for a way out of here.

“Oh, yeah, good plan! But how will we let each other know if we find him… Oh, I know!”

Collector snapped his fingers, and a bracelet appeared around Phoenix’s wrist, with a little pull string. “Pull it if you find him. It’ll let me know where you are! And I’ll send up a huge beam of light if I find him, you’ll definitely be able to see it. Okay, off we go! I’ll goooooo this way, and you go that way!”

Collector floated off into the trees, and Phoenix heaved a sigh of relief, pushing in the opposite direction. He looked up at the archive house again, judging the distance from the house to the tip of the titan’s horn. If he could find where the two were closest from inside the house, there would probably be a window. Maybe they could jump to the horn?

Risky. But if we can’t get Eda in flying shape, it might be our best bet.

Phoenix pressed onwards, trying to stick close to the stream.

I could run. Right now, I could run.

The thought hit him like a thunderbolt. The Collector was more occupied with King right now—he could follow this stream out to the regular isles and make his way back home from there before the Collector even noticed he was gone.

I bet King’s done it—I bet he’s already gone, he bolted for it while the Collector was looking for me.

Phoenix shook his head to clear it. “No,” he said out loud, “King wouldn’t leave without Eda and Lilith.”

Nothing’s stopping you, though…

“No,” Phoenix said more firmly, “I promised. I’m not leaving without—”

The bushes rustled ever so slightly, and Phoenix’s ears pricked up, swiveling up and down to pinpoint the noise.

Where… did…

A slitherbeast leapt out of the bushes, and Phoenix hit the dirt, rolling out of the way. He sprang back up to his feet, keeping his stance low.

“You’re far from home.”

Without the element of surprise, the beast paced in a circle, looking for an opening. Saliva dripped from its jaws, and it sniffed the air delicately.

Phoenix scooped up a thick stick, turning slowly to keep the slitherbeast in his line of sight. “You’re hungry,” he guessed, “The Collector’s been… well, collecting… all your possible prey. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have ventured out of the mountains, and you definitely wouldn’t have attacked an unfamiliar creature without provocation.”

It paced closer, and Phoenix swung, bringing the stick into its jaw. “I’m not dinner. Hunt something else.”

The slitherbeast yelped, scrambling away, but continued to pace a circle around Phoenix, panting. Phoenix glanced at the bracelet on his wrist. Would Collector actually come if he pulled it?

No. I can handle this.

The slitherbeast leapt again, this time turning its body midleap so that Phoenix’s retaliation swing glanced off of its side. A wall of fur slammed into him, sending him sprawling backwards. The slitherbeast pounced, and Phoenix had barely seconds to bring his feet up into its chest before it landed, pushing it up and over him. He scrambled back to his feet, looking for his stick and jamming it into the creature’s mouth before it could bite. Its jaws cracked straight through the wood, but its teeth scraped and screeched against the bracelet around Phoenix’s wrist, preventing it from biting his hand off.

Phoenix yanked his arm out of its mouth. The pull tab snagged on the beast’s tooth.

Fireworks exploded in a burst of bright colors, one of them right into the slitherbeast’s mouth, and the others into the air. The slitherbeast shrieked, pawing at its mouth and whimpering. Smoke billowed out, but it still eyed Phoenix with that same dogged determination.

I’m the first living thing it’s seen in the last couple of days, Phoenix realized, It’s not going to give up, it’s too desperate.

Phoenix swung up into a tree, scrambling into the branches. It was too big to follow, hopefully it would—

The slitherbeast rammed its head into the tree, making the whole thing shake.

“Are you kidding me?! Fine! Knock yourself out, you—”

The trunk cracked up the middle at its next blow.

Great. Excellent, even.

Phoenix waited for it to ram into the tree again, and leapt out just as it did, landing squarely on its back. He wrapped his hands in its fur, yanking it to the side. “Just—” wham into a tree “—pass—” wham “—out!”

The slitherbeast dropped to its side, rolling onto its back. Phoenix let out a strangled yelp as all the air rushed out of his lungs with a whoosh. He clung to the beast tighter as it rolled over, shaking itself to dislodge him, then flopped on its back again. This time, Phoenix let go, wheezing for air. He scrambled backwards, hands clawing at the ground for something, anything to use as a weapon as the slitherbeast stalked towards him.

“HEY!” a familiar voice called, and a blue star landed between Phoenix and the beast. Collector crossed his arms. “Bad dog!”

“Get—away!” King yelled. A soundwave blasted out of his mouth, slamming into the slitherbeast and knocking it through the nearest tree. Collector held out his palm, and a crescent moon floated above it.

“Bye-bye!”

The moon shot out, slamming into the slitherbeast’s face. It dropped to the ground, a lifeless stuffed animal.

“WHOO! Got it!” Collector spun the star, kicking his feet over the edge. “Yeah!”

King hopped down, rushing to Phoenix’s side. “Are you okay?”

“Just bruised,” Phoenix wheezed, “Thanks.” He glanced at the Collector. “Both of you.”

Collector put one foot out, stopping the star. “Yeah, I saved you! Again! You are very good at getting in danger. You know, King, you’re right, it kind of IS fun to save mortals who get in trouble. Anyway, should we play another round of hide and seek? This time I should hide.”

“Maybe—maybe we should go back to the archive house?” King suggested.

“Awwwwwwwwwwww, why?”

“Because we just had… a bit of an adventure.”

“But we go on adventures all the time!”

“We go on pretend adventures. Phoenix was actually in danger and could have gotten really hurt! After real adventures, we have to take a break. Right, Phoenix?”

Phoenix nodded. “After serious missions, I always took a nap, or at least didn’t go back out in the field for a bit.”

“Wow. Being mortal sounds tiring. Okay, okay, we’ll go back.” The Collector’s star expanded. “Everyone on.”

Phoenix shuddered as the star rose into the air, pushing through the treetops. “This thing needs a harness.”

“Haha, are you afraid of heights?”

Phoenix gripped the edge of the star. “A little,” he squeaked.

The star tilted, then rushed forward with a whoosh, streaking towards the archive house and coming to a stop in front of the staircase and Odalia. Phoenix wobbled off the star, leaning against the stairs to balance himself.

“Hey, Mamadalia.”

Her lip curled. “Aren’t you a little old to be calling me ‘Mama’?”

“You’re saying that you’re not old enough to be my mother?”

King grabbed Phoenix’s hand while Odalia spluttered, leading him up the stairs. “Okay, that’s enough.”

Collector floated after them. “Whatcha doing? Where are we going?”

King tugged Phoenix back to the room with the tiny planet, pulling box of Band-Aids out from under his bed, and gingerly plastering them on all of the tiny scrapes from Phoenix’s fight. “Wow, you really got banged up.”

“Ehhhhhhhhhhh, I’ve had worse.”

King pulled up Phoenix’s sleeve to get at a scratch under a rip. “Hey, what happened to your arms? Have they been like this the whole time?”

“Oh.” Phoenix fidgeted with the bandage. “Belos. It’s… it’s fine, they’re healing on their own.”

King started to unwrap the cloth, and Phoenix batted his hand away. “Uh-uh, not a Band-Aid wound. Too messy. Here, look, right here.” He moved his hair out of his face, showing another little scratch on his forehead. “There’s one.”

King stood on his tiptoes to reach, plastering another Band-Aid on the wound. He tapped his own skull where bandages did their best to cover up a crack. “There. Now we’re boo-boo buddies.”

“Heh. Thanks.”

“Boo-boo buddies!” Collector exclaimed, “I want to be a boo-boo buddy! I want to do one!” He scooped up one of the bandages, removing the paper and pasting it on another scratch on Phoenix’s knee. He thrust another Band-Aid into Phoenix’s hands. “Okay, okay, now I get one!”

“Um…”

“You don’t… have a boo-boo?” King reminded him.

“Hrngh. I! Want! To Be! A boo-boo! Buddy!” Collector squinted at his arm, glaring viciously, and slowly, a scratch appeared, leaking inky blue blood that swirled with purple and glittered with starlight. “Ow!” His eyes bubbled up with tears. “Ow, ow, that’s… ow, I don’t like it, ow—”

Phoenix tore open the bandaid, carefully pasting it over the wound. “There. There, all better.”

“Now you’re a boo-boo buddy! Welcome to the club.”

Collector scrubbed at his eyes. “It hurts,” he whined, “It feels bad.”

“Uh-huh,” King agreed, “Doesn’t usually feel very nice to get hurt.”

Collector squished Phoenix’s cheeks in his hands. Phoenix winced—the Collector wasn’t hurting him yet, but he knew just how strong those hands could be. “How are you not dead?!” they yelled, “You got like, a BILLION boo-boos, and you’re all soft and squishy and mortal!”

Phoenix shrugged. “You get used to it.”

Collector flopped backwards onto his bed. “I don’t want to get used to it,” he grumbled, “It feels horrible, and I hate it.” He rolled onto his stomach, kicking his feet. “Hey, Phoenix? Do you know any good stories?”

“Um… I know a lot of stories about… the golden guard before me and Belos and how they destroyed… you know what, come to think of it, those are not kids’ stories.”

“I don’t want a story about Philip.”

“Yeah, me neither. Uhhh, let’s see… there was this one… I don’t know, legend? Fairy story? That they used to tell us before bed.”

“Us?” King echoed, “They?”

“Mmm.”

“Story,” Collector urged.

“Yeah. Right, story. Let’s see, how did it go… Once upon a time, there were two brothers, who loved each other to the sun and back. They did everything together, all their chores, their play, their walks... Then one day, the younger couldn’t find his older brother anywhere. He searched high and low. He asked the birds, ‘where has my brother gone?’ but the birds did not reply except to sing their song. He asked the boiling waters ‘where has my brother gone?’ but the sea only bubbled and hissed in reply.”

Collector snuggled into his blankets, watching Phoenix.

“Finally,” Phoenix continued, falling into the rhythm of the story, “the younger brother asked the isles themselves, ‘where has my brother gone?’ and the bones responded, ‘far in the forest, a witch with evil design has her in his grasp.’ The younger brother traveled to the witch’s home, but try as he might, he could never get past her traps. He cried out in frustration, and his tears attracted the attention of the stars. And the stars felt bad for him and sent him a single seed. ‘Plant this seed,’ the stars told him, ‘and surely, you will find your brother again. But do not speak to what grows a single word, or else your brother shall be lost to you forever.’ So the younger brother planted the seed, and out of the ground sprang a knight, clad in black armor and carrying a great sword the same color.”

“Like the sky without stars?” Collector piped up.

“Like a sky without stars,” Phoenix agreed, “The brother didn’t say a word, only turned to go back to the witch’s home. Her first trap was a raging river that the brother couldn’t cross, but the knight in black armor dove in, walking through the river to the other side and lowering a bridge to the brother. And when the brother crossed the bridge, he saw that the river had washed away the black from the armor as if it had been soot, revealing armor of bronze. But the brother said nothing, not even a word of thanks, just as the stars had instructed.”

“Then what?”

“Well, then a thicket full of brambles surrounded the witch’s home. The brother couldn’t go into them without being scratched to death, but the knight waded through them, ignoring how they got into chinks in his armor and made him bleed, and he cut a path through for the brother. And when the brother got to the other side, he saw that the knight’s armor had been scrubbed of rust by the thicket and was now silver. But he didn’t say a word to the knight, didn’t ask if he was hurt from the thicket, or even comment on the silver of his armor, just as the stars had instructed. Finally, they came close to the witch’s hut, when a ferocious dragon sprang out at them. The knight and the dragon fought for hours—”

“Hours?!” Collector interrupted.

“Yeah. Hours.”

“What did the brother do that whole time?!”

“He sat on a rock and watched, I guess.”

“That’s too long to fight a dragon!”

“Alright, alright, fine, the battle raged for fifteen minutes before the knight slew the dragon, is that better?”

“Yeah, that’s okay.”

A smile twitched onto Phoenix’s face. “Glad you approve. Anyway, the brother saw that the fire of the dragon had molded into the armor, and the knight was clad in gleaming gold. Still, the brother said nothing to him, did not ask if he was burned, or say how beautiful his armor had become, just as the stars had instructed. The brother and his knight rushed into the witch’s home, and the knight quickly sliced the witch in two. The brother ran all over the house, but he could not find any sign of his brother, dead or alive. Enraged, he picked up the knight’s sword, and cut off the head of his faithful servant.”

“WHOA!” King protested, “What?!”

“Give me a second! Anyway, the knight fell to the ground, and from his armor, his brother sprang. ‘Finally,’ his brother said, ‘I am free.’”

“WHAT?!” Collector yelled.

Phoenix crossed his arms. “Do you want this story or not?”

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. Keep going.”

“‘The witch cursed me into a seed, a curse that could only be broken if I slew her, and if you proved your devotion to getting me back, even if it meant staying silent and letting your actions speak for you.’ And so, the brothers returned home, and they lived happily ever after. The end.”

“Why did slicing his head off turn him back?!” Collector demanded, “That’s stupid! Why did he cut the knight’s head off, even though he did everything for him?! Why did being mean get him his brother back?! I think he should have never gotten to see his brother again after he sliced the knight’s head off!”

“It’s part of the story! He had to kill him!”

“Why couldn’t he talk to him?!”

“He had to prove—it’s just part of it, the brother had to go through trials, and the younger brother couldn’t say anything, and at the end, the witch and the knight… had… to…die…”

You have got to be kidding me.

Phoenix buried his face in a pillow. “Oh.”

“Phoenix?” King asked, “Buddy?”

“Ohhhhhhhh, my titan,” Phoenix groaned, “It’s a Philip story. That’s a Philip—urgh—the brothers—the witch is Evelyn, or maybe just magic—the golden knight—the golden guards—he kills the knight to get his brother back, the knight—it was all a—"

“Maybe you’re reading into it a little too much?” King suggested, “I mean, a seed from the stars?”

“Oh, no, that part’s totally real,” Collector piped up, “I’m the stars. I helped Philip with the grimwalker recipe. You’re welcome.”

“What?!” Phoenix’s head spun. The Collector—this kid—had given Philip the recipe. He’d made him. He was responsible for Phoenix’s very life, and the life of everyone back at the house. And he sat there, kicking his feet and grinning like it meant nothing.

“He said he was going to make more players. And he did! And then he destroyed them. Which does not make very good playmates, you are much more fun alive.”

Phoenix got up, bouncing to the window. “Okay. Alright. Okay. I… need a moment.”

Odalia stood outside the door. “Well, wasn’t that an interesting little story.”

“I am not in the mood,” Phoenix snapped. He shoved her necklace back at her. “Take that, I don’t need you in my head right now.”

He stalked through the hallways, checking each window.

It was always him. Every second, it was always him, getting in my head.

There. The horn. It was a substantial drop, but not a deadly one. Phoenix leaned against the windowsill with a sigh.

Just don’t look down, and you’ll be fine.

“Phoenix?” King tapped his claws together, sitting on a star with Collector. “You okay?”

“Not really.”

“Where’d you hear that story, anyway?”

Phoenix twisted his hands around each other. “Some of the older kids. They heard it from the adults. Who I guess got it from some standard-issue imperial propaganda storybook.”

“What, older kids in… the coven?”

“No. In the orphanage where I grew up.”

“Oh. I… didn’t know.”

Phoenix shrugged. “A lot of people died in Belos’ crusade against wild magic. From both sides. There was… an imperial orphanage for kids whose parents died in the war. Turns out, I didn’t have parents at all, but I didn’t know that at the time.” He chuckled dully. “Now I’m wondering if the whole thing was made up just so Belos could keep me in one place and feed me stories about being a good little soldier who didn’t complain. Is that arrogant?”

Collector hugged his knees to his chest. “What happened to the orphanage?”

“It burned down just before I joined the coven.”

King’s eyes widened. “Oh. That’s… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Phoenix moved away from the window. “When I was there, I was just a powerless kid that no one else wanted. Even they didn’t want me, but they had to keep me. I was glad to leave it behind.”

Collector jumped off the star, wrapping his arms around Phoenix’s neck and his legs around his waist in a piggyback hug. “That’s stupid. They were stupid. I want to keep you, even if you don’t have powers like me and King. We’re going to be friends forever and ever until the sun collapses into a black hole and swallows us all.”

Phoenix’s sore muscles and ribs protested at the weight, but he just walked back towards the bedroom, clasping his hands behind his back to support the Collector. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome! Your story was. Okay. I didn’t like the ending, though.”

“I’m thinking I don’t like it so much, either.” Phoenix let him down. “I’m taking a walk.”

“Don’t stay up too late. We have lots more adventures planned for tomorrow.”

“Right. Good night.”

King stopped just before he followed the Collector to bed. “Phoenix? What happened to everyone else? At your orphanage?”

“I… don’t know. Once I joined the coven, they told me not to look back. And I didn’t.”

“Huh. Okay. Good night.”

“Night, boo-boo buddy.”

Phoenix trotted back down the stairs, leaning against the wall with a sigh.

I want to keep you.

Phoenix patted his face. “No,” he said firmly, “You are not feeling bad about running from the crazy kid who is keeping you hostage and turning people into puppets. Not allowed. Besides, we need to check in on the others. And let them know we’re alright. And where Jason is, they are probably frantic about him right now. You cannot start feeling bad about leaving. He’s unpredictable and every day here is a risk you get turned into a puppet. Or worse.”

He destroyed Belos in an instant without any remorse.

What will he do to you if he finds out what you’re planning?

“We’re getting out of here,” Phoenix said out loud.

No matter what.

Chapter Text

Deep breaths.

Phoenix opened a door. “Terra. Glad you haven’t been turned into a puppet.”

“Hello, Rosebud. I see you’ve cooled down from your little tantrum. Here to get me to join your little owl house game?”

“Not quite yet. Where are the rest of the coven heads?”

Terra studied her nails. “I don’t know.”

Liar.

“Incredible. You lost them? The most senior of the coven heads didn’t keep track of her cohorts?” Phoenix shook his head. “I guess I came to the wrong place.”

She eyed him. “Adorable. Let’s cut to the chase and quit dancing around our objectives, shall we? You’re looking for allies. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come to me. What are my options? What’s my standing right now?”

Equal exchange of information. Alright. Always better than one sided.

“You’re one option out of several to play the owl lady. The last one got turned into a puppet. High risk, high reward, Terra. If you get picked to play, you can get close to the Collector. But if you fail, you’ll lose everything.”

“Oh, are those the only stakes? I’ve been in that situation for fifty years now.”

“It’s not the same. You’re not dealing with an adult who has adult reason. You’re dealing with a child.” Although how much Belos had really been ‘reasonable’ was probably up for debate.

“I’m excellent with children. Just look how you turned out.”

Hating your guts?

Phoenix shook his head. “With Belos, the blame and risk was spread out among coven heads. Now? It’s all concentrated. We need to get a scapegoat, maybe Graye?”

Wouldn’t hate seeing him turned into a puppet.

“You’re not fooling anyone, Rosebud.”

“I’m not trying to fool you.”

“You never were a good liar. You’re not looking for someone to spread the blame out, you’re looking for a coconspirator to plot with. One who isn’t a tiny dog thing.”

Phoenix kept his face still and neutral. “And you think you can be that partner?”

“Undoubtedly, but I’m certain you already have a particular abomination head in mind. One you’re fishing for information on. Like I said, you’re not fooling anyone.”

Right. One more card to play.

Phoenix took a step closer to Terra. He’d surpassed her in height a long time ago, and without her plants to stand on, she had to look up to meet his eyes. “I have the Collector’s ear. If I recommend you, he’ll loop you into the game. Is that something you want, or not?”

Her eyes glinted. “According to you, I’m safe here, but the game is a risk. What do you think?”

A vine grew out of the ground between them, pushing Phoenix back.

“You’re not the only choice I’ve got in this titanforsaken house. Make no mistake, I can find another ally. You’re rusty, Rosebud. And you were never had as good at keeping the coven heads in your pocket as your predecessor.”

Phoenix pushed the vine to the side. “Remind me which of us is a statue right now?”

Sorry, Petro.

“This isn’t the coven, Terra. The rules have changed, and you are not well adjusted to follow them. The Collector isn’t me, or any of the other kids you’ve taken interest in. He’s not going to be as easy to control as you think. If you want to stay free, I suggest you start following my lead.”

“I’ll take that under advisement,” she purred, “Best of luck finding Darius.”

Phoenix’s gut clenched at the direct mention of his name, but he pushed out of the room without another word. A dead end. Not that he’d ever wanted to team up with Terra, but it wouldn’t hurt to have her at the very least not trying to actively sabotage him.

“I’ll just find them myself.” He opened the door to the puppet room. “Titan, I hope he’s not in here.”

Phoenix left the door open for light, gingerly stepping over puppets left strewn all over the floor. One’s hand rolled under his foot, and he winced, crouching down to make sure it wasn’t broken. “Sorry.”

“They’re not conscious, you know.”

Phoenix’s spine stiffened. “Odalia.”

She dangled her pendant from one hand. “You appear to have misplaced this. Again.”

“Oh, no, how careless of me,” he replied flatly, “My mistake.” Phoenix snatched it out of her hand, but didn’t put it back on. “You don’t know that they’re not.”

She sighed. “If they’re conscious then that means that they are intentionally being difficult when I have to put them away. And I’m sure—” she punctuated her words with a kick at the nearest puppet’s arm, sending it clattering to the side. “—that they would never intentionally do something like that.”

Phoenix’s fist clenched. “Don’t do that.”

“Oh, what do you care, Rosebud?”

Phoenix jerked backwards. “Terra.”

So that’s what she meant by a choice of allies.

This is not going to be a good duo.

“She’s a very interesting woman. Had quite the insight on you.”

“You can’t trust Terra or anything she says, Odalia.”

“Oh, so I suppose you’re not here looking for Darius, are you?” Odalia pushed another puppet to the side with her foot. “You know, I’m hurt that you didn’t come to me for help with this. I have more time to explore this place than you, always out on the Collector’s little games, and of course we share equal concern for Darius’ well-being.”

What.

“We share what now.”

Odalia sighed. “Oh, now I’m disappointed you don’t remember me.”

Don’t… remember…

Phoenix slammed the heel of his palm into his forehead. “Odalia. You’re—titan—you are… a lot bigger than I thought you’d be. As in taller. Like, older, not—I’m going to stop talking now.”

She crossed her arms. “Well, I may never have seen under that mask, but you don’t exactly look like a seventy-year-old man. You must tell me your skincare routine. I hope it doesn’t involve burning half of my face off. Not that the look doesn’t work for you, dear.”

“I cannot believe you stuck with Darius this long.”

“If you must know, he ditched me a few months after your… disappearance. Accused me of using him. But obviously I still care abou—”

“HA!” Phoenix barked, “Good for him! Alright, maybe I didn’t know you’d be like… this… when I told him to stay away, but am I glad I did.”

“When you did what.”

Phoenix shoved Odalia’s pendant at her. “We’re done. My answer is no. I hope you and Terra have a lovely time trying to get close to the Collector without me.” When she didn’t take the pendant, he dropped it, letting it clink to the floor. “I’ll find Darius without you.”

“You may not need me, but you do not want me as an enemy,” she warned as he pushed past her, “You will regret this.”

Phoenix growled, turning and taking slow, threatening steps towards her. “No, Odalia. You don’t want me as an enemy. I am giving you and Terra the choice to stay out of my way. Try me, and getting turned into a puppet will be the least of your worries.”

She broke eye contact first, stepping backwards. Phoenix took another step closer, not allowing her retreat.

“I’m the one the Collector considers a friend. You’re just ‘Mamadalia.’ When it comes down to the two of us, I am the one who has his ear. Your word against mine. Who do you think he’ll trust? Last warning, Odalia. Try to freeze me out and the Collector will hear a little something about how you think you can control him.”

Phoenix spun on his heel, marching out the door. Outside of the archive house, lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder cracked. Phoenix let out a long hiss, leaning against the wall.

“Okay. Oooookay.” The wounds on his arms throbbed in time with the angry tempo of his heartbeat, and he put one hand on his chest. “Take a breath, Phoenix. Cool down.”

I have got to get out of here before things get worse.

Unless…

Maybe the way Odalia was going about it was wrong, of course it was, she wanted to control all of the isles and manipulate the Collector to do her dirty work. But since he was here, and the Collector did listen to him, at least sometimes, would it be so bad to run damage control? Maybe get the Collector to release some of the puppets?

I should get Terra and Odalia out of the way for sure. They’re going to be trouble.

Phoenix patted his face, pacing to shake off the thoughts. “Whoa,” he said firmly, “No. We’re finding Darius, saving Eda and Lilith, and then—”

“Heyo, Phoenix!” Collector pounced on his back, clinging to him. “We’re having an inside adventure today!”

Phoenix staggered under the weight with a little ‘oof,’ but readjusted quickly. “An inside adventure?”

“Yeah, it’s raining! Mortals like you have to stay indoors! Plus, we never have inside adventures. Inside can be fun. Just not toooooooooooo inside.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Nothing too fancy. Oh, I saw people play this one alllllllllllll the time, c’mon, c’mon! To the stairs! King’s waiting!”

Phoenix backtracked through the hallways to the main entrance. He shot a questioning look to King, who made an ‘I don’t know’ gesture in response. Collector’s legs kicked back and forth, and Phoenix let him down.

“We are going to have.” Collector inhaled deeply. “A tea party! Don’t worry, Phoenix, Terra isn’t invited. No poison tea.” He clapped his hands, and a china set appeared in the air. “And we are going to have our tea party iiiiiiiiin zero gravity!”

Phoenix’s feet lifted off of the ground, and tea started to drift out of the pot. “Whoa—Uh—” He clung to the stairs. “I don’t think—tea parties—are like this—”

Collector soared over, prying Phoenix’s fingers off of the railing. “But it’s more fun!”

Phoenix winced as his index finger popped under the Collector’s pressure and finally let go. “Ooookay.”

Collector pointed at the teapot, and the liquid splashed back in. “Geeze, okay, some gravity. Or else we’re not going to be able to drink this.”

Phoenix examined his knuckle, gingerly popping it back into place.

Right. I forgot that he flicked Uncle through the wall. I’m lucky he didn’t strangle me trying to get a piggyback ride. Or rip my hand clean off just now.

Phoenix kicked off of the stairs, grabbing a teacup for cover and soaring towards King. “How’re things going on the Eda front?”

King glanced at the Collector. “Well, I—”

“You know what would make this more fun?” Collector clapped his hands. “More friends!”

In a puff of smoke, puppets appeared. Graye’s face loomed in front of Phoenix’s, and he kicked out, connecting with the puppet’s chest and sending it flying. The force of the push sent him tumbling backwards.

“Ack!” Phoenix put out his arms to steady himself, noting symbols decorating each of the puppets.

Illusion. Healing. Potions…

Phoenix’s eyes landed on a purple cloak and his stomach churned at the sight of usually-shifting hair that had gone stiff and still.

Darius.

Something tugged on his sleeve. “Phoenix? Hey, Phoenix, buddy... You with me?”

Phoenix’s eyes moved slowly to King, who was tugging on his sleeve.

“Yes,” Phoenix’s voice said, “I’m with you.”

“You, uh. You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I’m fine,” his voice continued from far away, “Would you like some tea?”

How do I save him?

Can he even turn back?

What if…

When the tea party was finally over, the puppets disappeared. Phoenix drifted towards the hallway, thoughts stuck in an endless loop of “save him” “how?!”

“Phoenix!” King called, running after him, “I’ve got something to—”

“Do you know where the coven head puppets are?”

“Usually they guard the owl beast. Eda’s kept on the other side of the archive house, but about that—”

“Thanks. Keep the Collector from looking for me?”

“Yeah, okay, I will, but Phoenix—”

Phoenix ran down the hallway, his boots landing with heavy thuds that echoed through the house like a heartbeat.

Thump

Thump

Thump

A row of puppets stood before an iron cage, lifeless.

“Darius?” Phoenix whispered, “Can you hear me?” He reached out, his fingers stopping just shy of the puppet’s face. “Titan. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I should have been there, I should have—I should have—I should have told you. I should have told you I was alive. We could have—we could have faced him together, we could have come up with a different plan, we could have done something.”

Phoenix’s hand dropped down to his side, heart twisting in his chest. “Or… maybe I would have just been a distraction. Maybe I would have just made things… complicated. You got pretty far without me. Maybe I would have made it worse.”

I probably would have made it worse.

Phoenix’s hands curled into fists, shaking. “I’m going to make it up to you. I am. I’ll explain everything, I’ll tell you what happened—I’m going to fix this. Somehow.”

“Holy mother of apple blood!” a voice yelped, “Lily, get out here, the golden nerd went through the world’s biggest growth spurt!”

Phoenix jumped, a flush spreading across his face. How much did—

“Wait,” he blurted, “People. Not puppet people. Not Odalia or Terra not puppet people!”

A woman with a poof of grey and white hair peered around the puppets. Her eyes were black voids dotted by glowing yellow irises, and feathers floated in her wake. “Heya, nerd, you look more beat up than usual. And bigger. Ah, wait—” she snapped her fingers (of her only hand, Phoenix realized). “You’re the Phoenix guy! I know your…” she waved a hand around for a minute. “…smaller you,” she finished, “Sort of. In passing. King told us about you! Man, that resemblance is uncanny.”

Her voice was uncanny, seeming to echo inside of her chest and vibrate through the air with raw force, like a wild animal’s howl.

Another woman stepped delicately out of the iron cage, adjusting a pair of huge round glasses. “Edalyn, stay inside, we don’t know… if he’s…”

Her jaw dropped, and she fumbled her way to attention, snapping a perfect scout’s salute. “Gol—sir! You’re—you’re—”

Phoenix hissed in. A scout. Who was she? “I’m… sorry… if I’m supposed to know…”

She let out a high-pitched nervous giggle, flapping one hand. “Oh, no, no, no, I wouldn’t expect you to remember me, I was hardly a scout when you… I never introduced… my goodness.” She nudged ‘Edalyn.’ “Show some respect. He is the golden guard—the one before… the real golden guard.”

“Um…” Phoenix scratched the back of his head, the tips of his ears burning. How had he ever been used to this? “Please don’t—it’s fine. Phoenix is fine. I’m not… hi?”

Edalyn gave him a mock salute. “Alright, then. Hi, Phoenix. I’m Eda. This is Lilith.”

Edalyn. Eda. “Oh. Ohhhhh, King—you’re not a puppet! Or an owl beast!” Phoenix knuckled his forehead. “That’s what he was trying to tell me.”

Eda waved her hand. “Surprise! Lilith got transformed last night, and she brewed an elixir that turned me back this morning.” She coughed, and a feather floated out of her mouth. “Mostly.”

“I’m working on it,” Lilith insisted.

Phoenix seized Lilith’s hands. “How did you turn back?! Can you do it to other people?!”

“Oh…” Lilith extracted one hand from his grip, patting his fists. “I didn’t transform myself. King just… convinced the Collector to turn me back. I’m sorry.” She glanced around the hallway. “Why don’t you come inside? Odalia prowls around here sometimes, and I don’t want her to see Eda.”

“Of course she does.”

Phoenix followed Lilith and Eda into the cage and a spacious cave beyond. “Wow. I’ve never… been this far over.”

Eda chuckled. “Well, based on what King told Lilith and Lilith told me, you’ve been getting knocked around for the last couple weeks. First Belos, and then a slitherbeast, not to mention running around playing the Collector’s games—I’m not surprised you haven’t explored this whole house. I’m impressed you’re even still standing. You’ve got the world’s worst luck, kiddo.”

Lilith’s face twisted up as if in pain at the nickname. “Yes—well, King also says you’ve been working on a plan to get everyone out. We’re pretty strapped for ideas ourselves, so. Any input welcome.”

Eda shook her head. “The biggest problem is that we’re on constant surveillance. You two with the Collector, and Lily and I with those puppets.”

Phoenix shook his head. “I’m mostly worried about the drop. I’ve done some mapping of the area, and I think I can find my way out of the Collector’s playground, but getting down from the archive house to the ground safely is… going to be an issue.”

“Oh!” Lilith scrambled through her pockets, finally pulling out a notepad and pencil. “I can help with that.” She drew a glyph, handing the paper to him. “This will slow your descent, but only for a few moments, so be sure not to use it until you’re close to the ground. As long as you’re touching King, it will save both of you.”

Phoenix tucked the paper into his pocket, heart thumping wildly in his chest. A way out. A sure way to get out, one that doesn’t risk a deadly fall.

“What’s your plan for once you get out?” Eda asked. Her eyes moved over him in quick, sharp moments, “Where will you go?”

“I know a safe house. The people there… I haven’t seen them here, so I’m assuming they found a way to hide themselves from the Collector. We should be safe there, if we can make it. I think King and I can make up a game where we get a head start and we can get far enough from the Collector, but the puppets won’t be so easily distracted. We’ll have to find a way to lure them away from here so you can escape—or to free them. Preferably to free them.”

Lilith and Eda glanced at each other, then back to Phoenix.

“I want you to just get him out of here,” Eda announced, “You focus on that.”

“What about you? What about Darius?”

“We’d… like… to free our friends and to escape,” Lilith admitted, “But… we want King to be safe most of all. And I’m sure Darius would want you to be safe.”

Phoenix spluttered. “I—you—are you sending me away?!” Sure, he’d done the same with Jason. But this was different—the danger was slow, creeping. Not imminent.

“You are the only one of us who can leave the archive house without the Collector suspecting something! You’re the only one of us who knows where this safe house is, and, quite frankly, injured or not, I think you may be the most capable of getting him out of here safely—at least at this moment in time.”

“Then let’s wait,” Phoenix urged, “We can come up with a more solid plan, we can work on freeing some of the others…”

Eda shook her head. “Absolutely not. I’m not leaving King in danger a second longer than I have to.”

Phoenix took a deep breath. “What if I said… King and I aren’t in any real danger? Not for now, at least. The Collector is… not harmless, I won’t say that, but for now, he’s not going to hurt King or I. Not intentionally.”

“We still have to worry about that unintentional,” Lilith piped up, “And what if his mood changes? No, King needs to go somewhere the Collector can’t find him. He’s important—more important than either of us.”

“Collector won’t stop looking,” Phoenix warned, “He’ll try to hunt us down.”

“Do you want out of here or not?”

“I want out. I’m just wondering if this is more of a long game than a short-term problem.”

Lilith’s eyes widened just a bit, but just as quickly, her expression shifted back to a neutral one. “Phoenix, it’s… it’s not a game, whatever the Collector pretends. It’s not the coven.”

“What? I know, I’m just wondering if we could do some go—”

“No, Phoenix, listen. There’s not a way to win this if we stay. We’re just delaying the inevitable. The way we win this is by getting away, and figuring out a way to eliminate the threat. If we play this the way we played Belos’ game, we’re only going to get killed. He can’t be controlled, and he can’t be reasoned with.”

“I know he can’t be controlled, I don’t want to control him, I just…” Phoenix’s hands opened and closed helplessly, “There’s got to be a way to get everyone out of this. And I don’t want to leave until I’m sure that saving our allies is impossible.”

Lilith and Eda glanced at each other again. “Let us figure that out,” Eda said firmly, “Let us work on a way to save the puppets. But I will feel a lot better about it if I know King is safe and out of the line of fire.”

“And what about King? Do you really think he’s going to be okay with leaving you?”

Eda sighed. “No. If I know my kid, he’d fight this decision tooth and claw. But we have to try. Phoenix. Listen. I’m counting on you, alright? I’m counting on you to get him out of here, no matter what. I need you to protect him.”

Again, Phoenix was reminded of Jason. How he’d wanted him gone, even in the human realm rather than right where the Isles collapsed around them. Titan. It’s not fair that King’s caught up in this. It’s not. I know I’d want him out.

Phoenix glanced back at the entrance to the cave. “Promise me that you will look out for Darius.”

Eda nodded. “I will.”

“And… if you can unpuppetify him, will you tell him—”

“You’ll tell him yourself,” Lilith interrupted, “Just get my nephew out of here.”

“I will.”

Eda sighed, seeming to deflate with her exhale. “Thank you.”

Phoenix gave her a nod and left, checking both ways for Odalia before heading back out and towards the main entrance to the archives.

Maybe… maybe I could leave King with Caleb and Evelyn, and then come back for Darius.

If they let me.

They have to let me.

But would the Collector buy it if I told him I just got lost? Would he take me back?

As if thinking about him had summoned them, Collector floated in front of him, hanging upside down. “Heya, Phoenix. Where’d you go?”

“Oh. Kiiiiiiitchen?”

“Huh, were there not enough snacks at the tea party?”

“No, it was fine. I was juuuuuust… washing the dishes?” Phoenix took a deep breath.

Here we go.

No going back.

“Hey… Collector? How would you feel about playing a new game?”

Chapter Text

Collector stroked his chin. “Hmmmm… What is this new game?”

Phoenix bobbed his head up and down a couple of times, as if trying to remember. “Weeeeell, it was a really fun one that Terra used to play with me all the time, called ‘covens versus wilds.’”

“Oh,” King yelped, “I know about this one!” He tapped his claws together, suddenly self-conscious. Eda… Eda told me.”

Phoenix shook his head. “Obviously, covens versus wilds doesn’t really make sense anymore, so we’ll call it… puppets versus pals.”

Collector nodded. “Okay. How do you play?”

“Well, there are two teams. Puppets, and pals.”

Collector clapped his hands. “Oh, we’re pals! And the rest of the isles… puppets! Easy teams!”

“Close,” Phoenix said slowly, “There’s one more role. It’s the most important role, and if no one does it, then we can’t play the game.”

“Oh, me!” Collector bobbed up and down in the air, raising his hand. “Me, me, me, I’ll do it, I want to do that one!”

“Are you sure? It puts you on the other team.”

“Yes! I want the super important part, I’ll be so good at it.”

Phoenix’s gut twisted.

You’re acting just like him. Tricking some kid into playing your game.

I have to

It isn’t the same, I have to.

Phoenix shook himself. “Okay, if you’re sure. Your job is that you are in charge. You’re running the base of operations here. You make sure all the puppets are coordinated. Because team pal’s job is to get out of the archive house and out of your… blue area. And team puppet is trying to get uuuuuuus tooooo…”

“The room! Our bedroom, it’s a good spot. What are the rules?”

“Um… you can’t leave the house, but you can send ALL of the puppets after us. If someone gets hurt, we have to pause. And… you can’t turn King or I into puppets. That’s cheating.”

“Okay! Hey, the yard is kind of big, especially since you can’t fly without me. How about I draw a new area? Look.” Collector clapped his hands, and outside, a wall of light sectioned off a swathe of land around the archive house. “You just have to get past the light wall to win!”

Phoenix surveyed the land. It would be a close run. But he could still make it out of the Collector’s territory before the demigod could catch up with him. He hoped. “Looks good, Collector. Thanks for going easy on us.” The knife in his gut twisted again. Collector couldn’t know that by making the game ‘easier,’ he’d made Phoenix’s job harder. They’d wanted to make things more fair—if it weren’t for King, maybe it would have been worth staying here.

“Are we ready? Three! Two! One! Go!”

Phoenix scooped King up, bolting towards the hallway. Puppets appeared with a pop behind them at “go,” clattering wordlessly. Phoenix skidded to a stop in front of the window over the horn, yanking the glyph Lilith had given him out of his pocket. “We need to clear the skull. Can you break that window?”

“Weh!”

A soundwave blasted out of King’s mouth, and the glass cracked, spiderwebs of white splintering across it.

Tap, tap, click.

A puppet lurched towards them, and Phoenix shuddered. “Time to go!”

He backed up, then took a running leap at the window, turning so that his shoulder hit the glass and his body shielded King from the impact. The glass shattered, and a thousand tiny shards bit into the right side of Phoenix’s body. The two of them slammed into the horn, and Phoenix scrambled for a grip, skin scraping across rough bone.

Come on, come on, come on—

Phoenix’s fingers cracked into the skull, and he and King slid to a stop. Blood already coated his fingertips and dripped from sunken pieces of glass. Hopefully the Collector didn’t know how to follow the trail he’d leave. “Hah—huh—”

“You just broke bone!” King yelped, “How did you know that would work?!”

“I—was just hoping—I could find—a handhold.” Phoenix stared upwards, refusing to look how far below them the ground was. “Okay, okay.”

Blue stars whirled down from the archive house, puppets sitting on top. No more time to recover, or prepare.

Don’t think, just do it, don’t think, just do it—

Phoenix took a deep breath, braced his feet against the horn, and pushed off, leaping clear of the skull. King screamed, clinging tightly to Phoenix.

“WE’RE GONNA DIE!”

Phoenix forced himself not to activate the glyph, watching the ground get closer… closer…

He hit the paper, and their fall slowed, the air around them humming and glowing blue. He twisted in midair and landed on his feet. It didn’t matter—his legs gave out the second he put weight on them, and he crashed to the ground.

“We just jumped. Off of the top of the skull. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Ahahaha.”

King’s grip strayed just on the verge of strangling Phoenix now. “Are you crazy?! It’s just a game!”

Phoenix pushed himself to his feet. “It’s not a game—it’s an escape. Let’s go.” He started towards the treeline—any cover was better than standing in the open, and according to the mental map Phoenix had made of the ‘yard,’ the river was somewhere in that forest.

Click

A hand closed around Phoenix’s arm, and he whirled around, swinging his fist.

Cyrus’ date from the coven day parade stared at him, eyes blank. Phoenix twisted his arm mid-swing, barely missing the puppet’s face. The puppet grabbed his arm and pulled, tugging him back towards the archive house, but Phoenix wrenched away, sweeping the puppet’s legs out from under him.

“Someone I know cares about you,” he told the stall owner, “Hold on for him.” He sprinted away before the puppet could get back up, weaving through the trees to break off his line of sight.

“What do you mean escape?” King demanded, “What about Eda and Lilith?”

“I talked to them, actually. They’re in on this.” Phoenix ducked behind a tree, panting, as a star whirred past. The moment it was gone, he started to run again, ears swiveling to pick up any sound of running water.

“In on this… how?”

“We’re a distraction,” Phoenix lied, “The Collector should focus all of his puppet power on us, which leaves them unguarded. They slip out, we run out of here while the Collector stays in the archives.”

First the Collector. Now King. The lies didn’t stop, did they? I have to, Phoenix argued to himself, or he’d never agree to come. Not that lying to King would last. He’d figure out pretty quickly that Eda and Lilith hadn’t gotten away. Hopefully, Phoenix could keep him from running right back to the Collector to rescue them.

Looking out for his safety? Or your own?

Phoenix shook himself. It didn’t matter. This was what Eda and Lilith wanted for King. They were smart and tough—they’d find their own way out. In the meantime, they wanted King as far away from the Collector as possible.

“You don’t think the Collector will be suspicious? A game with rules specifically designed to let us run away from him while he has to stay put in the archive house?

Phoenix shook his head. “There’s only ever been one real rule to Covens vs. Wilds. And it’s that wilds can’t win. The odds are intentionally stacked against us.”

“Just like real life covens and wild witches.”

“Just like real life covens and wild witches,” Phoenix agreed, “Anyway, if it seems like a game we can’t win, it’s not so suspicious. And hopefully we’ll be long gone before he figures it out.” His ears twitched, picking up a splash, and he ran towards the sound, eyes constantly shifting across the trees, checking for puppets.

King sighed. “It doesn’t feel right. Tricking him, I mean. Belos tricked him for years, and the owl house game was a trick to get him to save the isles, and now we’re tricking him again.”

Phoenix’s gut clenched. It wasn’t like he hadn’t had those thoughts himself, but hearing King say them out loud somehow made it worse. The Collector was dangerous, there was no denying that. But they were just a kid. And if Phoenix and King got away with this, if they managed to run out of his reach… he’d be left alone with Terra. And Odalia.

Phoenix almost pumped the brakes at that thought, tripping over his own feet to keep going.

“I know,” he said in response to King, “But he’s dangerous. And he can’t… he’s holding us hostage.”

“Maybe I should stay.”

“What?!” Phoenix did stop at that, looking around for watching eyes before crouching in a purple bush and letting King down so he could look him in the eye. “You can’t be serious.”

“Eda and Lilith will be safe. The Collector might not chase after the two of them, but he will keep looking for me.” King patted Phoenix’s hand. “I know you have people you want to get back to. So go to them. Splitting up will increase your chance of getting away, and maybe I can convince the Collector to let you go. That way, he won’t be alone, and you won’t have him hunting down your family.”

Phoenix shook his head. “I’m not leaving you behind. And you know Eda and Lilith wouldn’t want you going back either.”

“I’m not asking Eda and Lilith. I’m asking you. They don’t know Collector like we do.”

Puppets clattered by in a gang of ten, and Phoenix waited for them to pass, silent. Once they were out of sight, he heaved a sigh.

“Look. Collector is… complicated. I don’t think there’s a right answer here. All I know is that Eda and Lilith want you out of the archive house. And I’ll sleep a lot better at night if I know you’re not with him and Terra and Odalia all alone.”

King’s eyes seemed to search his face, then finally nodded. “Alright. Let’s go.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Since you and Eda and Lilith planned all of this. But Phoenix, if I decide I want to go back…”

“I might not be the one you have to convince. The others can be… intense.”

“Alright. I’ll keep it in mind.” King scrambled back onto Phoenix’s back. “Let’s go.”

Phoenix pushed leaves aside, checking for more puppets. They’d passed for now, but Collector had the whole Isles worth out looking for them. Not seeing at least one or two out was… concerning, to say the least. He jogged towards where he’d heard that splash, moving southeast.

A wall of light blazed through the trees, so bright Phoenix started seeing spots.

Something grabbed his arm, and Phoenix twisted away, squeezing his eyes shut to block out the light.

I can’t see, but they can.

Smart.

He charged forward blindly, pushing through puppets and shaking them off every time one latched onto his ankles or wrist.

King started to slide off his back, his little claws digging into Phoenix’s shoulders.

“Phoenix!”

Phoenix pivoted, opening his eyes. His shadow loomed out in front of him, the light behind him flickering and making his shadow shudder, spikey horns sprouting from its head and disappearing just as quickly. The puppet that held King tilted its head at him, and he kicked it, grabbing King as it stumbled backwards. He closed his eyes again, running through the curtain of light. The blinding light pressing at his eyelids abruptly disappeared, leaving spots in their wake.

The puppets chattered, then fell into their ‘waiting’ position, joints loose.

“I… guess we won?” King suggested.

A star shot off from the archive house, falling towards them, and Phoenix’s blood chilled.

He’s coming for us.

“We need to go.”

The river’s dull roar sounded constantly now, and Phoenix ran towards the splashing, tumbling water.

“Guys,” Collector laughed, his star skimming the ground next to them, “The game’s over. You won! You can stop running!”

Phoenix could hear King’s heartbeat throbbing against his back—or maybe that was his own heart, beating so hard against his ribs that he could feel it trying to get out.

“Phoenix. Stop running. Stop!”

Collector’s star whirled in front of Phoenix, and he skidded to a near stop, dashing to the side and continuing around him.

“Phoenix,” King’s voice said in his ear, frantic, “Phoenix, it’s not going to work—he’s too fast, it’s over!”

Phoenix shook his head, his breath coming in short, ragged pants, only half from the physical exertion. The forest had turned into a tunnel, with just the river at the end. They were so close.

Have to keep going

Have to get out of here

Can’t stop

Can’t stop

Can’t stop

He took Darius

He’ll take King

He’ll take everyone from you

Not again

Not again

Not again

The ground cracked under Phoenix’s feet, and he crashed to the ground, driving glass shards from the window further into his arm and side.

“Phoenix?” Collector asked in a small voice, “Why won’t you stop running?”

“You have to let me go,” Phoenix gasped, “You have to let me go, Belos, you have to let… me…”

“What. Did you. Call me.”

“I—” Phoenix forced himself to take a deep, shuddering breath. “I didn’t mean—It just… slipped…”

“What do you mean, go? You’re not trying to leave me, are you?”

Say no! Phoenix’s mind screamed, You can still fix this, just pretend you got caught up in the game!

The river, the forest, King, Collector, all of it fell away in a moment of startling clarity. Phoenix’s spine straightened, and he took a deep breath.

No more lying.

“Yes,” Phoenix told him, “Yes. I want to leave.”

“Wha—why?! I thought we were friends! Friends don’t leave friends!”

Phoenix pushed himself to his feet, wincing as the little glass shards tore at his flesh. “Friends… friends say goodbye, and they go home, Collector. I’m going home.”

Collector stamped his foot, and the ground shook again. “The archive house is your home! With me! Why do you have to go to some other place?”

“I—”

“Do you have other friends? They don’t have to stay at another place, they can come to the archive house. We can all be friends! You don’t have to go! Where are they? I can bring them to the archive house just like that!”

“No!” Phoenix took another deep breath. “No.”

“Why not?!”

“You’ll turn them into puppets!”

“Yeah? That way they’ll be safe?”

“No. No, it just traps them. You have to understand that, you’re not keeping people safe, they’re not your friends, they’re your prisoners. I’m your prisoner.”

He had to understand. He had to—Phoenix didn’t want to hurt the Collector. He didn’t want to lie anymore, he didn’t want to trick the kid, and he definitely didn’t want to fight them. He just wanted to go.

Collector sputtered, crossing his arms. “Nuh-uh! Prison is being put in a disc and being alone forever and ever and ever and not being able to see anyone! No one is alone this way, and no one gets hurt! No one gets old or sick or dies! I’m protecting them, I’m protecting all of them! Why can’t you see that?! It’s not prison!”

Something quiet clicked into place inside Phoenix’s mind—a disc. Dagger’s disc, the one he’d hoped could help stop Belos. If Collector had been trapped inside, then he’d been right in a way. But Dagger had seen that disc… Phoenix didn’t know when exactly, but it had been a long time ago. How long had the godling been locked away? A stab of pity pierced his heart, but Phoenix shook his head, forcing his resolve to hold. “Prison is keeping someone against their will—and you’re not letting me go. I want to go home. Prove we’re not prisoners. Let us go. If we’re friends, you’ll let us leave. And you won’t follow us.”

Collector’s lip wobbled. “If we’re friends, that means you’ll come back, right?”

He still has Darius

And… I don’t want him to only have Terra and Odalia as company.

“I’ll come back,” Phoenix said slowly. A voice in the back of his mind screamed not to promise that, or for it to at least be a lie, but he squashed that part down. He’d let the others know what had happened to Jason and Hunter. He’d fulfill his promise to Eda and Lilith and get King to safety. And then he’d come back for Darius.

And the Collector.

They didn’t deserve to be alone.

Collector took a deep breath. “You’re sure you don’t want them to come back with you to the archive house?” they whined.

Phoenix’s heart fluttered. He was coming around. They were going to let him go. “I’m sure.”

“And you’re sure you’ll come back?”

“I’ll come right back to the skull and wave to one of your stars to pick me up,” Phoenix promised, “I won’t be gone long.”

“Like, you’ll be back tomorrow?”

“Uh… give me a week?”

“That’s forever!”

Phoenix held up his hands. “Think about it. I’ve been with you for weeks, and my other home didn’t get to see me for all that time. It’s only fair.”

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Fffffffine. Can I send a star with you to fly you back super fast, at least?”

“No.”

“Man. C’mon, King. We’re gonna play some games that only need two players.”

King looked to Phoenix, who cleared his throat. “I was… actually thinking King would come with me?”

Collector froze, but didn’t turn around. “What?”

“I was thinking… King… would… come.”

“So King gets to meet your other friends, but I don’t?!” Collector whirled around, eyes blazing. “Are you trying to steal King from me?!”

Phoenix took a step back. “I…”

Say something

Say something

Say something!

“You can’t have him!” Collector screamed, “You can’t, you can’t, you can’t!”

King floated back towards the Collector, and Phoenix jumped forward, grabbing King’s arms. They’d been alright—he’d been about to agree. How had it collapsed so fast?! “No, no, no—”

“Phoenix!”

“I’ve got you, King! I’ve got you!”

I promised Eda and Lilith

I promised King

I can’t let the Collector take him back!

“Mamadalia was right!” Collector howled, “She said you took her friend from her, and you’d take my friend, too!”

Odalia.

She did have another trick up her sleeve.

Collector twisted his finger, and King was jerked forward, dragging Phoenix closer to the Collector. “I said you wouldn’t ever, but she was right, she was right, you’re nothing but a horrible, no good friend stealer!” His voice rose to a shriek that seemed to pierce Phoenix’s ears, and he was halfway certain if he checked, they would be bleeding. “You were lying about coming back!”

“I wasn’t,” Phoenix said desperately, “I swear, I—"

The Collector tugged again. King cried out, and Phoenix instinctively let go. “No!”

“I! Hate! You! You! Lied! Just! Like! PHILIP!” Collector held up one hand, and a ball of blinding light formed over his palm.

King’s eyes widened. “Phoenix, RUN!”

A soundwave blasted out of his mouth, throwing Phoenix back towards the river. Phoenix saw the Collector’s magic hit the ground where he’d been, and a moment later, a boom echoed out, and the ground cracked. The shockwave from the impact threw Phoenix up in the air, and he crashed back down to the ground.

He’s going to kill me

I can’t go back.

Phoenix scrambled to his feet, wheezing for air. Another ball of light sizzled past him on the left, crashing through thick tree trunks. Again, the sound followed moments after, a horrible, cracking, tearing noise. Phoenix bolted towards the river, took a deep breath, and dove in.

The current almost immediately swept him away, pushing him further downstream. Something hissed into the water—another attack from the Collector. The resulting wave sent Phoenix tumbling around in the water like a wet rag, sloshing water over the banks. The Collector’s scream of rage disappeared in the roar of the wave.

Phoenix struggled to the surface for air, only to be thrust back down under. Claw up, gulp for air, thrown back beneath the surface in a dizzying whirl of bubbles. Over and over and over and over.

Finally, finally, the wave receded, and the current started to slow, washing him to shallower water. Phoenix stumbled out of the river and collapsed on the bank, retching up water and gasping for air.

He heard the whirring sound of one of the Collector’s stars, and he hauled himself up, staggering towards the nearest cover—a small town. He ducked into an empty house, flopping down on the floor and pressing his back against the wall.

The whirring got louder and louder, then faded into the distance. Phoenix stayed on the floor for a few more minutes, heaving in deep gulps of air. He finally reached up, grabbing the windowsill and pulling himself to his feet. His vision blurred, and he leaned on the wall for support, making his way back outside.

The town was deserted, as far as he could tell—nothing left but a few graffitied messages and an old billboard for… the coven day…

This was the town close to the house. He recognized that billboard, and the build of the houses. He’d been right to trust the river—even after it had nearly killed him, it had taken him right where he needed to go.

Almost there

Almost…

Phoenix stumbled out towards the trees, barely even stopping to check the skies for spies. Blood pounded in his ears, and the sides of his vision seemed to tear away, completely focused on the trees ahead and the house he knew lay beyond them.

At least until the ground crunched and cracked beneath him, and in a confusing whirl of dirt and twigs, he lay flat on his back, staring up at the sky. Steep dirt walls rose above him, penning him in.

“No!” Phoenix’s voice cracked. He rolled over, staggering back to his feet and jumping for the top of the pit. “No—no, no, no—” His fingers clawed into the soft dirt of the walls, and he slowly slid down, collapsing to his knees. He thumped his head against the wall, sending dirt cascading down to his lap. He’d been so close.

Phoenix curled into a ball, lying down against the earth. His bones seemed to sigh in relief, and his exhausted body told him to stay here forever, to just rest, finally rest.

The sky overhead slowly turned fiery orange, then red, then a dark blue, lit only by the glow of the moon. No cartoonish blue stars whirred overhead, and he knew Collector and King had gone to bed. Had Collector cried? Had “mamadalia” been there to comfort them, or had King managed to ward her off? Was King wondering if Phoenix had even made it out alive? Had he gone back to strategize with Eda and Lilith, or was he lying low?

Outside, the quiet night broke with the sound of scuffling footsteps.

“Pit three got something,” Hamlet’s voice said, “Good. I was starting to think all the prey got turned into puppets.

Here, Phoenix wanted to call, It’s me, I’m here.

But his voice wouldn’t respond, as if his tongue had died in his mouth. He tried to sit, to stand, to move at all, but his limbs seemed to have fused into the ground, heavy and rooted down.

A glowing ball of light wafted over the pit, and four shadowy forms peered down. “Wait—that’s a witch. We caught a witch—careful, they might be a puppet.”

Something jumped down into the pit, and another glyph lit up. Phoenix flinched at the bright light, squinting at the face in front of him.

“It’s Phoenix!” Meleager yelped. “Hey—can you hear me?”

Phoenix blinked at him in response, his voice still frozen in his throat.

“Phoenix?!”

“Yeah—he looks pretty rough. Hang on, we’re coming up.”

Meleager drew his finger through the dirt, and something cold formed under Phoenix, pushing he and Meleager up out of the pit. Calloused hands hauled Phoenix up, slinging his arms over their shoulders and bracing his back. Phoenix stumbled forward with them, fighting to keep his eyes open.

“He’s shaking,” Horus hissed, “Titan—is he going into shock? Breathe, man.”

“Go warn Auric,” Meleager ordered next to Phoenix’s right ear. Footsteps thudded away.

“Oh, yeah—”

Horus wrangled a loop of string over Phoenix’s head, catching in his ponytail. A pendant thumped to Phoenix’s chest, and suddenly, golden light spilled out in front of him from a familiar house surrounded by a familiar fence. Fuzzy blue magic circled the perimeter, blue glyphs that hadn’t been there before glowing on the wooden posts.

“Phoenix is back!” Horus yelled.

The house murmured, and the door swung open with a bang, the hallway behind it filled with shadowy figures. Something flew out and cannoned into him, grabbing him in a tight hug. Phoenix cried out as the force drove glass shards further into his side, and the person wrapped around his waist let go, stepping back.

Mole looked Phoenix up and down, eyes wide and worried. And… searching.

“Jason’s not with me,” Phoenix croaked, “I sent him to the human realm. He’s safe, but he’s… stuck.”

Mole blinked rapidly, eyes welling up, then turned and ran, pushing past the other grimwalkers that were spilling out of the house.

“Mole—” Phoenix let go of Meleager and Horus, stumbling after Mole, but without their support, he only made it a couple of steps before falling.

Meleager caught him. “Alright, big guy. Let’s get you inside.”

“Move,” Venari ordered from the house, pushing grimwalkers out of the way and clearing a path for Meleager and Phoenix. Dozens of eyes tracked his movement, and whispers followed him into the house, fuzzy and indistinct.

Meleager helped Phoenix to the living room, which now featured a medical bench, a couple of cots, and a rack filled with potions and bandages that sat atop a bar counter. Auric was already inside, mixing something up in a bowl, and he pointed to the bench, and a steaming cup sitting on the counter next to him.

“Any life-threatening injuries?” he asked.

Phoenix shook his head. Meleager sat him on the bench and handed him the cup.

“It doesn’t taste very good,” he warned.

Phoenix took a sip. It did, in fact, taste horrible, like someone had put sulfur and spiders in a cup, but it traced a warm track down his throat and pooled in his stomach, warming his whole body and sending a burst of energy coursing through him. His mind seemed to snap back into focus, and all the dull aches and sharp pains from his escape faded. Meleager took up position in the doorway, planting himself firmly and watching the hallway.

Auric hustled over, reaching for Phoenix’s arm, but Phoenix flinched away before he made contact, holding his arm to his chest. He eyed the other Grimwalker warily.

Auric held his hands up. “It’s okay. I know what I’m doing. Mom’s wiped from holding up the illusion around the house all the time, so I’m taking over on medical duty. You’re going to be alright, Phoenix. You’re safe now.”

Safe.

Something wet dripped down Phoenix’s face and he slowly reached up to feel for a head injury. But the liquid was clear, streaming from his eyes instead of a gash.

“I…”

“Oh—” Auric’s hands twitched, fluttering around Phoenix’s shoulder without actually touching him. “Hey—it’s okay. You’re okay.”

“King’s not,” Phoenix whispered, “And Collector…”

“He’s not going to find us. We’re really well hidden.”

Phoenix shook his head. “That’s not what I…”

“Phoenix?”

Caleb pushed through the doorway. “Phoenix! I’m sorry we didn’t get you, everything started collapsing, and people were panicking, and we couldn’t find you, and—”

“Belos is dead,” Phoenix whispered, interrupting the human. He needed someone else to know—someone else to feel the weight. Belos was dead. They weren’t any safer.

“What?”

“He’s dead. Collector killed him.”

Caleb blinked, mouth opening and closing wordlessly. He took a deep breath, and let it all out in a sigh that seemed to melt his shoulders. “Okay. Okay. I… Hey. Horus told me you got Jason to safety? Was Hunter with him?”

Phoenix nodded, tears still streaming down his face. He couldn’t stop them. He wasn’t sobbing, or even sniffling, the tears just… kept going. Silently, but steadily.

Caleb reached out, gently brushing a bedraggled strand of hair out of Phoenix’s face. “Hey. You did well. You protected your brothers. You held out against the Collector. I’m proud of you.”

“I think Mole’s mad at me,” Phoenix rasped.

“We’ll work it out. He wasn’t just worried about Jason—he was worried about you, too. And he’ll remember that. For now, let Auric take care of you. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Caleb stepped back next to Meleager, nodding to Auric. Auric gingerly took Phoenix’s arm, lifting it up. “Okay—hold this arm steady. Dad can help you keep it up if it’s too heavy, just say the word. I want to get the shards out of your side.

Phoenix kept his arm lifted, and Auric went to work, yanking out glass with tiny tweezers. Phoenix winced at each little knife sliding out, but Auric was quick, and soon he dabbed away blood and applied salves in quick, easy motions. The cuts went numb, along with most of Phoenix’s right side.

“Arm down,” he ordered, “What happened?”

“Jumped through a window.” Phoenix chuckled dryly. “I’ll have to tell AT that he was right—it was easier than going out the door.”

“Not funny.” Auric pulled another glass shard out of his bicep. “Do not tell… AT…” He froze, staring at Phoenix’s arm.

“What?”

Auric grabbed a small knife and cut off Phoenix’s sleeve, sliding it off his arm. He wormed the knife under the bandages Jason had tied. “Is this arm the only injured one?”

He’d almost forgotten about the gashes Belos had left. “I—my other arm was—but I think they sealed up on their own, I haven’t been having any—”

Auric tugged backwards, slicing cleanly through the bandages. He repeated the process on the other side. “You haven’t checked under the bandages since you got them?”

“No. Is something wrong?”

A high-pitched sound of distress emitted from Auric’s mouth, and he slapped one hand over his face. “Sorry—sorry, that was… unprofessional. Phoenix, this is very, very important. How did you get these wounds? Possibly more importantly, did anything get in them after you did?”

“Belos’ claws. I don’t think anything got in them? Jason bandaged them quickly.”

“Okay,” Auric said faintly, “Okay. Dad? Can you… come take a look at this? Just confirm that I’m seeing what I’m seeing?”

“What?” Phoenix asked, “What’s wrong?”

Caleb pushed off the wall, huddling next to Auric. His nostrils flared, and he whirled around. “Meleager. Get Evelyn. Now.”

“What?!” Phoenix demanded, twisting to look at his arm.

The wound had sealed, alright. It had sealed over in a skin of dark blackish green sludge that oozed and bubbled like tar. Veins of the same color spread out downwards under his skin, creeping towards his hands.

Phoenix gagged, clawing at the covered wound. “Get it out!”

Caleb caught his hands. “Phoenix—Phoenix, leave it. Leave it. Look at me. Evelyn’s coming. We’re going to figure this out. Just take a deep breath.”

Phoenix sucked in a deep breath, dragging his eyes away from the festering wound. “What—why-?”

“Looks like Philip left a little bit of his cursed form behind when he attacked you. If it’s anything, I’m willing to bet it’s like an infection in a regular wound from bacteria,” Caleb soothed, “It’s just… magical.”

“Let me see.” Evelyn gently pushed Caleb to the side, sitting next to Phoenix. She looked… tired. Her face had thinned, and the circles under her eyes were as dark as Caleb’s. But her hands held his arm steadily, and she examined the wound with sharp, analytical eyes. “Hm. Alright, let’s get this out.”

Evelyn drew a circle in the air, and golden tendrils drifted out, pushing into the cursed mud. The greenish sludge started to circle out, drawn up the golden threads in a spiral. The mud reached halfway up the tendrils, and the world tilted. Something roared inside of Phoenix, and he slumped forward. Somewhere, he heard a scream, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw Caleb holding Evelyn bridal-style, her body limp.

Auric’s arms encircled Phoenix’s chest, and the grimwalker tugged backwards. “Sit—up—” he grunted, “I’m going—to drop you!”

“Evelyn!” Caleb yelped.

She reached up, gently patting his face. “I’m alive, love,” she said weakly, “I’m okay.” Her eyes slid to Phoenix, sparking with fear. “The infection ate my spell,” she said shakily, “It just… absorbed the magic!”

“It’s Philip’s curse, alright,” Caleb said grimly. He set Evelyn on her feet, but kept one arm wrapped around her to support her, “Phoenix, you haven’t… felt anything strange? Any pain in your arms? Strain, like you’re falling apart? A… need to consume magic?”

The unspoken “like palisman?” hung in the air like a sword pointed directly at Phoenix’s heart. He shook his head. “I didn’t even realize something was wrong until now.”

“Hm.” Evelyn studied him. “Any magical symptoms? Strange dreams? Thoughts that don’t seem like they’re yours? Weird impulses?”

“Not that I can think of?” Like he’d be able to tell—nothing had been normal for him since he’d left the house on the day of unity. If any thoughts had been out of the ordinary, they’d fallen far below the things he’d actively been experiencing.

Evelyn hissed out a long breath. “Alriiiiiiiiiiiiiight… we have a couple of options here. Obviously, how I normally get at an infection isn’t going to work. One option is that we cut it out.”

Phoenix’s gut churned. “Like…”

“Like with knives,” Evelyn confirmed. She gestured at his arms. “But I don’t want to do that unless I absolutely have to because of how much of your arm it takes up and because I don’t know how deep it runs. It would take a long time to heal, and if we’re not careful, we could permanently damage your arms.”

Phoenix gulped. The idea of carving out a chunk of his flesh… sure, he’d just tried to claw it out himself, but this was much more serious. And permanent. “And… the other option?”

“We do nothing,” Evelyn said simply, “It doesn’t seem to be hurting you for now, and based on how it reacted to my magic, it might turn hostile if we try to mess with it. So, we don’t touch it. See if your body burns it out like a regular infection, or if it settles into a harmless part of you. We’ll keep an eye on it, but we’ll leave it alone.”

“I… I think I like that one better.”

“You have to let us know if anything changes and it gets worse.” Evelyn jabbed a finger at him. “I mean it. No playing heroic stoicism, mister. If you so much as get an unusual tingle in your fingertips, you let me know. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Good. Hopefully, it’ll clear out on its own. If it doesn’t…” Evelyn shook her head. “We’ll figure it out. For now… we wait.”

Chapter Text

“So. Belos is dead?”

Phoenix watched Auric carefully. He was the first Grimwalker Phoenix had ever seen, and while he’d always seemed cheerful and mellow enough, there was never any telling what Caleb’s clones were keeping inside.

“Yeah.”

“Hm.” Auric rolled up excess bandages in quick, efficient motions, nestling them back in their place on the shelves. “How?”

“The Collector.”

“Hm.” Auric scratched at the scars slashed across his neck. “Hm.”

“Are you… okay?”

Auric scratched more furiously. “I’m fine. Let’s get you out of here. Find you something else to wear. Because, uh…” he picked up Phoenix’s torn shirtsleeve, waving it around. “You’re kind of wearing the colors of the enemy.”

Phoenix pushed himself off of the bench. “I know the way.”

“Uh—” Auric hopped around in front of him, not really blocking him from moving, but slowing his progress. He walked backwards, facing Phoenix. “Well—so—the thing is—your room’s sort of taken? We’ve all been doubling up,” he added hastily, “See, after the day of unity… I mean, there are some wild witches, of course, and a few people who managed to get out of the sigil, a few kids who didn’t have brands, and obviously we couldn’t just leave them out there to get picked off, so… um, so, there’s like. Fiiiiiifteeeeeeen extra people here? And obviously we needed space, so we opened up your room, and Jason’s room and Ach—and Achsah’s room. Obviously we were still keeping an eye out for you, we keep watches and patrols, but of course we’ll—we’ll find a space, we just… needed the rooms.”

Maybe it was the potion wearing off, maybe it was the prospect of getting to know fifteen new people, or maybe it was that the place Phoenix considered home wasn’t the same as he’d left it. Whatever the reason, a tired, heavy feeling was starting to creep into Phoenix’s bones, and all he wanted to do was find the nearest bed and pass out.

“It’s alright,” he murmured, “Of course you needed the space.”

“Usually, you know, we’d just add onto the house, buuuuuut. Mom can’t use construction magic right now. And going out for materials is dangerous. So. We’re doubling up on the rooms we have. Um.” Auric scratched his neck again. “Anyway. Your stuff should still be in your room. So we can get some clothes. Quick stop.”

“Are you sure you’re alright? Is your neck bothering you?”

“I just did your physical checkup. You’re bruised all over, I would be surprised if none of your ribs are broken, your right side and arm are covered in lacerations from glass shards, and, of course, you’ve got two infected wounds that we can’t do anything to heal. You don’t have any space to be worrying about anyone else’s health.” Auric knocked twice on Phoenix’s old door. “Hello? Anyone in there?”

The door creaked open just a crack, and two sets of purple eyes stared at Auric from about waist height. “Hi, Auric.”

Auric crouched down. “Hey, Clara,” he said gently, “How’s your arm feeling?”

“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt.”

The door swung open the rest of the way. Light filled Phoenix’s room; the window was open, and light glyphs lined the top of the walls. Two witchlets stared at him, both of them purple-eyed and brown-haired. The smaller of the two tugged on the older girl’s sleeve, whispering in her ear.

Auric cleared his throat. “This is… Phoenix.”

“Oh!”

The older girl—Clara, based on the cast immobilizing her arm—ran for the dresser, retrieving a book. It was Jason’s book of myths, the one he’d lent to Phoenix, but Phoenix had never finished reading. Clara offered it to him. “Your book!”

“I…”

She set it on the ground and flipped it to about two thirds of the way, removing a small scrap of paper. Phoenix squinted at it.

Phoenix—let me know when you get here, so we can read it together :) – Jason

“Phoenix” was written above a scribbled-out “Hunter” – Jason must have taken out and replaced the note after he’d changed his name. Not that he’d ever gotten this far in the book—the chapter heading labelled it “Jason and the Argonauts.” A lump rose up in Phoenix’s throat, choking him.

“Oh.”

Clara tucked the note back into the book, closing it. “Ram and I were reading it for a bedtime story. It’s kind of weird, and it’s about humans, but also witches!”

Ram nodded. Unlike Clara, they didn’t show any obvious physical injuries, but they clung to their sister like a lifeline and wouldn’t let her go.

“This is your room,” Clara declared, “Can we still stay here? We’ll be super quiet, promise.”

Auric glanced at Phoenix, uncertainty and worry sparking in his eyes, but Phoenix shook his head. “You can stay,” he croaked, “I’ll be alright. Maybe you can read one of those stories to me sometime?”

“Okay!”

Auric squeezed past her. “Phoenix is going to share a room with one of us. We’re just here to get some of his clothes.”

“Yeah, he looks like a puppet.”

Ram tugged on Phoenix’s left hand. “Does it hurt?” they whispered, pointing to the scars from Belos’ staff.

“Not anymore.”

Clara held out a marker to Phoenix. “My arm doesn’t really hurt either, but Auric says I have to keep wearing the cast. Will you sign it? You have a bird name, that’s pretty cool. I have a friend named Griffin, but I haven’t seen him in a while.”

Phoenix uncapped the marker and wrote his name on the cast. It was already covered in signatures, some of them names Phoenix recognized, and others that had to be from some of the refugees. “There.”

“It’s magic,” Clara told him, “The more signatures you get, the faster it heals. That’s what Auric said.”

Auric made a ‘don’t say anything’ face at Phoenix behind Clara’s back, his arms full of clothes. “Right. We’ll get out of here. Douse those lights and get some sleep, will you?”

Clara shook her head. “Ram’s scared of the dark. Bye, Phoenix!”

Auric handed Phoenix the change of clothes. “I think Mole isn’t paired up yet. You could stay with him.” He sighed. “Or… right, you said he’s angry with you. I think Cherry’s got space. Yeah. Let’s go see him. He took the traps out of his room since we’ve got a bunch of kids around now, so it should be pretty safe.”

Grimwalkers had gathered in the hallway, all of them staring at Phoenix again, just like when he’d first arrived. Auric pushed through them, leading Phoenix to a new door. He’d never been in Cherry’s room—actually, he was realizing now that he hadn’t been in many of the rooms of this house. None of the other Grimwalkers seemed like the type to take kindly to people invading their space. Not that they had much choice now.

Cherry opened the door. He looked just as tired as Evelyn, and Phoenix remembered what Auric had said about watches and patrols—he recognized that dead-eyed look from all the scouts who’d been on late night patrols. “Phoenix? You’re home?”

“Jason’s not back,” Phoenix told him, “He’s safe, he’s just—”

Cherry shook his head. “Hey. I’m glad you’re back safe.” He eyed Phoenix’s arms. “…mostly safe. Um.” He rubbed his good eye. “Right. Your room is taken. I think Dad left a copy of the schematics around here, we’ll figure something—”

“You’re open,” Auric said gently, “You’re open, Mole’s open, Dagger’s open, Sam is open, Ash is open, and Alex is open. Everyone else is already paired up.”

“Mmm. Ah. Okay. Uh. Let’s still avoid putting someone with Ash, or Alex, but if Jason and Hunter get back here or we find anyone else, they might not get much of a choice. Um…”

“I thought he could stay with you,” Auric offered, “But—maybe for now he could stay with Frank and I. Just until I’m sure he’s all healed up.”

“Uh.” Cherry rubbed his eye again. “No. He can stay here. I’ll update the rooming schedule.” He opened the door wider. “You look like hell. Come on.”

There was already an extra mattress in the room—even if Cherry hadn’t been paired up yet, they must have been preparing for the eventuality that he’d have to.

Even though he still clutched the clothes Auric had retrieved from his room, Phoenix didn’t bother changing. He walked right to the bed that wasn’t already mussed up and fell onto it, kicking his boots to the side and flopping on his side. His eyes were shut before he even hit the pillow.

Goodbye, Golden Guards.

Jason and Hunter stared up at Phoenix, terrified and small. Phoenix’s hand curved into a scythe, ready to slice through the two of them.

“Shhhh.”

“I mean, we have to wake him up.”

“I don’t want to wake him up, you wake him up.”

“What am I supposed to do, kick him awake?”

“Oh. Yeah.”

Phoenix lashed out, snatching someone’s wrist just before they touched his shoulder. “Get away,” he snarled.

Lake yelped, tugging backwards. “Ow!”

Locke whistled. “Whoa. Someone has a case of the morning grouchies.”

“…Sorry…” Phoenix let Lake go, sitting up. The groggy terror of the dream faded away, replaced by confused embarrassment. “Uh?”

“Technically, it’s not morning,” Lake added, “Congrats, you slept through a whole day. It’s night again. Not too late. But kinda late. Cherry’s gone out again. He even took down all of his traps! I wasn’t sure he’d actually do it.”

Phoenix rubbed his eyes. “…What are you doing in here?”

The two of them glanced at each other, their cheerful dispositions slipping into something more subdued and serious. “It’s… Sam,” Lake admitted, “We’re worried about him.”

“More so than usual,” Locke added, “He… hasn’t left his room since the others came back without you. And he won’t let us in. Only Auric’s been in to check on him. Which isn’t the weirdest thing on the planet, but we think maybe… maybe it’s less of an annoyance thing and more of a sad thing.”

“I’m sorry. He hasn’t even gone to his lab?”

“No. We were hoping you’d talk to him.”

The words hit Phoenix’s ears, then fell stagnant somewhere in his mind. Why him? “…Me? I mean—I’ve barely talked to Sam. You two know him bet—”

“He was the last one to see you,” Lake burst out, “And Jason. And Hunter. He was the last one to see you, and then we couldn’t find you anywhere.”

“But… you’re back!” Locke continued, “You’re back, and you said Jason is safe, and… maybe he’ll come out now.”

“Oh.”

It was all he could say. Sam had been the last one to see them. He’d been the only one of their griffin crew to return home. He’d been the last one to be with Darius, too. The wheels started clicking and turning gently in Phoenix’s mind. He’d figured out a way to neutralize the sigils. Maybe he could figure out a way to reverse the puppetification.

But first things first. If Sam wasn’t even leaving to go to his lab… Phoenix didn’t know him well, but almost every time he’d seen the grimwalker, he was scurrying to or from his lab. Either he’d gotten stealthier, or he really hadn’t left his room in weeks, and something was horribly wrong.

“Okay. Okay, I’m coming.”

Phoenix changed out of the outfit the Collector had given to him, and back into the clothes he’d gotten used to. They were scratchier than the Collector’s silks, but they felt familiar and real, in a way that the Collector’s clothes didn’t. He couldn’t see any trap triggers on Cherry’s floor, but still, he moved carefully, sweeping his foot across the ground in front of him to check. Just in case.

The hallways were mostly empty, save for a couple of adults that eyed him warily. Phoenix didn’t take his eyes off of them, either. If they were here, it meant they were either smart enough and strong enough to avoid the Collector, or that they’d stayed out of Belos’ grasp for years, which made them even more dangerous.

“Sam?” Phoenix gingerly pushed Sam’s door open. Just as he did, a light glyph extinguished. Sam lay in bed, eyes shut, covers pulled all the way up. “I know you’re not asleep,” Phoenix said softly, “It’s me.”

Sam sat up, and Phoenix winced. A sling held his right arm fixed in place, and bandages covered every inch of skin that had been burned by his concoction. “Phoenix?” he croaked. Another light glyph lit up the room, and Sam rolled out of bed, stumbling towards him. His hair fell free from its usual bun, hanging in scraggly clumps across his face.

“You’re alive,” he whispered, his eyes feverishly bright behind his glasses, “You’re—” He reached out, as if to touch Phoenix’s face, but his hand dropped before he made contact “I thought—they couldn’t find you—or Jason—or any of the kids, and I thought—I thought I was the only one who made it out.” Sam ran a hand through his wild hair. “Titan, I thought…”

Phoenix gripped his shoulder before he could go too far. “Hey, we got out. We got out, Sam.”

“Jason? And the kids?”

“They’re safe. They’re not here, but they’re safe.”

“They’re safe,” Sam whispered, “Everyone got out.”

“Lake and Lock are worried about you.”

“Are they? It’s fine. I’m fine, better than fine, now that I know everyone’s safe. I’m close, Phoenix, I am so close.”

Phoenix nodded to the leatherbound journal on Sam’s bed. “Doing some light reading?”

Sam’s face darkened, and he retrieved the book. “I was hoping to find a reversal of the petrification glyph. Good ol’ Uncle Bells sure knew how to take notes.” He waved the journal. “Every single one of our lives. Detailed in ten pages or less. He kept track of us before he grabbed us to be his trained monkey, wrote down where we were. Wrote down our growth, what parts of us weren’t good enough,” Sam practically spat.

Phoenix sighed, and held his hand out. Sam handed him the book, and Phoenix flipped to a random page, squinting at Uncle Belos’ handwriting, a loopy, elegant script that had always given him a headache trying to decipher. There was a note in the margins with a glasses prescription, and a choppy, irritated observation that this grimwalker couldn’t even see right, along with being a little too clever, and a little too interested in books over his guard duties. Phoenix glanced at Sam, whose jaw worked back and forth.

“You’ve read the whole thing?”

“Just about. Look, here’s the weird thing.” Sam took the book back, flipping forward. “There’s yours.”

Despite himself, despite everything, Phoenix lunged for the book back, desperate to know what was written, even if it took him all night to read. Sam dodged backwards, holding the book up high.

“Hold on, Skippy, you can read it in a bit, that’s not what I wanted to show you! Look, so, our good friend Petro was the guard before you.”

Petrifying your predecessor and keeping you was a mistake. Even knowing Belos had said it just to hurt Phoenix, it still rang with a bit of truth. The guard he’d grown up hearing about. Phoenix’s stomach churned remembering every story he’d ever heard about the golden guard before him. How much of it was propaganda? How much of it was awful, horrifying truth?

He didn’t know

He was lied to, just like the rest of us.

“Here’s the weird thing,” Sam continued, “The beginning pages of yours are missing. All the bits that detail where you were before Belos picked you up? Not there.”

Phoenix frowned. “I mean… I guess he had the empire at that point? He could just track adoption records officially.”

“Nuh-uh, back it up, I don’t mean that they don’t exist, I mean that they are MISSING. Like someone ripped them out. And here’s the other weird thing. Petro’s pages stop. Incredibly abruptly. Everyone else has their betrayal detailed, as well as how Belos killed them. Petro’s? Nope. Everything’s going great, then WHAM, like he never existed.”

Phoenix shook his head. “You’re going to have to spell this one out for me, Sam. What’s the connection?”

Sam closed the notebook with a thump. “I don’t know what the connection is. But it’s weird. Uncle Pip kept meticulous track of everything. It doesn’t make sense why he’d rip pages out. No one read it but him. But! Maybe Petro can tell us himself.”

Phoenix sighed. “Yeah. Maybe when… you…”

Sam practically brimmed with excitement, fingers tapping against the book, a smug little ‘I know something’ smile peeking through on his face.

Phoenix shook his head. “Alright, out with it, how smart are you?”

“Strange question, I’m a genius and you know it.” Sam waved the book. “But also, after he offed you, our dear Uncle Phil started looking into how to reverse petrification. He was worried about being able to get his hands on the resources involved in making a new grimwalker, so he thought maybe if he could just free Petro… seems like he ultimately decided not to, huge surprise there, but the reversal glyph is in the journal!”

Phoenix’s heart thumped in his chest. “You’ve tested it?”

Sam jabbed a thumb at a flowerpot on the windowsill that held a single, living flower, glowing softly in the moonlight. “Turned it back yesterday. No problematic side effects so far.

“Why wait until now?”

“I was… worried.”

“About me?”

“What? No. I mean, yes, sure. Of course I was. But I…” Sam growled, rolling one hand. “Usually I wouldn’t… ugh. It has occurred to me thaaaaat… now might not be the best time? It’s just that there are already so many people here, and I’d be adding one more person to worry about. One more person to feed, to keep track of. Not to mention the problems adjusting we see even in normal times.” Sam paced back and forth across the room, hands behind his back. “But then, what if we get attacked? Would we be able to take him with us? I wouldn’t want to leave him behind! But now’s so hectic, and he might freak out, and maybe it’s just best to leave him until everything blows over? But if it doesn’t blow over—”

Phoenix reached out and caught his arm as he passed. “Sam. I think you should do it.”

“Right. Okay. But even if it’s the right time, I still don’t know about long term effects.”

“And how long would you wait to see?”

“Oh, at least one hundred flower test subjects before we moved on to rats and monitored them until the end of their natural lifespans.”

“Sam.”

“What?! Do you think I want to irreversibly screw up our brother?!”

Phoenix threw his hands in the air. “He! Is made! Of stone! How much more messed up do you think he can get?!”

“But if waiting and testing—”

“It’s like you said. Our safety could be compromised at any moment. And he’d be defenseless. You might not get another chance.”

Sam squinted at him. “You seem awfully eager to wake him up.”

Phoenix couldn’t explain why he felt like it was a good idea. He just felt it, in the throbbing of his injured arms, that Petro could help. “I spent my childhood hearing stories about him. And according to Terra, he was the best golden guard there was. He won wars—he might be what we need to take a stand, or at least to get a leg up on survival. And… I think everyone could use a bit of hope right now. If we can reverse petrification, maybe we can reverse the Collector’s puppet spell.”

“You mean if I can reverse petrification, maybe I can figure out a way to reverse the puppetification. Eugh. Would you like some fries with that tall order?” Sam headed towards the door. “Alright. Alright, come on.”

“What, now?!”

“No time like the present. He’s not getting any stonier.”

Phoenix followed Sam to his lab. He could see Lake and Locke, hiding in a room and watching. They gave him a thumbs-up, and he gave them one back, sliding into the lab after Sam.

The other grimwalker tied his hair up into a bun. “Yep. Okay. Here we go. Yep. Alright. Uh-huh. Okay.”

“Sam.”

“Doing it, doing it.” Sam slapped a glyph onto the statue. “Here goes nothing.”

The stone shuddered. Phoenix had expected it to shatter, cracking and peeling away to reveal a living being underneath a stone skin. But the change was much more gradual instead, grey stone slowly transforming to glittering gold armor.

Petro fell, and Phoenix lunged forward to catch him. He grunted, sagging under the weight. He’d forgotten how heavy the uniform had always been, and Petro was built stocky and solid.

Sam jumped to take Petro’s other arm, “Get the mask off,” he ordered, “Let him breathe.”

Phoenix pulled Petro’s hood down, and removed the mask. The guard panted for air. Scars pitted his square face, a huge blotchy red one on the side of his forehead, and one going up his left cheek—badges from the crusades against wild witches, Phoenix was willing to bet.

The tattered ears, revealed by close-cropped hair, he was almost certain were from Belos.

“Hrgh—ha—you can’t—replace—” Petro blinked, eyes sweeping wildly over Sam’s lab. He looked at Sam. Then at Phoenix. His eyes traced the scar that ran through Phoenix’s right eyebrow, and his eyes hardened. The arm that Phoenix had slung around his shoulders tightened, and Petro twisted, using Phoenix to haul himself up while he kicked Sam solidly in the chest, sending him careening into the wall with a grunt. Petro went dead on Phoenix, wrapping one thick arm around Phoenix’s neck and dragging him towards the ground.

Phoenix gasped for air, driving his elbow into Petro’s side. “Let—go—we can—explain—”

“I don’t need you to explain,” Petro hissed, “I need you to die.”

Phoenix’s legs wobbled, and he crashed to the ground, releasing some of the pressure on his neck. Only for a moment, though, before Petro tightened his chokehold on Phoenix’s neck. He slammed his elbow into Petro’s gut. “Let—go—”

“Deep breath, Phoenix,” Sam ordered, and a smoking bundle crashed down next to him. Phoenix held his breath as long as he was able, but Petro’s grip didn’t soften nearly quickly enough, and he inhaled the smoke. The taste of sleeping nettles rested on his tongue.

Goodbye, golden guard

“You can’t replace me, not with him!”

Something tickled Phoenix’s nose, burning the inside of his nostrils, and he snapped awake, sitting up so fast he nearly headbutted Sam. A small vial clattered to the ground, and the smell faded. Phoenix pawed at his nose, trying to get the burning sensation out.

“Ack!”

“I did tell you to hold your breath,” Sam chastised, “But. You’re welcome for saving your life, by the way. Drink lots of water, you’re going to have a monster headache.”

Petro sat in a chair, secured by vines that had been turned to stone. His head sagged forward against his chest. Phoenix nodded at him. “How long will he be out?”

“Another hour, unless I wake him up. Do you think anyone will notice if we prop him back into position and repetrify him?”

“Sam.”

“I won’t, I won’t. But this is… it might not be such a great idea after all.”

Phoenix swallowed his unease, pushing away the image of hate burning in Petro’s eyes. “He was confused.”

“Didn’t seem confused. He tried to kill you.”

“I know. I was there.” Phoenix pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’ll… we’ll figure it out. Wake him up.”

“Maybe we should get Dad or Mom?”

“We’ll get them.”

Sam jumped. “Lake! Locke! Uh—”

Locke paced a circle around Petro. “Wow. You really did it. Of course. You go in your room for weeks, and you don’t come out until you’ve gotten a cure for a previously undoable spell. You should get depressed more often.”

Sam raised one eyebrow at Phoenix. “Ah, yes. I see how very worried you were about me. Go get Mom and Dad. Scram.” Sam snatched his little vial off of the floor. “Here we go.”

He waved the vial under Petro’s nose, and the guard’s head shot up, his nostrils flaring and snorting. He lunged forward, snapping his teeth at Sam’s hand. “Get—that—away—”

“Alright, feisty, settle down.” Sam corked the vial. “Hi. Welcome to our house, I guess. Except you’ve been here for a while, technically. Belos tried to kill you, but he failed. Congratulations on surviving! You may have noticed that we look… quite a bit like you. There’s a perfectly good explanation for all of this—”

“I’m a grimwalker. So are you. I don’t know how you survived, four eyes, but I know what we are.”

“Oh! Good! You know! That makes things a little easier, then!”

Petro tugged against his bonds, straining against stone. “Let me out.”

“Right, well, we’d like to, but we need you to take a deep breath and calm down, first.”

“You really did it.” Caleb stood in the doorway, staring at Petro, “You really reversed it. Why did you tie him up?”

“He’s unreasonably angry at Phoenix for some reason.”

Petro yanked against the stone bindings. “You’d be angry too if someone replaced you,” he snarled, “I’m going to kill him!”

Sam sighed. “Now, how do you possibly figure that Phoenix is the one who replaced you? He’s just the first grimwalker you’ve seen, you’re guessing.”

“No.” Petro went uncannily still, his lightless eyes locked on Phoenix, still burning with anger that didn’t match his quieted body and voice. “I know him, I know it’s him.”

“How?” Phoenix demanded. He’d known, of course, after Belos’ comment. But how did Petro know? He’d never met him.

Petro nodded to him. “Your scar.”

Phoenix’s hand flew up to the scar over his right eyebrow. “My scar? Why would you recognize my scar?”

Petro leaned back in the chair, somehow managing to appear nonchalant despite the stone vines holding him in place (though his eyes still burned with that lightless anger). “That’s easy.” His face split into a grin, revealing perfect teeth in his otherwise battered face. “Because I’m the one who gave it to you.”

Chapter Text

“You didn’t give me this scar,” Phoenix said slowly, “We’ve never met. This came from Belos. I failed a mission, and he got angry.” It had been his first lesson in the coven; failure wasn’t an option.

An emotion Phoenix couldn’t quite place sparked in Petro’s eyes—something like surprise, melancholy, and triumph rolled into one. “He really told you that?”

“That’s what happened!”

Caleb put a hand on Phoenix’s arm, and Phoenix realized his hands had curled into fists. “Deep breath. We can figure this out. What do you remember?”

Phoenix shifted uncomfortably, unsettled by Petro’s unflinching stare. “I—well—”

“Yeah,” Petro jeered, “What do you remember, little bird?”

A deeply sick, festering rot settled in Phoenix’s stomach at the nickname, though he couldn’t say why. “I took a hit to the head from Belos,” he growled. His arms ached, the wounds seeming to crawl under the bandages, “I don’t remember what happened exactly.”

“Ha!” Petro snorted. “You wish a blow to the head explained your intelligence.”

That stung a little more than Phoenix cared to admit. “Hey!”

Caleb’s hand tightened on Phoenix’s arm. “That’s enough. Either explain what happened clearly, or stop making this worse.”

“You’d know all about making things worse, wouldn’t you, Caleb? If you’d stayed in the human realm where you belonged, none of this would have happened in the first place.”

Caleb jerked backwards as if he’d been slapped. “That’s—”

“I don’t know how you survived, or how you’re here. But I know that none of this would have happened without you.”

“That’s it,” Evelyn’s voice snapped. A wobbly golden spell circle drifted past Phoenix, passing through Petro. The guard’s head dropped to his chest.

“Well,” Sam said briskly, dusting his hands off, “He is deeply unpleasant. Thanks, Mom. Maybe we should make a gag?”

Evelyn took Caleb and Phoenix’s hands. “Don’t listen to him,” she said fiercely, “He’s just trying to get under your skin.”

Phoenix’s hands shook, and that rot in the pit of his stomach seemed to spread, making his stomach churn. “That doesn’t explain how he knew. He knew Caleb’s name, and he knew I was the golden guard after him. Him trying to get under our skin doesn’t explain why he recognized us, why he recognized my scar!”

“He’s not going to tell you. He knows he holds the cards, and he’s not going to share information without a price. It’s not worth whatever he wants.”

“Blabber serum,” Sam suggested, “We could get him to talk that way.”

“I don’t have the ingredients. And I’m sorry, Phoenix, but I’m not risking anyone’s freedom for them.” Evelyn tapped her chin. “I could try extracting memories—but I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for, which makes things more difficult.”

Phoenix eyed Petro, running through every interrogation tactic he’d ever been taught. Petro would know them, too—and probably more. He doubted very much that the grimwalker would talk without magic.

“What if I went into his mindscape?”

“What?”

“His mindscape,” Phoenix repeated, “Like Hunter did to Belos. I could find the memories, see what really happened.”

Caleb shook his head. “Absolutely not. Hunter nearly got killed in there!”

“Petro almost killed you just now, and that was after he’d just woken up from years as a statue,” Sam agreed, “You only survived because I was there. In the home field of his own mind? His inner self would destroy you.”

“So I’ll bring someone with me,” Phoenix insisted, “Safety in numbers. Sam?”

“Ha! No. While exploring a mindscape DOES sound intriguing, I prefer living. I don’t know if glyphs would even work in there. And I’m not exactly built for hand-to-hand combat.”

The door creaked open. “He’s really awake,” Cherry murmured, “You really did it.”

Sam threw his hands up. “Why does everyone doubt me?!”

Evelyn’s eyes narrowed. “You know, it is impressive how you managed it. What glyph combo did you use? How did you come across it?”

Sam’s bravado and indignation almost immediately swapped to a shiftier expression. “Oh. That’s not important.”

“Sam.”

Sam coughed. “I… found it in a book.”

“What book?”

“Um. Unclebelosdiary.”

“Come again.”

“I might have. Sort of. Maybe. Stolen one or two or maybe five of Uncle’s journals? When we were at the head? And the glyph was in there?”

Evelyn took a deep breath and slowly released it. “You tested an unknown glyph from Philip’s diary?!”

“Well. When you say it like that, it doesn’t sound like nearly as good of an idea.”

Phoenix raised a hand. “Does it matter? He’s not stone now. I need to find out what happened, why he thinks that he attacked me. And the only way we’ll get that information is if I go into his mindscape, dangerous or no.”

Evelyn shook her head. “Why is it so important to you, Phoenix?”

“I…” Phoenix took a deep breath, trying to organize his thoughts. Why was it important? Petro could be making the whole thing up just to mess with him, just like everyone had said. But somehow, that didn’t seem right. Something about the way that Petro stared at him made him think it was the truth. Or at least Petro thought it was the truth.

“He thinks he attacked me. But I haven’t seen him until now—and I think I’d remember him. If Belos did something to him, something to make him more hostile, then maybe we can fix it in his mindscape.”

“And what if he didn’t?” Caleb asked softly, “What if Petro’s right, and something’s happened to your memories?”

Then what? Okay, so one more person had tried to kill him in a long line of people who’d tried to kill him. They’d have to keep Petro tied up, or at least somewhere he couldn’t hurt anyone. What else?

Petrifying your predecessor and keeping you was a mistake.

Phoenix had assumed Belos was speaking metaphorically—that when he’d made the decision to petrify Petro, it had nothing to do with Phoenix. That Phoenix had been nothing more than a backup. But what if it had been a choice? But if that was the case, why didn’t he remember it? Not only did he not remember it, but he had a completely different memory. Where had it come from?

“Then I need to know,” Phoenix replied, equally softly, “I need to know what I’m missing.”

“I could go with him,” Cherry offered, “If the issue is that it’s dangerous, I could provide support. Watch his back.”

Phoenix twisted to look at him. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I agree with you, if there’s a chance that Belos altered his mind, if there’s a chance that we can make things right for him, then we should take it.”

Caleb’s eyes flicked over Cherry’s face. “…It’s going to be dangerous.”

“That’s why I’m going. Phoenix and I can handle it if we work together.”

Evelyn chewed her lip. “Cherry, are you… I want to help him too, but if he really does want to kill Phoenix—”

“No one’s beyond saving. Right?”

Evelyn didn’t respond.

“Right,” Caleb agreed, “Evelyn?”

She crossed her arms. “I don’t like it.”

Phoenix met her eyes, burning gold despite the bags around them. “Please.”

I need to know.

Evelyn broke the stare first. “Sam, do you have something in here that makes a lot of noise?”

“You could take Lake and Locke.”

“Sam.”

“I got it, I got it.” Sam hurried to a shelf, opening a small box and removing a metal ball. “If you shake it, it chimes,” he explained, “It’s pretty loud. But I don’t know how you’re planning on getting in there, those rebels used potions that I don’t know if I can replic—”

“I can do it,” Evelyn interrupted, “Just… stand back. Are you two ready?”

Cherry took the noisemaker from Sam. “Ready.”

Caleb clapped his shoulder. “Keep each other safe.”

“I will.”

Evelyn sighed. “This is a bad idea.”

“I know,” Phoenix responded. It was. Sam was right, if he ended up encountering Petro’s inner self, he’d be fighting on Petro’s home turf.

I need to know.

“Alright. As long as you know. Ring that ball when you’re ready, or if you get into any trouble. And stick together, do you hear?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Evelyn shook her head. “Here we go.” She drew a circle in the air, and the world seemed to blow up around Phoenix, growing in size. Sam’s glasses shone like great big moons in the sky above him, and then he stood on a barren plain, mottled with pools of water. Evelyn, Caleb, Sam, and the lab… all gone in the blink of an eye, replaced with nothing but empty space.

“Huh.” Phoenix could barely hear himself over the sound of wind howling across the empty space. “It’s very… open.”

Cherry knelt down next to a pool of water. “I think these are his memories. Look.”

Phoenix squatted next to him, wincing at the pop of his knees. The water shimmered and rippled, and a golden guard accepted a staff from a familiar gauntlet, shadowed by the rest of the water. “There’s a lot of pools to look through.”

“How would we tell if something was wrong with one?”

“Muddy image?” Phoenix suggested, “Evaporated water?”

“You don’t know?”

Phoenix scratched the back of his head, flushing. “Well—everyone’s different. There wouldn’t be a clear-cut answer of what exactly we’re looking for. Just… any kind of deviation from the normal, I guess.”

Cherry stood, brushing his knees off. “It would be quicker to split up, divide into sections. But I don’t want to be caught alone by Petro’s inner self. And Mom said to stick together.”

Phoenix scuffed an x into the dirt next to the pool. “So we know which ones we’ve seen,” he explained.

“Good idea.” Cherry scanned the area. “We’re in the middle, I think.”

Phoenix sighed. Pools stretched endlessly no matter which direction he looked. He hadn’t realized just how much he’d have to sift through to find the answers he needed. “Spiral pattern search?”

“Spiral pattern search,” Cherry agreed. He rubbed his arms. “Do you think it’s weird that we can’t see his inner self? It’s wide open here—I can see for miles.”

“Maybe it’s asleep because he is?”

“Mm. Lets hope he doesn’t start to dream.”

Phoenix moved one pool out. Belos’ whole profile showed in this one, framed by a glowing circle of light. He extended a hand to what had to be a younger Petro, scrawny and covered in bruises and scrapes. Phoenix marked the bank with an x and moved onto the next one at the roughly the same distance from the center pool. An older Petro, his cloak stained with blood, and three bodies beneath him. Phoenix shuddered. Looked like those stories about him were true, down to the kill counts.

Cherry marked the memory this time. The two continued in a spiral from the center, crossing off memory after memory. Petro with coven heads. Petro standing beside the throne. Petro leading a violent battle against a hoard of demons.

Cherry threw an arm out, stopping Phoenix dead in his tracks. “I think I found it.”

The image rippling across the water wasn’t of Phoenix. It was of a book, the book Sam had, and a page flipped open to Grimwalker #24. Phoenix did a quick mental count of the grimwalkers in the house.

“That’s me,” he agreed, “Should we…?”

“It doesn’t look corrupted. But maybe you’re not in this one? Maybe this is just how he found out about you.”

Phoenix touched his scar. “…Do you think Belos killed him for knowing?”

“One way to find out.” Cherry gingerly poked the water. “How deep do you think it is?”

Phoenix shrugged, and started to splash in. “We’ll only find out if we—”

The ground disappeared beneath him, and he plunged into the water, tumbling head over heels into a familiar street. Cherry landed next to him seconds later.

“Titan, Phoenix. I thought you were drowning!”

“It was… deeper than I expected.” Phoenix craned his neck, looking upwards. “How do we get out?”

“Maybe we watch through the memory?” Cherry suggested, “Where are we? This is past my time.”

Phoenix padded through the streets, his boots making no noise on the paved street of the memory. “Little town. Set up after the Empire. There’s an orphanage here, it was set up for kids whose parents died in the war against wild magic.” He hadn’t been here since the fire. Seeing it here, preserved perfectly in Petro’s memory… Phoenix shuddered. Why had he been here?

“Oh.” Cherry followed him. “That’s… nice?”

“Hm. But why…”

Most of the faces passed by fuzzy and indistinct until Phoenix led them to a square lot where a gaggle of witchlets and demonlings chased after one witchlet with a ball.

Cherry gasped next to him. “That’s…”

“Me,” Phoenix supplied. He watched the witchlet run, dodging the grasping hands of his peers only for plants to sprout out of the ground, yanking him off the ground and upside down, “I think I’m… twelve? Thirteen?” He started to pace back and forth. “This doesn’t make sense. I remember this, I remember this game, I remember that stupid plant. Why would Petro remember?!”

Another witchlet ripped the ball out of younger Phoenix’s arms. “I win!” He waved his arms, and above him, the plants waved as well, shaking Phoenix back and forth. “Whoooo!”

Cherry winced. “Your friends… don’t seem very nice.”

Phoenix crossed his arms. “They weren’t my friends,” he grumbled. He sounded petulant, and he knew it, but he’d meant what he’d said to the Collector—he hadn’t been sorry to hear that the orphanage was gone, and he hadn’t been sorry to leave it behind.

Another witchlet around Phoenix’s age tugged on his arms, successfully disentangling him from the plant. “Ready for another round?”

Little Phoenix brushed himself off. “Why do I always have to be the wild witch?”

She bopped his nose. “Because you don’t have any magic, and the rest of us need to practice ours.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for someone with magic to be the wild witch? Since a real wild witch would use magic to get away?”

She shrugged. “Tough luck. Everyone voted, and you got voted the wild witch. For what it’s worth, I voted for Dillon.”

Dillon stuck his tongue out at her.

“Who’s that?” Cherry whispered.

“Victoria.” Phoenix rubbed his arms. “She was the closest any of the kids came to being nice to me, but…”

The next round of the game started, and Victoria drew a circle. A spur of rock shot out of the ground, slamming into the ball in Phoenix’s hands. It popped up, smacking Phoenix in the face, then shot over the fence of the lot.

“Ow!”

“…She still wasn’t great.”

“Victoria,” one of the other witchlets groaned.

“Sorry!” She clapped Phoenix on the shoulder. “Can you go get it?”

Little Phoenix held his nose. “We said no face shots!”

“Yeah… sorry about that, didn’t mean for it to pop you one. Give you a boost?”

Phoenix sighed. “Yeah, I’m on it,” he grumbled, running towards the fence.

“Get back quick!” Victoria drew a circle, and the ground rose underneath Phoenix, pushing him up high enough that he could scramble over the top of the fence with ease.

An older witch poked her head into the lot. “Time to go back. Everyone here? None of you left the lot, did you? Show of hands, let me count.”

Victoria slid into the middle of the gaggle of kids, raising both of her hands.

Cherry coughed. “Is she trying to get you left behind?!”

“Nah. This is actually one of the nicer things she did. We weren’t supposed to leave the lot, even if something flew out. I’d get in trouble if she noticed I was gone.”

“Ten… eleven… Okay. Everyone go back, single file. I’m watching you, Dillon.”

Cherry tugged on Phoenix’s sleeve, pointing up at the top of a building. The golden guard perched atop the roof, watching the kids leave. Once they were gone, he slipped down into the area behind the lot fence. Cherry swore.

“He’s going after you.”

Phoenix bolted around the side of the fence. “That doesn’t make sense, I got the ball, then… then…”

What had happened after that? The fire? Phoenix frowned, struggling to push his memory back. It hadn’t seemed important. Not worth remembering. It was just one game he’d played when he was a kid; the only reason he really remembered it happening now was because he’d seen it.

Little Phoenix heaved the ball back over the fence. “Victoria! Give me a boost back up! Victoria!” He stopped, then kicked the fence. “They left, didn’t they?”

“Yeah, you’ve been ditched, kid.”

Phoenix whirled around. Petro, dressed head to toe in golden guard regalia, pushed off of a wall, slowly approaching Phoenix’s younger self, who gasped.

“You’re-!” he squeaked, “I—Hi! Wow! Hi!”

Phoenix reached for his younger self’s shoulder, wishing he could stop him, but his hand passed right through, and the other Phoenix ran up to the Golden Guard.

“Are you chasing a wild witch? Can I help? Sir? Hi, sorry, you probably don’t want me to help. Oh, they are never going to believe this.” Little Phoenix drooped. “Man. They’re never going to believe this.”

“You know, I actually am chasing someone. Someone who’s threatening to get rid of me.”

Little Phoenix snorted. “Like someone could do that. Sir.”

“Mmm, yeah. But I don’t like leaving that chance out there.”

Silver glinted in the dim glow of a streetlight, and Petro lashed out with a jagged, crooked knife.

Little Phoenix jumped back just in time, slowly backing away. “…Golden Guard? Sir?”

“You’re not the brightest, are you, kid? Here, let me spell it out. I’m going to kill you. And no one will ever find your body!” Petro stepped to the side, leaving a pathway out of the alleyway. “Go ahead and fly, little bird. If you can get away, then maybe you should replace me.”

Phoenix ran for it, shooting by Petro. As he passed the guard, Petro swept his legs out from under him, grabbing his arm as he fell. “Guess not.”

“Phoenix,” Cherry yipped, “Phoenix, too tight.”

Phoenix didn’t know when he’d grabbed Cherry’s arm, but his fingers dug into the other grimwalker’s flesh. He slowly relaxed his grip, forcing his fingers to loosen.

“I don’t remember. Why don’t I remember?!” he demanded, “Why…?”

Little Phoenix yanked at Petro’s grip. “Let me go! Let me go, let me—” he lunged forward, sinking his teeth into Petro’s gloved hand. “Mrgh! Me! Gro!”

Petro slammed the front of his mask into Phoenix’s face, and Phoenix let go, falling back. “Hngh—”

Petro twisted his captive’s arm, and Phoenix flinched as his younger self cried out, very nearly covering the sound of cracking bone.

Petro flung little Phoenix to the side, stalking towards him. “You can’t replace me,” he snarled, “You could never replace me!”

Phoenix crawled away, choking on tears and clutching his wounded arm to his chest. “I won’t—I won’t—I promise—”

Petro hefted his knife. “Yeah. You won’t.”

“Stop!”

Victoria ran through Phoenix. “Stop!” she repeated, skidding in-between Petro and Phoenix, “He’s not really a wild witch, I promise! It was just a game! It was just a game, please don’t hurt him! He doesn’t even have magic, he’s not a wild witch!”

“No,” Phoenix murmured, “No, no, this never… She never came back for me before, why would she come back for me?!”

Petro heaved a long, exasperated sigh. “Oh, great. Now there’s a witness. Hey, are you an orphan, too? Is anyone going to notice if you go missing?”

Victoria understood quicker than Phoenix had. She backed away, fear flashing in her eyes. “Leave us alone!”

She drew a wobbly circle, and a spur of rock shot up, ramming right between Petro’s legs. He doubled over with a howl, and Victoria dashed past him, grabbing Phoenix’s good arm and hauling him up to his feet. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” She wrapped one arm around his shoulders, hustling him away.

Run, Phoenix wanted to scream at his younger self, but this was before his coven training. This was before he got used to working through pain, used to sustaining broken bones and tearing wounds. And little Phoenix was white with pain, moving at a speedy hobble at best and wincing with every step.

Petro straightened up, and even without being able to see his face, Phoenix knew he was grimacing. “Oh, no, you don’t,” he snarled. He lunged forward, grabbing Victoria’s arm and yanking her away from Phoenix. “You’ll pay for that, brat.” He whipped his arm around, slamming Victoria into the alley wall. She squeaked, gasping for air, and Petro raised his knife again. “No witnesses.”

“No!”

Small Phoenix jumped up, grabbing Petro’s arm with his good hand. It didn’t even wrap all the way around Petro’s arm, but still, he pulled back with all of the might his scrawny little body could muster. “Don’t—hurt—her—”

Petro suddenly gave way to Phoenix’s pull, switching his grip and stabbing backwards. The knife sank into Phoenix’s face just above his eyelid, and Petro pulled up, flicking the blade through Phoenix’s eyebrow. Phoenix screamed and fell backwards, clutching his face.

Phoenix hissed in, touching the scar on his own face. That feeling of rot was spreading through his stomach again, moving up to his lungs and making each breath a herculean effort. His younger self curled up in a ball on the floor, blood leaking between his fingers. Again, Phoenix wished he could make contact with the memory. Stop Petro. Stop what he knew must be about to happen to Victoria. Save his younger self and let him know that he’d be alright.

“Are you stupid?” Petro snarled, “You could have run and saved yourself, but you gave it up for what, for her?!”

Little Phoenix let out a guttural moan, tears dripping from his good eye.

I was so small.

I’m smaller than Hunter was, even.

“She’d leave if I let her,” Petro snarled, “She only helped you because she thought she could get away with it. She’d abandon you if I told her she could go free. You could have done the same.”

“Please,” Victoria whispered, “You’re supposed to be the good guy. You’re supposed to protect us!”

“Yeah, well.” Petro bent down, putting his palms on her face. “Tough lesson. There’s only one person whose safety I value over my own. And it’s certainly not you.”

He twisted his hands, and Phoenix clutched Cherry’s arm again as the crack of Victoria’s neck snapping echoed in the alleyway. Cherry clutched his arm just as tightly, supporting him.

“He was toying with you,” Cherry whispered, “This whole time—”

“He killed her,” Phoenix gasped, “He killed her—I thought she was alive this whole time, I thought…”

Small Phoenix screamed, his good eye fixed on Victoria’s body. “Hngh—hrngh—”

Petro snorted. “Look at you. You’re pathetic. You can’t even stomach a little gore. You couldn’t even start to replace me.” He twirled his knife. “Goodbye, little bird. Time to fly with your friend.”

A familiar form twisted up between Petro and Phoenix, and a cold, impartial mask stared down at Petro. Even knowing it was a memory, Phoenix felt sick seeing that mask, felt like its eyes could still burn holes in him. Cherry stiffened, squeezing Phoenix’s arm.

“Hunter.”

Petro’s grip on the knife tightened, then released, dropping the dagger to the floor. “Emperor Belos. I didn’t think you’d—”

“If you’re going to use my notes to find someone, and you don’t want me realizing, I’d suggest copying them down rather than ripping them out of my journal.”

Behind Belos, Phoenix staggered to his feet, blood still dripping down his face. Phoenix could see that his younger self was biting his lip, trying not to make any sound, but a small gasp of pain escaped him when he took a step, and the emperor’s attention shifted to him. “And where do you think you’re going?”

Belos drew a spell circle, and Phoenix’s eyes rolled back in his head. Belos caught him, scooping him up in his arms.

“Well, you have moved the schedule up, haven’t you, Hunter? You always were taking initiative. No helping it now, I suppose.” Emperor Belos turned on his heel, still holding Phoenix. “Go burn that filthy orphanage down to the ground, and make sure no one gets out. Then come back to the keep. Obviously, we have a lot to discuss.”

“Sir.”

Phoenix felt himself being pulled upwards, like a current had caught him, and his head broke the surface of the pool. He hauled himself out of the water, turning to drag Cherry out behind him. Neither of them said anything, they just sat and stared at the pool of water, serenely shimmering with the image of the journal, and the pages Petro must have torn out.

“He burned it down,” Phoenix murmured, half-dazed, “I thought it was an accident. I thought most of them must have gotten out.”

“Belos didn’t like leaving loose ends,” Cherry croaked, “He wouldn’t want anyone who remembered you to be left breathing.” He put his head in his hands. “Titan.”

“Yeah,” Phoenix agreed bleakly. “I can’t believe Victoria did that for me. I can’t believe I forgot that she did that for me! And he…” Phoenix’s hand drifted back to his scar.

He really tried to kill me

He found the journal, he knew what he was, what Belos was, and still.

He tried to kill me.

“Still think Petro’s the one with the faulty memories?”

Phoenix flopped backwards to the ground with a groan. “I don’t know. There’s nothing wrong with this pool. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. Even seeing it, I don’t remember this happening. I can’t—how could I forget?!”

“One more pool? To find out?”

Phoenix hauled himself up, his stomach hollow. Could it get any worse? “Okay. One more.”

This time, Cherry was the first to jump into the memory, and Phoenix followed after. He glanced around the plains again for Petro’s inner self. Still nothing but wind and water. He ducked under the water and landed in Belos’ robing room, a small, but comfortable room off to the side of the throne room. Phoenix had only been inside once or twice, but he recognized the spare mask hanging from the walls. His younger self lay curled up in a ball on a chair, still asleep from the spell. His head had stopped bleeding, but no one had done anything to clean or bandage the wound.

Belos paced in front of Petro, both of them now maskless. “What exactly was your plan, Hunter, hm? You must have known I would have found out eventually. And if you’ve read my journal, you know I can make another.”

Petro sniffed. “Can’t do that without your bones, can you?”

Belos stopped pacing, and Phoenix winced, recognizing the calm, cold rage that always came just before an attack. “What. Did you. Do.”

Petro’s eyes glinted with satisfaction. “I destroyed them,” he spat, “I destroyed them, so now you have to make a choice. I can keep going. I don’t care that you were going to replace me, not if you say you won’t now. You can choose me. You can kill that useless brat bleeding all over your armchair, and I will keep going, I will keep being your guard. Or, you can choose him. You can choose him, and you can watch your empire fall apart. He’s spineless and soft. I can guarantee that he will fail you. He will fail you, and he will fail you, and he will fail you. He could never do what I could, he could never do the things I did for you. He doesn’t have the stomach for it. Are you willing to take that risk? I don’t plan on betraying you, like all your other experiments. Even knowing all the things you hide, I’m loyal. Do you think he’ll feel the same? I’m your safest option, your only option!”

Belos’ face shifted ever-so-slightly, and Petro’s brow darkened.

“What,” he snarled, “What are you hiding?” He must have picked up on something in Belos’ face that Phoenix couldn’t, because he hissed in, squeezing his eyes shut. “How many?” he growled, “How many do you have made already?”

“This one came in a batch of three. The other two are still dormant.”

“Two?” Phoenix mouthed to Cherry. That couldn’t be right. Hunter, the current Hunter, had been the last Grimwalker. And as far as he knew, there hadn’t been a golden guard between the two of them.

Cherry shook his head, frowning.

Petro spread his hands with a laugh bordering on hysteric. “Well, that’s just perfect. Isn’t it? Kill this one. Do it! Why not?! You’ve still got two backups for if I go rogue and try to kill you, right?!”

“And risk you killing your other brothers?”

Petro glared at the sleeping Phoenix. “That thing,” he spat, “is not my brother. And they’re not yours, either.”

“Oh?”

“They’re soldiers. And I’m a soldier. And you can’t ever—” Petro’s voice caught in a snarl. “—judge me for killing my brother, Philip. After all, isn’t that why you need us, anyway? To replace the brother you killed? I read the journal, Philip. None of us will ever be Caleb, no matter how you try to raise us, so you may as well just accept us as soldiers, and that means starting with the reality that he”— Petro jabbed a finger at Phoenix—“will never be able to live up to me, and your empire will fall apart without me to enforce your will.” Petro put his mask back on, crossing his arms. “So what’s it going to be, Uncle?”

Belos turned towards Phoenix. “You’ve gotten very bold, golden guard.”

“Titan knows we’ve been through enough for me to earn it. I think the things I’ve done for you and the hits I’ve taken for you entitles me to getting angry over you trying to replace me. You know you wouldn’t have this empire without me.”

“No,” Belos murmured, “I suppose I wouldn’t.”

“And you know you won’t be able to keep it without me.”

“Hm.” Belos pivoted, drawing a circle. It glowed red over his finger, and stone started to spread over Petro’s body, starting with his feet. “Well, we’ll have to see about that, won’t we?”

“You—” Petro growled.

“You’re too much of a liability. Like you said, you were there for everything—you know quite a bit about where I started from. And, of course, I really can’t have you trying to kill my remaining backups. You’ve set up the empire. Now I need someone who looks good to my subjects and isn’t, oh, murdering war orphans in the street? Perhaps it’s time I got a soldier with a little less spine, since yours is so rigid it won’t bend to me anymore.”

The stone covered Petro’s waist, starting to dull his armor. “Fine. You’ve made your choice. And what do you think you’re going to tell him about me, huh? About why I attacked him? About why you had me burn his whole pathetic orphanage to the ground? Do you think he’ll understand? Do you think he’ll love the fact that you’ve got replacements lined up for him?”

“Oh.” Belos shrugged. “I supposed I’d wipe his memory. There’s a young plant witch floating about in the coven who makes a delightful brew that erases select memories. He’s young, and young minds are so easy to shape. He’ll believe whatever I tell him happened. After all, he won’t have any memories to the contrary.”

“Terra,” Phoenix growled, “Of course. Why am I not surprised she was involved?”

The stone had spread up to Petro’s neck now, but still he kept talking. “Do one thing for me, huh? One thing for the soldier who gave you everything?”

Something like a smile flitted across Belos’ face. “Oh? A final request?”

“Don’t lie about the scar that’ll leave,” Petro spat. The stone crept up his mask, but he kept talking. “Tell him family gave it to him. Let him know that your family isn’t your friend, and they’ll cut you deeper than any enemy.”

Something yanked on Phoenix’s ponytail, tugging him up and out of the memory. Phoenix sputtered, spitting out memory water and grabbing the hand wrapped in his hair before it could yank again.

“Like what you see?” Petro hissed, “Does it make you feel better to know that he chose you? It makes me feel better to know that you betrayed him just like I said you would. I never would have hurt him. Never.”

Phoenix twisted Petro’s wrist, forcing him to let go of his hair. “You tried to kill me!”

Petro took another swing at him with his fist. “And I’ll finish the job. No one replaces me.”

Phoenix dodged his swing, and took his own, slamming the palm of his hand into Petro’s nose. “You knew what he’d done?! You knew that he’d killed us, you knew that he’d planned your replacement, that he planned to kill you, too, and you came after me?!”

Petro stumbled back with a grunt. “Oh, like you wouldn’t kill the guy who replaced you?”

“No!” Phoenix spread his hands out. “I wouldn’t. I didn’t! How could you even—I would never hurt Hunter, I wanted him away, away from the coven, away from Belos, away from all the things we went through!”

Petro took the opportunity to attack, slamming his shoulder into Phoenix’s gut and grabbing him in a headlock. “And you don’t think part of you wanted that because you were jealous of the brat?”

Phoenix stomped on Petro’s instep and threw an elbow into his gut. “No!”

“Well, aren’t you just a stellar person, little bird.”

“You—could have—been—too!” Phoenix broke free of Petro’s headlock, keeping his distance.

Cherry, where are you?!

“You knew about me. You knew what Belos would do to you, what he’d do to me! You didn’t have to stay. You could have run, you could have taken me with you. I would have gone, you were my hero. We could have gone away from all of it, we could have gone back for Hunter!”

Petro moved quickly to close the gap between them, driving his fist right under Phoenix’s ribcage. Phoenix doubled over, gasping for air. Spots danced in front of his eyes. Petro grabbed Phoenix’s arms, twisting them behind his back and forcing him down. “And where would we have gone?” he hissed, “Where, in the glorious empire I made, could two powerless witches—three, four, even, if we did go back for the others—hide from the most powerful man on the isles?”

Phoenix winced as Petro twisted his arms just a little too hard. “We—could have—tried—” he gasped, “I—would have—for Hunter—If I could have saved him from what happened to me, to us—”

“Then you’re still as stupid as you were as a kid,” Petro snarled, “You’re still soft.”

“You—could have—”

Petro twisted harder, and one of the pools rose up towards Phoenix’s face, the very landscape around them responding to Petro’s will. “You got to be soft because I did the hard part. You got to care because I didn’t. If our roles were reversed, you’d be just like me, so don’t pretend you have some—some moral high ground!”

“We can’t reverse your roles, but we can give you a second chance to live that better life.”

Phoenix twisted his head to see Cherry finally climbing out of the water. The memory must have finally ended on its own and let him out. Cherry held his hands up, approaching Petro slowly.

“You don’t have to do this. Let Phoenix go.”

Petro shoved Phoenix’s head closer to the water. “One step closer and I drown him!”

Cherry stopped, still holding his hands up. “Belos is dead, Petro. Killing Phoenix won’t make you his golden guard again.”

Petro went stock still, holding Phoenix inches from the water. “He’s dead?”

“He’s dead,” Cherry repeated, “You don’t have to make him proud.”

 Petro pushed Phoenix again, so his cheek touched the water. Phoenix tugged against his grasp, but Petro just tightened his grip, shoving Phoenix’s head into the water, just enough that Phoenix couldn’t breathe, but not enough that he fell into the memory.

Petro yanked Phoenix back out of the water. “Try that again and I’ll make sure you don’t come back up,” he growled. He sighed. “Well, here’s the thing… who are you?”

“Cherry.”

“Right. Cherry. The funny thing is, killing him wouldn’t have gotten me back into Belos’ good graces anyway.” Petro punctuated his sentence by dunking Phoenix’s head again and dragging him back up. Phoenix gasped, spitting out water.

“No, he already betrayed Belos. He’s been replaced. It’s not like he’s the current person I’d have to kill to get my job back even if my emperor was alive.” Petro grabbed Phoenix’s ponytail, twisting his head to look at Cherry. “See, Cherry, this is about revenge.”

Cherry took another tentative step forward, but stopped when Petro pushed Phoenix’s face closer to the water. “He was a kid. It wasn’t his fault, it wasn’t any of our faults!”

“I can think of plenty of things that were our fault. It’s not like Belos told me to try and kill him. Very proud to say that I can do things on my own.”

“You do things on your own? Prove it. Let him go. Stop doing what Belos would want. Start over with us.”

Petro snorted. “I’m a little too good at what I do to roll over and show my belly now. And I like who I am. Do you think I want to turn into this?” He gave Phoenix’s hair a vicious yank, and Phoenix yelped. “No. I’ll stick with what Belos made me—I’ve already done too much to be a saint now.”

“Petro—uh—can I call you that?”

“I’ve been called worse.”

“Okay. Petro. I know what it’s like to feel like an irredeemable monster, trust me, I know—”

“Awwwww, you think I’m an irredeemable monster? That makes me so sad! What clued you in, me attacking Phoenix? Or killing that little girl?”

“Look, whatever you’ve done—”

“Whatever I’ve done? You’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg, Cherry Bomb.” Petro shoved Phoenix’s head under again, yanking it back up. “You—” dunk. “—have—” splash. “—no idea—” Phoenix gasped for air at the wrong time and inhaled a lungful of water. He choked and sputtered, hacking water up. “—what I’m capable of.”

“You’d be surprised,” Cherry said softly, “I know it doesn’t seem like it. But I promise you, you can come back from the things you’ve done, you can start over and make up for your past. It begins right here. Let him go.”

“If you’re so big and bad, then make me.”

Cherry moved quickly, but not quickly enough. Petro shoved Phoenix’s head back into the water. Almost immediately, his hands were wrenched off of Phoenix, and Phoenix fell, splashing deeper into the memory.

The whole thing was… hazy, rather than a solid scene. Phoenix couldn’t see anything except a film of light, like he had his eyes closed. The water around him felt warm, like a blanket, and somewhere, someone sang a soft lullaby.

A hand grasped the back of his shirt, and he shot up through the water, pulled to the surface by Cherry. “I’ve got you—” Cherry helped him out of the pool. “Are you okay? You were down there for…”

Phoenix coughed, spitting out water. “I’ll live.”

What was that?

Cherry nodded. “Good.”

“You?”

“Fine,” he replied shortly. His one eye looked everywhere but at Phoenix. Petro’s inner self was nowhere to be seen, but one of the pools roiled like something had been thrown into the center of it, spilling water over the banks. “Let’s go.”

He shook the ball, and golden light circled around the two of them. Petro’s mindscape disappeared, replaced by Sam’s lab. Evelyn leaned on Sam for support, her face pale.

“Boys? Did Belos do something? Did you help him?”

Everything he’d seen in Petro’s memories swept through Phoenix’s mind like a flood. His legs wobbled, and he sat down on the floor with a whump. “He tried to kill me,” he croaked, “He really did. He found out about us, and instead of blaming Belos…”

“He blamed you,” Caleb murmured. He knelt down next to Phoenix, his hand hovering just over Phoenix’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Phoenix’s arms throbbed in tempo with his frantic heart. “He killed Victoria. He killed everyone—kids, adults—he locked them in and burned them to death.” He gripped Caleb’s arm, desperate to make him understand. “He killed all of them, and he doesn’t even care. He doesn’t even care that Belos is dead, he just…”

Caleb didn’t say anything to that, just stared with horrified eyes.

Cherry stalked across the room in big strides and shook Petro. “Wake up,” he said sharply, “Wake up now.”

Petro yawned, looking up lazily at Cherry, then at Phoenix. His face split into a grin. “He won’t be around to protect you forever, little bird. Just wait.”

Cherry gave him another shake. “Don’t look at him. Look at me. How many grimwalkers were there after Phoenix?”

“Why? Missing one? Do a head count, maybe he’s hiding under the bed.”

“Cherry?” Caleb asked softly, “What’s wrong?”

Cherry let go of Petro, facing the others. “Belos said there were two. Two grimwalkers left for if Phoenix betrayed him.”

Evelyn hissed in. She pushed off of Sam and replaced Cherry in front of Petro, gripping the collar of his cloak with a strength and rage that did not match her prior weakness. “Hunter was the only one after Phoenix. We kept an eye on the keep, there wasn’t another. What happened to the other one? What did Philip do?!”

Petro shrugged, but it seemed more smug than bewildered. “I don’t know.”

“But you know something. Spit it out?”

“Hm. Well, I’d assume that if they’re not here, then they’re still in the ground. But there is definitely one more grimwalker out there. Surprise! You’re one short of a full set.”

Evelyn let him go, reeling backwards. “There’s another,” she murmured, “There’s another grimwalker we never knew about, and they’re all on their own.”

Phoenix tilted his head at Caleb. “Can’t we just go get them?”

He shook his head. “We don’t know where you were made. No one’s seen it except Philip.” He glanced at Petro. “Unless…”

“Aw, you want my help? Why don’t you just rummage around in my brain again, see how that goes. I bet this time you won’t come out.”

Evelyn growled, a low, threatening rumble that sounded unnervingly like a direwolf. Even Petro looked uncomfortable, if only for a moment. “Tell us. Now.”

“Sure. One condition. I go free.”

“I’m not making a deal with you. And I’m not letting you out, you’ll kill Phoenix.”

“Pft. You’ll get another grimwalker to replace him, what’s the big deal?”

“No.”

“Fine,” Petro spat, “I hope you didn’t want that Grimwalker too badly. Because you’ll never find them without me.”

Sam placed a glyph on the stone vines holding Petro in place, and new green vines grew up, covering his mouth. “Watch us.”

Chapter Text

Phoenix stared at the ceiling of Cherry’s bedroom, barely able to make out wooden planks in the darkness. “I never checked back.”

“Mrgh?”

“On the orphanage. After I joined the coven. I knew it burned down, but I never checked to see what happened to the people there.”

Cherry grunted. “Why would you? From what I saw, it didn’t seem like anyone there really cared about you. Even the adults who were supposed to watch out for you didn’t notice you were gone.”

Even away from Petro, that sick, rotting feeling hadn’t left Phoenix’s stomach. “I just… I didn’t even think about them, not once. Not even Victoria. Even though she…”

“You didn’t know. You didn’t remember. She wasn’t that nice to you, either, not until the end.”

“Still.” Phoenix scratched at the infected wounds on his arms, his heart thudding in his chest. “They died, for what? Because they knew me? Because I lived there? It’s not like they cared about me, it’s not like they would have gone looking for me, but… but they still died because of me.”

“Phoenix, that’s not—”

“And I didn’t even check on them. They all died, and it was my fault, and I couldn’t even bother to—”

“Phoenix.” Cherry rolled over, his eyes shining in the dim light from the hallway. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t ask for Belos to take you away, and you certainly didn’t ask for Petro to burn down your orphanage. You didn’t do anything to cause their deaths, and there was nothing you could have done to save them.”

“Still.” Phoenix turned to lie on his side, facing away from Cherry’s bed. “I was happy it burned down. Even knowing people might have gotten hurt or killed, I was glad to see it go.” It had seemed right at the time, but thinking about how gleeful he’d been to know that there was no way he’d ever go back made Phoenix feel sick to his stomach now. He hadn’t become the golden guard yet; it had just been him that felt that way, just Phoenix. He curled up in a ball, closing his eyes. “I wish I’d found out the cost sooner.”

“Don’t lie about the scar that’ll leave.”

Phoenix stared down at Petro as he slowly turned to stone. His eyes burned through the slits in his mask, glaring at Phoenix.

“Tell him family gave it to him. Let him know that your family isn’t your friend, and they’ll cut you deeper than any enemy.”

The stone made it past Petro’s face, and the guard finally went silent, frozen in an angry half-lunge. Phoenix tried to reach out towards him, to see if he would pass right through, but his arm wouldn’t move.

The eyes of the statue glowed magenta, and Phoenix dangled a golden guard over the edge of a bridge. The guard clawed at his hands, their feet desperately kicking to find the edge of the bridge with no success.

“Don’t—”

“You want to know what happened to our family so badly?” Belos’ voice snarled from somewhere around Phoenix, “Why don’t you pay them a visit?”

Phoenix tried to stop himself, tried to hold on, or pull the guard back to safety, but one by one, his fingers uncurled from the golden guard’s cloak, and they fell. Phoenix fell, too, the world rushing past him in a blur of darkness until he stepped delicately over the broken form of the previous guard. Just a little further, and he’d be at the garden. With the betrayal of this golden guard, he needed to seed a new batch and start their growing process.

A bloody, broken hand swiped at his cloak as he passed. “Hahhhh,” the golden guard croaked, “Haaaaaaaaahhhhh…”

Phoenix kicked at their hand.

“Disgusting,” a voice hissed. Somehow, it belonged to both Belos and Phoenix, stitching the two together inseparably.

And Phoenix stared at the darkness of Cherry’s ceiling again, his body still numb from sleep and one arm under his head. He blinked, once, twice, trying to shake off the twisting, disoriented feeling of being someone else, like he’d stepped into another’s body and then been yanked back to his. His skin felt too small, and his body too strong, despite the aches and pains from the Collector and the fight in Petro’s mindscape.

Slowly, carefully, he managed to drag one hand up to his face, rubbing one eye. “Mrgh,” he mumbled, stretching his other arm out. Stabbing pins and needles shot up his arm, half-asleep from being trapped under his head. “Cherry?”

No answer.

Phoenix sat up, gingerly touching his arms.

They came away wet.

“Sh—” Phoenix rolled out of bed, fumbling for a light. “Cherry, something’s—are you okay, are you—” His hand brushed a paper on the counter, and a light flared up, blinding him. Phoenix stumbled away, tripping over his own feet and landing on his back.

His heart pounded in his chest, and something viscous oozed down his arm at each throb.

“Ack—” Phoenix pulled his sleeve up. The bandages around his arms were stained green, and cursed mud burbled out between the cracks, sliming down his arms like disgusting teardrops. “Ngh—stop it, stop it—”

He looked to see if he’d woken Cherry up, but his bed sat empty, the blankets folded neatly back.

“Cherry…”

For a moment, Phoenix stared at his own hands, and the empty bed. Did I…

He shook himself. No. No, right? Right. Cherry had just stepped out. He was fine. He was fine. Phoenix hauled himself up, half-stumbling into the hallway. A light glowed down the way in Sam’s lab, and Phoenix headed towards it, pressing his hands against his bubbling wounds.

“You don’t actually know where the lab is, do you? You just want us to think you do.”

Cherry. Phoenix flattened himself against the wall outside of the lab, holding his breath.

“What makes you say that?”

“You knew we wouldn’t let you go, even for that location. You set them an unreasonable demand so that you weren’t in any danger of actually having to give that information.”

Petro chuckled. “And why would I pretend to have information only to demand things I can’t get? Why would I pretend to hold information that could land me in hot water if you found out I didn’t have it? It’s not like you bleeding hearts need an incentive to keep me alive. I don’t need to trick you.”

“Because you like to see people sweat,” Cherry answered evenly and immediately, “Because you want to see us go crazy wondering if it’s worth the risk. Because unstable, sweating people make mistakes when they handle prisoners. Moments of weakness result in looser bonds and distracted guards.”

“Aw, you’ve been thinking of me, Cherry Bomb! Am I in your head? It’s only fair, you got into mine.”

“I just don’t understand. All you have to do is promise not to kill Phoenix, and they’d let you go. You wouldn’t even have to stay here, you could go anywhere! Why are you trading your freedom for the illusion of revenge that you can’t get?”

“Okay, I promise I won’t kill Phoenix. Now let me out.”

“No. I don’t trust you.”

“Awwwwwwwwww, but I’m going to change! I’m going to be different! I’m gonna give him a big old hug and apologize for that time I tried to kill him! What, don’t you believe all of the painfully earnest things you said about becoming a better person and starting over?”

“I do. I just don’t think you’ve taken it to heart.”

“I don’t think you have either. You know people can’t change. Not really.”

“I have.”

Petro laughed. “No, you haven’t, Cherry Bomb!”

“Quit calling me that.”

“Or what? Gonna shove an explosive potion down my throat? Do it. I dare you. I know you want to. That’d shut me up, right? That would save your precious little Phoenix from me forever.”

Phoenix’s hands curled into fists. Part of him wanted to step in—to save Cherry from Petro’s taunts the way Cherry had saved him. Some other part of him lingered, curious what Cherry would say next. What his plan was.

“No. That’s not something I want. That’s not who I am.”

“Awwwwwwwwww, come on, Cherry Bomb, you’re a fighter. I could tell in the mindscape when you threw me into my own memories. You’re not like Phoenix. He fights like someone who wants the battle to end in a knockout. You’re a killer. You’re a direwolf pretending to be a lapdog, but you can’t hide your teeth. You’re just like me, and you don’t want anyone to know it.”

Phoenix heard the creak of wood, like Cherry had pushed on Petro’s chair. “I’m nothing like you,” Cherry snarled, “I changed. I got better.”

“Did you? ‘Coz you look awfully close to ripping my throat out right about now.”

The thud of chair legs hitting the floor echoed out of the room. “You’re just trying to rile me up so that I’ll do something stupid. You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know everything about you. Your whole life, summed up in ten pages of loopy handwriting. I read it. I read that whole journal. I know what you’ve done.”

Phoenix winced as Cherry made a sound like a squeaky toy. Don’t listen to him.

“The journal—”

“That your lab rat has. How long do you think before his curiosity gets the better of him and he reads your entry? How long before he knows? Before he tells everyone? Before your whole family knows that you’re just like me? Do you think they’ll still trust you? Irredeemable monsters, am I right?”

“I’ve changed.” Cherry’s voice cracked.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does! They know who I am now, they know—it won’t matter. It doesn’t matter. I’ve changed, everyone here has changed, they know what it’s like. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine.”

“Are you willing to risk that? I can help you out, Cherry. I can tell you where it is. You just have to do one thing for me.”

“I’m not letting you out. And I’m not killing Phoenix for you.”

“For this information? I wouldn’t demand such a high price. Nah, just a little information trade. I’ll tell you where the book is if you tell me how Belos died.”

“How does that help you?”

“Ehhhhhh, call it closure. Call it denial until I have more information. Some kind of sentiment. Whatever makes you more likely to tell me. It doesn’t cost you anything.”

“That I know of.”

“Careful, your cynical cutthroat soldier is showing.”

“I’ll find out. Tell me where the book is.”

“After you tell me what happened to Belos.”

“No. I’ll keep my word. I don’t know if you’ll keep yours.”

“Yeah, actually, I believe that. Anyway, Sam took it with him. He’s probably sleeping with it like a teddy bear. Hey, if you let me out, I could—”

“No.”

“I’ll behave.”

“No you won’t. But you could. You can change, Petro. I promise you, you can change. For real.”

“Quit wasting your breath. Or do you want everyone to find out what you’ve done, Cherry Bomb?”

Cherry inhaled sharply, then stormed out, closing the door with a quiet click. He blinked at Phoenix.

“Um—” Phoenix started, but Cherry put a finger to his lips, gesturing at the door behind him. He stalked back to his room, and started to pace. “Don’t know how far Petro can hear,” he mumbled, “Phoenix, how much of that did you—”

“Belos died because the Collector flicked him into a wall so hard he fell apart,” Phoenix interrupted, rubbing his arms, “You can keep your end of the deal.”

“Oh.” Cherry twisted his shirt in his hands, somehow seeming much smaller and younger than usual, like a kid caught sneaking out. “Thanks. I…”

“Do you really think Petro can change?”

“I have to think it. If he can’t change, then…” Cherry kept twisting his shirt. “Phoenix, about what happened in there—about the book—”

“You’re going to steal it?”

“I… yeah. I’ll put it back, I really will, I just… need to rip my pages out, first.”

“That’s not less sneaky.”

“I know. I just…” Cherry buried his face in his hands with a groan. “I don’t know what else to do.” He started pacing again, his shoulders heaving. “I mean, of course Mom and Dad know what happened, and I’m pretty sure Mole does, too, and none of them will tell anyone if I don’t want them to, but anyone could pick up that book and just read it! And I don’t want it around by the time Jason gets back, titan knows that he’ll just pick it up and read it because he reads everything, and then Jason will know, and Jason can’t know, so I’ve got to get it now and just pull those pages out. Please, please, please, please, Phoenix, don’t tell Sam, please don’t—”

Phoenix grabbed Cherry’s shoulders. His arms had stopped oozing at least, thank titan. One problem at a time. “Cherry. Take a deep breath.”

Cherry inhaled sharply.

“You’re going to be okay. They love you, and that’s not going to change.”

“They don’t know everything.”

“They don’t have to. They know that they don’t know everything. And they love you anyway.”

Cherry just shook his head. “They’re going to hate me,” he whispered, “They’re going to hate me if they find out what I’ve done. Who I used to be.”

Okay. The practical approach wasn’t going to work here. “I’ll help you steal it.”

“What?”

“I will help you steal it,” Phoenix repeated, “I won’t read it. I’ll just help you get the book, and you can pull your pages out.”

“Why? You don’t like the idea.”

“Hey, don’t look a gift ratworm in the mouth. You thought going into Petro’s mind was dangerous, but you did it anyway to help me. Let me help you back.”

Cherry eyed him up and down. “That’s all it is?” His eyes caught on Phoenix’s arms, still stained by his outburst. “Titan, Phoenix—”

“Don’t tell Evelyn.”

“No. No, Mom told me you promised. No heroics. It comes out, right now.”

“No—” Phoenix moved between Cherry and the door. “It’s not just getting worse, Cherry, I think I’m seeing his memories in my dreams!”

“Not better. Definitely not better. That’s concerning, Phoenix. Weird dreams are the number one symptom of a magical problem.”

“It was already happening, I just didn’t realize it. It’s not new, it’s not worse.” Phoenix held his hands up. “What if it can help me find the last Grimwalker?!”

Cherry froze.

“I think you’re right. Petro doesn’t know where the garden is.” Phoenix stumbled over the word—garden. A word he knew from Belos. It felt strange, vile even, on his tongue. Seeing Mole’s garden, it almost felt blasphemous to call their birthplace by the same word. “The only person that does is in a puddle of goop at the head,” he continued, “If I’m seeing his memories, then maybe… just for a little bit, Cherry. I’ll help you get the book. Just don’t tell Evelyn. She’ll cut it out immediately, and we’ll lose this chance.”

Cherry considered for a long moment, and finally, just when Phoenix thought he might say no, held up one finger. “One week. And if I think it’s getting even worse, I’m telling her immediately.”

“Deal,” Phoenix replied swiftly. He wouldn’t get a better offer from Cherry. If he was being honest, he was a little shocked he’d bought this long.

Muted orange light glowed dully in the window. The house would wake up soon.

“Do you think Petro will tell? Tell Sam, I mean.”

“Beans.” Cherry tugged on his own ponytail with a groan. “I didn’t think of that. Do you think we can keep him out of the lab? No, okay, stupid thought, there is no force on the isles that will separate Sam from his lab, right, he will definitely go into the lab.”

“Don’t panic. Sam mentioned wanting to gag Petro. Maybe he will?”

“Yeah. Maybe he will.” Cherry took a deep breath, smoothing his hair down. “Okay. Okay, I’ve got this. Normal post-apocalyptic day. Normal post-apocalyptic chores. Everything is fine.” He headed for the door.