Boone Windsore heard footsteps.

His sheathed Soynite dagger lay on the wooden desk in the bedroom, which was part of the blue space station he had spent years living in. He headed toward the weapon. After grabbing it, he unsheathed it, left the sheath on the desk, then headed into the hall outside the room.

Boone heard someone walking, but he didn't see the person. "Show yourself!"

The person stopped walking. After a short moment, the person turned visible. She stood in the hall, looking at Boone with her brown eyes. She was as tall as he was. A long time ago, he had married her. His heart pounded as if a laser had almost hit him.

"Misty," Boone said. He aimed the dagger at his wife. "Stay away from me. I told you I was going to take Zoey away from you, and you said you were going to kill me if I tried to do that."

Misty shook her head. "I didn't mean it."

"Still, stay away from me. You kidnapped Alice Endman. And on the day that you made me leave the two of you, you even admitted that you hurt her sometimes. Is she still with you?"

"No. She left with some friends of hers. It happened after I told her the truth. Zoey knows that she's Alice Endman."

"That means she also knows you're not her mother."

"She still sees me as her mother, Boone," Misty replied. She looked at the dagger Boone held. "Do you want to kill me?"

Boone unleashed a sigh. "No."

He returned to his room before putting the dagger into its sheath. After he turned, Misty embraced him. He didn't hug her back.

"I missed you," she said, hugging him. "Please hug me back."

Boone frowned. Still, he hugged Misty back.

"My best friend is dead," she said. "His name was Crammer Cole, and he was what I was. I had a vision of the past, and it showed me his corpse. After I found his body, I cried. And then I knew what I had to do. I had to find you. My baby is gone, and my best friend is gone forever, but you're here. You're with me."

"You're a horrible woman," Boone said. "But you're still my wife, Misty."

"Kiss me."

The hug ended. Boone pressed his lips against Misty's, kissing her. He ended the kiss a few seconds later. He used to be able to kiss Lauren Windsore. She had given birth to his first daughter, who had become one of Soy's rulers.

"Have you met Lovely yet?" Boone asked Misty.

"No," she said.

"The good thing about that is the fact that you haven't been given the chance to hurt her. But because you didn't meet her, I don't know if she made it to Earth or not."

"I will never hurt one of my Highs, Boone. And there's someone else I will never hurt. You."

Boone glared at Misty. "But you did hurt Zoey. More than once, too."

"I only hurt her when she deserved to be hurt. And I'm going to kill her grandfather one day. Her friend Hero told me that he's dead, but I don't believe that. Boris Endman is alive. He needs to be, because I'm his worst enemy, and I need to kill him. I have to do it. No one else."

"You still see yourself as Boris's worst enemy," Boone said. "Years ago, you told me that you kidnapped Zoey because you consider yourself to be Boris's worst enemy. I'm disappointed. Get rid of your hatred for Boris, Misty. Your dislike for him has caused too much suffering. There are two people out there who don't have their daughter anymore, and that's your fault. Plus, you tried to kill Boris, who was an innocent man. You should be ashamed of yourself. And Boris is dead now. You don't have to call yourself his worst enemy anymore."

Boone went closer to the chair under his desk.

"Yes, I do," Misty said. "Because Boris is still alive. Reed Pisces is, too, by the way. He just prefers being called a different name."

Boone rested his hands on the chair's top. "And what name is that?"

"Lock Tannis."

"I don't understand."

"Lock and Reed are the same person," Misty replied. "Hero told me, and the leader of the Lock Tannis Church is the one who told him that Lock is Reed."

Free's leader used to be one of Soy's leaders. After making himself into a High, Theo Majestic had done the same to Lock. He was the second High in history, and he was the first former High who had lost his High status. Lock and Reed were the same person, information the Lock Tannis Church's leader had learned.

"What's the Lock Tannis Church?" Boone asked.

"It's a cult of Soynites who worship Lock," Misty said. "Their leader is a man named Bane Sinister. He and his followers are evil people, and so are the Children of Still. Crammer used to be a member of that cult. They worship planet Still. On the day I met Crammer, we had an encounter with that cult. Zoey was with us at the time. I killed those Children of Still, but their cult probably still exists. I never found out who their leader is. Maybe one day I will."

Misty had mentioned a person named Hero.

"Who is Hero?" Boone said. "I understand that he's one of Zoey's friends, but I want to know more about him."

"He's a teenage boy who is obsessed with Boris," Misty said. "Boris was Hero's favorite High. He even had a picture of Boris and Zoey in his pocket while the Invasion was happening. He's looking for his father, a man named Mitch Shame. He met Hero and his siblings at the Ascend Museum. Almost all of his siblings, anyway. One of them is a girl named Sydney, and she is Mitch's only biological child. Mitch met his adopted children during the Invasion. Freemans were attacking the Ascend Museum. Mitch's wife got killed, and so did the parents of his adopted children. All of them escaped Soy together, though. They used the fastest Soynite spaceship to do it. Anyway, Hero realized that Zoey is Alice Endman yesterday, and I ended up confessing to Zoey, Hero, and his siblings. I admitted that I kidnapped Zoey, and I explained why I did it."

Boone pulled the chair back, then sat at the desk. "I wish you had never taken her. Zoey isn't your daughter, Misty. And she never was. Holly is her real mother, not you. And Archer is her birth father. I know that Zoey sees me as her father, but I'm just one of her fathers. Archer needs to see her again, and so does Holly. Zoey deserves to be with them more than she deserves to be with us. She definitely shouldn't be with the woman who abused her."

"Sometimes people need to be hurt, Boone. Sometimes people you need to hurt are the ones you love."

"Lock and his Freemans need to be hurt," Boone said. "Not Zoey. Zoey. For so long, she thought that was the name she was born with. But I know the truth. She was born as Alice Endman, and she was taken away from her parents because my horrible wife saw herself as Boris's worst enemy, which she still sees herself as, even though Boris is as dead as so many other great Soynites."

Boone's breath trembled. He placed a hand on his forehead. Misty put both of hers on his shoulders. She had never touched a baby who was biologically related to both of them, because he had never gotten her pregnant. But it wasn't too late for Misty to someday give birth to Lovely's half-sibling.

"Boris isn't dead," Misty said. "I've never seen him die, and I've never seen his corpse. Why should I believe that he's dead? Why should I believe that I'm not going to fight him for the second time? Back on Soy, I lost my first fight against him. He beat me in that duel, but he's not going to beat me in our next one. When I see Boris again, I will be too deadly to lose a fight against him. I'm going to kill him, Boone. It might not happen today, or tomorrow, but I'm going to kill Boris Endman one day."

"You can't kill someone who's already dead," Boone said.

"Fortunately for me, Boris is alive."

Boone looked at the wall. "I hope Lovely still is. I haven't seen her in eleven years. She's my girl, and I don't even know if she's still alive. I can only hope that she is. The last time I saw her was on the same day those horrible Freemans were attacking our planet. Lovely's mother died that night, and I wish she hadn't. Lovely doesn't have a mother anymore, but she still has a father. I'm not with her, though. I'm here. And my daughter doesn't know that I'm still alive. If I'm fortunate, Marina is still protecting Lovely. She's a good Watcher, and she loves Lovely. She will do her best to keep Lovely safe. I just wish that I was keeping her safe, too. I need to protect my child."

Marina Tome was Lovely's Watcher. By the time the Invasion started, Marina had known Boone and Lauren had wanted Lovely to become a High. Had Marina and Lovely made it to Earth?

"I am what Crammer was," Misty said. "Do you know what I mean by that?"

"No," Boone said.

"I'm a Bloodhound."

A Bloodhound could lead Boone to Lovely. For years, he hadn't been able to hug her, give a kiss, or tell her he loved her. With a Bloodhound's help, Boone could reunite with his wonderful daughter.

"Get back," he told Misty. "I'm going to get out of this chair."

A few seconds later, Boone stood. He went to the spot in front of Misty.

"Are you going to take me to my daughter?" he said. "Or are you going to track down a dead former High?"

Misty placed a hand on Boone's arm. "I'm going to take you to your daughter. I'm not ready to fight Boris, but I will be. It's not going to be today, though. I'll use my power to take you to Lovely. You will reunite with her, and I will finally meet my stepdaughter. I'm a Bloodhound. I was born with a great power, and I'm going to use it to make great things happen."

It had been great when Lovely became a High. She ruled over Boone, their home planet, and many other Soynites, including Lock. Boone had spent most of his life believing Lock had been born as a Freeman. But Misty had told him the truth. Because of her, he knew Lock was Reed.

"Crammer is dead," Misty said. "He's never going to learn that I'm a Bloodhound. The two of us were born with the same power, and that great man never knew that I am what he was. I met him inside of a Freeman space station. He was so good at killing Freeman warriors. He killed all of the ones who were inside that space station. Those piles of Freeman belongings created a beautiful sight, Boone. I wish you had been there to see it. Crammer was a deadly man, but he was also a ruined one. He was emotionally ruined. He wanted to die."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

A tear left Misty's eye, then she sat on the bed.

"Why did he want to die?" Boone asked.

"Crammer felt guilty," Misty said. "When he was still a Child of Still, he killed an innocent Soynite man. After that, he left the cult. He went to that Freeman space station I mentioned. Me and Zoey found him, but so did some Children of Still. One of them was a Bloodhound named Cage Pacer. He's the one who led the other Children of Still to Crammer. I killed Cage, and I did the same to those other terrible cult members. The ones who went to that space station, anyway. After I killed the Children of Still who went to that place, I gave Crammer a reason to live. His new purpose became protecting me and my daughter."

"Archer and Holly's daughter, you mean," Boone said. "You took their child away from them. And just because you took care of that girl, that doesn't make you her mother. Zoey sees you as her mother, but she shouldn't. And if Archer and Holly knew that Zoey sees you as her mother, they would be disgusted. They would be miserable. More miserable than they already are, actually. I don't know if Archer and Holly are still alive. They might be dead. But if they are alive, they're definitely missing Zoey. Just like they were doing a long time ago. It's your fault Archer and Holly haven't seen their daughter in years."

Misty crossed her thin arms, still seated on Boone's bed. They used to share one, back when he hadn't known Zoey was Boris's granddaughter, the sweet girl Misty had abused. The anger Boone felt for what Misty had done raged like a wildfire.

"I took Zoey away from her parents," Misty said. "I know that. But I also treated her well. I took care of her. I fed her. I protected her. I taught her how to fight, and I taught her much more than that. And I did hurt her sometimes, but I also loved her. I still do. She is Boris Endman's granddaughter, but I don't hate her. She is my baby, and I love her. And she loves me."

Boone shook his head. "You don't deserve her love. And you didn't just take Zoey away from her parents. You took her away from the rest of her family, too. Because of you, Boris and Virginia couldn't see their granddaughter anymore. And neither could Holly's parents. Boris is dead now. He's dead, Misty. He's gone forever, and he will never reunite with his granddaughter, because you took her from him. Boris wasn't just a great High. He was a good person, too. He deserved to be reunited with Zoey."

"It's not too late for that to happen, Boone," Misty said. "You think that Boris is dead, but he isn't. He's alive. And so is Zoey. Boris loves her. I know what will happen if he finds a Bloodhound. He will want them to find his granddaughter, and that Bloodhound will probably be willing to find her for him."

"Boris is dead, Misty," Boone said.

"I don't think he is," Misty replied. "But he will be. When I kill him, Boris will finally be dead. I need to be his killer. I don't want anyone else to get rid of him. It has to be me, because I'm his worst enemy."

"Even if Boris was alive, you shouldn't be so eager to kill him one day. You brought enough suffering into his life, and I wish you had never made him suffer at all."

"I needed to make that happen. I needed to make the person I hate the most suffer."

"You didn't need to, Misty. Just like you didn't need to kidnap Zoey."

"I had to do that, too."

"No," Boone said. "No, you didn't. What you had to do was leave Zoey alone. You had to let her stay with her parents. Her real parents."

Misty pressed her hands against the comforter on the bed. "Archer and Holly are Zoey's parents, but so am I. I didn't give birth to her, but she is my daughter. That's been the truth for sixteen years."

"For sixteen years, Archer and Holly haven't had their daughter in their lives."

Boone shared a daughter with Archer and Holly. Boone hadn't heard Zoey call him Father in years. Would Archer ever hear her call him that?

"You're a cruel person, Misty," Boone said. "You ruined the lives of Zoey's parents. Crammer was emotionally ruined when you met him, and I'm sure that's what Archer and Holly are right now. And it's your fault. It's your fault, and I'm the one who's married to you. My wife is Alice Endman's kidnapper. She also abused that innocent girl. I'm not proud to be your husband, and that's been the truth for years."

Misty frowned. "Do you want to divorce me?"

"No."

"Do you still love me?"

"Yes," Boone said. "I do. I do still love you."

Misty had taken a baby away from her parents, and had become her abuser. Despite the horrible acts Misty had committed, Boone loved her. Did that make him almost as bad as she was?

"Zoey might be in love one day," Misty said. "Hero kissed her. I wish they hadn't done that. If that boy hadn't investigated Alice Endman's kidnapping, my baby would be with me right now. Why did he have to do what he did? Why did he have to be so obsessed with Boris and his family? He's the reason why Zoey isn't home. She isn't where she belongs, but she will be, because I'm going to find her. Eventually, me and my daughter will be together again."

"I'm glad you're not with her. Right now, you can't hurt that wonderful girl. It's a good thing that she's with Hero and his siblings. Zoey is with her friends. And I really hope they find their father."

Soon, Lovely would be with her father. The woman he had married would lead him to her.

"One of the Highs is going to have her father back in her life soon," Boone told Misty. "Lovely is going to see me again. I've been away from her for eleven years. For way too long, I've been away from her, but me and her are going to reunite. And you're going to make that happen. You're a Bloodhound. I wish I had known that years ago, but at least I know it now. Your power is useful. It's going to get me reunited with my daughter. Her mother is dead. That horrible Freeman killed her. But I'm still alive. I survived the Invasion, and Lovely still has a father. I need to be in her life again."

"You obviously miss her," Misty said. "And I'm sure that she misses you. The last time the two of you saw each other was during the Invasion, and that was a long time ago. You're not going to spend another eleven years away from Lovely, though. I'm going to take you to her. Don't worry. You want to be with Lovely again, and I want that to happen, too. I can't see Zoey. I can't be with her, and I don't know when I'm going to be, but at least I know I'm going to meet my stepdaughter soon. It's going to be an honor to kneel for her."

Boone didn't smile. "Don't hurt her. She's a High, but you kidnapped Boris's granddaughter when he was still a High, and you planned on killing him. You might be willing to hurt Lovely, if you end up believing that she deserves to be hurt."

"When Boris was a High, he was the only High I wanted to hurt," Misty said. "I planned on hurting him. I planned on killing him, too. I don't want to hurt or kill any of the current Highs."

"Good. And there's a girl who isn't a High. You're not going to hurt her again. If you hit Zoey, I—"

"Be quiet, Boone!" Misty said. She clenched the comforter, squeezing it. "I will treat Zoey how she needs to be treated. Sometimes I have to hurt her, and sometimes I don't. But when she needs to be slapped, that's what I'll do."

Boone glared at Misty, but he didn't speak.

"If Boris finds out how I treated her, he's going to hate me even more than he already does," Misty said. "And I know that he hates me. He's not going to forget that I tried to kill him. Back on Soy, I lost that duel against him, but he hasn't lost his hatred for me. I'm sure of that."

Boone could have told Misty a dead person couldn't hate anyone, but he stayed silent.

Misty smiled. "Boris hates me, and I hate him. I'm so eager for him to finally see me as his worst enemy. I need him to hate me more than he hates anyone else."

"You need to stop, Misty," Boone said. "You need to stop hating that dead man. Boris is gone forever. You fought him, and you're not going to get another chance to kill him, because Boris is dead and he's never coming back."

"He's out there!" Misty said. She pointed at one of the blue walls. "He's out there. Boris is somewhere, and I'm going to find him one day. I need to kill him. I have to do it, and you know why. You can't fight fate."

"It was your destiny to fight Boris on Soy, but that fight is over with. You can stop wanting to kill him. You can't do that anyway."

"I can, and I will."

Misty looked at the spot next to her before looking at Boone.

"Sit next to me," she said. Boone didn't sit next to her. "Please."

Boone inhaled through his nose, then exhaled through his mouth. He sat beside Misty. She placed her hand on top of his, something she had done many times in the past.

"While you were gone, I thought about you every day," Misty said. "And I missed you a lot. While you were away from me and Zoey, I wanted you to be safe."

"This space station has kept me safe," Boone said. "I've been living here for years, and no trouble has ever found me here. I never had to deal with any Freemans here. Or members of the Lock Tannis Church. Or any Children of Still."

"I appreciate the fact that you've been safe here. But I need you to know that you can come back home. You've been living in this space station, but our spaceship is still your home, Boone."

"I know."

"The Invasion was terrible," Misty said. "But I'm glad I met you while it was happening. Those Freemans were chasing you, and they were holding strife swords. You couldn't set those awful fools on fire. Fortunately for you, I was there. I shot those Freemans, and they died."

"You saved my life," Boone said. He placed a hand on Misty's back. "And I'm still grateful for that. I always will be. Because of you, I survived the Invasion. I'm alive, and it's not too late for me to reunite with Lovely. I'm going to see her again. And it's going to happen soon. You found me, and you can find Lovely. Me and her have to be together again. She's my daughter, and I hate that I'm not with her. I don't even know if she's alive. I need to believe that she is, though."

"I need to believe that she is, too. I don't want my stepdaughter to be dead."

"I'm glad you're not dead."

On Soy, while Freeman warriors slaughtered Soynites, Misty had let Boone escape the planet with her and Zoey. If Misty hadn't done that, a Freeman might have killed him that night. During the Invasion, a Freeman had slain the first person he had fallen in love with, then he had met Misty, his second wife. Had their wedding been the first Soynite one that had happened after the Invasion?

The first Soynite wedding had happened a long time ago. King Hase Majestic had married one of the other original Soynites. Hase's sons had become fathers, but Hase's daughter, Princess Nerra, had never been a mother.

"Me too," Misty said. "And because I'm not dead, I can help a certain great man reunite with his daughter. You're not going to spend another eleven years being away from her, Boone, because I'm here and I'm going to help you. If I didn't want to use my power to take you to Lovely, I would be a terrible wife. And that's not what I want to be. I have to find Lovely for you, and you need to be with me when that happens. I want to see you reunite with your daughter. That reunion will be a good thing. I wish I was seeing it happening right now. I've seen too many awful things. Not long ago, I had a vision of my best friend's corpse, and that was awful. I want to see something good. I want to see a father and his daughter reunite with each other. I can make that happen, and that's what I plan on doing. Me and you are here, and Lovely is somewhere else, but we're going to find her. I have my power."

The power Misty had been born with wasn't a Save. A Bloodhound was a certain type of Soynite, and every Bloodhound had been born with the ability to find anyone. Any Soynite who had a Save had developed it instead of being born with it. And every Soynite could only gain a Save before they reached the age of twenty.

Lovely had turned sixteen on January fourteenth. In less than four years, if she hadn't developed any Saves yet, she never would.

"I wonder if Lovely has any powers," Boone said.

"You're going to find out," Misty said. "Zoey doesn't have any Saves. She still doesn't. But one day she might. Hopefully she will gain a few of them."

"She might never get any Saves. Lauren died Saveless, and Marina is too old to get any. But I really hope that Zoey will get some Saves. She deserves to have powers."

Zoey's grandfather Boris had developed the power of immortality, and so had his wife and their son. Virginia and Archer had been alive for a much longer time than Boone had been. He hadn't existed yet when Theo exiled Lock from Soy. His name hadn't been Lock back then. After being banished from his home planet, Reed had renamed himself Lock. He had gained a new name. And he had won his duel against Vice Reaper, gaining the Great Leader title.

Like Lock, Lovely had killed a Freeman when she was younger. That Freeman warrior's death hadn't made her into a leader, but she had earned royal power on the night she turned that Freeman into smoke.

"She deserves to live," Misty said. "I wasn't there when Zoey was born, but I'm still her mother. But I know that there are people who don't see me as Zoey's mother. Hero is one of them."

Boone nodded. "So am I. Fortunately, Zoey sees me as her father. Whether you're her mother or not, I'm still one of her parents. I love her. And I want to protect her. I also want her to meet Lovely. Those girls are sisters, and they need to meet. Hopefully they will."

"They're going to," Misty said. "And Lovely doesn't know that she has a sister, but she's going to."

"She's also going to find out that Zoey is Alice Endman," Boone said. "Zoey knows who she is. She knows the truth now, and she probably told it to other Soynites. And if she hasn't done that, Hero and his siblings probably have. Archer and Holly might find out that Zoey is their missing daughter. They might find out that you're the one who kidnapped her. You even abused her, Misty. Archer and Holly will probably learn about that, too. One day those two will probably want to kill you."

Misty glared at the wall ahead of her and Boone. "If they try to kill me, they'll fail."

"If they try to kill you, I'll protect you. You've done some bad things, but I love you anyway."

"I love you, too."

She placed a hand on his thigh, rubbed it. An urge built up inside him, and it wasn't the urge to kill Misty. He caressed her long brown hair. Afterward, he kissed her on the lips. While his heart pounded as if Freemans with strife swords chased him, he put his hand on Misty's breast.

Minutes later, Boone's and Misty's clothes and pendants rested on the floor. He lay on his back on the bed. She straddled him, pressed her hands against his chest, then kissed him. They remained naked and in love.

Soon, they did what they used to do with each other years ago.