On Saturday afternoon, Derek walked into their TV room. Milo was sobbing on the couch, an empty bag of tortilla chips next to him. Derek pulled himself short, studying the scene before him. There were various containers of salsa and guacamole around him, as well as half empty containers of cheez-its, fried pork, and sugar donuts.

“You, uh, okay, buddy?”

“Why can’t I be like him?” Milo pointed at the screen. Derek glanced at the movie, recognizing Sean Connery’s James Bond. “Effortlessly cool. Sex with all the ladies. Has no problem murdering people he needs to. So many women betray him, he has a moment to feel bad, but it never gets in the way of doing his job. Of murdering so many people with badass one liners.” Milo sniffed, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. “Effortlessly. Cool. I’m not effortlessly cool. I’m… I’m Q!”

The way Milo talked made Derek more than a little uncomfortable. “You know… Q is pretty… he’s a lot more…” Derek studied Milo. “When’s the last time you spoke to someone?”

Milo rubbed his eyes. “Yesterday. Was it yesterday? What day is it?”

“Okay, let’s… not use James Bond as a role model of how you’ll deal with Pippa.” Derek walked in and turning off the TV.

“We’re going to kill Pippa, right?” Milo asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course,” Derek said. “You know, we’ve got to figure out how to make her stop running away every time, so that’s a job for Q. Not James B—” Derek grabbed the bag of fried pork, then lifted the empty box of sugar donuts. “Come on, man. These were Camilla’s. There’s a good chance she’ll notice they’re missing.”

Milo grabbed a pillow, curling up on the couch. “She’s got mythical powers, you know. Seductive powers I can never overcome.”

For half a second, Derek thought Milo was talking about his little sister, but remembered Milo was only thinking about Pippa right now.

“You’re obsessing about this woman. You haven’t even seen her,” Derek said.

“It’s the power she has over me,” Milo said.

Derek stared at his character, still curled up. “We’re going to dinner at José’s tonight. Maybe you should talk to Ezekiel. Find…”

“Religion?” Milo asked, then uncurled, a light of hope shining in his eyes. “She’s part demon. Maybe I’ll get a buff ability against demons by making a vow of chastity or something. I need all the help from the deities above when I face that woman.”

“Okay, let’s get you out of this room.” Derek grabbed Milo’s wrist and dragged him out of the TV room. “We’re about to see a lot of your friends, and we need to remember what we’re doing here.”

Milo groaned. “Of course. Ezekiel. Two weeks until the full moon.” He brushed the crumbs from his shirt. “I can focus on that.”

“Okay. Because you’re worrying me, and leaving you home alone is a bad idea.” Derek pressed a finger to Milo’s shoulder. “Also, don’t watch the Home Alone movies until we’ve taken care of the Pippa problem. I don’t want to be scared to enter my house.”

Milo made eye contact. “I’m not… I’m not going to school. Not with her there. It’ll never work.”

Derek used a finger and tapped Milo’s forehead. “You have the highest intelligence of everyone in the group. Change your perspective, as you tell anyone else. If you already think it’s impossible, then it’ll be impossible. You can do this.” Derek gave an awkward fist pump. “We can figure out how to stop your ex-girlfriend from ruining your life.”

Milo groaned again, rubbing his forehead. “I suppose.”

“That’s the spirit. Come on. You’ve watched enough TV.”

***

The sun had set when Nick finally saw Grizzizzik on the back porch. It hadn’t been as hot as the last few days had been, and fall was finally approaching. When he walked outside into the dying light, it was a comfortable mid seventy degrees.

Nick sat across from Grizzizzik and folded his arms. “I see you’ve been avoiding me the past few days.” Grizzizzik barely acknowledged Nick before turning his whole focus back on sharpening his rapier. “Does it have anything to do with how I saw you reading the player’s handbook?” The rogue continued to ignore him, the only sound coming from the blade sliding across the whetstone. Nick rubbed his forehead. “I’m not a mind reader.” Grizzizzik’s snake eyes remained on the blade. “You need to tell me why you did that.”

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After a final stroke with his rapier, Grizzizzik turned his not so friendly gaze toward Nick. “I’m trying to keep count of the strokes. If I don’t, the balance will be off.”

“Bullshit,” Nick said.

Grizzizzik slammed the tip of the rapier into the dirt, still staring at Nick. “And what do you know about sharpening swords?”

Little. Whenever they got to this portion in the campaign, Nick offhandedly told Tyler that Grizzizzik sharpened his tools. The rapier remained stuck in the ground, the rogue’s fingers over the hilt. Nick stared at his character, returning the glare. “We can’t keep secrets from each other.”

Grizzizzik’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t have secrets. You just don’t like that I read your instruction manual.”

“It’s more your instruction manual, and if you were reading it for pleasure, you wouldn’t have slammed it shut when I confronted you about it. Your guilty face gave you away, and you need to tell me what you were doing,” Nick said.

“I don’t need to tell you anything.” Grizzizzik’s teeth lengthened. Coupled with the rogue’s hand tightening over the rapier, it was a terrifying sight, but Nick held his ground. It meant he was onto something. “You are not any sort of parental figure over me, and I have no responsibility to you or your pathetic friends.”

“You always threaten when you’re scared. Whatever it is, we can help. You’re not meant to do this alone. But I can’t help unless—” The rapier appeared an inch away from Nick’s throat. His eyes widened, and his heart made itself known by beating wildly against his ribs, but he forced himself to keep calm. He thought he had a bonding moment with his character when talking about friends. He realized Grizzizzik was taking a dangerous path, and he had to lead his character away from it. Somehow. “I… am here to help you, Grizzizzik. What has you so scared?”

“I don’t need anyone’s help.” Grizzizzik got closer, and Nick held perfectly still. This was a total overreaction. One he knew came from an outrageous amount of stress Nick wasn’t aware of. “I heard about the grey marks on your body. More importantly, I heard if a creature from the Shrouded Domain ever hurts you, it’ll manifest by causing a mark to become a wound.” Grizzizzik reached over with his hand and lifted Nick’s shirt enough to see the marks on his body. Nick wanted to fight, but there was a recently sharpened rapier against his throat, and it could hurt him now.

There were eight gray marks. Nick counted the moment he heard about what had happened to Evelyn on the road trip. Grizzizzik’s eyes landed on each one, taking them in before looking at Nick. “As the rules say, I am from the Shrouded Domain, and I can hurt you.”

“Grizzizzik—” Nick was cut off as his character placed the rapier deeper against his throat. He could feel it, the warm blade resting above his Adam’s apple.

“Let me make myself perfectly clear. You will leave me alone, and if you do that, I won’t hurt you.”

Nick closed his eyes, his fingers gripping the armrest. It didn’t take a genius to know his rogue was up to something. As his creator, he thought of the only thing that would cause this much stress. “Are you that afraid of stealing something from Akshi next week?”

Grizzizzik’s face didn’t budge from his brooding, angry look. Nick stared, trying to pry the answer out of the rogue’s eyes; there was no other way to get it.

The back door opened.

“Hey, Alejandra said they’ll bring Princess Clarissa, so—” Evelyn froze at the sight before her. Nick didn’t dare look at his little sister, the blade still against his throat, but he could feel the air shift. “Back away from Nick. What the hell is wrong with you?” She grabbed the hilt of the rapier, making sure it was away from Nick’s throat before she shoved Grizzizzik. “Don’t you ever do that to him again.”

“Or what?” Grizzizzik still held his rapier. “Really, girl, what could you possibly do to threaten me?”

Evelyn glared as Nick stood up, grabbing his shirt and making sure it covered the grey marks again. “Don’t do that again, and you won’t have to worry about what I’d do.”

There was a surprising bite in Evelyn’s tone. Nick raised an eyebrow, then glanced at Grizzizzik, who looked at Evelyn like she cracked a joke. He sheathed his rapier. “Tell your brother to butt out of my business, and I won’t have to threaten him.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you have planned?”

Grizzizzik rolled his eyes before turning around and grabbing his sword sharpening tools, placing them back into his inventory. “Not you, too.”

The back door opened, and Walt was there. “Evelyn? You coming?”

She sighed. “Coming.”

“I don’t want to wait in the car for ten minutes again,” Walt said.

“I said I’m coming,” she said.

Walt sighed, then closed the door. Evelyn turned her glare back at Grizzizzik, who chuckled. “It’s almost cute, how you think you can scare me.”

“I am Princess Clarissa’s creator. I know what she can do. Moreover, I know what all of them will do if they ever caught you threatening Nick like that. I’m telling them what happened tonight, and they can knock some sense into you. So, get in the damn car or I will make you,” Evelyn said.

Nick covered his mouth, trying to hide his smile. Evelyn was pissed, and he wasn’t sure how this would play out.

“What could you possibly do to—” Grizzizzik was cut off as Evelyn grabbed the hood of his cloak. She then dragged him toward the house as Grizzizzik coughed. Nick smiled, seeing a flash of the princess in his little sister.

“Nick, are you okay?” Evelyn called over her shoulder.

He gave a thumbs up. “I’m good.”

“Great. I will see you after the dinner meeting and tell you about what we’ve decided,” she said, dragging Grizzizzik behind her.

Nick smiled as Grizzizzik struggled with his cloak hood. The garage door opened, then closed again. He didn’t know why it was so funny. Grizzizzik had placed a rapier against his throat, after all. But even as he thought about it, the threat drifted away. There was no way his rogue would ever hurt him like that. They were threats. Threats of a scared rogue who was losing control. Still finding his place among his friends.

Nick found his player’s handbook and flipped through the pages, checking if Grizzizzik marked anything, but there was nothing. He eased himself onto his bed, placing a finger against his forehead. Despite all the threats shot back and forth between him and Grizzizzik, the fact remained that his character was keeping secrets from them and wouldn’t let anyone find out. It was dangerous to keep secrets, especially now. No doubt Grizzizzik was quite scared about the heist mission. Perhaps it was something specifically about the heist. Either way, it was now Nick’s job to get Grizzizzik to spill his secrets.