Jax had not wanted to visit Elias's apartment and the man reported that it had taken extreme measures to force his hand. He'd had to share that it was a matter of life and death for Ashton.

Wanting to gauge his willingness to help, Ashton had both of us hide in Elias's bedroom so she could decide if she wanted to go through with recruiting Jaxon to help. I thought it was stupid. We needed him. But this wasn't my life and I'd already overstepped by living through her memories.

"I told you, Elias." Jax sounded far colder than when he'd spoken to Elias and me together. "I don't want anything to do with you. Tell me what I need to help Ashton and then stay out of my life."

"What do I have to do for you to be willing to work with me again when we want the same thing now?"

Jax snorted. "Nothing. I will never trust you again. It wasn't enough for you to split Ash and me up. You had to send your guild after me."

"It wasn't like that. I made sure that you were both safe."

"Safe? They tried to kill me, asshole. I did you a favor and I didn't say anything to Ashton, but don't think it was actually for you. It was for her, because she's already had to deal with enough of your shit. Stay away from me."

Ashton covered her mouth beside me.

"You used what Ashton and I had to get to me. Own up to it and stop playing innocent."

"I'm not here to argue with you. We need your help."

"You told me that already and I told you the time for deals is done. Ashton isn't going to turn on her guild. She walked away from me when we could have tried to make peace with the guilds together. She didn't fight for us. She isn't interested. Let me move on."

Ashton leaned back against the wall with an anguished sigh and covered her face. "I've heard enough," she whispered. "Let's do it without him. He doesn't need to endure anything else because of us."

"That's your take away?" I smacked her arm with the back of my hand. "Go fight for him. He wanted you to."

"I told him I would kill him."

"That was really stupid. Fix it."

"I don't want him to be in danger. He said they tried to kill him."

"Isn't this what Elias did to you."

She lowered her hands and nodded. "Okay. I just need a second." Then, she shook her hands at her side. "No. I need to just do it."

"Do it," I whispered harshly.

Ashton opened the door and walked out, her presence immediately silencing both men.

"I was wrong," she said.

I really wished I could see Jax's face in that moment.

"I never should have turned my back on you, no matter what side we're fighting for."

"Ash."

"You don't have to forgive me or understand, but I hope that you'll hear us out, because we really need your help."

I heard footsteps and tensed, hoping it was Jax walking toward her.

"You want my help?" he asked.

"Yes. It's better to show you. Just, prepare yourself, because it's going to be hard to accept.

"What do you mean?"

"Max," she said. "Come on out."

I stepped into the doorway, pausing there, as if it would lessen the shock at all.

Jax blinked several times.

"You have a twin?"

"Not exactly," Ashton said.

#

Jax had spent most of the conversation shifting his gaze between Ashton and me, looking overwhelmed. Now I sat back on the couch with Elias while Ashton and Jaxon talked on the other side of the room. Being alone in the bedroom must have felt like too much for people who had promised to kill one another, but they both looked like they couldn't keep away if they tried. I swore I could feel the energy trying to tether them to one another.

Jax looked at Ashton for a long while and smiled wistfully. "Tell me, Ash. Don't make me wait."

"Tell you what?"

"Are you going to kill me?" The smirk melted my heart because I knew exactly how it was melting hers. All this time and for Ashton it was their first time talking. For Jax to put aside that pain, that awful promise, and tease her must have made it feel like things could be okay.

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She covered her mouth, tears springing into her eyes. Her voice shook with a mix of longing and relief. "You know I can't kill you. That's why you were supposed to stay away. I could never kill you, Jax."

I couldn't keep myself from smiling, despite that Elias shifted uncomfortably next to me.

"I didn't know my people tried to kill you," Ash said quietly.

"I knew you wouldn't have been okay with it."

"I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry that I didn't try to make things work between us. I didn't see a way. I've been wrong about a lot of things."

"Stop eavesdropping," Elias whispered to me.

"I can't help hearing," I said back.

"You're on the edge of your seat leaning in."

I looked down at my posture and scooted further back on the couch, turning my head, though I could still see them out of the corner of my eye. "I've seen too much. I'm invested."

I dared a peek at them and Elias clamped his hand over my eyes. My elbow smacked into his shoulder, knocking him away. A laugh almost escaped, before I remembered that I didn't want to laugh with Elias. Reminded of this, I scowled at him.

He grinned in the way Piercey had when we were kids, a smile somehow both innocent and devious.

"We can't be friends," I said. "You lied to me. Once I get really mad at you, it's not easy to come back from."

Elias hooked his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. "You think I don't know that? I just forget you aren't her sometimes. I forget that I pushed her away and now she's gone."

"Don't you make me feel sorry for you."

He squinted one eye at me and chuckled. "Fine."

"You made me miss things," I whispered and glanced at Ashton and Jaxon again.

They were closer now, quieter, perhaps reconsidering their decision to stay in the same room as us.

"Don't forgive me so easily," Ashton said.

"I didn't say I forgave you. I just feel like you're finally back. That day you left with Lote, it's like I never saw you again."

Seeing them made me want to run home to Nash and never be separated again. I hadn't been gone from home for long, and yet being in a different world made it feel like it had been weeks already. I didn't want to have regrets like these two had. I'd decided to figure out how to be with my family and take care of the Valley before I left and this confirmed to me that I couldn't stop until I'd learned to do just that.

When they finished talking, we all sat together in one strange group. None of us had simple relationships here, and I wasn't sure which was the most awkward. Elias being the one to break them apart should have been high up there, but my presence was surreal enough to probably beat that out.

"I don't want to rush anyone, but my world doesn't have very much time. We need a plan. I think all of us here agree that we cannot let anyone from this world enter into mine and steal from my people or hurt anyone."

Jax's eyes were determined. "That won't happen. We need to work together to straighten our political mess, but first we have to stop it from bleeding into your world."

Finally, someone who had a sense of urgency. "Thank you."

"I can assemble allies. That's no problem," he said. "The question is do you guys have anyone other than this?"

"I do. People from my world will help us fight. The problem is that the only ones who know about you are Elias's counterpart, Piercey, who isn't much of a warrior, and people who didn't have power until very recently."

Jax hooked his elbows on his knees. "Okay. So, you have some kind of help."

"I do have some allies I could call on. They don't know anything about this, though, and I worry about spreading it beyond our inner circle."

"We need to keep it quiet," Ashton said. "Elias told me the gods are already angered."

"Then what is the most efficient and powerful move?" Elias asked.

"We kill Lote." I turned my attention to Ashton. "That won't stop your people from entering my world. It'll hurt the effort, though. It's clear he's the leader for efforts like this. I know he was important to you but–"

"He killed Elias's parents and he tried to kill Jax. He lied to me." Ashton breathed out slowly, looking shakier than she sounded. "I know what I have to do. I don't need time to prepare. We have to act swiftly in battle. Grief can wait until later."

Jax clasped her shoulder, visibly squeezing. Ashton froze at first and then her shoulders relaxed. "If we kill Lote, the guild will have to scramble to deal with the fallout. They won't be in a position to invade any worlds. At that point, we land our next strike, and launch our plan to bring peace to the valley."

"Our next strike?" Ashton asked.

"Our guild has to come down," Elias said. "Others were complicit in killing my parents. I've found out since that there's much more than that going on. When we have time, I'll show you all of my research and evidence."

Ashton scoffed. "If our guild suddenly falls out of power, what's to stop Silver Moon from a power grab? We'd be vulnerable enough that they'd get a hold of our resources and then they'd effectively own the Valley."

"She's right," Jax said. "I don't trust my guild to have that much power. Between my guild and yours, I would choose us, but that doesn't mean it's best. We shouldn't destroy your guild."

"Lote is not the root of evil in our guild. If you leave the current leadership in place, someone will take his place."

"Listen." I clasped my hands together. "I sympathize with your position given that I'm dealing with wars of my own. Having said that, I don't have time to fight your war too. I really don't and I'm not going to. I've realized I need to learn when to step back. This is me stepping back."

I expected everyone to get angry with me for this, only no one reacted that way at all.

"I understand," Ashton said. "This was never your war. We need to get you back to your world where you belong. Elias shouldn't have dragged you into this."

"I was trying to save you," he said.

"By implicating another version of me?" She groaned. "I'll stop. We have time to fight about that later."

"I just want to put a stop to this threat against my world and get home," I said. "I can give advice to you about what to do with your guild issue if you want it. I can't kill your god, though. You need to do it yourself."

Jax spoke solemnly. "I'm very sorry you were pulled into this and your world is in danger. We'll stop at nothing to make sure your people are safe. Our world having so much more power than your world makes this so important."

"If we kill Lote, it'll buy us time to deal with our guild, and keep your world safe." Elias didn't look at any of us while he spoke. I almost felt bad for everyone ganging up on him, except that he deserved it. This version of Piercey had not made the best decisions.

Nash had made me promise to come home before starting a war. I didn't have time, though. Elias didn't have long before Lote would try to force him to connect and then they'd have what they needed to invade our world. I would ask Elias to return to my world for my comrades if I thought it would help. This wasn't a massive battle, though. We needed to assassinate one man and we needed to do it discreetly.

"You realize that you'll be implicated," Jax said to Ashton and Elias.

"I will stand by what I did," Ashton said. "Lote needs to die."