"You said it was special, not that it would kill me," I said, glaring at him and plopping myself in the chair across from him.

"Special can mean many things," Mordecai said with a sneer. "Lucky for you, you're not truly dead. If Adam Rexford hadn't bound your soul to the baby's and thus to him, you would have just gone home."

My hands grabbed at my now flat stomach. "Is my baby okay?"

"Yes. Because you ate the egg and left. It will stay in your conduit."

Pain and regret grew like acid in my stomach. I was so angry at everything and bitter that I had lost my child. "I want to go back. I made a mistake."

"Too bad," Mordecai said heartlessly. "What's done is done."

I stood up and charged towards Mordecai. "There has to be a way to undo this, please. I want my baby."

"Enough about that already," Mordecai said with disgust. "Maybe Gavin was right to erase memories."

Wait, is his name really Gavin? How did Mordecai know all of that? Wait a minute, "Stop trying to distract me, Mordecai."

"Grief isn't all it's cracked up to be, Gwendolyn. Your time spent as Wendy was more than that spent as Gwendolyn. Do you really want to mourn the loss of two lives?"

I collapsed in the chair as my bottom lip quivered. "Love shouldn't be this painful, but that's the cost when your heart's involved."

"Wrong answer," Mordecai said. Something glinted in his eyes as an inscrutable emotion flitted through them. "You should take advantage of a mortal's ability to forget."

There was heavy silence after that, and neither of us seemed willing to break it. Until finally, someone did.

"Are you willing to play a game?" Mordecai said. I watched as that all too familiar coin appeared to roll across his knuckles.

"I'm not that dumb," I said with a glare. That coin was magical and appeared by his will whenever he wanted it to. Any game the two of us played would be to his advantage.

"There might be hope for you yet," Mordecai said with a sharp bark of a laugh. He waved a hand over his desk, and the dark wood shimmered. The flat, firm surface became holey with groves.

Where Mordecai and I sat were two longer and broader groves. I watched in amazement as gems of all shapes and sizes filled the groves across from us.

"What are you doing?" I said, marveling at the sparkle and cut of each gem. Before I could stop my fingers, I was touching and rubbing on them.

"This is one of the oldest games. No matter the civilization, culture, distance, or peak of intelligence, sentient life always starts with stones."

"These are not stones," I said. I recognized the game he was talking about. It wasn't one that I'd ever really had a hand at trying. I'd read about it in history books.

Mordecai shrugged my words off, "Let's play." He said.

"Wait, I haven't agreed yet."

"You did." He said, gesturing to the gems in my hands and then at the board. The gems fell from my hands into the groves, and I watched in horror as my greed caused a ripple effect. The rest of the gems in my grove cascaded onto the board and placed themselves.

Shit.

"Any turn that you get your stones into your grove, I'll answer a question," Mordecai said with a grin. "Choose wisely, Gwendolyn."

"What do you get out of this?" I said because I'd eat my hair if it was just a simple game.

"I get to ask a question as well," Mordecai said with a blink as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

What could he want to know from me, though?

I didn't have time to protest because his gems spilled from his grove onto the board.

And my first real game ever with my ancestor began.

This game went by many names. It was called Oware, Mancala, or even Ouril. It's a straightforward, simple game. Both of us were bound to get questions earned as we played. That's what made it so suspicious. But it was too late to back out.

Mordecai went first, and instead of going for an obvious play, he skipped plugging gems into his grove. I showed no such compunction and moved my gems swiftly across the board. A strange sensation hit the center of my chest when the first gem entered my grove.

"What's your first question, Gwendolyn," Mordecai said with an eerie smile.

"Why does the clause protect me from Gavin?" I said. It was the one that most confused me. How could my conduit be safe from other Gods? It didn't sit right.

"Your soul is to be protected from anyone with even a drop of divine blood," Mordecai said. He lost his flair and said the words so smoothly that I was still blinking as he moved his gems across the board and into his grove.

"My turn." He said with a smile. "Are you going to go forgive Adam?"

I blinked some more. That was quite the question, and if he had asked me this question when I was trapped in the hideaway home, it would have been a resounding no. Now that I was outside of it and technically alive due to Rex's madness, I lost that fire.

I made a face. "Which version of the man?" I said, grabbing at the gems to make my move. My fingers slipped through the gems, and all I received was air.

"You must answer honestly, Gwendolyn, or this game won't work."

"I'm weak," I said simply. "I don't know what I'm going to decide yet."

It was enough of an answer because Mordecai gestured for me to use up my turn.

I moved the gems with less energy, and the clack of the gem landing in my grove brought another strange feeling to my chest.

"Which batrachian God is Gavin?" I asked. I needed to know who exactly I was dealing with.

"Oh, he goes by many names. You may know one of them as Gavin."

I made a face at the annoying diety cheating across from me. "That doesn't count as an answer. You knew what I wanted!"

"It does. The board wouldn't allow me to do this if I hadn't answered it." Mordecai said as he scooped up gems and moved them across the board.

"My turn. I want to know why you didn't pick Attarib to love."

"Isn't he my cousin?" I said with disbelief. Why was Mordecai so invested in my love life? And why did everyone try to pair me with Wyatt?

"Only strong unions sire worthy offspring," Mordecai said with all the elitist tude a demi-god turned God could muster. "Interbreeding has always brought out the best divine beings."

"Neither of us is into each other. I think of Wyatt like a brother." I said as I reached for the gems.

I could hear Mordecai tsk and looked up at him to see his cloudy expression.

I ignored his meddling ways and moved the gems into my grove. Again, that strange ping echoed in my chest, and I was finally suspicious enough to stare at Mordecai.

"Why does my chest hurt each time I ask a question?"

As he stared at me, Mordecai's dark eyes began to burn like coals. "That's finally the right question to ask Gwendolyn. Why would I insist on playing a game with you in the afterworld? It's simple, really. You take back a piece of your soul with each gem you earn."

I gulped and grew pale. Before I could explode into an inferno of emotions, Mordecai's chortling stopped me dead. "You're messing with me," I said with fresh emotions, mainly rage.

"Yeah, I'm just passing the time. It's time to send you back when we're done playing."

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I opened my mouth to ask another question, but Mordecai cut me off by using his turn.

It was his time for a question.

"Would you rather be sick anytime you stepped outside your door or only be healthy outside?"

This had to be the strangest question I ever had anyone ask of me. "Only healthy outside," I said with zero hesitation.

I looked at the gems that were left on the board. It was slimmer pickings now, and as I paused to look at my options, I realized that while I'd just been tossing things around to get quick answers, Mordecai had played the long game.

I couldn't ask a question for the first time since we started. But Mordecai could.

"Would you rather have a father or mother care for you?"

Another weird personal question, but I answered mother without thinking.

The next few minutes were spent this way as Mordecai cleaned up on the board. I could only add to his gems as I furtively tried to take just one gem to ask another question.

But I was out of time and gems.

"We'll have to play again," Mordecai grinned.

I would come to regret that much later.

"What about my conduit and baby?" I said.

"I really thought you would break the cycle," Mordecai said

I didn't have time to respond because he waved a hand and sent my soul flying.

I woke up in my pink king-sized canopy bed, as Gwendolyn Girru. It was painful to realize that I was back 'home.'

I looked at my hand and noticed my spacial ring was still with me. The burn mark that accompanied the ring on my finger was out of place. That Wishing tree was unique because it burned through Wendy Evans and into my actual body.

I put my hand down with a sigh, but it landed on something.

My Adoring Brother. Adam's book. I was opening it before I could stop myself. Mordecai had said that my conduit was still there, which meant my baby was. Before I could try to stop it, my desire to go back and become Wendy overrode my sensibilities.

I closed the book before it was too late. I couldn't let my emotions override my logic. If I would get back to my baby, I had to find a way while I was Gwendolyn, not Wendy.

I entered the space Mordecai granted me and tucked the book safely on a shelf. I needed it out of reach but not out of mind.

I then exited the closet, turned hideaway home, and headed straight to the library. I didn't run into anyone, not even the familial ghosts, as I delved into the deepest regions of it. Technically, most of our home was a library, but there were sections and rooms like the Acquisition room that served a purpose.

I never really cared about the nuanced magic books we had or the work of my long-dead relatives. Their books were full of long formulas and calculations I never cared to study. Now, I would use all of them to get what I wanted.

I didn't know what to do about Adam or Rex because getting to my conduit mattered. Since it was bound to Rex's power, I couldn't forget the off chance that if it was waiting for me, it would be in Rex's world, not Adam's.

"Gwendolyn, what are you doing?" Gus' voice interrupted my mental plans, and I looked at him. I wanted to deny that I had forgotten about my brother, but seeing him reminded me that it had been over a decade since I last saw him. That strange, all too realistic dream didn't count, but it overlapped with how I looked at Gus now.

He looked out of place, standing in the hall. Almost my whole life, I'd only seen him sitting at that damn desk slaving away at whatever the heck he scribbled all day. His ink-dark eyes were coldly curious, and his face held no warmth.

I had taken a look at myself when I first came back. Although over a decade had passed for me as Wendy, Gwendolyn hadn't grown or changed in any possible way. I was still a young teen. I could excuse Gus' chilly reception on that basis. My absence was just a blip in his regular day-to-day routine.

However, as I looked at him, my thoughts overflowed with the words from the divine beings I had run-ins with.

"Who are you?" I said, staring at Gus.

Gus blinked slowly as if processing that. "Gwendolyn, did you suffer an injury?"

I wasn't one for subtlety, and so I narrowed my eyes. "I want to know who you are. I was told I was the last of the Girru line."

"By who?" Gus asked, and a hint of emotion in his deadpan voice shook me.

"By the Girru ancestor herself," I said with a twist of my mouth as I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I am your brother; that fact is undeniable," Gus said.

I wanted to deny it, though. I wanted it to not be true. Color me cruel, but if Gus wasn't my real brother, all his actions would make sense. We weren't a real family, so he spent so much time pretending I didn't exist. The lack of blood connection would explain why he ignored me for all these years.

"We share the same blood and the same parents." Gus continued, and I could feel that selfish hope shrivel in my heart. "I am not mortal. So, the Girru ancestor is correct. You are the last purely mortal of our familial line. The last mortal descendant out of the three siblings."

"Why does our Girru ancestor not like you?" I asked this, scanning Gus' face for a reaction.

"She doesn't like anyone." Gus retorted, and there again in his voice was a hint of intense emotion.

"She likes me," I said with pride. She showed it in several ways.

"Our Girru ancestor has a soft spot for us, so she looks after us. Blood doesn't determine favor." He said.

"Its true, blood can only take one so far," I said, glaring at Gus. It was funny just how true some of his words were. The way that Mordecai disregarded Gus spoke volumes and there was supposed shared blood.

So I was the last mortal not the last descendant. To any of the Gods that was all that seemed to matter, so I had a clause about me. That meant absolutely nothing to me. That fresh caveat of information went right over my head. All it signaled to me was that Gus sucked because he sucked. And what's worse is that he would live longer than me and that he really sucked. Gus, like everyone else in my family was an immortal asshole.

I didn't have the energy or the mentality to respond, so I walked off. I startled Gus with this because he called out to me, but I didn't bother responding.

He said it himself, blood doesn't determine favor. I stopped caring about him before this, but my lack of compassion or love for Gus was finalized at that moment.

And I had better shit to worry about.

I spent the next few days exclusively in the family tomes. These ancient books were notes, scribbled, and half-written spells from dead ancestors who weren't immortal. I could only assume time and mortal constraints stopped them from finishing their work.

I delved into the ancient books of my ancestors. With complete control of my literary power, I wasn't constrained to read with my eyes. I could absorb with a touch all that was scribbled on the paper.

The longer I transcribed and took notations and notes, the more creative I got with it. I started small by using one hand to turn pages and my other to write. Then it morphed over some odd hours into me ripping the symbols and letters into the air to float as I reworded them to make notes and send them down to paper to write themselves.

I soon lost count of all the notes I gathered from everything. I lost myself in the stacks of ancient paper. For a brief moment, I finally understood Gus and his obsession. Our power was a fantastic gift. We could disengage from our emotions and lose ourselves in the art of literature. How special was it that we can stiffly redefine what we like with each page turn?

I'm not going to end up like him, though. I focused on that thought as I returned to my work. I couldn't let myself fall so far down this hole that I couldn't come out and see my family.

I learned a lot of random theories, magic formulas, and other junk before I got what I wanted. A spell from my grand aunt to return to a lost conduit in a world. The first time I had gone back hadn't been a fluke. I was able to go back because I hadn't died. That damn egg likely did more than knock me out, so I needed to turn back the time and hopefully save my baby when I returned to the conduit.

My grand aunt loved the world she found. So much so that her work was covered in tear streaks. She wanted to return and was doing what she could to find a spell to allow it. She must have succeeded because my grandma said that she lost her sister.

Was she happy where she went and what world she was in?

Something nagged at my brain, demanding I connect the dots, but I was too tired to try. All the magic I casually flung around to get the job done was exhausting. I took a mini nap, and by the time I woke up, I had lost that train of thought.

I spent countless days writing down notes, plans, and con lists of things. There was one big elephant in the room I didn't want to touch. I was going to have to eventually, but with the determination of an upside cake holding its structure, I ignored it.

I didn't need an elaborate circle or any of the previous wild attempts at magic I had done in the book world. All I needed was the right words in the correct placement that were then engaged at the proper time.

This flow of strict ebbs and rises was comforting because I knew what to expect. And I did. I closed my eyes as I finished activating the last word. I was in the book as Wendy when I opened my eyes again.

I didn't get off scot-free because I was in the middle of a heated argument when I returned to this world. Gavin had teamed up with Wyatt to fend off Rex. Apparently, my cooling corpse was just lying in the middle of it all.

I made a face and spent a moment to consider just leaving this world. I had words I needed to say to Rex, though. He couldn't bind me this time; I was prepared, and I had time to use my prepared spell to take me back to Adam.

That spell was the simplest to configure, though it relied on the magic already in Adam's timeline. The Unruly Forest was built by my family's magic into this world. I just needed to anchor my soul and Wendy's body to it, and I'd be able to return.

I gathered my resolve and readied myself to interrupt whatever the heck the three men were saying. But by the time I did so it was suddenly quiet.

All three were looking at me, and I made a face. Well, shit, so much for a grand entrance.

Wyatt's eyes gleamed at me, but when he moved forward to inspect, Rex cut him off by beating him to it.

It was strange to see Rex.

The last time I had, he kissed me and then trapped me in a pocket dimension. The few encounters I had with him after that were too heated on my part to last. I should recoil from his gaze, slap him across the face, and numerous other things. My heart felt pity instead of rage. I had a couple of months plus the saga when I was trapped to think about him. Rex was in the wrong, no doubt about that, but this was a version of Adam was trapped with no relief as someone pulled his strings to get him to do what they wanted. I couldn't be there for him until it was too late. No one could support him because everyone were puppets being pranced around in a neverending play.

Rex had two lifetimes spent living this way. That made his actions against me all the worse. He knew how it felt and yet trapped me, prepared to wait for me to fall in love with him. Rex was a base version of the man I had grown to love. Who knows what could have happened had I grown up with Rex instead of Adam. At this point, it didn't matter. The damage was done.

I took this time to stare at him for the last time. There were a few differences between Rex and Adam, but also countless. Starting with the darkness that subtly swirled in Rex's eyes when he looked at me.

"I'm going back to Adam. You can't stop it this time, Rex." I said. "I can't trust you."

Rex came to an abrupt stop as I started to rush out my words. His expression darkened, and I watched as he held out a hand, likely to test the worth of my words. He must have found it impossible because his expression cracked.

I turned away from him to look at Wyatt. "I wanted to say goodbye before I left," I said with a small smile. "I'll see you later, cousin."

"I may tell you my true name when you do. I prefer uncle, though." Gavin said primly. Wyatt and I turned to meet each other's incredulous gaze.

"I'll see you soon, Gwendolyn," Wyatt said with a quirk of his lips, and I pointed at him, ready to give it to him. That whole egg business was suspicious, and the odds of him being in cahoots with Mordecai in this timeline were high.

I didn't have time to do anything with that thought. Something weird was coming off Rex. His power was starting to burst out of his skin in black flashes. Fear and apprehension grabbed me by my throat, and without wasting another beat, I shouted my spell's safe word and left the world.