An annoyingly insistent voice from my phone’s GPS directed me to Christian’s cottage. I gave my phone a good charge and took a bus to a car rental place. I got the cheapest economy car they had and drove clean out of the city. I drove west into the late afternoon sun. I hadn't thought to bring sunglasses, so I was half-blind as I made my way to the address Princina had given me.

My first turn off led into a collection of pine trees. The sun made long shadows across the road. The second turn took me on a gravel road heading north. This was when my heart stopped beating like a snare drum because I was excited and started chiming like a triangle because I was afraid.

What if I was wrong and I was putting myself at terrible risk isolating myself in the country? That woman had said there was no way to bring me into his world without risking my old life. Suddenly, everything felt wrong. What if it was a trick and I had just brought myself to the house of an ax murderer and Christian was already dead and… I had to stop thinking.

At the last turn, I went west again into a dense forest on a road so narrow, it could only be a driveway. In the curve between the trees, I saw a house and a little barn. The house was one level with dark brown siding and a porch with an overhanging roof. It was cozy as it almost grew into a hill.

I got out of the car and locked it. I clenched my phone in my hand and approached the front door. I knocked. No one answered. I knocked again and again. When no one answered the door, I took a few steps back and looked at the house. What should I do? It was Friday and the sun was already setting. Was I too late?

Having absolutely nothing to lose, I decided to walk around the house and look in the windows. I stepped onto snowdrifts that clung to the side of the house. They were almost strong enough to hold my weight and gave me an extra boost to see inside the windows. I cupped my hands around my eyes to block the receding sun.

Someone was inside. Had they seen me?

I rushed back to the front door and pulled it open at the exact moment the person on the other side reached for it. I was a second quicker and the door flew open.

Rogan stood in front of me. He was sans his glasses, and his beard was coming in, but otherwise, it was him.

“Hello, Christian,” I said saucily, and the look on his face was priceless.

“I think you have me mistaken...” he started saying.

I interrupted him. “Whatever, Damen. Whatever, Louis. Whatever, Charles. Whatever, Rogan. Whatever, Christian. Let me in.”

I didn’t see his exact expression as I pushed by him on my way into the house. The moment I was in, he closed the door hurriedly behind me. I didn’t get further than the entryway when he grabbed my hand and spun me around to face him.

Face to face with him was startling. Not only was he incredibly handsome (made up like Rogan), but also showing volumes of unconcealed rage. He was not going to yell at me. The way he clenched his jaw made it clear he was too angry to think straight and thus had not said anything for fear of saying something he couldn’t take back.

“Where did I fail, Beth?” he finally said, spitting the words.

“What?”

“Where did I fail? I have been trying to teach you that I am in constant danger and you will be in danger too if you chase me. Did I fail to make myself clear?”

“No. I just don’t care anymore,” I said, turning my head unconcernedly on its side.

He glared at me, unable to form words.

I took advantage of his hesitation and dove in. “I know your secret.”

The blood ran out of his face and he looked white as the dead. He still held my arm but he took a step backward. “You can’t know everything.”

“I know enough, so now there is no way to leave me out of it. I’m here to help you rescue Brandon.”

He stumbled against the wall. “Are you?”

“Yes.”

“It only figures you’d show up here. He’s been asking for you. He’s been saying for weeks that he thinks you can save him.” Rogan let go of me and leaned his back against the wall completely. He let his hand travel painfully across his eyes and at that moment, I realized that something irreparable had happened.

His left hand was gone. Lopped off at the wrist, he had his stub covered with bandages that were hidden by the sleeve of his sweater.

The blood pounded in my ears and my eyes. I was seeing red. “What happened?” I begged, leaning forward and reaching for his injury.

He glanced at it like he had forgotten his hand was gone. “It was cut off by an incredibly spiteful man,” he explained. Then he frowned and shooed me off. “It doesn’t matter.”

His shoulders sagged and he stepped away from the entry to allow me room to enter. The house was warm and inviting. It didn’t look much like the hideout of a secret agent, but then, I imagined nothing did.

He brought me into the living room without helping me with my coat. There was a fireplace at the end of the room and he sat me on the edge of the couch closest to it. I was so engrossed in his presence that I couldn’t even focus on the room. With his good hand, he picked up the remote control for the gas fireplace and started it with an annoyed flick of his wrist. He lounged in the armchair the way the man I knew always did.

The look in his eyes was my paycheck for all the suffering I had done in between my conversation with Pricina and this moment. The indecision had been murder. Mostly, I was afraid she had lied to me. I stayed up most nights, thinking. I paced. I wrote pro and con lists. In the end, if I meant any of the things I had said to Christian when he came to see me on Christmas Eve, then coming here was the only path open to me. The anonymous woman had not lied. Christian was in front of me, and for once I felt that he couldn't slide me into the child slot he always relegated me to. He looked at me, with his undoubtedly fake blue eyes, like I was finally a woman. He was angry and it was beautiful.

“Who told you to come here?” he asked quietly, a dangerous edge to his voice.

“A lady sent me a message from Brandon,” I replied, not choosing my words carefully. His hand was gone. None of this was a game.

“So you came here on the advice of someone you didn’t know?” he asked scathingly.

“Yes.”

He looked horrified. “Why?”

“Look, you seem to think that I have a life outside of you. You think I’m leading a meaningful life that is worth protecting. All I have been doing is going to classes I hate and rooming with Trinity. She’s going to marry Mr. Brighton Pudding Face and leave me.” I paused. “The only time I have ever felt alive has been when I have been with you. I haven’t made friends, and you should have seen the hordes of people Trinity welcomed to our place. I feel like the whole campus has been ushered into our apartment on rotation, like we were a safe house or a wellness clinic. If I could make friends with any of them, I would have done it already. It’s been years. I haven’t had a boyfriend. I don’t want anything but you, and now it's time for you to let me help you… in any way I can.” I purposefully glanced at his stub.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Beth,” he said, rolling the word around on his tongue. “I don’t want you here. I don’t want you to see these things.” From his voice, he was not talking about his missing hand. “I can make a few guesses about who contacted you, but whoever she is, she is telling you the truth about Brandon. He has been asking for you. I have ignored him because… all of this is too horrible. I don’t want you involved.”

“Do you feel backed into a corner?” I whispered.

He nodded.

“Good. Then you’ll let me help?”

“If it was just me and my missing hand, I wouldn’t. I’d put you outside and lock the door. I’d sell this house and make sure that you never found me again, but since you’re here and it’s not me who needs you, I’ll take your help. It will be dangerous.”

“Obviously. How did you lose your hand?” I questioned softly.

“I tried to take something that a man named Dr. Laurence Hilliar was absolutely convinced was his. I managed to get what I was aiming for, even with the handicap of missing my left hand. He’s fuming.”

“You sound happy,” I interjected. “What could you possibly have stolen that was worth your hand, you idiot?”

He regarded me carefully, still with that gleam of mischief in his eyes. “I love it when you talk that way. Trust me. It was very worth it.”

I gawked at him. “What? Have you lost your mind? Going after something so hard that you’re even willing to lose body parts?”

He rolled his eyes. “Darling, this is not as serious as you think. I was having problems before this happened.”

“How could it not be as serious as I think?” I burst. “You are missing your hand!”

He cleared his throat and when he spoke his voice was grim. “You were lying when you said you knew my secret, weren’t you?”

“Not at all,” I said slowly.

“Yes, you are. If that woman told you my secret, you would be begging to see proof. She didn’t tell you exactly what is going on and she is dangling me like a carrot in front of you to make you do what she wants.”

I felt like choking. He was right.

“Beth, I promise you, that woman is not your friend. No one, who is your friend, would want you involved in any of this.”

“Are you going to send me away?” I asked slowly.

“I should,” he said dangerously. “But I’m not going to.”

“Why?”

“I’ve been having problems, because I’m a man.”

I stared at him, completely baffled. “I’ve always enjoyed that aspect of you.”

He blinked in such a darling way, it was better than a wink. “I’ve always enjoyed that, too. And I’m such an impressive man at that: over six feet tall, broad shoulders, abs for days, strong bone structure.”

I could almost mouth along with his statement. I’d heard it so many times.

“I’m fantastic. I know. I make all the women crazy.” He mock-sighed and continued with a more serious inflection. “It’s just that my stunning skeletal structure makes it impossible for me to disguise myself as a woman. And now, with my hand missing, I am branded. I have too many unique identifiers to perform a covert mission with these people. If I try to sneak back onto that wacko’s territory, everyone will know instantly it’s me.”

“So…”

“We can disguise you. If we make you look like anyone other than yourself, you’ll have a better chance of success than I ever had. That’s why Brandon wants you to go in my place,” he said, his voice smooth until the end of his speech where it warbled.

He sat silently as he waited for my reaction. Frankly, I couldn’t react. His whole system of escape had always been based on disguises. It should have been easy for him to come up with a disguise for me, but he looked upset.

“What’s wrong?”

“I have to tell you the secret. If you’re going to help me, you’re going to need to know the secret and I… I can’t tell you. If what we’re doing is going to be a success, I have to tell you, but now that it’s come to this… I can’t. I need some time.”

“More time than you’ve already had?”

“Yes. It’s just that everything sounds so crazy—like it’s not real. How can I tell you the secret, let you into my world, without making a fool of myself? It’s impossible.”

“I bet it’s going to be hard.”

“Extremely,” he said confidently. Tapping his right fingers against his chin, he suddenly perked up. “All right, I think I’ve got it. Let’s start this way. I am alive when I shouldn’t be. Thus, everywhere I go and everyone I speak to soon wants to know my secret. Why am I alive when I should be dead?”

“Well, why are you?”

“I don’t know, but no one will ever take that as an answer. I can say it over and over again, but those who get bitten by the snake of curiosity won’t leave me alone. Everywhere I go, there is someone out to get me, hoping they will figure out my secret and be able to reproduce it for their own benefit.”

“Which means?”

“Which means these obsessed people know about you. They would always try to snatch me right before meeting you or right after we said goodbye. You were my safe zone. But why? Why didn’t they come after me when you were by my side? The whole thing made traveling a nightmare.”

The hellishness was no exaggeration. Sometimes we would need to take later flights and let the tickets he had already bought go to waste because he said he was getting some trousers mended and he couldn’t pick me up until they were done. He’d made up dozens of little lame excuses along those lines, and like an idiot, I’d believed him. I thought he was really that shallow.

“That’s why you're chronically late?” I blurted.

He did a double-take. “You’re thinking about that now? I thought at least that much would be clear by now.” He breathed heavily. “I don’t fake who I am every day of my life for no reason, Beth. The alias, Christian Henderson, is only for you. It’s dangerous to play him because pretty much everyone knows I like to play him.”

I nodded.

He continued pointedly, “Absolutely anyone who finds out about me wants to know why I’m still alive. Since I can never satisfy them, all I can do is run. Focus. So, if I was always being chased specifically when you were around, why do you think they didn’t bust in on us and take me captive then? Do you have any ideas?”

I blinked. “No. Should I?”

“You are important to them. They would never confront me if you were with me.”

I stared at him and remembered the additional cameras in my room in Scotland. “Why? Who are they?”

“This particular group has grown long arms and big teeth in the past few years. I have been calling them the Argonauts because I first became aware of them when I was in Toronto. They consist of Dr. Hilliar, his partner, financial supporters, and some younger thugs they use for surveillance. They have spent a great deal of time watching you.”

I felt a shiver. The idea of being spied on made me sick.

“I had hoped that if I stayed away from you, they would lose interest in you. They backed off recently, but that doesn't mean they've forgotten you. Since they know your face, we’re going to have to change a lot of things about you in order for you to slip under their radar.”

“What are you going to do?” I questioned.

He smiled. “All the glamorous things I’ve always wanted to try. You have to look completely different—like someone they’ve never seen before. For that, I can’t simply put a wig on your head. These guys are trained to look for stuff like that. You need to look authentic. A wig won’t cut it. You’ll need a dye job and a dozen other things, but don’t worry, it will be a snap.”

“I've never wanted to be blonde,” I said caustically, thinking of the way Rogan had looked at Felicity-Ann.

He didn’t catch my disdain or the reason for it and went on. “You can’t get caught. Even though you are connected to them and they don’t want to hurt you, you cannot get caught. If you’re caught, they’ll try to recruit you. You can’t let them poison you with their greed.”

I snapped, “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that if your identity is uncovered, they will try to convince you to join their cause—hunting me down. They’ll make it sound very grand, like the hunt for the elixir of life. That your assistance could bring long lives to thousands of people pegged for death.” He paused and looked at me with an intensity generally unknown to his features. “You can’t let them seduce you. What they want is barbaric. They want to commit crimes against humanity—my humanity—and use me as their guinea pig. As far as they are concerned, cutting my hand off was merely a starter.”

“Shut up!” I interrupted. “I don’t want to hear it. It’s enough for me that they wanted to hurt you, and that they are hurting Brandon. You don’t have to explain every detail. I still don’t understand why anyone in my family would be especially interested in protecting me.”

He frowned. “That’s why it has to be you. That’s why they didn’t take me and you at the same time during any of the times we met. Somehow, you’re family. If you’re caught and identified, the worst thing that will happen is they’ll try to recruit you.”

“You’re sure?”

He smacked his tongue against his front teeth unpleasantly. “I’d stake my life on it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t let you try.” He went to rub his hands together, but since he was missing one he ended up hitting the opposite arm of the chair. “I’m still not used to my hand being gone. Beth, there is so much more, but I’m afraid of overwhelming you. Today has been merely an introduction. Is Trinity expecting you back tonight?”

“Yes, but it’s not a big deal. I’ll just text her that I’ve gone for a little holiday by myself and I’m staying at a B&B tonight. She won’t be suspicious. I’ve done that sort of thing before. Besides, she’s probably hanging out with Felicity-Ann making plans for the wedding.” I deliberately looked at Rogan to see if he had any reaction to my mentioning Felicity-Ann, but not a single muscle in his face tightened or relaxed.