“No…no!”

Ana dashed back to her house, leaving Judas behind in the grove. She ran as fast as she could with an injured shoulder, zipping past trees and startled birds as her shoulder begin to ache with a dull throb. Judas had most likely cracked or shattered something when he had hit her—

Her foot caught on a rock and she fell to her knees, gasping as her arms scraped on the ground. She didn’t waste any time and scrambled back to her feet, brushing off leaves and dirt from her arms as she ran. She could see the tree line now, and the blaze that consumed her house through the trees. She increased her pace, her eyes set on the sound of the crackling flames.

A hand shot out from behind a tree and grabbed her. She let out on oof as it collided with her chest, stopping her suddenly in her tracks. Another arm wrapped around her waist as she struggled against the grip, her shoulder screaming in pain.

“Wait—wait! It’s just me, it’s just me!” Beau’s voice came from behind her. She lessened her struggling a small amount, her eyes turning to the burning house.

“The Creed of Solomon—they’re here. I had to do it—they would’ve found the evidence otherwise. Your cat was in there but—I made sure she was out. She ran to the back of the barn.” He spoke fast and quick, but Ana was barely listening. He burned my house. He burned down my fucking house!

“Why?! You didn’t have to burn it down!” She thrashed against his grip, but he held fast.

“I had to, okay? I don’t know what you did with the body or if you even cleaned up the evidence properly—but they can and will frame you for his death! A first-born cambion with a demonic parent who hasn’t been captured yet—do you know how rare you are? They would do anything to have you, and they would make your disappearance look like an accident or that you deserved it, trust me. They have more power than you think.” He spoke close to her ear as Ana sobbed.

“My—my house…” She watched as the flames climbed ever higher to the second floor, consuming the old wood that lay underneath the blue paint. She felt as if her memories within that house were being burned along with it, consuming whatever happy days she lived before ever going to Livernville and meeting the Motloes.

Her shoulder was starting to really hurt, and Beau had his chest pressed to her back, his arms still wrapped around as if he was afraid she would bolt towards the fire. “Let me go…please.”

He let go of her, and she sank to the ground. She reached under her shirt to her shoulder and gathered mageia in her hands. She placed her hand over the tender wound and grimaced as the bone started to fix itself.

“What happened?” Beau asked, standing behind her.

“Judas.” She murmured.

“Where is he?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care.” She clipped, taking her hand out of her shirt and staring at the small splatter of blood.

“Did…he tell you?” Anxiety was obvious in his voice, and Ana looked up at him as she rose from her spot. He stared at her with anticipation, arms crossed and gloved fingers tapping against his arm.

She shrugged. “Not really. Just…vague things.” She looked away from him and back to the fire. “…Was it true? Judas and I were friends?”

“Yes,” he replied, confirming the memories in her mind. “Our—my dad didn’t like your friendship, but there was nothing he could do. He could never control Judas. Then you both got into some kind of argument just before you got together with Ophelia and…there was no controlling him after that. He was a feral animal in our own home.”

An argument had drifted them apart, one that she didn’t remember.

She walked closer to the tree line, something white catching her eye. She hid behind a tree, peeking her head out as she watched the scene before her. Two vans, one large SUV, and many figures in white and red uniforms. Most looked like hazmat suits, while the rest were some kind of police uniforms that were used during heavy riots. They walked around the house, yelling unintelligible things to each other. They had gadgets in their hands that looked like radiation detectors, and they waved them around the house and the barn. A few meandered around the SUV, talking on phones or to each other.

“What are they doing?” Ana murmured. “Are they…all human?”

“They’re looking looking for any signs of spells, or to see if the fire is a allusion.” Beau came up close to her and looked over her shoulder. “Most of them are humans, but if you ask them personally they would say magicians. I sense two or three cambions with them, but I can’t tell. Most likely Deacon’s family, as they’re large in this part of America.”

Ana continued watching them as Beau rambled on. Another van came, but this one was black and red. It stopped behind all the other vans in her driveway, and the back doors opened before a group of more armor-clad Solomons hopped out. Among the sea of white gear and dark helmets was a hair of strawberry blonde tied into a high ponytail, swaying in the light breeze.

“Ana…I’m sorry.” Beau started, and she turned to look at him from the corner of her eye. “I shouldn’t have been there when Deacon arrived. Maybe none of this would’ve happened if I had left sooner, like Judas wanted.”

She avoided his gaze, uncomfortable with his apology. The breeze picked up, and she felt the warm breath of the fire on her face as she thought about the words she said after Deacon had died and Judas had left. She had said many words, and a lot of them were said out of pure anger and pain. She couldn’t take them back now, as they were in the past. She did feel guilty for saying them, but she couldn’t find it in herself to apologize to him like he so easily did with her.

She walked away from the forest line and deeper into the forest, feeling more antsy as the presence of magician-soldiers grew. She felt strange, and she couldn’t discern why.

“What are you going to do now?” Beau asked, following behind her.

“I don’t know,” Ana replied, rubbing the back of her neck. “You set fire to my only home, so—”

Marchosias was tracking her, or at least trying to. Something was dulling his powers, most likely being the Solomon soldier’s fancy gadgets. My father is tracking me, and Beau is right next to me…oh shit.

Beau noticed her sudden change in demeanor and walked to her side. “Ana..?”

She backed away from him, her face pale. “Go. Go! My father is coming!”

Beau froze for just a moment before shaking his head, stepping closer to Ana. “No, I’m not leaving you—”

Some bushes rustled to the left of them as Judas appeared, glancing at them both. His legs seemed to be working just fine now, as if her kick to his knee had done nothing. “What’s going on?”

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“Take him, and go!” Ana exclaimed. “My father is tracking me down, and if you don’t—”

“I’m not leaving you with him Ana—he can’t kill you but he can still—”

“Beau, we need to go.” Judas place a hand on his brother’s arm and looked up at him. “We’ll be dead if we stay here.”

Beau shook his head again. “No. I’m not—”

They both looked behind Ana, their faces turning pale. Judas stumbled back until he hit a bush, his eyes locked on something behind Ana. She already knew who it was just by judging their terrified faces, but she turned anyway, hoping just a little that it was not her demonic father. That wish did not come true.

“You better have a good reason for being with the Motloes.” Marchosias stood at least ten feet away, hands at his side and his body as still as stone, like always.

Ana took a moment to speak, her heart racing and her palms sweating. “Well, you weren’t helping much with jogging my memories so…I turned to them for help. Do you have a good reason for being absent for so long?”

He stared at her, his gaze searching. He didn’t reply to her, but instead looked at Judas. Ana turned backed to the younger Motloe just as he pulled a palm-sized orb out of his pocket and held it up.

“Oh, what?” There was an unusual hint of humor in Marchosias’ voice. “You’re going to summon your selkie of a father to fight your battles for you? You take after him very well. You both hide behind others instead of facing your troubles.”

Judas’ face turned sour. “How dare—”

“Yes I dare, boy. I have killed your father more times than you have ever blinked, and I will do so again and again. Crocell is nothing but a pathetic worm, and will stay that way long after you are dead,” Marchosias spat, his words coming out quick and fast as if he was already tired of the conversation. He turned to me, his face back to being placid. “Get over here.”

Ana crossed her arms and did not move from her spot, which was right in the middle of the brothers and Marchosias. “Why don’t you answer my questions first?”

“You will have plenty of questions to answer when I am finished here. Get over here.” He pointed to the spot next to him, but she did not move.

“Why didn’t you respond to my summoning a few days ago? I needed you.” She asked. His eye twitched.

“I was busy.”

“That excuse stopped working the first time you said it, find another one! Better yet, tell me what you were really doing.” Ana stood her ground, more than she felt she has ever done before. She knew Marchosias could tell she was nervous, he didn’t even need his suspicious demon powers to know that. Her shaking and sweaty palms were enough evidence of that fact.

“You have no right to be asking me those questions.” Marchosias simply said. Ana still wasn’t satisfied.

Her lips curled in anger. “I almost got kidnapped and taken to a freaky cult full of humans who think they know better. I needed your help, and you didn’t come! So tell me what you were doing while I was trying my damnedest to not be taken captive.”

“Ana—” One word from Beau, and he was given a nasty glare by Ana, and he shied away. They were all lucky that Marchosias hadn’t immediately tried to kill them when he arrived, and she didn’t want him ruining that fact.

When she turned back to Marchosias, he was staring at Beau. Shit.

“I know I did a number on your face. I must’ve done a good job if you’re hiding it behind a glamour.” Marchosias said, his lips curling into a smile, as if the thought of Beau burning alive made him happy. It gave Ana a headache. “Can you still smell the smell of burnt flesh and hair? I sure can, and it’s delightful.”

Beau looked down at the ground, trying best to hide his emotions, but no amount of courage could hide the fear on his face. Ana turned back to Marchosias and stood in front of Beau. “Tell me where you were. Don’t try to change the subject.”

Marchosias didn’t pay attention. It was as if she wasn’t even there. “I wonder, does your mother even know how horrifying and ugly her son is now, wherever she is? Oh, how I would enjoy hearing her scream upon seeing your real face, one that not even your mother could love.”

Ana turned to gauge Beau’s reaction. He looked like he was trying his hardest not to cry, his brows furrowed and his lips quivering. His hands were balled into fists at his sides, the old cheap leather of his gloves cracking and peeling off. Beau didn’t deserve this, she thought. I remember how kind Mrs. Motloe was, and she would love him no matter what.

His mother. Marchosias said something, a very small thing, that caught her attention. ‘wherever she is.’ So he didn’t have clue where she was. It took him this long to find the Motloe brothers, and he still hadn’t found their mom. Or maybe…he hasn’t been trying to find the brothers in the first place.

“You weren’t looking for the brothers, were you?”

He turned to her, his face back to being plain and stony.

“You weren’t looking for them,” She repeated, “In the hopes they would find me and ask me for help. But what for? You could’ve just killed Beau or Judas and taken their blood.”

Marchosias’ demeanor changed, although Ana couldn’t tell how. It was nothing obvious, more like a change in the air when somebody enters a room. He looked at her, his eyes roving over her own. “Blood for spells cannot be used without the bleeder’s full consent. You’re shit at location spells, but you had a better chance convincing Burn-Freak to give over his blood. You both have some…unresolved sentiments towards each other.”

Ana’s eyes trailed to the ground as he talked. The sun was starting to set, washing the surroundings in a golden hue. She could feel her face warm with anger as she thought over his words in her head. He used me. I was being used by my own father. He never cared in the first place about me. Although, this does prove one thing…

She looked up at him through her eyelashes. “You used me because you weren’t able to find their mother on your own. You call Judas’ father weak, but you can’t find one old woman?”

His finger twitched. With lightning speed, he phased right in front of Ana and grabbed her by the throat. He pressed down, not enough to hurt, but enough to make it uncomfortable to breathe. He was furious at her, she could see it in his eyes. She had poked a bear, and now suffered the consequences. Her heart was beating fast, and she was sure he could hear it. She didn’t fear for her own life but the Motloes’ instead, as demons couldn’t kill their own children. No matter what he could do, there would always be something stopping him from ending her life. He could have all the murderous thoughts he wanted, but he would never be able to act them out.

His eyes trailed from her to Beau. He tilted his head as if in consideration, before pushing Ana’s shoulder and turning her around. He pulled out a knife from somewhere and held it to her throat. She recognized it as an ancient ceremonial knife, one he would use to teach her spells that required her blood.

“Does this make you angry, boy? Go ahead. Take a shot at me, I promise I won’t move. Maybe this time you won’t hurt her.” He egged Beau on, but Beau did not comply. He didn’t look so fearful now, but angry and defensive.

“Let fucking go of me! I won’t be used as bait,” Ana said, gritting her teeth together. She tried to pull Marchosias’ knife-wielding hand away from her neck, but he didn’t move. It was if his arm was locked in place.

“Ask him who hurt you,” He whispered close to her ear. “Ask him who tried to carve your heart out and steal your mageia, your being.”

She wasn’t going to ask him at first, but something pushed at the back of her mind. She had wanted to forget what she had seen in Beau’s memory when they had done the second spell, but it wasn’t something she could just throw away. Beau had wanted to kill her to get his core back, it was a fate he had decided for her. Did he ever go through with it? The Beau she had known for the past three weeks didn’t seem to have any motive to kill her. He was kind, patient with her anger, and seemed to not want nothing but to find his mom and…help Ana. He wanted her to go with him, away from the Creed of Solomon and away from Marchosias. Was this really the same Beau that tried to kill her in the basement? What happened to him in the past six years?

She wouldn’t have asked, but she saw the flash of fear in Beau’s eyes. The fear of truth. He didn’t want her to know, or maybe he couldn’t tell her just like he couldn’t tell her exactly about the incident. But if there was ever a time to tell her what happened, it was now.

“Tell me. Tell me what happened.” Ana’s voice quivered. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know anymore. The headache grew as the seconds dragged on, and she just wanted all of it to stop.

Beau was looking down at the ground, his lips pressed together, but he slowly looked up at her, with all the courage he could muster. “When—when you attacked Judas, my father decided it was time to…get rid of you. He wanted me to get my core back from you—the piece that you took. He made do a spell just before—before—your father came.” Tears sprung from his eyes, but he did not look away. His hands were at his sides, shaking in fear. “He killed my father. Judas…tried to run away and…he came for me then. He—he—”

His eyes turned down to the ground then, his hand covering his mouth as he relived the memories he never wanted to revisit. “I just want you to know, Ana—I never meant to harm you, I didn’t have a choice—”

“There is always a choice!” Marchosias spat, and he held the knife closer to her neck. She thought just for a moment that he could actually do it, that he could slit her neck and be done with this mess. “You were never forced to do anything. You walked down those basement steps willingly, with full knowledge that you were about to kill a girl. You were offered many paths, and you chose the wrong one.”

Ana wished the memory she saw wasn’t true, but Beau and Marchosias had cemented it in her mind. Beau wanted to kill her, and now he had come asking for her help in finding his mother, the same woman who convinced him to end her life, all for the sake of getting back his core. Although, it also cemented the fact that her father had a hand in causing all of this pain and misery that still affected them today. Judas’ disability, Beau’s ruined skin, all just to save her from her own death. Was it all worth it in the end? To ruin a whole family just to save one? The thought made the headache worse.

Tears streamed down her eyes now, but Marchosias didn’t need to look at them to know she was distraught. He leaned close to her ear, his warm breath on his neck. “Shh, little bird. Your time for going behind my back is over now. Let me take care of this—”

“You took her memories, didn’t you?” Beau spoke up. Marchosias didn’t respond. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. She lost memory of the incident, but she also lost her memory of being friends with Judas, and talking to me. Why?”

Ana’s lips thinned. Beau said the thing that she had been thinking of for the past few days. Judging by Marchosias’ silence, Beau had him pinned. She knew that was a mistake.

Marchosias grabbed her shoulder and threw her to the ground. When she scrambled back to her feet, he had Beau pinned to a tree with one hand, and a ball of blue fire near the other. He pulled it close to Beau’s face, and Judas cried out in panic but he did not move. The younger brother looked on in fear, too paralyzed to do anything.

“I think I should’ve just blown your head off just like I did with your father,” Marchosias hissed. “Do you remember that? How his flesh and brain went everywhere? It was a beautiful sight. I still remember you looking on in shock as scraps of brain slid down your face.”

Beau gave him a wild and terrified look, desperately moving his head away from the ball of intense fire that rested so close to his face. His breathing was ragged and fast as he panicked. His hands clawed the demon’s hands around his throat as the fire came ever nearer to his face.

Ana’s heart lurched into her throat, and she felt fearful about what was about to happen. Her headache banged against her skull as she realized they were in a very similar situation before, but this time Ana could stop it. No more violence. No more death, at least for the moment.

Her heart beat fast as she dashed to Marchosias’ side, pulling her revolver again from her tattoo. Without any hesitation, she raised the gun and fired at Marchosias’ head. The gun recoiled as the bullet went straight into Marchosias’ eye and he stumbled back, falling to the ground. Ana didn’t waste any time as she ran over to a shocked Judas and pulled him by the arm and toward Beau. “Go, get out of here! Now!”

Judas didn’t question her and grabbed onto Beau’s arm, crushing the glowing blue orb in his hand. As blue mist swirled around them like a tornado, Beau reached out for her, a desperate look on his face. “Ana, please!—”

They were gone in a flash, and Ana was left alone with her furious father.