“The hardest part to becoming a hunter is saying goodbye to your life. It’s not just your childhood or anything warm and fuzzy like that. No. It’s saying goodbye to the idea that you might be able to settle down or see your first gray hairs. Ours is a path of death. Few of us…*hiccup*…ever get to the living part.”

- Professor Boaz Redmoor (after several drinks)

“Did you really have to go and vomit while we had such esteemed guests, Thea?” My mother demanded the second my dad shut the door.

“Wait, seriously?! That’s your first question? Not, ‘are you okay?’ or ‘what in the hell were hunters doing in our house at the middle of the night?!’” I demanded. I tried to stand up, but the combined wooziness from the blood loss and the searing pain lingering from the amulet’s activation made it impossible. My father reached for me and helped me to my feet.

“It’s alright, Thea. Just a startle, is all. This is their job. Not much to do except comply, alright? I’ll admit it’s odd that they arrived during a surge, but so is having a mad killer on the loose. Best we forget all about this,” my father concluded.

“George, don’t coddle her. She knows better than to deflect from the obvious issue at hand. She just wants to make this about her so that she doesn’t have to own up to her mistakes.”

I gaped at my mother. She raised another eyebrow at me, silently challenging me to try and push her on this.

“Honey, she’s just shaken. I saw this all the time back in the day. Civilians don’t know how to deal with stressful situations,” my dad chided softly, but it was clear he didn’t have any intention to address my mother’s accusations.

“Can neither of you admit that this whole situation was insane? And right after Kaelin showed up to warn me? Because, by the way, he did,” I nearly yelled at my parents. They both looked at each other with confused expressions before they turned to me.

“Sorry, who?” My father asked.

“Stop making up nonsense and help us clean this mess up,” my mother demanded harshly. Despite her words, she didn’t move from her seat. She simply crossed her legs and leaned back against her chair like she was born to glower. My heart started to beat erratically. What had that vile man said?

“Kaelin? Your son? Seriously, you guys are freaking me out! He showed up just moments before these jerks did and warned me hunters were on the way!” I was yelling now. I saw something in my father’s eyes crack, but he didn’t say anything.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Thea, but we have no son. It’s bad enough we have to put up with that Charles boy you always seem to be dragging around here. Gods know what we would’ve done if there was another one of you,” My mother scoffed and leaned her head away to look out the window. “I expect this place to be clean by morning, Thea. A little fright is hardly an excuse to neglect your own home. Now, stop with this ridiculousness about your imaginary friend, Kaleford, or whatever you called it.”

“He’s real! He’s your son, gods damn it! Look, this was his chair! Why would we have four chairs if there were just the three of us?” I demanded, my voice breaking from the hysteria I felt quiver beneath my lips.

“It’s for our guests, you foolish child!” My mother retorted haughtily. Gone was any veneer of civility. She looked like a queen in all but garb, and I hated her for it.

“Oh yeah? Well, what about—” I looked for anything that could point back to Kaelin’s existence. Nothing.

“Drop this, Thea. I’ve had enough. There is no one by the name of Kaelin and you know it. I swear, you thrive on making me look like a fool, don’t you?”

“I—” Words tried to get past the lump in my throat, but it was pointless. I had nothing to say. Nothing came close to encapsulating the dark coil that wrapped itself around my heart at that moment.

“That’s what I thought. Now, I must be up early for our district meeting. I don’t have time to deal with you, or your pitiful excuses for decorum, young lady.” My mother pulled her shawl around her more tightly and turned away from me.

“I’ll help, Thea dear. Let’s get a fire going,” my father offered softly as my mother retreated up the stairs. I went to work cleaning the tattered house in a daze, my thoughts jumbled and disoriented. When I heard my mother’s door slam shut, I breathed out a sigh of relief. My father winced but kept to his work helping me. At his expert touch, the coals in our hearth were quickly rekindled into a crackling blaze.

I paused in my numb march and clutched one of the enchanted frames strewn across the floor. The runes were unsalvageable, and the piles of sand that composed the shifting images were in haphazard piles across the floor. The only one that remained was one of my parents on their sealing day. My mother wore the white and gold of her family, while my dad was dressed in his sleek green Fisher uniform. They looked so happy, and the thought only spurred on the dark anger that simmered in my heart.

That happiness had fled long before Kaelin was born.

“I am going to bed. I will finish up in the morning,” I told my dad as I took the steps up to my cramped room.

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“Alright, dearie.”

Before I reached the top step, I paused. Steeling myself, I looked back at my dad. He continued to rummage about, but I didn’t miss the occasional sniff as he tried to hide the welling tears in his eyes.

“Dad?”

“Yes, dearie?”

“Do you really not remember Kaelin?”

I studied his features for any hint that this was all just some elaborate and twisted joke.

Nothing.

His eyes welled further but he shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Thea. I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” he answered in his comfortingly thick accent. “Are you sure you’re alright? Do you want to talk about it?”

I felt my final hope peel away. Slowly, I shook my head in return.

“No, dad. Thanks. I—I’ll see you in the morning.”

When I made it to my room, I groaned inwardly. There was no door. No privacy for me to grieve and figure out what in the blazes was happening. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure my parent’s room was still shut tight, and then crept over the precarious remains of my door. A single sliver snaked its way into one of my bare feet and I bit off a curse as I hobbled to my bed. It was upturned but I got it situated quickly and sat down.

“Kaelin, what the hell is going on?” I whispered to the ajar chest and scattered papers from my tiny desk. All of my books were laying with their spines to the sky, and I gently replaced them on my now-empty bookshelf. I absently read one of the golden filigreed titles that flaked from my overuse.

Sir Sire’s Encyclopedia, Vol 43

If I didn’t hate those men for barging into our house before, I certainly did now.

Knowing I needed to figure out the truth, I pulled down my collar to get a better look at the locket there. Against the gentle curve of my chest, the weight of it rested across my neck like a stockade’s crossbeam. I studied the amulet closer, as it was now my only proof that everything that had just happened wasn’t some cruel nightmare from one of the gods. I gingerly clutched the edge and peeled it off my skin.

The pain was immediate, as was the faint smell of burned flesh. I gagged, but held it together as my vision swam. The healing magic they’d used on me had partially mended the burned skin, leaving a scarred imprint of the enchantment between my breasts. I hissed in discomfort but got the miserable thing off of me.

I leaned in closer to the object, hoping it would provide the answers I desperately craved. The cerulean gemstone in the center of the amulet caught the light in a mesmerizing display of color. It contained a rune I don’t recognize within its crystalline center. The silver casing was covered with even more runic enchantments I didn’t recognize, which wasn’t a high bar, admittedly.

Groaning, I grabbed the chain and started to pull it off of my head. The second it was nearly off, my mind screamed with pain and I felt everything I knew about Kaelin start to disappear.

His cheeky smile.

His pale blonde curls.

The way he and I would play hunter vs. monster late into the day, ignoring our chores and other responsibilities.

Everything.

I shoved the chain back over my neck and panted as the memories returned. Panic pounded in beat with my heart as I realized the true extent of what just happened. Details clicked into place like an ancient lock finally giving way to a weathered key.

I would forget my brother if I ever took this necklace off. Everyone around me, including my parents, had already forgotten him completely. I was the only one who knew he existed. And that meant I was the only one left to help him.

Of all the people he could have given this amulet to, he’d chosen me.

“You sneaky bastard,” I whispered to the spirit of my brother stuck in my memories. “Okay, what do I know?” My leg bounced frantically as my thoughts raced.

Of all the people he could’ve given this to, he’d given it to me. I knew he and dad were on poor terms since he signed up for the Orion division, but he was still the better choice for an ally than me. Our dad was trained. He was a Fisher, back in the day.

“What advantage would there be to have me instead of him, or the hells know who else?” My mind projected me into that same situation. If I were on the run and could only choose one person to trust, one person to whom I could rely on while everyone else forgot me, who would I pick?

For that was Kaelin’s choice.

And he picked me.

“But why?” My leg stopped its quiet pounding on the wood floor as realization dawned on me. It was a slow, creeping revelation that left what little remained in my stomach in a miniature storm.

“You figured something out at that kill-school, didn’t you?” I asked the amulet, given my brother wasn’t there to defend himself. “Seven hells, bro. You want me to follow you there?!”

Images flashed in my mind.

The sick bastard that cut into me and my parents.

Orion uniforms as black as the night outside and the hearts that pumped in their chests as they ripped our house apart.

They wouldn’t stop until they caught Kaelin.

And Kaelin needed me to get something from that blasted academy of his. That, or he needed me to be an Orion. Those were the only clues he’d left me, and so I had to trust he didn’t have a sudden slip on some marble stairs and lose half the wits I knew he possessed.

Something fiery swept through my veins at that moment.

My breathing slowed as I came to a decision. With quiet steps, I grabbed my leather pack from where it still slung against my slim wardrobe. I started to pack it with what few belongings it didn’t already carry, careful not to disturb the blue-white corpse of the Pufflemur those hunters had murdered. The resolve that wound its way like hot iron along my heart tightened.

My father was many things, but unprepared was not amongst them. He always made sure we had our emergency pack ready to go in case something broke through during a surge.

I added a few more clothes, laced my worn leather boots, and threw my patched cloak across my shoulders. From the floorboards, I swept off some glass from a crumpled paper and quickly jotted down a note to my parents. It was mostly addressed to my dad, but guilt forced me to at least say goodbye to my mother as well.

My pack fastened tightly across my back, I moved to the single window in my room. An image of Kaelin flashed through my mind and I stiffened. He was out there. He was real.

And I would find him.

I pressed down on the deactivation rune on the window frame for the three seconds it took to dissolve, and then swept over the ridge and into the night. I had one stop before I could start the hunt for my brother, and it probably wouldn’t kill me.

Probably.