By the time Harper finished her story, the sun had set, and nightfall had crept in, the darkness peeking through the windows of the little house.

“Wow,” I said. I was in shock. There was a lot to take in. I had so many questions. Harper could see it on my face.

“I’m sorry, Jack.” She began to cry. “I just ran. Jillian and I just ran. I should have stayed.”

I pulled her into a hug. “No. You did what you had to do. You got the Queen out of there. You’re lucky to be alive.”

Harper nodded slightly, still looking ashamed. “After Cythyne found me and brought me here, I just tried to hide. I just wanted to stay hidden. I…” she trailed off, unsure of what to say.

I reached for her hand. “You just wanted to stay alive, Harper. And no one can blame you for that.”

Her eyes welled up. “I’m sorry, Jack. I should have been braver and done more.”

“You did everything you could do.”

And she had. What was she supposed to do? Get herself killed. I didn’t blame her. I blamed Michael. That bastard. He’d sold them out for the promise of money. I hoped he hadn’t gotten one red cent.

“Do you know… What happened after? Are Lucas and Sarah Beth alive? What about the Queen?” I needed to know what happened to Lucas. Had they killed him? Had Sarah Beth been killed by this big ugly guy named Steg?

Harper seemed to buzz with excitement. “I don’t know about Jillian. I never saw her again. I was out of it when Cythyne brought me here, and I’ve never seen her again.”

“Okay. Well…” There was nothing much to say to that. The Queen was probably dead.

Harper’s excitement seemed to turn up a notch, though. “And as far as Sarah Beth and Lucas go. I didn’t. For a long time, I didn’t. But…” Her eyes started to glisten with tears she couldn’t hold back. Happy tears. “I saw them, Jack! A few months ago.” The tears streamed down her face. “Zayne was passing through town while I was there. Oh, it was a big to do. Soldiers and horses and wagons. It was like a fucking parade. I wanted to see her. To see him. That asshole. I wanted to see if Michael was still with her. And he was! Right next to her.”

“Okay. So we know he’s still alive.”

“Yes!” Harper leaped up from where she was sitting. “But that’s not who I’m talking about. I saw them! Jack. I saw Sarah Beth and Lucas!”

I leaped up too. “What!”

“Yes!” We were practically jumping up and down. “They were there.” Harper stopped jumping. Pull on my shoulders to calm me down. “They were with them, Jack. But…” She bit her lip, unsure of how to say whatever was coming next.

“Just tell me, Harper.”

She shook her head in disgust. “Sarah Beth was holding an umbrella for Zayne. Obviously, some kind of servant. And Lucas…” She looked at me. “He’s alive, Jack. That’s all that matters.”

I could tell there was more. I steeled myself for whatever she would say. “But…” She looked like she wanted to cry more rather than tell me. “Come on, Harper, just say it.”

“He’s only got one hand.” Harper covered her mouth and made soft noises.

I felt the room spinning. Lucas was alive. I couldn’t believe it. Somehow, I’d always known her story would end with Lucas dead. It was like a hammer that had hovered over me until the end, finally falling and crushing my heart. But to know that he was alive set my anger on fire. I would find him and kill Michael. And he only had one hand? The scream in the woods Harper had heard. The gun. Steg.

“What was he doing? When did you see him? In the parade?” I was frantic now.

Harper squeezed my shoulders to calm me down. “He was in the train bringing up the rear. Pulling a cart. After I saw Sarah Beth, I almost cried out. But I didn’t. Then I just watched. If she was alive, I hoped he would be too. And he was.”

“So Steg cut his hand off because he shot him?”

Harper nodded. “And…” she shook her head. “The asshole didn’t die. He was there too. Always by Zayne’s side. A piece of his head is missing, and he’s still going strong like it’s no big fucking deal.”

Harper could see I was overwhelmed by everything. I was dizzy and wavering on my feet. It was her turn to comfort me. She wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

So Lucas and Sarah Beth are alive. And I have to get them home.

Martha had been listening, and she joined us and turned it into a group hug. Harper responded to the show of support and got herself under control, and when we broke our embrace, she said. “So what do we do now?”

Martha had fixed us something to eat while Harper told her story, and now we all moved to the table. As we ate, I thought about Harper’s question. Then, I thought about how to get home.

“So we just have to find the hermit in the Forbidden Forest, and he can send us home, right?” I asked. “He can tell us what rift gets us home?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“That’s what Queen Jillian planned,” said Harper. “Until…”

Yeah, until all that crazy shit happened. “Well, why can’t we still do that?” I asked.

“Because, Jack,” said Harper. “We don’t know where the hermit is in the Forbidden Forest, and we don’t actually know where the Forbidden Forest is since it’s apparently a mystery, and if I remember correctly, you have to have been there to go back there, which would make getting there impossible if you’ve never been there, which makes getting there impossible in the first place. Or something like that.”

I looked at Martha. “We know someone who’s been there, though.”

Martha shook her head. “Jack, that was when I was young. I don’t think I could lead you there.”

“But you could get us close. You said you traveled from your childhood home.” Martha didn’t look convinced. “What about Cythyne, then?” I said.

Martha kept shaking her head. “It’d be almost impossible to find her.”

“But they live in the mountains, right, and they found me in the Grasslands. We could try.”

They both looked at me like I had said an alien spaceship had sucked me up through a beam of light and then shoved stuff up my butt… and I liked it.

“Okay, listen,” I waved my hands, waving off their skepticism. “First things first. We need to get Lucas and Sarah Beth out of Citadel City and back here.” I’d been thinking about that the whole time Harper had been telling me her story. Hell, rescuing my brother was the reason I came to this place, to begin with. “Then we can worry about getting home because I’m not going back without them.”

Now they were looking at me like I had shoved stuff up aliens’ butts and really, really liked it.

“Jack,” said Harper. “You can’t be serious. You can’t go there!”

“I have to!” I said. “We have to get them back and go home. Fuck Michael. I want to kill him. And if I don’t. Let him stay here. Maybe Zayne will get tired of him and have him killed. Fine by me. But we have to go.” Harper looked like she was going to try and talk me out it. “Don’t you want to go back? Don’t you want to see your family?” I asked.

It was a low blow. But I wasn’t above low blows at this point. We had to go back. We had to get out of here. As much as I had enjoyed all the things that had happened here - minus being seconds away from having an ogre shove a spear up my ass - I didn’t want to stay here. I missed my phone, tv, internet porn, and my parents. And I really missed hot fucking water.

“You know I do,” said Harper, wiping her tears away. “You know I want to go back home.”

I knew she did. She’d been here much longer than me and had just been told her family thought she had been dead for the last five years. Of course, she wanted to go back.

“But it’s just too dangerous,” she said. “What if something happens to you?”

I shrugged. What else could I do? “Look, nothing is going to happen to me.” But, of course, that was entirely not true. I had a better chance of dying in some horrible, unimaginable way than walking out of here alive. But what else was I supposed to say?

“Michael doesn’t know I’m here and has no idea I’m coming. I just need to get them and get out of the city.” Harper hugged herself tightly, obviously not too happy with my idea. “We can do this. But… If something happens to me, you’re no worse off now than you were before. But you have a chance, Harper. Even if I don’t come back, you can go home. Find Cythyne, find the forest, and try. You owe it to your family.”

She stared into my eyes, and I saw she was scared but that she was trying to be brave.

“But I will get them,” I said. “I will bring them back here, and we will all go the fuck home. I promise you that.”

I had no idea if I could keep that promise, but it sounded good. She knew it was all talk but that we had to try. Not trying would be worse than dying here.

“Okay,” she said quietly. “We can try together. I’m coming with you.”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Jack,” Martha said in that matronly tone.

“No,” I said to both of them. “It’ll be easier for me to go by myself, and no one knows who I am. Michael wouldn’t know me. He’d recognize you, Harper.”

I could see she agreed and was relieved I’d said she couldn’t come. “I’m sorry, Jack,” she said.

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” I said. “It’s better if I do this alone.”

She stood up and wrapped her arms around me. “Thank you, Jack. Thank you for coming and being so brave.”

I wasn’t sure I was brave. I was probably just stupid. But I had to try. I couldn’t just leave Lucas here. I had to save my brother. He would do it for me. I think.

#

We decided I would head out at first light for Citadel City. Or I did. Martha and Harper seemed wishy-washy about it, knowing I had to save Lucas and Sarah Beth but also not wanting me to go alone.

But I wouldn’t be swayed. I had to go.

Martha packed up some dry food for me to take, bread and jerky and fruit that was a cross between an apple and a peach. She wrapped it all up and put it in a satchel that her husband had used. It wasn’t a purse, okay. It’s a satchel.

She made up the couch for me, then she and Harper retired to Martha’s room.

I lay awake and stared into the dark. What was I doing? I was going to rescue my brother. That’s what I was doing. I’d get into the city, look around, figure out where he and Sarah Beth were, get them out, and then get back here. All without being found out or dying. It would totally work.

I tried not to think about all the ways it could go wrong, the number one being that I couldn’t find them at all.

It took a while, but I eventually went to sleep.

#

No one had to wake me up. I just did. I’d slept some, but I was too on edge to fall into a deep sleep. So I rose when I saw the first gray light of dawn.

I pulled on the clothes Martha had loaned me, which we’d decided I’d wear because my earthly clothes would stand out. The pants were thick trousers, and the shirt was woolen and gray. Next, I pulled on the boots Martha loaned me. I was pretty sure the Nikes I had been wearing would’ve drawn unwanted attention.

Then I slipped out of the house and to the barn. I took the mace that Big Boy had left behind from its hiding place and left it outside Martha’s gate. Then I went back in to say goodbye.

They were both up.

Martha handed me a piece of something that tasted very much like a donut since I didn’t want to hang around for another large breakfast. She hugged me, her hands rubbing my back gently.

“Goodbye, Jack,” she said. “Hurry back.” She smiled at me, her blue eyes watery.

“I will, Martha,” I said.

Harper hugged me next. “Please come back,” she said. “If you can’t find them or get them, then please just come back. We can tell others and come back for them later.”

We both knew that wasn’t a good idea. Bringing more people here wasn’t going to help anyone.

“I’ll find them,” I said. “We’ll come back and get you and get out of here.”

She nodded.

“Two weeks,” I said. We’d agreed on it the night before. She’d wait two weeks for me here, then she and Martha would head towards Martha’s childhood home and try and find Cythyne and the forest without me.

“Two weeks,” Harper agreed. “But please come back, Jack.”

“I will.”

I looked at both of them. Both beautiful and wonderful in their own ways. “I’ll bring Lucas and Sarah Beth back,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. “I promise.”

They followed me out onto the porch, and we hugged again, then I threw the satchel – it’s not a purse, okay – over my shoulder. I picked up the mace on my way out of the gate and heard them both shout and tell me to be careful.

I would. I just hoped it made a difference.