Arkhelios University

Mark Mishra got ready for school extra early. His uncle’s birthday was on the weekend, and Wbuna had been testing out recipes for the party every day. So far, Mark had gotten to taste test banana bread, carrot muffins and blueberry scones. He couldn’t wait to see what was on the menu for that morning. This was Omar’s big chance to spend time with his son and grandkids, and Wbuna was determined to make food that rivaled what she’d sampled of Roman’s own cooking.

That’s why it was so odd to see the kitchen empty. None of his siblings or cousins were up yet, but at least some of the adults should have been. Mark often ate his breakfast while his father read the paper, and Adam was nowhere in sight. Maybe his dad had forgotten to set his alarm to get up in the morning. Ever since his mom was fired from her job, his dad barely left her side. If she didn’t have to set an alarm for work, maybe he’d just forgotten to set one for himself.

Ulyssa stared at her reflection in the mirror and searched for imperfections. Her wedding was just two weeks away and things were beginning to feel intensely terrifying. Her wedding was going to be televised with millions of people watching her join Maura’s family and judging whether she was up for the task of one day being queen consort. As the day grew closer, Ulyssa was starting to get cold feet. Not about marrying Maura, who she loved immensely, but about everything else in her life. Was it too late now to run away or elope? The thought of being watched by so many people made her question every decision she’d made for this ceremony.

“The tiara’s a bit much. The dress isn’t much to look at either.”

Ulyssa didn’t have to turn to confront her unwanted visitor. She could see his cocky grin well enough in the mirror.

“How did you get past security?” she groaned playfully, not giving him the satisfaction of turning around to see him directly.

“Oh, I’m just that amazing.”

They both knew that the castle was protected by ancient wards, and teams of security officers who had been notified that Roman and his fiance and kids were to be treated as personal guests of the queen. It wasn’t likely that Roman could successfully make it into the private bedchambers of the crown princess’ fiancee without a fight. His visit, while unexpected, was still officially allowed.

“What do you want?” she asked, rechecking her hair in the mirror. “Do you really hate this dress? It was my favourite of the ones on the pre-approved list.”

“It’s fine,” Roman assured her. “I’m just teasing. It probably cost as much as my house, which makes it amazing.” Ulyssa made a dismissive noise and Roman laughed. “Hey, I’ve been wedding planning too, I know how much a dress like that costs. Anyway, I’m officiallyhere to pick up Theo’s wedding outfit, but unofficially, I just wanted to catch up. I wanted to run a few things by you that I’ve found out. Crazy things. Seriously crazy.”

“You wouldn’t believe the amount of errands I need to get done by noon, so you’d better talk fast, or make yourself useful,” Ulyssa warned, taking a final look in the mirror before removing her jewelry. Yes, this was the look she wanted. She’d confirm that with her assistant later. “Unzip me, I need to change out of this before we go anywhere.”

Roman carefully pulled the zipper of Ulyssa’s dress down for her, taking care not to catch any of the delicate fabric in the teeth.

“I only have until three. I have to pick up the kids from Elaine’s after Theo’s done school, or I’m pretty sure she’s going to murder me. I may need to find another babysitter.”

“Well, start talking then,” Ulyssa said, stepping out of her dress and into a casual, but expensive looking skirt. “What’d you do this time and how mad was Abe?”

Roman tried to look offended by the question, but Abe hadbeen watching him a little more carefully than usual since Roman retracted his legal appeal.

“Abe and I are just fine, thank you,” he scoffed, earning him a playful grin from his friend. “This is about the Rivales. Kaeileen and I were-”

Roman was interrupted by the buzzing of his phone in his pocket. When he fished it out and saw the caller id, he groaned. Omar never called his son, especially on his cell. To be honest, Roman couldn’t remember even giving his father his cell number. That had probably been Abe’s doing.

“Hello? Dad, what do you want, I’m busy.”

Ulyssa couldn’t hear the response on the phone, but she saw how quickly Roman’s body language changed. Suddenly he wasn’t relaxed, teasing Roman anymore.

“Who is this? Mark? Why are you-”

Though she couldn’t hear the exact words being spoken, Ulyssa could make out loud, panicked tones coming from the phone.

“Is everything okay?” she asked, looking concerned. The look on Roman’s face was unreadable, which frustrated her immensely. She had grown up with Roman and been in a wide variety of situations with him since she first left Arkhelios. Even after all that they’d been through, she couldn’t guess at what Roman was hearing.

“Hold on, hold on. Is he breathing? Did you call the hospital? No, Abe won’t get there fast enough, I’m on my way. Don’t move, wait by the door for the ambulance. I’ll be right there.”

Roman hung up his phone, but continued to stare at it blankly, unable to move.

“Is everything okay?” Ulyssa asked cautiously, placing her hand on his arm out of concern. “What’s wrong?”

“My uncle isn’t breathing,” Roman stated, still unable to tear his gaze away from his phone.

He nearly jumped when Ulyssa moved her arm to his back, rubbing comforting circles on it, just like she would to comfort Theo when he had a nightmare.

“I-My…my dad. All the adults. Mark was getting ready for school, and they were all just-”

Roman couldn’t finish his sentence. It was all too much and completely out of nowhere. He was supposed to see his father on the weekend for his birthday party. He’d just seen him a day ago.

“I’m coming with you,” Ulyssa said firmly. “Two of us are better than one in an emergency. We need to get to those kids and see what we can do to help. I’ll text Maura when we get there. She’ll sort out my wedding duties for the day.” She shifted her head to hold Roman’s stunned gaze. “Hey. We’re going to sort this out. Trust me, things are going to be okay.”

Roman nodded and took a small step away from his friend.

“I’ll meet you there,” he said before disappearing into a puff of smoke.

The silence in the hallways of the Mishra house was eerie. Every time Roman had been over there, the place rivaled the Durant house for craziness. Kids usually ran through the halls screaming at the top of their lungs, with adults chasing after them. The kitchen always smelled like whatever new recipe Wbuna was trying out.

Now it was too quiet. Mark had taken the younger kids outside to wait for an ambulance to arrive. The group was huddled together, looking lost and scared when Roman and Ulyssa teleported in. Ulyssa asked questions of the kids in a soothing voice while Roman ran upstairs to assess the situation. He wasn’t prepared for what awaited him.

Adam and Rosemary lay twisted on the floor, contorted in an unnatural way that sent chills down Roman’s spine. Whatever had done this was cruel and angry, hoping to make its victims suffer. It was horrible, but something about the way they were laying made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. It was a shocking scene, but oddly enough, not an unfamiliar one.

Mark had been wrong about his father. Roman could see faint movements of Adam’s chest. He knelt down to look for a pulse just to be sure, and found one, even if it was weak.

Rosemary too was breathing, to Roman’s relief. She had a nasty gash on her head where she had probably fallen against the couch arm, but her injuries looked less severe than Adam’s. Wbuna lay on the floor nearby with a similar head wound, but nothing else obvious that Roman could make out. It looked like she’d been headed towards her bedroom door, where he assumed she’d been trying to reach his father.

It had been a mistake to come here. Roman should have stayed with the kids and sent Ulyssa to look upstairs, or waited for the ambulance to arrive. He didn’t think he would ever be able to get the memory of this sight out of his head. His father lay on his bed, contorted with obvious pain and slumped over his mattress.

Out of all the family, it looked like Omar had been the intended target. The women were barely injured, and Adam was breathing at the very least. Roman didn’t dare go closer to his father, but there was something in the way Omar was laying that sent warning signals to every part of Roman. This scene was unnatural. Ripples of death permeated the room, wrapping around Omar possessively.

After struggling for so much of his life to understand his father, Roman’s relationship with Omar was suddenly over. There would be no reconciling, no more talks about the past, no ranting to Abe about Omar’s insensitivity. His father was dead. Roman was essentially an orphan in a world he was still learning to navigate. His grandparents were gone. His father was gone. He hoped with everything within him that his mother was gone too. What would happen if Rosemary or Wbuna didn’t survive? Would he have to raise his half-siblings along with his kids?

Unable to continue to share a room with his father’s corpse, Roman practically ran to the stairs to safety. As he walked by, Adam made a small groan that Roman prayed meant that he was about to wake up and tell his nephew that this had all been some sort of terrible dream.

Roman rolled his uncle over slightly, seeing him wince in pain as he moved.

“Adam? Adam, it’s me Roman. What happened?”

Adam’s skin seemed to glisten slightly upon hearing Roman’s voice. Roman watched in horror as unfamiliar black marks wrote themselves across his uncle’s face. He’d never seen marks like that before in his life, and he would certainly never forget them. The symbols were unlike anything he’d seen in his small collection of occult books.

If Ulyssa doesn’t recognize these symbols, I’ll need pictures to use as reference in the archives. If they’re anything like the symbols that had showed up on Abe’s and my face after harnessing demonic energy, this writing could vanish any second now.

Roman reached for his phone,and gave his uncle’s arm an apologetic squeeze.

“Sorry,” he said, opening his camera app and snapping a quick couple of pictures of the symbols before they vanished. Adam groaned again, wincing a little at the camera flash.

“Roman? Is…is she still here? The kids-”

Sirens wailed in the distance. Since Roman’s shooting years ago, Wanda had increased the budget for the hospital, and bought three new ambulances. They’d thankfully never had to use all of them at once before, but just having them available had boosted morale at the hospital. Paramedics would no longer need to make hard decisions about who deserved to use the ambulance in the event of a tragedy with multiple patients.

Adam trailed off weakly and closed his eyes once more. Against nearly every piece of medical advice he’d ever received, Roman gently shook him, trying to find out what happened in case he lost his uncle too.

“Who was here? A woman? Adam, I need to know what happened. Who did this?”

“Her shadow.” The words were barely a whisper, but filled with urgency and fear. “The kids need to know, tell them about her shadow.”

“I’ll do that, you just hang on,” Roman promised, although he had absolutely no clue what he was promising to do. The paramedics were finally climbing the stairs, shocked to see their coworker lying on the floor next to his nephew. “I’m going to go check on the kids now, okay? I’ll tell them to look for shadows. We’ll catch up with you at the hospital. Things are going to be okay.”

That was a lie; things were never going to be okay again.

Arkhelios University

Darcy Mishra got off the bus closest to her house and prayed that no one would be around to ask her why she hadn’t taken her usual carpool home, or why she was returning from work an hour earlier than usual. She messed up. She messed up badly enough that it had cost her the job of her dreams. A soil sample had been badly damaged en route to the lab, and she had processed it without realizing how damaged it really was. Funding for research and mining rights had been promised on her recommendation and several months of work had been completed, only to discover that the soil was good only for potting up houseplants and nothing else. With everyone pointing fingers and trying to assign blame, it was Darcy who took the brunt of this scandal, and she’d been let go from her job. She had no idea of what she would tell Adam. Who was going to hire a disgraced technician? Her career was in ruins.

Just when Darcy had worked up the courage to enter her home, she saw a familiar figure sprint across the lawn, either not seeing or completely avoiding her.

She sighed. Just when this day couldn’t get any worse. Roman was here.

“We’re talking, you and me. Now,” Roman commanded, pulling up a chair to confront his father. Omar had already been seated at the table when his son arrived, looking like he could bolt at any second. Roman had called him an hour before to make sure he was home, but had said little else about what he wanted from his father.

“Roman, I told you already. I know very little about your mother, or anything about her that matters really,” Omar interrupted. “We were married for most of your childhood though, and if you think it’s important to know things like how we met, or some of the stories about her art, then I can’t deny you them. Both Wbuna and Rosemary have made it veryclear that I should be more open to your questions, so I’m going to try my best to answer what I can.”

“Uh, thanks,” Roman replied uneasily. This new approach was interesting. Just how long had Omar’s spouses yelled at him exactly?

“You were her world the instant you were born,” Omar offered nervously. “I don’t think she even considered having another child to be honest. I could never hold you right, or feed you properly. Whatever she did to you, I don’t fully understand, but you should know that whatever feelings your mother is capable of, you were the closest I’ve ever seen her come to showing love for someone.”

Roman blinked, taken aback by this confession. He had given up on ever asking his father for answers about his mother, and to have him just drop that revelation out of nowhere was…disorientating.

“I…” Roman trailed off, suddenly reconsidering his original reason to visit.

Just how long did this transparency about his mother last? Could he come back the next day and still find Omar willing to be honest with him?

“I’m not actually here to talk about Mom,” he said slowly. “I would like to talk about her later if you’re still okay with it, but something else has come up, and you’re the only living person that might actually be honest with me.”

“The only living person?” Omar repeated with horror, his mind instantly conjuring a list of possible topics Roman could be interested in, and recoiling from the thought of discussing most of them.

“What’s the deal with the Rivales family?” Roman demanded, and Omar relaxed somewhat. He knew very little about the Rivales family that he could see Roman being interested in.

“What do you mean?” he asked warily. “You know the Rivales family much better than I would. You and Kaeileen were best friends growing up. They’re just ordinary, boring people. Emilia and Giovanni were in love until the day he died. Their son steals our morning paper sometimes. There’s nothing…like your mother in their family.”

Roman shook his head vehemently.

“That’s what I thought too,” he insisted. “I was wrong though. There is something wrong with that family. They may not be like Mom exactly, but there’s something powerful in their blood, something I can’t explain. What can you remember about them? Did Grandma ever talk about them?”

Omar gave the question some thought, but no immediate answers came to him.

“No, aside from how much she hated Giovanni and his wife,” he answered. “She thought they were undignified, and not worthy of her time, but you should already know that. She wasn’t exactly subtle about her opinions.”

“What about Adam? Did she ever say anything about Adam and the Rivales?”

Omar rolled his eyes.

“We’ve talked about this before,” he insisted. “Your uncle has nothing to do with the Rivales family. Those were just nasty rumours. People would say anything to get back at your grandmother, you know how quickly she could offend someone.”

“Why don’t you join us at the table instead of lurking in the shadows, Mark,” Roman said suddenly.

For the briefest of moments, Omar saw a flash of his mother within his son. It had been Malika’s passion to humiliate eavesdroppers, and flaunt her talents of observation whenever she could. Mark revealed himself from his place in the doorway sheepishly, and Omar waited for his son to lash out at the child.

“Why don’t you come join us?” Roman said, gesturing to the chair beside him. His tone was pleasant and welcoming, something Omar believed his son to be incapable of when dealing with his half-siblings or Adam’s children.

Mark took his place next to Roman hesitantly, unsure of what to expect from his infamous cousin.

“You remembered my name! Sorry,” he apologized quickly. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I’ve just never heard anyone talk about Grandma before. Or the Rivales. Or anything really. I was curious.”

“I can understand that, considering no one in this family seems to talk about anything important,” Roman said, looking pointedly at his father. “Did you know that my mother is apparently older than my grandmother?”

“Wait, what?” Omar looked like he was about fall over in his chair. “How much older? What?”

“Omar, honey, we have a bit of an emergency outside in the garden,” Rosemary cut in, flanked by Wbuna. “Darcy is pretty upset, and it’s only going to get worse when Adam comes home. We need your help.”

Omar stood, nodding towards his son and nephew as he stood up.

“To be continued,” he promised. “I’ll just be a bit.”

“Hey, do you want to toss a football around?” Roman offered to his cousin.

Mark lit up excitedly to be the object of anyone’s direct attention, especially someone as infamous as Roman. Living with a bunch of kids meant that Mark had to fight for any parental attention.

“Yes,” he exclaimed, then tried to dial back his excitement. He needed Roman to think he was cool, and indifferent to the offer, or he might never make an offer like that again.

If Roman was put off by Mark’s excitement, he didn’t show it. He grabbed the football by the front door and lead his cousin out to the yard.

“It must be pretty hard living here with so many people,” he said pleasantly. “I grew up all by myself. I didn’t have anyone else my age to play with. Just my grandma.”

Mark nodded.

“Mom and Dad don’t have a lot of time for me and Daria,” he replied. “They’re always working, or leaving us with Wbuna for the day. I wish they had more time to spend with us.”

To his surprise, Roman found himself feeling bad for the kid. Being a dad himself with his own worries about his parenting was clearly making him sentimental. On top of that, Roman had grown up with Adam’s undivided attention. His uncle had played with him, taken him to the park, and helped teach him to ride a bike. Even when he was still married to Adrian, Adam had made time to see him and give him advice. Roman had grown up with exactly the childhood that Mark envied and for the first time, Roman thought about just how fortunate he’d been to have had the life he did.

He was the heir to the Bellamy fortune despite emancipating himself from his family, and he had had the full devotion of his two uncles growing up. As terrible as his grandmother had been, she’d also encouraged Roman’s natural gifts, and spoiled him rotten. All these kids were ignorant of their family’s past on a much larger scale than Roman had been.They were hungry for even the smallest scrap of information about their grandparents, and Salem and Malika had only died within the last few years. How much more did Roman know about the Bellamys compared to these kids? If the trade off for being raised with his dad’s attention was being sheltered to an embarrassing degree, was it worth it? Roman loved being in the know no matter what it was. Gossip, family history, magical spells and lore- he wouldn’t give any of that up to have Wbuna make him cookies and have Omar coddle him. It was a strange feeling to have, but Roman felt some of the anger he felt towards his cousins and younger half-siblings dissipate. He still didn’t want to befriend them or anything, but maybe his pity for them outweighed his hatred.

The school bus arrived with some of the younger kids, followed closely by Adam’s carpool home. Omar went out to meet his brother before he saw Darcy sobbing in the backyard. Rose Rivales and that strange daughter of Osbert’s came off the bus with Malika Jr.

Oh good, more kids running around here. How are we supposed to comfort Darcy if we’re entertaining the entire school here?

Omar waited for his brother to leave the car. Beside him, Keiki had not followed Malika jr to the living room, but stood watching Omar in an unnerving manner.

“Malika’s inside, you’d better catch up with her,” he said. This kid was just like Osbert’s other daughter, weird and awkward to be around.

The girl nodded, but didn’t move. Omar smiled awkwardly, trying to motion with his body towards Malika, but still the girl didn’t move. He cleared his throat. Still no movement.

He met the girl’s gaze and was taken aback slightly. There was something familiar about her that he couldn’t quite place. The way she looked at him maybe? The barely concealed contempt splashed across her face looked out of place on a child. It was a look he’d seen Roman perfect over the years, maybe that’s where he’d seen it before. Either way, he would be all too happy to call up Osbert and order him to pick up his strange child if she didn’t move. He already had Roman to deal with, he didn’t need someone else scowling at him.

“Adam!” Omar called, grateful for the chance to ignore the strange child watching him. “Hey, we’ve got to talk about something really quick.”

Adam groaned.

“What did Roman do now?” he demanded warily. “I saw him outside with Mark and he wasn’t shouting or anything.“

"No, for once it’s not Roman,” Omar said quickly. “Darcy is upset. She lost her job over a mix up with some expensive soil. She’s taking it pretty hard.”

Adam didn’t need to think twice. As soon as he’d realized that Darcy was upset, he immediately left to find her. They’d get through this setback together. With the money from the Bellamy estate and the pooled resources of Adam, Rosemary and Wbuna, the bills would be paid until Darcy could find another job. Maybe she’d find an even better job in the process.

With Adam gone and the strange Yoxall child surprisingly absent, Omar took a moment to enjoy the sight of his son interacting with his cousin. Omar knew that it would take Roman a lot longer to warm up to his half-siblings, but the first steps were being taken. Maybe Omar could patch his family back together with enough time. Roman had been grateful to hear the small details his father could provide about the Bellamys, and maybe if Omar looked in a few albums, he’d remember more. Kamalani was gone, his toxic parents were gone, and Roman had been acting more mature lately. Maybe he should push a little harder with his son.

Omar stepped out onto the lawn, watching Roman and Mark chuckle over some something that had happened. This really did seem to be too good to be true.

“Hey, it’s my birthday in a few days,” Omar pointed out loudly. “Your Old Man is becoming an old man. We’re having a bit of a get together to celebrate. You’re welcome to come and bring the kids. Seeing my grandkids would be all the birthday present I could want.”

Roman seemed stunned by the invitation, and Omar worried that he’d pushed too far, too fast.

“You could bring Abe too, if you want,” he offered quickly. “Or whoever you’re seeing these days if it’s not Abe. Or you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“Abe and I are still engaged,” Roman said slowly. “He’s going to be my husband. I’m not seeing anyone else.”

“Of course, and you two are great together,” Omar replied, hoping the conversation would change direction quick enough to keep Roman from leaving. “I’m sure you two will last longer than your first marriage. I just thought I’d cover my bases just in case. Since you know, you were married at Winterfest, and you and Abe were, uh….”

“You think I’m cheating on Abe because I slept with Abe while filing for divorce from Adrian?” Roman said incredulously. “What kind of person do you think I am? I’ve been with Abe since I was fourteen. Thirteen if you count awkward flirting. I’m pretty sure there’s not going to be anyone else in my life.”

“How you get them is how you lose them, or that’s what Mom says anyway,” Mark helpfully interjected. “She and Dad said the other day that Abe-”

“Uh, Mark, I think Roman gets the idea,” Omar interrupted, patting his nephew on the shoulder, hoping he’d get the hint. “No one likes a gossip. We all think very highly of Abe and would love to see him more.”

“We’ll be there,” Roman promised, eyeing his father carefully. What exactly was his family saying about him behind his back? The only way to know would be to show up and find out for himself. He already knew that the rest of the Bellamys weren’t crazy about his moody son, but Abe? Abe was the “good” one in their family.

“You will?” Omar tried not to sound as surprised as he was. “That’s great!”

“I’ll bring Abe and the kids and some more questions about Mom,” Roman said, looking at his phone. “Speaking of, I have to go pick up Theo from Elaine’s. I’ll see you, what Saturday?”

Omar nodded as his son disappeared into a flash of smoke before his eyes. Between Roman’s friendliness and Darcy’s lost job, this was shaping up to be an interesting birthday.