Arkhelios University

For a formal wedding, the ceremony was mercifully short. All it took were some vows, a long poem composed for the occasion being read and a short address from the Queen about the challenges and benefits of marriage and Ulyssa and Maura were officially married. Abe had barely been able to pay attention to the ceremony; his mind was racing with thoughts about the future.

Now that Ulyssa knew about Noelle, did this mean that she would try to steal custody of her from Lucy? Was she going to acknowledge her daughter, and play some part in her life? Did Maura know yet? She and Ulyssa had been missing for a brief period of time before the wedding, but Abe had no idea what that meant. Was this grand celebration today going to be ruined tomorrow if Ulyssa told her? Would the queen be angry enough to punish Arkhelios’ fledgling international reputation for this scandal?

Abe was melting down inside with worry, while beside him, Lucy had once again regained her detached composure. She had remained silent for the ceremony, and cut her brother off every time he tried to bring up the subject of Ulyssa.

The formal reception dinner was later that night, but to accommodate the young kids who might be in bed by then, the dance floor in the castle had been opened early. Abe didn’t know if Theo would make it until the formal dinner, or if he’d be knocked out by the excitement of the day, and asleep in the guest quarters upstairs before it even got dark. The twins and the other invited toddlers definitely would be, so they they had their toddler feast open earlier at the kids table. Theo was supposed to be eating with his parents later, but Abe saw him repeatedly grab food from his sister’s table and stuff it in his mouth before Abe could catch him in the act and reprimand him.

Roman was kept busy with wedding photos as Ulyssa’s sim of honour, so Abe couldn’t manage to catch him alone until Roman had returned to whisk him onto the dance floor. Lucy had settled into the sidelines, absentmindedly playing on her phone and texting someone he hoped was her fiancee. Abe was hoping that Theo might cheer up his aunt with a dance, but his son was enthusiastically twirling around a slightly older boy and ignoring his family.

“So, are you thinking of something like this for our own wedding?” Roman asked, pulling Abe closer to him than was appropriate for a formal dance.

“Not at all,” he replied, his face flushing as Roman’s hand drifted down his back inconspicuously. “Roman! You’re going to get us kicked out of here if you keep that up.”

Roman shrugged, but raised his hands to a more appropriate position.

“I’m the sim of honour,” he laughed. “They’re not going to kick us out, I know the brides.”

Abe’s brain immediately snapped to attention at the reminder of Ulyssa.

“We need to talk about those brides, something happened before the wedding, and I don’t know what it means for my family or even Arkhelios going forward. I’m surprised the wedding even went forward considering what happened.”

Roman frowned while twirling Abe in place.

“Hmm, yeah. I thought as much. Maura was definitely more upset after Ulyssa took her aside before the ceremony. I can only imagine why, I didn’t really overhear them much.”

“But you overheard something,” Abe pressed, trying to count steps in his head so that Roman didn’t crush his feet while they danced. “What did you hear?”

“What did youhear?” Roman countered. “You said that something happened. What does it have to do with Arkhelios?”

Abe didn’t like that response at all. Roman clearly knew something, but he was trying to gauge what Abe knew before speaking about it. Lucy’s impassioned comments about how close Roman and Ulyssa were echoed briefly in his head. Ulyssa clearly didn’t know about Noelle, so what secret was Roman guarding of hers?

“Out with it Bellamy,” he ordered, interrupting their coordinated moves to take the lead from Roman. “I can’t get Ulyssa to talk, but I’ve been practicing my demon traps for you.”

It was Roman’s turn to flush at Abe’s sudden boldness. This wasn’t Abe’s usual passive annoyance with him. Something had clearly happened.

“I believe I heard your sister’s name come up,” Roman offered, but Abe could see the deliberate withholding of something written all over Roman’s face. Maybe if they were still connected, the truth would be easier to glean. It felt like Abe could just begin to make out blurry words that refused to focus when he looked at his fiance. Something was locked up in Roman’s mind and he was guarding it protectively.

“Hmm, it’s not something you’vedone,” Abe reasoned, looking deeply into Roman’s eyes to gauge his reactions. He felt an overwhelming sense of relief when Roman reacted to his guess about him being complicit with Ulyssa in something with irritation. If Lucy’s accusations of those two being up to something together had been true, Abe would probably have made a scene in the middle of the dance floor. “You’ll admit that it involves my sister, but not confirm which bride brought my sister’s name up. You’re close enough to Maura to make conversation with, but you’re veryclose to Ulyssa, so it’s probably her you’re protecting.”

“I’m not protecting anyone,” Roman insisted. “I’m merely minding my own business.”

“You knew!” Abe deduced with a gasp. “Ulyssa didn’t know about Noelle, but you did? How?”

Roman shrugged guiltily and shot his fiance a nervous smile.

“I’ve known for a while,” he admitted. “I’m guessing that’s what the drama was about earlier? Lucy finally told Ulyssa? I saw it in the cards months ago when I saw that I was having twins. Adrian and I…well, we fought about it. I wasn’t sure whose kid she was, and there might have been…speculation between us about her possible paternity. I figured it out though, but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure about it.”

Abe stumbled in his footing slightly, and nearly stepped on Roman’s foot. Was there ever going to be a time when he could hear Roman talk about being married to another man without feeling jealous? When he thought about it, it really hadn’t been that long since Adrian had died, and Roman’s last marriage ended. Was Abe moving too fast to rush Roman into another marriage? Maybe some of the disapproving looks they’d gotten from their family had some truth behind them. Maybe he should give Roman some more time to adjust to losing his would be ex-husband and raising twin girls without their father. He’d never really thought about it before, but maybe he should follow his sister’s example and do a deeper introspection of his own feelings. He’d never wanted to marry anyone other than Roman since they were in middle school, but it might be better for Roman to wait a bit longer. It was something Abe would have to think seriously about.

“I guess that’s fair,” Abe said slowly. ‘I’d be angry if Lucy came to you with this and not me, but since it was your cards…well, I don’t fully understand it, but coming to me with a guess this big probably wouldn’t have helped any.”

Especially if you and Adrian fought over it. The last thing I need is to fight you on the supernatural influence on our lives. We already argue about that enough as it is.

“So, things went badly then?” Roman asked, moving past his knowledge of events before Abe could ask him any more questions. “I mean Ulyssa and Maura still got married. They’re dancing over there, looking happy.” He gestured with his head towards his friend and her wife, and Abe sighed.

“No clue,” Abe admitted. “Ulyssa just left without saying anything. I’m really worried about what this means for the future.”

“Let me talk to her,” Roman said, twirling around once more. “I’ll try to see where her head is.”

For the first time in Theo’s young life, he felt like he belonged somewhere. There were so many diverse people invited to the wedding from witches, to demons, to servos just like Ironman. Theo split his time dancing with his two new friends, and laughing at their jokes. He could be himself with these people without worrying about what other people would say about him.The only comments he got were compliments on his dancing skill, which he was very proud of. If this was what people were like outside of Arkhelios, then he wanted to move in with his aunt and stay here forever.

Lucy fumed in the designated sitting area, watching the couples spin around before her. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that coming here had been a mistake. Ulyssa could be launching some kind of bid to see their daughter any day after her honeymoon ended. Child custody laws in Arkhelios were lax, but Lucy was pretty sure they were in her favour. She was already raising Noelle, and Ulyssa had just joined a foreign government. Lucy was hoping that meant that Princess Ulyssa wouldn’t risk her new position or marriage to chase after the daughter of a woman she wanted nothing to do with. It was bad enough that Abe knew her secret and had spent the past few hours watching her with sad eyes and asking if he could do anything for her, but the thought of all of Arkhelios knowing…she’d be a joke. The woman who chased after a woman who never wanted her. A woman who had followed her heart and had it shattered into pieces.

Lucy toyed with the ring on her finger that she’d claimed for herself in the cavern under her mother’s house. It was beautiful to look at, but for some reason, it made her feel sad. She often wondered who it had belonged to, or who the mysterious person with an O starting name was who had given it to them. Considering where Roman had found the ring, their story probably didn’t have a happy ending. She could relate to that. Happy endings were for people like Ulyssa or Jorah. Hell, even Abe had a more stable love life than his sister, and he was a mess. Lucy tried to console herself with the fact that she was getting married too, and at her wedding, she’d be twice as happy as Ulyssa looked. She’d make sure of it.

A text from Kaeileen popped up, and truthfully prompted a small smile from Lucy as she read it. Things were a little unconventional between the two fiancees, but Lucy was still having fun with Kaeileen. She knew that Abe looked down at her relationship for not having a traditional start, or even being overly loving, but he was an idiot. Not everyone got their fairy tale ending like they dreamed. Some people couldn’t live in the world of forbidden romance, angst, and a connection that defied words like her brother did. Some people had to live in the real world.

Nathan understood the real world in the same way Lucy and their mother did. Life was hard, so you had to strike at it even harder. Unlike Abe, Nathan didn’t seem too attached to his teenage girlfriend, Cindra. Lucy got the feeling that once her baby brother entered college,she’d have a lot more in common with him than she did with Abe. But Abe would always have a special place in her heart. Her big brother needed her to defend him, to help him and to keep Roman from walking all over him. He couldn’t feel sorry about her life if she felt sorry for his life first.

“Boo!”

The girl Bronwen had called Remy popped out from behind Theo to torment the vampire. Bronwen growled slightly and chased after her, leaving Theo alone again. He wasn’t sure if those two were playing around, or if they really didn’t get along. Either way, he’d still get to talk with his new friend after the wedding.

Theo looked around for something else to entertain him while they waited. A boy was playing piano, and ignoring the other kids. Maybe he was ignoring them because they teased him like Theo was teased at home. It was worth saying hi to him anyway. Maybe they could play a duet together. Aunt Lucy had been teaching him to play very simple songs with her at Grandma’s.

“Hi, I’m Theo,” he said loudly, talking over the sounds of the piano. The boy stopped, looking startled that someone was talking to him.

“Oh, is it time to go outside yet?” he asked and Theo shook his head.

“No, I was just saying hi,” he admitted shyly. “I don’t live here, so I don’t know anyone.”

“Oh, I’m Adam,” the boy replied. “Do you play piano too? It’s the most fun thing I can find to do here.”

Theo shrugged and sat beside him.

“A little. I’m not very good though. We have video games at home, so I have other things to play. Why are you being forced to be here? I’m the ring bearer. They couldn’t have the wedding without me.”

“I’m holding flowers or something,” Adam said dismissively. “My mom’s dating someone important or whatever, so I have to be in the wedding. But at least there’s like five of us carrying flowers. We don’t have to go by ourselves and have millions of people watching us. The wedding’s going to be on TV.”

“Oh yeah, I guess I never really thought about it like that,” Theo realized. He’d never thought about how many people would be watching him. What if he tripped and lost the rings on the ground and his aunt couldn’t get married because of him?

“Don’t worry,” Adam laughed, seeing the look on Theo’s face. “You’re right before the brides come in, no one will be looking at you, they’ll be looking for them.”

“I guess so.”

A uniformed guard knocked on the door, startling the distracted children. Bronwen and her frenemy both ran their fingers through their hair, trying to hide the fact that they’d been running around. Adam grabbed Theo by the arm and skipped to the door with him.

Theo stared at the arm linked with his, and smiled. This never happened at school. No one went out of their way to get close to him at home. Sometimes the Rivales twins would trade him chips at lunch for his dumb carrot sticks to be nice, but he still always felt left out. Two out of the three people he’d talked to today were nice to him, and one even agreed to be his friend. Theo remembered the excitement he’d felt walking around his dad’s old boarding school, and pictured himself going to school with these kids instead of the dumb jerks in Arkhelios. He’d never wanted anything so badly before in his life.

The children were assembled outside, queuing up where the wedding coordinator told them to. Maura’s siblings were dressed and waiting, and the queen lingered by the entrance to the gardens waiting for the brides, as her arrival would require the guests to acknowledge her, and unofficially start the wedding procession. Abe could see Roman’s face peering out a window, waving at him, so he and Maura were clearly ready. There was only one absence that could be holding things up like this, and Abe had a sinking feeling that he knew just what was happening. Lucy wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He couldn’t help but notice that there was a higher than usual amount of guards around the queen and her daughter than there had been before the guests had arrived.

Oh, Ulyssa’s going to murder me for bringing her. What was I supposed to do? She’d just find an even worse way to get in if I hadn’t.

“I’m going to go look to see how Ulyssa is,” Abe announced. Launce was straightening his tie nervously, waiting for his cue to get his daughter, and Abe had horrible visions of him walking in on one of Hurricane Lucy’s storms. This was his fault, he’d go deal with his sister himself. “Don’t worry Launce, Roman just uh, texted me that Ulyssa’s having dress trouble and she needs help. I used to sew a bit, so that’s why they need me. To sew something. I guess.”

Abe didn’t wait for a response or acknowledgement. As soon as he was out of the sight of Maura’s family, Abe sprinted towards the stairs that would lead him to Ulyssa’s room.

Please don’t let me be too late to undo whatever Lucy is doing. Please! Everyone is going to kill me if this wedding goes off the rails before it even begins.

Abe burst through the door to Ulyssa’s room, out of breath and sweaty from his jog.

“Birth control? You’re going to lecture meabout birth control? Hunter’s lucky to have been raised by the Bellamys, since at least he wouldn’t be raised anywhere close to you! Hunter should be thanking my mom every day for keeping him away from your family!”

“Uh, Lucy? Ulyssa? The wedding is starting?” Abe tried to tentatively interrupt the screaming match he’d walked into, but both women ignored him.

“Oh, so now you’re trashing my family too? Classy Lucy, you always know just what to say to try to trap me into being with you again. I’m sotempted!”

“Wait, again?” Abe had clearly walked into something that he desperately didn’t want to be a part of. “Can we just-”

“I would never sleep with you again even if you begged me,”‘ Lucy snarled, and Abe massaged his head, already feeling a migraine coming on. “I don’t know what Maura sees in you. Your family’s poor, your mom’s a homewrecking slut, and our like, fifteen minutes together was average at best.”

Abe had to step between the women at this point, fearing what the queen would scream at him if he allowed Ulyssa to ruin her wedding makeup and hair by brawling in the hallway with his sister like she clearly wanted to.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you and your family,” Ulyssa spat. “You’re a selfish, entitled brat who just can’t handle the word no. Everything has to be about you. I. Don’t. Like. You. Do you understand yet? How many times do I have to tell you that? How many times does Roman?”

Lucy snorted angrily and shot her brother a fiery look.

“Oh, you better watch out, Abe. Ulyssa’s planning on stealing your man, just like her trashy mother stole Mom’s. Like mother, like daughter I guess. The Durants just can’t help themselves when it comes to screwing the Helioses over!”

There were so many things that he’d overheard in the last few minutes that Abe wished he could forget forever. That his sister had slept with an engaged woman was high on that list, right beside the mental image of Roman running away with that same engaged woman. Even by Lucy’s standards, this fight was devolving into something nasty fast.

“Speaking of daughters, what’s yours going to learn from you?” Ulyssa sneered. “How to sleep with an entire university, just like your brother? To go through so many people, but still not have a single one of them want to stick around to deal with you?”

“I didn’t sleep with the entire university,” Abe sighed, knowing that neither woman was acknowledging his presence. He was basically a living wall, keeping the women apart so that they threw insults and not fists.

Lucy’s face was so furious, so intense, Abe secretly wondered if she’d somehow picked up a dark form of her own from work. He’d take Roman stuck in his dark form forever over spending even another minute with whatever hatred and pain was controlling his sister.

“I didn’t have any choice,” Lucy snapped, her eyes filling with tears she refused to acknowledge. “What I did, I did for you! Do you really think that you’d still have all of thisif it weren’t for me? If I hadn’t decided not to call up Maura and tell her what you’d done?”

“What I’ve done?” Ulyssa repeated. “How about what youdid? You’re the one who kept buying me drinks, I’m sure that was all part of your giant plan to try to trick me into being with you! Am I supposed to thankyou for not blackmailing me, for keeping the greatest mistake you’ve pushed me to make from my fiancee?”

“I could have ruined your life!” Lucy cried, long buried emotions beginning to choke her voice. “All I ever had to do was tell the truth, and you’d be out on your ass. No castle, no fiancee, nothing! I gave you all of this, while all you’ve ever done is take from me. I didn’t want to have my brother’s reputation at school, but I earned it thinking of you. If I hadn’t, people would have known! I didn’t want to see you kiss Maura the way you do, but I endured it, even though it should have been me. It should have been me!”

Abe and Ulyssa stood spellbound at a sight they’d never seen before, and might never see again. Lucy was crying.

“How can you have slept with Roman and still be his friend? What does he have that I don’t? That he can still laugh, and joke with you, when he had to have been a bigger mistake than me. It’s fucking Roman Bellamy! I’m better than him in a million ways, but he can still talk with you! His number isn’t blocked! If he was crying in a dorm bathroom alone with a pregnancy test, you’d have answered the fucking call!”

“Lucy?’ Abe slowly tried to wrap his arms around his clearly hurting sister, but she batted them away angrily.

“So yes, I guess I am like my mother.” Lucy’s voice was the coldest Abe had ever heard it. So much hurt and pain and anger was pouring out of her. “I’m so much like my mother that I hid my daughter away from the Durant family so that her bitch of a mother couldn’t hurt her like she hurt me.”

Abe had never felt a silence like the one he found himself trapped in. It wasn’t just an absence of sound, it was an absence of air, of light, of colour. If Roman were here, he’d accuse him of using his powers to manipulate the situation, but they were all human, standing in that room gasping to end the suffocation of unbearable silence.

Abe saw Ulyssa blink a few times in confusion, pause and then blink again. She had no response to what Lucy had just dropped at her feet on her wedding day. Lucy watched her try to break down this confession into smaller, more understandable pieces and still fail to comprehend what she had just been told.

Lucy looked over at her brother, who seemed to be short circuiting upon hearing her greatest secret just being dragged into the open. Abe was for once, completely at a loss for words.

Lucy snuck a quick glance at Ulyssa, who had also gone silent beside her. Her face was unreadable, frozen in place like she’d been carved from stone.

“I have to go, my father’s waiting for me downstairs,” she finally said. Her tone was robotic, as though the part of her brain that processed words had crashed, and her brain was still rebooting. “I’m getting married.”

Without another word, Ulyssa pushed past the Helios-Chun siblings and disappeared down the hall. They could hear her heels slowly descend down the stone staircase, slow and deliberate, like she was trapped in a daze.

Abe immediately spun around to confront his sister now that they were alone, but Lucy pushed past him too, wordlessly leaving Abe to process everything he’d heard alone. Well, he and Roman would be having a very scandalous talk later. Maybe hecould tell him what exactly he should do in this situation, because Abe didn’t have a clue how to help his sister.

Abe didn’t see his sister when he went downstairs to look for her. Since she wasn’t anywhere in sight, and he couldn’t hear any more shouting, his guess was that she was in the washroom, reapplying her makeup so that no one could guess that she’d been crying. It’s what he would be doing if he’d had an argument that horrible with Roman, but still had to be filmed in a crowd for a television special.

He’d wait for her outside with the crowd then. He had no idea how to comfort a sister that was sad, instead of just angry. When he thought about it, he realized that for most of his life, it had been Lucy comforting him over his heartaches. She clearly had deep emotions, but Abe had never acknowledged them before. Just because she and Nathan took after their mother with their emotions, didn’t mean that they didn’t have any. From this moment on, Abe vowed to be a better brother to Lucy, especially when she was trying to push him away.

He had to cross paths with Roman on the way out, who was playing on his phone, while everyone waited for Ulyssa. Abe shot him a quick look that hopefully conveyed that they needed to talk about something important. Roman winked back with a salacious look, and then returned to his phone. Abe sighed. He desperately needed to reforge his lost connection with Roman. That, or get better at sending glances.

Abe took his place outside, glancing around for signs of either his sister or Ulyssa. Maura hadn’t been beside Roman as he’d walked by, and that fact filled him with dread.

What happens if this whole wedding falls apart because of Lucy’s secret? I wish I knew what to do here. This is all such a mess.

Abe nearly jumped when the wedding procession music began playing. The queen arrived first and the crowd was instructed to bow as she, and then her daughter took their places. A small group of children came out, scattering flower petals as they walked. A few bumped into each other as they waved to their parents, but were otherwise picture perfect. Abe waved proudly at his son as Theo walked down the aisle, but he didn’t notice, as his eyes were glued on the pillow he carried. He carried that pillow as though it were a bomb, and it could explode at the slightest jostle of the tiny boxes that rested on it. He was determined not to let his aunt Ulyssa down in front of so many people.

To Abe’s relieved surprise, both Ulyssa and Maura appeared, with Roman and Launce on their arms. He had no idea what their appearance meant for the future, but it looked like this wedding was still going to happen.

As the two women repeated their vows to each other, Abe saw Lucy appear beside him with red eyes, but immaculate makeup. She stared straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge the arm that Abe had wrapped around her. Both siblings watched the wedding before them silently, but Abe could feel Lucy curl into his embrace, hugging her brother like she hadn’t since they were teens.

“What the hell are you doing here, Lucy?”

Ulyssa was livid to find the one sim she absolutely did not want to see before her wedding, standing awkwardly in her doorway.

“I came with Abe,” Lucy answered, still taken aback at the sight of Ulyssa in a wedding dress. “I wanted to see you again. Alone. This seemed like the only way.”

“And why the hell would I ever want to be alone with you?” Ulyssa demanded angrily. “Especially right before I get married? How did you even get here?”

Lucy waved off her questions flippantly.

“Anyone could sneak in here,” she said. “Everyone is looking outside for something like a bomb threat or a weapon. I certainly didn’t tip off anyone about a potential threat I saw in the cloak room. All the people to watch are outside, no one is really covering the private quarters.”

“Great, you’ve proven once more how perfect you think you are,” Ulyssa growled. “Now leave before I call security here so you can tell them how much smarter you are when they haul you out of here.”

“You can’t just keep ignoring me,” Lucy insisted. “You haven’t even said a word to me since that night. Not about anything important anyway. You were my friend, and now you won’t even take my calls.”

“We’re not friends, Lucy. Roman is my friend. You’re Abe’s annoying, bitchy, stuck up sister who is breaking and entering to stalk me. Abe is engaged to my friend, you’re just his sister. You don’t factor in this equation at all.”

“We’re both Theo’s godparents,” Lucy replied, trying not to look as wounded as she felt. “We helped those idiots survive long enough to have their kid, and we both love Theo. We used to watch him together. We had fun together.”

“We’re not together Lucy!” Ulyssa snapped, beginning to lose her temper. “I’ve indulged you too long already! I’m getting marriedtoday, there’s nothing between us. Spending an afternoon babysitting together isn’t a declaration of true love. It’s not like we’re raising Theo. We can both be godparents and still barely know each other. You and I have nothing between us. I’ve told you time and time again that I don’t want to be with you and even if I did, showing up here isn’t the way to win me over. Can’t you see how inappropriate this is? Are you actually crazy enough to think that I might want to leave my life here to run away with you? Is that what you’re here for? It’s not going to happen!”

“Look, I know it was a while ago, and we got way too drunk, but there was something between us,” Lucy exclaimed. “It wasn’t just me, you were kissing me back.”

Ulyssa looked around for eavesdroppers in the hall, but couldn’t see past Lucy.

“Nothing happened between us!” she hissed. “I didn’t kiss you. I would never wantto kiss you even if I wasdrunk. You need to leave Lucy, you need to leave now.”

“What, so you can keep denying what happened?” Lucy exploded. “We kissed Ulyssa! We did a lot more than that on my dorm’s most uncomfortable couch!” She leaned dramatically out of the doorway. “Ulyssa and I slept together! Yeah, the gold digging bride took my virginity, without protection, and then ran away the instant it was over! I bet she never told her fancy fiancee about that! Who would let her keep living here in luxury, far away from the regularpeople if they knew?”

“Lucy stop it!” Ulyssa ordered, looking around Lucy as best she could to see if anyone could hear Lucy’s tirade. “No one will believe you. Who would? You’re just jealous because the best you can do for a spouse is an ugly, untalented freak who’s probably just using you to get to get close to Roman again!”

Lucy snorted loudly.

 “Yeah, I’ll bet you’d be jealous if some one touched your precious Roman,” she sneered. “What does Maura think of your ‘friendship’? I’ve seen the way she watches you two, you’re not fooling anyone. He’s such a huge part of your wedding, doesn’t she worry that you’ll be looking at him when you’re at that altar, saying your vows? Are you hoping to marry rich and keep him on the side? ‘Cause I don’t think my brother’s going to share.”

“Shut up!” Ulyssa snapped. “Just shut up, Lucy! Why can’t you just leave when you’re not wanted? Get a clue, no one wants you around! No one wants you period!”

“That’s rich, coming from you. That’s not what you said in my dorm that night. You wanted a lot of things, but definitely not me to leave.”

Ulyssa clenched her fists into tight balls of rage. This was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, and Lucy was going to utterly ruin it with her big mouth. No one would believe her; why would they? Lucy had a history of being dramatic, and Ulyssa had been perfectly clear that she didn’t share Lucy’s feelings in front of witnesses. Unfortunately, the castle’s defenses limited the spells performed on the grounds, or Lucy would be washing up on the Arkhelios shores if Ulyssa had anything to say about it.

“Anything that you allegehappened only happened because I was drunk,” she stated coldly. Any second now, her father would be coming up to bring her downstairs, and the last thing she wanted him to see was Lucy shouting in the hall like a lunatic. It was bad enough that her father was dating Lucy’s overbearing, mess of a mother, she didn’t need him getting ideas about her and Lucy. Ulyssa wanted nothing to do with Elaine. She didn’t want her as a step-mother, or as her dad’s date to every important event in her life. At least he had listened to her ultimatum about bringing Elaine to the wedding. Elaine was at home with her soon to be ex-wife and Ulyssa’s formerly zombie uncle. The fewer Helios-Chuns at her wedding the better it would be. She did really like Abe, but his sister, brother and mother were something else entirely. She could never forgive Elaine for lying to her father about having his child as a teenager. What kind of woman just let someone walk around, never knowing that the child that the Bellamys adopted was his? And Lucy? Well, she was a nightmare all on her own.

“It doesn’t matter if you were drunk,” Lucy insisted. “It still happened. Have you never heard of the phrase ‘In vino veritas’? You have to feel something, somewhere for me. You have to!”

Ulyssa sighed heavily, flipping through her brain for a spell that she could perform that would rid her of this problem. None immediately came to mind. Calling for security would only make Lucy angrier, and liable to shout out all sorts of things about Ulyssa that eavesdroppers could whisper about. Still, she was going to be late for her own, very expensive wedding all because of Lucy and her deluded fantasies.

“Get out,” she ordered as firmly as she could. “My dad’s going to be here any second now, and the last thing he needs is another Helios woman ruining his family. Your mother has done enough of that. I didn’t want her here, and I absolutely don’t want you here either.”

If looks could kill, Ulyssa would be a smouldering pile of ashes on the floor.

“Mymom has ruined things?” she repeated, unable to even process what was being said. “Mymother? I’m sorry, but I seem to remember it being yourmother who seduced my dad. It was yourmother who moved in with a married man, parading around in her underwear in front of his children! I’m not sure why I thought that you’d be any different than she was. Apparently being a selfish slut just runs in your family!”

Teenage Ulyssa would have whipped off her jewelry, and slapped Lucy where she stood for that. Adult, responsible Ulyssa was still dying to do it, but refrained. She was better than that, and besides, she didn’t want to ruin her makeup.

“Oh,mymom’s a slut?” Ulyssa laughed callously. “I wouldn’t throw stones when everyone in your family just can’t seem to figure out what birth control is for. Your mother should have told my dad about Hunter. He deserved to know, to make a choice about his son. What kind of sociopath hides a pregnancy from her partner and breaks up with him? What a big surprise that your brother was a teenage dad, and youdon’t even know who the parent of your kid is. I’m sure that any day now, Nathan will be the next Chun child to have a kid before he’s twenty. I hope to god whoever manages to sleep with him takes a look at the trend in your family and gets the hell out while they still can. How many people could be your kid’s parent? Do you even know? I’d take a good, hard look at your own family before you go making assumptions about mine.”

Lucy had never been this furious in all her life. Not when her dad ran off with Ulyssa’s mother. Not when Roman left her brother hanging for days when he learned he was pregnant. Not even when the line on the pregnancy test she’d taken had appeared, showing a positive result. Her blood was practically boiling in her veins. Any sense of where she was, and the decorum she was supposed to be showing there vanished. She and Ulyssa were suddenly alone in the world, standing face to face, throwing emotional rocks at each other until one of them backed down.

Well, Lucy didn’t intend to back down. She’d rather die than lose this fight. The hurt and the pain and the regret she’d been carrying for so many months all piled on top of the rational part of her brain, until she was sure that she would die if she didn’t say something now. If she didn’t scream the truth at the top of her lungs for that bitch to hear. To know at last what she’d done to Lucy and how each second looking at their daughter tore her apart inside. Ulyssa was right about one thing; Launce should have known what he’d done.

Theo tried not to stare in awe at the pale girl in front of him. Finally there was someone who might be friendly to him even after all the grownups had stopped paying attention to them.

“Hi, I’m Theo. My aunt is getting married and I’m the ring bearer,” Theo boasted proudly. “It’s a very important job but my aunt needs me to do it.”

The girl smiled, revealing her pointed teeth once more.

“I’m Bronwen,” she replied. “My dad’s a duke, so we have to be here.”

“My dad’s a duke too!” Theo exclaimed happily. He had even more in common with this girl than he’d thought. “At least I think he is, or my sisters are…I’m not really sure, but I have to wear this stupid uniform either way.”

“Yeah, it’s dumb,” she agreed. “We don’t even live in a castle or anything. We have a pool though at my great-aunt’s house.”

“Are you a demon?” Theo just asked the question, rather than try to come up with a polite way of bringing it up. “I’m a demon. My grandpa’s a zombie, but you don’t look like a zombie or a demon.”

Bronwen smiled and leaned towards his ear like she was telling him a juicy secret.

“My mom’s a vampire,” she whispered. “I’m not supposed to talk about her though, it makes my dad upset. She left us when I was a baby and she’s never come back.”

Theo nearly exploded with giddiness at this confession. This was all too good to be true.

“I’m not supposed to talk about my family either,” he exclaimed. “Daddy gets angry when I talk about my grandma. She tried to kill me or so everyone says. I don’t think it’s true though. My other grandma lets me have a room of my own at her house. Grandma’s are supposed to be nice like her.”

He engulfed Bronwen in a fierce hug.

“Can we be best friends?” he asked quickly. “I’ve never had a best friend before. All the kids at school are mean to me.”

“Sure,” Bronwen agreed. “I’ve never met a demon before. Can you go out in the sun?”

Theo nodded excitedly.

“Yeah, of course I can,” he answered. “I have to wear a stupid charm though to keep me from using my powers.” He looked around them for eavesdroppers. “I can almostdo whatever I want though. It isn’t as hard to concentrate anymore.”

Bronwen’s eyes were like saucers.

“My sister is going to be a witch,” she said. “Maybe she can make me a charm to go outside or I could borrow yours and see if it helps me. We should show it to her!”

Theo nodded happily. This was turning out to be the best day of his life..

“Now Lucy, I’m giving you the same rules I give Roman,” Abe announced, as they stepped on to the lawn of the Twikkii Island castle. “No fighting, no fires, and nobody starts gossiping about inappropriate topics. We’re representing Arkhelios for Ulyssa, and we want to make a good impression.”

Ulyssa’s long awaited wedding was finally happening. After all the hours of dress choosing, cake tasting, and guest lists that Roman had spent helping Ulyssa, Abe was glad to have his fiance back so that they could do all of that same work for their own wedding. It was an exhausting process.

The invitations had been sent so long ago that Abe and Roman had been broken up when they’d arrived. As a result, they both had an additional plus one included in their invitations. Ulyssa had clarified that it was mostly just a way to judge numbers for the reception dinner, so Roman’s plus one was the twins, who needed to be included in the menu planning but only needed small toddler portions. There was talk about making the reception for adults only, but Ulyssa insisted on her godson being present. There was also no way that Roman would find a babysitter for the twins on a Saturday now that Elaine, Launce, Oriana and Benvolio were spending weekends together, and most of Adrian’s extended family had insisted that he bring them so they could visit. With Roman and the twins accounted for, Lucy had twisted Abe’s arm until he’d agreed to take her with him. It wasn’t a good idea, but Abe had the feeling that his sister would just find a more disruptive way to crash the wedding if he hadn’t agreed.

“Theo, stop rolling around on the ground, you’re going to ruin your suit, and it’s very expensive to clean.”

Theo tried to land on his feet as much as possible, and brushed off some of the dirt from his boots. This outfit was itchy and hot, but he didn’t dare get it dirty and have to listen to fancy people yell at him and brush the dirt and leaves from him like last night when he’d had to sit through a rehearsal.

Roman was already on the grounds, making sure everything was ready, while Abe had to take Theo to join the other kids involved with the ceremony. Lucy would be alone and unsupervised for at least ten minutes, something Abe knew was a bad idea, but he had very little control over it. Surely an entire castle brimming with high profile figures would have enough security to keep her out of trouble, but this wasLucy they were dealing with. While she didn’t have any supernatural powers, she and Roman seemed to be equally matched when it came to causing trouble. Abe left her at the entrance to the gardens and tried to mime to a nearby guard that he should watch Lucy without her seeing him.

Abe dropped off Theo at the appropriate room, and went to find his place outside before the ceremony started. He was desperately hoping to see his sister out there waiting for him, but somehow his gut told him not to get his hopes up despite the number of guards positioned to stop anything crazy from happening. He’d at least see Roman and their son participate in the event in an appropriate manner. They’d been rehearsing their parts together for days now. Focusing on the wedding was at least an outlet for Theo, who still wasn’t doing well with befriending the other kids at school. He tried to hide it when he got off the bus each afternoon, but both of his parents could see the hurt on his face.

“Ulyssa?”

Lucy peered down a long hallway, poking her head in a room just off the stairs. This was the fourth door she’d tried since sneaking past security. Two had been occupied with wedding guests fixing their hair and makeup, and the other had been a study of some kind.

“Maura? You’re not supposed to see me before the wedding. It’s bad luck.”

Ulyssa stopped fussing with her hair to greet who she assumed was her bride to be. When she saw who it was, she stopped immediately, staring at the unwanted intruder.

“Hi,” Lucy managed to squeak out, suddenly overwhelmed at the sight of Ulyssa in a wedding dress. A very fancy wedding dress, that was appropriate for such a formal occasion, but still very flattering. Despite telling herself how over Ulyssa she was, Lucy’s face suddenly felt red hot imagining Ulyssa walking down the aisle to meet her at the altar. Or of the wild honeymoon they would surely have.

Why had she come here again? To tell herself that she was fine with Ulyssa running away from Arkhelios to live in a princess fantasy? To prove that she didn’t care at all who Ulyssa married? She was so determined to have a moment alone with Ulyssa, she’d never stopped to think about what she’d do when she found her. Coming here had been a huge mistake.

“You can’t sit there, that’s the throne! Only the queen can sit there!”

Theo blinked in surprise, not expecting to be yelled at just for sitting somewhere in the giant room. All the kids were waiting for their various ceremony cues together in a boring room where Theo was certain someone would yell at him for touching anything. Of course even sitting down to quietly wait was prompting someone to yell at him. He stood immediately, but the girl with pigtails still glowered at him.

‘Sorry, I didn’t know,” he apologized quickly. He didn’t want to get in a fight with anyone, not when he’d been told to be on his best behaviour. The last thing he wanted was for Aunt Ulyssa to be mad at him for ruining her wedding.

“Leave him alone, Remy, he’s not from here,” a pale girl snapped, shooting a dirty look at the other girl.

Theo smiled at his defender gratefully. It wasn’t every day that another kid stood up for him. She smiled back and Theo could see a flash of sharp, pointed teeth when she did.

She was different like he was! Not a demon, but something different all the same. Suddenly this wedding became interesting for something other than the food and dancing. Unlike in Arkhelios, there were kids here that might be like him.

“You two are useless. Get outside, and get the flower boys and girls ready. This wedding is going to start on time, and it’s going to be perfect. Go. Now.”

Maura’s younger brother and sister scurried away from their overbearing grandmother, hoping that if they did as she asked, she would turn her attention away from them. The queen wasn’t even fully dressed for the occasion yet, but she still felt the need to micromanage every part of this ceremony.

“Your Highness?”

Maura turned around to see Roman Bellamy waiting for her as planned. He was her official companion to lead her to the ceremony and down the altar, as her father had been dead for years, and it would be improper for the queen or princess to do so. Ulyssa still had her father around, but had graciously volunteered her sim of honour Roman to help Maura. It was really just slowly walking with a beautiful woman in front of a crowd, so it wasn’t like Roman minded the assignment all that much.

“Are you ready?” he asked, watching her look out at the crowd of people waiting for her to appear. “Your grandmother is finally getting changed after screaming at the kitchen staff. I could never work under that amount of pressure, they must have nerves of steel.”

Maura chuckled, feeling some of her apprehension ease. This was her big day, her biggest until the day she was eventually crowned queen. She’d been waiting for this for a long time. Finally she could call Ulyssa her wife.

“She’s a softie most days,” Maura said with a smile. “I think we’d have to hire poison testers if she was like this every day. She just wants everything to be perfect. For everyone to be perfect.”

“Are you nervous?” Roman asked, offering her his arm. “There’s a lot of people here. It’s okay to have cold feet. It’s normal, I think. I can barely remember my own wedding. I was too busy trying to get things right to even enjoy myself.”

A sadness reached Maura’s eyes, but her face remained unchanged.

“I’m glad you brought your daughters for this,” she said. “I hope somewhere Adrian is watching today. He always did love weddings.”

“I hope so too,” Roman replied honestly. There would always be an empty space at family occasions reminding everyone of Adrian’s absence. Roman couldn’t even imagine how he’d feel one day when their daughters got married and Adrian was nothing but a distant memory. Just like Roman, the girls would have to leave an empty chair at their weddings to signify the parent they lost.

Roman shook his head, trying to stop the flood of emotions he felt about the people he’d lost, and would never see again. That was a problem for another time. Today, he had a wedding to celebrate.

“Theodosius Ulysses Bellamy! You know you’re not allowed to be in here! How many times have I told you that my office isn’t safe to play in?”

Roman continued to shout at his son, while Theo’s attention drifted. He heard the same thing every time he tried to have fun. “This isn’t safe. “You’re too young.” “You’re going to break something important.” It was all the same in the end. If his parents had their way, Theo would never do anything fun.

Roman sighed. No matter how many times he told his son to be careful, and listen to the rules, Theo never listened. Elaine had burst out laughing once when he’d caught Theo swimming in the backyard pool at three in the morning, and tried to explain that the same rules that applied to everyone else in the house also applied to him. That he could drown, or fall, and that he wasn’t to leave his bedroom until it was time for breakfast. Though she wasn’t on the greatest terms with Oriana, they’d both still nearly died laughing at Roman’s frustrated face. Who was Roman Bellamy to tell someone that they shouldn’t sneak out at night, and to follow the rules? Roman just wished they’d named Theo something shorter, so it was easier to call out when he saw Theo endanger himself.

Like he was now.

“Do you know what that crystal ball does?” Roman demanded. Theo shrugged and Roman tried not to tear out his own hair with frustration. “Then we don’t touch it remember? We talked about Daddy’s office, and finding weird stuff around the house, remember? You might hurt yourself.”

Theo looked around him for something boring that he could show Malika, only to find that she’d run off when a grownup had appeared to yell at them.

“Can’t you just teach me how to use it then?” he asked. “Then I could show people what I can do, and they’d want to hang out with me. Malika said that I don’t have any friends that aren’t babies and she’s right. No one wants to play with me.”

Roman sighed, opened his mouth, and then thought better of it. He folded his arms, and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to think of what to say. He’d spent most of his life with just Kaeileen and Abe as friends, and look how that had turned out. He could only say now that he had Ulyssa as a close friend and maybe Lucy as a co-conspirator. He too had only had older, adult friends as a teen, and he knew the pain of what his son was feeling well.

“We shouldn’t give the people who are mean to us any of our time,” he said softly. “Real friends like you for you are, not what you can do or show them. You’ll make some real friends. You’ve only just started going to school. You’ll meet all kinds of amazing people in your life and whatever kid just abandoned you here to get in trouble alone won’t even matter. You’ve got so much to look forward to, if you’ll only be more careful. Promise me Theo that I’m not going to find you in here again.”

Theo nodded quickly and Roman hugged him tightly in his arms.

I wish I could just make the other kids be nicer to him. I don’t want him to grow up like I did, except worse now that people are talking about him and worrying about him. How do I make kids stop picking on him, when I could never get them to stop bullying me?

Theo was sent to his room for the rest of the funeral, where Roman figured he’d be happiest anyway. He could change out of his suit and play video games to his heart’s content. It was a punishment that he wished he would receive just to escape his family and well wishers.

“Roman! How are you doing? Sorry I’m late, I got held up by an appointment that ran long.”

All of his stress vanished for a few seconds to see his only friend show up to support him. Roman hugged Ulyssa gratefully. If she couldn’t cheer him up, she could at least have a talk with Theo from someone who wasn’t his parent. Maybe cool aunt Ulyssa would get through to him.

“It’s been a day,” Roman replied, sighing. “Thank god you missed my eulogy, I’m pretty sure I’m going to get an earful from Wanda tomorrow.”

“Are you going to be…okay for my wedding?” Ulyssa asked, trying not to offend her friend. “I know losing a parent is hard, and you’ve basically lost both of yours now. I’d understand if you needed time to process that and you couldn’t honour your commitments for the wedding.”

Roman shrugged.

“I think I’m fine,” he said. “We weren’t that close, and what else can I do? He’s gone. He hasn’t been in my life for years now, what’s different about it now?”

“You may feel that way now,” Ulyssa said softly. “It will catch up with you when you’re not expecting it though. Like when you have to plan your wedding, and just have empty places where your parents should be.”

In a rare moment, Roman saw how hurt Ulyssa was about the state of her family. Her mother was essentially dead, though her body continued on, and her father had never been too close with his children, always working long hours to earn enough to support his family. What was it like to try to plan around that kind of family situation? Roman would find out when he and Abe talked about an invitation to their own wedding for Ian.

“I’ll remember that,” Roman promised. “There’s no way I’m missing your wedding to mope around here about my dad though, so don’t worry. I couldn’t tear Theo and the girls away from a party that big either, even if I wanted to. Theo’s been practicing his dancing for weeks now. They’d never forgive me.”

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.