“Lily?” Amanda asked with a slight slur as she followed Sirius back into their warm house.

  “She’s upstairs,” Sirius replied reassuringly. “She’s fine.” He tried to keep the tenseness out of his voice. He wasn’t worried about her getting angry again. Amanda had never been an angry drunk. Impulsiveness was more her problem. As long as he could keep her away from the spell books she’d be fine. He just didn’t want to make her feel guilty for going to the bar, after all, he felt he bore just as much blame for that.

  As they entered the large foyer, Katrina jumped up from her seat at the computer and rushed over. “Guess what I found!”

  She didn’t wait for them to answer. “I looked up this guy, Nolan Perninski and I found an article about his wedding. Turns out he took his wife’s last name. So then I searched his original last name and found a whole bunch of articles about how he had to leave this other town because of rumours that he’d assaulted a little girl and worse. Look.” She pointed at the screen.

  Amanda peered closely. The words swam and it took her a moment to focus.

  “Man wanted in questioning over death.” Sirius read the title out loud.

  The picture was a little blurred but it looked a lot like Nolan Perninski.

  “There was an article about his wedding?” Amanda asked with a frown, noting the weirdness of that. Wedding’s weren’t usually newsworthy affairs unless it was someone famous or very rich.

  Drunk as Amanda was, the guilty look that flashed across her daughter’s face was not easily missed.

  “Well, it was an article on his work intranet. They do like a weekly social updates page.”

  “Katrina...”

  “They have really lax security,” Katrina explained shrinking in on herself under her mother’s gaze. “And I was only looking so I could help Aunt Cat. And I did see. This guy’s a monster. Was a monster.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact she killed him,” Amanda replied. She could hear tiredness in her own voice and right now she wanted nothing more than to go upstairs and sleep. Forget the day and everything that had happened, and re-look at it in the morning. But she had a few things to talk to Sirius about first and it would be easier while she was still tipsy.

  “We don’t know that she did,” Katrina argued.

  Amanda glanced at Sirius to see what he thought. He had a look of doubt on his face that mirrored how she was feeling.

  “It’s not looking great,” Amanda told her daughter in a sympathetic tone.

  Katrina scowled, obviously finding no comfort in the words. “Well, if she did, she did the world a favor.”

  Amanda frowned. She knew Katrina was just defending her aunt because she looked up to her. If only Cat could be a better role model. “We have laws for a reason. She should have gone to the police.”

  Katrina stamped her foot angrily. “That’s what she was going to do.”

  “But she didn’t.”

  “Well, they had their chance to get him. There was so much evidence.” Katrina gestured wildly at the screen. “Aunt Cat’s right. The police are useless.”

  With that, she spun on her heels, her black hair flying out like a raven taking flight, and she took off up the stairs.”

  Amanda watched her go with a sigh. Neither parent chased after her. Both knew it was best to let her be.

  Another dark-haired face poked down from the half way up the stairs a moment later. Salem.

  “Is the computer free?” he asked.

  Amanda brought a hand to her head with a sigh. It was already starting to pound. “Don’t stay up too late playing video games,” she told him as she started to climb the stairs.

  Salem took that as a yes and, with a big grin on his face, he raced down past her to grab the computer chair.

  Amanda returned to her room. The bed looked comfy, but she couldn’t lie down just yet.

  Sirius followed her in a moment later with a glass of water which he handed to her.

  She gave him a thankful smile and sat on the edge of the bed. “There’s not much we can do tonight.”

  He closed their bedroom door gently and nodded at the bed. “Best get some rest then.”

  She watched as he made his way to their dresser, stripping off his clothes as he went.

  When his singlet came up and over his head, revealing his muscular back, she studied the scars that were now as familiar to her as the nooks a crannies of their own home. Scars that his sister almost had a matching set of.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Don’t know what we’re going to do about this one. It’s not like we can just break her out,” she said.

  Sirius glanced back at her but he didn’t speak. He didn’t look too worried either. He just looked tired, like she felt.

  She struggled to suppress a yawn.

  “We’ll figure it out in the morning,” he said gently, coming to sit beside her. “It won’t do her any harm to sit in a jail cell overnight. It wouldn’t be the first time either.”

  They were a team, even now, no matter what. His words and the alcohol had calmed her fire, along with time and years of practice. Their bond was strong. But that sort of strength was forged in honesty.

  “There’s something else,” she said.

  “Hmm?” he asked as he slid up behind her. She felt his fingers graze her back.

  “I went to the morgue.”

  She felt his fingers move away and when she turned to look at him she could see renewed alertness in his eyes.

  “I resurrected Lily’s father.”

  Sirius’s eyebrows knotted.

  “Just briefly, just to get some information. He was pretty far gone. No one was going to do a proper resurrection and I figured he’d still want to help her. He did this for her after all. Figured if I knew what he’d done I could find a way to fix it, do it properly.”

  Sirius was watching her closely.

  “He said Coal killed him.”

  Sirius remained still as a statue, watching her intently, as if he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  “I didn’t do anything else. I just questioned him.”

  Sirius’s posture relaxed significantly. “What did you use for a sacrifice?”

  “A rabbit.”

  He nodded.

  “There’s something else. He said they were supposed to meet someone in Witchaven, someone who could maybe help with Lily. The thing is, Coal said similar. He mentioned that there was someone in Witchaven who had crawled out of the rubble of the facility. He thought it might be Lily’s father but that’s obviously not the case, and given Coal was the one who killed him, he must have known that. I think he interrogated Cornelius before he killed him so he probably got the same information I did, I’m just not sure why he’d want us to go there.”

  “Probably to tidy up loose ends. He knows you wouldn’t stand for her being killed so he’s helping instead.”

  “Maybe.”

  “You’re not sure.”

  She rubbed her head. It was late and she’d drunken more than she should have. Still one thing was clear.

  She met Sirius’s eyes. “Either way, I think we need to go to Witchaven.”

  Across town, in a very different bar, one who didn’t ask too much from their patrons, one whose door was hidden, unmarked down a narrow alley barely wide enough for a sailor not to have to turn sideways. No windows, only wood and flickering candles.

  “You meddled,” Murphy accused Bambi in an annoyed tone as he took the seat to her right. “I told you not to meddle.”

  “It had to be done,” Bambi replied calmly as she nursed the glass of red Stella had ordered for her.

  “Because of you lives will be lost. Your actions have consequences. The delay you have caused-”

  “Saved lives,” Bambi replied simply. She met Murphy’s brown eyes. She knew it. He knew it. She knew he knew she knew it.

  “Not lives we care about.”

  “You care about these lives?” she questioned, knowing he didn’t, not really, not any more or less than the ones her actions had saved. Everything was a trade. His words were a lie. He did care but choices had to be made.

  “When they impede the mission.”

  “The mission’s fine,” Stella answered from Bambi’s other side. “It just means I have to join them in Witchaven.”

  “You can not meddle. You can not talk to them. Not to any of them. Except Coal.” Murphy shook his head and scowled down into his drink. “They should be heading to Witchaven already.”

  “They will be,” Stella replied confidently.

  He shook his head again. “It’ll be days too late.”

  Stella nodded thoughtfully. “Yes. It does mean there will be a death. That can not be prevented. But there will be many more deaths and a munch longer delay, not to mention an investigation if I do not go. I will try to stay in the shadows if I can, but I can not be certain of it. If the HPL gets involved we’ll all be in the firing line. Everything will be at risk.”

  “We are not their friends,” Murphy emphasized.

  “I know that.” Stella bristled like a child reprimanded.

  ‘Lie,’ Bambi thought. She knew Stella knew, but she did not believe it. There were only a few things Stella wanted more than real friends. Her and Murphy weren’t enough. They were more like parents than anything. That group was older too, compared to Stella, but she had been watching them long enough now and in them she saw comradery that she envied. Friendships she longed for. Bambi understood but that desire posed a danger. Stella would likely long outlive anyone she met. She would one day continue the legacy of the guardians. She would need people to keep her grounded but at the same time she would need to be able to deal with the loss of them too and remain impartial for the benefit of everything that was precious. It was a delicate balance. Bambi and Murphy had to be careful. They could not afford to give Stella too much, but nor could they give her too little. And above all they must not put themselves in a position where selfish desire and close relationships would compromise the mission. Since the great splice, the organisation of the guardians had protected this world and it must continue to do so.

  But of course, everyone slipped now and again. Sometimes it was worth it and it wasn’t like there was a plan for any of this.

  “I regret nothing,” Bambi told Murphy.

  “It was not our right to choose.”

  “You choose all the time. And she would choose the same you know, if she knew.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “For a child.”

  “Everyone was a child once, and every child becomes an adult. Neither has more value than the other.”

  Bambi shook her head. “That’s not how people see it.”

  “People are foolish. Short lived.”

  “Careful.” she met his eyes, silently reminded him of the reason he kept them close.

  He softened and sighed. He knew. It was a delicate balance. They all walked it. Lived in the world, loved the world, and protected the world. Love and kindness and all the things that defined life were things that could not be forgotten because that was what they fought for. But to protect the existence of all life, to be fair, they must not love any one part of this world much more than another. Must not put any one person above another without good logical reason. They must remain impartial. Impartial but not cold. To watch the world, one could never live in it too deeply. But to remember why they watched it, they must occasionally take a swim. Together they kept each other from drowning on land or in the sea.

  Stella had tasted little of friendship in her life. She needed more of that, while they could still pull her back out, and so Bambi lied for her. After a moment’s silence she said to Murphy, “She won’t get too close.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere else right now?” Stella asked Murphy calmly and with the touch of a knowing smile.

  “Aren’t you?” came the reply.

  Without another word needed, the pair of them both left the bar and went their separate ways, off to do the tasks that needed doing, leaving Bambi alone to wonder if she’d made the right choice.