Champion

Morgan giggled as the little kitten began to bite at her fingers. The blonde couldn’t help it; she loved all animals- from the fuzziest kitten to scaled snakes. “Hello, Haru,” the Witch said with a warm smile as she relaxed her hand and gave the kitten a soft pet on the top of its head.

“She’s a princess, huh?” Morgan said, still wearing her trademark smile. “Only the best food will do for you, huh? Or you’re gonna throw up all over the place?”  

Turning her attention away from the kitten, Morgan stood up and then nodded her head at Kwang. “I do.”

Taking a look around Kwang’s townhouse, Morgan couldn’t help but feel like it suited him quite well, or at least what she knew of him. It was immaculate, open, and minimalistic in nature. As she took a few steps to admire a piece of art on his all, she felt tiny claws begin to make their way up her jeans.

“Are we in the ‘everything is a tree’ phase, Haru?”

Looking back at Kwang, Morgan smiled, “I have a new cat tree if you want it. I bought it for Jiji, and he would rather just sleep in a cardboard box or sit on top of my refrigerator. It has a place where she can scratch, too, unless you want her tearing up your couch. Oh…about that plant. It’s an Ostra present. I made them for all my friends. It’s been spelled to bring you light and happiness as it grows. It’s also not poisonous to cats. Which is lucky since you have this new baby.”

“The ultimate princess.” Kwang admitted as he shook his head. He began to start to make his favorite blend of tea. “She runs this house now. I sleep where she wants me to sleep. She owns corners of the house now which I have discovered by having my feet devoured.” He laughed. “I think she knows that there is no one else that lives here, and she’s discovered that I’m a softie. This isn’t the Moon house anymore. It’s Haru’s.”

After he finished getting the tea started, he turned to Morgan only to discover her looking at the lotus painting that he had gotten commissioned back when he lived in France. He had wanted something simple that wouldn’t make people think he was trying to advertise his beliefs, but it would be something that would bring him a great deal of comfort. The lotus was a perfect balance for him. The colors and style was perfect for Kwang’s minimalist preferences.

He was too slow to stop Haru as she began to claw up Morgan’s leg, “I would appreciate a cat tree so much. I ordered one of those wall things, but they said it’d be two weeks before it got here then I have to figure out how to put it up. I’m worried about my furniture, so that would be... you’d be saving me.” He turned to the plant before smiling, “And thank you for that... it’s a very nice...” He turned to her as he finally heard the word friends. A small smile spread over his face as a light blush splashed on his cheeks. “It’s a very nice friendship gift. I really appreciate it.”

A small light in the darkness. A little thing to hold onto.

Morgan wasn’t quite sure what had possessed her to include Kwang Jung-Moon in her circle of friends. They had only known each other since October, and it wasn’t like they knew each other well. Yet, Morgan knew a part of Kwang that he kept hidden. She knew about Katrina, and she knew that Katrina’s death was what had brought him to Mirror Lake. Though he had never precisely spoken the words to the Witch, Morgan assumed that Kwang was looking for closure, and believed tatt he might find it in the place where Katrina had lived before going to France.

For quite some time, he had kept Morgan at arm’s length, so when he smiled and invited her inside his home, she was a bit shocked. “Two things?” the Witch asked as he looked up at Kwang, though as she stepped inside the townhouse that the Warlock called home, Morgan sensed another form of energy. Looking down, she spotted Kwang setting down a tiny kitten.

“Ohmygod Kitty!” the Witch said with joy in her voice. Grinning ear to ear, Morgan knelt down and extended her hand to the small creature, moving slowly so she wouldn’t frighten the kitten.

“Hello baby,” Morgan said softly, “Aren’t you just the fuzziest thing I’ve ever seen. You’re so little.” She watched as the kitten sniffed her hand curiously.

“You must smell Jiji,” Morgan said to the kitten before turning around to look at Kwang.

“I have a fondness for cats. When did you get this sweet ball of fluff?”

The look on Morgan’s face reminded Kwang that he wasn’t exactly acting like himself. He was sure he was being far too warm to her, and he knew he’d upset her if he decided back to snap back to himself afterwards. He just couldn’t get himself to calm down at the sight and sound of anything that wasn’t the construction next door. It was even better that it was someone that Kwang didn’t mind- better yet he had to admit to himself that he did like her a least a little. He was a little shocked just how happy he was to see the blonde with her muted colors but bright eyes.

“Don’t worry about frightening her. She seems to like everyone. She likes being carried around most of all. Morgan meet Haru. Haru meet Morgan.” Kwang grinned as he waved between the kitten who began to nip at Morgan’s fingers lightly.

Allowing Haru to get used to Morgan, Kwang went to his kitchen and began to make tea. “I got her a couple of days ago? She’s a picky eater, and so the past few days have blended together in a puke filled sleepless chaos. I think today is the first day that she didn’t throw up. Her tastes are very refined it turns out.” He admitted before asking, “Do you like green tea?”

The time between Yule and Ostara was meant to be a peaceful period, and in a lot of ways, it had been. Time was marked by circles with the Full Moon Coven, date nights with Luke Blackwood, and weekends at the Blue Moon Bar with her friends. Yet, the Witch couldn’t help but feel like it had been one of the longest Winter’s of her life. The weather was unseasonably warm, toying with the natural rhythm of the seasons. Business at Thorne and Vine was slow, causing Morgan to feel trapped and irritated as she sat inside, organizing and reorganizing the same product.

After a few weeks of feeling restless, Morgan’s mother had suggested that she try to learn something new to help pass the time. Usually, the Witch would have shrugged off the suggestion, but that night Morgan picked up a book on flower magick and began to read. The next day she bought six clay pots, filled them with soil, and planted a few seeds in each one. Every day as she watered them, she spoke a little spell, encouraging the flowers to grow and bring happiness and light for the upcoming spring.

Today, after coming home from work, Morgan had found greenery poking out of the pots. With a grin, she grabbed one of the flowers and headed toward Kwang’s townhouse, only a block away from her own. Though the man had never exactly said where he lived, the Witch was observant and had spotted him coming and going a few times, as the community was a bit small.

Knocking on his door, Morgan waited until he opened the door before lifting the little flower up for her neighbor to see. “I brought you a gift!”

Kwang was used to weather that was unreasonable. Korea was known for it’s humid subtropical climate that many Westerners found unreasonable and difficult to live in especially during the summer. He was used to living with sweat in the middle of his back as the sun beat down on him in the middle of the tea farms. Summer heat with humidity that made it hard to breathe wasn’t something that Kwang ever minded. The winters in Korea were pretty cold too.

But Georgia managed to surprise Kwang. He thought that their winter would balance out the incredible heat that he heard about, but the winter was mild at best. There was one bit of snow, but the rest of the winter was simply rain- which there was far too much of. He kept hearing the locals talking about how some Lake Lanier had flooded over. He hated a warm winter, and that warm weather was getting on his nerves.

Then to add that his neighbor was a complete asshole who didn’t even warn Kwang that he was going to be doing construction. He was losing his mind.

When he heard a knocking on his door, he turned to Haru and smiled, “I guess we have a guest. You excited to meet our neighbor?” He walked to the door and opened it before smiling as he realized that it was Morgan instead of the asshole. He looked down at the flower before laughing, “Wow I got two new things to take care of. How nice!” He took the flower before waving Morgan inside. Once he closed the door he let Haru down on the floor. “Thank you so much!”

Danika listened carefully and watched Kwang as he explained some of the ideas that he was able to come up with on the spot to try and get more intel on Navin’s whereabouts; she had gone through every possible course of action in her mind to try and imagine every single possible outcome and as much as she hated to admit it, many of them resulted in her not getting Navin back alive which made it extremely hard for the witch to not be impulsive for once and go on a rampage to save the one man that has stuck by her side despite of all the baggage she carried on her back.

But things couldn’t be done like that, she needed to think of all the collateral damage she could cause to others; ICOWW too had been extremely strict on the course of action to rescue one of their best agents, although he was important, they needed to think of the rest of their kind and how dangerous it could be if they overlooked something.

Danika Lenoir had been known for being a loner, at the beginning of her project when her boss insisted to assign Navin Rajari to her team which she refused over and over until her boss gave her no choice. At the very beginning, the hazel eyed witch refused to trust the man; she was extremely hard on the warlock until eventually… he earned something that was extremely hard to get; her trust.

And as she looked at Kwang, she couldn’t help but feel a little reluctant to let him into this mission; she didn’t know much about him, she didn’t trust him but then Navin’s voice reminded her that he did trust Kwang-Jung Moon and perhaps, together they could bring the man back.

“It needs to be handled with extreme caution due to… current tensions but… let me speak to Cameron Clark and my superiors about this so I can share more details about this… if you accept we can bring you into this mission… I don’t know much about you but I do know Navin trusted you…” She said softly as she looked at him for a second, “Do you accept?”

Kwang wished that he hadn’t been in that position he was in so many times, but at the same time it did provide him the ability to stay calm while she contemplated whatever she was. It was clear that she didn’t know if she could trust him, and he wasn’t going to make that trust worse by pushing her about it. It was clear that she cared about Navin, and if he wasn’t careful, he was going to make her skittish around him. He needed to prove to her that he was an asset and someone to be trusted.

He leaned forward to meet her eyes in an attempt to show her how serious he was. He wanted her to see feel his honesty and determination. “You don’t have to trust me, and a good agent wouldn’t. I’m not surprised that your aren’t sure about me. It means that you’re one of those good agents. If you will let me help, I would be glad to help you. Cameron Clark has heard about me, because I’ve worked between I’m the agent between the local police force and ICOWW. He will likely be fine with me helping.”

Carefullly, he leaned back before adding, “I hope that I get to hear from you soon about this. I’d very much like to start helping as soon as I can.”

Morgan smiled widely as they reached the pool table. “Because I never do anything in moderation,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Lilith is very wise when it comes to how much alcohol to give a person. I’d be lining out shots for everyone, and probably giving away too much on the house.” She grabbed two pool cues, one for her and one for Kwang, before walking over with a broad smile. “Everyone in this bar would be drunk in less than thirty minutes.”

She handed Kwang the pool cue, though as he asked her about Jazz being behind the bar, a warm peal of laughter escaped from her lips. She could see that he was actually a bit concerned with Jazz serving drinks. “Oh, no. Jazz is worse than I am. She helps with dishes in the back sometimes after the Blue Moon closes for the night, but her spot is on that stage, and she does a hell of a good job at it.”

Morgan knew that Jazz could be a lot. She was loud, overly flirtatious, and a bit much at times. Her presence and energy could push people away, but no one knew her like Morgan and Lilith did. Under all that, bravado was the broken heart of a girl looking for love in all the wrong places.

Morgan grabbed the triangle and began to rack up the pool balls. “So, how has work been? Are you still on the night shift?” She tried to remember some of the information he had shared with her before the entire Katrina bubble had burst. “It shouldn’t take you too long to work yourself to the top. I mean, you have tons of experience. Are you trying to get back into detective work or stay on the beat?”

Smiling, Morgan hit the cue ball for a break and watched as a solid color ball went into a pocket. “Looks like you’re stripes!” she said with a grin before turning back to Kwang.

“Oh... I see... yes. I could see that being a terrible idea for a bar. Though, your friend does give free drinks out quite a bit too. She is quite the considerate bartender.” Kwang had always assumed that small town bars would be more careful about how they gave out drinks, but Lilith and her brother seemed to not follow that philosophy. He wondered if their goal at the end of the day was to create connection, because then people would come more since they knew the owners were nice and actually cared about their patrons.

He sighed as he heard that the blue haired one did not give out drinks. Though, it did sound nice of her after so many hours of rubbing her fingers raw on a guitar to go then sink her fingers in hot water to wash dishes. It was becoming more clear to Kwang that the functioning of Blue Moon wasn’t entirely supported by the owner. They did a huge amount of the work, but it was clear that their friends cared a great deal about the bar- enough to sacrifice their own comfort to help. “That she is. Her voice is honestly something quite unique and pleasant. “

He took the cue before nodding as she set up the table, “Yeah, I’m still working night shift. I was doing the beat, but due to my time in Interpol the head of the department has moved me to detective. I work the cases that requires working with other agencies like Federal, State, or other agencies.” He didn’t mention the ICOWW, because he wasn’t sure if mortals were listening or not.

He watched her knock a ball in with a bit of a frown, because that did not look like someone who was a six out of ten. Though, it could have been luck. “Stripes it is.” He set up his cue and struck the ball knocking it close to the corner, but then it bounced off the side rolling back to halfway between him and the corner. “Well... damn. How is your store going? Still profitable?”

Kwang Jung Moon had been one of the first people Samaira had contact with when she first arrived to Mirror Lake; the duo often ran into each other around the town and took the time to catch up and talk a little bit before each of them went on with the rest of their day or night; Samaira herself was sure that both of them returned to their homes to be alone, it seemed like they were mostly reserved and often could be seen as hermits. Often the witch was reminded how much she didn’t know about Kwang, most of the time they talked about her or something else; it seemed almost like the warlock avoided to talk about his personal life but she couldn’t blame him for that.

Only the gods and he knew the reason why he decided to keep it like that… perhaps one day, she would be trust worthy for him to open up.

“What do you mean you think that you deserve it? I doubt you’ve done anything to deserve being hated.” He asked and Samaira just stared at him for the longest minute, debating what she should tell him; how could she tell him that she had practically abandoned Danika in Mumbai? How could she tell him she was a horrible person that didn’t dig in more or tried to find out if she was indeed dead instead of just assuming? Would his perception of her change?

The woman was terrified to find out.

“It’s a long story…” She said softly before looking down at her hands for a few seconds and let out a small breath as she looked at Kwang again. “Do you have time? To… I don’t know take a walk? If I’m honest the loud noise plus my own thoughts will drive me crazy.” She said softly giving him a weakened smile before she stood up as he agreed and they both walked out of the bar. The cold breeze hit her face and suddenly the fresh air made her feel like she could breathe a little better, arms crossed gently over her torso as she looked ahead and thought of how to explain the situation; at the end of the day, there was no other way but the truth.

“Danika’s mother and my father were siblings; Danika and I grew up like sisters despite her being younger than me, we were inseparable… I… I assumed she was… gone; when I escaped India… I was a kid… I was lost, not really know what was happening to my life, for the longest time I just… existed, you know? When my father, my adoptive father, found me and took me to France I didn’t questioned it… I didn’t think I had any family left alive.” She said softly and looked down at the ground for a couple of seconds as the guilt started to kick in again. “She didn’t explain much but she did mention being at an Orphanage for three years… I guess things were a bit harder for her; she knows I didn’t go looking for her, she knows I didn’t even try somehow… and she’s right. I never did… I should’ve made sure, I shouldn’t just assume she was gone; if I did perhaps she wouldn’t have been alone for so long… the universe and her only knows what she went through, I don’t even want to imagine…” She said as she shook her head and looked at Kwang again.

“She has every right to hate me, Kwang…” She said, her dark eyes waterying a little bit before she looked away again.

The silence that filled the air between Kwang and Samaira wasn’t the silence that was like a breeze through heavy humid air that he was used to while meditating. It was heavy as if air became solid iron. He struggled keeping still as he waited for her to say something. He started to become nervous that he had asked about something that he shouldn’t have. He felt like he had told her that he didn’t have to tell him, but now with the silence weighing between them Kwang panicked that maybe he hadn’t.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Samaira stopped him as she finally started to say something. When she requested to go outside and to get a walk, Kwang raised a thick eyebrow, but didn’t question her. “Yeah, we can do that.” He grabbed his tan overcoat and placed some money on the table just in case his bill was more than he thought it was (it probably wasn’t), and then he followed Samaira outside keeping up with her pace since his normally long legs would have naturally gone fast if he didn’t remember to follow her instead.

For a moment he kept quiet as he felt that she needed a bit of time to figure out how to say what she was going to say.

Then as she began to speak, he turned to her.

As Samaira finished telling Kwang what happened, he was reminded of a little girl he met briefly in Afghanistan. It took weeks of squeezing sources, catching people connected to the trafficking ring she was caught in, and simply working hard to finally find where she and thirteen other girls had been hidden. When he found her, she was handcuffed to the pipes of a water heater. Kwang ripped the man who had been on her out of the room before he tried to talk to her in Arabic. Despite her position, all she wanted to talk about was her sister that she thought had been kidnapped at the same time as her.

He sighed and shook his head. “She has every right to feel the way that she does, but that does not mean she’s right.” He tried to catch her eyes as he said, “You both were victims, and trauma does strange things to people. We can’t know how it’s going to effect you. A child doesn’t know to look for people. The adults are assumed to be responsible for things like that. Even if you were an adult, which I know you weren’t, you had your own trauma that likely took up all of your thoughts. She has a right to be angry, because victims have rights to whatever feelings they have. But that means any feelings that you had or have are also your right. You were a victim too, and you couldn’t juggle everything.”

Lilith was happy that she finally found a familiar face in the crowds of people that were invited into Cameron and Rosie’s home, most of them were New Moon members whom had a huge difference in their believes with the other two covens. The woman was rather shocked and surprised as the invitation to their party got to her home; she wasn’t quite sure what Cameron Clark and Rosie Grey were trying to do inviting the other two covens into their own home. Everyone refused to go, specially Luke and when Lilith had told Owen that they had to assist he reluctantly agreed and now he was somewhere else probably hiding and waiting for the time the two of them could leave that terrible party.

She had only seen Kwang a few times around Blue Moon; the warlock was still fairly new to Mirror Lake and most of the time he kept to himself.

“It is an extravagant party. I’ll give that to them. They seem to be magnanimous hosts. Are you having a pleasant time?” The tall man said always so proper and polite, keeping a soft smile on his face.

“As pleasant as this whole situation can be, that’s for sure.” Lilith blurted out and as she realized what she had said she couldn’t help but look up at the man and press her lip together before letting a small fainted laugh, “Sorry about that, yeah… I’m having a nice time.” She said softly and smiled as she put her glass away, perhaps the alcohol had gone to her head and in combination with her desire to leave the party and relax with Owen and their friends. “And Rosie and Cameron as as extravagant as they can be… it’s in their nature, I think they started wearing Gucci diapers instead of the regular kind.” She joked, letting a soft laugh out. “But yeah, the party is good. They sure know how to throw a party.” She added as she glanced at the couple who looked like Ken and Barbie.

“I’m surprised you’re here… I only see you around Blue Moon a few times with Samaira; you’re often keeping to yourself.” She said with a small smile as she looked at him. “Decided it was time to come out  of your shell?”

Kwang didn’t like to consider himself nosy. He liked to call himself observant. However, in the past he had been called nosy quite a bit. His mother repeatedly told him that listening in the shadows was a sign of someone who was too afraid of standing in the light, and his wife had told him again and again that she didn’t like how he always seemed to know everything that was going on with her without her ever telling him. She didn’t like not being able to surprise him, because he could read her like a book.

He couldn’t help himself though. He had always enjoyed knowing things about people when they didn’t know it. He liked seeing what people were like when they didn’t know that he knew things. Did they try to manipulate him? Or were they honest with him? He wanted to see what people were like when they thought that they weren’t being watched.

The problem sometimes was that sometimes the information that he got before meeting that person might be faulty by opinion or by it being rumor therefore distorted quite a bit. That was why he didn’t take the rumors of Mr. Clark and Mrs. Grey too seriously. He had heard that they both were a bit cold and aloof to most people- other than their pet human who people seemed to be split on their opinion of. They were talked about as being the richest people inside the city, and they openly flaunted it.

As he walked through their house, he could see that the latter was true, and as he watched Lilith’s body language as she talked about the two of them he could tell that she did not like them at all. He could tell that she did not respect them- or that they dug at something on her. Otherwise she would have agreed without limitations that the party was nice. “Gucci diapers? That is... certainly extravagant... is that an actual thing you Americans might do?” Kwang raised an eyebrow. Gucci diapers sounded like an absolutely appalling waste of money to him. “I am unsure why, but Mr. Clark seems to have invited me. I believe it might be that I’m the link between the ICOWW and Mirror Lake’s Police Force. However, if I’m entirely honest I’m unsure. I wonder if it’s an attempt to try to sway me to the other side. I have not been clear on why I joined Half-Moon. He might believe that he can sway me. But... this is all speculation. I do not know Mr. Clark’s motivations.” He turned to her, “You clearly do not desire to be here. What made you come here?”

Being a part of the International Council of Witches and Warlocks had always been a goal of Cameron’s. His father, Jonathan, had been the head of the Georgia Department and was well respected, and so it seemed natural that Cameron would want to join the agency. No one questioned when Cameron became the youngest Warlock in the Council’s history to be trusted with the Stripping Rite; instead, they saw a young man working hard to contribute to his family’s legacy. In truth, Cameron’s desire to join ICOWW had been born out of his need to learn restricted magick. His mother had taught him many spells and rites that were forbidden, but there was were some practices that only ICOWW had knowledge of.

Being a part of ICOWW had also allowed Cameron to gain friends and allies. A lot of the members of the Council were what the Warlock considered to be ‘neutrals.’ Their feelings toward Mortals were not strong one way or another, and they were apart of ICOWW because they had an appreciation for the law. Every once and a while, though, Cameron came across a like-minded individual, though Cameron wasn’t sure if Kwang was one of those Warlocks.

When Kwang had arrived in Mirror Lake, he had quickly joined the Half Moon Coven, which hadn’t surprised Cameron. Most newcomers to the town found themselves in the Half Moon Coven, either due to their own personal beliefs or because of the charm and relaxed nature of the Blackwoods. Besides, it wasn’t as if Kwang had caught the Warlock’s attention until recently, being named as the middle man between the Mortal police force and ICOWW. As co-workers in a way, Cameron felt the need to invite him, as many of the other members of ICOWW were present. It was a courtesy and a way for the Warlock to get a better grasp on precisely who he was working with.

As the Asian Warlock greeted him, Cameron nodded appreciatively. “Thank you. I want to say that I had a lot to do with the design, but my girlfriend and Izabel Romero deserve most of the credit. How are you enjoying Mirror Lake? I understand you only arrived a few months ago.”

The ICOWW once had been enticing to Kwang. When he was young inside of France, he found himself alone, and that was when ICOWW found him. They were a group of people that claimed to be for justice, and they were the protectors of the most vulnerable people in their eyes- witches and warlocks. They had a good draw. At the end of the day, Kwang believed that they were doing what they thought was best for the community, and he respected what they did.

In the end, he found that the ICOWW was too focused on a singular thing. Kwang wanted to help any person that was in a bad situation, and the ICOWW only cared about witches and warlocks. He didn’t blame them for that focus. There weren’t any other police forces protecting them, but Kwang found himself more drawn to helping those in sexual trafficking than anything else.

That didn’t stop his relationship with the ICOWW though. He did respect them. He was friends with a few of their agents, and he felt that he was best friends with one of their agents. He gave information to them that he felt that they could handle better than Interpol, and he got their help when he felt that their lines crossed (which happened more than Kwang was comfortable admitting). In the end the ICOWW seemed to look at him as someone who had a particular area that they were very good at, but was dedicated to helping any form of justice.

All of that was why Kwang hadn’t worried about being the bridge between the ICOWW in Georgia and the human police forces inside of Georgia. He knew that his record stood for him, and if the person between didn’t like him he knew it was that they were corrupt. 

What he was surprised about was being invited though he tried not to show it as he nodded as Cameron admitted that he didn’t have much involved with the design, “Well either way they did a good job. I did in fact arrive a couple of months ago. Mirror Lake is a decent city. The police force isn’t terribly corrupt, and they’re quick to trust. I have found my work here to be rewarding. I haven’t had any large cases like I had in Interpol, so I’ve had to find some things to do with my time. That isn’t to my dislike though.” Kwang honestly didn’t know enough about Cameron to offer up anything personal, but he also didn’t want to seem like he was being purposefully vague. So he offered up, “I like the citizens. They are quite warm for the most part compared to other cities- especially Paris.”

Danika watched Kwang for a moment, studying how his face changed from a glimpse of joy at the reminder of Navin Rajari to confusion to complete and absolute determination as the witch explained the situation that lead up to her partner be missing for a full year; images of the man being drugged, beat up and tortured by a group of witch hunters raced through her mind, she could feel her blood boiling inside of her at the thought of a filthy witch hunter hurting not only a member of her kind but the only person who was close to her… someone she actually cared a great deal for.

“What kind of group is here that would want information from him? Is the rest of the town in danger?” The warlock asked, immediately ready to work and join her in the search of Navin and the protection of Mirror Lake.

“Mirror Lake is safe for now. ICOWW here is working to keep everyone safe, security has increased at the potential treat getting closer but no, they are not in Mirror Lake exactly… close by yes; we got a lead of them entering US territory; allegedly last seen in Illinois… that turned up to no avail, we couldn’t find anything when we went there. But we know a group that is set on hurting someone specifically here; I’m afraid I’m not allowed to tell you the full details and name of these people, I need to talk to Cameron Clark about it since he runs ICOWW here. But I can tell you that I believe this same group is the same that took Navin…” She explained and took a small breath as she watched a mortal woman walk past them before she looked back to Kwang.

“He knows enough about ICOWW internationally, how we work; where several of our offices are located across the world. He knows locations of past victims, covens… he knows everything. If they could break him, they could easily repeat mass murder attacks without a problem. But I know him, he’s not going to say a word or at least nothing that is real.” She said softly before rubbing her temples for a second, “The problem is that it’s been a year… the longer he remains kidnapped, the fewer chances we have of finding him alive.”

Kwang hated being on the other side of this conversation. Normally he was the one with all of the answers trying to protect the other person from the information that he knew to keep them from being taken advantage of by those who would want that information. Now, he had to live with the reality that Danika and Cameron both had to be careful with the information, and in their eyes he might be an innocent- though he knew he was far from that. He knew at the end of the day they needed to trust him.

He knew the statistics about kidnappings as much as she likely did. Despite not being an official police force most people in the ICOWW were trained as well if not better than those in national police forces. They learned statistics too, because it helped them determine what move made the most sense based on the timeline. He knew that Navin being gone a year was a terrible sign for the man.

Kwang sighed and sat back in his seat. He had been at the head of situations like that, but he had never had to report to someone. Not that he had to report to her. He could just walk away- not that he would. “What if we baited them into letting us know if he’s still alive? You could do something that might make them want to prove that he’s alive. Maybe challenge one of their so called beliefs. You couldn’t push that too far, because they’ll see past it for what it is. But... doing it just right could get you so much needed information.”

Samaira listened to Kwang speak about his change of heart on drinking, a small smile remained on her lips as her mind started to drift away into her own memories as the witch couldn’t stop thinking on Danika’s eyes, her big hazel eyes were somehow still the same; they were bright and with a hit of mischief in them but there was a certain coldness and anger in them as she looked down at Samaira, her body remained stiff as she hugged her tightly but mostly it was her words that haunted her. “But you never even tried to find me.” Guilt started to crawl back under her skin, she could feel a pain constricting her heart in her chest but it wasn’t until Kwang spoke again that she was brought back into reality, “I promise I didn’t drink any of it or do anything to it. I have test strips if you’d like to test it.” He said as he pushed his beer in her direction.

“Oh no, that’s fine. I… trust you, as strange and naïve as that sounds.” She said softly with a small smile on her face as she looked at him, “Besides, you’re cop… you’re in a place with a lot of witnesses, if something happens to me you’re going to be in trouble immediately.” She joked and let out a soft laugh as she shook her head a little bit.

As the man started asking if something happened to her, the woman took a deep breath and swallowed dry for a second before looking back at him. “It’s… complicated?” She said, unsure of how to explain the situation to him. “I told you about why I moved to England, you remember that right?” She asked, her voice slightly trembling a she was about to dive further into the subject. “I… well, all my family was killed in that… or that’s what I thought; I just saw a woman today that… she’s actually my cousin, we were like sisters…” She said softly and although she wanted to smile before a piece of her was back into her life, she knew it wasn’t as great as it sounded.

“It’s not what I expected to be I suppose… I think… she hates me and the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced she has the right to do so.”

It was nice to hear that at least someone was fond enough of him to at least trust that he wouldn’t drug her. Though, as she followed up, he realized that probably meant nothing since she was right that a police officer really couldn’t get away with doing something like that. He had been seen sitting with her at least by the bartender. At least he knew that Blue Moon was a bar that watched after patrons. That was a good sign.

Still a small weight began to make it harder for Kwang to take in a breath. The distance between him and Samaira was a reminder of a painful reality that he still struggled to live with. His parents were long gone. His extended family and he could not afford to call much less see each other. Samaira was the person he was closest to, and she didn’t even know that his birthday passed recently. He didn’t bring it up at the station, because he thought that his Interpol team might call him.

He waited up all night hoping he’d be surprised.

They were too busy with their case to remember him. He understood. He wasn’t part of the team anymore. They were under no obligation to call him anymore. He just thought after so many years of being part of their team maybe they’d consider him something more than just a team member. Maybe it was just the repercussion of working under cover. People saw him so little maybe he wasn’t as close to them as he thought.

Kwang was surprised that another witch that had survived had ended up in Mirror Lake too. He wondered what the statistical odds of that really was. Stranger still, they had known each other.

It hurt Kwang to see someone he personally considered a friend, no matter how she felt about him, hurting like that. He hated to see her eyes dull like that. He wanted so bad to make her smile again. “What do you mean you think that you deserve it? I doubt you’ve done anything to deserve being hated.” Kwang honestly had trouble believing that Samaira could ever do something to deserve such a stark negative emotion from someone. She had been so kind to him. How could someone like her do something so bad to deserve someone hating her? He simply couldn’t imagine it.

“Oh you’re Danika!” Kwang said with a smile on his face and the witch immediately knew Navin had probably mentioned her and what he felt about her to the man; she couldn’t help but shake her head as she looked down for a moment and let out soft laugh. She allowed her mind to wander back into the good memories, how she was slowly introduced into his life and the people who were close to him but they all seemed to know all about her already. Even then, the witch had a conflict with her own feelings about the Warlock… she cared about him deeply but she was terrified of admitting it.

“There’s no point on worrying about that until you find him.” She thought to herself, and then she heard Kwang asking about Navin’s whereabouts and expressed his wishes to get dinner and catch up and her heart immediately shrunk in her chest as she knew what she had to answer. 

“Well… It’s a delicate matter.” She said softly as she ran a hand over the top of her laptop before looking up at Kwang, “It’s an official matter.” She said softly before she mumbled some words in Latin and casted a spell so no one else could hear or see what they were talking about, the rest of the world would only hear mumbles of a normal mortal conversation.

“He’s missing and that’s why I’m here.” She said softly before bringing a hand up to her necklace, playing with the pendant of her necklace between her fingers as she prepared to explain the full story. “On our last mission, it was dangerous; it was so risky but you know him… He’s gotta be the hero all the time.” She said as looked up and took a deep breath to keep her frustration at bay. “He went back on his own, to see we weren’t leaving anyone behind and he just… never came back. It’s been a year since then… I got a lead that the group that might keep him is here; he’s an important asset to ICOWW and knows too much about both ICOWW and its relations with Interpol; they are not going to kill him, but they will try to break him to get information from him.”

As Kwang heard Latin words he was all too familiar with, something inside of him awakened. The light in him that had begun to die down after the death of Katrina felt a small spark in his. The Latin reminded him of all the other times he ended up in a conversation that needed to be protected. It reminded him of all the people that were saved due to those conversations. It reminded him of the reason he had gotten into Interpol- because he desperately needed to chase down justice and answers. Something in him knew that as Latin escaped the woman’s lips that he was about to get involved in something that he couldn’t turn away from.

It involved Navin. He could not turn away from Navin.

Kwang was angry at the sun as it beat down on his back covered in the black tuxedo. How dare it be sunny and beautiful on a day such as that? How dare the rest of the world move on as a casket filled with the most valuable human being on the earth lowered into the ground? How dare the roses they tossed on her casket look so bright as it felt like the colors started to bleach as she died in his arms?

His team said their apologies. Geneva invited him to see her soon, but she had to get back to her family.

Navin stood by him for an hour. He didn’t make Kwang say anything. He just allowed Kwang to cry in silence. He then walked with Kwang back to a hotel- Navin didn’t think it was good for Kwang to go back to his home. Navin drank with him through the night as Kwang tried hard to just survive. Navin didn’t judge. He joked, he teased, and he had his own fun. However, he never judged anything that came out of Kwang’s mouth.

Navin had been with Kwang in his darkest night. Kwang would not turn away from him in his.

The news was worse than he expected, and he took a deep breath to calm the wave of emotions that started to pull up. He needed to think analytically about it. “What kind of group is here that would want information from him? Is the rest of the town in danger?”