Potentialfate

Adam leaned closer to his ex-boyfriend, smiling when Theo did the same. While their friends worked through family drama, and Despina threw herself into her work with dream magic, Adam and Theo now found themselves alone.

After eating most of Theo's birthday cake, the teens had elected to find somewhere quiet to spend the rest of the night. They'd settled on the abandoned Dean house, which Helle had claimed as another property belonging to her by birthright. She was a Dean by blood, and if any of her siblings returned to the family home, she wanted to be the first to know. Helle and the Pryors were all sequestered in the castle, no doubt continuing their arguments about infidelity and what the Proxy had considered to be sin. Adam and Theo couldn't be paid to wander into that mess. They had more than enough family drama of their own at home.

"No, I think we should stay here," Theo replied. "This bed is comfy, and it's my birthday. I don't want to celebrate it playing guitar and avoiding Despina's magical experiments. I want to celebrate it with you. The way we used to. You know, before we broke up...or how we would have spent it before...before the accident."

Both boys' faces flushed at the reminder of how they spent their nights before Theo's blood magic had sparked a disaster that had almost killed Adam. Theo ran his fingers gently down Adam's face, tracing the lines of the scars his magic had left until Adam reached out his own hand to stop him.

"Hey, we're stronger now and more practiced at holding your power back," Adam softly reminded his ex. "That's never going to happen again. We will never be caught off guard like that again. I promise."

Theo smiled.

"It hasn't happened since I got back from Shadowvale, not even once. Sebastian never...well, we never...it was never dangerous or out of control. He was safe, but he was never you."

Adam cringed at the mention of his cousin and the implications of what Theo had done with him. Only Theo could bring a guy to an empty bedroom, just to talk about his ex. It seemed to be a Bellamy trait, from what Adam had seen, one that Adam had hoped Theo would grow out of. Still, Adam was sitting in a bedroom with Theo, which was more than he could have hoped for even a month ago. Theo wanted him here, even if he couldn't keep his foot out of his mouth. Maybe this was Theo trying to open up about his insecurities about what had happened between them. He wasn't doing a great job at communicating, but this could be a start.

"Of course he's not me," Adam declared, pulling Theo closer to him. "We're magic together, everyone knows that. We always have been and we always will be. I know that you don't want a commitment or relationship right now, but I will always love you, Theo. No matter what. No one else comes close to you."

"H-how many other people are you comparing me to?" Theo asked nervously. "I've only been with Sebastian, but you...Remy made it sound like maybe you've been with a lot of people. Like a lot. I know she lies about just about everything, but is she lying about that too?"

Adam pulled Theo into a passionate kiss, silencing his nervous stammering.

"They don't matter," Adam replied, breaking the kiss just long enough to get the words out. "Nothing else matters. We're sixteen and far away from our home and families, just waiting for a powerful demon to attack. If you want something to happen between us, then that's something we can control. Do you want something to happen between us? It's okay if you don't. I'd understand."

Theo sighed and rolled back onto the bed, unsure of what his answer should be. Yes, he wanted something to happen, and had taken Adam specifically there in order to ensure that it happened. But there was still a million thoughts running through his mind that questioned this choice.

Adam was more experienced than he was. Theo felt a powerful spark run through him at the thought of being with Adam, that had never happened with Sebastian. He had been happy with Sebastian, sure, but there was something wild and dangerous about his feelings for Adam. Had Theo learned to control his powers enough not to injure Adam again? Would he ever have control over those wild feelings? He couldn't explain to Despina that he'd hurt her cousin again; the grief and self-loathing would be more than he could bear.

"I think that I now understand why you kissed Josh," Theo said, reaching for Adam's hand.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I didn't know how to process what happened between us and I could never understand why you would be afraid to be physical with me after the accident. I knew that I wasn't trying to hurt you, but I've never seen what my magic looks like to other people before Xexys accidentally showed me. It just feels normal to me, but the curse, all of that power? Through Xexys' eyes, I could see it for the first time and it was terrifying. Literal nightmare fuel. It doesn't feel natural or safe to other people, but it's all that I've ever known. So, I get why it freaks you out so badly that you wanted to see if kissing someone else was safer. I don't like it or forgive it, but I understand."

Adam rolled close enough to stare Theo in the eyes. Theo was actually admitting that he could understand Adam's actions, and there was no chance that Adam was going to let this opportunity slip past him.

"You saw it in a dream? I'm glad that you got to experience for yourself, so you can understand what it's like for the rest of us. Well, for everyone else, at least. Since I ground your powers, it's a little different for me. I can feel and channel some of that power, but it's still overwhelming. Very overwhelming, if you're not prepared. Remy...Remy was always worried about me dealing with all of it, especially after the accident." Adam smiled wistfully in an attempt to block the tears he felt coming from thinking of when his sister was healthy and awake. He missed her terribly, but he couldn't think about her right now.

"I don't want to hurt you again," Theo murmured. "I know that Evren and my parents shielded me from what happened after the accident, and that you were really badly hurt. I would have come back to see you if I hadn't been sent to Shadowvale. I would have been there for you; I begged to come back."

Adam paused, remembering the months of misery, pain, and confusion he'd endured after Theo had been sent away and how it had all led to him kissing his friend, Josh. None of those memories were pleasant, and he definitely didn't want to remember them now.

"Theo, that won't happen again, I promise. We can't be stuck in the past if we want to move forward together. I'm healed, and you're in control of your powers now. Is this the only reason you've been afraid of being with me?"

Theo looked away, unable to meet Adam's gaze.

"No," he lied. "You cheated on me. I don't know if you would do it again if something else went wrong. That's it."

"That's why Despina is about to murder you if you have another dream about me again, right? You don't care about that kiss with Josh; you care about me but you're afraid of what happened. You're afraid to get close to me again in case something goes wrong. Admit it."

"I'm not afraid of anything," Theo replied quickly. Adam could sense Theo raise his usual walls, effectively ending their conversation about emotions he didn't want to admit to. "I'll prove it. Let's do this, if you're okay with the risk. I'm sure that you're right, and everything will be fine." He put his lips against Adam's and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he did. He wasn't nervous. He wanted to act on all of the dreams Despina shouted at him about, and he wasn't nervous. Everything was going to be fine. Better than fine, even. He was in Adam's arms and that was going to be fine.

"If you're sure." Adam could see the worry in Theo's eyes, but he knew that his ex was never going to talk about his feelings. The only thing Adam could do was support him and assure him that they weren't in any danger. "I love you, Theo."

Adam couldn't bring him to Arkhelios, but he could try to do something special for Theo. He wasn't skilled at baking like Roman Bellamy, but he did have some practice making a cake. His family could easily afford to buy cakes or have chefs make them for them, but his stepfather, Ewan, loved to bake. He once told Adam that his own father used to bake as stress relief, a skill that he learned from his older sister, who had learned it from their father. It had sounded like Ewan was trying to use baking to bond with his stepson, but to Adam's shame, he had always given up on baking and just ate what Ewan made. Now, he was going to prove to his stepdad that he'd learned something, while also cheering up Theo. When he got back, maybe he'd even make a cake for Ewan.

There were recipe books in the house which contained cake recipes that Adam thought he could make. There were a ton of more difficult recipes, but Adam didn't want to risk having this whole experiment blow up in his face and have nothing to give to Theo. The simpler, the better.

He'd somehow made too much batter for a single cake, so Adam tried to make little cupcakes in a separate pan. He had no idea of they'd be edible, but he at least had to try. Something he'd put in the oven had to succeed or the whole gesture would be ruined. There was only white, boring frosting, but it had been all that Rita could offer. It would at least taste good, she'd promised.

"Adam? Are you making something? It smells smoky in the hall. Despina's not trying some weird spell is she?"

"Surprise!" Adam shouted, gesturing wildly at the cake behind him. "Happy birthday, Theo! I wanted to make you something special for your birthday since you can't be with your family. It's not your dad's cake, but I think it turned out okay. There's even little mini cakes that should be good if the main cake isn't."

Adam left out the fact that the frosting was covering a very underwhelming cake that may still have pieces of eggshells in it, but Theo didn't seem to mind.

"You made this? For me?" Theo gasped. He looked genuinely impressed. "I didn't know that you knew how to bake. This must have taken you forever!"

"A little bit under forever," Adam laughed. He hadn't seen Theo look this excited all week. "Baking is a lot more work than I imagined, but I wanted you to have something special. You do only turn sixteen once, after all."

"I can't believe you found everything to make this in a place like this," Theo exclaimed. He rushed to wrap his arms around Adam, overwhelmed by the gesture.

"I did have some help," Adam confessed, sinking into Theo's arms as deeply as he could. It had all been worth it just for this one moment. "I asked around for the ingredients, but the end result was all me. Do you want to try a piece now, or do I have to sing Happy Birthday to you first?"

"I'm not opposed to hearing you sing, but I am actually pretty hungry. I'm curious to see how this tastes. Did you use any magic to make it?"

Adam shook his head proudly.

"Nope. I did it all by hand. As your dad says, magic doesn't always belong in the kitchen. My stepdad taught me a few things about baking, when I wasn't ignoring him to study crystals. I wanted you to have something special."

"That's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for my birthday. Ever. I love it."

It probably wasn't true, but Adam's heart swelled with pride all the same.

"Well, uh, we should probably try it before Despina smells it and tries to recruit us for more dream experiments," he said. The last thing he wanted to do was let go of Theo, but eventually, they did have to try the cake.

"I think I heard her snoring, so we should be safe," Theo laughed. "She's probably in her own experiment now."

"We can save her a piece. Helle and the Pryors too, if it's any good. I'd imagine dessert might help break up family fighting. I feel bad for them. I remember how upset you were when you learned about your dad's affair, plus the reapers trying to learn how to adjust to their afterlife? It's a mess."

"You know me so well," Theo replied softly. "You've been my best friend since I was six and you've been through everything with me. I don't know why I thought that I could live without you in my life. It's impossible."

"Impossible?" Adam repeated. His knees nearly buckled from the look in Theo's eyes. "How do you want me to be in your life?"

"I don't know right now. I don't know anything. Helle and Abercius loved each other across two lifetimes, and my parents are happy together now, I think, despite them cheating on each other."

Adam tried not to roll his eyes at the reminder.

"Theo, your dad has two secret children hidden in two monarchies. I kissed one guy because I couldn't handle being afraid of touching you. I almost died, and I still want to be with you. I love you."

"You do?" Theo's voice wavered when confronted with what had been extremely obvious to everyone around them. He knew. There was no way he couldn't know, especially when Despina kept threatening him over his repeated fantasies about her cousin. It was just too complicated to think about, with too many conflicting feelings. Did he break his promise of never taking back a cheater, even after he was able to feel for the first time just how immense his power was to others?

He understood why Adam was afraid of the power attached to him. He understood that Adam had gone through a traumatic event after their accident, and then still braved the dream realm just to talk to him. It was just scary to trust again and allow himself to be open to being hurt again. He knew that Adam had been hurt just as badly, and that living in Jubilant Accosts with the immense pressure being placed on them probably didn't make the situation any easier. Would he still be this desperate to hold Adam as tight as he could if they hadn't left Pleasantview? Probably, though Theo would never tell another living soul about that desire.

"Hey, let's sit down for a minute," Theo suggested nervously. Adam was staring at him with an intense look that Theo didn't know how to interpret. "This is all overwhelming."

Adam obeyed, pushing his chair close to Theo's.

"Theo, we're both sixteen now and more mature," he began. "Well, somewhat mature, considering that I doubt we'd be even having this conversation in Pleasantview. You can't ignore me here, and that makes you nervous. We need to talk about us, even if we're not together."

Theo lowered his eyes and sighed.

"I know. It's been so weird living with you and sleeping next to you again, and all these weird feelings keep popping up that I can't understand. Plus Abercius and his dad having literal soulmates because that's apparently a real thing that exists outside of romantic greeting cards, and what if you're mine? Would I ever know it for sure? Have we just known each other for so long that you're familiar to me or is it something else? And if we are, what does that mean? I don't know if I want to be in a relationship right now. Sebastian only dumped me to protect me, and if he wakes up and I'm with someone else, is he going to be hurt? Do I want him to take me back if we can cure him? I don't know."

"Take a breath," Adam ordered, shocked that Theo was actually being candid with him. Clearly, he'd been thinking about their relationship a lot lately. Adam should have baked him a cake weeks ago. "I don't think that everyone gets a soulmate or that you need to assume you have one. My dad's been with a bunch of women and even had kids with some of them. Are any of them his soulmate? Do you think that anyone's soul could match Remy's? Don't tie yourself into knots thinking about soulmates. Maybe they're just for gods and people from this realm."

"We're connected by blood and magic," Theo insisted. "You ground my powers for me. I still have feelings for you, even if I pretend that I don't. I want to kiss you and never stop kissing you, but then I feel bad about leaving Sebastian and bad about nearly killing you and scarring your face , and maybe I just can't be in a relationship right now. We have to save two realms and save your family or we can never go home! It's all too much."

"Hey, don't worry about that. We can worry about it later, and we don't need to be in a relationship right now. Nothing's going to change if you don't worry about the future for a couple of hours. If you want to kiss me, just kiss me. I want to kiss you too."

Theo's expression still seemed hesitant, but he leaned closer to his ex-boyfriend anyway.

"You're really okay with leaving things casual? I mean, until I can figure out what I want? I don't want to-"

"Theo, it's your birthday," Adam interrupted, bringing his face closer to Theo's. "Just kiss me already."

Theo didn't have to be told twice.

Helle, Brion, and Abercius obviously had family issues to work out, and Trysten and Alphaeus had some catching up to do, as well as learning how exactly their new bodies worked. Deia and Xanthos took Desdemona to try to help their family adjust to this new change, leaving only the infants, who would likely be miserable in such chaos. Brion had recommended Theo for the job, since he had so much experience with his younger siblings, and Adam had immediately volunteered to help. Despina had mumbled something about dream magic and volunteered to help protect their base of operations while the boys were gone.

Theo hadn't minded as much as he'd pretended. Honestly, it was kind of nice to be away from high stakes magic and complicated family dynamics for once. Babysitting wasn't all that hard with all the practice he had with his siblings, and though he'd never admit it, spending some time alone with Adam didn't seem like much of a hardship either.

"I hope Brion and Abercius are doing okay," he said, breaking the silence that had fallen in the room. "I can't imagine what it's like to lose your parents, get them back, and then have to deal with a secret half-sibling." He paused. "Well, I do have some experience with that last part. Still, I can't believe Sebastian was right about their dad being in love with their uncle. That's going to be a huge thing to accept."

Adam bristled slightly at the mention of Sebastian, but quickly smothered the jealousy before Theo could notice. Sebastian was family. Sebastian broke up with Theo before he succumbed to the plague. There was nothing to be jealous of.

When Alphaios began to cry, realizing that he was no longer being held, Adam leapt into action before Theo could pick him up again.

"I've got him," he said. "I've held Abe enough times to know how to hold an infant. Your dad was going to murder me if I didn't do it perfectly."

Theo laughed at the memory. His father usually glared at Adam whenever he had come over in the past, especially when Adam had been given Abe Jr to hold. Adam had to be knowledgeable about infants or face the extreme displeasure of Roman Bellamy.

"Yeah, you're lucky to have survived. Luci answered her phone while holding him once, and Dad flipped out for like, an hour."

"Well, he seems like he's-oh my god!" Adam tried to push the infant as far away from himself as possible, but he was too late. Baby spit up was all over his clothes, and even in his hair. "Ugh, Abe's never done that before."

"To you maybe," Theo snickered. "Welcome to the joys of having a million little siblings. I've been thrown up on more times than I can count."

"It's in my hair," Adam whined, looking distressed. "Is there a spell for cleaning this up? I really don't want my wand anywhere near this mess though. Can you cast something?"

Theo shook his head with a teasing smile.

"No, the easiest thing is to bathe it off at this point. I can cast something for your clothes, but you're probably going to want to wash those too. Here, give me Alphaios and I'll clean him up. There's a bathroom down the hall if you want to have a shower."

Adam passed over the infant as quickly as he could, and took Theo up on his offer. He gingerly removed his jacket, leaving it on the floor for Theo to charm. There was spit up all down his pants, and Adam flushed with embarrassment taking those off in front of his ex-boyfriend. It wasn't like Theo hadn't seen him in his underwear before, but that was a long time ago and he could never seem to accurately judge Theo's feelings towards him. One day Theo ignored him and the next, he had his hands all over him in a way that felt anything but platonic. Adam didn't dare ask Theo what he was thinking about their future for fear of spooking him and losing any progress they'd made, but it was really starting to get frustrating. There was no way Theo would make a move with two infants in the room and spit up in Adam's hair, so it was probably safe just to imagine that he was Despina, who absolutely did not care if Adam was in his underwear, so long as he had something on.

"I'll be just down the hall then," he announced awkwardly, covering his boxers as much as he could with his hands. "Call me if anything happens."

Theo waved him away, pulling out his wand to use the gentle cleaning spell Evren had taught the Bellamys when the kids were younger. Theo's parents weren't great at it, and while Adrian was able to complete the spell, he was worried about being unable to control the strength of the very specific spell with the amount of magical military training he'd received, so Theo and Rien had had the most practice with it. Using it on small spots on an infant was easy, trying to clean all of Adam would be more effort than it was worth.

Adam sat in the tub and let the hot water relax all of his tense muscles. It had been far too long since he could actually just soak in a tub like everything in his life was normal again. The tub in the house they'd been staying in was broken, and though Helle's castle was safe and spacious, the plumbing hadn't been updated in centuries. Short, mostly warm showers were all that he'd had since coming to Jubilant Accosts, so an actually hot bathtub was a luxury he didn't know how much he'd missed. Still, he felt guilty leaving Theo with two infants while he relaxed. It wasn't fair to leave Theo alone, and it was pretty rare to get to spend time with Theo without either Abercius or Despina around, so Adam reluctantly got out of the bath.

There was a housecoat in the bathroom closet that had to belong to either Trysten or Xanthos. Adam borrowed it, hoping that it was clean and no one would be angry about its disappearance. He could throw his clothes into the washing machine and wash the robe and Alphaios' tiny clothes later.

"Hey, is everyone alright?" he asked. "Sorry that I took so long."

To Adam's surprise, Theo gave him a look Adam hadn't seen in over a year. Theo was checking him out and barely trying to hide it. Adam flushed furiously, pulling the housecoat over more of his exposed skin self-consciously.

"You didn't miss anything," Theo replied. "Alphaios went back to sleep, and I've been playing on my phone. Nice housecoat, by the way."

"Uh, thanks."

"So, crazy stuff keeps happening," Adam said, sitting on the floor, hoping that Theo would join him. To his delight, Theo's phone disappeared and Theo sat across from him on the floor. "Helle and Abercius are reincarnated lovers and starting a monarchy, the Pryors' dad is in love with their uncle and they're both reapers. What do you think is going to happen next?"

"I hope Xexys will be defeated next and we can go home," Theo replied. "Seeing these kids reminds me of my family. Don't ever tell my parents, but I miss them. All my siblings too. It's lonely here and I'm tired of pretending that things are okay. I'm turning sixteen next week and no one will be here to celebrate with me. I won't get to have my dad's birthday cake or wear the stupid birthday hat. I'll be stuck in this stupid place and I know my parents are going to be falling apart back home. My dad especially. I'm worried about him."

Adam tried not to look surprised at Theo's openness. Theo wasn't exactly an open book since their breakup, even if he had been getting better since they'd arrived in Jubilant Accosts. Adam could have probably guessed at Theo's feelings, but it was nice to have them confirmed.

"Your Dad will be okay," he replied. "He's been through a lot, and he's a lot stronger than you think. I'm sure that he'll lean on the rest of your family until we get back. You can't feel guilty about what he feels; he's the parent and you're not responsible if he goes to a dark place. We have to be here."

"Do we?" Theo asked. "Helle and Abercius have to be here. Despina wants to be here to chase after the ghosts of her parents. What are we doing, except for letting Despina experiment on our dreams? I feel so useless, Adam. Why are we hurting our families by staying and watching everyone else solve this?"

"Some of us don't have families to go home to," Adam said quietly.

Theo swore, then looked apologetically at the babies for swearing in their presence.

"Shit, I didn't think about that. Sorry. Of course, I want to solve this plague so your Dad and sister wake up. Sebastian too. It just all feels so hopeless! Lukas has gotten things done. Despina is getting things done, I think, and what have I done? Blood magic isn't going to help here, and the demonic magic I know doesn't seem effective against a type of demon no one has seen in millennia. Don't you ever feel like this?"

Adam sighed heavily.

"Yes, at times," he admitted. "Not for long though. We're helping Despina do important work. We're helping provide security for Helle. People are afraid of your powers, even if Xexys isn't, and we're ambassadors from another realm. We get to show Jubilant Accosts what life outside their realm is like, and by giving our support to Helle, we're lending credibility to her government. Our mission isn't just battles and sword fighting, Theo. Our mission is to find a cure, defeat Xexys, and be an example of what all 'Tredonians' can be in this realm. We have to do the same things that my dad does when he represents the coven. Some days are tougher than others, but it's our duty to do everything we can to help this realm while representing ours."

"Yeah...yeah, sorry. Like you said, it's a bad day, but I'll be fine tomorrow," Theo lied. Adam could practically feel the giant emotional walls surround Theo once more. "It was just as moment of doubt. I know my family will be fine. Turning sixteen isn't important, and our work here is. Sorry."

"Are you sure that I can wake them up?" Trysten asked nervously, looking at Abercius for confirmation. "I don't know anything about being Death."

"You're a servant of Death!" Abercius snapped. "Death is your boss, the deity you work for. You are, and can never be Death himself! And yes, you should be able to do this. I don't exactly want to be forced into a time manipulated state again any time soon, so you're going to do the work that your new body is made for."

Trysten held his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry. Sorry. This is all new to me. I never imagined that the Watcher had these kinds of servants. It makes sense though; the Watcher is always watching, so it makes sense that he has armies to do his will."

Brion rolled his eyes at this comment, which pleased Abercius. Both teens had given Trysten, Deia, and Xanthos a crash course in theology and the purpose of the reaper teams in each country, and Brion had helped explain what he understood of how the universe worked without even having to check with Abercius for the right details. Brion was listening to everything that Abercius had told him, and that felt better than he could have ever imagined his relationship with his brother could be.

Despite loving someone the Proxy didn't approve of, Trysten had been a Jacobean all of his life, and firmly believed that the Watcher had led him to his soulmate. He may not be as devout as his sister, but Trysten still held onto some version of the Jacobean faith. Abercius had no doubt that his father felt the same. They had all been complicit in the Proxy's sacrifices along with the rest of the settlement, and they weren't just going to abandon their long held beliefs in an instant.

But why cling to a faith that didn't want you the way you were? If the Proxy had caught Trysten and either his affair or his pregnancy, he'd be as dead as the Deans were. Abercius and his siblings never really worshipped the Watcher, even if they were taught to fear him, so they had that advantage over their parents at least. It might take some time for the adults of the Pryor and Vienot families to adjust to a world without the Proxy and his rules. Despite understanding this, Abercius felt deep embarrassment that the only reaper Jubilant Accosts had was still going on about the Watcher and ignoring the true ruler of the realm of Death, Izanami.

"Now extend your hand and do what I told you," Abercius commanded his uncle. He tried to keep the anger that still burned inside of him hidden, though he probably failed, given the miserable look on Trysten's face. "Alphaeus Pryor, Damiana Pryor, rise and awaken to your sworn duty to the realm of Death."

There was a loud thud as Alphaeus Pryor fell to the floor. His legs were still shaky after months of prolonged illness and then death, but he was slowly grasping how to use his new reaper body.

Abercius tried to fight the elation he felt seeing his dad again. He needed to be mature and regal, the very best reaper possible, to show these new recruits what was expected of them.

They weren't perfect, this Abercius was well aware of. If they were proper reapers, they should be separate from their physical remains and only tied to them with the sacred link all reapers held with their bodies. These undead almost reapers would shed their current bodies and likely the red glowing eye, once a proper reaper could fix them. They would do for the moment, though Abercius wondered what Lord Izanami would think of his handiwork. Lordem Lukas would probably speak well of his efforts to their husband or at least, Abercius hoped so.

"Alphaeus? Is that you? Are you finally awake?" Trysten stared at the man he loved in astonishment. From his place on the floor, Alphaeus stared back, equally as shocked to see Trysten again.

"Trysten!" Alphaeus bounded down the stairs and swept his love in a passionate kiss, completely ignoring anyone else in the room. His eyes, now that they were free of the film of the plague, could only see Trysten.

Abercius and Brion shared a miserable look. Their father was truly in love with their uncle. Trysten could have been lying to them when he confessed to the love affair, but there was no room for doubt now. They should be happy for their father to have a so called soulmate and new child, but that happiness would have to come with time, if it ever came at all. There was still too much hurt from years of secrets and hypocrisy, and even if they knew their mother wasn't accepting of their own secrets, she was still their mother and she didn't deserve to live her entire adult life in a lie.

"Abercius! Brion! You're safe! Thank the Watcher for his mercy."

Alpheus threw his arms around the son closest to him, squeezing Abercius tightly.

"It's not the Watcher who saved you," Abercius corrected his father. "It was the deity of Life, acting in part with the realm of Death and a Timelady of Ticktop. You're a reaper now, destined to reap souls and maintain the balance of the realm. You'd better get used to addressing other deities with your praise."

"A reaper?" Alphaeus repeated. He looked over his son, noting the changes Abercius had made to himself while he had slept in Xexys' nightmare. "Are you a reaper too? Your eye is very similar to Trysten's. Your hair is long now too, and is that your sister's dress?"

"It's a modification of one of Helena's dresses, yeah. I've tried to hide this my entire life, but you need to know my truth, Dad." Abercius took a deep breath. "I've never felt like a guy, and I don't intend to live as one going forward. I used to be a reaper in my past life, a really old, powerful, female reaper. I'm going to have to train you, Mom and Uncle Trysten to be reapers, even if my current body has limited access to the realm of Death."

Abercius held his breath as his father processed his words. Alphaeus looked over to Trysten who nodded, confirming Abercius' strange story.

"I see," Alphaeus said slowly. "That sounds like we might need to break all that down a little more later, but I'm happy that you're safe and happy. You are happy, right?"

"Yes, I am," Abercius confirmed. "Helena is too. She's safe in Tredony with Phuong. They have a daughter together, just like you and our uncle have a kid. You're a grandfather, but Helena was too afraid to tell you and Mom before you got sick. Before we knew that you were just as attracted to men as Helena is women."

An awkward silence filled the room as Alphaeus tried to process this news on top of the information he was already trying to digest.

"Children are a blessing from the Watcher...er, your god of Life, I guess? She's so young to be a mother, but I'm glad that your sister has found happiness like I have. This impossible pregnancy must be a blessing to confirm that her soulmate is Phuong. Phuong always seemed like a nice kid. She's one of those Dean children, right?"

"She's a werewolf, Dad," Abercius said quickly, before Brion could answer. "Her parents are a vampire and werewolf from outside the settlement."

"Oh. That...that sounds interesting. I'll have to meet this Phuong."

"Abercius is going to marry the queen of Yacothia," Brion added, staring his father in the eyes, daring him to react badly. "They were reincarnated together. They're soulmates too."

"Brion! Come here, let me hug you too!" Alphaeus wrapped his arms around his other son in a bone crushing hug. "I'm so glad that you're okay, and not sick! You and your brother...er, sibling are alive, and that's all I could ask of the Watcher."

"How did you know it was me?" Brion choked out, trying to wriggle free from the reaper who didn't know his strength. "I'm in my wolf form."

"Trysten told me when he joined the nightmare," Alphaeus answered, releasing his son from his grip. "He said that you and your friends were helping fight the plague, and that we weren't the only ones keeping secrets in our family. I don't care if you're a werewolf or if your sibling doesn't feel comfortable being male or that your sister is dating a woman- she probably gets that from me! Though, I do have a lot of follow-up questions about where James is, kids, your happiness comes first. I wish I'd had a parent who told me that. I died, and was granted a miracle; there's no way that I'm going to waste this chance to make things right."

Brion and Abercius grinned at each other, hardly believing their luck. Their parents were dead, but not gone, and the whole experience had opened up new possibilities for their family. The Proxy was dead, and a whole new world was emerging.

Damiana stared in bewilderment at the scene before her. One minute, she had been in the hands of the Watcher, and now? Now she felt strange and disoriented. The world didn't look the same as it had before. She could feel an extraordinary strength in her arms, and could hear her sons' heartbeats from across the room. Her usual magic felt inaccessible and distant, something she'd never experienced. She could hear the sounds of her family. Brion laughing as he and Abercius launched into some chant they likely learned in the schoolyard and Alphaeus teasing her brother.

She focused her eyes on her family and took a tentative step off the stage, ready to rejoin them and thank the Watcher for this miraculous mercy.

In that moment, her entire life changed. Abercius was wearing a dress and a very expensive looking crown, nothing like the fake crowns they played with during the Feast of the Watcher, where they celebrated the fall of the monarchy and the rise of the Proxy.

She froze in terror watching her son frolic with a ferocious werewolf, until she heard the wolf speak with the voice of her other son.

"B-Brion? How? How did the Proxy miss that you were a werewolf? Alphaeus-"

Her voice caught in her throat as she looked to her husband, only to see him passionately kissing her brother.

"Trysten?! Trysten, what are you doing with my husband?" Damiana shrieked. "Get away from him! What are you doing? Are you out of your mind? I always told Mother that she was wrong about you, but she was right! You're a heretic and have cast some spell over my Alphaeus!"

"He's actually been my Alphaeus since the moment we met," Trysten replied, releasing Alphaeus to shout at his sister. He'd been holding his secret for all of his life, and now that his life was over, he wasn't holding back. "We've been together since middle school. He's my soulmate. You and Mother couldn't see it, but he has a Watcher blessed eye opposite to my own! We waited all our life for the Watcher to reveal our destinies, and he finally answered. We have a son together with blessed eyes. He's perfect and healthy and everything my life with Alphaeus has been leading to!"

"Trysten, be gentle," Alphaeus said softly. He placed a calming hand on Trysten's chest and faced his wife. "Damiana, I'm sorry. Trysten is the love of my life, but that doesn't mean that I don't love you too, just in a different way. We had a great life together, but the Proxy was wrong about so many things. Our children don't fit into the narrow vision of the church. I don't fit into that vision either, and neither should you. I know you loved my brother."

"Don't you mention him!" Damiana snapped. She stared at her sinful children, who were watching her sinful husband and her traitor brother with concern. "Don't you dare mention Cleopas! I-I don't know what is happening here or what kind of sick joke this is, but I'm done with it! I'm done with you!"

Damiana vanished in a flash of light without another word.

"You could have broken the news to her more gently," Alphaeus chided Trysten. "There's a lot to process and it's not going to be easy. She's a good woman, and she's just lost her husband and kids to what she's been told was sin. Plus, she died and wasn't taken to paradise to sit at the Watcher's feet. She's going to need some time."

"You're taking this all pretty well," Trysten remarked. "I'm sure she can deal with it the same way as you have."

Alphaeus sighed, and looked at his children. Neither one seemed surprised by their mother's outburst, but the hurt was written across their faces.

"I have you to lean on," Alphaeus explained. "We knew that if Damiana ever found out about us, she'd take it hard. Being a mother and wife was all she ever wanted in life aside from serving the Watcher, and now nothing is like she expected it to be. She's not with the Watcher and her husband betrayed her. You need to give her some time. You too, kids. Your mother has said some hurtful things, but we need to give her space to absorb everything that's changed. If she is still cruel to you after she's had time to reconcile everything that is with everything she once thought, that's different. We owe it to her to give her a chance. She may surprise you...I hope she surprises you, that is. It's very traumatic to die and not be united with the Watcher, and your mother's faith was very strong."

"I guess," Brion sighed. He didn't look enthusiastic at the idea of giving his mother any grace because of her lifetime of hating werewolves, but maybe his father was right. Maybe his mother could come to accept werewolves because of her love of him. Helena's part werewolf baby could also change her mind, though that might just be too much for Damiana to handle.

"I'll try," Abercius promised, looking as enthusiastic as his brother. "Mom might never accept us though, and I'm not going to tolerate that going forward. Jubilant Accosts is changing, and our family is going to have to change too."

"I understand," Alphaeus replied solemnly. "Just a little bit of understanding is all I ask. I know that she loves all of you very much."

"As long as we're not ourselves," Abercius grumbled. It had taken him a long time to become this open and honest about himself, and he wasn't about to apologize to anyone for being who he was.

"Look who decided to stop by?" Trysten distracted all of the Pryors from their conversation by introducing their newest sibling. "Deia brought him over to see his dad."

"Is that?" Alphaeus was so overcome with emotion that he could barely speak. "That's Alphaios? Our son?"

Trysten nodded and held Alphaios closer to his father.

"Our miracle. I never thought I could carry him to term with the plague or that he could ever exist in the first place. I didn't believe it was possible until Deia made me take that pregnancy test. All of our prayers have been for this moment."

"Our miracle," Alphaeus repeated. "He's perfect. Brion, Abercius, have you met your brother yet?"

"I watched him bring born," Abercius said grudgingly. "I can't believe that you've been cheating on Mom all this time. It's disgusting. You should have just left with Uncle Trysten when you were kids."

"Things are complicated," Alphaeus acknowledged. "We have a lot to talk about as a family and I know I've screwed up over the years, but please don't take your anger out on your brother. He's innocent in all of this."

"Yeah, your miracle child is great," Brion remarked, crossing his arms. Beside him, Abercius did the same. "We don't know where James is, but sure, let's celebrate our new little brother."

"You see, what I have is a mortal with a permanent physical connection to their reaper past, and a Timelady of Ticktop. It's a little unconventional, but it's all I have to work with. You, Abercius, are as old as the universe. Power like that goes dormant, but never truly leaves, just like your eye. Each reincarnation still leaves a little of the past each time. I have forms to switch between, and while you're not a deity, I believe that you have another form as well. You just need help to find it."

Abercius paled at these words, looking worriedly at Rani to support him.

"I-I don't have any other form," he stammered. "I promise! I wouldn't even know how to even-" He stopped when Rani lifted her hand, revealing a swirling ball of magic.

"This shouldn't hurt, Abby," Rani promised. The magic in her hand somehow began glowing more intensely than before. "It's Time magic. I'm just manipulating time around you, gradually subtracting the years before your awakening, until we get to the time when your old body released your soul and your new body accepted it. That time in-between when you first became Absydee-Abercius, the fusion of Life and Death."

"And I will help peel away some of the Life in you that enough of Absydee's connection to Death will remain the dominant energy in you," Lukas explained. "With us giving you your best chance to access Absydee's powers, you can guide Trysten towards death, killing the plague when he dies, and then reviving him as a reaper after his heart stops. I've seen Gee do it before, and because of how you were first created, I suspect that you can do it too. It's not perfect, but we can get Gee to correct anything that goes wrong when he next checks in on our progress. Easy."

"Easy," Abercius repeated, still looking terrified. He could feel Rani's magic wrap around him, burrowing into his skin, looking for any trace of the person he'd once been.

"There, that's more like it," Rani said, watching as Abercius' red hair faded to a dark black and massive black wings sprouted from his back. Abercius instinctively reached out and grasped the scythe that had appeared, just as real to him as any of his other piece of his body.

Abercius could see the energy of his uncle's soul hover above his body, almost ready for a reaper to grab. He was so close to death, his spirit was nearly beyond Lukas' ability to control.

"I'm going to start to withdraw some of the life within him," Lukas announced. They looked at Rani to be certain that she had control over Abercius' time manipulated form. To their relief, she nodded back at them with confidence. With that settled, Lukas turned to their strange time distorted reaper. "Abercius, the instant his heart stops and the dream ends, you need to transform him into a reaper. You must have done it before in your past life, so try your best to remember the procedure now before we lose him."

"Uh, and if I haven't?"

Lukas' face somehow became even paler at this admission.

"Never? You were the team leader! How could you not have ever created a reaper before? The candidates destined to become reapers appear in your book! I've seen it myself during the Demon Wars! You've done this, just remember!"

"Lord Izanami made several of them. I did see one or two created, but from afar. Those mortals died in the living realm and I spent my early life in the afterlife, assisting with the work of maintaining that realm. Someone else must have assisted Lord Izanami, but it wasn't me!"

Lukas sighed deeply.

"Okay, so guess based on what you saw. Because I have a history of imitating his realm, Izanami has never decided to share how a proper reaper is made. If you can get Trysten to a functional undead state, that might be enough for now, and Gee can fix it later. There have been cases of dead souls who are meant to become reapers functioning for years after their death before being properly activated. But not a zombie, just undead! I'm not dealing with zombies."

"What's the difference between someone undead and a zombie?" Rani asked. Her eyes danced with excitement, which could only mean that she was getting ideas from this conversation that Lukas didn't have time to deal with. The residents of Ticktop had always been interested in pushing the boundaries of life, as well as time, whether it was their practice of assuming different faces or their goal of creating golems to be as lifelike as possible.

"Don't answer that!" Lukas ordered, eyeing the Timelady warily. "Stay focused on what we're doing here. The last thing I need is to come back in a year to find golems patched together with pieces from corpses. I will tell Izanami all about you spilling undead secrets if I come back to an army of undead golems running around here. You remember how Ticktop used to be, and I don't need that chaos once we finally get this place fixed. Some things should stay in the realm of Death."

Abercius nodded in agreement, though he had to marvel at the hypocrisy of the god of Life trying to make a reaper. Apparently, the rules only applied to mortals. Still, there were more important things to do than satisfying Rani's curiosities about the realm of Death, especially if his friend would use that information for mysterious purposes.

"No pressure," he muttered, holding up his hand and hoping for the best.

It was an important distinction to make though. A zombie was an improperly resurrected soul, while an undead person was usually flagged by the realm of Death for some purpose that hadn't been fulfilled yet. Someone who died and became a zombie would decompose and shamble their way through their second chance at life, while an undead person would be frozen at the exact moment of their death until a reaper could reap them and complete their transformation into their new state. Making Trysten undead until a proper reaper could finish the process would freeze him at the moment of his death; accidentally making him into a zombie would ruin whatever hope they had of restoring reapers in this realm.

"Okay, so I need to flag him as a potential reaper candidate first. I think I can sort of remember how that works. The Ocean used to whisper secrets in the old days. Maybe if I...."

The previously bright glow of his uncle's spirit began to dim, signaling that Abercius was running out of time.

"Rani, can you reverse time any further? I don't think this body has the power to do what I need as it is."

"I can try, but it might be dangerous. How much time do you need? I can try to move a little closer to the end of Absydee's existence, but if I go too far, your current life could be in danger."

"Let me handle that. Keeping mortals alive is literally my job. Once I'm done with Trysten, I can focus on Abercius. Work fast, Timelady." Lukas gave Rani an impatient look, and the magic in her hand grew brighter.

"Okay, but it's not my fault if this goes badly."

"Yes, that's more like it," Abercius exclaimed, wielding his scythe with an authority that came with centuries of practice. "I can remember the whispers now. The secrets of the dead...and the undead are mine."

"Is he okay?" Rani hissed, glaring at the deity. "You'd better not get my friend killed when I just got them back!"

"I can see it," Abercius exclaimed. "The plague, the dream, all of it. I can touch it."

Rani looked distressed at these words.

"Abby, what are you doing? Don't go anywhere near the plague! The dream will end when he dies, and we'll all be safe, remember? What are you doing?"

To the horror of everyone else in the room, Abercius' non glowing eye began to develop the same film over it that had engulfed his uncle's.

"Abby? Are you in danger?"

"Can't you see them?" Abercius asked. "They're talking, lost in the dream together. Alphaeus Pryor is physically across the street, but they're talking to each other here. The dreams are all connected, like Xexys' own private afterlife. Dead souls all sharing a single dream. I don't think that we can end the plague until we end the dream and the only way to end Trysten Vienot's dream is through death."

Both the Timelady and the deity stared at Abercius with dread.

"Abby, you have the plague," Rani whispered. "Your eye is-"

"There's a reason Xexys went after the reapers first," Abercius continued, ignoring his friend's concerns. "They can see the illness, see the dream. They can reap the souls and steal them away from this perpetual state of undeath. Without these trapped souls, Xexys has no hostages to continue the plague. If the dream dies with the dreamer, it can't spread. The dream needs to die."

"Abby, listen to me, this is too dangerous. You have the illness, and I've already turned time back way too far. You need to just create a reaper and end this."

Rani watched with a mix of horror and amazement as Lukas did as instructed and Abercius went to work.

"I can end this," Abercius replied dismissively. "I can end a lot of this. Trysten Jacob Vienot, I command you to wake up! Lukas, remove the rest of the life from him! Wake up!"

In an instant, Trysten's once plague covered eyes snapped open, and he bolted up in the bed, looking wildly around him.

"Alphaeus? Alphaeus where did you go?"

"He's still sick, Uncle Trysten," Abercius replied. The film over his eye had vanished, but his frustration with his uncle still remained. "We'll get to him in time. You need to get used to your new state. Rani, you can stop the time magic now. My work is done."

Rani eagerly snapped her fingers and the ball of time magic disappeared, along with the changes made to Abercius. His hair was once again a brilliant red and the full, black wings and scythe had vanished.

"Thank god," Rani said, looking her friend over carefully. "Is everything still okay? I didn't hurt you by going back too far in the past?"

"I said that I had it handled," Lukas replied irritably. "Abercius is perfectly mortal and perfectly alive. His link to his past form isn't stable, but it exists. He's more like me than we thought."

"I can see again!" Trysten exclaimed, excitedly examining his body for changes. "You cured the plague! You actually did it! This changes everything!"

"Not quite," Abercius said. "You're dead now, Uncle Trysten. You died, and I've made you a reaper. You now have the power to help this realm and free souls from the same suffering you experienced. It's not a cure for the illness, as we can't just kill every afflicted soul and make them reapers, but it will decimate Xexys' plans. Each soul freed will mean one less dreamer. We can slow the spread and make his communal nightmare weaker."

"The eye is a choice," Lukas remarked, ignoring the confusion of the newest reaper. "Are you sure you did it right? I've never seen that marking transfer to someone else before or have it be any colour but ocean blue."

"I'm not entirely sure," Abercius said. "I did the best that I could with the body I had. Maybe some of my own power transferred over or maybe it was just because we cheated to access Death’s realm with magic. Lord Izanami would likely know."

Lukas chuckled to themselves at the thought of Izanami knowing the answer to any of this. Their stepmother, Destiny, would likely have a stronger hypothesis about the glowing eye than Izanami ever would. Their husband was naturally uncurious about his realm, so long as it was functioning correctly.

"Thank you, Abercius. I don't fully understand any of this, but I know that you've saved me somehow, and I'm incredibly grateful. I can see my son. I never thought that would be possible. Thank you."

He hugged Abercius gratefully, which the teenager didn't know how to handle. All of the anger, hurt, and betrayal still raged inside of him, but maybe those were feelings for later. Right now, he had successfully accessed some of his old power, and made the first reaper in Jubilant Accosts in centuries. Well, something reaperlike at least. Progress was progress, so Abercius pushed away the negative feelings for another time, and took this moment to celebrate.

"Now that's one Timelady, one off brand reaper, and my husband's biggest fan," Lukas boasted. They looked extraordinarily pleased with themselves for these accomplishments. "If Trysten or Abercius can make more reapers, then we've got a fighting chance at defeating Xexys. If we can get a proper team, and a new Dream Guardian, then Jubilant Accosts' defenses will be back to what they're supposed to be."

"How did you free yourself from the plague?" Rani asked her friend. "One minute you had the telltale film over your eye, and the next it was gone. If we can replicate what you did, we would have a cure. I could try to mass produce one for the two realms."

"I don't fully know," Abercius answered. "The answer has to lie in the realm of Death somewhere. Dying ended the plague for my uncle, and when I could briefly touch Death’s realm, the illness vanished from me. I could feel the demonic energy it's made of clear as day. I remember how demons were formed from the first Life deity and I've seen the magic that Theo can do. This illness can be harmed by the realm of Death. Not necessarily cured for every mortal still wanting to live, but it's a start."

"It's not only Death that can impact it though," Lukas added quickly. "Theo and Adam are immune because of demonic magic and some strange version of Life magic I can't explain. The solution will involve the magic of both Life and Death, unless you want to make reapers of every victim of the plague and just hope that no one new catches it."

"It's a start," Abercius acknowledged. "It's more than we had an hour ago. This will change things for us, I know it."

A being in the shape of a man silently watched the celebration from afar. For once, Life was not only doing their job, but also a passable attempt at their husband's job as well. It was remarkable to witness after watching Life and Death bicker over the centuries and neglect the only purpose tied to their existence.

"I know you're more than capable," Abercius replied, clearly still reeling from everything that had happened in the last hour. "Brion will accept you when he gets to know you better. He's just protective."

"You? What are you doing here?"

Abercius flinched at his brother's words, preparing himself to defend two children as quickly as possible.

"This man says that he's a doctor," Deia said cautiously, staying as far away from her guest as was polite.

"They're not a man or a doctor, Aunt Deia," Abercius replied, his relief obvious. "They're exactly who we need though. This is Lukas, the god in control of the realm of Life."

"A god? Impossible. The Watcher is the only god."

"You're a bad actor for someone who's lied for so long," Lukas replied, rolling their eyes at the absurdity of a woman in love with a dream demon hybrid claiming to be a devout Jacobean. "Your husband I could see believing that, but you? You're smarter than that."

Deia looked helplessly at Abercius, as he clearly was familiar with this supposed god.

"They're really a god," Abercius promised. "I used to work for their husband."

Deia threw her hands in the air and surrendered to the absurdity her life had become. She wasn't a devout Jacobean or even truly Jacobean at all, but this was all too strange to accept. A pregnant husband? A god walking through her door who knew her nephew? When it was safe to take her babies and Xanthos and leave this cursed settlement, Deia was running as far away as she could.

"Sure. That makes sense."

"Don't worry, I'm an expert at all this," Lukas assured her. "My husband's granddaughter would have died in utero if it hadn't been for me, and I helped deliver her. I've given birth to twins, and have several other children, so I know what I'm doing. You couldn't be in better hands. You're just lucky that I find your family interesting enough to keep tabs on."

"Alphaeus? I've lost you. I can hear you, but I can't see you. It's all a blur."

Lukas watched the man on the floor mumble for a moment, trying to diagnose how dire the situation was.

"Okay, demon spawn, you're carrying this man upstairs to the bedroom, while the rest of you are going to sit outside and keep yourself occupied while I work. Not you, Abby. You're going to help me with this birth. I need someone who knows how to look for the signs of death. Yeah, yeah, you're not a reaper anymore, but I need to know how close the parent and child are to death at any moment. There's only so long I can interfere before Death becomes involved and once that line is crossed, I have very few choices."

"I can't believe we're out here while Trysten is alone with a stranger and my delusional nephew," Deia lamented. She watched Desdemona play with her outside toys, while the infant slept in the bassinet Deia used when they had limited outside time. "How sure are we that this isn't a trick of Xexys'?"

"I keep telling you that it's not," Brion insisted. "At least some of us can be counted on to tell the truth. Lukas is helping restore the balance of our realm. Abercius trusts them, so I do too. My friend Theo was saved by Lukas. They're the only chance Uncle Trysten has."

"A bit convenient timing, if you ask me," Xanthos complained. "How did they know when to come here if they weren't behind this sudden change in Trysten?"

"Because they were probably watching," Helle said, as if it should be obvious. Lukas had admitted as much, but the adults were slow to catch on to the realities of their realm. "That's what they do apparently. They watch the living and interfere if they're so inclined. They're helping restore Jubilant Accosts to the way it was supposed to be."

"And how was it supposed to be? With a queen ruling over us?" Xanthos asked. "If I remember my history right, the monarch didn't do much for the people of Jubilant Accosts, especially the demons."

"You're not remembering it right," Helle insisted. "The monarch helped the nation with fair leadership and by defending their people against threats by the Demon of Nightmares. It's not demons that the monarchy swore to defend against, but one singular demon who is currently showing us just how dangerous he is. We were left here in this realm with one terrible demon, but we studied every clue left to us about the demons in the realm we were sealed away from. Over time, we even had people cross between the realms with new information on demons from where they came from. Just because we hate the demon we were sealed in here with, doesn't mean that our whole realm hates other kinds of demon."

"Yeah, Theo went to Shadowvale to learn how to control himself," Brion added. "He was sent here because we had knowledge of ancient magic and ancient demons. We don't have demons native to Jubilant Accosts, aside from the one destroying everything, but Theo told me about how extensive Shadowvale's library was when it came to demonology."

"If we can defeat Xexys, maybe we can encourage other demons to settle here," Helle said. "We can create a home for everyone, just like Tredony has. Xexys was the reason we were sealed away, so if he's gone, maybe things can be different for us."

"As I assured everyone, a baby has been born. A baby boy."

Everyone turned to face the deity who had appeared in the doorway to announce their success.

"It's a miracle!" Deia gasped, grabbing Xanthos with excitement. "The baby is alive! How is Trysten? Is he okay?"

Lukas grimaced at the reminder. The plague was a nasty illness, especially at the end.

"He's struggling. It shouldn't be long now. I need to return to him, but we need the child out of the way. One of you needs to care for him."

Deia stood, but she couldn't take a single step before Xanthos stood in front of her protectively.

"Does he have the plague? Deia, you can't risk exposing yourself to him if he does."

"His eyes are clear," Lukas replied, holding the infant out for inspection. "I can't sense any of the plague within him. If anything, he might have built up an immunity or resistance to the disease. I guess we'll find out. He's completely safe to hold, either way."

Deia didn't need to be told twice. She pushed past Xanthos, and reached for the baby.

"Come here, Alphaios," she cooed, staring at the infant in her arms with wonderment. "You're such a cutie."

"Did you just name him?" Brion asked, dumbfounded at the audacity of his aunt. He didn't know how to feel about this little half-brother/cousin, but however mad he was at his uncle, Trysten still deserved to name his son.

"It's the name Trysten chose for a boy," Deia whispered, keeping her voice low to soothe a very confused infant. "Alphaios Maitiu Vienot to be exact. He wanted to name him after the father Alphaios would never meet. He insisted on it."

Xanthos nodded to confirm her story.

"That's perfect," Helle declared, glaring at Brion to agree with her. "What a lovely gesture."

Brion mumbled something that could have been agreement with Helle, which Helle decided was still a victory. She couldn't win support for her rule if she made enemies everywhere she went.

"Great, welcome to the world, Alphaios," Lukas announced, already heading back into the house now that the baby was safely with his family and out of Lukas' care. "I've still got work to do. I'd advise staying out of the bedroom until I'm done."

"And Abercius? Is he coming back to us now that his work is done?" Helle asked hopefully. Her hopes were dashed when Lukas shook their head.

"No, I still have plans for them," they replied cryptically, vanishing into the house without another word.

"Them?" Helle repeated, looking to Brion to see if he had any clue of what the deity meant. Brion only shrugged. He hadn't truly understood anything he'd seen upon returning home. Just one mystery or tragedy after another.

"Let's get you inside," Deia sang to Alphaios, rocking him in her arms. "There's no sense waiting out here when all we need to do is avoid upstairs. Come on, Desdemona, clean up your toys."

Abercius stared at his uncle, unable to process everything he'd just seen. Clearly, Lukas knew what they were doing; the baby had been born faster than Abercius could have even imagined.

Now, Trysten lay before him, completely lost in the haze of the plague. His arm twitched slightly every minute or so, but otherwise, he was as still as a corpse. Absydee was used to seeing dead bodies in her line of work, while Abercius was still a little squeamish.

To his surprise, Lukas had been right that Abercius could still see and understand the different stages of death, without having a reaper body. He had seen the signs of Trysten's soul releasing from his body, and warned Lukas, so they could try to heal just enough to keep him alive. There was only so much that they could do though; Trysten's name was likely appearing in Absydee's old book as they spoke.

"Listen to me, I know what Lordem Lukas wants from us. They have been watching and waiting for this for some time. They need our help. Remember who we were."

Abercius jumped at the impossible sound of a familiar voice, looking around to find its owner. "Absydee?"

He blinked, and when his eyes focused, his former self was staring intently at him, holding out her hand.

"They need our help," she repeated. "Take my hand. We need both of us for this. I know that we haven't fully fused, and I sometimes feel like a different person, but we are the same. We share the same soul, we both love Apophis. We will do this together."

"Do what?" Abercius asked nervously. "If I'm you, shouldn't I know what you know?"

Absydee nodded carefully.

"Yes, and you do know, you just haven't learned to listen to that part of us yet. Take my hand, and listen."

Abercius reached out his arm to make contact with the apparition of his past self. Even though no one could see Absydee, Abercius could feel her familiar presence wash over him, whispering to him softly about what he already knew within him.

"Oh," he said softly. "I see. That might work. I can't see Lord Izanami being happy about that, but that might work until something better comes along. But in order to do anything, I need-"

Absydee vanished, fading into the smoke spilling from his uncle's cauldron, only to be replaced by Rani. She landed safely on the floor in a shower of sparkles, grinning wildly.

"Abby! Can you believe it? Life is making us kill someone! I thought that I had to have heard it wrong, but there's someone half dead already and they need help crossing over. No one ever gave us missions like this in the old days."

Abercius sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"No, you definitely heard that wrong," he said. "We're not killing anyone. Life can't kill people. It's pretty obvious that Life is going to try to make my uncle a reaper, so we can have a proper team again. I don't know if we'd even succeed, since I'm not a reaper anymore, but we're not going to kill him."

A certain deity cleared their throat and stepped into the room.

"There is a holy legend that says that the Watcher blesses some souls with a soulmate," Trysten continued, ignoring the teens. "I was born with one eye larger than the other, and in cases like mine, I should expect to find another soul with a larger eye on the side opposite to mine. That person would be my soulmate, and we would create children with both eyes larger than usual, just as the Watcher intended. My mother reminded me of this sacred mission of mine every day of my childhood. I waited longer than most to marry, and then only to the woman my mother arranged me to marry. She couldn't find a woman who would fit the definition of my soulmate, but she wanted grandkids, so she settled for the poor widow with a daughter already. It was pointless though, as I'd found my soulmate as a preteen, and he wasn't a woman."

"Interesting," Helle said with a practiced smile. The siblings beside her were still glaring daggers at their uncle, so it was up to her to keep the peace.

"The Pryor brothers attended school with Damiana and me. They and their mother were recent converts to the Jacobean faith, so they had lots to learn about being a Jacobean. Your father got along with everyone in the school, including the teachers, but he always hung out with me and Damiana. Cleopas, his identical twin brother, wasn't as sociable as Alphaeus, but he followed my sister around like a love sick puppy. I never paid any attention to Cleopas, and I'm definitely not sleeping with him now. Even though they were identical, I knew that Alphaeus was my soulmate from the first time we met. His eye was larger on the side opposite to mine, and even though we were still kids, something inside me just clicked into place. This was the person that I would love until my dying breath. Alphaeus was a faithful Jacobean, same as me, and we waited for the Watcher's instructions throughout our teenage years. We were two young men, who couldn't have children, or even be married, and yet our souls were inseparable. I prayed every night for the Watcher to make his plans known to us, to give the Proxy a message for us that would make everything okay. My prayers were never answered.

Damiana loved the Pryor brothers, though just like me, she had a clear favourite. Cleopas was less devout and more prone to taking chances on things that other people might find heretical. I used to tease her that she must love bad boys, until my mother intervened and made me recite prayers in my room for forgiveness. We were a tight friend group, just Alphaeus, Cleopas, Damiana, and I, until we became teens. Cleopas was expelled by the Proxy, along with their mother. I don't know what their supposed crimes were, only that Alphaeus had been allowed to stay. He served the Watcher faithfully and so I got to keep him in my life. I know that if he'd been expelled too, I would have left with him without any regrets, but Damiana couldn't. She didn't want to live the life of an exile. Her greatest dream was to become a mother one day, and raise kids in her faith."

"Do you know where Cleopas and Grandma went?" Abercius asked quietly. "Obviously, he's come back to the settlement, but has she? Is my grandmother still alive? Where did she come from?"

"I've never known," Trysten answered. "Even your father didn't know. He was young when they moved, and he didn't remember his father. It troubled him greatly growing up, but over the years, he stopped wondering. It was decided that he should marry Damiana when we were finished school, and Alphaeus and I resigned ourselves to never being able to be true to ourselves. He loved your mother very much; that wasn't an act. If I had died or left, maybe they'd still be happily married today. They loved each other, but not like Alphaeus loved me. We still met in secret to be together, even when Abercius was born and fatherhood changed his life. You were my nephew, and the closest I'd ever thought that Alphaeus and I would come to having a child of our own. You have the Vienot red hair, and looked so much like your father. I loved you the moment I first held you. A Vienot who looked so much like a Pryor."

A silent rage turned Abercius' face a fiery shade of red. This was the absolute last thing he needed to hear at the moment. He was already furious at his uncle, he didn't need to know how Trysten had fantasized about being his father despite Abercius already having two parents. If his uncle had projected all of his hopes of having a biological connection to his father on him, Abercius didn't know how to process it. It made his stomach turn to think of all the nice times in his childhood he'd spent with his uncle, when Trysten was secretly trying to imagine himself in Damiana's place.

"Don't. Don't talk about me. Don't talk about my dad. Just tell me what happened after we left Jubilant Accosts. I think I can fill in the rest of your backstory with Dad on my own. What happened after that?"

Helle squeezed Abercius' hand tightly. It meant everything that she was here to help him with this. Brion looked just as upset as he felt, but Brion was adopted, and therefore couldn't be used for their uncle to picture as own child like he did Abercius. It was a good thing that Brion was there too. Maybe he could tell Helena about this conversation the next time they saw each other, because Abercius never planned to speak about this conversation again.

Trysten nodded, lowering his gaze to the floor after seeing the disgusted look in his nephew's eyes.

"Alphaeus was sick before you left, as you already know," he began. "Damiana too. Your father got so sick so quickly, we never really got to say goodbye. I couldn't openly tell him what I wanted to with my sister beside me. I watched the life drain from him a little more each day, until finally he fell asleep and never woke up. We tried everything we could think of to wake him, and when we gave up hope, we committed him to the care of the Watcher. You kids were supposed to leave and never return so that you'd be safe. I didn't realize that the plague would spread to Tredony; you were supposed to live a life of safety, not return to die with the rest of us."

"Um, what about James?" Abercius sneered. "He's my little brother, lost in a dangerous world on his own. Should we not care about his safety? He's my father's son, you should at least care about him for that reason."

"The Watcher will protect him and guide his path," Trysten assured his nephew. "There was no time to find him, you know that. This isn't the first time that James has disappeared. He's a spirited child. I became ill too quickly to search for him."

"We should probably stick to the matter at hand," Helle said diplomatically. She squeezed Abercius' hand to reassure him. "What happened next?"

"I realized that I was pregnant," Deia replied. Emotions were running high, and the teens would probably prefer another person answer their questions. "It obviously wasn't your uncle's child, and I feared how he'd react to the news."

"But then I noticed that he was starting to show the same symptoms as me. He couldn't keep food down and we were racing each other to the bathroom. I never expected to see a pregnant man, but whispers had been circulating around the settlement of bizarre miracles that defied what we understood about the world, so I decided to test my theory."

"The pregnancy test was positive. Your uncle had only taken it as a joke, believing that I didn't know about his little love affair. Once the proof was before us, there wasn't any point in denying it. We were both pregnant by other men."

Abercius' face fell when he did some simple math in his head.

"You were already pregnant when Dad got sick," he spat. "All that talk about my parents fixing their marriage or starting over was a lie, wasn't it? How long did you two stop your affair after you got caught? Did you ever stop? You were pregnant while you were consoling my mother over her husband's sickness! How could you? That's sick!"

"He's my soulmate and he was mine long before he was Damiana's," Trysten protested. "These things are complicated; you'll understand when you're older."

"I am the reincarnation of one of the oldest creatures in creation," Abercius spat. "There's no age that I could ever understand what you've done!"

Helle cleared her throat quietly.

"I was married when we began our relationship," she said softly. "I mean, I wasn't in love with my wife, but we still did have Hetepheres together. Maybe thinking about our past will help you accept your parents' choices."

Abercius clenched his hands angrily.

"I never imagined Hetepheres as my own. Your wife wasn't my sister. There's no way that this is anything like us. Not at all."

Brion gave his sibling a curious look, but didn't comment on the strangeness of listening to Abercius describe another lifetime. He knew that look in Abercius' eyes; he'd inherited it from their mother. Damiana had that same expression whenever she was furious at her husband or children. It was best to leave Abercius alone until he calmed down.

"Trysten. Trysten, can you hear me?"

Trysten's eyes rolled back in his head and he stumbled. Deia was immediately at his side, supporting him as best as she could.

"Trysten! Trysten, ignore it! You can't give up! Not yet!"

The teens watched in horror as Trysten tried to right himself, then settled for setting on the edge of the couch.

"Sorry." He coughed violently, struggling to catch his breath. "The plague has almost won. Xanthos is a great help at keeping it at bay, but he can't delay the inevitable. The pregnancy doesn't help either. I don't have much time left."

"Xanthos can help weaken the plague?" Helle gasped. "Because you're your father's son? That's great news! You need to talk to someone from Tredony who is studying dream magic. Maybe together, you can work on a treatment!"

"Tredony?" Xanthos repeated. "That's where you sent Xaviere? Hasn't that place been destroyed for millennia?"

"No," Brion replied. "I've been there, same as Abercius. They call it Pleasantview now. Our friends from Tredony can help us. They need to see how you can save people from the plague."

"Not save, delay what will always happen," Deia corrected.

"I told Xanthos about my pregnancy and Trysten's as soon as I knew," she continued. "If my husband wasn't going to be able to hide who he truly loved, then I wasn't going to continue to do the same. We would figure things out together."

"We've all worked together to keep our house safe, and the pregnancies secret. When the Proxy disappeared, we knew we were likely safe from the church, but there was a good reason that Xanthos sent me and Xaviere away all those years ago. People don't trust demons, Jacobean or not."

"The Proxy is dead, not disappeared," Xanthos corrected. "My parents killed him with the plague."

"I guess that's comforting to know that he's not coming back," Helle said. "After everything he's done, maybe I can bring peace back to our home."

Xanthos and Deia smiled thinly at the comment. As much as they hated the Proxy, they didn't seem excited about the idea of a queen.

"We've been keeping Trysten as healthy as we can," Deia said, turning the conversation back to the past. "Xanthos goes out to get us food and supplies, and we've been homeschooling Desdemona as best as we can. Shadowvale was abandoned, and didn't bother to protect the building against demons when they left."

"I used to visit Damiana and Alphaeus back before things got bad," Trysten confessed. "I'd sit with them both and just talk to them, hoping they could hear me. Maybe that's how I caught the plague, maybe I got it the same time as them, I don't know. I tried telling Alphaeus about the baby every time that I sat with them, but I don't know if he could hear me."

"Eventually, I was too sick, too pregnant to leave the house. I can still hear him sometimes though, calling me. Calling me to join him in the dream. To be together again, even if it's in an endless dream. I need to have the baby, though. I need to give them a chance to live, and pray that they haven't caught the plague from me."

"Trysten, come join me. I've been waiting so long to see you again. I love you."

"Alphaeus? I can see you. I can't believe you're here. Is this the end? It can't be. Our child isn't born, I can't leave now. I...I...."

Trysten collapsed on the floor, unable to hold himself up anymore. Luckily, he landed on his back and not his stomach, though Deia and Xanthos both rushed to his side to check for any injuries.

"Trysten, you need to fight this!" Deia protested. "Don't give into the dream. Not yet. You can do this!"

Helle ran to assist the adults, while Brion and Abercius watched in horror. Neither one of them wanted to deal with the situation before them, especially while they tried to process everything they'd uncovered about their family.

"He's dying?" Abercius asked, his eyes still fixed in horror on his uncle. "D-did we cause this with our questions?"

"No, this was always going to happen soon," Deia reassured the teens. She reached for her phone, but hesitated when she realized that she had no one to call. "We need a doctor, but who can we possibly find to help a pregnant man with the plague? I was hoping we'd have more time."

"Step away from him, Deia. I can't guarantee that I can protect you from the illness this far into the end stage. He's fading quickly and I don't want you to be exposed. We have the kids to think of."

"What about his kid?" Deia demanded. "If he's dying, then we need to get it out of him. You're not a doctor, and none of us know how to deliver a child from a male body!"

In their panic, the adults almost missed the knocking on the front door.

"Are you expecting someone?" Brion asked nervously. "Should I answer the door or should I prepare for an attack?"

Deia and Xanthos exchanged a terrified look.

"Stop! Come any closer and I'll be forced to defend my home!"

The teens were suddenly face to face with a blonde man they'd never seen before.

"Did you kill my aunt and uncle and steal their house?" Abercius asked, looking at Brion for support. Abercius still didn't know battle magic, so Brion's claws were probably their best protection from this stranger. "Is Desdemona okay? I knew that we should have taken her with us, but Aunt Deia said that she was too young to take on such a dangerous trip. Please, tell me that at least she's alive!"

"Xanthos, enough. Those are my nephews and a local girl. At least, I'm pretty sure that wolf is my nephew. They're family."

The two Pryors gasped at the familiar voice, staring at her with disbelief.

"Aunt Deia? You're alive!"

Deia hugged Abercius tightly, as the blonde man retreated into the house.

"I'm so glad to see you alive," she said, releasing Abercius and looking carefully at the werewolf before her. After a moment of consideration, Deia reached out her arms for Brion to hug her. She didn't want to risk getting too close to a werewolf's personal space, and triggering an attack. Brion hugged her, thankful that his usually uptight aunt wasn't rejecting him.

"Come inside, children," Deia urged, looking around for threats. "The streets at night aren't safe. You never know who or what is lurking out there."

"Daddy, can you read me a story? I'm not tired, but Mommy says it's bedtime. I can stay up and read with you, right?"

Trysten Vienot gently placed the infant in his arms in the crib, then turned to face his stubborn daughter. "Honey, it's bedtime. Even Mommy and Xanthos and I are going to bed. It's dangerous outside, and we all need our rest. Maybe if I'm feeling okay tomorrow, you can read me a story. You know that Daddy's eyes hurt too much when trying to read all those letters. C'mon, let's get you into your pajamas."

"Uncle Trysten?!"

Both Abercius and Brion stared in horror at the sight of their uncle, while Helle tried to understand just what she had walked into.

"That man is pregnant," Helle whispered, as if this was somehow a secret. With a stomach as swollen as his was, there was no denying that Trysten was pregnant.

"Look at his eyes," Abercius whispered back. "He's got the plague. This makes no sense. Even if he got sick after my parents did, he should be sicker. Way sicker."

"You know, I may be sick, but I'm not deaf," Trysten remarked. He coughed a little and had to spend the next few moments catching his breath. "What are you kids doing back here? Is Xaviere okay? Did any of you make it to the other realm?" He paused again for another breath. "Why does it suddenly smell like dog?"

"That would be Brion, dear," Deia called out from the hallway. "Perfect little Damiana adopted herself a werewolf it seems. I wish I could see the look on her smug face when she sees that."

"My mother is dead! My father too! They won't see anything ever again! My mom loved Brion and I love Brion and why are you pregnant?" Abercius didn't even realize that he was shouting until Helle reached for his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Abercius appreciated the gesture, but he was far too angry to stop now. "Are you fucking my dad? Are you fucking his identical twin, who, by the way, I had no idea existed until he tried to threaten us ten minutes ago!"

"Oh honey, please try to calm down," Deia replied, interrupting her husband's attempt to reply to the outburst. "We all have some catching up to do. A lot has changed since you left and-"

"And a lot of things haven't changed," Brion snapped. He grabbed his sibling's hand in solidarity. "The Tredonians and Sebastian were right this whole time, weren't they? You were cheating with our father, and when he died, you moved on to his twin brother! Is Cleopas the father of your child? How could you do this to our mother? She was your only sister and you slept with her husband?! You're the reason that we had to move and listen to the whole settlement talk about our sinful father? We trusted you!"

"That is a shitty thing to do." Helle joined in with the shouting, though she wasn't entirely sure what to yell about. She ended up deciding to ask for information while the Pryor children lowered Trysten's defenses. "Um, not to be rude, but why aren't you dead like Abby's parents?"

"Enough. We can talk about this, and I promise not to leave anything out, but you need to calm down. You're going to wake up the baby," Trysten replied. "I don't have much time left here in this world, as the girl who somehow possesses the Yacothian crown has pointed out. You deserve to know before I'm gone too."

Abercius' mind filled with questions. He couldn't begin to choose which ones needed to be answered first.

"How long have you been sleeping with my dad?" he decided. "Was the affair that Mom discovered the first time?"

Trysten shook his head slowly.

"No, it wasn't the first time. We've been in love since we were teenagers. He's my soulmate after all. I knew that he was the one the first time I looked into his eyes."

"Like we're supposed to believe that," Brion scoffed, looking at his sibling with a knowing look. "Soulmates don't really exist; that's just an excuse you're using to justify your bad decisions. I can't believe Theo was right. I thought better of you."

Abercius stared at his uncle's very pregnant stomach until he lost all sense of time. He tried to piece the facts of this situation together in his head in a way that made any kind of sense. Soulmates? His father having an identical twin? His parents trapped inside a broken shell of a corpse while his uncle still lived? It was all too much to handle.

"Abby, I think that we should hear your uncle out. You can still be mad at him, but he has information that might help our cause. Come on, let's sit down. Brion too," Helle ordered, pulling the siblings with her towards the nearest couch. Neither Brion or Abercius fought her. They were far too angry and hurt to protest. "Mr. Vienot, I would be very happy to listen to your explanation about this scenario, and I know Abby and Brion would be too, even if they can't say it."

"That man smells like a demon," Brion growled, his attention now on the blonde man still standing in the hall. "Why is there a demon here? Are you working with Xexys?"

"Xexys is my father," the man answered. "My name is Xanthos Onerieroi, and I've been fighting against my father for a very long time. Trust me, no one wants to see my father dead more than I do. I'm here to protect my family as best as I can."

"You're Xaviere's dad," Brion gasped, looking at his aunt's face for confirmation. "Aunt Deia said you were dead! Does Xaviere know?"

"No, it was safer this way," Deia replied. "If the Proxy knew that she was related to the Demon of Nightmares, she would have been killed. Xanthos stepped out of her life so that she could live, and now that the Proxy is gone, we can stand together against Xexys. You still haven't told us if Xaviere is okay. Did she survive the journey?"

"She's fine," Brion said, glaring openly at his aunt. "She's with Phuong and Helena in a house protected by the monarchs of Strangetown and Twikkii Island. She's been taking magic lessons and really enjoying it there. We didn't know that she was a demon, but the other realm seems to embrace demons, so she's fine. It would have been good to know about that beforehand."

"Your uncle sent her, not me," Deia said in a frosty tone. "It would have been good to know that she was being sent off with a werewolf, but I'm not complaining."

"Deia, these are children, not my sister," Trysten said. "They're innocents in all this and they've already told you that Xaviere is safe. Please. I need to tell Abercius what happened, before it's too late."

"You need to tell Brion too!" Abercius snapped, not realizing that his voice was raised until Helle gently placed her hand on his. "Brion is my brother, even if he is a werewolf, just like I'm the reincarnation of an ancient reaper, and I don't feel like a boy! I can't ever tell my parents that, so you're going to have to listen to us for them, and treat us all equally! Helena has a baby with a female werewolf now too, and she's learning battle magic, just like I am. And-"

"I think they understand that, Abby," Helle said reassuringly. "We can hammer this all out later, but I think that we should listen to your uncle. He might be able to clear some things up for us."

Abercius flushed at the interruption of his rant, while Brion looked at his sibling with a new appreciation. It had taken the breaking of their family and the damnation of their realm, but Abercius was finally standing up for what he believed. Brion couldn't remember a time when he'd seen Abercius this angry in the last five years.

Except, now Helle could hear the growling herself.

"Werewolf!" she shouted, looking hurriedly for an exit from the tiny room they found themselves in. "We have to go, Abby! The werewolf/vampire feud has found its way into the settlement! There could be more of them on the way!"

Helle reached for a weapon, while Abercius started laughing.

Without warning, the werewolf burst through the door, leaping towards Abercius with his teeth bared.

"Oh no," Abercius cried out, throwing his arms in front of him dramatically. "A werewolf! I'm doomed!"

The werewolf laughed in response, throwing his own arms around Abercius. Helle still looked like she was about to hit the werewolf with the closest thing at hand, but she hesitated when she saw both of them laugh together. Maybe this wasn't a threat to them after all. Brion and Phuong were both werewolves, maybe this was one of their friends. Helle had never really seen a werewolf before, so she had no idea.

"Brion, what the hell are you doing here?" Abercius asked, pulling away from the werewolf, allowing Helle to get a better look at him. "You're supposed to be with Helena and Phuong! I had to come back to find Tiffany Dean and James, but you're supposed to be with them!"

"You need me more," Brion explained. "Helena and Phuong had their baby already, and they have enough Tredonian help. I need to protect you and help our family. You can't just run off without telling us you're leaving."

"If I had told you, you would have tried to stop me," Abercius countered. "What did they name the baby? Is it a boy or a girl?"

"A little girl named Nguyet Selene," Brion answered. "She's healthy and completely normal. No extra hands or feet and with the right amount of eyes. Maybe she'll inherit the vampire or werewolf gene from Phuong's side of the family, but it's too early to tell. Everyone is doing great though. I think the king of Strangetown is about to adopt them all at this rate. He's always over to check in, and brings his grandchildren over to socialize. For a monarch, he's not too bad. The queen of Twikkii Island is always busy, so we don't see her much, but she does send a representative to check in with us."

"Ah, right, a monarch," Abercius said nervously. "I'm glad that you think that some monarchs aren't bad because...uh...Helle is the reincarnation of the final king of Yacothia."

Brion looked at Helle, who had until that moment, been trying to stay out of the family reunion.

"Yeah, that tracks. She's wearing the Yacothian crown," Brion replied. He looked curiously at the crown on his sibling's head. That wasn't as easy to explain.

"Um, Helle and I are engaged. I'm going to be her consort because...uh...I'm the reincarnation of a reaper who fell in love with the king. Helle and I fell in love centuries ago and I broke all of the natural laws so that we could reincarnate and have another chance at life. So we're engaged, and going to restore the monarchy."

Silence fell in the room as Brion processed what he'd just heard.

"What's a reaper again? Are you in a textbook somewhere?"

"A reaper is a servant of the god of Death," Abercius explained nerviously. "They collect the souls of dead mortals, and protect the natural balance of the world. Reapers usually exist in teams in different countries or realms, and I was once the leader of the reaper team here. If I was in a textbook, I wouldn't know. We don't exactly get an accurate education here."

"Is that why your eye looks different?" Brion asked cautiously. He didn't want to offend his sibling if the change to his eye was because of an accident like the scars on Adam's face. As Brion had learned, people were often sensitive about changes to their face. Theo hadn't let him bring up Adam's facial scars at all, despite his own anger at his ex-boyfriend.

To his relief, Abercius nodded.

"It seems to have carried over from my past life. Once I regained my memories, it hasn't gone away. I don't have any of my reaper powers, but for some reason, I get to keep the same feature that everyone used endlessly stare at. I'm sure that it will be the same in this life."

"So, Helena is a mom and you're engaged to a queen," Brion stated. "So much has changed in such a short time. If someone told me that James was in the service of the Demon of Nightmares, I'd believe that too."

"So you're not freaked out about me?" Abercius asked hopefully. "I know it's a lot to take in, but I promise that I'm still your sibling. That will never change, no matter how many lifetimes I have."

Brion smiled warmly.

"Don't be ridiculous. Finding out that you're just as heretical as the rest of us is great! You're engaged to a monarch, and used to be a creature of Death. Not only is that cool, but Mom will have a meltdown about it. She won't know what to angrier about: you in a dress and a crown, Helena with her grandchild, or little old wolfy me."

When Abercius didn't laugh at the joke, Brion had to assume that Abercius' strange behaviour wasn't entirely about being reincarnated.

"Have you found Mom or Dad? Is James okay? With all the details of your scandalous life, I forgot to ask about your progress. I hope none of them are too mad about us leaving them behind."

Abercius hung his head, unable to look at his brother. Helle cleared her throat nervously.

"We haven't found James yet, but we have found your parents. I-I'm afraid it's not good news."

"They haven't moved since we left. They were supposed to wake up while we were gone. Maybe if we give them more time something will change."

Helle gave the siblings some distance so that they could process their loss together. No matter how strongly she felt about her reincarnated love, Abercius needed to share this moment with his brother. Helle could remember spending time with Ranya a lifetime ago and how precious their time together had been before they'd both grown into adults. If they were able to successfully find the Dean children alive, Helle was looking forward to having that sibling bond again.

"So they're gone for real? It-It looks like they're just sleeping." Brion hugged himself tightly, kneeling on the floor in sorrow. He always thought he'd be braver if this situation happened, and his parents were actually dead instead of what their children had hoped. As much as he was afraid of his parents learning about his lycanthropy, he was even more afraid of carrying on without them in his life. But if anyone would understand death, it would be a former reaper, and Abercius remained convinced that they were gone.

"It's a sleeping plague," Abercius pointed out softly. "Of course they look asleep. They haven't eaten or moved in weeks. Their bodies are dead, but their souls haven't been reaped. They're locked inside their corpses and there's nothing that I can do to change it. I'm sorry, Brion. I wish I could change it."

"How did you reincarnate?" Brion asked, crawling up on the platform next to their mother. Abercius joined his vigil, wanting to be close to support his brother. "Maybe we can get them to reincarnate too. I mean, they'd be babies, but they'd still be alive."

"I don't fully understand how I managed it, but I don't think that reincarnation is possible now that Lordem Lukas knows how it happened. I had to be a reaper, and I had to use energy that held both Life and Death inside it. I'm human now, and can't use any of my reaper skills. It's impossible."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Brion admitted. "I never thought that I'd want Mom to wake up and see me in my wolf form, but here we are. It feels weird. Do you think they can hear us? You would think that all this heresy would have her waking up just to scream at us."

"I don't doubt it." Abercius chuckled softly at the thought. "I don't think that they can hear us. I don't know what the plague is like, but my guess is that they're still trapped in a dream of some kind. Their bodies are damaged, but they haven't succumbed to death completely. The plague uses dream magic, so there must be a dream to keep it active."

"An eternal sleep, just like in the old stories Dad used to read us. Xexys won't stop until we're all eternally sleeping, until every last person regardless of their faith or supernatural genes is under his spell. Everyone."

"And he's after Tredony and their neighbours too," Abercius stated, as if anyone could forget. "Helena and Phuong and their daughter will end up just like this too. We need to end this plague, even if it means losing Mom and Dad. Their souls don't deserve to be endlessly tormented in a broken shell. We need to end this, but I don't know how. Despina's trying her best, but she's barely just begun to use dream magic. We're nowhere near a cure, and even the 'safe' realm we sent Helena to won't be safe eventually. This all feels so hopeless."

"It's not hopeless," Helle assured the siblings, gesturing for them to sit with her on a pew. "It's going to be hard, but we'll get through this. Abby and I have reincarnated to take care of this and bring order back to our realm. The Tredonians will help, and Brion, maybe you could work with the werewolves and see what help they can offer. At the very least, we should know more about their war with the vampires, and if any of the supernatural creatures are also suffering from the plague."

Brion frowned at the idea, though he could follow Helle's reasoning.

"I've never met a werewolf other than Phuong," he stated. "I guess her family would be a good place to start. I was hoping to meet with them to tell them about the baby anyway. She...didn't think that meeting them would be easy though. When we left, her parents were also fleeing for safety. Her aunt and uncle are leaders in the war, so getting an introduction might be hard."

"Hmm. You should try to approach them at night in your wolf form," Helle suggested. "That way, they know for sure that you're one of them and not just a Pryor. I've seen pilgrims and tourists come to my gallery who know of the family names in this settlement. I'm sure that some of the werewolves will know what family you belong to. Take Theo or Adam with you for security. If the Tredonians can't all perform dream magic, then we should take advantage of their battle magic. From what I've seen and what Despina's confirmed, Theo and Adam can defend us against threats that aren't Xexys or the plague. I don't know how strong they are, but they have to be stronger than a few vampires or werewolves."

Brion shot Abercius a weary look.

"She's already acting like she's been coronated, and we're her subjects," he said. "I don't remember swearing to serve a queen. I'll do my best to find information on the werewolves, and I'll even take Theo with me, but I'm not following your orders, Helle. I'm going to do the best I can for my family and see what happens from there."

Helle looked hurt at the rejection of her authority, but quickly replaced that hurt with a practiced smile.

Abercius stared at his brother with eyes so wide and sorrowful, Brion half expected him to burst into tears.

"Of course. I will earn the loyalty of my people with hard work and faithfulness. I merely wanted to suggest a mission that might be practical. You can do whatever you wish with the suggestion."

"Helle is just trying to help," he said softly. "I know that we've been raised to hate the monarchy, but none of us are actually faithful to the Jacobean faith. Helle was prophesied to return and defeat the king's enemies. We're all on the same side."

"Heresy! How dare you pollute this home with your sin."

The teens whirled around, recognizing the voice at once, though it was impossible.

"Dad?!"

The man before them was clearly Alphaeus Pryor. His voice and face were identical to Alphaeus'.

But Alphaeus was still visibly behind them, resting in a broken body next to his wife.

"Hey! She's our mom!" Abercius shouted, feeling especially brave knowing that this wasn't actually his father. Whatever this man was, he wasn't Alphaeus Pryor. "You need to leave!"

"You are going to disturb Damiana's rest! All of you need to leave! You don't deserve to even breathe the same air as her!"

Brion lunged at the man, baring his teeth and claws. For all of the man's earlier confidence, the sight of a werewolf ready to tear him limb from limb frightened him enough to back away.

"I'll be back with enough reinforcements to protect her!" the man vowed, trying to drown out Brion's snarls by placing his hands over his ears. "I won't let you hurt her!"

The man ran out the front door into the night, leaving the three teens baffled.

"What the hell was that?" Helle asked. "Every time I turn around, there's something new wrong with this family. Just how many secrets are there in this one house?"

"I agree, but you could have worded that better," Abercius suggested, reaching for Helle's hand. "We're all frustrated, but this is our family. If there are people who can turn into wolves and deities who can change genders at will, maybe this is some kind of shapeshifter who can mimic people. I don't know why he would take the form of our father, but he did seem focused on Mom. Maybe he's been assigned by the demon to guard her body and prevent people from learning her and Dad's fate. You can't assume Alphaeus is dead if he's walking around the lot telling people that things are fine."

"There's no human shapeshifter here, Abercius," Brion declared. "This isn't the work of any demon, just regular people hiding secrets."

"What do you mean?" Abercius demanded. "Dad is clearly over there, completely unresponsive. He didn't just run out the door!"

Brion sighed, which in his werewolf form, came across more frightening than he intended.

"We need to go upstairs. There's something that I think can explain this. I've never told anyone that I found it because I knew that somehow I'd be the bad one for bringing it up. The adopted child isn't supposed to know the biological family's secrets."

Abercius reached for his brother and gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze.

"No one thinks like that," he assured him. "Maybe Mom or Dad might say that if they were already in a bad mood, but Helena and I would never believe that you're any different than we are. Hell, I'm the reincarnation of an immortal being with a past of my own, so in some aspects, I'm just as adopted as you are. We're all Pryors, no matter how we joined the family."

"Well, you should see what I found before making declarations like that," Brion replied. "It seems like we don't know the Pryor family at all."

Helle, Abercius, and Brion all gathered in Alphaeus and Damiana's bedroom. It was strange to meet in there for the Pryor children, as they were usually forbidden from entering the room. Their parents' bedroom was off limits because parents needed their "privacy" in a household of busy children.

It didn't look any different from any other bedroom that Abercius had seen. It had a bed, a closet, and the spell books given to them by the Proxy to perform their duties with.

"This is a little underwhelming," Abercius noted. "This looks just like our bedroom, just with a bigger bed. I always thought that they were hiding something like money or an expensive vase they didn't want broken. How did you find anything in here, Brion? We're not supposed to be here."

"Easy," Brion replied, rolling his eyes. "I came in here to snoop. I thought that they might have my adoption papers hidden in here, so I went looking for them. It was after my first transformation, and I wanted more information on my birth parents. I didn't find anything about my birth parents, but I did find this."

Brion opened his mother's sock drawer and produced a small framed photo.

"I haven't told anyone, not even Helena. I didn't think anyone would believe me, but I think after our surprise visitor, no one can deny this anymore."

Abercius and Helle stared at the photo, scanning it to see what made it so scandalous. The picture contained four children, all smiling for the camera. It didn't take long for Abercius to spot two versions of his father next to his mother and Uncle Trysten.

"What in the world? There's two of Dad in this picture," he whispered. "Dad has an identical twin? Why have we never heard of this? Why hasn't he ever come to visit?"

"Exactly," Brion replied. "Which is why I never brought it up. Why wouldn't we know if we had an uncle who looked just like our dad? Why hide him? I know they would have lied to us even if I had shown them the photo as proof. Where are our grandparents on Dad's side? I've never met them, have you?"

Brion shook his head slowly, trying to remember their parents even mentioning his paternal grandparents.

"No, I've never even heard Mom or Dad say they were dead. They never bring them up."

"Then why would Mom keep this in her sock drawer?"

Helle reached for the photo, and gently eased it out of its frame. Flipping the photo over revealed some hastily scribbled words.

"We need actual answers," Abercius declared. He completely understood Helle's frustrations with the Pryor family, despite the love he felt for his problematic parents. The stakes were too high for Abercius to meekly stand by and let his parents keep their secrets. He was engaged to a queen, Brion was walking around the settlement as a wolf, and Helena was raising a child with the woman she loved in another realm. The time for secrets had passed; every secret in the Pryor family had to be exposed, even if Abercius didn't like the answers. "We need to talk to the other two kids in this picture. They're the only ones who can tell us who that man was."

"Alphaeus, Trysten, Damiana, Cleopas," she read, giving the photo to Brion to look over. "Well, if I had to guess, it looks like you guys have an uncle named Cleopas. That's at least a start."

Brion nodded in agreement, looking out the bedroom window to the house across the street.

"Their lights are on, and I think I saw a shadow run in front of the window," he said. "I'm sure they saw us come in here, and our mystery uncle leave. Let's go now, before they hide."

The crown on his head was becoming painful to wear after just an hour of wearing it. He didn't know how the monarchs that he'd seen in the other realm wore them for so long.

Helle had suggested wearing it to match the Yacothian crown she wore, so that when they confronted whoever remained in Abercius' home, they would seem powerful and in control of the situation. Abercius didn't really feel powerful at the moment, and he highly doubted that if his mother was really waiting for him to return, that she'd appreciate seeing her son in a crown.

For an instant, Abercius swore that he saw a shadow move in his aunt and uncle's darkened window across the street, but he tried to push it from his mind. He wasn't in danger. Everything was fine.

"You don't have to go in, Abby. You don't ever have to go in if you don't want to. Do you want me to go in and tell you what I find?"

Abercius was tempted by the offer, but he knew that he could never take it. To be by Helle's side, he needed to be brave in order to face what came at them. He was supposedly protected from the plague by an amulet the Tredonians had enchanted, and he had seen every manner of death in his past life. He could do this. He had to do this.

"No, I'll go in," he assured Helle. "I need to do this. This is my home. Maybe James came back here, waiting for someone to come back. Let's go. This is important."

It was easier with just Helle here by his side. The Tredonians meant well, but Abercius didn't want to share his personal grief over his family with them. They saw this plague as a problem to be solved so that they could go back to their own families; this was Abercius's family. It still felt disloyal to his past life to think of the Pryor family as his family, but it was undeniably true. Just as Helle was working on coming to terms with being a member of the Dean family, Abercius was trying to reconcile being a servant of Death with being a boy who was not a boy, in a family filled with secrets.

Walking in the front entrance was easy enough, after tearing down the caution tape. The house was eerily silent. It had never been this quiet in all the time Abercius had lived there. There was always music playing, cauldrons bubbling, or James yelling down the hall at someone. This was no longer a house, but a tomb, and a tomb was exactly what Abercius was afraid of discovering.

"No one's been here in awhile," he murmured, looking at the dust accumulating on the counters. His mother would be horrified to see the house in such a state. "Not even James. He would have torn this place apart on his own."

"Which means that my parents aren't living in the house. They're not living in town or someone would have said something. They had the plague and weren't able to move, so maybe they were sealed in here with the tape on the door to warn people away."

"That could be true," Helle sighed. She reached out to rub Abercius' arm to comfort him. "It doesn't look very hopeful. I can understand if you want to leave now. I think we can guess that's what happened, if you need to leave."

"No." Abercius resigned himself to the answer he'd always known in his heart was true. "They're probably in the sanctuary where we left them."

It shouldn't have been surprising to Abercius, but upon taking a single step into the church sanctuary in their home, he was overwhelmed by the presence of death. It was a feeling that Absydee encountered every single day of her existence, but it was relatively new for Abercius.

His parents were exactly where their children had left them, their eyes white from the plague.

"No," Abercius whispered. "You were supposed to get better. We were trying to save you. We just need more time. We...we need more time."

Helle stared at the bodies laying before them carefully.

"They look fine to me," she offered. "They don't smell and they're not decomposing, so there must still be hope. Surely we can reverse this."

She wrapped her arms around her partner, trying to be reassuring in a situation she didn't know how to navigate. She'd been alone for much of this life, and the throne in her past life was somehow even lonelier. Comfort wasn't a skill of hers.

"You're kind for trying to have hope," Abercius replied, turning away from the bodies of his parents. "My siblings might try to agree with you, but they'd be wrong. I served the realm of Death, Helle, I know what it looks like. Human bodies can't go this long without eating, nor can they stay in one position for weeks on end. They may look alive, but it is a deception of the Demon of Nightmares. They can never wake up, even if we can defeat Xexys."

Helle's face softened. She didn't even try to argue about death with a former reaper. If Abercius knew his parents were lost, despite their appearance, then Helle couldn't disagree.

"What do you want to do now?" she asked softly. "Do we bury them? Do we leave them here? Tell me what you need from me and I'll do it."

"We leave them here," Abercius decided. "My siblings will want to say their goodbyes and...." He held out his hand towards his parents, closing his eyes as he did so. Nothing happened. "I need a reaper. I can no longer do what is needed. I know the steps, but I'm a part of the realm of Life now. Xexys has tangled magic enough that they both cannot pass on their own. If I hadn't have left my reaper team, they might have survived to fix this. There's no one left to help."

Helle could see the spiral of guilt begin, and intervened before it could get any worse.

"Hey, let's leave your parents here to rest then," she said, pushing Abercius towards the door. "Why don't we get some of your stuff from your room and go home? I'm sure there's things that you couldn't take with you when you left last time. We should get them now, so you feel more comfortable. Maybe you could get something of your parents' to help you remember them too. You can take whatever you need, and when we see your siblings again, they can chose something for themselves. The Tredonians will understand. They seem sentimental too."

Abercius returned to the room he shared with his brother, Brion, only to find that it seemed smaller than he remembered. It was always at least a little cramped with two growing teenagers sharing it, but after the relatively short time that they'd both been gone, the room suddenly seemed tiny.

"So this is your bedroom?" Helle winked at her partner, hoping that it might cheer him up, at least a little bit. "It's cute. I like the ant farm."

"Thanks, it was a school project that I couldn't let go of. Brion and I used to watch them for hours. James threatened to dump them outside once, so they live up high where he can't reach them."

"James always was such a charmer," Helle muttered. "Helena was always a bit wild, but you and Brion were always so well adjusted. I don't know how your family ended up with James. The way he acts would make even the kindest person assume that he was one of Xexys' demons."

Abercius smiled wistfully. She wasn't wrong about James, but he was still his little brother. He had a duty to find him and take care of him, no matter how rotten his past behaviour was. James was probably scared or in danger, wondering where his siblings and parents were.

"That's also not your fault," Helle stated before Abercius got the chance to spiral again. "We will find James, and then we'll find Tiffany and Jason. Our siblings are out there and we will find them. You and your siblings did what you could to survive. Helena and Phuong had their own kid to protect and Brion is there to protect them. You came back to find me, to discover where we need to be to help everyone. This is our path, but we will see our loved ones again. I believe that and so should you."

Abercius nodded absently, no longer listening to Helle's comforting words.