#seventhvirtue

Harrison nods, clutching the pliant trim of his jacket. “Do me a favour,” he says, trying to find the best way to phrase his request. Then he finds Lonan’s eyes again, and nothing about him is nervous, but determined. “The next time you’re feeling unsteady, tell me. I don’t care if it’s a look, if it’s a word, if it’s a paragraph. Just tell me. We can talk if you want to talk or not talk if you don’t want to. But if you need me, I want to know.”

Lonan considers this for a moment, and then drops his face into his palms. Instinctively, Harrison takes another step closer, like he might’ve done when they were still a couple, when they still slow danced to no music in Lonan’s cramped bathroom, when in dewy morning light, the most certain thing in each of their lives was each other. Something pangs in his chest, and it takes him a moment to identify the emotion as the same grief he experienced in the infirmary hallway. How terrible, to be in front of a stranger you recognize.

Harrison lifts his fingers to his mouth, chews on his nails. The bathroom is beginning to strangle with heat, and despite his attempts at also being steady, he’s ready to flee this room, this property, this life, all of it as easy to destroy as a bleak line of dominoes. He turns.

“I need you,” comes Lonan’s voice.

Harrison spins back around.

This time, when their eyes meet, there’s something aflame there, something cerulean, exposed, urgent.

Chapter 19: Half/Half

They both get in their own way. Harrison with the bobby pin he’d stolen from the nurse, Reeve by kicking in a stained-glass window on the roof’s dormer. He could use the key card Estelle gave him but doesn’t want any surprises. She could charm someone else like she charmed Daniel from Orange County but has had enough of sweating into men for one night.

Harrison doesn’t need to see in the dark. He’s been in the library once and navigates it a second time with ease. Tunnels in the library’s basement, he reminds himself as he hustles between shelves.

Tunnels in the library’s basement. Reeve finds them easy enough. She spent a year learning to be invisible out of survival, learned exactly how to move through crowded streets as if she were not there at all; she does the same inside an empty library with grace. Down a hall, then a staircase, turn left, right.

Left, right. Harrison might not be as graceful as Reeve, but he sure is determined. A door labelled EXIT in cherry red letters blazes near the drink cart he and Foster had previously taken their share of. It can’t be that easy, can it?

It’s easy, how Reeve drops down another flight of stairs, and then another. She is air, a feather falling from a raven’s wing.

A wing of hallways beyond the EXIT door. Harrison follows them until he reaches a staircase on the right, yanking off the security guard’s jacket and gloves as he goes.

Go. This is the only thought in Reeve’s mind. She needs to move like a spider effortlessly scaling its web. She needs to find Lonan.

Lonan. What will Harrison even say to him when he sees him? He races down another flight of stairs, and then another, until there aren’t anymore, the thought and his pace juddering his heartrate. Go, he thinks. Go.

Go.

Go.

okay so I am the DRAMA--obviously Reeve is still alive, but she does technically die and only survives what happens because of Harrison (king <3).

TL;DR: Lonan is brainwashed by his tyrannical family & is sent on a literal mission to kill his sister. He does, but Harrison "revives" her with his magic (the icon the legend the man himself).

More details: So back in 2015 when I was writing book 3 of the original series, Lonan was ALSO brainwashed, but by his other sister Anna and Anna's girlfriend Kate who were mad at him for some reason (I can't remember why exactly, everyone is mad at Lonan in that book LOL). The logistics of how this was done are quite fuzzy because I was 13 :) but essentially think of Lonan as a bluetooth speaker who could be controlled remotely! <3

In this state, Lonan almost kills Reeve a couple of times (and this is when they love each other! not when they don't know they're siblings and have been trying to murder each other!). This DEEPLY upsets him and becomes a major point of tension for his characterization (I believe he makes Harrison promise to kill him if he tries to hurt his sister again, which is... on brand for right now <3). At that point in the series, Lonan's biggest fear is that he's still a terrible person--he's struggling to be redeemable even to himself. So to hurt the most important person in his life at the time, his sister... oof. He's not happy.

I wanted to bring this back into SV, since I love recycling old material into this book to relive the joy of writing them originally (not me... finding joy in psychologically torturing these siblings oops). So Lonan is once again "programmed," but the logistics make more sense because this is done through magical means. Lonan in SV is an extremely controlled person. Every move he makes is monitored, and what little good he does have in his life are used against him to torture him (like... his girlfriend... who I haven't talked about on here... but we can!).

Reeve isn't an exception to this. The play by play of what happens here is that the squad (Harrison, Reeve, Darren, Foster), have all been looking for Humilitas (the magical bird that's been missing for a while/the magical bird that Lonan is part of). They locate Humilitas (Harrison flew on the back of a giant bird who showed him where he was :) lol :)) and this is great! This has been their goal the whole time. But then this happens:

“Humilitas,” she says, inching her fingers toward its face. Her eyes sparkle like she’s seeing a saint, a god, even. She begins to smile, so close to touching him.

A branch snaps.

Not delicate. A weighted sound. A human sound.

Harrison spins around.

He doesn’t believe what he’s seeing at first. Surely, he’s hallucinating, sicker than he’d initially thought, bombarded by strange, unrealistic visions. Black hair like a silken cut of obsidian. Fingers precise, thin. Eyes kingfisher blue and as hot as a gas flame.

“Lonan?” he says, dazed, hardly able to make out his name without slurring every letter. Harrison lurches forward to where he stands, ten, twenty feet away, barely catches himself on a bramble bush. Thorns skewer his palm, but he feels no pain, not even when blood seeps down his wrist, candle wax overflowing. Instead, his mouth foams, his knees so weak that on his next step forward, he falls onto his elbows.

(there's a Feeding Habits easter egg here with the kingfisher eye description--which is the way Suzanna describes Harrison's eyes to Lonan awww. Also I love that feverish Harrison can describe Lonan once again like a painting. My god.)

Harrison is so stunned and is ALSO physically ill at this sight (relatable content <3). No, but really, he is quite literally sick (H&L are bonded through magical bird things & being so close is... not good for them at this point).

Reeve is so excited that she doesn't really notice Harrison's Suffering (TM). This happens:

As if she’s never seen Humilitas, as if he no longer matters, as if she’s an elk running from a mountain lion or a mountain lion chasing an elk, as if the earth no longer matters either, as if she is wind and he is alive, he is alive, as if, no matter who tries, no one can stop her, Reeve launches at her brother with full force.

And then we get... the actual drama:

Lonan raises an arm. From the ground, as Harrison watches through jittering eyes, he looks as if he’s going to hug her. They could be children again, reunited after a summer trip apart, one about to spin the other in greeting. Reeve is crying, tears glittering off her chin like flakes of shattered glass. She wraps her arms around her brother, shaking, sobbing, shocked as a rat snapped in a trap.

Lonan looks at her. His arm still raised. Does he smile? Harrison’s vision has spotted so badly that he can hardly tell.

Against the deep backdrop of night, a glint.

Harrison gasps. He wills himself to get up, to run to her. Ash. Bone.

But by then it’s too late. One moment, Reeve clutches her brother, and the next, he gouges a knife straight through her heart.

Aaand that's how part two ends. Fun!

We start part three in Reeve's first solo POV chapter, where Darren explains what happened:

“You died,” he whispers. Reeve blinks. “I saw you. On the ground. I swear, I got to you not even a second after he hurt you, yet you were gone. I looked at you and I thought, I’m going to have to bury her.”

(THHHEEE ROMANNNNCCEE)

She also sees the consequence of Harrison's magic (that did bring her back in the end!):

What marks her chest: a pattern the colour of soot, radiating from around the bandage covering the puncture.

Permanently grafted on her skin are the sun’s waving rays.

Harrison doesn't actually know how to use his magic at this point in the books/what his magic even is. But seeing his bestie literally die is... too much for him, and instinct just takes over really fast. This is the opening of chapter 17 and where the title of book 2 comes from:

From Harrison’s bloody fingertips: a hot, bright ribbon scatters from his body and across the ground, bounding like a heartbeat. Watch as it ripples and ignites a line of maple leaves, beating to the same rhythm as the words she can’t die. She can’t die. She can’t die. Not after all of this. Not now. Watch as it climbs over her thigh, side, stomach, a messenger with its goal in target. Watch as it stabs her body as the knife previously did, how upon contact with her heart, her entire figure luminesces. She becomes a Madonna on that sunless ground, haloed in light.

^^ get you a best friend who is so stubborn he refuses to let you die so miraculously uses his magic to save you <3 aw

After this, Harrison passes out for a long time. He's not aware of how terrible of a state he was in (also near dying) until he talks to Foster:

“Where’s Reeve?” he asks. Though he’d been feverish and near-unconscious on the ground, he’d seen the look on her face as her body fell. Her smile of relief punctured with some sick mix of shock and horror.

“She’s okay,” Foster says, and glances out the private room’s exit. “Darren’s with her.”

That’s all it takes for Harrison to move. He rips off the catheter in his nose, peeling up the tape securing several tubes to the back of his hands.

“Hey—” “Don’t get in my way,” Harrison growls when Foster goes to herd him back into the cot.

“You’re not well—”

Harrison yanks all the wiring knotted around his body so harshly that one of the monitors checking his vitals appears to shut down.

“Does this look like the work of an unwell man?”

(LEGENDARY DIALOGUE HARRISON ^^)

We ALSO get Harrison going beast mode and calling Foster by his actual name LOL:

“Get out of my way, August,” Harrison nearly shouts. If Reeve is in this infirmary, alone with a man who sure, cares about her, but that isn’t him, he will damn well get to her.

And of course, he's back to wanting to kill Lonan:

Harrison crosses his arms. “I’m going to find Reeve. And then I’m going to kill Lonan.”

It’s the first time he’s said the words aloud, the words that’ve hummed in his body since he awoke. Kill Lonan.

“I can’t let you do that.”

“I don’t need your permission.”

At this point, no one actually knows Lonan did this unintentionally because he's been unable to tell them because someone may or may not be trying to kill him as we speak!

And strangely, Harrison also has matching markings on his palms like the one Reeve has on her chest:

When his palms are naked again, he doesn’t even question the black solar markings in the centre of each palm—nothing matters. Lonan cannot die. “Hey,” Harrison says, hands trembling even harder now as he tugs the hem of Lonan’s shirt upward to reveal the wound, likely pierced through, or close to his heart. Lonan’s mouth hangs open, like he’s trying to say something, but Harrison won’t let him. No goodbyes.

(not me just leaving this excerpt here as if this isn't going to open up a whole bunch more question LOOOL I'm evil and also willing to talk more <3)

Eventually, when everything settles down, Harrison confronts Lonan about what the actual fuck happened that night he "killed" Reeve:

“One of the first things I told you was not to look for me. Why did you?”

Harrison laughs. He doesn’t think. He’s not even sure what it means—if he’s genuinely amused, or if he’s shocked, or if he’s angry. “Why wouldn’t I look for you?”

“I told you not to.”

When Harrison laughs again, he’s absolutely sure why—exasperation ripples off his body. “You were haunting my dreams to the point where I couldn’t sleep. Your sister begged me to help find you. And besides, you found us.”

“But you shouldn’t have saved me. You should’ve left. It would’ve been best—”

“Are you telling me I should’ve let you die? Forget you for a second—what about Reeve? She should’ve died too?”

Lonan looks over to him—Harrison feels his gaze on his face, but now he’s looking at his hands, trying to force them to still with his mind. He’s not angry. Lonan is not ungrateful. He’s not angry. Lonan is not ungrateful.

“Harrison,” Lonan says after a moment. “My family is dangerous. I wanted to keep you as far from this as I could—”

“But you didn’t,” Harrison says, his voice breaking. “You gave me half your power. You knew they would look for me if you took what made you useful and gave it to me. And you did it anyway. You put a target on my back.”

“That target was always on your back. From the moment you were born it was on your back. I needed to be certain you could keep yourself safe when something happened. Not if.”

“Safe?” Harrison almost shouts. Out of everything he’s considered himself in the whirlwind of the last few weeks, safe was the absolute last one. And the absurdity of this implication, as if Harrison would even understand how to use his own magic to keep himself safe. He’s somehow managed to keep himself alive and burned himself on a fork—Lonan didn’t gift him his powers and a manual to use them. Safe. Impulsively, he yanks his hands from his pocket, splaying open his fingers to reveal his palm and the black sunrays tattooed onto the centre. “This is what you’ve done to me, Lonan. This is what you’ve done to Reeve.”

Lonan’s brows perk up, and now he’s trying very hard to catch Harrison’s gaze. “What is this about Reeve?”

(For context on the "what about Reeve" dialogue--since Lonan is the Virtue, if he dies, which is impossible since he's immortal but... almost happened lol, his whooooole family dies with him. Also: "burned himself on a fork" I'm crying LOL)

From this excerpt, we can tell Lonan clearly has no idea what happened and what he did to Reeve (accurate to the OG books). This may or may not lead to a nervous breakdown.......... oops!

Anyway so that's the explanation!