Every time Jenny imagined telling her friends the truth, if she ever got the courage to explain to them and get them to believe her, she feared the face they would make at her. Of the fear they would have of her, of the hate they would have for what she really was. She feared it more than any demon or curse in all the nine worlds. So when Jenny woke up, after the realization of their situation came through the haze of her mind, she feared the look they would give her. Of the things they would yell, the way they would blame her-

Yet, when Jenny woke up, she was met with nothing but concern.

Zach was at her side, sitting on the edge of the couch with her, where he immediately calmed her-checked her head. It only took a second for Jenny to scan the room, to find her friends-all of her friends-in the room with them before the panic came.

Jenny jumped up. She had to, to fight-Julian was here, on Earth-How long had she been out-

But before Zach or even one of her friends could stop her, the pain came like a sledgehammer to the back of her mind, dropping her back onto the couch almost instantly.

Zach was there, putting an ice pack over it even though they both knew it would hardly help. "Are you trying to kill yourself?" he snapped although his tone was gentle, lined with concern. "Take it easy for a-"

"We have to go," Jenny breathed and took the ice pack off. "We can't stay here-He was here-"

"And where are we supposed to go?" His tone was firmer now, and he shoved the ice pack back at her. "Outside? Where there are cars and people and animals that he can manipulate to attack us-"

"We're sitting ducks here!" Jenny snapped. "He was here, this whole time, and he waited until you figured it out-To mess with us-"

Zach grabbed her gently, then again, tighter, after she smacked away his hands. "Calm down-Jenny-"

She tried to stand again, and she did, with Zach standing with her, but he stopped her-didn't let her storm away from him. "We just need to take a breather, ok? You just woke up-Hey-Stop for a second. I was trying to explain-"

"We can't," Jenny snapped. "He's on Earth-I let a Shadow Man come to Earth, gave him permission to this place, and the longer we wait the more time he has to set up a trap that will kill us all and we don't have the first clue on how to stop him-"

"Jenny!"

Jenny didn't realize she had been shouting until Zach had to scream over her. It was there, in that moment of shock, that she finally looked away from her cousin, to her friends that hadn't said a damn word since she woke up.

They were terrified.

It wasn't the face Jenny had always imagined how they'd look at her-Because they weren't afraid of her. No, they were afraid of what she was saying, of the reality of their situation-that they were all now being hunted by a demon that could do anything-

Jenny was staring at her friends, helplessly, as she realized what she had said, to what extent had she increased their fear-Fear, that Julian was going off of. Right, you can't panic. Panic leads to mistakes and mistakes lead to death. Jenny knew this-

But with her friends-On Earth-

She took a breath, and forced the panic away. Once she was calm, the pain in her mind, aching in a throbbing migraine, only seemed to heighten. She finally sat back down, taking the ice pack that her cousin gave back to her. She finally realized her arm had been bandaged, but she could see the beginning of some blood seeping through them. For the next few minutes, Jenny had tried focusing on numbing the pain instead of the look on her friends' faces-who were now in danger-Because of her-

For a while, it was quiet. They all sat there-Dee in the cushioned chair with Summer on her lap. Audrey in a chair pulled from the kitchen on the other side of the coffee table with Michael standing beside her, and Tom sitting on the floor off to the side. There were half eaten plates of toast and muffins here and there, but Jenny didn't touch the full plate in front of her. No, she was more worried about the small blonde with the bandages around her ankles, and her boyfriend who had a bag of frozen peas on his head, coated in blood-

"Are you ok?" Jenny asked to Summer, who just barely lifted her gaze.

Dee was the one to answer her, rubbing the small blonde's arms for support. "Just a few scratches. Nothing our strong Sunbunny can't handle."

Jenny looked to Tom, who just gave her a shrug. She didn't get the chance to push him on it because Zach was talking next, in a low voice, to Jenny and Jenny alone.

"I tried to, uh…explain. But…"

Jenny met the doubt in her cousin's gray eyes, and she noticed the bags under them. She noticed the lines in his face and the cut on his neck and the stains on his clothes like they hadn't been changed in days -Exactly how long had he been fighting before Julian got to Earth?

Thankfully, Audrey spoke before Jenny could even think of where to begin. "So there's a demon after us."

Jenny had to swallow something, to clear her voice, before she answered. "Yes-Well, me. He will attack you guys , but… He wants me."

"Why?" Summer's small voice seemed to tear into the tension of the room.

Oh, Jenny should have been ready for that question, but she hesitated. Because he loves me, she thought selfishly, because he wants to keep me.

No, that wasn't right. She…betrayed him. She literally stabbed him in the back. Even if he really had loved her before, truly, then he didn't love her anymore.

Something painful lodged itself in Jenny's chest, right between her lungs, constricting like a knot. It was more painful than her headache, at the realization that Julian wanted her dead. Honestly, like a real demon should.

She shouldn't be upset by that. She shouldn't be swallowing down this pain-the guilt.

"Because I'm the one who started a game with him," she finally answered, almost breathlessly. "He's a Shadow Man. They play games, and I started one to save Zach."

She felt her cousin tense beside her in an instant. Without thinking she grabbed his hand, squeezing it without breaking eye contact with her friends.

"A Shadow Man?"

"Is that the kind of demon you were talking about before?" Michael asked quietly.

"Yes, but I…I know this one. I fought him back when I was twelve. I know how he works, what he does."

"You know him?" Audrey asked, the suspicion clearly in her eyes.

"Yes I-I've been in games with him before."

"Did you beat him?" Dee asked. "Before?"

Something terrible panged Jenny in the chest at that, remembering the face Julian made when she dropped, at the reminder of the blade sinking into his gut-

"No," she said quickly. "Zach pulled me out of the game. Of both of them, before I could."

At that, her cousin pulled his hand away. Jenny couldn't bring herself to look at him, so she went on. "But I've fought him so many times. When he took Zach, I knew how to go find him. I know how to counter him, to beat him."

"Can't you, like…You know, get him now?"

"We've never fought one from Earth before. It's always been from the shadows, or in another dimension-"

Zach cut her off. "But we're going to seal the apartment. To start. He's not going to pull anything like that again."

Something nagged at Jenny at that, something small and wrong that she couldn't decipher from the pain in her temples at the moment, but then Audrey was asking, "What do you mean, seal the apartment?"

"That isn't going to make my rent go up, is it?"

"Michael, that's the last thing you need to be worrying about it."

Zach answered, "It's a barrier, with runes-Er, magic. To protect us, so he can't attack us again."

"But he can," Jenny countered her cousin. "He can attack us. He got permission. We just have to be prepared-"

"He can enter the apartment, yes, but we can prevent him from setting up traps."

Poor Summer in the corner dropped her face into her hands, mumbling, "I'm confused."

"Can he get us or not?"

"Yes."

"No."

Jenny and Zach had answered at the same time, making her cousin look at her like she was crazy. "But I'm not going to let him hurt you guys," Jenny said before Zach could argue with her. "He only wants me."

"S-So what do we do?"

Zach stood up. "For now, let's stay together. We can control this space, limit his attacks. Jenny and I will set the runes in place, then…I think it's best that everyone gets a protectant rune on their hands. We can show you how…"

He was going on, but Jenny finally realized what was wrong. She looked up to her cousin, almost in shock as he kept talking about how they were going to help everyone. He said we.

"You're not playing."

Jenny said it so bluntly that it cut Zach short. He looked to her, confused. Jenny shook her head, which only bounced the pain back and forth like a jackhammer to her forehead. "He has permission to use you. You were a prize. He'll get in your head-"

"You're not serious."

Jenny proved herself very serious by coming to a firm stand, no matter how dizzy she got, staring down her cousin with the same intensity as when she fought him in the maze. She watched her cousin's mouth go slack, gray eyes wide.

"You're not doing this alone-"

"You can't play, Zach."

"What, you seriously think you can do this alone?"

Jenny went to say, "I have before," until Dee asked, "A prize?"

Jenny sighed at that, which spread through her mind like a burn. "This game-It's a win-lose basis. Every round had a winner, and they got a prize-It's just a trick, a loophole, for them to get permission to torture you further. Zach was a bargaining chip."

Zach had to look away at that, swallowing something tough. His hands balled into fists at his sides. "You can't do this alone," he mumbled through numb lips.

"Zach-"

"Your mind isn't strong enough, either," Zach quickly countered. His voice was a lot firmer now, those gray eyes a shade darker when he looked at her. "Your wound-"

"I don't have a choice," Jenny snapped before he could continue. "I'm the main player, I can't back out."

"One more attack could rupture it-"

"You don't think I know that? You don't think he knows that?"

"Who's going to protect you when he uses that against you?"

Dee spoke before Jenny could think of a response. "Wait, what?"

"What are you talking about?" Tom questioned, now on his feet, dropping the bag of peas onto the table.

No-They couldn't know. It was fine if they just didn't. So Jenny answered a bit too quickly, "Nothing."

The disbelief crossed her cousin's face before it was consumed with a certain kind of fury that could only be fueled by jealous irony.

"I thought we weren't keeping secrets anymore?"

Shit.

Jenny didn't get the chance to stop him. Zach spit it all out before she could even take a breath. "Jenny got a head injury four years ago from a game-"

"What?"

"From the same Shadow Man that is chasing us now. Her mind could split in half at any second-"

"No, it won't!"

"It is getting worse," Zach snapped, coming a step closer to her. "I can tell. Who knows what will happen to you if you push yourself-"

"You can't push yourself, either," Jenny practically shouted at him. "Julian hates you. Because you took me away-He wanted to kill you, you know that? Now that he's here, he will use you against me. At least I can stop him from attacking my mind."

Jenny saw the sting her words left in her cousin, but she couldn't feel bad about it. She knew Zach was right, that her wound was weak, but she was one the Julian wanted. She was the one who had control here, if just a little. She couldn't play it safe now, not with her friend's lives on the lines.

The silence was back yet again, only it didn't last very long.

"Julian?"

Jenny could only groan, from the migraine, the argument, the question. She turned on whoever asked it, hissing, "Yes, Julian, that's what he calls himself-"

The whole world drained from her. Her headache, anger and all, it all melted away in a heartbeat, leaving nothing but the horrible guilt eating away at her strength. Tom was facing her, had dropped the bag of peas. And the look on his face-

"Wait, Tom-Tom!"

She jumped after him when he began to storm away and when Jenny grabbed his arm, he actually threw her off.

"I can't even believe-Tell me I'm wrong," he snapped when he turned on her. "Tell me it's not the same-"

"No, please just listen-"

"It is, isn't it?"

Oh, Jenny couldn't take it. The hurt in his eyes, stabbing through her like spears. It rendered her utterly speechless. She stood there in front of him, jaw hanging open like a complete fool. Tom stared at her, taking that in, before he turned away from her, running his hands through his hair in disbelief.

"Wait, what's going on?"

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Jenny?"

Jenny couldn't answer her friends. She was trying to meet Tom's gaze, to get him to just look at her, to understand that it wasn't the same-it wasn't like that-she hadn't mean to hurt him-

But he wouldn't. He was getting more and more furious by the second, pulling away from her touch, getting more and frustrated the more she continued to come at him. Until he finally snapped, "You lied right to my face!"

"No, it's not-"

"I can't believe you."

"Tom, please-Tom."

Then, just like that, he turned for the door; the front door, to leave, outside, when they were in a game.

Jenny was on him before she knew what she was doing. It was so easy, how fast she grabbed his arm. A pull, twist, and she flipped her boyfriend over her shoulder. He landed smack on his back in the center of the living room.

Someone shouted.

Dee was by Tom's side in an instant, checking his head-Right, he was injured. And Jenny just-Just-

There-That was the look. Every time Jenny imagined telling her friends the truth, of the fear they would have of her, the hate; the look she always tried to picture on their faces as they gawked at her.

That was the look on Tom's face. As he gazed up at her from the floor, holding his head in disbelief. The shock, the betrayal in his eyes-In all their gazes; It very well tore Jenny apart.

Yet, she stood standing. As a Hunter should, she remained there, in front of them all, emotions pushed aside in order to speak. "I'm sorry," she all but choked out. "Ok? I'm sorry. Hate me all you want, but you're going to have to do it from across the room because anyone who leaves this apartment will die. And not slowly, I promise you that."

She didn't wait to see the reaction on the rest of her friend's faces. She turned for the kitchen in silence, to grab all of Michael's knives to prepare for the game.

…..

First thing was first, seal the apartment. Jenny sealed all the doors and windows very carefully, resulting in her hand being a bloody mess within the hour. She shut all the doors in the hallway, leaving only the bathroom, kitchen and living room available.

Meanwhile Zach had been getting everyone to carve the protection symbol on their palms. It wasn't an easy task, although Dee handled it like a champ. Audrey was more worried about ruining her manicure. Michael had almost fainted at the sight of the blood, but in the end he had his carved as well. By the time Jenny finished marking everything, only Tom and Summer were last, which the small blonde wasn't handling the situation very well.

She was cowering on the couch, clutching her hands tight to her chest, shaking her head wildly at her friends. "I don't want to!"

"Summer, please. It only hurts for a second."

"I don't want it to hurt!"

"It's to protect you, Summer. Please?"

But Summer only shook her head again and turned away.

Eventually Tom came and sat beside her, taking the knife from Zach. He showed his empty palm to Summer and spoke quietly, "Hey, Sunbunny. Can I tell you something?"

The little blonde looked to him under her curtain of thick blonde curls, with her bright sky blue eyes lined with tears. She nodded.

"I'm scared to do it, too."

"R-…Really?"

Tom nodded, and Summer was able to lift her head a bit higher. "How about this; Help me with mine, and I'll help you with yours. It won't hurt as much if we do it together, right?"

It was clear in Summer's face that she didn't agree with that right away, but after Tom put his hand over hers and helped her slice the markings into his palm, she seemed to understand. She had watched his face, which Tom didn't even flinch, like the perfect guy that he was, and that was enough for Summer because within the next few minutes, he was carving the marking into Summer's palm.

Everyone smiled at Tom then, for being able to coax the small blonde in the end. Even Jenny was smiling, from the archway across the room. When Tom met her gaze, though, both their smiles died.

Jenny immediately went into the kitchen.

Instead of sulking or hating herself, she grabbed all of Michael's knives and very carefully began to carve the Egyptian runes into them. It was tough. Her grandfather had very special tools to do this in the basement, made of pure silver that he had taken straight from Jotuenhiem. But Jenny managed as she always did. When she finally finished the first one, she tucked it into the ordinary belt she had stolen from Michael's laundry. It wasn't proper like her Hunting belt that was more like a holster for her weapons, but it would have to do for now.

Somewhere along the carving, Jenny's headache had returned. In fact, now that she thought about it, it never really had gone away. Not yet. Her headaches always went away after a while.

But as Jenny stood there now, scratching blade onto blade, the shearing in her temples seemed to only get worse. She was ignoring it, like always, but after a while it had grown into a terrible migraine. She found herself cradling the back of her head, grimacing in pain. That was, until another hand gently laid on top of hers.

Zach was there, concern raging through those gray eyes like a stormy November sky. Jenny couldn't say anything to calm it. She only pulled his hand away and acted like there wasn't a hammer banging around inside her head. She wanted to say something to dismiss it, so he wouldn't try and grill her again like he did earlier, but he beat her to it.

"Don't push yourself." He said it quietly, gingerly.

Jenny almost laughed. Too late, she thought, but what she said was, "I could say the same to you."

Zach was the one to look away from that. Jenny had picked up the knives again, finishing the last rune she was on, until Zach grabbed her arm. Her bandages had fallen loose, from the blood. Jenny hadn't even noticed it was bleeding again.

"I told you to wrap this better."

"I had to make sure they all got the runes carved."

Zach didn't seem to approve of that explanation judging by how his eyebrows pinched together. Yet, he silently coaxed her into dropping the knives. He gently peeled off the bloody bandages, and put her arm in the sink, under running water. With such slender, artist fingers, he began to easily work through the open wounds. The cuts in her skin weren't deep, but there were many, all torn through the skin so harshly. It burned, but Jenny bit it back, like she taught herself to do years ago.

"How are you?" Zach asked amid it all.

Jenny turned her sharp gaze on him. "How are you?"

Her cousin seemed surprised by this because he looked at her, and hesitated. Soon he turned off the water, grabbed a clean towel and began to gently dry her arm. "I'm…here."

He then grabbed the bottle of alcohol and eased it over the wound. This burned twice as much. Jenny hissed.

"Sorry…"

He dried her arm again, gentler than before. He was holding her arm like a child's, so lightly, so softly. Like he was afraid of making it worse. Like he was afraid he was going to hurt her.

That only threw Jenny right back into the Maze, when she was fighting him, how terrified he was. Of hurting her. Of losing control. The guilt inside only worsened, making Jenny choke on the pain.

"I'm sorry," she gasped, shocking her cousin to the point of freezing in place. "Zach, I'm so sorry I-I never…saw. I never knew-"

"Don't," he snapped. "Don't do that. It's…." A shadow passed over those stormy gray eyes, concealing them, hiding her cousin away from Jenny all over again.

So Jenny grabbed his face, lifted his chin so that he met her eyes, that he looked at her through that shadow. Instantly she saw him back at twelve years old, standing together in the basement. As Hunters, as family, they had been so close. It was almost nice to feel such a bond again.

Only now their friends were in the other room, as targets in a game, on Earth.

"Swear to me," she said, and it came out so hushed. "On Pethro, after all of this is over, that we'll talk-"

"Jenny-"

"Swear to me." She forced him to meet her gaze after he looked away, and she held him there; all of him, just in her gaze alone, she caught him. "We're stronger than this. I know we are. Promise me."

She watched that hit him, rougher than Jenny intended. It widened in his face, before slowly draining away, taken over by the doubt, the fear. He looked away again, but slowly he nodded. He traced the rune in the air between them, mumbling, "I swear. On Pethro…."

Jenny expected him to pull away from her after that, but surprisingly he turned back. "You, too."

Jenny was already lifting her finger to trace the mark in the air. That was until Zach clarified.

"Swear you're not going to go easy on Julian."

She froze. "What?"

"He gets to you, as much as he gets to me-I know he does. You can't let him. If you go easy on him like you did before then-"

"I did not go easy on him," she snapped it so bad that instantly her headache was back, burning through her temples. The pain only added to her anger. "It took everything I had to trap him down."

"But you didn't kill him."

Jenny actually groaned and turned away from her cousin. "God, Zach, you know the chances of actually doing that-"

"You didn't try-"

"We don't know how."

"Yes, we do." Zach tried to turn her back, but Jenny shrugged him off. "The Stave. Grandfather wrote about it and I know you remember that."

"So what?" She hissed through the pain. "Do you want me to run back to the Shadow World-"

"No-"

"To find a giant rock with names carved on it that could be anywhere in that dimension, and leave you guys stranded here without any protection?"

"Jenny, you know that's not what I meant."

"Then what? What do you expect me to do? I can't kill him. He has permission to kill me and you guys and there's nothing I can-"

"I mean that he's gotten to you." He said it so directly, so flatly, that Jenny stopped.

Although she had her back to him, Jenny could hear the easing of his tone as he continued, "I know it's hard. We were never trained for it fully, but…He got to you. In the closet. I know he did. He's getting to you now."

He was going on, saying more that Jenny didn't really want to hear. She was tuning him out unconsciously-No, that was something else. There was an odd strike of pain that Jenny wasn't familiar with, more so in the back of her neck, and the burn spread around her head-to her ear. Jenny tried to ignore it, to hear the scolding her cousin was giving her, but the burning only got worse-searing her ear to the point that it consumed all her thoughts-concentration. She finally reached up to cradle the pain-where she felt blood.

The hot wetness coated her fingers so much that it shocked her to a still-point. There was so much already pouring from her ear that it began to run down her neck. The panic had her holding her breath, standing there with her hand over her bloody ear, waiting for Zach to see, to go into a frantic mess-And he couldn't see it. It'd push him over the edge-make her stop playing-

But he didn't. He was still talking, asking her to remember what their grandfather said. That's right, Jenny's back was to him. It was her left ear and, if anything, Zach could only see the right side of her. So Jenny didn't move, didn't speak.

"Just," Zach finally breathed, "promise me you won't go easy on him. Please."

"Yeah-Yes."

"Swear it."

Without turning, Jenny numbly traced the rune in the air, and prayed that he wouldn't make her look at him-to make her say it out loud-

Thankfully, her cousin only heaved a sigh and he left. Jenny waited until she heard him in the living room, made sure he was sitting down on the couch, before she snatched a handful of napkins. She cleaned up all the blood, made sure the bleeding stopped, then threw away all the evidence.

It was obvious what was wrong-Her wound. She was pushing herself, she knew. It must be getting worse-

No, she was fine. She had to be. There was a Shadow Man, on Earth, after her friends. She couldn't be falling apart. She had to be-be perfect and calm and strong.

So Jenny took a deep breath, and calmly washed her hands. She was stronger than this. She didn't have a choice. She'd worry about it later. Right now, she needed to save everyone. Right now she needed to…to finish carving the runes on the blades.

Jenny was drying her hands when she heard Summer's small voice from the hallway. "Michael, I think your toilet is leaking."

Jenny's instincts kicked her in the rear so fast that she was in the hall the next second, finding Summer at Michael's bathroom door. The water was leaking from under the door, soaking out into the hall so bad that it was causing a puddle. But Jenny was the only one to see the rest of the water leaking from the sides of the door, the stress pressing on the door from inside.

Jenny screamed right as Summer opened the door, "No!"

The water shot out from the bathroom like a tidal wave, a gratuitous amount of water that was impossible to come from a small apartment bathroom. It knocked small Summer back in a heartbeat. Within seconds, it had the whole apartment flood up to everyone's knees. In concession, the rest of the doors down the hall began to burst open, one after the other, gushing out so much water that it was astonishing, making the hall like a dam that had burst.

By the time Jenny helped Summer up, the water was already at their waist. It was rising impossibly fast, there was no time to think. Zach and Tom were already at the front door, trying to break it open. But the force of the water was too much. Even if it wasn't, Jenny knew it would be impossible to get it open.

They were beginning to panic. Summer was crying. Jenny couldn't think.

"We're going to drown!"

"No, we're not!"

"How are we supposed to stop it?"

"Jenny!"

Jenny didn't know who called her, but it brought her attention away from the flooding hallway. Attempting to close those doors was as useless as opening the front door. She couldn't use the rune for ice now; it would freeze them all where they were. Kenaz would be useless. There had to be a way. There was always a way, no matter how hard it was to find it.

The water was too high now. They were all floating off the ground, growing closer and closer to the ceiling every second. Zach was swimming up to her, trying to get her attention. He was talking about a portal, to take them somewhere else, before they run out of air, but Jenny knew better. Jumping between the dimensions was too dangerous. Julian could grab them so easily that way. There had to be something.

She was looking around wildly, searching so desperately, but their heads were already at the ceiling. They were all pushing against it, desperately trying to keep their noses and mouths above the water. Jenny was doing the same, just as she looked to the kitchen-The kitchen!

The ceiling of the kitchen was domed, separate from the living room and the hall. Which meant it would have a pocket of air, just like an underwater cave.

"There!" Jenny gasped just as the water consumed them all.

The water was twice as cold underneath, burning the roots of her hair, her eyelids. She had to open her eyes, and found Zach in front of her doing the same. She quickly pointed to the kitchen, trying to get her point across with her eyes. But he just looked at her.

So Jenny grabbed whoever was closest to her, Michael, and began to drag him toward the kitchen. After kicking them along, she shoved him through the archway, where he rose to the top. Jenny rose with him and broke the surface. It was a small pocket of air, but enough. Jenny took a breath and dove back under. Dee had caught on and was dragging Summer with her. Zach was doing the same with Audrey. Just as they passed her, Jenny saw Tom.

He was swimming away from her, toward the back wall, near the hall.

Jenny immediately swam after him, kicking herself as hard as she could to reach him, to get him to air before he ran out. She was almost to him, realizing he was going for the window behind the couch.

It was in the moment that she reached for him, her hand just above his shoulder, that something thin and familiar wrapped around her ankle. Then she was dragged down the hallway.

The force yanked her passed all the gushing doors, into the shadows themselves, where Jenny couldn't see a thing. But she didn't need to see to know what had her. The pain was all too familiar, the strength at which the monster was pulling her with, down into the crevasse of the ocean that it dwelled in. Jenny snatched the blade from her waist, but the force prevented her from bending down. Doing so only snapped her back upright, striking pain in her lower back. She felt the Leviathan thrash its head, swaying her from side to side. The shock made her gasp, losing precious air. She almost dropped the knife-

No! This wasn't how she was going to die. Not by a stupid sea monster-Not by drowning. Not by a stupid trick from a Shadow Man.

Jenny grabbed her own leg and bend herself over, fighting over the force of the water that was rushing against her, but she still couldn't see-Didn't matter. Jenny swung blindly in the dark, and with one swipe, she cut the tentacle that was around her leg.

She was stopped in an instant, cut off from the force, and heard the shriek from the Leviathan somewhere below her. She had to be ready, in case it came charging at her. The only way Jenny knew her eyes were actually open was from the sting of the cold against them. Still, it was nothing but blackness, shadows, where Shadow Men thrived.

Jenny began to kick herself up, as hard as she could, not knowing if there was even a surface for her to break to. Yet, she barely got three good kicks in before she heard the voice.

It was muffled by the water, but Jenny heard it all the same, just as fierce as the first time. "Don't pity me."

The light is what stopped her next, coming from her side, just down below her. It was a glow, coming from around something. Jenny couldn't see it clearly at this angle-She didn't need to. She was going to drown.

But then she heard her own voice, younger, confused. "Pity you?"

That struck something in Jenny so unnerving that she physically couldn't keep swimming up. The light increased, just enough for her to make out a doorframe. Her voice continued to speak, muffled through the water, in the exact same nervous tone she had when they had this conversation four years ago. "If I pitied you…I would've opened the door that first day and let you out. Not help you stay locked up."

Jenny couldn't help it. She swam back down, quickly, and grabbed the top of the door frame to pull herself lower, into the doorway. Inside the room was nothing but blackness, illuminated by a thin glow of power that was shaped like a dimensional box-A box Jenny knew well. Sure enough, inside the box was the blurry black and white image of Jenny and Julian, both younger, both distraught and confused and vulnerable. They looked like fuzzy paintings of some sort, with their edges slowly peeling away from the water. They wavered with the currents that swayed the real Jenny now in the doorway.

The memory played like an eerie silent film that echoed through the water as if in her own head. They were staring at each other from so close, alone in that box.

Younger Jenny had spoken as if it physically hurt. "You really don't want to hurt me?"

"Jenny, you'll never understand how much I loathe that thought."

"Swear you won't kill me?"

"On the Stave my name is carved on."

Oh it hurt. To see this again, to hear it so clearly as if Julian was saying it to her all over again.

Jenny knew she was running out of air, her lungs beginning to burn on her, but she needed to see it. To see Julian bow to her again, to kiss the back of her hand, promising her all of the nine worlds, to protect her, to catch her again-

And yet a current so strong knocked Jenny away from the doorframe. It happened so fast that any air Jenny had left slipped from her lips in a gasp. The water was now a storm, pure chaos, throwing her around wildly again and again. Jenny had absolutely no control, no time to even think of how to stop it. Until finally she hit something that slowed her down just enough. Then the water ripped away from her, draining away, and she hit the floor of Michael's living room like a fish on land.

At first Jenny could do nothing but lay there and choke for breath. She was drenched from head to toe, as was Michael's carpet, and for a while all she could hear was the roar of blood in her ears. The shock was too much. She was just lying there, blinking, breathing, baffled at the memory-that Julian showed her that-

He swore not to kill her. Not just to protect her from being harmed, he swore not to kill her. How could she forget? He couldn't-

No, he could. Don't be stupid. Shadow Man had so many tricks. She betrayed him. He hated her now. That was a warning, to scare her. Just because he couldn't physically rip her soul to shreds didn't mean he couldn't trick her into killing herself, or having one of her friends do it. Hell, she almost risked drowning herself just to see that stupid memory.

Jenny was so out of it, still reeling from the shock, that she didn't notice the person standing above her until they grabbed her. Her first thought from the manly grip was Zach, or maybe even Tom, but the second the grip tightened, far stronger than anything human could ever do, her instincts quickly proved her wrong.

The next thing Jenny knew, she was off the ground, lifted by the grip on her shirt. The person who had her was no person at all. It had the body of a man, legs, torso and arms, but the head was replaced with that of some kind of creature. Like a leech, it was long and circular, with a gaping hole for a mouth, no eyes, no nose. It wiggled around like it was alive, then the folds of its disgusting rotten skin shrunk back to reveal teeth. Rows and rows of sharp teeth all at the perfect angle to latch onto something and never let go. It was bloated, with skin like rotten blue clay. Jenny had never seen one before, but she immediately knew that it looked like a corpse that had been sitting in the water for far too long.

The monster hissed at her, and it was so high pitch that it immediately struck pain to the back of Jenny's head, bursting heat all the way to her temples. She didn't think. She sunk her blade straight into the creature's mouth, passed as many rows of teeth as she could, and twisted it. The creature let out a horrific shriek immediately and began to stumble and sway.

Jenny was trying to break its hold on her when she heard the girly scream-familiar-Audrey.

She was behind the creature, drenched from head to toe in the middle of Michael's living room. She was staring at them in such horror-Jenny hesitated.

Then the creature twisted and launched its arm out, throwing Jenny right down the hallway. It threw her so hard that Jenny didn't stop until she hit the very back wall and dropped straight to the floor like a doornail. She couldn't recover so easily from that. The pain radiated from everywhere, echoing in a terrible throb in the back of her head, adding to the heat. Jenny felt the blood again, but she couldn't-She had to get up. It was going to go after Audrey or everyone. She had to-

But Jenny barely lifted her head off the ground and found the creature storming towards her. It's leech-like head wiggling back and forth, still with the knife in it, just at the end of the hall-No, it wasn't that close. It was in the living room-Jenny blinked, then it was three feet from her. Her vision was wavering, she couldn't see right. There were two of them-No, just one, right on top of her.

She couldn't get up. Every time she got herself to sit up, her elbows gave out on her and she fell right back to the floor. She heard the hissing of the creature just above her, could smell its rotting stench burning her nose-She couldn't-She had to say a rune or something.

Someone beat her to it.

"Djew!"

Jenny heard the strike of power, but she couldn't see straight. She was still trying to get up, but the closer she got the worse her headache grew. She heard the commotion in front of her, saw the tangle of legs stumbling away from her, but the noises just grew louder and louder. The migraine was too much. Her head felt so congested, as if all the water in the apartment had swelled into her head, weighing her down, drowning her mind.

She was blinking like a mad woman, trying to see straight, and just for a moment it cleared, where she saw the creature above her. It was a lot bloodier than before, it's head no longer a hole of teeth but a shredded mess of rotten flesh and muscle. Behind it was Zach, also covered in blood, with Jenny's knife in hand. Jenny heard him say something, as strong and clear as a Hunter should, and the creature went down with a hiss that sounded like a deflating balloon.

That was the last thing Jenny remembered before she collapsed.

…-

Jenny knew she was dreaming.

It was from how calmly she awoke, on Michael's couch in the dark. She was bone dry, in new clothes, without an ache or pain in her whole body. Her head didn't even throb when she sat up. Her friends were all asleep around her, mostly on the floor or the chair. Plus, everything in the room was dry and in perfect order, as if it hadn't been turned into the world's worst swimming pool hours ago.

So she knew. Perhaps she could have said a rune or something prevent it, to get the Shadow Man out of her head, but if he was here-if he was controlling this dream like all the others…

Jenny got up. Slowly, she came to a stand and walked away from her friends. The only light came from the kitchen, the dim orange glow from the stove just enough for her to see, and to cover everything in harsh shadows.

Jenny was waiting. For another memory, another monster to fight, she wasn't too sure, but she knew there'd be something. A hint of some sort, or maybe just another threat, to scare her, to tease her into thinking she could learn the rules of this final round.

It was in the instant that the only light went out, casting her in complete and utter darkness, that Jenny realized the Shadow Man wasn't going to threaten her with a memory this time. He was going to do it in person.

She felt him behind her immediately, his body pressed flushed to hers so abruptly, as if the shadows had summoned him. Surprisingly, Jenny didn't flinch. She did freeze, feeling him there so suddenly, where she stood.

It was exactly like in the tiger's cage at the Shadow Park, after seeing him again, being afraid and shocked and relieved all at once-Jenny didn't know how to handle it. She stood there, waiting for him to make the first move, so she could counter him, like a Hunter should. She waited for him to touch her, to try and choke her or scare her or just say something-

But he didn't. He stood there, looming behind her, his breath tickling the back of her neck, just like in the Maze when he teased her-

Jenny couldn't take it.

"Leave them out of this," she snapped, clearly.

Julian didn't answer her. All that came from him was a huff of breath that very well could have been a restrained laugh. Somehow, it made Jenny feel weak, undermined.

She was reminded immediately of the first time she saw him, how afraid she was, how quick she was to rise against him, to battle his game of wits and tricks. She had always been afraid of him, a part of her always had, but that was before he swore to her, before he promised to let nothing hurt her, before he saved her.

Being here now, in the shadows, at his mercy, brought on that old fear. Because now he did want to kill her now. He could, he got permission once. He'll get it again.

So Jenny didn't wait for him to draw out her fear any longer. "How long do you intend to play hide and seek like a coward?" she asked it firmly with no intention of playing around, and she must've made it clear because that's when he grabbed her.

He latched onto her as if he was falling and grabbing her for stability. One arm wrapped around her chest, pulling her back at an angle sharp enough to shock her. Jenny fought him immediately, snapping a rune to try and break his hold-But it failed. It shouldn't have-That one always worked, but he still had her. In fact, he had her tighter, tighter than he ever grabbed her. Jenny was trying to fight him, but her voice was choked in her throat-she couldn't even scream-

Then Julian's other hand appeared on the back of her head, right where it hurt, striking the hot pain all over again-Her wound. He had permission to her wound. That's how he was going to kill her. He was going to tear her mind in half just like the way she was supposed to die four years ago.

Jenny had fallen still from the shock, voice still caught in her throat, body going weak as he rendered complete control over her with a single touch.

Then his voice was in her ear, hushed but loud at the same time, like white noise, running electricity in her blood. "Then you better start seeking."

In the next instant, Jenny was stabbing him. They were no longer in the living room but back at the Shadow Park, by the lighthouse. Only this time it wasn't his gut, but his chest. She was stuck there, holding the blade in him, forced to see that pain and betrayal up close, and felt the blood on her hands, forever staining her skin, all over again. She couldn't look away-couldn't move-couldn't fight. She was trapped there, in his pained gaze, in this horrible, horrible pain.

Then he was away from her and somehow Jenny just knew that he was dying. Somehow, his name was carved out, fading away, because of her.

She screamed. The horrible realization ripping through her was harsh enough to break her from the nightmare. Jenny sat up so fast that her screams in the nightmare couldn't make it to reality. Her mind broke from the darkness, choking on her own breath, the pain-Oh, how badly it hurt; so much that Jenny couldn't even cry. It came in such a terrible ache in the back of her mind, so deep into the crevasse of her being that Jenny actually couldn't see for a minute. She had to remind herself to breathe, to calm herself down, and cradle the pain until it subdued enough for her to settle back into herself.

But even as Jenny found herself there, on Michael's couch, covered by a small blanket, the fear that settled into her heart was the greatest she ever felt. Jenny knew fear. She knew what it did to someone, how it was controlled. But this was the first time she felt such a fear that she couldn't even comprehend.

And it was over the death of a Shadow Man.

The dread, the guilt, was overwhelming. Jenny instantly buried her face into her hands, to wallow in this pain in the silence of her sleeping friends; That is, until the hand grabbed her shoulder.

"Hey-Hey," Tom was whispering to, tone firming once she jumped. "You ok?"

Oh. Seeing him all of a sudden was too much for Jenny. Awaking from a dream like that, about someone else-a demon none the less-and not her current boyfriend who she hadn't even noticed was sitting right next to her; it was too much.

Now that she looked around, the room was illuminated only by the slight beginning of a sunrise outside the window across the room. The archway to the kitchen sat like an adjacent black hole to the hallway. Everything was messed up in some way, either broken or overturned. Everything was still wet, staining the walls and floors. Even Jenny was still damp, as well as the couch.

Her friends were scattered around the rest of the room, all sound asleep. Summer and Audrey were on the floor on the other side of the coffee table, with Dee on the floor between it and the couch. Michael was in a chair he brought from the kitchen, and Zach was across from Jenny in the chair, closest to the hallway.

Seeing her cousin passed out on the chair across from her made her heart wrench on itself. Is this what he felt? This pain, back in the game? Oh, but to feel it for a demon-A Shadow Man who was hunting her and her friends down; the demon that controls fear and tortures on an hourly basis-

The demon that said he loved her. The one she betrayed.

For a while Jenny had to sit there in both physical and mental pain, cursing herself for this-this weakness. Her grandfather had always pried her on how well she destroyed her weaknesses. You couldn't kill a demon that fed off your weakness if you were giving him dessert. And here Jenny was, sitting there with five extra helpings.

Jenny was awake now, instincts calming herself quickly, but she was anything except ok. She knew the words weren't going to form right on her tongue, thus she merely nodded, hoping Tom would see it in the lack of light.

He did, judging by how his fingers relaxed on her shoulder, but his hand didn't move. "How are you feeling?" He whispered. "You hit your head pretty hard. Do you remember-"

"Yes." Jenny didn't mean to interrupt so she added, softer, "I mean, sort of. How did the water stop?"

"I broke the window."

"Oh…Good job."

"Thanks."

There was a pause where for the life of her Jenny didn't know what to say. The tension between them was obvious in the way he pulled his hand away from her.

"Zach stopped that…thing."

"Yeah, I saw."

"What was it?"

"I don't know."

Another pause.

Good God, this was torture. Jenny tried to look at him. He was sitting on the arm of her couch, a knife and flashlight in hand although it was currently off. Had he….been watching over her?

"How long have you been up?" she asked quietly.

"Doesn't matter. It's my turn to keep watch."

Jenny immediately sat up straighter, going slower once her head echoed the pain. "I'll take watch now. You get some-"

"No, you need your sleep."

"Tom-"

"That thing threw you down the hall. You need rest."

"I've been through worse."

And that was the final chord that snapped the tension in the air, making it ten times worse.

The fact that she never told him how she was carried and dropped by a mythical Gryphon creature, or chased by a troll and Korrigans and woodland monsters and zombies all at once, was nerve-wracking. To be thrown across the room by a leech monster and then act like it was nothing, she was basically slapping him in the face.

The guilt hit her the second he turned away from her in the dark, making the silence even worse. Jenny hated it. She had to say something.

"I'm sorry," she finally got out as clearly as she could. "Tom, I'm sorry. For everything. T-That I never told you or that I…."

She couldn't finish the rest. The words just didn't come to her. Judging by Tom's silence, it didn't even matter. So Jenny got up. At least she started to, to leave, before Tom stopped her.

"I-No, don't. Wait, it's just…"

Jenny sat back down, trying to meet his gaze, but he still didn't look at her. He took a minute to get the words right before he spoke, hushed. "I don't…I mean, I understand why you didn't tell us. Alright? I'm not mad about that. It's just…" Jenny watched him lean forward and set something down on the coffee table, probably the flashlight. He then began to rub his palms together, a nervous habit of his. "I can't understand all this hunting stuff. I don't need to know how you fight or what happens when you play these 'games'-"

"Tom-"

"I don't. Ok? Please, you don't have to give me the details, so just…tell me how it is."

He looked at her now, and Jenny could see the uncertainty in those glorious brown pools even in the shadows. "If you say you got this, then you got this. If you say we need to shut up and sit still then we will. If you just tell us….Tell me, then I'll believe you without question, ok? Ok?"

Jenny was almost in shock, at how understanding he was being, after she flipped him over her shoulder, after she said the name of a demon while kissing him-

"Yes," she said too loudly, so she repeated herself quieter, "Yes. Yes-Ok."

Tom took a second to accept that before he looked away and nodded himself. "Ok, good. So then, just tell me…"

When his voice trailed off, Jenny thought he was waiting for her to explain, which if he was then Jenny had no idea where to begin or what to even say. But he spoke for her, clarified, and when he did, Jenny felt her heart stop.

"Tell me if I should be worried. Should I…be mad at you? About the…name-thing."

Oh.

Oh no.

This was worse. Worse than the awkward silence, than the tension in the air. Because Tom was being Tom. He was looking for the good in the situation that he knew nothing about. He knew no other way to fix this so he was literally just asking her.

Asking if he should be upset that she said his name. Asking if he should even be concerned that it happened-if it had actually meant anything-

Jenny couldn't take it. It was too much, because all she had to do was lie. To just say no, that it was just a trick, like she had before. He was asking so honestly, desperately waiting for her to tell him that she didn't care for a demon, that she didn't let him seduce her-She just had to say no and everything would be fine.

And yet, the truth fell numbly from her lips, beyond her control. "You should…."

She saw Tom whip his head around, looking at her in utter shock, but she didn't hold his gaze. She turned away from him, in shame, trying to hide in the shadows. She waited for him to curse at her, even yell, at least that would make her feel better, but he didn't. He said nothing. He didn't even move from her side. He just sat there, in shock, in pain.

So Jenny left. Without another word, she got up carefully and moved into the kitchen, illuminated only by the stove's dim orange glow. She hid behind the wall of the archway, where she had to cover her mouth to stifle whatever pathetic noise was crawling up her throat.

For the longest time she stood there, up until the morning came and the sunlight filled the room, she stood there trying to figure out which was worse-Betraying Julian, or betraying Tom.

….—

When all her friends finally woke up, Michael made pancakes, and after everyone ate they all seemed to get to work. Zach and Tom worked on covering up the window and marking it again. Dee and Audrey were actually working together on going over runes, while Summer and Michael started to practice drawing all the ones they knew so far.

Jenny was helping, but it felt too surreal. Twice she had to cut her finger to convince herself she wasn't in another nightmare. And when they all switched gears and Zach started showing them how to use the runes Jenny had carved into Michael's knives, Jenny found herself alone on the couch, writing. Anything. Everything. All the charms, all the spells, everything she remembered. Then she had a list narrowed down to just the Egyptian runes, the ones closely tied to Earth-Yes, like Dagaz, the operation between light and dark. If there was a trap with that rune….

No, she didn't even need the Egyptian traps. Nauthiz was a trap in itself. She remembered that rune was involved in trapping the Shadow Men in the closet before, along with Djew as a resounding barrier. But what else was it? There was something else. Would it work? If she trapped him-No, that would only make things worse. But Zach was right. They couldn't just sit here and wait. Jenny had to make the first move. Julian had told her, she better start seeking. The first move in a trap was the pull-the distraction.

If she could lure him out, maybe she could send him back to the Shadow World. It was a risky thought, but hell, since when was Shadow Hunting easy? Of course, the only way Jenny could end the game that way would be if she went with him. At least that would be away from her friends-off of Earth.

Jenny didn't realize how long she had been writing for until someone grabbed her shoulder. The table was covered in papers, symbols and notes scattered everywhere, even onto the couch around her. She was hunched over the table, completely isolated, taken over the whole couch. Zach was the one above her, gazing over the mess with a more content look than she expected. She found her friends in the archway to the kitchen getting water and snacks, a break from the practice.

"Do you remember that one rune from the 14th channel?" Jenny asked him before he could question her.

"What?"

"The rune-The one that….stalls the dark magic, helps divert it to create a channel for lighter powers-"

"Pirul?"

Jenny immediately wrote it down, connected it to the scattered triangles of thoughts and traps she had written down.

Zach took one look to her notes, to a mess that anyone else would call her mad, and was able to process it in a heartbeat. "Do you plan on trapping him?"

"I don't know."

"On Earth?"

"No-I don't know. Grandfather did it. Maybe we could…draw him out. Before he attacks. So I can beat him. That way we don't have to just sit here and wait for his move. We can attack first."

Jenny was trading papers, analyzing one theory, comparing it with another-Then scratched one out completely. Those runes wouldn't work together, and those two seals would just cancel each other out, if he didn't interfere first.

Zach picked up the paper she tossed aside. "Djew won't work with this."

"I know. I don't remember what does. It was something small, I remember but it was only in his journals." Jenny felt her mistake hit her in the chest as soon as she said. Thus she added quickly, "He explained it once, I think. I can hardly remember."

"What is?"

Jenny had to pause, put her pen down and think. She barely remembered the power their grandfather had mentioned. It was something he barely taught them because it was too…difficult. He barely understood it himself. He had come across it once before Jenny and Zach were born. Jenny remembered him mentioning it, he had to, but now all she recalled was….light. A lot of light.

"Are you guys talking about magic?"

Jenny looked up to find Summer across the coffee table, clutching a glass of orange juice between her small hands, staring down at the mess of symbols. Seeing one of her hand bandaged struck a terrible chord inside her.

"Yes," Jenny answered. "I think I have a plan."

"Great," Dee said proudly as she strode across the room then planted herself beside Jenny, chewing on what was left of her muffin. "What are we doing?"

Jenny admired the confidence in her friend's eyes, thus she didn't argue against it. "Trapping Shadow Men is very tricky. Our grandfather never taught us how, but in order to do it we have to draw them out. Get their attention, then grab them when they're not looking."

"Like a snare?" Michael asked a bit sheepishly across the room.

"Yes. But, again, he never taught us. I'm trying to figure out which rune goes where."

"So, what, you just throw them together?" Summer asked innocently.

Audrey was the one who laughed. "Oh, mon ami. It's not like that."

Jenny saw the disappointment in the small blonde's eyes, so she laid out the papers before her. "They're like switches. I have to lay them out in a certain order, then turn them on in a certain order at the right time."

"And if we mess up, we're screwed."

Tom's scorn made Jenny look up, to the disapproving look in his eyes, and immediately was conflicted by his anger. Yet it was Zach who countered him.

"That's why we have back-ups," he said firmly. "When one rune doesn't work, we have another. There are ways to stall him-"

"Which won't happen," Jenny interrupted. She made sure she looked Tom in the eyes when she said, "I always beat him."

Dee spoke before Tom could. "What do you need us to do?"

Jenny had to look away from, back to her papers-to the things she knew most. "Nothing right now. I just need to sort these out."

"I'll help," Zach said and sat down across from her on the floor. "I remember more than you."

Jenny was about to be upset, until she saw the playful look in her cousin's eyes. A look she hadn't seen since…they were in the basement, while training years ago. It was refreshing enough to make her smile. "Oh really?"

"I'll make you a glass of orange juice, Jenny!" Summer cried enthusiastically, then was dragging Michael back into the kitchen with her.

Audrey was up then, too, saying, "Hey hold on. I just cleaned up your guy's mess!"

Dee followed, snapping, "You mean you made the mess."

Jenny laughed at them, but the burn in her temples was a painful reminder. Right, work. Not fun.

Surprisingly the next half hour went by smoothly. Her and Zach were actually able to work together. They went off each other's thoughts and memories and actually had a decent rough plan put together. Just as they did when they were kids, quoting each other on the runes, quizzing one another to make sure they didn't stumble or forget. It was oddly settling.

"So if we use the Celtic trap to lure him out-"

"We can use the Norwegian trap to snag him down."

"But won't this rune cancel out Nauthiz?"

"Not with this one."

Zach saw the connection, and made a face of "oh." "But wait. We don't have anything to seal the celtic trap into place."

Oh, right.

Before he could go on, Summer was pulling on his arm. Jenny didn't hear what she was asking him. She was staring at the papers, trying to find that rune. There was one more, a celtic one; she knew it, just on the tip of her tongue. What was it? Jenny closed her eyes tight, really tried to focus, but then the burn came to her temples, distracting her, making her hiss. The thought died, whatever it was.

Jenny opened her eyes to ask Zach, but she wasn't at the coffee table anymore.

She was standing in the kitchen, at the counter with Tom beside her. A half made sandwich was in front of her, next to a plate of already made sandwiches that Tom had. She had a knife in her hand, about to cut some salami.

"-you know?" Tom finished saying, but Jenny didn't remember the rest. She didn't remember…anything. How she got there, what was happening.

She didn't panic. Not yet. She took a second to take in the moment, to breathe, and think and fully accept the time gap. Slowly, she let the knife knick her finger, just enough to hurt, to allow the pain to show that she wasn't asleep-wasn't being tricked.

But if she wasn't being tricked then….how did she get here?

"Jenny?"

"I…I cut myself," she breathed out shallowly.

She moved numbly, wrapping her finger in a napkin. Her whole body ached in a very strange and frightening way. The room seemed unbalanced, as if she was standing on slanted ground. She had to grab the counter to stabilize herself.

"Jeez, are you ok?"

The fear that sparked in her quickly died when Tom grabbed her hand-No it was worse-He was touching her-Their fight-He was talking about the cut.

She tried to pull away gently, but the move came out much stiffer than she hoped. "Fine. Really. Just…didn't want to get blood on the sandwiches-Who had-What are we making again?"

Tom looked at her a bit oddly for a moment and it was in the silence that Jenny heard the rest of her friends laughing from the living room. "They're all the same," he answered eventually. "Except Summer doesn't want cheese. Are you ok?" His face changed again, this time a bit more surprised. "Did you want to talk about it later?"

God, she didn't even know what he had been talking about-When they started talking-

"Yeah, sorry. I….I-I have a headache."

She moved away before he could say anything else. Summer was sleeping on Dee's lap on the couch, who was also passed out. Audrey was on the other end of the couch, closest to Zach, while Micheal was anxiously looking out the window. The coffee table was still covered in papers which Zach watched a little uneasily as Audrey examined them.

"This one's Norse, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah, a lot of…uh…power comes from those. Kind of like a base, that the Egyptian ones go off of. It's how we make traps."

Traps! Right! Jenny had been working on that before…before…When had that been? What time was it? What day?

"What time is it?" she asked rather hastily.

Michael answered her just as fast. "3:22. Has that blue car always parked across the street?"

"Oh my God Michael. For the last time, it doesn't work like that.

"But-"

"They need permission, Michael," Zach clarified.

"But you said he has permission," Michael turned on Jenny, cocker-spaniel eyes wide with fear. "Right, jenny? That's what you said. He could get us like that."

"Uh…" Her temples throbbed. She lifted her hand to cradle the ache but stopped-too obvious. She needed to act normal. What was she doing again?

Jenny didn't realize how badly she was stammering on her words until Zach came to a stand. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, you don't look so good."

"I'm fine," Jenny mumbled, but it took all of her concentration to make it to the chair without stumbling. "Uh, Michael, he's not going to do something…stupid like a strange car across the street."

Michael's concern quickly returned out the window. "But you said he could be anything."

Somehow that stung more than it should have when Tom re-entered the room.

"Yes but I know him," jenny said anyway, through the burn in her mind. "He wouldn't waste his time like that. He'd rather give you a terrifying nightmare or snatch you away while you sleep or something."

Audrey actually winced at that and watched as Michael's eyes bugged out of his head. "I don't have any coffee. Oh God, how can I stay awake?"

"Michael, relax," Tom said. "Jenny wouldn't let that happen."

The weary confident look he gave her only made Jenny feel worse. Last time he had scolded her-When was that-What had they talked about-

The conversation went on, but Jenny couldn't hear it. She watched Audrey get Michael to sit down. She saw Summer complaining about her hand to Zach as she woke up, whose gaze was stuck on Jenny. Tom woke Dee up who snapped something at him that made them all laugh, but the sound came to Jenny choppy, almost mechanical. It was high pitched, unnerving, wrong.

It was the phone.

Everyone was staring at Jenny now-No, behind her, at Michaels' home phone that sat on the wall, ringing. It was there that Jenny's instincts kicked back in. Forget the confusion-There was a Shadow Man after them. She couldn't afford to be confused or-or-

"Don't answer it," she snapped, although no one had moved to do so.

The phone continued to ring. And ring. And ring.

"It-It could be my parents," Michael suggested.

"Or not," Dee countered.

It should have been a harmless gesture. Really, it could have been anyone. But it was the feeling in the air. The tight, anxious feeling that a deer gets in the woods-That everyone gets in the dark when they are alone. The feeling that you are no longer alone; that it's not someone friendly on the other line. Jenny had mastered this instinct, and it was probably her reaction, as well as Zach's, that had caused the whole room to be so still, rattled every other second by the noise. Everyone watched in silence as it rang again, twice more. Then it stopped.

They all seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Well that was nice," Audrey finally said. "Now can we-"

It rang again.

Jenny was about to dismiss it, just to clear this awful atmosphere, until another phone went off. It was Audrey's. Only it wasn't her normal loud pop song ringtone, instead replaced by the dull, boring ring, like Michael's. It even made them all flinch in surprise. She actually went to reach for it, but stopped halfway.

Then another phone began to ring. Before they could find out whose it was, there was another. And another. Within seconds all of their phones began to ring, all in the same high pitch tone, again and again.

Summer was now covering her ears, fear raking through her giant sky blue eyes. Michael was holding onto Audrey, while Zach had his head bowed in the chair. Dee and Tom were looking at Jenny, who wasn't the least bit faltered.

"For the record, Michael," she said loud enough over the rings to be heard. "This is a scare tactic. And a stupid one, at that."

She then knelt down, squeezing the blood from the cut she just made. She was planning to do the markings, to magically scan the area around them, but the second Jenny lowered herself to the ground, the dizziness over took her. She actually stumbled so bad that her face almost hit the floor. The burning was immediate in the back of her head, like a warning, making her hiss. She was too weak-No, but she needed to do it. To see where Julian was; to protect everyone.

Someone called for her, but Jenny didn't look to see who it was. No, she focused all her energy into painting the markings on the ground. She bit back the pain, ignored the throbbing in her temples, and drew the runes correctly, in the right order, as a Hunter should. But the second she tried to speak them aloud, the ringing from the phone's seemed to heighten, rising to a pitch that made Jenny's ears pop, increasing the pain. She had to grab her head, but she said the runes anyway.

The ringing stopped right as the heat struck Jenny in the back of the head like a massive flare. The scanner that ran through her mind was beckoned with a million sparks, racing through her very being in a white hot pain so sudden that she couldn't even scream. Whatever the spell showed her melted into the pain immediately, resulting in her with her head on the ground, cradling her temples.

Slowly, her friend's voices came to her, disoriented, and wrong.

"Jenny!"

"What's wrong?"

Someone was trying to help her up, which Jenny denied. She couldn't be hurt-She was the only one who could fight. She had to be ok. But simply sitting up was difficult and when Jenny released her head, she felt the blood on her palms, from her ears, which were ringing-No, the phones.

"Jesus!"

"Jenny!"

"What do we do?"

"Call someone-"

"But the phone."

Yes, the phones. The damn phones that were still ringing and making the pain in jenny's mind worse. It was Julian-His stupid tricks. He was scaring them all, and she was just sitting there-

They were panicking. Jenny felt it; the same panic trying to creep its way into her heart-which she pushed away. She had to. As a Hunter-As Jenny. She forced herself to look up, to meet her friends' eyes and tell them that she was fine-that they were all going to be fine. She found them scattered around the room, all waiting anxiously for the phones to stop, one by one.

Only they didn't. Jenny knew they weren't going to. They just kept ringing and ringing, getting louder and louder until the ringtones grew distorted, morphing into ugly, harsh noises that screamed around the room.

Summer was still covering her ears. Michael was hiding behind Dee, who looked ready to punch something at any moment. Audrey and Tom were next to Jenny, while Zach was now alone in the corner, clenching his eyes shut. It was seeing him, seeing his struggle, how he was grinding his teeth, fists clenched at his sides, that made Jenny's instincts come alive.

She was on her feet, grabbing the wall to catch herself when it felt like the world shifted under her. She snatched Michaels phone off the kitchen wall and answered it without a moment's hesitation. "Very sloppy, Julian," she hissed into the phone like she wasn't about to collapse.

She had expected the static, the strangled dial tone, the chaotic sounds. If Julian was going to talk to her at all, she was prepared for it; an insult, a rune, even just her name. She was ready to spit fire at him. But when the voice did come through the static, just loud enough to be understood, Jenny found that it wasn't Julian's voice at all.

It was her grandfather's.

"Give up, Jenny..."

Everything in Jenny, everything she was froze in an instant.

"You can't beat this. You have...to let him win-"

Jenny threw the phone so fast that she missed it, smashing it on the kitchen floor in a heartbeat. It caused Summer to shriek from surprise, and Dee to launch by her side.

"What is it? What happened? What did he say?"

Jenny heard her. She heard the phones still going off, how they all melded into white noise that seemed to rip through the air like a breeze, tousling their hair, but Jenny couldn't respond. She was stuck standing there, staring at the pieces of the phone on the ground, hearing that voice-that voice after so long, grinding into her mind, mixing with the pain-

The attack came from behind. Perhaps she would have been ready for it if her mind wasn't going into a panic, temples burning with bittersweet memories. She felt it, the rush of something incredibly powerful and deadly. She turned right as it hit her, but there was a blur, a massive rush of cold. It happened too fast. One moment chaos was ensuing all around her, then just as fast as it had come it was gone.

Jenny was still standing, only not in the living room anymore.

No, Jenny was twelve years old. She could tell by the way the third bookcase towered over her with such ease. The smell of sulfur was strong in the air, burning Jenny's nostrils as they always had. She recognized the chill in the air, the way it tingled her bare arms and shins, how it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand tall. "To prepare her," her grandfather had always said. Jenny was just standing there in her grandfather's basement, taking it all in, the fog in her mind slowly clearing, instincts coming to-

She felt the attack coming again, directly behind her. She ducked just in time to feel the weight go passing over her head. She jumped as she turned, fists up and ready to take whatever was coming at her. That is, until she looked up and saw him.

Her grandfather was there, posted firmly behind her. The elderly man was in fine shape for his age, with only a slight belly. His face was wide but wise, covered in numerous wrinkles, especially around his eyes. The firm green pools were like sharp edges of jade, pinning little Jenny right in her place, with the faint scar over his left eye. His gray hair was receding, but the look only added to the intensity of his appearance. He wasn't buff, but his muscles were clear under rolled-up sleeves of his shirt. The dark skin of his arms was marred with lighter pink scars, some worse than others, with fading marks of various symbols. In his hands were a long black club and a matted pad.

Suddenly seeing him, and the glorious background of his basement behind him, made all of Jenny's blood drain to her toes. Her knees went weak-She almost collapsed, she really did, because he was right there, standing over her, with the dull light of the basement above him and his messy desk right off to the side and his journals-But he couldn't. He was-was-

He swung for her again, swiping the long club for Jenny's chest. She just barely dodged it, pathetically, too, a mere stumble back. She saw the disappointment cross those jade eyes.

"Faster," was all he snapped at her.

He swung again, and Jenny was able to dodge it better, like he had taught her. He swung it back the other way, higher, and Jenny ducked under it, as she pivoted, landing beside him. Her instincts were thriving now without question-making her move as she was supposed to. She quickly dove forward, knowing his next blow was going to come for her legs. She caught herself on her hands, rolled, and came back up on her knees. She snatched the first thing she saw, an enchanted blade from his desk, and turned on him faster than she ever had. When he faced her once again, the contentment came over his wrinkles, ending in a nod.

"Good," he said softer, and oh it was so good to hear his voice again-The slight rumble in its deep tone. Jenny could only stand there, slightly catching her breath, as he turned and set the objects down on the desk. "You're getting better at thinking on your toes. It's good. Games are not going to be mapped out for you."

It didn't make sense. He was going on, clarifying every move and every step as thorough as always, but Jenny couldn't hear it. She was staring at him, at his image, as he grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat off his head, then offered it to her-Right, Jenny remembered this. The wound on his left arm, the one outstretched to her, was still healing. That was from practice in the backyard, when Zach tripped during an offense move and cut their grandfather up the forearm. Jenny remembered this. Her cousin was probably running laps around the house upstairs right now while she worked on her footwork with the Master.

But…. she was just at Michaels. With her friends, the attack-the game-Julian.

Her grandfather was staring at her, still holding the towel out to her. Jenny didn't take it. She was clutching to the blade in her hand so tight her knuckles were white-sweating. She felt ready to fall apart. She blinked at him once, twice, then let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding in.

"I…. I-I don't understand," she finally breathed.

Her grandfather didn't look surprised. His arm dropped back to his side as he looked her over very carefully, then he sighed and threw the towel back on the desk. "That's most likely," he said tiredly, "due to your injury."

Jenny didn't get it at first. When she did, the blade fell from her fingers and clanked against the ground.

Wait, no, this wasn't right. She-She was only twelve-No, she wasn't. This was before the closet, before the attack, before she got the wound-before Julian saved her-

She hadn't met Julian yet. But she knew, she still remembered everything. That thought made her look passed her grandfather to the bookcase resting firmly against the wall. The door behind it, the Shadow Men inside-Was…he watching her? He had to be, right? He had shown her-told her…

The touch actually scared Jenny. Her grandfather's hand, so large, so rough from all the callouses and scars, came to her face gently. It wrapped around her cheek, to the back of her head, where he cradled it in such a firm grip that Jenny's neck went weak. He was looking down at her with such a face, mouth turned down, wrinkles lining his baggy features.

"I never wanted you to take my burden," he said quietly, and the sincerity in his voice was too much. It stung in Jenny's chest, her eyes, her mind-

"I wanted to prepare you. To do good in the world…. You are strong, Jenny. I've seen it. I know you've become a fine Hunter. But you are too rash."

Before Jenny could even relearn how to speak, nevertheless think of what to say, he dropped his hand away from her. The solemn look in his eyes was like a physical pain, one that radiated from him to Jenny.

"You have to let him win, Jenny."

Then he turned away, as simple as that, and began to leave. The panic came immediately-too fast. Jenny jumped after, reaching for him.

She screamed, "Wait!" but when she touched him, everything was knocked away.

From the side, she was tackled by something hot and strong. It knocked her right through the ground, through the illusion, back onto the ground of Michael's living room. It didn't make sense-Discombobulated, disoriented. The heat ruptured through her head like a million sparks the second she hit the ground. She didn't have time to scream or wallow in the pain because the creature on her back was pinning her down. She latched onto whatever had her and rolled at the same time as she gave a sharp kick. But the hands were wrapping around her neck from behind her, unrelenting and unmovable as jenny tried to fight them off her back. She couldn't see what it was since it had her pinned from behind, but it didn't matter. She managed to get to her side, fighting through the hits she was receiving to her back, before she heard her friends' screams.

"Zach what are you doing!?"

"Zach, Stop!"

It took her mind half a second to realize the thing on her was not a beast of shadows, but her cousin, and she immediately knew what was wrong. Thus, she stopped throwing her elbow back into his chest. Instead she tangled her legs with his and kicked herself off the ground. But Zach was strong, wrestling her back down, bending her arm back far beyond what it was capable of, matching the pain in her temples. Jenny screamed.

Dee grabbed Zach by the shoulders, attempted at yanking him off, but Zach spat a charm so fast that Jenny didn't even hear him. The power struck Dee across the head, knocking her out instantly. She landed in front of Jenny on the floor, where the shadows were already consuming her. They were filling up the room now-Jenny hadn't even noticed. He was here-Julian-Coming to get them and she hadn't-

She needed to stop them. She needed to stop Zach, to snap him out of it, to stop Julian and send him back and save her friends and live-

Jenny had to say a rune of her own where the power was enough leverage for her to get her arm free. She then launched her head back without thinking, smacking it right into Zach's face. She was supposed to use his moment of pain to flip him off her and pin him back down, but the pain was too much. The hit only deepened it, driving it to the center of her mind, where it traveled down her neck, to her chest, constricting her breathing. She was sitting there writhing on the floor, until she blinked through the pain and saw her cousin getting back up. She threw herself on top of him despite the pain, but he was wrestling her-He always was stronger than her,

"Zach, snap out of it!" She screamed but she could already see it, how endless those gray pools were. Her cousin wasn't there to hear her.

She saw Audrey moving in her peripheral vision, but Jenny snapped instantly, "Don't touch him! He's tranced-He doesn't know what he's doing!"

Yet Zach snapped another charm, and Jenny felt the energy smack her right in the chest, stealing her breath. Then she was on her back once more, where her cousin jumped on her chest. He stole one of her blades from her waist belt and it took all of Jenny's strength to block his forearm. She had both her arms braced against his, pushing against him to keep the blade from coming any closer to her chest than it already was. But the harder she pushed against his arm, the worse the pain in her temples grew, forming denser and denser in her mind.

Zach's face was so contorted, so harsh as he glared down at Jenny-At what he thought was someone else. "I won't," he was groaning. "I won't let you take her!"

"Zach!"

"I won't!"

"Zach It's me! Open your eyes! Dagaz!" Although jenny screamed it properly, the power had no effect. In fact, it only spurred the dark magic controlling him, and pushed the blade further. The sharp point connected with her skin, just enough to draw blood, making jenny hiss at the sharp pain. But it was that pain that sparked her instincts, the harsher side of herself, into control.

Jenny twisted her cousin's wrist as far to the side as she could right before she lurched up and collided her head with his once again. The pain was immense-blinding- but all jenny could do was scream as she twisted away from her cousin, kicking him in the chest as hard as she could. Her body rolled away-where the ground was gone and she fell.

In a flash-Gone-Replaced by wind, gravity. She fell, and hit water. The icy shock was too much. Jenny choked on it, thrashed under the surface until her instincts kicked her up, to the surface. She broke with a gasp, and stuttered for her breath. She searched the new surrounding among her shock, and instantly knew she wasn't going to find her cousin or friends.

Because she was in the cave.

Back to twelve years old, to the underwater cavern that she fell in back in the closet, with the slender rocky walls that arched up completely around her, when she pushed Julian too far-

She turned around, and there he was, just as it had really happened four years ago. Presented as a teenager, sitting on the sliver of land, soaking wet. He wasn't laughing like he was before, but he was staring at her, watching her.

Jenny didn't know what to do. She floated there for a long moment, bobbing in the cold water like a dead fish, just staring at him. Right, she had…said something. After he laughed, she snapped something at him, cocky, then he-

His hand was out, offered to her without a word, just as before, and Jenny knew, just like the first time, that she wasn't going to take it. She couldn't. She was just floating there, unable to climb back on that rock beside him like she had done before.

It was shockingly calm here, just as it had been the first time-No, the only time. This wasn't real. This was a trick. This was-She-She was-She had to-

His voice surprised her. "Let me help you, Jenny."

For some reason, the words didn't sit right. "From what?" She heard herself ask, voice echoing off the rocks.

"Let me help you," he repeated in the same still tone.

"From what?"

Julian's face changed now, from satisfaction to confusion.

Jenny was still in the water, still staring. "I don't understand-What are you doing? Put me back!"

"Let me help you, Jenny," he said once more, but his tone had changed with his face, tighter.

"From what?!"

Julian got up, on his knees, reaching farther out to her. His next words seemed to echo far more deeply in Jenny's mind than they should have. "Give me permission."

She couldn't take it. Nothing made sense. It was muddled and cold and, it hurt-Jenny was moving away from him.

Julian's eyes widened in a flash, contorted into a face that Jenny had only seen once-When she dropped out of the closet, when he was losing her. He jumped to the very edge of the land pit, shouting, "Jenny!"

Jenny was under the water in the next second. She felt the familiar pain around her ankle, the whip like tentacle dragging her down-down faster than anything human could ever do. She was swallowed by the cold immediately, and felt it worsen the farther down she was taken, and soon the shadows took over everything, leaving her blind. But she didn't need to see the Leviathan to know where it was taking her. It just didn't stop swimming, taking her farther and farther down, Justas it had done before; down to the point where the light no longer existed, where the shadows and the cold reigned over everything.

Her head was swollen, fit to burst at the sides, pressure squeezing against her brain, her nerves-She couldn't do anything accept cradle it, writhing. The call of her name scraped through the burning walls of her mind, grabbing her attention just enough to actually open her eyes.

She was on the floor of the living room once more. Audrey was on the floor across from her, unconscious, and Tom was nowhere in sight, leaving a terrified pair of Michael and Summer standing in hysterics at the doorway of the kitchen. Behind them was a massive pit of blackness, an endless vortex of shadows and power looming over them. Tendrils crawled out from it like claws, currently dragging Audrey's and Dees unconscious bodies towards it.

Jenny couldn't even scream. She tried to stand, but then she was back on the floor, time lapping, pain radiating. As she struggled to push herself up, she saw the movement in this corner of her eyes. She braced herself for her cousin's attack but when she found him, he wasn't coming at her. In fact, he was moving away from her.

He was crawling-no, scrambling away from her, almost in a panic. But he wasn't looking at her. His eyes, pale and distant, were on the ground. His face-his mind was anywhere but there on the floor on the living room as the utter fear began to tear over his face, through his mouth first, turning it down, then his eyes, his heart.

"No," he was mumbling, getting louder and louder the farther away he moved. "No no no no no no no no-" Soon he hit the back of the couch, face completely contorted with horror and PAIN-

He was losing it, Jenny knew. Whatever Julian did to him, he was losing-falling fast. Jenny felt the guilt and the same horrible fear tear through her with every tear that began to fall from her cousin's eyes.

She got up. She had to. She forced herself to her knees, which rocked the world hard enough to threaten sending her back on the floor. She needed to get to him, to snap him out of it, but then Summer was wailing. The shadows were closer.

Jenny quickly snapped a rune and it immediately backfired. Jenny felt the pain echo down her throat to her heart, suffocating it for half a second. It was a sharp, unexplainable pain-like having your entire body shut down and jump start back up, as if shocked back to life-only worse. The resulting wave of tensing pain and nausea was sickening.

But Jenny was getting to her feet anyway. She felt the blood, once more dripping from her ears-No, both ears, pouring down her neck. But her cousin was now huddled away in the corner. Summer was a screaming ball on the kitchen floor. Michael was a shell-shocked statue, doing nothing but stare as the tendrils of shadows began to grab at his clothes, to pull him in-

"Dagaz!"

The shadows snapped away from him, but so did Jenny's strength. She felt it, the terrible crack in her mind-her wound-spreading. It was enough to make her grab her temples and scream, but she said the next rune anyway-the spell that was supposed to reach her cousin-to try and wake him up-but jenny couldn't see anymore. Every time she opened her eyes it was nothing but a burning white stretching over everything. Every thought was a landmine, every breath an aftershock. She couldn't focus-She had to stop them-her grandfather-Julian-Zach-summer-

Another scream ripped through the air and for the life of her jenny couldn't tell who it came from. She was going to pass out-collapse-she could feel it. She couldn't say another rune. If she did, her mind-But-She couldn't-stop them -

But someone shouted for her, someone she knew.

Tom. Jenny couldn't see him, but she knew she heard the fear in his voice.

Jenny started the chant, and only got through the first two runes before her mind ruptured in half.

Like a searing metal stake through her head, pressing through the very middle of her mind until Jenny felt it tear in half. It burst, flooding her mind, her very being with a heat that didn't exist-erasing everything. Time. People. Life. Meaning. It came so fast and yet so slow to her. All at once it was too much.

Then nothing. Gone. Still. Numb.

It was surprising how simply it all ended. One minute unbearable, loathing pain, then it was gone. Just like a pinch. She felt weightless-Consciousness slowly sinking down into the water-being dragged by the Leviathan, into the cold embrace of death. So simple.

Well dying wasn't as bad as she feared. It was everything else, knowing who she was leaving behind-who she left in trouble, that caused her to suffer. As her body took in too much water, shadows, cold, she was left to imagine what would happen to Audrey and Dee, taken by the Shadow Men. Would they experience a similar fate? What about Tom? Tortured? Would Zach be left in that corner, forever alone in the horrors of his mind. And Michael, and Summer, her parents, their families-

All her fault.

She was choking, the lack of air in her lungs only increasing the numbing pain in her temples. The cold had seeped to her bones, going so deep that it actually burned. She was mixed with a pain of hot and cold, harsh and yet soft, inside and out. Strange; she knew the pain was there and yet…she didn't feel it. Her body was collapsing on itself, mind imploding. How odd it was, to feel the very fabrics of your mind being torn apart, down to the last nerves, to feel it shred like tissue paper so easily, and to not feel any pain. She didn't feel anything now. She fell into the shadows, helplessly, limp.

Just like they wanted.

Right the Shadow Men. The game. She had lost. Julian…finally won.

There was a time gap. Jenny hadn't realized how long she had been dead for before the light came to her. It was too bright, trying to break through her closed eyelids. She tried to open them, but she couldn't feel them-couldn't see. It was impossible to tell anything. Was she still drowning? She felt like she was floating. Not a body, just an essence between the worlds. She couldn't tell.

Time drifted wearily around. Jenny floated in it, nothing more than a freckle of existence in all the nine worlds. It didn't hurt anymore. It was fine. Everything was going to be ok. The white light came, so soft and gentle. It was so bright that it consumed everything-her sight, her thoughts, her mind. It invaded her so easily, slipping through the body she didn't have, to her very worn out muscles. It made its way into her mind, where it caressed the hidden wound there-

Her wound.

The pain was back but Jenny didn't have the breath to scream. She didn't even have a body to writhe. It was a very tangible pain, one that coursed through your soul. It seemed to electrify everything jenny was in a very sharp coarse way. The light only got brighter because of it. It caressed her, filled her mind to the brim with this light, this essence. She tried to fight it at first-She didn't want the pain, but it overcame her anyway. There was some kind of spasm, a jump in time, then it was over.

It was a long while before jenny settled back into herself. One moment it was pain and nothingness, then she was being carried. Her body, just a massive dead weight under her consciousness, was being moved. Were her eyes open? Oh, it was so hard to tell with the light. Was that the figure of a man above her or was she going crazy?

No, you're dying remember?

It wasn't so bad. Every other time had been lengthening, painful. This time wasn't. It was gentle. She was carried into the light, smoothly, until the shadows of sleep slowly invaded into her mind. It took over the light first, piece by piece, until it was too much. Jenny didn't fight it. She allowed herself to fall into the shadows. Just as the shadow men wanted her to. Oh, realizing that was painful, but Jenny didn't have the strength to wallow in it because then she was out. Dead. Gone.

-….

Everything was quiet except the mindless ticking of a clock somewhere. It was calm, soothed by the gentle breaths passing through lungs. Inhale. Tick. Exhale. Tick. Inhale. Jenny opened her eyes. Exhale. The room was still, normal. Inhale. There was a picture of her Aunt, Uncle, and Zach on the wall, next to a picture of herself as a baby. Exhale. A glass of water, some rags, and bandages sat on the coffee table beside her. Inhale. She knew that table. Exhale. Her dad made that table in his college years. She was on the couch, lying down, wrapped in blankets and a cold rag on her forehead. At first it was all just a haze, to lie there and blink and see and breathe. But then it all hit her. Her wound-She had died-

But she was breathing. She was awake and breathing and blinking and panicking-

Her finger was cut in the next moment before jenny even realized she was doing it. Her ring, open, now dripped her blood down her finger. The pain was sharp, hot. Jenny even put the small cut in her mouth where the iron was strong on her tongue. Strong enough to snap her instincts away.

She sat up fast, dropping the blankets that were layered over her, rag falling off her head. Something was wrong. She was alone. The room looked normal but she was laying there, alone, in different clothes than before and an ice pack on the table next to her with some water and something was wrong-

Her hand shot to the back of her head. It...it didn't hurt. Not even the slightest bit. Actually, nothing hurt at all. She had sat up without even getting dizzy. Her temples didn't ache. Her back didn't scream at her. The bandages were even gone from her arm, without so much as a single scar. Her mind was clear, as if she had the best night of sleep in her life. She actually felt good-

The sound of a door closing made Jenny flinch. The entry way was just around the corner, next to the kitchen. She heard voices-familiar-warm.

Jenny was in such a state of euphoria that she stood up. No dizziness. No nausea. Just…perfect.

The voice was muffled, quiet, but she heard it. "No, she hasn't."

She didn't hear the next voice as well, so she moved closer. Carefully, as if she was walking on needles. Of course, this could have been very wrong. This could be something utterly horrible, like a nightmare, a hallucination to make her feel warm and happy and to have it crushed when she realized she was actually in Limbo or Hel, being tortured-

But she felt fine. Her instincts were calm. She wasn't being tricked. She just knew.

"You know, I don't think you should be here when she wakes up."

Jenny knew that voice. She grew up with that voice. But the sternness behind it… Zach sounded pissed.

Jenny was almost to the corner, ready to round it and confirm what was happening, until she heard it.

"How can you just trust him like that?"

It was Tom, fierce and unrelenting. She stopped there, stuck just outside the archway to the kitchen, and listened to her cousin and boyfriend argue.

"He almost killed us."

"He still could have," Zach snapped. "You don't understand how deals with demons work."

"He made you attack her! Isn't that right? And you just went along with it-"

"Get out."

"How do we know she's ok? Huh? Because a demon said so?"

"I promised to call everyone when she wakes up and is ready to-Hey!"

Jenny wasn't ready. Tom came storming around the corner so fast that she jumped back. Zach was right behind him, grabbing him by the shoulder to whip him around. But they both saw Jenny and Jenny saw them and the shock was just enough to have everyone still for a good ten seconds.

Then Zach was on her, hands on her face, in her hair, trying to hold up her weight as if she was about to fall. He was spitting too many questions at once, gray eyes wide in shock as he looked her up and down and all over. "A-Are you alright?" He was spitting, "How are you standing-How's your head-Do you hurt-Where does it hurt-Your wound-Your head-My God how are you up-"

"Zach-Zach," Jenny had to grab him back, to still him. Once she met those wild eyes of his, she was actually able to smile and say, "I'm fine. Really. What were you guys- "

"You are not fine!" Zach snapped immediately. "You were dead-You-" His own words seemed to hit himself harder than they did Jenny because for a moment he choked on his own breath, causing him to swallow that down. He continued softer, hesitantly-terrified. "You-I saw you-You collapsed. You were dead."

It was there in his face, that other worldly fear; a look so forlorn and painful that words really didn't describe. A pain so familiar that Jenny realized it must have been the same face he made when he saw her four years ago, on the floor of the basement with her head cracked open. The face she made when she found him unconscious in the maze. The look he had when he broke from Julian's hold to find her on the living room floor, lifeless.

But she wasn't dead. She was breathing and she was here and had cut her finger to prove it and she felt just so right, like all the pieces had finally been put back together. Jenny had to look him in the eyes, to settle herself there like she did on that stormy night years ago, when she had to calm him from panicking. Just like then, she grabbed his face with both of her hands, cradling it so that he focused solely on her.

"I am ok," she said clearly, firmly. "I'm here, really. On Pethro-And my head-The wound, it doesn't hurt."

It was actually saying it aloud, while looking into her cousin's eyes, that it seemed to finally hit her. That her wound didn't hurt. That her wound….no longer existed. She was ok. Really, after all these years. The reason she wasn't allowed to fight. The reason her life had taken a 180-degree shift. After everything, she was ok. Finally.

The tears were inevitable. Zach was crying as well. And when Jenny repeated the fact, he yanked her in his arms. Even though Zach never was the type for hugs, he squeezed her harder than he ever did in practice. Jenny squeezed him back, and she felt the strength in her muscles, the warmth of her cousin's body heat.

When she opened her eyes, she found Tom in the same spot over her cousin's shoulder. He was just a few feet away, standing shell-shocked, jaw open, staring at her. She was just as thankful to see the relief on his face, but it was seeing him-remembering the last she saw of him-hearing his scream for help-that instantly snapped Jenny back.

She yanked away from Zach, held him at arm's length and asked, "What happened? Where's everyone?"

Neither of them answered. Not right away. Zach had to take a moment to hear the question, take it in, then the realization slowly cleared his face of all liberation. He wiped the tears off his face, then gave Tom a glance.

"You don't remember?" Tom asked.

"I-Uh…" Oh how to put it all into words. "It's kind of a blur. I remember the phones, and fighting-"

"Why don't…we sit down."

Jenny didn't refuse Zach's help. She allowed him to lead her over to the couch and to sit down the same place she woke up. He offered her something to eat or to drink the water that was on the table. Jenny's instinct was the deny it, to get on with the conversation, but the second he mentioned food, Jenny realized she was utterly starving. She felt so empty, like she hadn't eaten in days.

"I'll go grab something," Tom said a bit uneasily, then ran off back to the kitchen, leaving Jenny and Zach alone.

Zach was sitting on the coffee table, almost parallel to Jenny. He was rubbing his hands together quietly, purposely not meeting her gaze.

So Jenny pushed him to talk. "Where's everyone? Are they alright? Did they-"

"No," Zach answered immediately. "I mean, they're ok. They're home. The game's…over."

"What?"

"Ok, just take it easy. Alright? It's-It's gonna be hard to explain so-"

"What do you mean, it's over? What happened?"

"Jenny."

"Julian was here, right? Wasn't he taking everyone?"

"Yes, he was, but…"

Jenny honestly waited for him to go on, but he seemed to bite back the words. "But what, Zach? What happened?"

"He stopped."

It was Tom who said it, walking back in with a plate of reheated pizza. Oh, the smell was too much for Jenny. She snatched it off the plate before Tom could put it down on the table. The heat burned her mouth but she was so thankful for it, so glad to wolf down the grease and stale cheese.

That was, until Tom finished with, "Because you collapsed."

Jenny had to swallow in order not to choke. Zach continued before Tom could.

"We…We couldn't see him. He was using the shadows-Like Grandfather always said. He was manipulating us from the shadows-everywhere, and you…You were in and out." He met her gaze now, to ask her wholesomely. "Do you remember that? You would use runes to stall him, then you were…. seizing on the floor."

Jenny didn't answer. She was stuck sitting there, trying to imagine the horrible image of herself on Michael's living room floor, fighting one minute then hallucinating and falling around the next.

"You seemed ok," Tom added, "For a minute. But then you just…fell."

Zach shamefully dropped his head and Jenny watched his hands slowly ball into fists. She knew immediately that he was blaming himself, cursing himself for being unable to do anything, as he probably sat there in the corner, and watched her. She wanted to calm him, to reassure him, but she couldn't make herself move. Instead, she numbly took another bite of pizza, swallowed.

"What happened after that?" She asked quietly.

"Julian showed up."

Zach answered it so plainly, in such a monotone that Jenny dropped her pizza.

It was hard for Zach to begin explaining, cutting himself off a lot and sighing. "He-Ugh, he just…appeared. Everyone was…stuck then. He had us, just like that. The shadows were real; it was-He was over you, but he…couldn't touch you."

Jenny was picturing it; her friends trapped against the walls, in the shadows, with Julian reigning in the center of the room, over Jenny's body-her dead body-

"That's when Zach-"

"Shut up," Zach cut Tom off immediately, turning around to snap in his face. "You don't get to explain because you don't understand."

"Are you gonna tell her about the deal you made?"

Jenny was on her feet again, looking down at her cousin sharply, remembering the last deal he had made. "You what?"

"Sit down," Zach said surprisingly firm since he was just crying a minute ago. "It's not as it sounds."

Jenny wasn't too sure how to feel, but she saw the anger in Tom's eyes and the hesitation in Zach's, and everyone was ok, she was alive, and Julian was….

Jenny sat back down, quietly, doing her best to remain patient when she had so little answers.

Zach took a minute to get the words right before he spoke. He sat there, staring at his hands for a long while before he bit his lip, swallowed the fear, and asked, "Do you remember…the Lumen Dei?"

For once, Jenny didn't recall the foreign name. She tried, really tried to pick her brain about the name and why it felt like she should know it. Zach finally looked up among her silence where she shook her head at him.

"They're the Gods of Light. The Greeks called him Apollo, and the Egyptian's called him Atum, Africa-Heilos, but it's not just one. There are many. They're…"

Jenny hadn't seen a look like that on her cousin's face since…God she couldn't remember when. He looked amazed and yet shocked at the same time, entirely lost in what he was describing. He wasn't even looking at her-No, he was seeing what he described, all over again, exasperated, baffled beyond reason.

"They were amazing, Jenny. They were just…bodies of light-Deities. They serve all the nine worlds, restoring order an-and everything. And they knew who we were. They knew Grandfather. They said he found them, talked to them. They're the ones we've been borrowing power from. This whole time-They've been helping us. Shadow Men are-are their natural enemy. They fight them and they like us because we're the last of Hunters on Earth and-and-"

He was going on, but Jenny didn't catch the ending of his rant. She remembered, just enough; what she was trying to remember before, before Julian attacked them, before she died. That moment in the basement, sitting on the floor, listening to their Grandfather only begin to explain to them. It was about this, about why they did what they did-How they did it all. But he never finished the story. Jenny remembered. He was saving it, for when they were older, when they actually fought a Shadow Man, so they could understand-truly understand.

Jenny understood now. She could imagine the beings of light, the gods that they borrow power from to stall the demons of darkness. She understood how the runes never failed her, because the Gods were literally on her side. What she couldn't imagine was her cousin in the same room as them, talking to them, how he got there.

So, she pressed him with her gaze, drilling passed his excitement and wonder to the reality of the situation, to explain further. Zach saw it, of course he did, and he quickly swallowed it down. He dropped his eyes to the floor again.

"When you collapsed, Julian grabbed me and he forced me to make a deal with him. To go with him-There-Where they were…So I agreed-"

"What were the conditions?" Jenny asked instantly. "What did you swear to?"

"To take you there," Zach answered her quickly. "I…I-I don't know how we got there. It was just…so bright. And I had to carry you and you were…"

"Zach."

Zach shook off that horrified image, had to look up at his cousin breathing, living before him. The look on her face was almost terrified, waiting for him to continue. And he knew that it was going to affect her more than it should, so he just said it.

"He traded himself for you. They took him and saved you, and I brought you back here."

Jenny's heart stopped.

Just for a minute, just enough to stop her breathing, just enough to hurt.

She sat there, stiff, taking in the fact, trying to imagine her dead body in her cousin's arms and Julian before some beings of light and sacrificing himself to save her-a Hunter-A demon for a Hunter. No that…that just wasn't right. She should be dead. Her friends should be dead. Julian should be victorious, with all their souls. Zach should be crazy. They all should be-be-be-

"He's dead, Jenny."

"No."

"Jenny-"

"No!" She repeated louder, on her feet. "No, he wouldn't-Why would he do that? He's not supposed to-"

"I know!" Zach had to shout it in order for the words to reach Jenny over her rising panic. He even grabbed her arms, on his feet as well. He continued softer, "I know, I'm sorry. I believe you now. He was different. He…" Zach couldn't look her in the eyes, finishing with them on the floor once again. "He just wanted you to live. It doesn't make any sense, but… That's all he asked for. He didn't even fight them."

Jenny felt weak. And sick and dizzy and tired all over again.

Zach sat her back down and for a long while, she just sat there, processing the realization, the guilt, the pain.

She shouldn't be alive. She shouldn't have lived that blast from four years ago. And yet she had, because of a demon. A demon who wanted her so much that he gave up everything for in. And in the end, he even gave himself.

It was too much to bare. Jenny didn't feel perfect anymore. She had been wrong. She wasn't ok.

Jenny missed what Tom said, but Zach was up, countering him. They were arguing again, quickly, but Zach cut it off.

"Look, enough. She's fine. Let's go tell everyone." Zach faced Jenny again, who was sitting with her eyes closed, just feeling. "Jenny…Jenny."

She made herself look at him.

"Why don't you get some rest?" He urged gently, nudging for the stairs. "Aunt and Uncle are at my house until dinner so…Please."

Jenny knew that look. She hadn't seen it in a while, since she had tried talking about Hunting when her Mom was about to walk in the room and he had given her that look-A faux look, a diversion. Jenny didn't quite understand it now, unless he was saying something that…. couldn't be said in front of Tom. Like what?

Perhaps he was just giving her space.

Jenny nodded and watched Zach drag Tom out of the house. Once they left, Jenny knew they wouldn't be back with the rest of their friends. At least not for a while. If Zach was giving her space, he was going to give her plenty. Good.

For a long time, Jenny just sat there, staring at everything in the living room like it was a dream. No, it wasn't. This was reality. This was the ending result of a game. It was strange. So strange and surreal and painful. Jenny had to get up and touch some of the pictures on the wall, or even open some of the doors, just to feel it, just to know.

Eventually she carried herself up the stairs, to her room. It wasn't until she actually placed herself inside and shut the door behind her that everything seemed to catch up with her. The pain, the guilt, it all hit her so fast that she was choking on her sobs, crying harder than a human should ever be able to. She was on the floor, gasping on her own breaths, stuttering so bad that she was dry heaving.

It wasn't fair. To feel this over a Shadow Man-A Shadow Man that loved her-It wasn't fair.

It didn't matter how loud she shouted. It didn't matter how long her sobs lasted. The game was over. There were no consequences now. Just this reality and this pain.

What did matter was what she saw when she looked up.

At first her mind didn't register the items on her bed since she hadn't seen them in years. But as she blinked through the tears and fought through the haze in her mind, the image of the leather-bound books slowly morphed into reality.

Her grandfather's journals. All three of them were just sitting on her bed. One was even open as if she had just dropped them casually after reading them. But they couldn't-They were gone-But-

Jenny forced herself to crawl over to her bed, to wipe away the remaining tears in order to see straight. The journal that was open was the very first one her grandfather had written, on a page that was torn half-way through and some of the ink smudged. There were two words written very largely on the side in that messy old handwriting, underlined very firmly.

Lumen Dei

Jenny had the journal in her hands, standing in the next second, reading the page so fast that she missed some and had to read it again. And when the words got cut off, she flipped to the next page, and the next.

It was just as Zach said, Deities of light-Gods. Her Grandfather had found them on accident, when jumping between dimensions. Or perhaps they had chosen for him to visit them. They very well could have denied his presence or sent him back, or killed him. But they hadn't. They welcomed him. They showed him their strength and they made a deal with him. For him to help them do good in the nine worlds, to bring light where there was darkness. Being a human, he could only do so much. So they assigned him to Shadow Men, the demon he had already discovered and even captured in his basement.

It was like reading a fairy tale, and Jenny was filled with such a childish astonishment, to finally know the rest of the story she had only heard the beginning of back in that basement. To finally know her worth as a Hunter, what it was all for.

The last page was a scribbled mess of the runes he had used when he was jumping around. He even wrote he wasn't sure which one was the correct order-But Jenny didn't care. Reading it, her grandfather's guidance after so long, she felt more like a Hunter than she ever did. And she knew exactly what she had to do.

She ran down the stairs so fast to grab a knife from the kitchen that she actually fell down the last few steps. In the next minute, she was back in her room, carving the markings around the closet door so quickly that she almost messed up-But she didn't. She was diligent and quick, as a Hunter should be.

Jenny didn't have a plan. Really, she was going into this head-first as her grandfather had. Just to find these Gods, to know what truly happened, if Julian really had traded himself for her-

Then what?

Jenny stopped carving.

Even if he was alive, what was she going to do? Ask for him back? He was an enemy, a being of darkness. They weren't just going to bring him back just because she asked nicely. But…But they couldn't fully kill him. Not without carving his name out. Jenny believed that, with all that she was. They still had him. Gods or not-He was still alive.

Then Jenny was going to get him. But how? Well her grandfather always did tell her it was a life for a life.

Then what was a better trade than one Shadow Man?

Jenny canceled out the rune she just carved and went back to her grandfather's journals. She sat down and read through them-And God how good it felt to read through them again, to flip through the old pages and leather clasps-Until she found what she was looking for.

The lure. The bait. How he captured those Shadow Men all those years ago in the basement. What he had never gotten around to teaching Jenny and Zach four years ago. It was complex, a string of runes enchanted by a spell Jenny had never used before. Perhaps it should have scared her, to try this without him, without Zach even, but as Jenny mapped it out, fear was the last thing she felt.

It took a while. Jenny hadn't been paying attention to the time, but eventually she had the markings on her floor, spread out in an arch from the bottom of her closet door. The spell had to be drawn with a line of blood directly through the middle. Jenny was about to do it, but her instincts stopped her.
She checked the journal one more time, thoroughly, and the found the note that was circled in the corner of the page.

Keep the door open.

Jenny was confused at first, until she read on. It was a bait. You couldn't get the demon inside if the trap was already closed. So Jenny had to wait until it was there, in front of her, before she activated the seal.

It was risky. There was so much time in between the two runes for the Shadow Man to attack or even escape.

But her Grandfather had done it, to more than one. Jenny wasn't going to disappoint him now. So she finished the rune with a skilled precision a Hunter should have, and waited.

For a while she sat on her bed, carving the runes on the kitchen knife, remaking a potion from her Grandfather's journal all over again. But Shadow Men weren't stupid. So Jenny did something stupid.

She went and sat inside the closet. She kept the door open, as instructed, with her blade in hand. The longer she sat there, the more she realized that she wasn't sure what to expect. Julian had been her only Shadow Man. To face another-to try and capture one all on her own….

No, she could do it. She had to.

Jenny must've fell asleep because she woke up to the door slamming shut. The shock had her scrambling to her feet, cursing herself for not putting something in between to prevent such a thing-

She barely got to her knees when the wind hit her right in the chest, knocking her breath away. Immediately, the force was on her throat, invisible but strong, cutting off her air supply before she could even react from the blow. Jenny didn't fight it when it pushed her back, down onto the floor-pinning her there. She didn't even panic.

She marked the spell on her arm without looking, followed by a cut-smear the blood-

The pressure released her immediately. Jenny shouted the moment she was free, "Dagaz!" before she even got her breath back. She felt it, their presence in the tiny space with her-in the shadows around her, so Jenny said the chant-the trap. She dove for the door, shouting an Egyptian rune just to be safe. She shouldn't have gotten through. They should have made her hallucinate something-to mess up-

But Jenny was slamming the door behind her, screaming, "Nauthiez!" The slanted X looked gruesome on her door like that. Jenny reflexively found herself clutching the door handle, so tight her knuckles were white, as if expecting the Shadow Man to come busting back through-to kill her-to mock her for messing up.

But she didn't. She didn't mess up. They weren't coming for her.

But that didn't mean she caught them.

Now the fear settled in Jenny so bad that she found herself sweating. The silence in the room was ruined by the sound of her own blood roaring in her ears. Jenny had to breathe, to gather herself for a moment, before she stepped closer to the door.

She drew the markings slowly, breathed, placed her palm on the door, breathed, hesitated.

The last time she did this scan, her brain had felt like it was melting, the pain from her wound destroying the whole spell. Yet, Jenny knew it wouldn't be the same. Nothing was the same anymore.

So she said the spell, and felt the energy coat everything in her room like echolocation. Luckily nothing showed itself in her room, but in her closet-

Jenny was expecting one mass of dark magic to be in her closet. Well, rather she was hoping that it was there-that she had done it all correctly. But when the spell scanned her closet, she didn't see one single soul in there.

She saw three.

Three distinct blobs of immense power banging around the outlined container of her closet. Three. Three Shadow Men. In her closet.

The shock and relief that that brought to her actually had Jenny laughing. She stumbled away from her closet, so ecstatic that she was grabbing her head, running her fingers through her hair even though they were still covered in blood.

She did it. She actually did it, and she didn't collapse or hurt herself or mess up. And God it felt good.

So good that any exhaustion or doubt she had now were wiped clean. Jenny changed her clothes, drank a whole bottle of water, and after careful thought decided to pack a bag. She wasn't too sure what to expect, or how even long it would take, but her Grandfather had taught her to be prepared for anything. If she was going on a search for some mystical Gods of Light, then only God knew how many times she was going to have to jump before she found them.

She packed some food, some blades and potions, took her grandfather's journal with her and used her bedroom door to activate the first portal.

He had used a common one, which Jenny realized led to the Fay Realm after she opened the door. It was like the forest Julian had taken her to back in the game, with glorious green life and trees so grand that they covered the sky, and magic in the air. She saw the Fairies just in the distance, their bodies glowing with magic as they danced and control the water from that river-

No distractions. Jenny closed the door behind her and found that she had emerged from one of the bigger trees. The outline of her door was still visible in the bark, with a handle now resting as a knot in the trunk. Jenny figured there would be consequences for trespassing, and if this realm was anything like the one Julian took her to, then there would be more for carving into their tree-damaging their life.

And she didn't want to meet the real Horned God, if he was here.

So she carved the next spell quickly and opened the door with a chant. It creaked like old wood, and the inside of the tree was replaced with fire.

Jenny gasped as the flames leapt out at her and she almost shut the door-But she stopped herself just in time. The fire was already burning the edges of the wooden door, turning it a harsh black.

Jenny didn't wait for the Fay creatures to notice. She opened the door, and jumped through just like back at the hospital four years ago. She rolled off her shoulder, landing on some harsh rock. Jenny snapped a rune behind her, where she heard the door shut. The flames then jumped out at her from the force, making Jenny jump to her feet, away from the flames.

The realm of Hel was definitely as one would think. She currently stood in a rock cavern where flames made up eighty percent of the walls and even bits of the floor. The ceiling above her was all flames, as was the wall she just emerged from. They raged from everywhere, acting like hands that were itching to grab her and pull her in-

Jenny dropped to the ground and immediately scratched a box with her blade. She made it just big enough for her to fit through, then put the blade between her teeth as she marked the runes in her blood. She spat the runes quickly, before she could meet any of the demons that thrived here, and watched the magic consume the shape.

The stone turned to light as the runes around it sparked and hissed-a minute of chaos. The second it settled, Jenny said the line of runes, according to her grandfather's journal, and jumped before she could see what was on the other side.

As a result, the world flipped on Jenny, causing her to hit the ground of some kind of dirt and tumble forward. She finally caught herself by stabbing her blade into the dirt, but her body swung from the momentum, and the upper half of her body now hung over the edge of a cliff.

There was no bottom. An endless sky stretched below her, with clouds so close she could feel the water from them moistening her face. Jenny couldn't hold back the whimper of surprise as she clutched to the edge of whatever surface she was on to prevent from falling down. She carefully pushed herself up, and backed away from the edge.

The cliff she was on was a small ledge, surrounded by a large piece of slate that rose high into the sky behind her. The portal to Hel sat in the middle of the wall, flames licking at the edges. Since she jumped vertically down, she basically shot herself horizontally through this dimension and almost threw herself off a cliff. Now that she was standing, it was impossibly windy. So intense, actually, that Jenny had to grab the slate wall to stabilize herself.

There was a massive grinding noise, like rock against rock that took up all the space in the dimension, and Jenny flinched but had her knife ready, prepared for anything. The sound came from everywhere, scratching on the inside of her ear drums, but for the life of her Jenny couldn't see any enemy.

It wasn't until some of the clouds around her parted and revealed another cliff-face. It was just a few feet away, made of rock and dirt-But this one was moving. It was floating, passing by her so gently as if it was one of the clouds. Then it dropped, slowly lowering itself in the sky, dragging the nearest clouds with it, and Jenny understood.

Off in the distance, simply sitting in the sky, was a floating mountain. Caressed by clouds, drifting without a care in the world. And another one, covered in numerous plant life, with a waterfall that ran off into the sky below it, falling like a rainstorm to whatever lay underneath the sheet of clouds.

It was mesmerizing to watch, to see each mountain pass by her with ease. Another rose up from below Jenny's mountain, a little too close for comfort. Actually it was moving closer-

Jenny braced herself just as the mountain collided with hers, shaking the whole thing so bad that she fell to her knees. The sound echoed through the sky so loud that her ears popped, and the sound seemed to never stop. This mountain was incredibly foggy, barely able to distinguish any edges or ends at all.

And yet, the more Jenny stared, the clearer a shape began to take form. It was odd at first, but as the mountain grinded by, some of the fog faded to reveal a ledge, much similar to the one Jenny stood on.

With a girl on it.

It was a young woman, with long blonde hair, spread out among her back that tousled gently in such a harsh breeze. She was wearing a long white dress, one that pooled in a circle around her feet in the dirt. She was just standing there, with her hands clasped behind her back. She was passing by rather quickly as the mountain moved through the air, and she turned around before Jenny could actually call for her.

It was herself.

Jenny was staring at a copy of herself, standing there so peacefully on that rock. How or why or what the hell it meant was far beyond Jenny's understanding. All she could do was stare at her copy image as if passed by until the mountain was gone.

Jenny made herself leave. She didn't want to figure that out, or read into her grandfather's journal to discover what kind of world she was in. She closed the portal to Hel, and made a new proper sized one beside it.

Jenny kept track of how many portals she went through. She found herself in many news ones as well as many familiar ones. Four times she landed in worlds she had faced more than once back in the closet with Julian. And just as he had brought creatures forth to taunt her, Jenny evaded them now with a skill she was damn proud of. She went through Baltia, a world made entirely of Amber; Laestrygon, a land of Giants; Nysa, The River Styx, and so many more that she didn't know proper names of. The types of creature she encountered were not all harmless, but Jenny didn't stay long enough to discover what they were. In total, she passed through twenty-one portals, before she landed in Jotunhiem.

When Jenny recognized this realm, landing next to a massive chunk of rock with nothing but a vast land of snow ahead of her, she immediately took shelter by the rock to catch her breath. She took the bottle of water from her bag, but the water was beginning to ice over as she drank it. The cold was too intense. She couldn't stay here for very long, but her grandfather's list was scattered now. He even wrote he didn't remember which was which at this point.

How long did he jump for? How many dimensions did he cross through before he found them-He just landed in their territory?

The doubt swelled up in Jenny like the ice in her bottle. She was trying to sort through where to go to next, another random mix of runes or home, without letting the cold numb her common sense, when her journal was ripped from her hands.

It was jerked from her grip too fast to be an accident. It landed smack in the snow, opened, where the wind scattered the pages open wildly. Jenny dove to her knees, trying to pick it up, to stop any pages that were threatening to tear out-but the force knocked her hands away.

The pages continued to turn until it reached the end of the journal where there sat one blank page. There was a flash of light, Jenny blinked, and the words appeared burned into the paper.

Vultus pro nobis?

It was Latin, Jenny recognized, but she couldn't translate it off the top of her head.

Before she could panic, the letters smeared, like ink in water, and dripped down the page. Jenny could only watch in awe as the letters turned to numbers.

Coordinates, her instincts told her.

Jenny picked up the book, fingers numb from the cold, but the adrenaline too much to freeze her there in the snow. She did the calculations in the snow with her blade, having to think for a good minute before she figured it out. The answer didn't seem right when Jenny looked at it, but she knew.

Jenny carved a new portal into the rock. She marked the appropriate runes, doubled check to make sure she did the calculations correct. When she said the rune Urez, to pierce the veil between the worlds, she watched the markings very carefully, to see the power spark and glow like it always did-to where it would lead her.

Only…. Nothing happened.

Jenny stared for a good minute, then looked to the blade in her hand with disappointment. Maybe it was the wrong rune. Maybe-Maybe she wrote it wrong-Or the coordinates-

Jenny didn't give up. She reached for the stone again, to try again, to start over. Yet, the second she touched the rock, the magic burst so intensely that it knocked Jenny back. The force didn't hurt, but Jenny landed on her back in the snow. The portal was glowing so bright, a large square of white light-white energy, not red like it usually was. It reflected off the snow, making the intensity of it hurt her eyes. Jenny couldn't see passed it, what lay beyond the gaping hole of light.

Jenny didn't wait for it to dim or settle. Her instincts had her back on her feet, approaching the square of light with her eyes averted. She reached into the light, passed where the rock had been. Then, with blade still in hand, she carefully stepped through.

It was an odd sensation, one much stronger than any other threshold she crossed. It was tight, as if all the magic and energy in the world was pushing against her, trying to drag her back to where she came from-But Jenny pushed through, one step at a time, blindly, she walked into the light, passed the pressure. Slowly, it began to fade, like a pair of hands losing their grip. It became easier to walk, and Jenny didn't stop.

There was nothing but light. It was impossible to see-No, but she had to. But whenever she opened her eyes the pain had her closing them again, tears running down her cheeks. But jenny didn't stop walking. She didn't stop trying, opening her eyes again and again, to see where she had landed.

She wasn't sure if the light had dimmed or if her eyes had finally gotten used to the brightness, but Jenny was eventually able to hold her eyes open without crying. She blinked endlessly for a while, but after drying away the tears, Jenny fond her in a box of light.

No floor, no ceiling, no walls. Just the massive space of white energy with enough density to express space around her. It was the complete opposite of the box from the closet. Bright, with endless room, and warm. There was a gentleness to this place, something somber and sacred to it that had Jenny walking carefully.

It was while Jenny was staring at her containment that they appeared.

They were hard to identify one from the other, massive bodies of light that burned brighter than the space around them. But Jenny could see the changes in them, just a bit of shadow, a shift in the temperature, even sparks of color. Two bright sights sat in the top of their shapes, for what Jenny could only guess were their eyes. Nothing else was distinguishable except that they were glorious and beautiful and Gods-Yes, that was clear. It was in their presence, in the air around them, that they were powerful beyond any number, intelligence exceeding anything known to man.

Jenny's instincts told her there were numerous of the Gods before her, but her eyes could only distinguish three separate beings floating in front of her.

Jenny didn't know how long she stared for before her common sense kicked her in the rear and she dropped to her knees, bowing humbly out of respect.

Something like a chuckle echoed through the air. Then came the voice, as mystical and soft as magic itself.

"Stand, young Hunter."

It was impossible to tell if there was a gender behind the voice, but its gentle tone sounded more like a woman to Jenny. It had her raising her head, staring at the various bodies to discover which one had spoken.

"I-I'm sorry for intruding, but…I am Jenny Th-"

"Jenny Thornton, granddaughter of Gerald Thornton. Yes, we know who you are."

One of the beings on the side suddenly got brighter and Jenny didn't realize it was closer to her until the lights for its eyes were larger, eyeing her carefully.

"Seems her strength has returned," that one said in a much deeper voice than the first.

"Certe," a third agreed in Latin, much smaller than either before it. "Ut salire per dimensiones vultus pro nobis."

Jenny finally stood, putting her blade away immediately. "Then you were the ones that healed me?" she asked carefully.

"Yes," the first voice spoke. "We accepted the demon's deal to heal you."

The emotions hit Jenny all at once, choking on her own breath.

The second voice spoke before Jenny could. "You've come looking for him. The demon of darkness."

"N-No, I was looking for-"

The Deity was upon her so fast that Jenny blinked and found her completely cloaked in the light. The strength was somehow with it, squeezing around by some invisible force-too strong for jenny to even think of fighting.

"You can't hide things from us, Young Hunter," the second voice said coldly.

Then Jenny felt the touch on her forehead, like the press of heat right between her eyes. The power passed right through her head, cold, fast, then her memories were displayed through the light around them.

If there were walls around them, her memories now moved across them like paintings. Of her and Julian in the closet. Of them fighting in various places. Them kissing wildly in the Shadow Park. Cuddling in the log cabin. All moving through the air in faded, glistening images.

The spell had Jenny completely numb, unable to even turn her head to look at what other memories had been exposed. That was until, the being pulled away from her, replaced by the first one, the gentle one. It touched Jenny in the same place and immediately the memories burned away to the light. Jenny's strength returned to her quickly-too quickly. It left her dizzy, grabbing her head to stabilize herself.

"Nonsense," it said softly. "There is also the… desire. For answers."

It approached closer to Jenny, brightening everything around her, caressing her in the same power, and Jenny did not back down. She held the Being's gaze with all the strength she had left. It was there, staring into the creature's presence, feeling the life and knowledge and power radiating from its glow, that Jenny realized this one was the leader, the Elder.

"Much like Gerald's," the Elder added softly. "You are indeed his successor."

"Successor proditione," the third voice spat, and judging by the tone it was something that Jenny should be ashamed of.

So Jenny defended herself. "I never meant to disappoint you, or disrespect you. If I have, I sincerely apologize."

The second voice scoffed, but the third merely breathed, like a sigh. It pulled away from her there, relieving Jenny's eyes of the brightness.

"We have been watching you, Young Hunter," the Elder said. "From the very beginning. Your relationship with this Shadow Man…"

"I know," Jenny said slowly, and she chose her words very carefully. "I know Hunters aren't supposed to listen to them-"

"Vos autem fecistis," the third one snapped in Latin once again.

Jenny turned on the being. "If you have been watching me, then you know that he's not like the others."

"He is indeed the first one to express…affection," the Elder said.

"Does that make up for the destruction he's caused?"

"No, but it makes up for my lack of hunting," Jenny countered without thinking. "My wound prevented me from hunting at my full potential-And he healed me. Because of him-the trade he made-he's saved me and I can return to the work my Grandfather left behind."

This must have gotten their attention because none of them responded to that, not at first. They all surrounded her, covering her in their glow, their power that could easily crush her back to nothing with a single thought-

But they didn't. They waited, listened.

"I know it's wrong," Jenny spoke gently, "and it should have never happened, but it did. He loved me, enough to sacrifice himself to you."

"You speak like he is dead," the Elder said softly, and the fear sparked in Jenny so bad-that he could be dead-

"Is he?" the question came out weak, raw. "I-I mean-The Stave. Their names-"

"You think we're not strong enough to-" The second had begun to snap at Jenny until the Elder's light shifted, like raising a hand to him, and he stopped.

"He is barely alive," the Elder answered Jenny without ever breaking her gaze. Then she exposed Jenny in a tone that was like soothing a child. "You care about his life."

Oh, to admit it out loud, to the very Gods she was working for, about their number one enemy, after everything-Jenny couldn't say it, but it was obvious on her face.

The second God snapped again, "How can we trust her to battle all darkness between the dimensions if she gets entranced by every demon she fights?"

Jenny snapped back without hesitating, "I won't fail. Not with Julian by my side."

Those fierce eyes turned on Jenny so fast that the light threatened to bring tears, but Jenny didn't look away.

"What are you trying to propose?" the second voice said slowly, with spite lining the suspicion in his voice.

Jenny turned to face that one directly. Oh, how wrong it was going to say, but there was no other way to say, no denying it. So Jenny just said it. "I want to make a trade for his life."

There was commotion in the light around them and Jenny watched the light that made their environment flicker. If it went out, Jenny feared, she would just drop out of here, back to Jotunheim or Earth, to never talk to them again-

So she added, quickly, "I have captured three Shadow Man in my closet back on Earth. Please, I beg that you take them and return Julian to me."

"To you?" the third hissed in broken English.

"Yes, to me. I will keep him under control. If he's with me, then-"

"What makes that a fair trade?" One of them beckoned. "One dark soul for another. The number of demons in the world remains the same-"

"Not just one Shadow Man," Jenny interrupted firmly. "All of them."

She had their attention now, all the light facing her way. She could tell by how brighter it got, making her squint and lower her gaze. The Elder was gazing down at her tightly from such an angle that Jenny had to tilt her head back to meet her gaze.

She spoke firmly, determined. "I don't need to convince you that this Shadow Man and I have a bond. He swore to me, on his soul, on runes, to protect me. No matter what." Jenny had to breathe for a second, but she was continuing with the determination only a true hunter could have. "He will protect me. No matter what I fight-Shadow Man, Korrigans-In any dimensions. Earth, hell. I will keep fighting Shadow Men-everything until I have captured every one, until I restore the balance of light and dark in all the dimensions. And he will keep me alive. I can't lose. Not with him."

The beings had nothing to say to that, not at first. There was a pause where Jenny could tell the atmosphere grew sharper. They didn't believe her, of course.

She went on, "I spent time with this Shadow Man. In a situation that should have never occurred. But it did. Because he chose to save my life instead of ending it. You already saw this; He was-was trapped, sealed down-Powerless for years, and the second he got a chance to escape, he used it to save my life instead. And again, he did it now. He just traded his life to save mine permanently. And I know how stupid it sounds for a Hunter to be bargaining for his life but I have used every rune and spell and trap I know to end this game, and it hasn't." Finally, Jenny felt confident in what she was saying, thus her voice came out stronger, firmer. "Now, I don't know what kind of rules there are in this game between us, but I haven't lost yet. And I don't plan to."

The silence that followed was maddening, but Jenny didn't let it get to her. She stood her ground, staring into what could only be the God's eyes, until finally the air lightened. Just enough, like a weight was removed, and the atmosphere flowed through them again. The laughter came gently, like an honest chuckle, followed by the mumble. "A Shadow Man and his Hunter….Hmm."

The bright light actually made Jenny flinch, cover her eyes. It came from beside the glow of the creatures, much brighter than their essence. Just as Jenny's eyes adjusted, she saw the shape take form, like an outline from a very far distance. Slowly, it formed, manipulated from the light rays until it created colors, and shadows. Jenny knew exactly who it was the second she recognized the shape as a man. From the highlights, Julian appeared with his arms extended at his sides and head bowed low much like a puppet on a string. The light around him slowly began to fade, and finally his body dropped to the ground, limp, silent. It took everything in Jenny not to charge to his side.

"Hear this, young Hunter," the Elder's voice came to her. The being approached her, flowing in glimpses and bursts of light and colors. Jenny felt the radiation of power flowing from her, with the slight remainder of heat coming off her plasmic essence. Still Jenny held her chin high, unmoving, when the demon was mere inches from her face, casting its glow all throughout Jenny's blonde hair. "We do respect your ways," it continued whimsically, "but you best not believe that keeping this one Shadow Man maintained will please us."

Jenny understood, and oh how thankful she was for it. She smiled the best she could, and although it was weary, it was enough. "I can multitask, don't worry."

Some of the highlights in its face seemed to stretch out, much like a smile. It pulled away from her slowly and rejoined back with the others. It wasn't until Jenny saw the shadows creeping on from all around that she realized they were leaving, descending from the hole in the dimensions they came from. They faded back too slowly, much like they were shrinking in their size when Jenny's instincts told her they were actually moving backwards, away from her, in time. Their voices echoed on the way out, "Don't break your promise, girl."

The second they were gone, the instant the shadows filled the space of this room that didn't exist, Jenny broke into a sprint. She dove right to his side, picking up his head, talking too fast to even get out a proper sentence. He was face down, making Jenny pull on his shoulder to lift his head, where his face was pliant, still. He was impossibly pale, even for a man who lived in shadows, and his breathing-

It was this place, her instincts told her. This place is still killing him.

Without hesitating she cut her palm and painted the inverted U on the ground below them. She chanted the spells fast and watched the crimson glow engulf them both. Gravity came sickeningly quick as they dropped through the dimensions, shifting through shadows and light and time-

Then they landed, hard. Jenny felt herself hit the wood of the door first, but she kept her grip on the Shadow Man's shoulders tighter than a vice; So tight in fact that they didn't even break apart when they hit her bedroom floor. It was loud and harsh and uncoordinated but Jenny wasn't thinking about that. She wasn't thinking about how she was now sitting on her bedroom floor with Julian-The Shadow Man that had tried to kill her friends yesterday. She wasn't thinking about how she just convinced the Goddesses of light to spare a Shadow Man's life and brought him to earth and was now cradling his head on her lap, on the verge of tears at the fact that he wasn't waking up-

"You better answer me," she was spouting, tapping his face, praying for those eyelids to open or those lips to move. "You hear me? This game isn't over- if you think you can kill yourself to prevent me from beating you-you-you-" She then reached over and tore at the buttons of his shirt, popping it open aggressively. Maybe if she used the rune dagaz, marked it on his chest somehow, it would reverse the light in his soul, bring the shadows back to life, and he'd be OK.

But before she could even begin to remember what that rune looked like, the hand clamped around hers. It was so slow and yet it happened too fast for Jenny to catch. She gasped.

"If you want me naked," his voice came out in such a rough mumble, as if his throat was sandpaper. "Just ask."

Jenny looked to his face-his pale still-water face, and the euphoria was numbing at the tiniest curve of a smirk on those lips. His eyes were still closed but he was breathing. He was squeezing her hand. Jenny couldn't help but squeeze back, the relief burning her eyes. She didn't fight the tears now, blinking through them as she hovered over his head, watching that tiny smirk on his lips.

"Oh you...jerk," she finally breathed. "You weren't supposed to sacrifice yourself for me."

But the smile remained. "You should thank me," he practically whispered.

Jenny felt her throat swell up, from tears or a choked laugh she didn't know. "Why would I thank someone like you? You're a jerk."

His eyes opened then, heavy lashes lifting and revealing those pale azure eyes. As glossy and bloodshot as they were, to Jenny they were the best thing she could have ever looked at. Especially when that smile widened, not quite to its full extent, but enough. She did laugh now, the relief and the pain overflowing her chest making her stutter and sob. Her shoulders hunched down, dropping herself until her forehead rested against his. He was still holding her hand, and it was there that Jenny realized exactly how weak this shadow man was, unable to do more than clench his fingers around hers. Otherwise she was sure she'd be in his arms, off the ground, against his lips.

"I hate you," she gasped. "I really, really hate you."

It was astonishing how he had enough strength to laugh, which was more like a small huff of breath. And yet he moved her hand, slowly, weakly. Jenny finished the move for him when she realized what he was doing and rested her hand against his face, feeling the damp and warm skin under her palm-not cool and collected as it should be.

What he said next came out smoothly but rocky enough to throw Jenny off without ever moving. "So you finally believe me."

There were no words for this moment, this game, so Jenny didn't respond. She remained there, holding him.

Jenny didn't know how long they sat like that for, her sobbing, Julian breathing. Nevertheless, the soft scratch against the wood made Jenny's head shoot up, where she saw Zach. He was standing in her doorway, not even five feet away. He didn't look shocked, or even angry. He just looked...content. A bit of relief in those big eyes of his, but he was very pliant, like he understood the image before him. And it was in that look that Jenny realized how impossibly wrong that image was.

Although she sat up, she was still holding Julian's head on her lap, the tears still slipping down her cheeks. She was hiccupping for breath, thoughts racing on some kind of explanation, but they both knew that whatever she could possibly say was going to fail.

The next one to speak, surprisingly, was Julian. Just a mutter, loud enough to be heard. "I win."

Jenny looked to him, confused, as his eyes were closed once again, but it was Zach who answered, softly, his tone flat. "Yeah," he sighed, "I guess you do."

Now Jenny looked to her cousin with a mixture of shock and confusion. "What are you talking about?" She asked. Her gaze dropped back to Julian when his grip loosened on her fingers just slightly, where she repeated the question.

Zach cleared his throat, and answered with his eyes on his feet. "The deal that we made… When you collapsed…That I was to let him trade himself for you and, and I'd take you home after..." He looked up after a moment, to the silent Shadow Man on the floor. "The other half was that if you decided to save him, I wasn't to interfere."

Those stormy gray eyes met hers after, and the realization sank into Jenny like a rock in her gut.

Julian…. knew. He had known she wouldn't have been able to leave him there. He knew she would have tried and rescued him. He knew-Of course he knew. That's why he was the one to leave her the journals. To save him. That explains why Zach left her alone for so long, too...

Again, the words failed Jenny. She could only stare at her cousin, explaining with her eyes. It took a long minute or two, but slowly Zach read the desperation in her eyes and he heaved a heavy sigh. He grabbed the doorway as if to leave, but stopped amid his turn.

"I'll, uh…. I'll talk to Tom."

Oh.

Jenny knew she should feel ashamed for completely forgetting about Tom, but she knew it was inevitable. There hadn't been any other result from this game. She had done all the wrong things; she was a terrible girlfriend, but if she had gotten the chance to go back, she knew, guilty, that she would have done it all exactly the same. And that wasn't Tom's fault. It wasn't Zach's or even Julian's. If it wasn't entirely Jenny's, at least half of it belonged to fate, itself.

When Jenny realized this, she felt the emotions pass over her face and quickly die. Numbly, she gave him a nod. "Thank you," she practically whispered.

Zach could only nod back. He gave the unconscious Shadow Man one last glance, then disappeared down the hall. Jenny settled into the silence that followed, feeling the hollowness carve her out from the inside out-then be replaced. It didn't hurt anymore. No, a new weight took the place of the emptiness. Something stronger. Warmer.

Julian's hand slipped from hers, and fell limp to the floor. His eyes were closed again, breathing shallower. But Jenny didn't let herself panic. She carefully removed Julian's head from her lap, then ran back to her closet, where the two circles of runes still sat carved around the door. With the blood still from her palm, she coated each rune once again, staining over the dried dark brown from before. She said them fast, accurately, and while they began to spin, activating the portal, she moved and got Julian. She grabbed him from under the arms, and waited until the commotion stopped before she dragged him over. Her lower back argued, but Jenny ignored it as she kicked her closet door open, revealing the vast black space.

She didn't wait for her eyes to adjust, or to see if anything was waiting for them in the thick mist that slowly began to roll into her room. She hauled Julian through as fast as she could without tripping, and she didn't. It was the ground that gave out on her, disappearing in a flash, and together they dropped.

Jenny wasn't afraid when she woke up. Maybe she should have been. A part of her was already alive, alert, ready for anything, but Jenny actually ignored it. She allowed herself to remain there, feeling herself lying on something soft, comfortable. There was a light breeze here, and the scent of something sweet flowing in it. It was nice. Familiar.

So Jenny opened her eyes, and saw the patch of daisies in front of her face. The field stretched on ahead of her, highlighted by random patches of the flowers, structured by rows of trees here and there. Ah, yes. Jenny knew this forest. She remembered chasing the Amaruk through here. She remembered playing with Julian here, being given these exact same flowers by that demon at some point. The last time Jenny was here, it was the first time Julian had tried to kiss her. Right before she passed out.

She stared at the view for a minute, the way the sunlight danced between the treetops above her, enjoying the breeze in her hair, as it ran through her roots in a touch as soft as gauze, much like-

Jenny turned her head to prove her instincts correct. Julian was there, lying exactly as she was, on his back, head turned in the luscious grass to gaze upon her. He didn't look injured anymore, the color back in his face. In fact, those sapphire eyes were the brightest Jenny had ever seen them. He had his fingers in her hair, grazing her roots with the faintest brush of his fingertips. It was such a cautious touch, as if he'd apply any pressure at all that she truly would shatter under his touch. When she had looked at him, his fingers then moved to her bangs, brushing them out of her face slower than time.

Seeing him like this, from so close, struck a moment of panic in Jenny, but it quickly died at that smile he gave her. Not haughty. Not wild nor playful. Just...soft. There, content. Jenny smiled back.

She didn't even bother moving. Not when he continued to gaze at her like that. She laid there, letting his fingers run down her hair, to her cheek, her chin. His fingers finally curled away from hers, in such a slow movement that it was almost painful. Jenny saw it, and she knew he was waiting for her.

Oh, but of all the things to say.

Jenny kept her tone steady, level. "I'm not apologizing."

She didn't have to clarify. He knew what she meant-about the last time they were this close, what she had done. And that's what surfaced the usual wolf-hungry smile from him. It pulled on his lips slowly, stretching from ear to ear, entirely amused. Jenny didn't let her smile fall either. It was a feeling that didn't have a name, but if anything came close, it had to be satisfaction.

Her gaze caught on his hand again when it landed in the grass between them. Palm up, Jenny could easily see the faint reminder of the scar-of when he grabbed the knife from her hand, when she couldn't kill him. She was grabbing his hand now without realizing, silently sliding her fingers into his, tracing the hidden mark with the scars of her own. So different and yet so alike….

"The game's not over, you know," Julian finally spoke, his voice smooth and elemental, like water over rocks. Jenny met his gaze again, where he was burying himself inside those deep cypress eyes. "Every day, from now on, I will take you. Anywhere, at any time, and I won't release you until you beat my games."

That took a minute to process, and when it did, this unnamed feeling-her smile-didn't falter. If anything, it intensified. Knowing she was stuck with him, going to see him every day, to be by his side solely once again….

"You have to share me," she voiced the thought aloud.

That's when Julian gripped her hand, completing on interlocking their fingers. Then he moved so fast that Jenny missed it, distracted by their hands, their touching scars. In the next moment, he was over her, bodies touching but not touching. He gazed down at her, still with that awfully playful smirk, with the glimmering green treetops as his background.

"If you didn't need a healthy balance between the dimensions," he said quickly, fluidly like a viper spitting its venom, "then I wouldn't have to."

Jenny actually laughed. "You have to behave yourself, you know," she chided. "You were a very expensive trade."

"I'll have to repay you in full then, won't I?" he asked back with such a luscious look in his eye. "In our never-ending game."

"And what will become of our game," she asked, "once you run out of ideas?"

Julian could merely gaze at her for a moment, as if taking in her cleverness, her strength, her beauty, and again that content smile came over his lips. "An interesting one, I suppose."

Jenny moved before he could, grabbing him by the back of the head and yanking him down. Their lips met perfectly, and with it, everything in all the nine worlds was finally balanced.

OMG FINALLY. I AM SO SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT. I'll spare the boring details but basically everything went wrong these past few months and then I was filming a movie for work and graduating college and kjdhmfdiljsdfkuhvdilhsdvijlsdlkskx. I struggled a lot with this final chapter and I really really hope I didn't disappoint you guys. As a reward, I have an extra chapter for you guys! Which I will be updating ASAP (swearsies)

I know this chapter might not be perfect so if you guys have any suggestions on how to improve it please let me know through review or PM. I mainly struggled with the beginning and felt like I was skipping over a lot of things in the story so that's what took me so long DX

Anyway I hope you guys had a Happy New Year!

Until my next update!

ZVA