I pull Russell over to the sofa. Sitting down in the middle of it, I make Russell sit next to me. “Did they realize that you were watching them?” I ask him pointedly.

“I don’t think so,” he says. Rising from the couch, I go to the bar in the corner. Pouring a glass of whatever the amber liquid is, I walk back, handing it to Russell. Taking it from me, he sips it as I sit down next to him again. Reed sits next to me on the opposite end of the couch. “Are ya one of them, Red?” Russell asks, indicating Zephyr, and then Reed with a movement of the glass in his hand. I sit silently for a second, trying to formulate a response to his question, since he always knows when I am lying. But he goes on before I can speak. “I’ve never noticed that glow in ya…before tonight…but it’s there, like yer bein’ lit from the inside. Yer skin, it shines a little, like theirs,” he says, indicating Zephyr and Reed again.

“It does?” I ask him faintly, looking down at my arm as if it is a stranger’s arm and not my own. My skin does have a shine, a dim illumination to it that I have never noticed before. I wonder if it is an aftereffect of my wings popping out of me. Looking again at Russell, he nods sadly at me. I frown in concentration, saying, “I don’t know what I can tell you, Russell, but maybe it will be all right to tell you this: I’m not one of them…” I say, watching Russell exhale in relief at my words. I almost make up my mind not to finish, but I owe him some kind of an explanation, so I continue, “And I’m not one of you either…I’m, well, I’m a little of both.”

He doesn’t speak; he just stares at me with a mixture of shock and pain on his face. He needs more of an explanation, so I rush on, “You know how I said that I didn’t really have parents? Well…my mother is dead. She died giving birth to me, but no one really knows who my father is. I don’t think there is any question anymore that he is very much like Reed,” I explain, praying that this will be the last time I am responsible for the pain in his eyes.

Why do I keep doing this to him? I keep hurting him, I think with remorse.

“How long have ya known this?” Russell asks me pointedly, his glare pinning me to my seat as he disengages his hand from mine.

“I figured it out right before you started dating Candace,” I whisper. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t tell you. There are these rules, and—”

“What rules?” he asks disgustedly as his pain is rapidly turning to anger.

I’m not doing this well! He doesn’t understand. I have to do something, but what? I think in desperation.

“I can’t tell you.” I say lamely, reaching for his hand that he had withdrawn from me, but he pulls his hand back from me, so I can’t take it in mine again.

“Ah… more secrets, of course, why am I surprised? They know, don’t they?” Russell asks rhetorically, looking at Reed and Zephyr. I nod lamely, which only seems to be making him angrier. “So yer sayin’ yer half human and half…” he trails off, waiting for me to fill in the blank. He looks at each of us in turn, and when we all remain mute to his question, he says, “Y’all are creepy. I gotta go.”

“Russell, don’t go…” I say as he gets up from the sofa.

“Why? Are ya gonna explain to me what’s goin’ on here?” he ask sarcastically. “‘Cuz I gotta tell ya’, Red, I feel like y’all are playin’ a game with me, and I don’t know the name of the game, or how to play it.”

“Trust me, Russell, this isn’t a game,” I say adamantly.

“Then, tell me, Evie,” Russell grits out, while pulling his hand through his tawny hair.

“I can’t,” I say in frustration at his stubborn insistence at knowing what will seal his fate.

“Bye,” Russell says, walking toward the door of the library. I twist around on the sofa, driving my knees into the cushion.

“Russell, remember when we were on our way back from the formal, and I kept begging you to go back, so that we could help Reed fight Sebastian?” Russell pauses at my words. “Remember what you said to me? You told me to shut up, that you weren’t going to take me back there. You said the only way you could protect me was by not going back, and that you’d protect me, even if I didn’t like it. Well, the only way I can protect you is if I don’t tell you everything you want to know now, and I’ll keep my mouth shut, even if you don’t like it.”

“Yeah, I remember, Red. I still gotta go. I’ll see ya later,” he says, not turning around, but walking out of the library. I would’ve followed him, but Reed holds me by the wrist, so that I can’t get off the couch.

“Let him go, Evie. He has to figure it out on his own, and you won’t be helping him if you say more,” Reed reasons with me when I struggle to break away.

Turning back around, I slump against the cushion. “How am I going to protect him, if I’ve completely alienated him? He thinks I’m creepy…” I say sadly.

“You are not creepy,” Reed says soothingly, taking my hand.

“You’re not a good judge of creepy, Reed, since you’re creepier than I am,” I say warily, looking over at Zephyr when I hear him laughing at my comment. “I wouldn’t laugh too hard, pal, because you’re the creepiest one of us all.” This has them both roaring with laughter. I am not amused, since I am being entirely serious.

Zephyr beams at me, “Evie, just when I despaired that there would never be anything new under the sun, you come along to save me from my boredom.”

“I’m delighted that you find me amusing, but at the risk of sounding rude, how long are you planning on staying?” I ask with faux sweetness.

“As long as you need me,” Zephyr replies in a gentle tone. Then, he directs his comments to Reed. “Where will you move next? I have several options, if you need them. We need to train her to defend herself, once she is stronger. Do you plan to recruit more help? I can help with that as well.”

“I was thinking of somewhere less populated, Greenland or Iceland, but Evie doesn’t speak Danish or Icelandic. The Falkland Islands are an option; they are English speaking, for the most part anyway,” Reed counters rapidly.

They are talking about strategy and leaving. “I’m not leaving,” I say, getting up from the sofa to pace the room. Reed knows I can’t leave, so why are they discussing it?

“I may have a better option. It is a private island,” Zephyr says, ignoring me as he lays out an exit plan from Crestwood.

Feeling a sharp, painful movement in my back again, I know I have to remain calm. Stalking over to the bar, I pour myself a glass of the amber liquid from the beautiful decanter. I don’t know what they call it, but I call it liquid heat, since it burns even hotter than the brandy had when I take a giant sip of it.

Reed is by my side in a moment, taking the glass from my hand. He pours me some water and presses it into my hand. I sip it slowly, trying to regain my breathing. “I’m not going anywhere, Reed. You know I can’t leave,” I whisper.

Zephyr interrupts to say, “What are you saying, Evie? Of course you must leave here. There are souls roaming around this town. They are acting like a beacon, attracting all matter if things that you are unprepared to encounter.”

“I can’t leave Russell. He needs me, so I’m staying,” I say tightly.

“You are referring to the boy who just called you creepy? He is your soul mate, is he not?” Zephyr asks intensely, his piercing blue eyes missing nothing.

My wings move inside me again. Damn.

“I really don’t care if he finds me the most repulsive creature on Earth. I have to help him, so I’m not leaving. And Will already warned me about the souls. He said that the soul in the Fine Arts Building saw me talking to him and told all the other souls she knew about it. They’re all looking for me. Will said if I just pretend not to see them, that eventually, they’ll go away,” I say as nonchalantly as possible, sitting back down on the sofa. “I’ll just hide out until they go away.”

“Who is Will?” Zephyr asks with a puzzled frown.

Frowning, Reed replies, “Will is a soul.” To me he asks, “When did you have the occasion to speak to Will again?”

I explain the entire story to him about stealing the composite, the war on the beach, and Will’s warning tonight at the Delt party. Reed’s expression darkens, while his arms crossed in front of him, just like a parent. Zephyr’s brows rise, and he looks at Reed questioningly.

Reed, turning to Zephyr, says, “She just turned eighteen. I don’t remember being this irresponsible when I was eighteen, but then again, I hardly remember having been eighteen. And she has made some questionable friends.”

“Whose idea was it to dig the trenches on the beach, near the water?” Zephyr asks intensely, but doesn’t wait for me to respond before saying, “The fact that you were on sandy ground is good, because it’s not incendiary terrain, but it was traversable terrain, which means your enemy could not burn you out, but they could come to you. You allowed your forces to become isolated when you failed to employ watercraft, and you cannot fly yet, so that is not an option open to you. You then were in entrapping terrain, and you needed to move out of it quickly. When the enemy arrived with unexpected allies, your position became fatal terrain, which means you had to be prepared to fight with intensity and a will to survive, because to not engage would be to die. Who were your generals?” Zephyr demands.

“Zephyr, they are human children. They had paint guns. It was playtime.” Reed says seriously.

Zephyr, looking a little disgruntled, says, “I see. But still, Evie, you must learn to become unfathomable to your enemies, so that you may cast your enemies into positions from which they have nowhere to go,” Zephyr coaches, wanting to continue my tactical training. He seems genuinely concerned about my lack of knowledge of warfare. Something about that makes me soften toward him inexplicably. I smile at him, and he smiles back.