Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Lost Girl, as much as I daydream about it. :)

The Missing Key

Chapter 1

I read the prophecy again, my eyes skimming the lines. I had been sitting, then pacing, then bending over the table to spread the parchment flat so the light made the words unmistakable. Bo, Trick, Dyson, Lauren, even the stranger Rainer—they all had parts to play.

Even Ha—I'm not ready to say his name, and I try not to think it. But he, too, is here in these words, and I can't stop from twisting the ring on my finger and staring at the floor where I knelt over his body. He's here, but he isn't. He is included, but he is gone. He loved me, saved me, and then was forced away as I held my hands against his body and tried to stop his leaving.

Some people have described a loved one dying as sudden, slow, peaceful, painful, but those words apply to the departing soul's experience in his or her withering earthly body. What about those who have to watch, paralyzed by the dawning of what they are witnessing, only to understand all too quickly and not quick enough? What about me?

He is gone. I watched as his chest heaved, the dark blood staining the floorboards and my clothes as it gushed from his body. The bigger the red pool beneath my knees became, the less life I had.

One Mississippi, two Mississippi… Already the feeling had left my fingers and toes. Minutes before we had been lying in bed, arms around one another and his cheek snuggled into my chest. Then along came another human caught up in the Fae world, struggling to raise himself above the "useless and expendable human" label.

I had made it, though. I made myself important. I found family, in Bo, the others—and love. That one was unexpected, but like things I didn't ask for, it came crashing through the door and into me. A Fae boy and human girl. Man, that's what fairy tales are made of.

Damn Massimo couldn't have that. He couldn't let things be; he held a grudge. He saw in my relationships to the Fae everything he had longed for: appreciation, affection, belonging, family. Who could love someone who tried to demand all of those and more? Those only come when earned, and Massimo was not about the earning. If there were a chant and recipe for bypassing the difficult moments in life, he would poison whoever possessed those secrets.

…or stab them in the back, like a soulless coward.

My nails left bloody crescents on my palms, and my fingers were tight and sore. I had let my mind draw me back into my hatred, and I didn't even notice until after I had swiped hair from my face that I had bitter tears running down my cheeks, and they now mixed with the blood on my hands.

It was all too much like Ha-Hale's, dripping from my fingers, soaking my shirt, making my face slick as I tried to wipe tears from my eyes.

I had screamed, crying for help, anything, something. My mind to mouth filter clogged and I couldn't say, "This isn't supposed to happen. I wanted to say 'yes.' I wanted to say 'yes' and marry you and have all your little freaky Fae babies." The words couldn't come, and you couldn't wait.

I wanted to say 'yes.' Bo held me and I was able to tell her, beg her, "Please, oh God please, do the chi thing and bring him back." She shook her head and held onto me. "Take all of mine, just bring him back. I wanted to say 'yes!'"

"It'll kill you, Kenzi." She held me tight, so very tight. I couldn't breathe; not because of her hold, but because everything was crashing in and my ribs couldn't keep the weight from falling onto my lungs.

My throat became raw and I moaned. "Please, please, please. Take my life, my life"

"No, Kenzi. I can't. It will kill you, and I will always choose you."

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