Author's note: Please leave reviews! I haven't been getting that many these past few chapters and it sucks. Reviews make me much more confident in my writing and more eager to update, so please. (God I sound like I'm begging, sorry)

Can you believe we're on chapter 25? This is the longest fic I've ever written. By the 10th chapter or so I usually have an estimate of when I think the fic will come to end, but with this one I still don't know. There's so many loose ends to tie up and I don't know how it's all going to end yet, so you never know, might end up with like 40 chapters or something! Hahaha.

2nd April 2020

Gracie sat on a stair halfway down the staircase, totally aware that she was pretty much invisible to everybody right now.

Sounds of her mother crying were coming from the living room, louder than any of the noises the rest of the people in the house were making. The rest of the people being policemen that worked alongside her father. Uncle Victor was down there somewhere too, having arrived ten minutes or so ago. He'd seen Gracie sat on the stairs and smiled sadly at her before disappearing into the living room.

Gracie was tired of seeing all these policemen and women in her house. A lot them she knew, had got along with them whenever she visited her dad at the station growing up, but she wasn't in any mood to interact with them today and it seemed like they weren't either.

She abruptly stood up and went upstairs, first going to Mark's bedroom. Her brother was laid in bed watching TV and completely ignored her. She closed the door.

She hesitated outside Willow's room, unsure of whether or not she could face going in there. She decided not to when she heard her dad and a colleague talking in there. Instead, she went back into her own room and closed the door behind her, hoping nobody would come barging in here. She just wanted to be alone.

It had been about six am when she'd been woken up by her mum practically screaming, "Trace!" Georgie had sounded horrified and panicked and Gracie had ran out onto the landing and rushed to Willow's room. Her parents were both crying and holding onto each other. Trace had told Gracie what had happened with a shaky voice.

Georgie had come in here to get Willow up for the day... But the two year old wasn't there. There were no signs of a break-in but clearly somebody had been in the house because Willow was nowhere to be found. "Someone's taken my baby," Georgie had cried out as she fell to the floor, sobbing.

Now it was midday and the house had been taken over by people collecting fingerprints and anything else that might be evidence. They were monitoring the phone in case someone called demanding a ransom fee and the police were hoping they'd be able to trace the call. Her father had been going around the house touching things, especially things in Willow's room, in the hopes that his power would let him see into the past of last night so he could see what had happened to his youngest daughter. Yet although his power was working, it wasn't showing him anything useful – almost everything in the house had numerous memories attached to it and weren't helpful in showing what happened last night.

Gracie sat down on her bed, tears welling in her eyes as she thought about her baby sister. When Willow had first been born, Gracie wasn't happy. She didn't even hold the baby until she was about two weeks old and even then she'd looked down at her sister – who was the opposite of Gracie with her blonde hair and brown eyes – and, although she was shamed to admit it now, she'd wished that Willow hadn't been born. The truth of the matter was that she was jealous. Jealous that her dad had a new daughter now, a daughter that he got to bring up from birth which would cause him to bond with her in a way he had never done with Gracie. She'd only been young when Mark was born so she hadn't felt the jealousy with him, but she certainly felt it with Willow.

It was only a few months after Willow's first birthday that Gracie came to her senses. Up until then she'd avoided her sister, no matter how much it clearly upset her parents. That was probably why they'd been so nervous about her reaction to the new baby.

What changed her opinion was Willow herself. She'd been a slow developer and by the age of one, she'd only just started to crawl and hadn't said any proper words yet. One evening she'd been sat at the kitchen table with her parents and siblings eating dinner when all of a sudden Willow said something in her gibberish language, waving her arms about in the air. They'd all looked at her in an amused silence and Willow, with those big beautiful eyes of hers, had looked straight at her big sister and said her first word. "Gracie!" She'd exclaimed, a huge excited smile on her face. She'd started giggling loudly as her parents and big brother praised her for saying her first word.

Gracie had sat there and cried. She cried for hours that night, unable to sleep, and eventually had gotten up in the early hours of the morning and gone into Willow's room. She didn't know how long she'd stood there, watching her baby sister sleep, but she had felt so at peace and so content wrapped in the bubble of that moment.

That was really the moment when Gracie had noticed how stupid she'd been with her jealousy. It wasn't Willow's fault that Trace had only met Gracie when she nine. It wasn't Willow's fault that Gracie's first years of her life were spent without her dad around. Willow was just an innocent little girl who adored her big sister and was happy for any attention that she could get.

After that night, Gracie was involved in every aspect of Willow's life and it was Gracie she was trying to get to when she took her first steps.

Gracie was Willow's big sister and it was her job to look after her and protect her and make sure she was always happy. But now Gracie had failed her and Willow was out there somewhere, probably scared and hurting and wondering why her big sister wasn't protecting her.

Just the thought of that broke Gracie's heart into a million pieces.

She reached over to her bedside table where she always kept a fresh bottle of water but stopped when she saw a white envelope with her name on it resting against a framed photograph of her and Killian that she'd took on her phone one day. They were outside of the stables, both in the middle of laughter when the photo was taken, and Gracie had had it printed out and framed shortly after she moved back to Wrickenridge. That photo was the last thing she looked at at night and the first thing she looked at in the morning.

Today's shocking wake-up call obviously made today an exception to that, hence why she hadn't yet noticed the envelope which she now grabbed hold of and cautiously opened, not knowing what to expect.

It only took her a moment to realise the letter was in Killian's handwriting. Her eyes greedily started scanning across the page...

My Gracie,

I started this letter a thousand different ways in other drafts but none of them seemed quite right. I'm going to start this one with just saying hi.

Hi.

I miss you.

I love you.

I think about you every second of every day, don't doubt that for a moment.

I don't know what everyone is saying about me right now and to be honest, I'm not sure I want to know the exact details. I'm guessing it's something along the lines of me now working with The Illusionists and killing people for them? Even from this end I know that's what it'll look like to you.

Gracie, it's a complicated situation I'm in right now. But I swear to you, I haven't killed anybody for them. But Gracie I'm ashamed to admit that I've stood back and let them kill people right in front of me because I'm just so scared of what they'll do to me. And to you. That first day I was with them, Alfie threatened to hurt you if I disobeyed him and I don't want to underestimate him for a second. It's not worth it if your life is in danger.

Alfie thinks that I'm on his side and I'm letting him think that for my safety and yours. As I write this, I'm on my way to Wrickenridge. I'm probably going to see you, but you won't see me. They have a mind manipulator that's made sure I can't talk to you. But I guess this isn't technically talking, right?

I could go on for pages about what I'm going through and how much I miss you but that isn't why I've left you this letter so I'm just going to get straight to the point.

By the time you're reading this, I'm sure you'll have realised that your sister Willow is missing.

I am the one who kidnapped her. Alfie trusts me and has been assigning me small jobs to prove that I'm loyal, and I gladly accepted the task of kidnapping your sister. Now just stop thinking about how much you want to kill me and give a chance to explain, Gracie! I mean it, calm down!

I would never, ever, ever do anything to harm Willow and I will put my own life at risk to make sure nobody else hurts her either. I knew that if I said no to kidnapping her, Alfie would have just gotten somebody else to do it and I know what these people are like – they wouldn't have been bothered about hurting her to get her.

Alfie won't harm her because he wants something from your family, I think. Probably money knowing him. He hasn't told me yet though so I'm not sure exactly. He'll probably threaten to hurt her but I won't let him follow through with the threat.

I promise you that I will keep her safe, Gracie. I swear on our soulfinder bond that I will keep her safe. And you know that our bond is the thing I treasure most in this world.

I know you and your family will probably never forgive me for taking Willow and I understand that. I accept that but I just wanted to reassure you that she's okay and nothing will happen to her.

If he hasn't been already, I'm sure Alfie will be in touch soon. Tell your family to be wary of everyone around them, not to trust anybody, because Alfie is sneaky and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a spy among the hordes of people that will no doubt be looking for Willow.

Hopefully this will be the start of a final showdown, like one you see in movies, where The Illusionists will lose and be taken down. Hopefully I'll be coming back to you soon. Even if you don't forgive me, I will just be so happy to see you again.

Please don't lose faith in me.

Yours always,

Killian.

And then, scrawled underneath the black text was an extra sentence, written with the red pen that was on Gracie's bedside table:

PS. I saw you today, enjoying a day with your family in your garden. You looked so happy. It was a lovely sight. Oh and by the way, I've just been stood here watching you sleep for five minutes even though I know how risky that is. And you are so, so beautiful.

Oh great, Gracie thought to herself. Now I can't stop bloody crying. One little letter and I'm an emotional wreck. What the hell is wrong with me?

She couldn't stop herself from crying. All she could think was that Killian had been here, in her bedroom. If she'd only woken up a few hours earlier she might have been able to see him, to talk to him and tell him that she loved him.

He'd been watching her yesterday when she was in the garden. She'd been happily playing with one of her younger cousins – she always enjoyed those moments because she knew they most likely wouldn't be close when they were older because of the age difference – when she'd suddenly felt Killian's presence. The soulfinder bond had screamed to her that he was here, had yearned and longed to be near him as it untangled itself from Gracie's heart and reached outwards, searching for him. She'd tried telepathy but still hadn't been able to reach him. The bond was lost, not knowing where to find him. She couldn't see him anywhere but still, she was convinced he was near. Then she was convinced that she was just imagining things and it had brought her to tears. She'd ran into the house and locked herself in the bathroom, refusing to come out even to say goodbye to her family. It hurt too much seeing their happiness and knowing that she couldn't have it.

But she'd been right. He had been there!

And now he was gone again, unreachable to her.

And he had Willow.

God, she was so damn angry at him for kidnapping Willow; she wanted to hunt him down and throttle him for it. But on the other hand, she was glad that Willow was with him. She believed Killian when he said he wouldn't let any harm come to her and that he'd keep her safe. It settled her mind and her emotions a little bit.

She knew that she'd have to show her parents this letter. She didn't want to, it felt far too personal to show them it, but she knew she had to. She had to let them know that Willow was with The Illusionists, swear to them that Killian wouldn't hurt her, tell them to expect Alfie to contact them and to be cautious of everyone in the house.

"Dad?" She reached out and spoke to Trace telepathically. "Could you and mum come to my bedroom please? Just the two of you, no-one else. I wouldn't interrupt if it wasn't important."

As she waited for them to come upstairs, she decided she'd show them the letter and try and get them not to hate Killian. She'd also get them to agree not to tell anyone about the letter because if there was somebody from The Illusionists in their home, what if they told Alfie about Killian's letter and got Killian in trouble? She just wasn't willing to risk that, especially when he was taking care of her baby sister.

She wasn't going to lose faith in him.

A hint about the next chapter: Alfie sends a message to the Benedicts.