Disclaimer: Hmm ... what can be said about the previous chapter, "Fallen Angels?" Kind of felt bad for Hunter while writing it ... he seemed to get yelled at a lot. I guess that's okay, though, because other people get yelled at in this chapter ;) ... but that's not a good thing, I suppose. Anyway, follow standard fanfic procedure with this chapter: read it and then review it. It's quite simple, isn't it? :P The poem at the beginning belongs to a friend of mine. If you steal it, expect much badness to come your way (wink). The chapter is named after the song from Buffy's "Once More, With Feeling," and the spell that is used later is from a website that I apparently can't write the name of and have it stick when I format the chapter ... so if you want it, e-mail me and I'll send you the link. BTW, I don't own Sweep. Once again. In case someone out there has forgotten. Luv ya and review!

Summary: Killian arrives in Ireland with a surprise in tow.

Part XV: Something to Sing About

Eight seconds until I start to die
Eight minutes until I can see her eyes
Eight hours to wait for hell's embrace
Eight days to go until I can see her face
Eight months until the torment ends
Eight years until my life descends
Who would have ever known
That in the end you're all alone?

Morgan

Sky and I had never been close friends; sure, we were in the same coven and we hung out at meetings and stuff and had been traveling around Europe with our friends, but I always found her a little introverted. She didn't seem to let many people know who she really was; I knew that from Hunter. In our traveling group of six, I knew that Raven and Hunter were the only ones that she felt completely comfortable around. Still, though, I couldn't help but feel badly for her when she appeared in the living room that night looking completely exhausted, her eyes red as if she had been crying. I worried that she might just have broken completely when Hunter, Robbie, and Bree rounded on her with angry yelling.

"Where have you been? You're the one who got us into this mess! You should be here to help us get out of it!"

"What are you talking about?" Sky asked, her voice quivering slightly as she wiped a remaining tear away from her eye. Raven, who was sitting across from me on the couch, bit her lip slightly but didn't move.

"How about you explain to us what we're supposed to do now?" Robbie asked angrily. "The council just tried to attack us!"

Sky's eyes widened. "What happened?"

"Oh, nothing," Hunter said airily, his tone bitingly sarcastic. "They just managed to slice through our outside spells and deliver a massive threat to our safety."

"A lot like Maggie," I admitted.

"Basically, if we squeal, we're dead," Bree said.

"That may be true," Robbie said sardonically, "but if we don't, we're dead, too! They're going to get us for this."

"We don't know that," I said firmly, casting a nervous glance at Hunter. He was staring at the floor; maybe he had finally noticed the look of abject misery on Sky's face and was suddenly feeling remorseful. "They might not do anything to-"

"Oh, sure," Bree said sarcastically. "We helped one of their top-priority projects escape and they're going to let us off scot-free. That's believable."

"She's not a project," Sky said through gritted teeth.

"No, she's just some random girl we barely know that we just had to rescue," Bree retorted, her voice steadily increasing in volume and her face growing redder. "We had to rescue her because, of course, the consequences would have been worse if we hadn't. I think we're dealing with some pretty damn awful consequences now, don't you? Look where we are! The council hates us and now we're going to pay because we tried to do the right thing! And, can I just ask, why her? Why Alexis? What, Raven not satisfying you enough?"

She seemed to realize that she had gone too far when everyone in the room's mouth dropped open in stunned disbelief. I found myself staring at her, too. Had she really just said that?

"That was uncalled for," was all that Sky said, her voice trembling with fury.

"All of it," Hunter murmured.

"Not all of it," Robbie whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "We're still in the same position we were in two minutes ago."

I sighed, staring around at the people that had so shocked me. "Guys, I know that this is a tough situation, but –"

"Morgan, tough is not being able to figure out a pre-calc problem," Bree whispered, her voice cold. "Tough is not being chased by powerful members of a witchcraft organization who want our blood! I think that qualifies as a little more than tough, don't you?"

"We have to stick together!" I said angrily. "Isn't this what they want? Us fighting and coming apart at the seams? Yeah, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place, but –" Bree snorted at my clichéd choice of language. I ignored her. "But if we keep fighting like this, there's no possible way we'll ever get out of this." I rubbed my eyes, suddenly feeling very exhausted. "What everyone needs is to get some sleep. We're been up and about most all day, and I'm about ready to collapse. I don't know about you guys ..."

"So, what?" Robbie asked, his voice hardening. "It'll all seem better in the morning?"

"Hopefully," I said simply. "If not, then ... we'll deal. That's what we always do, isn't it? We deal with the crap that the universe tosses at us because we don't have any other choice."

"Poetic," Bree said cynically.

"I try," I said, casting her a withering glare. "I'm ordering everyone to bed. Now."

It helps sometimes to be the shy girl that hardly ever gives direct orders. I think that the only reason my friends actually went upstairs and did as I told them to was because they were surprised that I had actually asserted myself.

Hmm. I'll have to bear that in mind.

Sky

"I'm sorry," Raven whispered, the first thing that she said when she closed the bedroom door behind her. "They were just ... when the warning thing happened, they were scared."

I looked at her in surprise. "And you weren't?"

"Not especially," she admitted. "Because, believe it or not, I do know you. You don't do something like rescuing Alexis if you're not sure that it's the best thing to do."

Somehow, her vote of confidence only made me more nervous.

"Do you think it was the right thing to do?" I asked softly. "Or do you think we should have just ..." I trailed off after that.

"You saw someone in trouble and you helped them," she said simply, brushing her hair in the full-length mirror standing beside the wardrobe. "It's not your fault that Bree and Robbie can't see that."

"It's not that they don't want to see it," I whispered. "It's that they don't want to. Maybe they just feel ... unprotected."

"Because they're ... we're not witches?"

I stared at her. "You are witches."

"Not blood ones. Not like you and Morgan and Hunter."

I sighed. "Maybe. I mean, Morgan and Hunter have each other, and –"

"I have you."

"Always will," I smiled. The pounding headache that I had felt downstairs had subsided. "Maybe one day they'll realize that they have us, too."

Tired of standing, I plopped down on the bed. Raven had said before that it was sort of lumpy, but it sure felt like heaven at the moment. She came out of the bathroom a few minutes later to find that I still hadn't moved.

"How are you not asleep already? You looked exhausted downstairs."

"I can't sleep without you. Now, unless you want me to become an insomniac ..."

She looked amused. "How did you survive when we broke up?"

"I was severely sleep-deprived for long periods of time. It didn't exactly help my mental state."

"Your mental state always needs help."

If I hadn't been too tired to lift my arm, I would have thrown a pillow at her. Somehow, though, I felt that Morgan had been right before; maybe it would all seem better in the morning. As corny as it sounded, I knew most people never found that one person, that one person who, when you're with them, makes everything seem better than it really is. Maybe that's not an overly healthy way to live, but for now, with Raven, things were just fine.

"Love you."

My response was probably too unintelligible to understand as I was too tired to attempt to actually form words, but I knew she understood.

Morgan

Perhaps in an effort to repair her friendship with Robbie and Bree, Sky was up before dawn—I heard the oven timer going off at 6:13—making breakfast. When Hunter and I arrived in the kitchen for breakfast, both still rubbing our eyes and yawning, we found the kitchen table laden down with plates of pancakes, waffles, and homemade pastries, and a large plate of donuts sat among three different types of syrups (blueberry, raspberry, and maple, respectively) and a humongous dish of fruit salad.

"Wow," Hunter said in shock, his mouth dropping open. He inhaled the scents of freshly cut fruit and homemade waffles deeply and sighed with a kind of abstract longing.

"Try the pancakes," Raven said from where she was sitting on the counter. "They're deliciously unnecessary."

Sky looked hurt. "You said you liked them."

"I do," Raven said. "They're the best pancakes I've ever had, coupled with the honey buns and cinnamon rolls and –"

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Sky grinned, pulling her into a kiss. "Mmm ... you taste like syrup."

Hunter and I just smiled, and I picked an orange out of the fruit bowl on the counter, tossing it into the air and jumping as the oven timer rang.

"Start eating," Sky ordered us as she opened the oven door and pulled out a tray of muffins.

"Muffins!" I said happily ... and proceeded to burn my fingers trying to pull one out of the tray. "Ow!"

"There's a reason that we set the tray down to cool, Morgan," Raven said, grinning as she dished herself up a bowl of fruit salad.

Hunter and I sat down at the table, which was literally groaning under the weight of the food.

"It all looks delicious," Hunter said appreciatively, helping himself to a heaping plate of pancakes and spooning strawberries over them.

"It is delicious," Sky clarified. "I've been up since six making all of this, so Bree and Robbie had better appreciate the gesture."

I frowned. "What they said last night really bothered you, huh?"

Sky didn't say anything for a long time. "I just want them to know that I feel really bad for putting you guys through this."

"You have to stop beating yourself up," Raven said firmly.

"She's right," Hunter said through a mouthful of pancake. "It'll just take them some time to get used to ... well ... our new situation."

"I'm surprised it didn't take you longer," I said pointedly, watching my boyfriend sternly.

"I realized that there are more important things at stake than my feelings towards the council," he said easily, reaching for a biscuit.

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with Hunter?" Raven asked in amusement.

"I'm going to bring Alexis something to eat," Sky said from the door, where she was about to leave with a tray of assorted breakfast foods in her hands.

"Looks more like somethings," Hunter grinned.

Sky just scowled at him. "If Bree and Robbie come down while I'm gone, be sure to mention who made all of the food."

"Will do," I said, grabbing a waffle and drowning it in butter.

Sky

"Are you awake?"

"Yeah. Come in."

I pushed open the door to Alexis's room, careful not to drop her breakfast tray.

"I come bearing yummy breakfast treats," I grinned. She sat up in bed eagerly.

"Mmm ... food. Gimme."

I had barely taken two steps inside her room when she suddenly held a hand up and cried, "Stop!"

I paused. "What?"

"Put the tray down very slowly."

"On the floor?"

"Yes."

"Um ... all right." I did as I had been told. "Why did I just do that?"

"Because you would have tripped over my shoe otherwise," she said, smiling sheepishly at the shoe that was lying in my direct path.

"Oh," I said, embarrassed. "You saw that, did you?"

"It would have been really funny," she said quickly, "but I decided to spare you the humiliation."

"Thanks. You're such a friend."

"I know."

As I handed over the food tray, I looked at her curiously. She had brushed her hair with a hairbrush that Bree had loaned her, and with the absence of the makeup that she had been wearing at the hospital, her face glowed with a childlike radiance. It made her look younger, and I was struck with a sudden sadness that a girl so young, barely sixteen, should have to live with such a crippling disease.

She would get better with us to help her. At least, I hoped she would.

"How is it?" I asked, watching eagerly for her reaction.

"I've lived off hospital food for two years," she said semi-incomprehensibly, as her mouth was full of pastry. "This is heaven. I have found salvation at last."

I just grinned modestly. "Happy to help."

My mind began to wander as she continued eating with nearly inhuman speed and gulped down her orange juice. She had said before that she was working with a therapist and was making progress. Her enzyme supplements had been helping, as well. If she continued with her therapy, taking enzyme supplements, and maybe eased herself back into magick again, she would heal a little faster than usual. I remembered what Hunter and I had found on one of our many investigations of the lodge. On the upper floor, there was a conference room at the end of the west hallway. Most of the chairs and tables had been pushed against the wall and covered in sheets, so it was largely empty. Maybe we could use that somehow ...

"Hey," I said after a moment. "Feel up to some yoga after breakfast?"

She stopped chewing rather abruptly. "Um ... Sky, I know you're a super-genius and all and I hate to say this, but you might be having what's commonly known as a blonde moment. Confined to a wheelchair, remember?"

I shook my head. "But it could be like a continuation of your therapy. We don't have to do any of the complicated stuff, just simple movements. Getting you used to using your muscles again, things like that." I raised my eyebrows hopefully. "And maybe a little healing magick?"

She still looked slightly wary. "I don't know ..."

"What harm could it do?" I asked. "At most, it wouldn't help. But it'd work, I'm positive."

She looked close to agreeing when a soft knock on the door made us both turn and look at the door, where Morgan had just appeared.

"Hey," I said. "Are Bree and Robbie up?"

"No, they haven't come down yet," she said. A concerned look crossed her face. Um, listen ... I just got a witch message."

"From whom?"

"Killian."

My mouth dropped open in shock. Morgan squirmed slightly and suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

"He wants to know if he can come here. He's in Dublin right now. He says he has something he needs to tell me."

"Something that he obviously couldn't tell you in a witch message?" I asked coldly.

"Sorry," she said quietly. "But would it be okay? Please? He said himself that he wouldn't stay very long."

"Why do I have a feeling that Killian's definition of 'not very long' could be up to thirty years?" I said sarcastically.

"Sky, can you put aside your issues with him for once?" Morgan asked, sounding a little irritated now. "Please? It won't be very long, I promise. Plus, whatever he has to tell me might be important."

I sighed. Somehow, I doubted that. But I didn't really have a choice. "Fine, fine. Tell him he can come." I narrowed my eyes. "But if he makes any trouble at all –"

"You have my permission to fry him with witch fire," Morgan said quickly, smiling. "Thanks, Sky."

"No problem." I suddenly found myself hoping that he did cause trouble somehow. It would be sort of fun to 'fry him with witch fire'. I had certainly wanted to several months ago.

As Morgan left, Alexis looked at me curiously, a bit of fried egg halfway to her mouth.

"Who's Killian?"

Morgan

"Goddess, where are Robbie and Bree?"

After having messaged Killian back with the affirmative and returned to the kitchen to tell Hunter and Raven of Killian's imminent arrival—neither was exceptionally pleased—I stomped over to the foot of the staircase and yelled, "Hey, guys, come on! It's ten o'clock already, and I know you're not still sleeping."

In fifteen minutes, they still hadn't come downstairs.

"Talk about holding a grudge," I muttered to Hunter. "They must be really pissed off at Sky."

He nodded solemnly. "That must be it. They're awake, I feel them when I cast out my senses ..."

"Same," I said. "Should I try to talk to them?"

He shook his head. "No, leave them be for a while. Maybe they need some time to work through what's going on."

I sighed. We were coming apart already. How would we ever survive if the council decided to take action against us somehow?

Suddenly, however, I looked out of the window in front of the kitchen table, which showed a view of the unkempt back yard of the lodge. I could have sworn that I saw something move out there. It as just a glimpse, but ...

"What is it?" Hunter asked, looking at me in confusion.

"Nothing," I said, still looking curiously out the window. "I just thought I saw something."

He looked out the window, too, and I could feel him casting his senses out.

"Hmm ... I don't sense anything," he said. "Maybe it was just a bird or something."

"Maybe ..."

Long after Hunter had moved off into the living room, I still found myself staring out the window in the kitchen, searching for something. Something that probably wasn't there. What had I seen?

Sky

"So because he stole your girlfriend away, you slept with him?"

"Well, when you say it like that –"

"It wouldn't make sense no matter how I said it."

"Oh, shut up."

The conference room was in better shape than I had remembered it to be; all that I had to do was move two chairs to clear out a large space in the middle of the room. It hadn't been used recently, but the floor was still dust-free. Unfortunately, I had left the only yoga/meditation mat that I had back in New York, so we were stuck on the hardwood floor.

At the moment, Alexis and I were sitting in the basic meditation pose, just breathing deeply and grounding ourselves. I smiled as I felt Morgan approaching outside.

"Are you guys doing yoga?"

"Sort of. Want to join?"

"Sure."

After about five more minutes, I was still in a semi-trance when I heard Morgan whisper something in my mind.

Look.

Alexis was no longer sitting on the ground. She was ... levitating. Maybe floating would be better. Hovering about a foot off the ground, she didn't even appear to be aware of it. Her face was calm and expressionless, her breathing steady and even.

She's strong, Morgan whispered. It was months before I could do that.

I nodded. She must have been so powerful before the ataxia activated ...

Alexis opened her eyes suddenly. "Okay, what are you guys saying about me?"

We just raised our eyebrows and looked at her with half-smiles on our faces. She continued to look at us in confusion for a moment before suddenly looking down at the ground, realizing that she was floating in mid-air, and gasping.

"Stay calm," Morgan said quickly, holding up a hand. "No sudden movements."

Alexis made a nervous noise in her throat somewhere between a laugh and strangled cry.

"That's easy for you to say!"

"Just keep doing what we were doing before," I said soothingly.

She still looked anxious, but closed her eyes and forcibly calmed herself down after a moment. I looked at Morgan.

We were going to do a healing spell. If we can do it now ...

That'd be best, I think.

"Ready for the spell?" I asked Alexis. She opened her eyes again.

"Am I still ... um ..."

"Yes," I grinned. "You are still floating in midair."

"Wonderful. Just wonderful."

I turned to Morgan. "We set up the spell stuff beforehand, so ..."

"Send me what we have to say."

"Of course."

With Alexis still looking nervously at us, we sat down on either side of her and, having previously meditated, both took a deep breath. I handed Alexis a bowl of water necessary for the healing spell, which I had found in one of my old Books of Shadows. The three of us, once again sinking into a deep meditation, were to charge the water with healing energy and ask it to hold the energy until we needed it.

I reached into a field of white light, and I felt Morgan and Alexis doing the same. All of us pushed the energy into the bowl, and I felt rather than saw Alexis's hands tremble slightly as a tiny ripple moved across the surface of the water.

"Healing energy flows into this water," the three of us whispered together. "flowing from Her sacred well."

Alexis handed me back the bowl, and I could feel the energy trapped within the water. I smiled to myself. It would still be there when we needed it.

I handed her a tall green taper in a candle holder, which we had dressed with tea tree oil. Its wick twitched and suddenly burst into bright yellow and orange flame; I looked at Morgan, who smiled at me. Alexis looked at Morgan, stunned by the display of power.

"Your power, too," Morgan whispered.

Alexis held the candle and chanted softly to herself.

"We call forth light in the name of right," she whispered. "to heal my plight with strength and might."

I could smell cooling lavender incense; even though we hadn't lit any, didn't even have any with us, its essence was there. Green light surrounded us, as clearly as if we were in the middle of a calm forest clearing. We saw Alexis walking without anyone's help again, traveling without a wheelchair, being able to laugh and play like she used to ... she used to run a lot when she was little, had even been on a junior track and field team in the summers, and she had loved it. We saw her running again, free from the constraints that her disease had imprisoned her with.

"Alexis, you are healed," Morgan and I whispered together. "Alexis, you are strong."

Alexis wrapped the green candle in two cords: one of red and one of green.

"Surrounded by a ring of jade, encircled by the healing waters," we whispered, "bound together by cord of blood, strength restored and life ­­-"

The three of us stopped abruptly. The green light around us had suddenly disappeared, and I suddenly felt cold. As if someone had just turned the thermostat down about forty degrees.

Morgan was looking at me. Alexis was looking at the candle. Its flame was suddenly dying. It flickered weakly for a moment, and then went out completely. The wick curled in upon itself, black and burnt.

An eerie silence had settled upon us. We had been about to say the last word of the spell, the word to release the energy, and something had stopped us. I shivered suddenly and violently; why was it suddenly so cold?

"What's happening?" Alexis whispered, her voice barely audible.

"Something stopped us," Morgan said, her voice quietly afraid. "Something stifled the energy. Look."

She was staring at the bowl of water. Or rather, what was once the bowl of water. There was no longer any water in it.

"There's nothing in the circle," I said softly, casting my senses over the room. It felt cold, dead, lifeless ... Morgan and Alexis were both afraid.

"Aah!" I snapped my head back around in time to see Alexis fall from her foot-high vantage point in mid-air; she fell back to the ground with a loud thud and immediately grimaced.

"Ow ..."

"Are you all right?" I asked immediately, rushing forward to help her sit up.

"Yeah," she whispered, her voice tight with pain. "Just landed on my back. I'm okay."

"I want to know what just happened," Morgan said, looking between the two of us. "This morning, I thought I saw something outside the kitchen window. And, not to mention, a second ago, it was freezing in here. Now, it's fine. Does it feel fine to anyone else in here?"

She was right. The temperature had gone back to normal.

"Did something invade the circle without us knowing it?" Alexis asked, her voice shaking.

"I don't know," I murmured. After a moment of thought, I looked at her and Morgan. "Come on, let's get you downstairs. We probably shouldn't do this now."

Morgan

The rest of the day passed in a sort of haze. Bree and Robbie had not made an appearance downstairs by noon, and finally Sky stomped upstairs, apologized at length, and stood outside their door for nearly two hours until Bree, out of sheer irritation, finally decided to swallow her pride and face her coven mate again. Dinner that evening was an uncomfortable affair, partially because I think that Bree and Robbie had issues with Alexis eating at the table with the rest of us. Sky and I couldn't be more pleased in that respect, though; she was able to get around the lodge all right as long as someone is there, supporting her with one arm. I guess the healing spell might have begun to work, after all.

However, the fact remained that Sky, Alexis, and I were still confused at what had happened in our circle. We had told Hunter about it, but he had failed to come up with an answer short of something really had entered our circle without us knowing it. I shivered every time I thought about it; I had never really been exposed to astral spirits before. I knew that Sky and Hunter had, what with Linden's death, but it was completely new territory for me. Horrifying territory.

The only thought that he had was that it might have been something that the council sent after us.

My heart had been beating at twice its normal rate for three hours. It couldn't be healthy.

Sky, obviously still feeling guilty, had taken Robbie and Bree into town for homemade custard after dinner. Hunter was upstairs talking to Uncle Beck on the cell phone that he hadn't had to give back to Kennet yet. Raven and Alexis were watching Scream 3 in the lobby, and I was sitting at the kitchen table, rubbing my hands up and down my arms in an attempt to keep warm; it was freezing in there.

I looked at the thermostat control next to the sink. It read 77 degrees.

What was –

"Morgan!"

Raven's terrified voice had cried my name from out in the lobby. I jumped out of my chair, my heart hammering.

"What is it?"

"Something's wrong with Alexis!"

When I ran into the lobby, I saw that Raven was right: Alexis was lying on her back on the couch, and convulsions and spasms were wracking her body in sudden, violent bursts. Her eyes were wide and rolled back in her head as a particularly vicious convulsion ripped through her. Raven was standing in front of her, staring at her in horror.

"What happened?" I gasped, staring at the scene before me.

"I don't know," Raven said, panicked. "She said she had a really bad headache and then she started convulsing!"

"You're paying."

Raven and I both stared at Alexis. She had spoken, so suddenly and in a voice so not her own that we gasped.

"You're paying for what you did." A harsh, raspy voice full of hate was ringing in our ears. "You helped the girl escape, and now you're paying. She's going to die."

"No," Raven whispered.

"She's going to die, and you can't save her!"

"No!" I screamed, unaware that I had even wanted to shout. "No, she's not!" I grabbed Alexis's shoulders and started shaking her violently; her eyes weren't her own. They were wild and crazed, unseeing. "She's not dying! Do you hear me? She's not dying!"

A soft chanting was filling my ears. I didn't know where it was coming from; all I knew was that something was inside Alexis, and I wanted to kill it. I wanted to get it out of her before it killed her.

"She's not dying! She's not dying! There's nothing wrong with her!"

"We cast out the unclean spirit!"

The chanting in my ears stopped suddenly. Someone else had spoken those words. I looked around the lobby suddenly, my breathing coming in sharp gasps. Raven, staring at me through wide eyes and kneeling in front of Alexis, who was lying on the couch. She was unconscious.

My brother was standing in the doorway of the lodge.

I had never been so glad to see Killian MacEwan in my entire life. His tanned face was red with exertion, and he was breathing heavily.

"Is everyone all right?" he asked in the European accent that sounded like pure music to my ears.

"I think so," I whispered. I looked at Raven. "Are you –"

"Yeah."

"Is she –"

"She's out, but she should be fine."

I turned my gaze back to Killian. "What did you do?"

"I got a witch message from your friend Athar," he said simply. "Said something invaded your circle, didn't know what it was, thought that it might have been something that the council sent after you. I did a little research and came up with a way to ... cast it out, like I said."

"Sky sent you a message?"

He nodded. "Must have killed her to have to do so, but she did. I suppose it paid off." He narrowed his eyes and scrutinized me. "Are you really all right, sis? You look a little ..."

"I'm so confused," was all that I whispered.

"It's gone, though, right? It's not coming back?"

Who had said that? It wasn't Raven, Alexis, Killian, or I. Who else was here?

"Yes, it's gone," Killian said in a low voice. "Won't be coming back, either."

I realized who had spoken. A figure had appeared behind Killian in the darkness flooding into the lodge from the outside street. A tall, well-built teenager with a mop of curly blonde hair and green eyes even more vivid than Hunter's stood behind him. He was wearing a black jacket over black pants and a dark blue shirt; a chain of silver hung from his neck, and on the chain was a miniature dagger, its silver shining in the light of the chandelier, and a Druidic-looking blade, sharper than any knife that I had ever seen.

"Who are you?" I whispered, suddenly feeling that the words were not adequate.

Killian looked uncomfortable and glanced quickly at his companion. "Um ... Morgan ... this is Mike."

Mike. Who was –

"He's ... he's our brother."