Jpov

I'd always liked Germany. Granted, I liked traveling in general, but even when I'd ended up here accidentally as a kid, something about it had always been extremely interesting to me. Whether it was the architecture in the historic buildings or even the language of the country itself.

I'd never picked it up, but it was fascinating for me to listen to as people walked by on the sidewalks. I didn't understand any of it, they could have been talking about their groceries for all I knew. I didn't care. I liked it here. Plus, they had great beer.

Harper, as usual, seemed oblivious to her surroundings which was a shame in my opinion. What was the point in being able to travel essentially anywhere, if you weren't really present when you got there?

"You know you can drink here, right?" I asked Harper, glancing at the can of soda in front of her.

Though she and Charlie would be turning twenty-one this summer, something Charlie would not shut up about any time I saw him, Harper was still technically under the legal drinking age in the U.S.

I didn't know if the fact she was able to drink in this country had occurred to her or not, but she could not have looked anymore like the American she was if she tried. T-shirt, jeans, a baseball cap, and a coke sitting in front of her at our table outside restaurant we'd stopped at for lunch.

"I know." She said with a shrug and pulling a face. "But I don't really like beer."

"Something is very wrong with you." I said narrowing my eyes at her. "I hope you know that."

She didn't even blink.

"That must really suck for you." she said in a tone that was oozing with feigned sympathy. "Because you have to put up with it. Does it make your life difficult?"

"Yes, but at least you acknowledge my suffering." I said with a sigh and she rolled her eyes.

People were giving her covert looks as they passed, but she didn't seemed bothered.

One really strange side effect of all the magic that had been fused into me, was that sometimes, when I didn't want to them to or just wasn't paying any attention, mortals didn't see me.

It was almost as if the Mist had recognized me more and more to be a part of the mythological world than the mortal one, and tried to hide me from them.

Harper got looked at a lot when she was talking to me in public, probably because people thought she was insane and talking to thin air. Sometimes I made an effort to be visible, having to focus on mundane things in the mortal world around me like smart phones or neon signs, and it seemed to pull me back into it. But on days like today, when we knew we weren't going to see any of the people ever again, we didn't bother.

We come to Berlin on the trail of antique book seller who might have somehow gotten his hands on a blue print for Hades' palace, an original. But he didn't exactly know what he had. He claimed it was printed for a temple that he believed was now lost to time, but both having been inside the building many times, Harper and I had immediately recognized it for what it was.

We'd authenticated it, realized it was the real deal, and Harper had bought it for an obscene amount of money because as we both knew, even the most seemingly insignificant thing could be used as leverage against the gods.

Having an original blue print of the palace would be an interesting, if not invaluable addition to the library, and in an emergency, might be a good bargaining chip. Hades was one of the most reclusive gods out of the entire pantheon. It wasn't a stretch of the imagination he wouldn't want a diagram of his house just lying around.

It might even make him willing to do a few favors to keep that information on a level with restricted access, or have it removed from the library entirely. The opportunity was too good to pass on.

We continued to talk, ignoring those who were staring at her until she laughed at something I said. A tall blonde girl shot her an alarmed look then quickly scurried away, her ponytail bouncing as she walked in a way that was almost… familiar.

It was a nice day and the sunlight was shining on her bright hair. I realized she must have been on her way to or from work, as she was wearing what looked like a pair of scrubs.

I watched her go, not entirely sure why she, of all people, had caught my attention. Harper shot me a confused expression, then glanced over her shoulder. When she turned back, she was grinning.

"Now that's a first."

"What?" I asked raising an eyebrow at the way her smile was rapidly turning into a smirk.

"I've never seen you check someone out before."

"Excuse me?" I asked incredulously, but her expression was sly.

"Don't even try to deny it." she said and I felt an eyebrow jump higher at what almost seemed like excitement in her tone. "You totally were."

"No, I wasn't."

"You don't have to lie James."

"Harper, I wasn't."

"Then what's with that." She said gesturing towards me and I looked at her, unimpressed with this evidence.

"My face?"

"Your expression." She said her expression smug. "You looked as if Aphrodite herself had walked by."

"I've seen Aphrodite," I pointed out. "Multiple times."

She was gorgeous, of course, but I hadn't really been all that impressed. I found it hard to be attracted to someone who made it a point to act as if she knew she was out of your league. That and she didn't exactly seem like the sort of person who liked to be outside all that much, crawling over mountains and splashing through streams. That was another mark in the 'no thank you' category for me. Give me a girl in hiking boots over stilettos any day.

"I wasn't staring at her because she's pretty." I explained, even though she was. "I was staring at her because she looks familiar."

I made sure to inject an exaggerated amount of patience in my tone, that once again, had Harper rolling her eyes.

The girl had been halted at an intersection, waiting for the light change. I could see her profile as she was looking at her phone, apparently texting someone.

This caused Harper to look over for a second time.

"She looks like Libby." She said thoughtfully, turning back to the table with a shrug and I felt a pang of shock go through me.

I glanced at the girl again and realized that Harper was right. She did look like Libby, from the ponytail down to the hot pink hospital scrubs.

She was older than Libby though, probably closer to twenty seven or twenty eight, but even her smile was similar.

"Maybe you weren't the only demigod overseas." Harper said grinning and while normally, I would have said something smart back, I was too disconcerted.

And I wasn't even sure as to why.

"You look as if you've seen a ghost." Harper said then amended her statement. "Actually, no. Ghosts don't bother you. You look like you did when Lucy had that fever."

I didn't answer this, and she looked concerned.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah." I answered, but mostly because I didn't know why I wouldn't be.

There wasn't a reason I should be feeling this unnerved, or trying to sort through a bunch of different conflicting emotions at once. None of them making sense to me.

"This might not be a good time to bring it up." Harper said hesitantly. "But, since we're on the subject of her anyways. Lucy mentioned that she thinks we should bring her on over the summer. Libby, I mean."

"Bring her on?" I asked confused. "I thought we'd already discussed that."

Libby was already planning to be in and out of the library over the next couple of months, researching mythological creatures and how to take care of them, one of the more interesting topics of study I'd heard since Harper had opened the building back up to guests. Frankly, I was surprised no one had thought to do it before.

"She means to help out, and as much as I don't love the idea." She shrugged, looking as if admitting what she was about to was unpleasant. "It makes sense. You two have been telling me we need someone to help catch us up on all the things we've fallen behind on over the last semester, but you know how I feel about hiring someone directly from the camp." She continued with a significant look.

I did. Harper didn't trust the gods all that much, and if anything, I trusted them even less. But while our end result was the same, we both had very different reasons for the way we felt. Mainly, with me, I was actually guilty of the crimes they wanted to punish me for. Harper had been hardly more than an innocent by standard the first time they'd set their wrathful gaze on her. And she'd been arming herself ever since.

She wouldn't hire someone that was so heavily involved with a camp that reported directly to Olympus. To have them coming and going to the library so much. But This posed an issue with trying to find anyone that might be able to handle the job. We couldn't exactly put ads on mortal job listings, and almost everyone else in the mythological world was either a camper, a creature with some sort of tie to Olympus or one of the other domains, or they were a monster.

"Libby's going to be going to camp." I pointed out.

"But she won't be there nearly as often as anyone else." Harper said. "And you saw what happened with Hypnos." She continued lowering her voice as a couple passed by, laughing and holding hands. "She didn't hesitate, not for a second when Lucy was in danger. She didn't care who he was. That I can work with, even if she'll be at camp every once and a while."

"You think this is a good idea?" I asked uncertainly.

It wasn't that I didn't trust Libby, but she wasn't exactly the most reserved of all people. On the contrary, Libby was an open book. There was almost nothing she wouldn't talk about. As much as I liked her as a person, that wasn't exactly a great match for some of the more… questionable things Harper and I got involved in.

'Like possibly black mailing the lord of the dead with a set of blue prints for his house…' a voice said quietly in the back of my mind.

Libby might have been willing to shoot a god to protect a mortal right in front of her, but I wasn't sure her moral compass allowed for deviations that strayed that far.

"She handled almost getting her head set on fire pretty well," Harper pointed out. "And I know she's friendly, but she's not stupid." She added quickly when she saw my expression. "I don't think you think she is, but she's also Ashton's sister. She's not going to go tattling to Chiron as long as what we're doing isn't too far over the line. She wouldn't want to make him upset by anything happening to me."

"That seems a little manipulative Harper," I said frowning. "You really want to put her in that position?"

"Isn't that what we always do?" she asked and I hated how her response made sense to me.

Especially because I knew she was right.

This was the sort of thing that we did all the time. Make deals with monsters, limit choices of the divines, trade access to information to get people to do what we wanted. And if it wasn't Libby, I wouldn't have any issues with the plan.

But it was.

"She's Ashton's sister." I said, stalling for time.

Libby wasn't some monster or minor god that knew just how much chaos being involved with a place like the library could invite into your life. Just how much trouble being around it could get you into.

"She's an adult."

"People aren't chess pieces Harper." I countered. "You don't know Libby all that well. You don't know what she might or might not do."

"Do you trust her?" she asked her gaze meeting mine, and despite years of questions like these, it was still a surprise to hear her ask.

Harper hardly trusted anyone, and I found it a sign of her remarkable capacity for forgiveness that she'd ever learned to trust not just my judgement, but me.

"I do." I said with a nod. "Look, it's your decision. If you think she'll be an asset, then I'm on board. You're right, she's smart she can decide for herself what she wants."

"It's not just that." Harper said with a sigh looking out over the street. "She's starting to ask about you. I think she saw more than either of us would have liked after what happened with Hypnos. She's got questions James, understandably so, but ones I wish we weren't going to have to answer. I think we will though." A flash of concern crossed her expression as she looked at me steadily. "And it's better she gets them from us than have her go looking for them."

She paused for a second before asking.

"Are you ready for that?"

"Yeah." I said nodding and while I knew I was, a part of me felt like I had no choice but to be.

She seemed to sense this hesitation however.

"James. We don't have to do this if you don't want to. We don't have to tell her anything."

"No." I said shaking my head. "No you're right. It's safer for everyone if she hears things from us. That way we know it's the truth. And who knows." I said with a shrug. "She might not even accept."

"True." She agreed. "She does seem to be very busy this summer, maybe she'll have too much on her plate to hang out with the nerds at the library."

She grinned at this, however, it faded pretty quickly and her troubled expression returned when she asked.

"Are you sure you're ok with this James?"

"Yeah." I said nodding and while she looked uncertain, I pressed on. "Harper it's fine. We need the help. Lucy's right, the situation with Libby is kind of perfect. Better than we could have hoped for all things considering."

"Alright. I'll ask her." She said quietly.

There was a moment where neither of us spoke, but eventually, she broke the silence.

"You should probably start thinking about it now." She started. "Figuring out what you're going to say to Libby."

I shook my head.

"I don't have to."

She looked surprised.

"You already know?"

"If she wants to know the truth I'll tell her"

"Everything?"

Her tone was hesitant, and I could tell she wanted to say something, but wasn't sure if she should.

"Anything she asks about."

"That's what I told her." She said with a sigh.

Harper knew my entire story. I was sure Ashton had put together a lot of my past from what I'd told him, helped along I was sure by bits and pieces from Harper over the years, and maybe some of it had made its way to Charlie. But the fact was, no one knew me better than she did. Not even Lucy. And it was possible Harper was more protective of my past than even I was.

"But James," she continued. "Libby's kind of a sensitive person. She's not really like us. There's some stuff she might not want to know."

"I think she's tougher than you give her credit for."

Libby might have had a bright personality, but I'd seen her shout down a rampaging Ares brother when he'd been upset she hadn't cleared him for a game of capture the flag. By the time she was done with him, he'd taken his antibiotics and then thanked her for it.

It had been pretty funny.

"Besides." I said lightly, pretending I didn't hate the words as I smiled. "I'm sure she'll be happy enough to find a reason to dislike me."

But in a rare moment emotional perception however, Harper's eyes narrowed behind her lenses as she said.

"Actually, I'm sort of worried about the opposite."

"What do you mean?"

"I've been forced to listen to Libby enough in the infirmary to know what sort of person she is. She's like Ashton. A caretaker. She can't help it. If someone's hurt or upset, she drops everything to try and make them feel better, and it's not always a bad thing." She shrugged. "It's why she's such a good healer and it's why Hypnos didn't manage to get his hands on Lucy."

"I'm not seeing the issue here." I said frowning.

"We cause problems James. It's in the nature of what we do, and sometimes it gets messy." She said her expression significant. "She's only here for the summer. Remember that. And you know what it's like the longer you're in the library. We can't let her get sucked in."

"What does what happened to me have to do with that?" I asked frowning.

Libby wasn't going to end up in the situation I had. Harper and I had made sure of that a long time ago.

But she looked at me, her expression shrewd.

"Don't be an idiot James."

"I really don't-" I started but she put her head in her hands.

"Ok, I see I'm going to have to spell this out for you." she said in frustration before glaring at me a little irritated, clearly uncomfortable. "You are attractive." She said flatly, and I could tell by her tone it wasn't a compliment. She'd stated it like a fact. "Libby is a sweet, empathetic, single girl who's going to be spending a lot of time with you. Throw in a dark mysterious past like some leading character in a romance novel and it's a disaster waiting to happen."

"Harper." I said shaking my head. "What are you talking about."

"Just don't get too involved, ok?" she said frowning. "Be polite, be friendly, do whatever you want just don't get attached to her. And don't let her get attached to you. She's not staying James." She reminded me, a warning in her tone. "You know that, and I know you."

It felt as if Harper was looking right through me as she said this, as if the enchantment on her glasses were doing more than just allowing her to read the language on menu.

"You don't like a lot of people." she continued. "And you don't separate well from the ones you care about. But you like her." She said, her expression meaningful. "Don't make it harder for yourself then you have to."

I wanted to argue with her, tell Harper that she'd widely mistaken the sort of relationship I had with Libby. That we weren't even friends, but I could tell by her expression that any protest would be useless.

Instead, I thought about her words figuring the warning wasn't necessary, that it wouldn't matter how much I liked Libby as a person. Odds are, after she'd heard everything that I'd been through, everything that I'd done, Libby wouldn't want to be around me.

That I was fine with. It was her choice after all, but I couldn't pretend like it didn't absolutely suck. But Harper was right. I shouldn't be getting used to seeing her around the library. Like all of its visitors, she'd come and go, just like most people had in my life apart from Harper and Lucy. And just because Libby would be doing it more frequently than the rest of them over the next few weeks wasn't going to change that fact. Even if I actually did like talking to her.

"Are you still going to that thing on Friday?" Harper asked suddenly, jolting me back to reality out of my thoughts. "With your mortal friend."

"Yeah," I said with a sigh. "I sort of have to. They've been annoying me to bring you along too."

At this information, Harper looked genuinely distressed.

"Why?"

"Who knows?" I said with a wistful sigh, then smirked at her. "Maybe it's the accent. Too bad you don't really like to talk to strangers."

"Well if that's the case, forget everything I just said. Take Libby."

I was surprised to find myself considering this for a moment, before I realized what I was doing and mentally slapped some sense into myself. Harper was right. I liked Libby well enough, but I shouldn't be inviting any more familiarity with her than I had to. It just wasn't a good idea.

Silence fell between us again, and for the second time, she was the one to break it.

"I get it you know."

"Get what?" I asked and Harper, who seemed to have an open search browser in her head that allowed her to know the answer to practically anything you could think to ask her almost instantly, surprised me when she didn't answer the question immediately.

Even more unusual however, was that she'd started to blush.

"I get it." she repeated now looking anywhere but at me. "Why you like Libby, I mean. I know it's not like me and Ashton." She adjusted her glasses a little uncomfortably. "But she's nice. We deal with a lot of really messed up things, sometimes with not very great people. The Apollo kids, they're generally, uh, not like that."

She blushed again, clearly not used to being so inarticulate.

"I understand why you like talking to her. People like them, they make the world seem a little brighter, even when we know it's super screwed up."

"Yeah." I said quietly.

I reflected on this as we made our way back to the library, catching Harper automatically as she tripped out of the doors and setting her right. It had such become a habit by now that I rarely even made fun of her anymore, and she didn't really get embarrassed about it unless someone pointed it out.

She was already talking to herself, and sort of to me, about when the best time to schedule a meeting with Hades would be when we hit a snag.

The moment we stepped into the main hall of the library, I knew something was wrong. Almost immediately my senses caught up to my intuition when I heard sobbing.

"Oh no." Harper said softly.

"Where is she?" I asked but Harper had already motioned me to follow her into one of the rows where Lucy had dragged several chairs and a desk, and pushed them against the wall, only to crawl under them to create a sort of urchin like fortress with the chair legs as spines.

"Luce?" Harper asked softly, knocking on one of the legs of the table before ducking down to see if she could spot her. "Luce can I come in?"

More sobs and Harper looked at me a little helplessly.

"Lucy, what's wrong?" I asked.

"You guys left." Lucy's voice said her voice muffled through furniture and tears. "I-I went to sleep and when I woke up you guys were gone."

"Luce, we told you we had to pick up something."

"James used to say that all the time." She wailed. "And look what's happened to him. He was gone all the time." She sniffled and I felt something within my heart crack as it did every time I found myself in a situation like this. My sister upset, my best friend worried and there was nothing I could do. "I didn't want to be alone again. I don't want-"

But she continued to cry.

"Lucy, you're not alone." Harper said softly.

I knelt next to the barricade and saw that Lucy had dragged a blanket and the book light Harper had given Lucy years ago and never taken back. The ones given to her by her friends at camp.

"Is it the dreams?" Harper asked softly.

More crying.

"I don't understand." Lucy said between shallow panicked breaths. "Why am I the only one this is happening to? It's not fair!"

Again, Harper looked at me seeming at a complete loss, and I thought that might have been one of the cruelest things about this situation. Not only that Lucy had to suffer, but that Harper and I, two immensely powerful demigods, could seem to do nothing to help her.

We'd made things better over the years, but we hadn't been able to totally fix the damage Kronos had done to my sister's mind. And it killed me to know I couldn't fix it for her. You couldn't fight against this sort of thing. Not physically at least. And Lucy wasn't the only one it was happening too.

I had just as many nightmares as Lucy did, in fact, I probably had more and Harper was constantly having visions in her sleep. Whether the warnings were sent by the magic of the library or the gods we weren't sure, but while I knew the dreams weren't as graphic as ours, they could still be disturbing. And while Lucy and I eventually woke up from out nightmares, Harper had to spend her waking hours trying to figure out how her dreams might play out in real life.

"I just want them to stop." Lucy whispered and it felt as if my heart were breaking all over again.

"I know."

I sat next to Harper leaning against one of the table legs neither of us speaking. It was clear neither she nor I had any idea what to say.

Eventually, Harper called a couple of books to her and handed them under the table for Lucy to read and after another hour or so, Lucy managed to fall back asleep.

We immediately fell into our routine, dismantling the pile of furniture, Harper putting each piece back in it's place as I carried my sister back to her room.

I put her in her bed, knowing she'd probably feel better once she woke up, that she might not even remember any of this, and found Harper waiting for me in the hall the moment I walked out.

"She ok?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, she's still asleep."

She nodded and while I could tell she was thinking, she didn't say anything.

This wasn't unusual for Harper, she was always thinking, but something about her expression caused me to ask.

"What's on your mind?"

"Nothing." She said with a sigh. "Just thinking about the schedule."

I glanced at my phone. It was set to the same time zone as Harper's and felt a pang of shock go through me.

"Is Libby coming in today?"

"Yeah." Harper said sounding exhausted. "We're actually a few minutes late picking her up."

"I can head out now." I said but she shook her head.

"No I can get her. Stay here in case Luce wakes up. I shouldn't be gone long."

I debated if I wanted to argue about this, with the rate at which Harper attracted monsters, we'd learned not to take it for granted that even a short trip out into the mortal world for her would be safe.

But she was already walking down the hall.

Harper wasn't helpless, I knew that, and she had her phone. She could deal with whatever she ran into long enough to call if she needed to, so I watched her go, glancing back at my sister's door before walking to the one across the hall.

Technically, it was mine. At least it was one I usually stayed in when I slept here. But unlike my sister, I hadn't done a lot of decorating which drove Lucy up the wall.

She kept telling me that I was 'repressed' and that I needed to 'learn how to have some sort of expression.' Which, if her room was anything to go by, meant bright colors, posters of famous cities and about a thousand pillows on the bed.

I glanced around the room trying to figure out what exactly I was supposed to have done with it.

I hadn't painted over the white slapped onto the walls when the overnight area had been were a few weapons hanging, a calendar next to the door with the library's schedule that had so many markings and post it notes attached, it almost made my head hurt to look were a couple books on the desk, as well as a notebook with random notes in it from the last time I'd been in here, translating, but most of the time I worked either in the actual library or at Harper's desk.

There was one item, however, that was personalized.

A sleek laptop resting on top of the blankets of the bed tucked into the corner of the room, it's case covered in stickers from all over the globe from major cities like Dublin, New York and Dubai, to tiny little fishing villages dotted on islands in some of the more remote parts of the world.

I'd run out of room a long time ago, and had just started piling the stickers on top of each other. I reached into my back pocket, and pulled out one that read 'Berlin' in the familiar black, red, and yellow color scheme, separated it from the paper on the back and stuck it on the laptop at random.

I wasn't sure when I'd started doing this, or why, but it usually gave me an odd sense of satisfaction to add another sticker to the mass and see how many places I'd been.

Today was different however.

I felt weird. Unsettled and strangely restless. It took a few seconds of me frowning, trying to sort this out when I realized I was nervous.

Nervous wasn't something I'd been in a long time.

Anxiety for my sister was one thing, fear that something might happen to her or Harper if something in the library went wrong was reality I lived with almost everyday. But nervous? What the hell was that about? There wasn't anything to be nervous for.

'Except that it was entirely possible that a new person would be joining the library staff.' A voice in the back of my mind reminded me. 'A demigod, someone you have a history with, even if it had only ever been friendly.'

And it was the realization as to why I felt so uneasy that made me realize that Harper might have been right to warn me.

I probably shouldn't let myself care too much about Libby being here one way or the other. It was as she'd said, Libby wouldn't be here for long. It wasn't normal for me to get this worked up over something like this.

"It's not a big deal." I said to myself, shaking my head.

I rarely talked to the library's guests, and they seemed perfectly fine avoiding me. I was used to it. Preferred it actually. But Libby wasn't exactly a normal visitor, in fact, pretty soon she might not be a visitor at all. She'd be part of the team.

She was going to be around a lot more than other people over the next few weeks, and I couldn't help but have the feeling it was going to be far more difficult not talking to her than it would be for others.

It wasn't exactly a welcome realization, but there was nothing I could do about it.

I let out a breath then grabbed my laptop before sitting at desk and typing in the password.

It pulled up to my email account where I was surprised to see there were several new items in the inbox. One was a message from Chase, a son of Ares and was the only person I'd known from camp who had my email. He and I had been friends when I'd been there, but had been relegated to pretty much just a pen pal these days. I knew it was my fault, but I think he understood the less involvement he had in my life the better. It was still nice to get up dates about him however. He'd joined the marines, and seemed to be doing well.

I grinned at the photo he'd sent, in which he and his fellow bunk mates had managed to turn one of their commanding officer's car upside down at as prank as well as the long list of reprimands they'd gotten because of it.

Next was from an address I didn't recognize but when I looked at the contact name, I frowned.

Melanie Platt.

'Great.' I thought a little irritated, realizing she must have gotten my information from Tom, who'd I'd explicitly told not to give out.

There were a couple of forwards from Lucy's account that she didn't realize that were several years past being funny which I decided to reply to, one from Harper that just read, 'what do you thi' which I assumed had been sent by accident before the message had been finished.

Finally, there was a message from a familiar name.

Alyssa Burns.

I felt my shoulders tense as I read the subject line.

'With Regard to Emily Albright'

"Shit." I muttered than opened the email.

My mother had never stopped looking for Lucy and I after we'd disappeared.

I'd kept an eye on her whenever I could, and while I'd never had the courage to say anything, it was enough to know that she'd spent the last decade harassing police officers and hiring Private Investigator after Private Investigator trying to find us, but unfortunately for all of them, trying to locate a demigod in a world of magic who didn't want to be found was basically impossible for a mortal.

Alyssa was different.

She was barely older than Lucy, twenty at the most, and a royal pain in my backside.

How she'd managed to find me after a decade of far more experienced detectives hadn't been able to do it, I had no idea. Especially considering all she had to go off of were old photos of Lucy and I when we were kids, but I'd caught her tailing me last year when I'd been in London with Harper.

I'd thought she was a monster at first but when confronted, she told me she'd taken my mother's case off a colleague who was ready to give up after years of dead ends. Told her my mother called him, almost every day looking for updates, that she'd never given up. And now she could finally hear some good news.

I'd been too stunned to say anything at this.

It wasn't until she asked about Lucy that Harper decided to step in and get us out of there, but the damage had been done.

Alyssa had gotten photos of us walking, had sent them to my mother and for weeks it felt as if I couldn't step into London without her hunting me down.

It had become a real problem seeing as by this point, I often needed to talk to Tom.

She hadn't been stupid enough to bring my mother along with her at any point, probably because if she had I'd have been in the wind, but she'd gotten so annoying that I'd finally relented and given her an email.

She'd passed it on to my mother, who I had emailed a couple of times, the Mist and a complex series of documents and lies fabricated by Harper explaining away most of the time we'd been gone. My mother was now convinced I'd ended up in military school in the states. Why she believed that I had no idea, but my correspondence with Chase made the lie easy enough to hold up. She thought Lucy was going to school in the US as well, a factious private university that I was amused to find Harper kept adding details to. She'd even gone as far as to create fake transcripts and a website.

Their logo was the Spartans.

Alyssa, however, hadn't bought any of it. She was insufferable, tenacious as a bulldog in trying to hunt down the truth. I didn't know what to tell her. She'd figured out who Harper was pretty easily after seeing her a few times, but considering her brother and who she was dating, that might not have been that difficult. A quick search on google of the name Ashton Wells, especially during basketball season took you almost directly to information relating to the twins.

I didn't like this, but there wasn't much that could be done about it.

It didn't exactly poke holes in our story, but it seemed to be an obsession of Alyssa's to figure out what had really happened to me and Lucy, and she wasn't even getting paid anymore. She was far more perceptive than other mortals, and not just because she could see me when others normally couldn't.

I read the email in irritation and forwarded to it Harper even though it was nothing new, just impertinent questions implying she thought my stories about the past few years were utter bullshit, which, well, they were. But she didn't have to be so annoying about it.

She hadn't told my mother about her suspicions. According to her, that wasn't her job and my mother seemed happy. But she wanted the truth. She just kept digging and digging even though I'd warned her many times, she wouldn't have believed the truth even if I told it to her.

I thought about responding, but decided to leave it for another day when I had more patience.

Instead, I opened the email form Mel, seeing that it was relatively normal. Asking how I was doing and wondering why she couldn't find me on social media. She'd also suggested we catch up, just her and I before I was forced to confront my former friends en mass on Friday, hinting that coordinating this might be easier over the phone.

Well, at least Tom hadn't given out my number.

I responded saying I was busy, hoping she'd take the hint, but confirming that I'd be there then shutting the laptop.

I left it on the desk and stepped out of the room, only to see Lucy's door open as she walked into the hall, yawning and rubbing her eyes.

I hesitated, trying to gauge her emotional state and she gave me an exasperated expression.

"Why are you looking me like that?" she asked pulling a face. "You always look at me like some sort of bomb that's about to go off. What's wrong?"

She didn't remember. Had maybe thought it was just another one of her dreams.

"Nothing." I said shaking my head. "I just got sort of a weird email from Mel."

"Mel?" she asked sounding confused. "As in Mel from back home?"

"Yeah."

She frowned her expression wrinkling again.

"I never liked her all that much. She made fun of my trading cards."

"So did I." I pointed out. "I still do."

"Yeah, but you bought half of them for birthday and Christmas gifts so," she pointed out. "I can't be too mad." She grinned. "Besides. They're worth a fortune now. If I wanted I could make a killing selling them over the internet."

"Really?" I asked raising an eyebrow, having serious doubts about this and she nodded.

"And what would you do with all that money if you did Luce?" I asked and she seemed to think about it.

"I dunno." She said with a shrug. "Doesn't Harper have tuition or something?"

"Harper has a scholarship."

"Well, what about you?" she asked curiously. "Do you want to go to school for something?"

I had no idea how much Lucy thought her tradition cards were worth. Like me, she got paid for working at the library, but also like me, she didn't really have much to spend her money on.

It was why Harper was so adamant about enforcing the library's policy about late fees, or fines for damages to the property and books. She always said when we pointed out we didn't really have much use for money that she wanted us to have it, in case we ever wanted to 'move on' in her words.

But with Lucy stuck in the library, and me unwilling to leave either her or Harper, I didn't exactly know what Harper thought we'd be moving on to.

"No." I said with a shrug.

It didn't think it was worth pointing out to Lucy that college wasn't really a thing for people who hadn't had education records since they were a teenager, or even if it was, I didn't care enough about it to pursue that particular avenue.

My marks hadn't been bad when I had been in school, but I hadn't exactly liked it.

I wasn't like Harper, who saw a flyer on campus about an open lecture on astrophysics, and decided then and there that was her plans for the evening. Even if I almost always had to sit in on them with her. For me school was boring, and I didn't much feel like signing up for four years and a hell of a tuition bill just for me to realize something I'd already figured out.

It wasn't for me.

Lucy glanced at her phone.

"Speaking of students, isn't Libby supposed to be here by now?"

"Harper's getting her." I explained as we exited the living area and stepped into the Main Hall. "She likes your idea by the way. I think she's asking her to work here for the summer."

"Great." Lucy said eagerly. "I like Libby she's really nice."

"Yeah. She is."

Lucy shot me a glance at this, and while her expression was superior, she didn't say anything in reply.

For this I was grateful, and as the realization hit me that I'd be seeing her soon made me wonder if I should have taken Mel up on her offer, just so I'd have somewhere else to be.

'Nothing you can do about it now.' I thought.

This shouldn't have felt like it was going to be difficult. Not talking to people was something I was great at. It was one of the most frequent complaints Harper got about the library, that the staff, which could only have been me, didn't seem very 'friendly'.

I grinned a little at this, knowing Harper could not have cared less about this if someone had paid her.

'Well, at least Libby could help with that.' I thought amused. 'If she agrees.'

"Do you think Libby would come to movie nights if she works here?" Lucy asked hopefully, and I frowned.

"I'm not sure."

This hadn't occurred to me. Harper, Lucy and I often did stupid themed nights at Lucy's insistence and while I'd knew Harper and I would never admit it. We both had fun. It seemed like the sort of thing Libby would be all about.

"She watches anime you know."

"That's not that surprising." I muttered recalling the ridiculous show Lucy had tried to force me to watch with her while Harper had been on spring break with her brother and her boyfriend.

"It would be nice to finally have someone around here who understands pop culture."

"Yes for everyone," I said looking sideways at her. "Then you'd stop having to explain all your references, only to have no one laugh."

"You're so mean," she pouted but her eyes glittered wickedly. "Don't you know girls like guys who are nice to them. You'd better be nicer to Libby if you want her to like you."

"Why would I want that?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

She didn't answer this, just gave me superior look that had me thinking it was about time to start pestering Harper to send me back to Brazil.

She walked away with the air of someone who'd been intending to cause trouble, had been satisfied with the result, and was now ready to move on with her day.

"This is going to be a long summer, isn't it?" I asked myself heading towards the weapons room, determined to be out for the evening.

I'd catch Harper after she was done talking to Libby, until then I'd stay out of their way.

It wasn't that I was afraid of seeing Libby, but my life was already complicated enough without throwing a wild card into the mix. Harper was right though, the situation was temporary.

Libby would be gone soon enough and my life would go back to normal, or as normal as someone like my life's life could be.

'Just the summer.' I thought to myself, letting out a breath and walking through the familiar shelves, trying not to think too much about the future, or anything really. 'Just a couple of months. Then she'll be gone.'