"Like I'd tell you." She tried to glare menacingly but only came up with a pain-laced expression, feeling an extreme instinct to run, but held her ground. Her friends' faces went pale, Serena's hand on Catty's trembling shoulder.
"Nefandus?" Catty asked, her eyes wide with sadness for her friend.
Stanton's face turned to sullen annoyance. "Of course. You haven't told them. How like you, Ry, to try and cheat Fate by hiding away and lying about everything. But of course, as usual, she outsmarts you by putting you in the one place where your destiny will find you."
"How dare you," Ry's silver eyes glowed phosperescent. "How dare you come here and try to destroy everything I've built up. It's bad enough I remember nothing. But you," she snorted, glaring at him. Her small hands balled into fists at her sides, her lips set in a defiant line. "You think you're invincible because even the Daughters can't destroy you, Stanton, Prince of Night. I don't know what you're doing here, but you leave my friends alone. " A bright, blinding flash lit the room, temporarily stripping everyone of their vision. When the light faded, Ry was gone.
"Ryelle! Ryelle! Come back! They know you're here! Ryelle!" Stanton called after her. "Damn it," he swore. Vanessa, Catty and Jimena all looked at him in confusion.
"Okay, what?" Catty clarified.
"Even I'm a little puzzled," Serena admitted.
"I don't get it, at all!" Vanessa exclaimed, blue eyes big with worry. "Stanton, how do you know Ry? Why would she be in Nefandus? Is she dead? How did she do that? Does she have a power?"
"Let's start at the beginning," Stanton suggested. "It's a long story. Serena, how much do you know about Ryelle?"
"Not much, except that she's a Daughter of the Moon." Her friends stared.
"How can that be?" whispered Jimena. "There are three pieces of evidence," said Serena, ticking them off on her fingers. "One. I know the rest of you haven't seen this, since you three can't read minds, but I can. The day you introduced Ry to us, Vanessa, I took a quick peek inside her mind. I couldn't get in at all. It was as if it was one of you guys and there was something you were hiding from me. I didn't understand why there would be a barrier this strong in a seemingly normal teenage girl, so I looked at some of her memories. I saw Followers, even a brush with the Atrox itself. I assumed she was an escaped Initiate, trying to put the past behind her. Two. A couple days later, Ry dropped her pencil in the hall. When she bent over to pick it up, a moon amulet swung out from under her shirt, and a quick thought; she knows, or suspects that we're the Daughters. I now had a theory, but I wasn't exactly sure. Three. When Stanton appeared, she wasn't at all frightened, and she even knew him. Ry is a Daughter of the Moon." The other three stared at her.
"But if Ry knows, or suspects that we're Daughters too, then why didn't she say anything, or show us her powers?" Vanessa asked.
"Ry isn't just a Daughter," Stanton explained. "She's an evanesant."
"One who is hidden in mist?" Serena translated with a puzzled expression.
Stanton nodded. "Evanesant, or Fallen, are rare. There's only about one born per century. Fallen are a lot like Catty, only not the Heirs to the Secret Scroll."
Catty eyed him warily. "What do you mean?"
"Her mother was a goddess and her father was a Follower. Ry's mother was only sixteen when Ry was born, and her mother never turned to the Atrox. Evanesant are like invitus, one foot in each world. They have the powers of both Follower and goddess, therefore being stronger than both ordinary Daughters and Immortals. There is a choice for the Fallen, just as there is for you. They have the familiar option of being a guardian spirit for Selene, but they can also become Followers, or join the darker good, like Serena. Unfortunately, the emotional torment of the Fallen is even worse than that of the inviti. If a Fallen is turned to the Atrox, which is extremely possible, seeing as the Atrox is exactly half of her, before the change, the balance of power shifts in the favor of evil. You can imagine, being of the Atrox and its nemesis is pretty heart-wrenching. A Fallen has never chosen a side, because every single one ever born has committed suicide by seventeen."
"But you said Ry was in Nefandus," argued Jimena.
"That's her story," said Stanton. "And I won't tell it to you. Gist is that Ryelle is extremely stubborn and apparently refused to be turned which led to imprisonment by the Cinciti, who erased her memories in an attempt to weaken her resolve."
"We have to get to Ry before the Followers do!" Catty cried, punctuating her point with her fist.
Vanessa nodded angrily, and Serena's eyes blinked away tears. "We're not losing another friend, not so soon after Tianna."
"Let's go," Jimena nodded. "Serena, Stanton and I will head west, you two head east."
Ry had made her way into a deserted cemetery and had never felt more betrayed. Damn you, Stanton, her thoughts pushed into the air, hot tears and anger and frustration stinging the back of her eyes. Why couldn't she remember? Why were there only flashes of her mother's face, a boy's voice, a sister's touch? Where had her entire life gone? Taking a long deep breath, she stepped into the grove, and began to speak to the grave as she knelt on the green grass. "Hi, Mom. It's me, Ry. I miss you. I know you're probably watching me right now, and you'd be proud to know that I'm back in LA, just to be closer to you, even though it's more dangerous here. I met all the other Daughters. They're really nice. I feel bad for lying to them, but now that Stanton's there, he probably explained the whole sad story to them anyway. I wish I had Catty's power, to go back in time and see you whenever I wanted. You'd know what to do." She walked away from the small grave by the stream, under the weeping willow tree. She finally decided to climb a relic of La Morena and hope that the Followers wouldn't find her there. She leaned back against the statue and watched the clouds cover the moon.