Camila couldn't help but wonder if Manny had lost his mind. From what he'd told her, his boss, Benedict Alexander, was a raving lunatic, obsessed with defeating communism through harnessing the supernatural. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that if Alexander got his hands on Vee, the poor girl would never, ever see the outside of a government research facility. Shapeshifting was a skill of incalculable use. Camila could think of maybe about a hundred ways it could be of use to the government just off the top of her head and if she had actually put her mind to it, she was sure she could come up with a thousand more. Why on…well, not Earth anymore, but still, why would he ever trust such a maniac?

"We're out of other options, Cammy," Manny said grimly when she'd calmly demanded answers from him, and by calmly, she meant screaming at the top of her lungs and swearing profusely. "That monster tanked a bunch of C4 to the face. He has our daughter. It's the only move available to us."

Camila sat down heavily on the bench in the park in downtown Gravesfield Alexander had told Manny to meet him at. She turned to Eda, sitting next to her. "What do you think, Eda?"

"I think Manny has a point," Eda said after a while. "We just don't have the firepower right now to take down Belos. We can't let people know in the Demon Realm know he's alive – they'll storm this place to take him down and people here will think they're being invaded. Right now, it's just us, and we're not enough, especially since your glyphs don't work here." That had been a big letdown to Camila to say the least.

Manny squeezed Camila's hand tightly. "Honey, I swear I'll do whatever I can to save Vee. Even if I have to kill Alexander, if I have to kill my coworkers, I'll do it."

"Okay…" Camila said, not really feeling it was okay in her heart. But Manny had accomplished the impossible before. If anyone could help rescue Vee and then save her from her rescuers, it was the amazing man she'd loved since the moment they met.

A black sedan with tinted windows pulled out in the parking lot and a man stepped out, flanked by two men in dark suits and sunglasses. The man was in his seventies, but looked like he could have passed for ten years longer, with a full head of grey hair, a bushy but perfectly groomed beard and an air of total confidence. He moved like he was in command of any given situation. He had the same ex-military air about him as Manny, only with a lot more arrogance. And it was not an entirely unearned arrogance, Camila could sense. This was a dangerous man in a physical sense in addition to the danger his position brought him.

"Manuel, I've always said you were one of our most valuable agents, and as always, my instincts are on point," Benedict Alexander said as he walked towards them with a confident stride and sat across from them, giving a warm and sincere smile. "And you must be Manny's wife. I'm so sorry I haven't made your acquaintance until now. Manuel clearly has very good taste in women."

Eda opened her mouth to stay something no doubt very pithy and very unhelpful, but Camila smacked her on the arm before she could say anything. "That's right," Camila said. "He does. I'm Camila Noceda. And we need your help. My niece has been kidnapped by a horrible monster." She and Manny had agreed they'd pretend Vee was her niece from the Dominican Republic.

Alexander just looked intrigued by a statement that would have caused any other man of a comparable position to laugh in her face. "Well, it's our job to deal with such beasts. And who might you be?" he asked Eda.

Manny put up a hand. "To answer that question, I need to explain where I've been this summer. I accidentally stumbled upon a magical portal to a world known as the Demon Realm." Alexander's face tightened. "It's an erroneous name placed upon the world by its emperor, an Englishman named Belos who found his way there in the 1600s. He used dark magic to extend his life to this day. It used to be known as Muspelheim, and its inhabitants as elves and eudaemons, but Belos renamed it to match with his prejudices."

Manny gestured at Eda. "This is Edalyn Clawthorne, the sister of Lilith Clawthorne, a high ranking figure in Belos's empire. Lilith discovered Belos's plans to commit genocide and, with my help, overthrew and replaced him." Alexander looked impressed. "Eda has been generously hosting my family this summer. Without her help, Belos would never have been overthrown."

Alexander was alarmingly silent for a while and gave a huge grin. "Well, I'm impressed! Look at you, overthrowing governments like a champ. You know, back in the olden days, we overthrew evil communist governments practically every week. Remind me to give you a promotion. I presume Clawthorne's new administration is sympathetic to the United States?"

"I'm sure she'd be willing to listen to reason," Manny hedged. Camila was seriously impressed with the web of lies and half-truths Manny was spilling. She knew intellectually her husband was a spy, but she'd never had a chance to observe him at work before. It was enthralling. "Camila and I are very close to Eda." Eda started snickering but Camila kicked her under the table before Alexander had a chance to notice.

"And this incursion you mentioned?" Alexander asked.

Manny sighed. "We tried to kill Belos, but he survived and kidnapped my niece, bringing her here. We have no idea where they went. That's why I brought you in."

Alexander's head shot up. "You wouldn't have brought me in otherwise?"

Manny looked like he was lost for words for a second, but recovered smoothly. It was impressive and Camila couldn't help but wonder if Eda had been giving him some extra lessons. "I don't deal in what-ifs, Mr. Alexander. Of course I would have told you. It's my job and my duty. But I had the situation under control…right up until the point I didn't."

Alexander leaned backwards with a smirk on his face. "Now I know you're one of my best agents, Noceda, and I'm not doubting your word, but do you have any proof of what you're saying?"

Manny nodded at Eda, who did a spell circle and turned Alexander's guards into newts. The newts proceeded to head in the direction of the woods. Alexander didn't make a move to recover them. This did not bode well in Camila's opinion. If he saw his own guards as expendable, there was no way he wouldn't feel the same about Camila and her family. "You turned them into newts," he said mildly.

"They'll get better," Eda said with a smirk.

Alexander was silent for the better part of a minute. "Is there any oil there?"

Manny blinked. "I don't know. I'm not a geologist."

"Right, no, that's understandable," Alexander said. "Well, Manuel, I can promise you, we'll throw everything we've got into rescuing your niece. I understand exactly how you feel. I have grandchildren myself. I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to them. We'll kill Belos at all costs. Bringing that animal's head to Clawthorne would definitely go a long way in getting her as an ally."

Well, this hadn't turned out as bad as Camila thought it would! True, the idea of Alexander trying to establish relations between the United States and the Boiling Republic filled Camila with trepidation, especially if it meant knowledge of the Demon Realm would become public. But he seemed to be far more reasonable than Camila had been expecting. Manny had told her all sorts of horror stories about Alexander's psychopathy, and while it was true he possessed the type of "ends justified the means" philosophy common to government types at his level – and also true that said people ultimately caused a lot more carnage than your ordinary psychopath ever could – he didn't seem like the raving lunatic Manny had presented him as. Maybe everything would turn out all right.

Alexander clapped his hands. "Well, now that this opportunity has fallen in our laps, we can start with the evacuation plans."

"Evacuation?" Camila asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Well, it's need to know, but heck, everyone will know soon enough. Now that we have a planet the worthy can retreat to, we can finally do what we should have done decades ago: nuke the blazes out of the godless commie bastards and win the Cold War once and for all."

Oh. Okay, then. This was what Manny had been talking about. Everything made a lot more sense to Camila now. She knew one thing for sure: bringing Vee to the attention of this barbarian was the dumbest thing Manny could ever have done and he was sleeping on the couch for the rest of the month, assuming they all got out alive.

"I…don't mean to contradict you, Mr. Alexander, but we kind of won the Cold War more than two decades ago," Camila pointed out nervously.

"Mrs. Noceda, as long as one communist walks the face of this planet, the Cold War is never won and democracy and freedom remain at risk," Alexander said pleasantly, without an ounce of condescension in his voice, like he was explaining something to a good friend of his. He clearly expected her to agree with him. "When China is a smoldering ruin, we'll know true peace. Well, we'll start searching for Belos. Good work with all this, Manuel. You're a true American patriot. Remind me to give you a raise."

He walked over to the car and got into the back seat. A few moments later, he appeared to remember that his driver had been turned into a newt and then got in the driver's seat and drove off.

Camila put her hands on her hips and looked steadily at Manny. "Well, that went well."

"We're alive, Alexander's down two agents, and we have a very well motivated man looking for Belos," Manny retorted. "I warned you the man is not right in the head. But we'll have Vee in our hands and be back in the Demon Realm back before the day is out. We'll destroy the portal and he'll never be able to get there."

"He wants to nuke everyone!" Camila shouted.

"And I want a million dollars," Manny said. "It doesn't mean I'm going to get it. We're talking about a plan that is going to take months to pull off – a plan that won't work without ironclad proof of the Demon Realm's existence, a complete change in government, and loads and loads of careful planning. None of which he's going to get. Because before we leave, I'm going to kill him."

Camila scowled. "Not if I do it first."

Vee had never been more scared in her life, and she'd known dimensions of fear that were completely unknown to most normal people. Back in the Conformatorium, she'd known fear, fear that she wouldn't make it to the next sunrise, fear of whatever new horrors Wrath and his cronies would visit on her. But the Conformatorium couldn't make her fear like she was now because back then, she hadn't had anything to lose. No one loved her. She didn't even have a name. At most, she could have lost her fellow basilisks, but Vee had refused to get close to them, because she knew deep down, losing them would hurt her far more than any red hot poker ever could.

But now Vee had a family. She had a mami and a papi and two hermanos. She had hope for the future. Her family had even started talking about enrolling her in Hexside when Belos was dealt with. Vee was super excited to learn new things, spend the day with her siblings, maybe even make new friends and learn magic. Vee had been given so much by Mami and Papi…and the idea of being separated from them forever, of becoming a lab rat in a whole different world and never seeing her wonderful parents again, was staring her right in the face.

Under normal circumstances, Vee might have enjoyed the Human Realm. It was quite unlike the Demon Realm, far more calm and sedate. And the rain didn't boil! It was truly a marvel. But it was tainted by Belos, who kept on rambling insanely about someone called Jesus Christ and how Belos was his second coming or something like that. And Belos kept dragging her and holding onto her shoulder tightly enough to leave a bruise and threatening her, and basically, he was the worst traveling companion ever.

At first, Belos had insisted he and Vee stay in their demonic forms, but they kept running into men in dark suits who tried to shoot them with human weapons like the ones Mami and Papi had used to rescue Vee. She believed they were called guns. Vee didn't know if the men were friends or foes, but either way, Belos had killed three of them before finally deciding to use discretion and turning into the form he usually used as emperor. He made Vee turn into a human form as well. Vee picked a form similar to Luz's, but not quite identical – the form her parents had helped her develop in case they needed her to pretend to be human.

Belos led her to a building that, according to its sign, was a Catholic church. Belos eyed the sign with disgust. "I suppose this will have to do," he muttered. "Transform back, creature."

"You're just going to kill me anyway!" Vee shouted.

"Indeed your death is not optional, but your so-called parents' are a different story," Belos hissed. "You'll do what I tell you to, when I tell you to, or your family will suffer the consequences."

Vee gulped and nodded. She wondered if she could drain the magic from Belos in a sneak attack. She'd never done it with someone as powerful as him before, but maybe she could try. But as soon as the idea entered her head, she knew she couldn't do it. Not without Belos killing her in the process. And maybe it made her a coward, but she didn't want to die. She didn't know if there was an afterlife – the very concept had been unknown to her until recently – but she did know that even if there was, no one would be waiting for her there. She'd be all alone for many decades and Vee didn't want to be alone anymore.

Belos led her into a large room, very ornately decorated with colorful glass windows, and long wooden seats. A man wearing an unfamiliar uniform with a strange white collar was standing before a podium addressing the crowd. He was presumably the one in charge. Dozens of people, maybe even hundreds, were sitting in the seats, hanging on his every word.

"BEHOLD!" Belos screamed. "The witch hunter Philip Wittebane walks among you once again! I have returned from the Demon Realm and I bring a demonic creature, a foul basilisk bent on corrupting the good people of this realm with her licentious wiles!"

"I'm eight," Vee pointed out. "I think."

The man with the collar did not look like he neither believed nor was impressed with Belos. "It's a very impressive costume you're wearing, but I'm afraid Halloween is not for a few months. Please take your daughter and depart this house of worship before I call the police."

Belos's arm turned into a tendril and shot out, grabbing the podium the man was at and smashing it to bits. "You will listen to me, father, for only I can save your souls!" Vee blinked. This collared man was Belos's father? How was that even possible? Belos was supposed to be hundreds of years old and there was no magic in the Human Realm for Mr. Wittebane the elder to stay young. But of course Vee realized the truth a second later. This man was not Belos's father. He merely resembled the man and Belos was just having another delusion.

Belos flung Vee into the stands and continued to rant and rave at the man he thought was his father. Vee turned him out. Family drama, especially that of a lunatic and his family, didn't interest him. The only Wittebane Vee cared about was Hunter, and he only used to be a Wittebane. Like her, she was a Noceda through and through.

"Oh, sweetie, are you okay?" a voice called out with a slight accent Vee didn't recognize. Vee turned to see a kind looking woman a few years younger than Mami looking at her with concern. There was a girl of the same age as Vee next to her, with a gap in her teeth that reminded her of Hunter's. She couldn't help but be a little relieved. Though Mami and Papi had been the picture of kindness, Vee had been worried other humans would be like Belos, especially since Belos had dragged her to this place specifically because he thought he'd find people who could help him. "You must be so frightened."

Vee nodded. Why deny it? "I wanna go home," she said, her voice quivering. "I want my mami and papi!"

"Don't worry, honey," the woman said. "The police will get this creep and you'll be with your mami and papi before you know it. I'm Natalia Petrova and this is my daughter Masha. What's your name?"

"I'm Vee. Vee Noceda."

Ms. Petrova gave a warm smile at Vee. Vee bet she must have been nearly as good a mother as Mami was. Though of course no one could beat Mami when it came to that sort of thing. "That's an interesting costume you have there, Vee. I'm going to guess that madman made you wear it?"

Vee nodded, hating that she had to lie to Ms. Petrova, but she knew letting random humans know of her true identity was a very bad idea. Maybe if she was really lucky, everyone would assume she was wearing a costume until she could get back to Mami and Papi. "He thinks I'm a basilisk."

"Oh, man, that is so cool," Masha said, her eyes wide with awe. "I mean, not cool. Nothing about this is cool. But I wish you were a basilisk! I've always wanted to meet mythical creatures."

Vee very much hoped she was not going to regret this. But these two humans she'd never even met before were going out of their way to be nice to her. Ms. Petrova was even trying her best to keep Vee hidden from Belos's sight. "Well, what if I told you he's right about me? I mean, not about the rest of it, because he is really crazy, but what if I told you I am a basilisk?" She shapeshifted to her human form and back.

"Then we'll do whatever we can to help you," Ms. Petrova vowed. "The Bible taught me to love my neighbor as myself. It didn't say anything about my neighbor having to be human."

"Thank…thank you," Vee stuttered. "Thank you so much."

Masha let out a squeak of excitement. "This is so cool," she whispered. Unfortunately, her squeak had been loud enough to attract Belos's attention, even if the whisper had not.

The collared man stepped between Belos and the seats. "Sir, I'm forced to admit that you seem to be telling the truth," he said. Belos's attention was instantly drawn away from Masha to his father's doppelganger. Vee prayed the man would be able to use his supposed son's connection to him to bring forth a peaceful resolution. "So let me see if I've got this straight. You are a rebel demon who has turned against Satan in an effort to reclaim your angelic status?"

"I AM NOT A DEMON!" Belos screamed. "I am a messenger of God!"

The collared man gave a long suffering sigh. "Mr. Belos, I refuse to believe any creature who looks like you do, who has kidnapped this poor young girl and dressed her up in an admittedly rather stellar costume, who admits to hailing from the infernal realms, is not a demon. It rather strains credibility, wouldn't you agree?"

Belos didn't seem to know how to respond for a few seconds. Then he responded with the way he usually responded: with extreme violence. His tendrils sliced through the collared man in multiple places, clearly mortally wounding him. Vee supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. After all, Belos had killed his own brother according to Papi; what was to stop him from killing the man he thought was his father?

"I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE!" Belos shrieked. "NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME!" Wow, that was super possessive for someone who'd just killed said supposed father. Vee really hoped Belos wasn't about to make another grimwalker.

Vee was just about to take a risk and try to absorb Belos's magic when the windows exploded and several men in bulky looking black clothes wielding guns jumped in. The men fired their guns in Belos's direction, causing him to shriek in pain, but Vee couldn't help but notice that they didn't seem all that concerned about avoiding the people cowering on the ground with her.

As holes ripped through Belos's hide, his form twisted and mutated further. He had started off looking pretty much like the emperor everyone knew, but now he was some sort of bizarre looking sludge monster with a hundred eyes all over him and glowing light emerging from his mouth and eyes.

"What is that thing?" Masha whispered.

"Just a really silly man," Vee said simply.

Ms. Petrova nodded in agreement. "Shapeshift back into your human form now, Vee. We won't rat you out. We'll tell everyone you got out of your costume. We –" But Vee never found out the next thing the Petrovas would do, because Ms. Petrova abruptly stiffened and then blood pooled out of the corner of her mouth and she fell to the ground, a hole in the back of her head.

Masha let out a scream of agony and Vee wasn't going to let her new friend's death go unavenged. Heedless to the danger, Vee transformed into a wyvern and started breathing fire in the direction of these callous gunmen. She didn't care that they were Belos's enemies. They had hurt her friend and so they had to die. Vee watched with satisfaction as more than a dozen of the gunmen died in agony at the streams of fire that came out of her mouth.

"VEE!" a voice called out and Vee turned to see a bearded man standing next to Mami, pointing a gun at her head. "Surrender now. You can't hurt me without hurting Mrs. Noceda."

Unfortunately, the bearded man was right. Vee transformed back into her basilisk form and held out her hands. A gunman put handcuffs on her. Belos tried to sneak out through the back, but one of the men raised some sort of weird yellow gun and fired at him, causing him to fall to the ground, convulse, and then fall unconscious.

The bearded man walked over to Vee and examined her carefully. "Well. Seems you were telling the truth after all, Manuel. Good show. Of course, you understand we can't allow you to keep it. It'll spend the rest of its life in the Facility." Somehow, Vee knew instinctively both that this Facility was to be referred to with capital letters and would be even worse than the Conformatorium.

Papi let out a sob. "I…I understand, sir. Please, one family man to another, allow me a chance to say goodbye?"

Papi walked over to Vee, who prayed it was some trick. And thankfully, as Papi whispered his plan into her ear, she turned out to be right. Vee was really, really hoping his plan would work. They'd only get one chance, after all.

Manny wondered if he'd ever get to sleep in a bed again at this rate. Even if his scheme managed to work, he had messed up so epically that he feared his wife and girlfriend would never allow him to sleep anywhere but the couch ever again. Calling in Alexander seemed like a good idea at the time. He was the only man with both the firepower to stop Belos and even the remotest chance of believing him. Unfortunately, while both of those things had been true, everything had gone wrong and now Vee was in the same transport van as Belos in a field on the edge of town, about to be taken to the Facility, a place rumored to be the site of human experimentation that would make even Belos think they were taking things too far.

"Well, I just got off the line with the director," Alexander said chirpily. Manny was technically not under arrest and he never would be, but only because if he stepped a toe further out of line, he would be killed without bothering with arresting him first. Several agents were looking at him suspiciously, their guns not drawn but clearly ready to be drawn at a moment's notice. "Turns out he was at a Yale class reunion, so he'll be here in an hour! Ain't that grand?"

Manny scowled at him. Alexander strode over to him, looking at him with an almost pitying expression. "Look, Manuel, I know it's hard. But denial isn't going to help you. This changeling killed your niece and took her identity. She's not the girl you knew."

"She's not our niece!" Camila screamed. "She's our daughter and we love her and we want her back!" Manny would have done a facepalm if he wasn't afraid the slightest movement would get him shot.

"Hand her over to us, Mr. Alexander," Eda suggested. "Let us deal with her. Changelings don't get any quarter in the Boiling Isles."

Alexander shrugged. "We'll negotiate things when the director comes. He's the one with the authority to make these calls." He gave a big smile. "So how about those Yankees? Doing pretty well this year, am I right?"

Manny just glared at him and refused to say another word until a group of cars even fancier than the one Alexander had arrived in. Several men stepped out of the cars, all of them heavily armed. A man wearing an elegant suit and tie but also the most elaborate cowboy boots and ten gallon hat Manny had ever seen then stepped out of the car at the front of the convoy. This was the director of the CIA, a man Manny had only ever seen on television. The man who would be their salvation if Manny's plans succeeded – and their doom if they failed.

"You'd better make this good, Alexander," the director complained in the heaviest Texan accent Manny had ever heard. "I was having one heck of a party before you dragged me all the way out here."

"Oh, you'd better believe it, director," Alexander gloated. "For decades, I've told director after director there's so much more out there than we know, only to be laughed and mocked at every turn. But now I have proof! BEHOLD! A basilisk and some sludge monster!"

Alexander flung open the door to the transport van, only for his mouth to drop open at what he saw inside. Or, rather, what he didn't see inside, because there was no basilisk or sludge monster in the van. Vee had managed to drain all of the magic from Belos, leaving him into his original human form, and then transformed into her own human form. On cue, Vee started crying and screaming.

The director gave a sarcastic slow clap. "Oh, very impressive, Ben. Well done. A basilisk and a sludge monster. Super scary. You idiot. That's a hobo and a little girl!"

"My niece, sir," Manny said. "Mr. Alexander went off the deep end. She kidnapped my niece Vee and this hobo and started ranting about how they were monsters."

Alexander drew a pistol and pointed it at Manny's head with a shaking hand. "You did this! Tell her to change back! I'll kill you if you don't tell her to change back!"

"That's enough, Benedict," the director said, steel all over his voice. "Stand down immediately!"

Alexander snarled and then pointed the gun at the guards inside the van. "Tell them! Tell them there was a basilisk and a sludge monster here!"

The guards may have had a gun pointed at their heads, but they knew it didn't give Alexander the power in this situation. It was the director who had Alexander outnumbered, outgunned, and outmatched. At the end of the day, they may have been loyal to Alexander, but they weren't willing to sacrifice their future to him either. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Mr. Alexander," a guard said. "There's no one here but us humans."

Alexander let out a high pitched scream of rage and then swiveled around to face the director. But he forgot to put down the gun and promptly found himself peppered with bullets from the director's bodyguards. Alexander fell dead to the ground without making another sound.

"Let them go," the director commanded and the guards hastened to obey, dragging a still unconscious Belos and Vee out of the van. Vee ran over to Camila and hugged her tightly, seeming unwilling to let her go. "Now, if you'd care to give me an explanation, Agent Noceda, that'd be much appreciated."

Thankfully, Manny had already come up with a cover story. "Well, sir, I had been sent to Gravesfield to investigate strange, apparently supernatural occurrences. I found out they were actually the work of notorious con artist Marilyn Hawthorne." Eda smirked. "Her," Manny added and the smirk was wiped off of Eda's face. "I called Alexander to let him know it was another false alarm. Then he showed up here and he just snapped, sir. He suffered a psychotic break. Started hallucinating things. I'm not convinced he wasn't on drugs."

The director nodded. He believed Manny and it took all of Manny's self-control not to breathe a sigh of relief. "I was worried Benedict might lose it one of these days, but I never thought it would be this bad. I should have done something sooner, but the man saved my life once. You make allowances for people like that, you know." Manny did know. He'd had that experience more than once with his army cohorts. "Well, at the very least, we can all pretend this never happened. You, Hawthorne, if you forget about all this, I'll forget you were here too."

"Sounds more than fair," Eda said with a grin.

"Well, I've got to get back to work," the director said. "Those governments won't overthrow themselves, you know!" Manny gave a stilted grin. "Well, they might," he added, "but not in the way we want them to, hardy har har!"

"Hardy har, har, sir," Manny echoed dutifully.

The director slapped him on the back. "You'll deal with this hobo, okay, buddy? Cool, thanks, bye."

Manny watched as the director and the remaining agents – including the ones who used to be loyal to Alexander – proceeded to get into the convoy and drive away, leaving Manny alone with his daughter, wife, girlfriend, worst enemy, and boss's corpse. "I really hate that guy. See, I told you everything would work out."

"Everything didn't work out!" Vee shouted. "Ms. Petrova died!" Manny had no idea who Vee was talking about. "She was in the church. She helped me."

Manny sighed. "I'm sorry, sweetie. But at least you're going to be safe now."

"And now we can deal with Belos," Eda said, rolling up her sleeves and an unholy grin formed in her face.

"Not in my daughter's sight," Camila said sternly. "I'm going to take her back before we do anything. He so much as twitches, shoot him dead."

"Oh, Camila, bring back the memory tweezers, would you?" Manny said as a brilliant idea occurred to him.

Camila grabbed Vee's trembling hand and led her away. Fortunately, Manny's colleague had left the keys in the ignition of the van, so she was just able to drive the two of them away.

Belos opened his eyes and groaned. "Mr. Noceda, thank goodness! You freed me from that awful curse! It –" Eda snapped her fingers and Belos's mouth disappeared.

"You so much as twitch and I blow your brains out," Manny warned him. Belos glared fearsomely at him, but didn't make any further movements until Camila returned alone.

She held out the memory tweezers. "What are you going to do to him?" she asked. "How are we going to kill him?"

"We're not," Manny said.

Eda let out a gasp. "What the hell?! You do remember what he did? How he kidnapped our – your daughter, how he tried to commit genocide, how he hurt your children?!"

"I do, in fact, recall that, Edalyn," Manny said tartly. "Trust me, I have not forgotten. But I made a promise to Luz. I promised I would avoid killing people if I had another option. And I do." He leaned down and stared down Belos with a glare that must have been composed of pure ice. Fear danced in the once and future Gravesfielder's eyes. "We're going to wipe all of your memories of the Demon Realm, Belos. You'll be trapped in a world that's moved on without you, away from everything you've once loved and hated. Without magic, without your knowledge of the Demon Realm, you'll no longer be a threat. You don't matter anymore and it's time for us to move on."

Manny was expecting Eda to put up an argument, but she seemed to find the fate Manny intended to give Belos to be as satisfying as Manny found it. Camila just looked relieved. While Manny had no doubt she'd have no problems with killing Belos in combat or even in the heat of the moment, executing a helpless prisoner had no appeal to her.

Eda summoned a plank with construction magic and whacked Belos on the back of the head with it, knocking him unconscious. She then went to town with the memory tweezers.

"I'm so sorry, Camila," Manny said. "I messed up big time. Do you think you could ever forgive me?"

Camila pretended to think about it. "Well…I suppose I could be persuaded. With kisses."

Manny proceeded to make out with his gorgeous wife. "Was that persuasive enough?"

"Hey, save some for me!" Eda called out.

"It'll do for now," Camila said teasingly. "But later, I expect additional persuasion, mister."

"Your wish is my command."

When Eda was done wiping Belos's memories – or, Manny supposed, just Philip now – she restored Philip's mouth and they drove to a Best Buy and tossed Philip inside. That had been Camila's idea. It was the most disorienting thing she could think of for the seventeenth century witch hunter to wake up to.

And soon enough, they were back in the Demon Realm, visiting the Park parents in the hospital. Thankfully, they'd both managed to pull through. Manny decided right then and there: he was never going back to the Human Realm. Neither he nor Camila had any family who would miss them and there was nothing for them back there. The Demon Realm was his home now. It was where he belonged.

Six years later…

Masha Petrov had long considered themself an enby of ironclad self-control and it was taking them all the self-control they had not to punch their dad in the face right now. It was bad enough that their total asshole of a father had decided to send them to Reality Check Camp, but they'd just tossed their copy of the complete writings of Charles Fort in the trash can in front of the old abandoned house in the woods, and that was the absolute last straw.

Losing their mother had been hard on Masha to say the least, especially since they were the only person who loudly and proudly told the world what they'd actually experienced in that church instead of the insipid cover story of being attacked by terrorists wielding experimental hallucinogenic biochemical weapons. In the last six years, their relationship with their father had deteriorated immensely, especially after he'd turned to fundamentalism to cope with Mom's death. Masha would not renounce what they saw, no matter how many times Dad begged or threatened them. This, combined with their embrace of their nonbinary identity, had pretty much ended whatever love existed between father and child and led Dad to send them to Reality Check Camp to straighten them out, probably literally.

"You need to stop with this nonsense, Masha," Dad said sternly. "This isn't going to get you anywhere in life. There is no such thing as the supernatural. Your mother was killed by terrorists. And that's all there is to it. If you don't get your head in the game, you'll end up like that awful vagrant who thought he was Philip Wittebane." The vagrant in question, Masha recalled, had lived on the streets for a few years before dying of some disease last year, tuberculosis according to the rumor mill.

"Now I expect you to return home the obedient respectful girl I raised you to be," Dad went on, and Masha's face twitched at the deliberate misgendering, "am I understood?"

Masha bowed their head, knowing further argument was futile. "Yes, father."

Dad walked away without another word. As soon as he was gone, Masha rummaged through the trash can, looking frantically for their book. A melodic chirping sound resonated throughout the forest and Masha turned to see a butterfly, of all creatures, making off with a bag containing their book. "TINY TRASH THIEF!" Masha hollered and followed it through a door.

And then they came face to face with the last thing they'd expected to see: a basilisk. A basilisk just like the one they'd encountered before Mom had died! And she was drop dead gorgeous to boot. "Hi, sorry to interrupt, but have you seen –"

"MASHA?!" the basilisk shouted.

It couldn't be! "Vee?!" Masha said. "Oh my goddess, it's really you!"

The butterfly proceeded to form the head of a staff, but Vee tossed it aside and wrapped Masha in a huge hug. "It's really you! I wondered what had happened to you."

"How did you recognize me? It's been six years!"

Vee smiled. Masha felt butterflies in their stomach and, oh, no, did that mean what they thought it meant? "I'd recognize that tooth gap anywhere, silly!"

The door to what must have been a tent opened and a human woman walked in, along with an elf-like creature with chalk white skin. "Oh, hello there," the woman said with an awkward wave. "I'm Camila Noceda and this is my wife Eda. I see you two already know each other."

"Yeah, Vee's pretty," Masha said with a fond grin and then their brain caught up to what they'd just said. "PRETTY COOL, I MEAN!" Mrs. Noceda smirked. "So where am I?"

"Well, you're in the Boiling Isles, the home of all sorts of mythical creatures," Mrs. Noceda said. She pressed down on a sheet of paper and a ball of light flew into the air. "And magic. I came here six years ago with my husband and daughter. Now I have a wife too and three more children and a nibling." Polyamory was okay there? Awesome! Masha wondered if they were just as cool with nonbinary people. "It hasn't all been easy. There was a horrible dictator we had to get rid of. Now my sister-in-law Lilith is…well, she's a dictator too I suppose, what with the whole president for life thing, but she's not out to commit genocide, so we've definitely gone up in the world."

Masha took a deep breath, aware there was no going back from what they were about to stay. "Can I stay here and learn magic? I don't feel safe at home. My dad doesn't love me and he thinks I'm a girl, but I'm not! I'm nonbinary. And he keeps trying to pretend nothing supernatural happened at that church, and I just can't do it."

"Sure!" Vee said immediately. "We have plenty of room at the Owl House."

"We'll get you temporary accommodations there," Mrs. Noceda said, "until we can find a suitable family to place you with." She placed a hand on Masha's shoulder. "You're safe here, cariño. Any friend of Vee's is a friend of mine."

"Maybe more than a friend soon enough," Eda said with a smirk. Vee blushed.

Masha grabbed Vee's hand. "Lead the way, cutie!" they said with a wink.

"Looks like history is repeating itself, wouldn't you say, búho?" Mrs. Noceda said, and gave her wife a passionate kiss.