The roommate of Diana thinks for a moment, before nodding. “Let him run away if he tries, but otherwise, kill him.”

I nod, turning my attention back to the Hunter. I raise my sword, my body naturally moving into one of the forms I had learned a long time ago. “Will you try to run?” I ask him.

The Hunter hesitates, before shaking his head and pointing his swords at me. “I am on a hunt.”

I frown, I had hoped that he would run.

In the blink of an eye, the Hunter slashes with both of his swords. I step into the shadows, disappearing from in front of him only to reappear at his side. He doesn’t react in time, and I chop off his arm, grimacing as I do.

The Hunter leaps away from me a moment too late, his arm already beginning to heal.

“Will you run?” I ask again, knowing that this would be the last time I would ask.

“I am on a hunt.”

“Very well.” I answer.

My shadow explodes from me, blinding him as I teleport behind him and chop off his head.

It rolls to the ground unceremoniously.

My mind roils with emotions, my eyes stuck on the corpse as it falls to the ground. “Have I sinned?” I ask curiously to no one in particular.

Blood pours out of the Hunter’s body, falling all over the alleyway that the girl had led us into. The pain hits me again, the feeling of weightlessness as my head leaves my body, the confusion as I watch my corpse fall to the ground, and the pain that I feel from my neck. Another life ended. Will his children wonder why he won’t return? I feel the pain that his family will feel when they realize that he is never coming home.

I feel it.

And I hate it.

But I know that I would not get rid of it, because I know that I deserve it.

How strange.

“No. You took that life to protect another. You have not sinned.” The girl says, standing up.

My attention turns to her, my eyes not really seeing her as I think.

“Thank you.” She says softly.

My attention fully turns to her as those words hit me like a dragon in flight. What is this? Why do those words make me so happy? I’m happy that she is grateful to me. I am happy that she is safe because of me? I don’t know!

Why does empathy have to be so complicated?

I hide my emotions with a poker face that has been perfected over my lifetime. I’m about to respond when I sense the power of a failed hunt.

Whoever tried to kill this girl knows that the hunt failed.

They will send more Hunters and great spirits above, those bastards are nothing if not persistent.

“You need to find someone to call off the hunt.” I say to the girl, ignoring the mess that is my mind.

“I know.” She says pausing, “I-I don’t exactly know where the Fae entrances are around here.”

I raise an eyebrow at her.

She blushes, looking away. “It’s a long story. In the meantime, can we move away from that?” She points at the body and head still on the floor.

I do my best not to think about them as I hold my hand out to her. She looks at my hand for a moment, then looks up into my eyes. After a moment, she reaches out to grab my hand. “I’ve been told that this makes people feel nauseous.” I warn her.

I don’t give her a chance to respond as I teleport us to somewhere familiar to me.

I never can remember the name of the city, but the atmosphere certainly changed compared to last night. Much less party oriented. I lead us towards the old timey tavern.

The girl stops almost immediately, holding her stomach as she leans against the wall we’d teleported to.

I stop to wait for her, and after a moment, she nods for us to continue.

“Where are we?” The girl asks once her face stopped looking green.

“I always forget the name of this city. But it’s one of the few major ley lines left in the industrialized world.” I respond. “You can find all sorts of magical things here. Including an entrance to the Fae realm. One of the few safe ones I know of. It’s safeguarded by a princess of the spring court, and a twilight fae.”

The girl is quiet for a moment, before asking“Why did you help me?” she asks.

I glance sideways at her. “I’ve been forcibly given a conscience and I couldn’t watch you die. Believe me, there’s also some personal gain involved.”

She smiles at my answer, her tenseness seeming to disappear. “Isn’t this a little much then? Why take me all the way here after you’ve already saved my life?”

I chuckle at my own stupidity. “I honestly have no idea.”

We arrive at the tavern, and as we walk through the doors, the girl mumbles to me, “I-I’m only nineteen.”

I ignore her with a snort as I walk up to the bartender. The girl follows me as conspicuously as possible, looking every which way, as if she expected the police to come bursting in.

“It’s twenty-one and older.” The bartender says pointing at the sign.

“I’m just here for some Old Monster Gin and a Bloody Mary. I also know the owner.” I add.

“Oh. I see.” the bartender says, leading us to the door. As we pass through, I hear him whisper to the girl “Careful. The kind of folk that come through these doors aren’t the safest to be around.”

I feel the girl look at me at that comment, considering. After a moment, she nods with resolution. “I trust him.” She whispers back to the bartender.

Stupid girl.

“What’s your name?” I ask her. “I can’t keep thinking of you as ‘girl’.”

“Amaryllis. Most people call me Amy. You haven’t told me your name-” She pauses as she takes in the scene of the cat eared serving girls, walking through tables filled to the brim with different creatures.

Even a dragon seems to have stopped by, in a humanoid form of course. The powerful creature is lazily lying on a cushion as it speaks with a young vampire.

Two red skinned demons are playing cards with a lizard-like woman whose skin seems to change colors every moment.

A myriad of other people fill the room with various conversations.

I look down at the young Fae, sighing. “Stick close to me and don’t talk to anyone without me listening in. I wouldn’t want to let you agree to sell yourself into eternal servitude.” Amy looks up at me sharply at that. I continue, ignoring her look “And my name is-”

“Leo!” A sensual feminine voice calls out, getting some attention. Now in her prettier, younger form, Tyra slips away from two demons, likely lords, who look extremely annoyed at me right now. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until tomorrow.” She says, hugging me, and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

I glare at her, knowing very well what she is doing. I don’t want any demons developing a grudge against me.

“Please play along.” she whispers, before turning to my companion. “And who is this lovely young woman?”

It seems that my show of affection last night has made her bolder in her actions. I’m certain that she would have never annoyed me a hundred years ago.

Amy looks up at me, uncertain if she is allowed to talk. I nod for her to go ahead.

“My name is Amy.” Amy says

“It’s wonderful to meet a friend of Leo’s. There are surprisingly few of them these days.” Tyra hugs my arm, making me sigh as the demons look at me with jealousy. Her hugging my arm in this form brings up strange emotions that I’d rather not deal with right now.

“And what are you doing here with Leo, Amy?” Tyra asks.

“Leo was helping me out with-”

“We need to use the gate Tyra.” I interrupt Amy before she says anything she shouldn’t. “I’d let Amy explain, but there are a lot of ears in this room.”

Tyra nods, and gracefully leads us towards a private room, her hand somehow entangled with mine. Leave it to a sex demon to somehow touch me without me noticing. Once the door is shut, Tyra lets go of my hand, and turns to me, a frown on her face. “What are you doing Leo? You know better than to get involved with the Fae courts.”

I open my mouth to respond, but Amy beats me to it. “He doesn’t need to help me past this point, I just need to travel to the Fae realms, and I know the way from there.”

I frown at Amy “how old were you when you last entered the Fae realms?” I ask knowing that I wouldn’t like the answer.

Amy looks away, before muttering “I was ten.”

I wince, even younger than I thought.

“You’ve changed Leo.” Tyra says suddenly, wonder in her voice. “It’s less of an act than it used to be.”

I look away, having no desire to explain myself to Tyra. “I’ll just be taking her to a royal of her court and back. Nothing more.”

“Why do I think that there is definitely something more?” Tyra asks.

“I’m being targeted by the Hunt.” Amy says, “If you can convince Leo to stay because of that, you should. I don’t want someone else getting hurt because of me.”

We both stare at her, before Tyra bursts into laughter, “If you think I could convince Leo of anything, then you must think me a god. I’ll take both of you to the gate.” Tyra pauses, “Leo… just be careful. Even you would have trouble if Fae royalty gets involved.”

I smile at Tyra. “You underestimate my ability to not die.”

“When you’ve been alive as long as we have, you know that anything’s possible.” Tyra says, a small amount of worry leaking into her tone. She glances towards Amy, then glances back to me, “Last night has me worried.”

“You know I make more enemies than friends. I’m used to it by now. You can count on me being back before the day is over, I have an appointment with some form of assassin tonight.”

Tyra smiles cunningly, “Oh? Do tell.”

I sigh, matching her cunning smile with one of my own “Top secret godly matters. You understand, right darling?”

Tyra’s smile widens dangerously as she gets the message. Darling is a bit of a code word between us. She understands that I personally hate the term, and I only use it when someone could be listening in on our conversation.

Being old friends has its benefits.

Amy clears her throat, a slight blush on her cheeks.

I snort at Amy’s expression, and turn back to Tyra, “We should hurry, no doubt the Hunt will be knocking on your doors soon.”

Tyra nods, leading us into another backroom, this one more like a garden.“I’ll make sure to tell them that you took this gate into their realm.”

I gently grab Amy’s hand and lead her into the center of a circle of dandelion flowers.

“Of course,” I respond.

The world curves in on itself as reality bends and space distorts.

A moment later, we are in a beautiful cherry grove, the light just starting to fade as the world is cast in twilight. Blossoms are blooming on the trees, and a squirrel happily chitters amongst the branches.

I feel the displeasure of the princess of the spring court wash over me at my presence. She never did like me. Her attention briefly lingers on Amy, before graciously deciding not to interfere with either of us being in her grove.

Amy herself has changed now that we are in the Fae Realms. Her eyes, which used to be a normal human brown, now hold the starry night sky in them, their shape now more similar to a cat’s. A small sapphire tiara adorns her forehead, her hair having taken on a silvery sheen.

My shadows shiver slightly at the feel of the Fae magic all around me, I have no desire to stay in these lands longer than I need to.

Turning to Amy, and doing my best to ignore the dislike of the spring princess, I ask “Who do you seek that has the power to call off the hunt?”

Amy breathes deeply, her eyes turning to me with a newfound confidence. The Fae magic was no doubt doing wonders for her after being without it for so many years. “Who else but the leader of the hunt himself? Oberon’s heir, Telerion.”

Great. He doesn’t like me either.