AIDAN

For the first time in a while, I slept without any disturbing dreams. My peaceful slumber only ended when a tear-stained Nadia and wide-eyed Lana woke me.

My vision was blurry, but everything sharpened after a few seconds. “I feel like I got punched by a giant.”

Nadia immediately hugged me. As we embraced, I looked at Lana’s tired face and watched relief spread across it. My breath caught from remembering the fight, the screaming, and the demonic knight. I returned Nadia’s hug, squeezing her, and thanked God she was okay.

Nadia pushed herself back, face and hands frantic. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you were there, and then you were there, but you didn't look like you, and I didn’t know it was you."

Lying on Nadia’s bed, I observed my surroundings and my lack of physical damage before glancing at the clock on Nadia's nightstand. It had only been a couple of hours. Best hours of sleep I'd had all week. I remembered the overabundance of fire, and with a straight face, looked at them. “Is my hair burnt off?” They laughed, but only for a moment. Both girls looked like they wanted to say something. My gaze shifted back and forth between them. Neither one seemed willing to say it. “What? What is it?”

Nadia glanced at Lana before turning to me. “Aid, you're not going to like it.”

After they finished relaying everything that happened and everything they thought happened, I paused to let the information sink in. "So, I’m dead since, without a pulse, I pretty much am." I got a nice confirmation from placing my hand to my heart and feeling the lack of beat. “One of you time me while I hold my breath.”

Nadia grabbed her phone and nodded when she had her stopwatch app ready. Five minutes passed and my lungs weren’t even strained. I stared at them with a defeated look on my face. "Now what? Defibrillators?”

Nadia sucked at her teeth. “Kind of already tried. Total non-starter.”

Lana breathed deeply and ran her hands through her hair. “You're going to have to fly under the medical radar, Aidan." She sounded more worried than the rest of us. "Normally, without a functioning heart, the body shuts down. Cells cease aerobic respiration which means the body is unable to maintain normal muscle biochemistry. Then there's the skin paling.”

Lana freaked me out with her lack of bedside manner. Not having a heartbeat didn’t stop my breathing from becoming shaky, or my palms from sweating. I swallowed the lump in my throat and stood from the anxiety building inside me. The girls looked like they didn’t know whether to stand or pull me back down.

I walked to the center of the room and yelled at the ceiling, or at least that’s how it appeared from a third person’s point of view. “Uh.” A nervous laugh escaped my mouth. “Mr. Serious! Can you hear me?! Um, I--I'm kind of losing it.” I yelled with every fiber of my being. “Am I dead?!”

Nadia was freaked and staring at me hard. “Girl, what is you doing?”

Lana slowly stood from the bed. "Aidan, what’s happening right now?”

I wrung my hands together, trying to keep it together. “Oh, you know. Just your typical existential crisis. Because I might be dead. And I can’t handle being dead!” I was about to start calling out again when someone stepped to my left.

Sure enough, Mr. Serious stood a few feet away appearing solemn. “You appear alive and well to me. What is all this about?”

I took a deep breath and raised my shaking hands. “Oh, my god. I am neither of those things and I’m about to have a psychotic break.”

The girls looked at each other utterly shocked and simultaneously stood. They both appeared unsure of what to do exactly.

Mr. Serious narrowed his gaze at me. “Aidan, this is hardly the time to lose your nerve." For a split second, I thought I saw red flash in his eyes. "We are on the brink of a worldwide apocalypse that will wipe out humanity, as it nearly did before.”

I pulled my arms around myself and hyperventilated. “You don’t understand. I have no pulse.”

Mr. Serious’ face remained stock still, not showing the slightest bit of confusion, or shock. “Your heart is still beating, but at an inhumanly low rate. Adjusted to accommodate the increase of adrenaline in your body. I don't imagine you’d enjoy having your heart explode.” His calm tone was having the opposite effect on me.

The fast breathing wasn’t helping to ease the chaos in my mind. “But what am I supposed to do if I need to see a doctor? Or need a transfusion? I can’t even donate blood. I mean, the monster mode was, at least, something I could get control of.”

Mr. Serious closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “Did it not occur to you when I told you that you were reincarnated from a cambion that there would be adjustments to your physicality? You are changing to accommodate what you once were. Your brain, the muscles, even your skin has been altered.” Mr. Serious looked at Nadia standing next to Lana. “Nadia’s own circulatory system has been entirely modified to allow excess electricity to run through her veins.”

I couldn’t control myself. The anxiety was peaking and there was no calming me down. My sanity evaporated as I lunged forward and grabbed Mr. Serious by the lapel of his suit, looking him dead in the face. “I—I can’t do this! The constant fighting, the weird dreams, the uncontrollable demonic powers. It’s too much. You gotta help me!”

Mr. Serious grabbed me by my shoulders and buried daggers into my eyes. “Maybe now the three of you will understand you are as much a threat as Amon’s generals. Get a handle on yourself. This is not a request. If you lose control of your abilities, I will deal with you myself.”

A bolt of electricity hit Mr. Serious square in the face before I jumped back. Nadia and Lana came forward and pulled me behind them.

Lana was glaring at Mr. Serious. “Get him, Nadia.”

Nadia rushed towards Mr. Serious until their faces were a few inches apart. “Boy, you better back the hell off. You done lost yo’ mind if you think you about to come up in my house and threaten anybody. I wasn’t gonna say anything, but after seeing Aidan change into a full-on demon, you better start speaking some truth.”

Maybe my anxiety was still making me dizzy, but the temperature in the room seemed to skyrocket. “What do you mean full-on demon?”

Nadia kept her gaze on Mr. Serious. “Right after I switched to barbecuing the knight from hell, you were suddenly there and I blasted the heat as high as it would go.” She lifted her hands and turned to me. “In my defense, you never once looked even remotely like yourself until after you killed that knight.”

I ground my teeth at Nadia’s words. “What? What does that mean? Oh, god. I can’t be randomly changing, least of all in public.” I turned back to Mr. Serious. “Please, I swear I’ll pull it together but there’s got to be something you can do.”

Mr. Serious seemed bewildered, staring at Nadia. “Full demon? That’s impossible. I’ve never seen or heard of a cambion achieving full demonic transformation.” Mr. Serious sighed and shook his head. “Regardless, tell me more of this attack and what transpired.”

We filled Mr. Serious in on everything, with Nadia and Lana doing most of the talking towards the end since I had been napping.

Mr. Serious gave Nadia a slight smirk. “I’m sure it was quite traumatic for everyone involved. Especially for Nadia who got a glimpse of a true demon. Tell me Nadia, how bad was it?”

Nadia lounged back in bed and checked her phone. “If you’d seen what I did to Aidan, you’d know exactly how bad. What’s worse is I heard his roar before Aidan even showed.”

I coughed my words, hitting a joint to calm myself. “And completely involuntary. Like every other time, my body and instincts were working without my input.”

“As usual, you scratch only the surface." Mr. Serious gave me a withering look. "Nadia’s flames fueled your ferocity, and caused you to draw on all of your power, thereby manifesting your demonic form.”

Lana was dangling her feet over the bed’s edge. “So, it’s like when you close all the vents in a car except for one and then crank the a/c to full blast?”

Mr. Serious looked baffled by Lana's conclusion but still nodded before checking his watch.

I breathed deeply as my mind and body finally reached a relaxed state. “At least it wasn’t all bad. The invisibility thing was pretty handy. It could be useful for the element of surprise. Although, I don’t get why Nadia couldn’t hear me. I was screaming her name at the top of my lungs.”

Mr. Serious ran his hands down his face and sighed in obvious frustration. “It is not invisibility. Otherwise, you would’ve been imperceptible, even to yourself. The ability you speak of is called cloaking. It renders you undetectable, even to motion and sound detectors. Your atoms vibrate at a unique frequency. It is as though you are nowhere. Only another entity with traces of demonic blood could touch, and possibly see you while cloaked.”

Nadia threw her phone down next to her and leaned forward on the bed. “Okay, this is so not fair. He gets a new power every time he breathes while I’ve only got electricity and fire under my belt.” She moved from the bed to her vanity to turn on her flat iron.

Lana adjusted her position on the bed, taking Nadia’s spot. “At least you have powers. I’m still waiting for mine to show. If this continues, I’m gonna have to buy a gun.”

I shook my head and raised my eyebrows. “Well, you can always borrow one from Chris. He's got like five hunting rifles. Besides, it’s less like I have powers and more like powers have me.”

Lana leapt from the bed and maneuvered towards the door. “I'd at least like to protect myself. I’d also really like a drink right about now.”

Mr. Serious glanced around the room. “While I’m here, I should inform you three that the ritual will be happening this Saturday.” A hush settled over us before we looked at each other. Mr. Serious broke it with his usual, barely above a whisper, tone. "I'm pleased to see everyone appears to be keeping it together. As the ritual is set for Saturday, I'll see you three on Friday for preparations."

I crossed my arms and bit my bottom lip. “If we even last till Friday. Anything could drop by and kill us in our sleep. Locked doors don’t even keep you out. We’d need—oh, my god!” Everyone, even Lana who had scurried back into the room stopped to look at me. "Would it be possible to set a barrier, or maybe even a repellent around the house, so we can train without any more uninvited guests?"

For a few seconds, Mr. Serious didn’t move or speak, much like a disturbing mannequin. "Perhaps. We can't know for sure if Sophia and the other generals are privy to your address. It's possible they are merely following the stone’s pull.” He paced around the room. “However, if that is true, then every dark creature within this continent would have experienced its draw by now."

Lana stepped back in, taking quick sips from her martini. "You would know."

He rolled his eyes at her for a moment. "It's not enough to hide the three of you here. The barrier would have to be as strong as the Nexus Stone. And as the three of you have recently learned, the stone seems to still hold quite a bit of the power we thought lost."

I pulled the necklace from my pocket, using more care than ever before. "Why not use the necklace itself, then?" At my words, Lana paused from sipping her drink, and Nadia stopping flat-ironing her hair. "Okay, listen. You said we would need power comparable to the necklace to shield it. But if we tap into its power, it can hide itself."

Nadia gently set her flat iron down and turned to me. "Aidan, you know, along with everyone else in this damn room, there is no way you're ready to dip into that much power. Especially not from the Devil’s necklace. It might as well have a sticker on it saying made in hell." I lifted my hand to stop Nadia from going off on a tangent. She leered at me for a second and pursed her lips.

I pointed to both girls. "I know, I know. But, guys, don’t y’all remember? I've already tapped into the necklace. We all have."

Mr. Serious showed actual interest again. "Yes. When the three of you witnessed the memory of Nadia’s previous incarnation meeting in the woods."

I raised an enthusiastic finger. "Exactly. We didn't mean to and I still don't understand how Lana and Nadia can touch the necklace, but we accessed it together and nobody lost control or got hurt. I think it's because the power was divided between us instead of fully concentrated into one individual. We could try tapping into it again, except we would focus on our intent instead of something random happening."

Mr. Serious locked his gaze with mine and raised his hand in the air. He clenched his hand into a fist before Nadia, Lana, and I flew to the center of the room. Facing away from each other, the three of us formed a triangle. I tried to move my mouth to protest, but couldn’t move a muscle. The only thing I could do was panic with my eyes.

Mr. Serious slowly sat on Nadia’s vanity stool and regarded us as he crossed his arms and legs. "Your theory for the barrier may in fact be correct, but we need to prepare for unseen risks. Intentionally using the Nexus Stone’s power could have disastrous results. The three of you are bound to that spot and should anything adverse happen, it will be locked to only you three. There will be no need to speak." Mr. Serious caught sight of my confused expression. "Use your telepathy, Aidan. Connect with Nadia and Lana's minds to act as one."

I blinked hard at him to show my understanding before closing them.

Lana twitched next to me. "I'm so glad I already finished my drink."

I grunted in agreement. "Starting to wish I had had one."

"Oh, my god, Aidan." Nadia sucked at her teeth. "Why do you think so loud?"

I let out a heavy sigh at Nadia's constant whining. "Seems a bit ironic coming from you." I managed a few muffled sounds at Mr. Serious for his attention until he finally picked up on my signal.

He lifted one hand and gently waved it in my direction. "The stone is in your hand. Your minds are connected. All that is left is for the three of you to see the barrier grow from it."

Lana grunted. "Easy for him to say. His bladder isn't bursting."

"Does he even use the bathroom? Or have genitals?" Nadia thought.

My stomach spasmed as I tried to keep from laughing. "Please don't make me laugh. It really hurts since I can't move anything." I breathed deeply and steadied myself. "Okay, you two ready?"

"Oh, I already started." Lana thought. "Sorry."

"Wait for me to project the image into y’alls’ minds first, and then start concentrating. Alright, here we go." I did my best to focus on an invisible layer surrounding the house and projected the image to Nadia and Lana.

"Got it," Nadia thought.

"Me too," Lana said.

I focused on the necklace, trying to see a connection form between the barrier and the Nexus Stone. At first, I thought there was a tingling sensation, but after a few seconds, the feeling went away.

"Guys, are y'all concentrating with me?" I thought to Nadia and Lana.

"Obviously. We've got literally nothing else we could be doing," Nadia said sarcastically.

"There must be something I'm missing. I've imagined the barrier and I've imagined the necklace connecting with the barrier." I thought becoming frustrated.

"What about us?" Lana thought in response. "Shouldn't we also be imagining us connecting with the barrier and necklace since we are, technically, acting as conduits?"

My eyes widened. "It's worth a shot." I projected the image of the invisible barrier, then the necklace, and finally, the three of us connecting the two together.

The reaction from the Nexus Stone was instant. Power from the necklace shot from my hand into the three of us. Our bodies stretched and spasmed uncontrollably. The room warped around us like a kaleidoscope. Reality seemed to be shifting without settling. The world peeled away to an underlying layer of blackness before we dissolved into it. I didn't see myself or the girls, only the blackness surrounding me as I fell.

A few seconds later, I came to an abrupt stop with my body colliding into something hard. I opened my eyes and experienced the mother of all hangovers. "Oh, it hurts. It hurts so bad." My body was in agony.

Nadia moaned next to me.

Lana rolled onto her side and wailed. "Worst idea ever."

I lifted my head and saw both of their faces a few inches from my own. "That sucked on every level, and in every sense of the word." I stood and looked around at the grassy clearing we had landed on.

Nadia pushed herself off the ground. "Ugh! Where the hell are we now? I don’t see no barrier. I don’t even see the damn house!"

The girls took a little longer and by the time they were standing, I was already in shock.

"What's the matter?" Lana asked in reference to me pointing ahead of us. She turned to see what I saw and also went wide-eyed.

"What is go-" Nadia stopped when she also looked down our line of sight. "Is that a frickin’ castle?" Nadia looked past it to see what Lana and I were really staring at. "Oh, my god," Nadia yelled. "What’s wrong with the moon? Is that blood?" She stared in utter disbelief at a full moon with what seemed to be blood poured onto it. "Is that blood on the moon?!"

Lana drew my attention to a figure walking toward us. "Guys."

Nadia’s hands erupted with flames.

I froze knowing we were in full view with nowhere to hide. Staring at the individual, my sight somehow zoomed in on their face. "Oh, uh, Nadia, you can go ahead and put that out. It's Lucy. From our little trip to the forest with your past self."

They both turned around with Nadia looking at me like I was a freak. "You can see that chick’s face from all the way back here, at night?"

I threw my hands up at her in as much disbelief as the rest of them. "I mean, at this point, I’ve stopped questioning why I can do the things I can."

Lana’s gaze was still on Lucy approaching us. "Obviously, we’re in the past again, but when is this?"

I pointed towards the sky. "If that's the Blood Moon, and no one's fighting yet, this is probably right before the whole battle happened."

After a few more minutes, Lucy was finally a few yards from us. We tried waving at her to see if we could interact, but she couldn’t perceive us. Lucy came to where we were and stopped to look around the area.

Nadia walked towards Lucy and stared at the woman's amber locks. "Lord. Miss thang got some nice hair. Like real nice." She frowned while comparing the ends of her hair to Lucy's.

Oblivious to our presence, Lucy sat, crossed her legs, and stared at the moon. She didn't do much of anything for about thirty minutes, except stare at the blood-stained moon. The three of us quickly lost interest. As Nadia, Lana, and I lay on the grass, I tried deducing a way home.

From the very spots on the ground where we sat, white light threaded its way through the grass. I quickly stood as the girls shrieked before following my lead. The white light snaked through the dirt towards Lucy still sitting. The light circled around her and broke into weird looking symbols. Lucy stood and placed her palms together. First, she pointed them towards the castle. Then, she pulled her palms towards her body and pointed them up. Finally, she raised her pointed palms over her head towards the sky.

Lana’s face twisted in confusion. "Is she doing yoga?"

We turned our attention back to Lucy, who was still standing with her palms pointed above her. Seconds later, the white light around her changed to a deep blood red while Lucy expanded her arms down before she rose into the air.

I was enthralled by how majestic she was hovering sixty feet above the ground. Her amber hair floated around her, even though there was no wind.

"Bring forth the warriors." At Lucy’s words, the symbols of red light rose from the ground. One changed into an image of Nadia’s past life incarnation while the other warped into the other warriors previously seen in the forest. What shocked me more than anything was seeing twice the number of people this time, as there were images of warriors we hadn’t seen.

Before I could get a good look at the other heroes, Lucy began to glow red like the symbols. The remaining threads of light on the grass shot up and coalesced above Lucy’s still floating body. "Let the Blood Moon's power bind them with the Nexus Stone." The light above her reshaped until it looked identical to the Nexus Stone.

Nadia gasped, realizing what we were watching. The images of our past life selves vibrated for a moment before shooting into the image of the Nexus Stone. The light hovering above Lucy intensified until finally exploding. The force of which pushed Nadia, Lana, and I back, yanking us into a tunnel of kaleidoscopic lights. The three of us were hyperventilating hard when we hit the floor in Nadia’s room.

Nadia was wheezing. "Never again."

I pulled myself from the floor by grabbing onto the dresser. Mr. Serious didn’t seem bothered by our return as he continued to scroll through his phone. Nadia was the first to notice Mr. Serious’ lack of interest and stuck her middle finger up at him.

I grabbed at my side to ease a cramp while trying to breathe. "Did we do it?"

Mr. Serious returned his phone to his jacket pocket and stood from Nadia’s vanity stool. “Yes, but it will only be active when one of you is home."

I nodded vigorously while breathing through my nose. "Good to know. Listen—oh, god it hurts--we witnessed another one of those trips to the past." A sharp pain in my side made me wince. "Long story short, Lucy used some crazy magic and connected all the warriors to the Nexus Stone the night of the Blood Moon." I bent over because the talking was making my cramp worse. "I'm gonna take a wild guess, and say that since we were the last ones connected to the necklace before it was locked away, we're still connected to it and the reason why Nadia and Lana can touch it." For the first time, Mr. Serious was at a loss for words. "We good?" I was still in so much pain from the abrupt travel. "We're good,” I answered for him.

Mr. Serious understood what was happening and gave the three of us small smile before dissipating into a misty haze.

Lana let out a pained wail. "Finally. He's gone."

The three of us fell to the floor and passed out from exhaustion.