I sighed as I leaned back into the chair in my parents' apartment, trying not to listen to them as they discussed next steps. Dinah slept in my lap, her body curled into a tight ball atop my thighs. I stroked her soft fur with one hand, my gaze still placed on the wooden floors and the tapestry rug that framed the king-sized bed.

It had been two nights since the events in the infirmary, and I had been forced to stay within our assigned rooms on the second floor while the coven went back to a tension-filled silence. Thaddeus and Mother had been careful to keep me distracted with other topics. But it hadn't stopped my questions about my brother, the coven commander, and her second-in-command.

Thaddeus had promised that Marcus was fine and was recovering quickly. The Second had been discharged from the infirmary, but remained confined to his bedroom on the third floor so he could finish healing. Seren Winslow and Nathaniel focused all of their attention on making Elizabeth better. When I had asked, no one would tell me if she was going to make it.

During the early morning hours the night before, I had heard Nathaniel, Kearran, and my parents in the hallway, along with Seren and Thaddeus. Their words were muffled, but I had tried to tune my ears in to listen with what vampiric senses I had developed. Afraid they would know I was eavesdropping, I stayed in bed with my eyes closed. I didn't want anyone to know I was aware how dire the situation had become.

Elizabeth had been unable to heal entirely from the extensive wounds on her chest and neck. Seren and Nathaniel had managed to make her comfortable after a few transfusions to help flush the lycanthropy virus from her veins. She'd suffered consistent seizures and her heart had gone into arrest three times. And while none of them had been willing to voice the words out loud, I gathered their concern and dread:

She might not survive.

And if she didn't recover, Seren had warned my parents that Avalon would have to be held responsible. When Father disagreed, the grand elder had tried to placate him that it wasn't out of malice for our family; it was just the way things were. The law was the law. That discussion had led to three separate conversations between my mother and father as they tried to come to terms with our latest reality.

I glanced up as Father placed his half-empty glass on the coffee table, picking up the matching decanter of amber whiskey beside it. He took off the crystal topper and poured the contents into the snifter, the liquid sloshing against the sides of the glass. He placed the bottle back on the table, but didn't bother to put the lid back on it. He sighed heavily when Mum continued her previous thoughts.

"Logan, we can't stay. It isn't safe here any longer," she said, her tone frantic despite her whisper.

"I don't care," he replied. His voice was slightly slurred, and I was certain it was thanks to his diet of bourbon and blood that he'd consumed consistently since the night of the attack. "I'm not leaving him."

Mother sighed heavily and shook her head again. "We don't have a choice."

"No!" he snapped, more force behind his tone as his frustration was replaced with outright anger. "We are not leaving."

Mum inhaled another breath, her shoulders stiffened. "Moon Worshippers are aware of the Shadow Stalker coven operations here, and we're still operating at half of the usual strength this coven owns. It wouldn't take much for them to completely blitz the American forces entirely. We are sitting ducks here. Not to mention now that the Wolves are back. We know what they're capable of!"

"Fuck the Wolves," Father replied, taking another long drag from his glass.

"Logan, they're here. They know we are, too. Are you seriously not going to put any weight behind what that Wolf said?" she asked. "The Cold Waves are still around. Njáll could still be alive and out in the woods looking for you, for our family. When Connor—"

"Enough!" Dad snapped, cutting her short. "Don't you dare say that name out loud."

Mum's face turned from concerned to offended. "You know just as well as I do that he could still be out there. They swore they would not stop until you are gone. Do you honestly think they'll spare our children? Look what they've done to Avalon! I'm not going to stay here when they could do the same to Eris, to this one," she went on, her hands wrapping around her stomach. "We cannot stay here any longer. We put the prophecy in danger just by being here. We have to move Eris somewhere safer, outside the reach of the Wolves and Moon Worshippers."

Father's head shook as he took another drink from his glass. "No."

She inhaled another breath, and I watched as she steeled her body to brace for impact. Just as I wanted to beg for them to stop fighting, Dinah leapt off my lap and made a dash for the door. I tried to call her back before she could disappear into the hallway, but Father spoke again.

"This is why we should have never invested in this mess from the very beginning," he growled. "I should have known better than to put faith behind Dracula's words."

"You and I both know that choice is no longer an option," Mother said, her tone flat with resentment. "It's too far in motion now."

He took another drink of whiskey. His head shook as he turned away to look out the window. "It was suicide, to make this move. We ruined our happiness for nothing, just more death and destruction. Avalon deserved better. And now his life hangs in the balance all because of some fucking words on a piece of fucking paper."

My eyes widened. I looked away again, glancing at Mum as her face fell.

"They aren't just words on a piece of paper," she snapped, angry. "They're your daughter's future. All of our futures," she shot back.

"And what future is that? More death. I should have known they would all come for us. Our lives will always get torn apart. What's the point?"

Mother inhaled another breath, her cheeks turning pink with her frustration. "And I have torn apart my life for you, time and time again. I won't do it anymore, not when our children depend on us. We need to leave, with or without Avalon, for all of our safety."

Dad whipped around to face her again. "I'm not leaving him!"

"He's turned into a wild animal just like the original hybrid! There's no knowing if he will ever be himself again," she yelled back, unafraid to match his volume with her own.

"He could learn! He just needs time!"

Her head shook again. "I don't care, Logan! The point is, is that Avalon has turned twice now in forty-eight hours and is completely confused! He nearly killed Elizabeth, and Marcus may lose his arm still!" my mother retorted, her voice cold and hard.

I inhaled a short breath, getting anxious by their growing argument. They hardly ever fought, and never in front of me or Avalon.

"He is still my son! I am not going to let him get put up for trial for attacking a politician when he can't even comprehend what's happening to him. He deserves better!" Father barked, his words coated with alcohol.

"Our son, Logan," Mum corrected firmly, her hands gripping into fists at her sides. "And as his mother, I have to take responsibility for what he's done! We need to get him far away from our other children. What if he had gotten to Eris instead of Elizabeth? What then, if she were the one clinging to life by a thread when our whole world depends on us to guide her?"

Father shook his head hard. He slammed his glass down and advanced on her with a ferocity I had never seen in him before. I got to my feet, pausing when he stopped just short of getting in her face. "So you would rather abandon him? Because he's not the same person he was just nights ago?"

My mother's face went blank before filling with shock and heartbreak. Her hand rose and slapped him hard across his cheek.

"Mum!"

"How dare you," she hissed, ignoring my reaction, her tone now a harsh whisper, "how dare you insinuate I am no better than Loraine? I took that boy in as my own flesh and blood long before you claimed him. I have never abandoned him. How dare you tell me I am no better than the woman who left you both behind, who would rather see you both dead?"

The power of her words seemed to break his temper. I saw Father's brow smooth and his mouth drop open as the slap knocked him out of his anger and he sobered from his rage. He hadn't meant to imply such a deep stab, and he now quickly tried to come up with the words to say so.

I hardly ever heard either of them mention his previous family, the one that had included him and Avalon with someone else in the role of mother and wife. It was a subject often ignored and glossed over when family history questions arose during our lessons. Avalon himself had said he never remembered any other mother from as far back as his memory stretched; Ranelle Faire was the only mother he'd ever known. He didn't even talk about our father's previous wife other than to express that he didn't want to know her, if she was still out there.

"Ranelle, I'm—"

"No," she snapped, not letting him get another word out. She didn't want to know if it was an apology or another sleight. "I'm done. Eris, pack your suitcase. We're going to London tonight."

"But, Mum—"

She shot me a look that meant I shouldn't disobey. She was serious. "Pack your things, and I'll have Thaddeus arrange us a car to the airport. Go on."

"Ranelle, wait," Father said from behind us as she grabbed my arm and guided me towards the door of their bedroom. "Ranelle. You can't leave. We don't know if they're watching the airports."

"I don't care," she answered, not turning to look at him as she and I exited into the hallway. "We'll find a way out of this miserable country, with or without you." She pressed me into my open door and stepped in behind me.

I turned around to look at them just as Dad caught up to her in the hall outside my room. "Ranelle, you can't fly that far like this," he said, trying to keep his voice calmer now that they were in the public domain. His hand reached for her baby bump, but she retreated. "I can't let you put yourself in that situation. But I'm not leaving Avalon here alone."

She glared at him again. "I'll manage. You're drunk, and you don't get to speak to me like that and still call the shots. I have been everything I ever could be for this family. And here you defile my effort with a backhanded comment fitting to have come from Hadrian. Eris and I are leaving. You can stay here and do as you wish. But I will not sit around idle since you refuse to accept the danger you put your family in, just by us staying. And all because you can't see where I'm coming from."

She stepped into my room and closed the door hard before Dad could say something more. She leaned against the wood. "Don't make me lock this door, Logan Mezdor. Walk away right now."

I stared at her, shocked, as tears began to well up in my eyes. I had never heard them speak like that to one another, and I knew the words were honest and hurtful. I heard my father sigh heavily from the corridor before the sounds of his footfalls led away from the door. I looked back at my mother as she sighed, too, in the sudden silence.

"Mum?" I asked quietly, not understanding.

She regained her breath and ran her hands over her baby bump, as if the action would calm her. "I'm sorry, darling," she said, her voice soft and back to its normal tone. "Let's get you packed up before it gets much later."

"Where are we going?" I begged.

She moved away from the door and over to the closet to help corral my things. "Nathaniel and Kearran will want to stay here with Elizabeth and Marcus while they recover, which means our London coven house has no one to serve as Second behind Marcius, Marcus's father, and handle the nightly operations. It'll be safer for you there than us going home to New Zealand alone."

"But what about Dad and Avalon?" I asked, opening my jewelry box to start putting away my pieces while she laid clothes on the bed. "What's going to happen to him?"

"I don't know," she said with another heavy sigh. "But it's not safe for you two to be in close proximity while he can't control himself. He's turning into something else. There's no telling if he'll ever be himself again."

I shook my head, not understanding what that meant. "I don't want to leave him."

"I know, but we must," she said.

"No, I can't, Mum. Avalon would never leave us!" I fought back, shaking my head harder.

Mum turned around to face me from where she had crossed towards the bathroom, wiping her tears from her eyes. Her face turned firm. "You don't yet know what this world is like, Eris. It's dangerous. We cannot stay here. Now that our enemies know we're here, it isn't safe. If and when it is, your brother will rejoin us. But we cannot wait any longer, do you understand me?"

I nodded, my chin unable to stop bobbing up and down. After that, I didn't fight. The pain on her face and in her body language was obvious. The comments that had been made cut her deeply, and I could only go along with her plan so as not to break her heart any further. I packed up the rest of my jewelry and then took over packing my clothes. She leaned against the mattress and watched; but I knew she was lost in her mind, replaying the scene that had just unfolded before us. I made quick work of my closet and then put away the laptop and coven's chain of command chart in my tote bag. I then grabbed my small thing of makeup from the bathroom and finished putting the last of my belongings in the suitcase.

A knock on the door sounded, and I looked up from my task. "Enter," I called, hoping it was my father coming to apologize and make it all better. She would apologize if he did.

The door opened, and I was dismayed to see it was Thaddeus instead.

"Lord Mezdor says you need me," Thaddeus said, his face confused by the request.

Mum sighed heavily with relief. "Thad, I need you to prepare transport for us to go to the airport. I'm taking Eris to London. We need to balance out the power structure while Nathaniel and Kearran are here."

Thaddeus looked from her to me and then back again. "For the entire family?" he asked slowly, seeming to know that assumption was wrong.

"Just Eris and I," she clarified.

"And who's going with you?" he questioned, his tone turning fatherly as if speaking to a daughter, and I was reminded how much older Thaddeus was than her. According to Avalon, he had been a fixture at the Capitol before most of the Winslows had made the rest of their fledgling bloodline.

When she didn't answer him, he exhaled hard. "I'm not letting either of you go anywhere without some sort of security team. I'll pack my bag and borrow a few men. Eris, call down to the garage and let them know we need a car," he said finally, heading towards the door. I got the feeling that Thaddeus had dealt with my mother, Nathaniel Bartholomeu, and Kearran Silverstone extensively like the younger fledgling generation they were. "I will charter the plane for immediate takeoff on the way."

Dinah came out from beneath the bed, immediately jumping up into the chair beside me as she retreated further from the sounds of strange voices. Even she had been leery of my parents' argument.

I nodded, moving over to the phone on my desk. I turned to look at him one more time and nod as he made sure I was doing as asked. He disappeared down the hall and I heard his fast footsteps in the corridor. I dialed down to the garage and phoned the man at the desk. I reported that we needed transport into Portland and was met with no opposition.

I turned to look at my mother to give her the news, but she was already walking to the door. I heard her go into the other room and begin to put together her luggage. It hit me then how scared she truly was; so much so, she was prepared to leave my father and brother behind.

And once again, my world was turned over as we were thrust into a new normal...