Frustration defined Vanessa's stay in the Quiet Box. She just wanted to fight. She liked being a spy, but she shined as an adventurer. She had some hope that the group could rescue Seth, but practically zero that the world wasn't going to come to an end within her lifetime. She just wished she could go out fighting.

With relief, she felt the Quiet Box spin and the doors swing open. With dread, she found herself staring at Seth and his satyr companions. Oh no. The end of the world had to be imminent.

"Why do I get the feeling that something has gone terribly wrong?"

"Because it has," Seth answered. He recapped everything she had missed. Living Mirage, the botched rescue attempt, his miraculous escape with several artifacts, his healing of Graulus, how Graulus had stolen the artifacts, his communication with a unicorn named Bracken (disgusting!) that was with Warren and Kendra, the Sphinx's realignment, and finally Patton's plan for success.

The plan was the most important part, so she shoved aside her many, conflicting thoughts on everything else.

They needed to recruit wraiths, catch a leprechaun, leave Fablehaven, journey to the Singing Sisters, retrieve Vasilis, and ultimately board a ghost ship to the island with the demon prison.

Well, Vanessa had gotten her wish. She was going to get to go out fighting.

Unfortunately, she had to do it with a child and two satyrs—so really, three children.

—

As they visited the Hall of Dread to recruit the wraiths, the peculiarity of the Sorenson children struck Vanessa once again. Incredible power manifested in the young child in front of her. Too much power, really, for his current naivety. But, his bright-eyed bushy tail was not something she wanted to be extinguished.

—

That night, after she foraged for supplies in the main house's plentiful storage, she returned to the living room where Seth and the satyrs had already fallen asleep. She sat down on one of the sleeping bags, hoping to follow their lead.

Unfortunately, in the silence of the night, the tumultuous news of the day rose to claim her mind. She felt the gravity of the stakes and considered the high possibility of failure for the daunting plan they had agreed to pursue. It would have been difficult to pull off with even the most skilled agents beside her. With a child and two satyrs, it seemed damn near impossible.

Speaking of children, Vanessa did not like the prospect of having a child doing her dirty work. She didn't want Seth to be involved nor Kendra, and she even wanted to protect them. However, this was not conducive to the mission and she had little choice otherwise.

Logically, in some way, she knew that at one point in her life, she had almost killed Seth deliberately. But the chasm between the compartmentalized memories and actions of "Bad Vanessa" and "Good Vanessa" had grown. Maybe she should add not killing children to her new moral code for "Good Vanessa."

That was probably a good start.

—

After acquiring the trinkets from the leprechaun and angering the de-facto centaur leadership in the process, the misfit cavalry strapped Hugo to the top of Ruth's mini-van like a Christmas tree, and Vanessa practically broke the speedometer in her rush to get to her favorite luxury car dealership in the state of Connecticut.

Four of Vanessa's seven alternate identities had been compromised since she had last had a computer in front of her to check, but the three remaining remained very solid and very rich—rich enough to pay for her new ride in cash.

With a fat tip, Vanessa acquired a shiny black Toyota Tundra pickup with enough support to cradle Hugo in the truck bed, and enough room in the back for the satyrs to catch a few winks comfortably. The incredible suspension smoothed any bumps in the road, and the genius machinery responded to Vanessa's machinations with a purr. With such a nice ride, she figured she could reach the Singing Sisters' island in the Mississippi River in record time.

Despite the looming certainty that her death was soon, with the windows down, music blaring, and the speedometer barely dipping below 180 miles, Vanessa finally felt alive again. Her three passengers traded sharp barbs and raucous, satyric laughter constantly, and she chimed in at times. Fast food wrappers covered their laps, and currently, Doren held the record for the quickest time to engulf a Big Mac. 1.8 seconds, to be exact.

Their current conversation veered toward romantic pursuits, and Vanessa had a hard time keeping her face straight as the satyrs boasted of obviously false, exaggerated conquests. It became even harder to stay stoic when Newel turned his eyes on her. She saw him lean forward in her rear-view mirror.

"So, Vanessa, would you be open to a date with a distinguished goat after this is all over?" Newel raised his eyebrows from the backseat.

"I'd rather the world end."

Seth and Doren laughed, tears coming out of their eyes, and Vanessa just rolled her own.

—

The Singing Sisters granted Seth's wish and showed him the location of Vasilis (spoiler alert: Canada), so now they were speeding along I-5 up the Pacific Coast. Once they got to the Canadian border, Vanessa showed Seth's passport, her alias's passport, and her import license for goats, before assuaging the agent's concern about the huge pile of dirt in the back. Her ability to cross the border with such an assortment of red flags truly verified her charismatic skills.

Maple trees stretched high above the road, and mountains pierced the horizon in the distance. Her passengers slept soundly in the early morning, allowing her peace to enjoy the natural views. Vanessa had never been to British Columbia before, but she found it quite beautiful, especially once she got onto the backroads. She still had about a day of driving left ahead of her until they reached the totem wall, and she treasured the peaceful limbo.

—

However, sometimes that peaceful silence became a dangerous echo-chamber for Vanessa's mind. Music provided no escape from her thoughts as the radio stations sucked, and in their quickness to depart Fablehaven, she had forgotten to grab her Green Day CDs. Furthermore, the satyrs and Seth always slept through the night, leaving herself as her only company for conversation.

Ugly truths roared in the silence.

The worst was that she knew if she had no usefulness to Seth's little mission, she wouldn't be here. She would still be in the Quiet Box. Furthermore, even if she died on this mission, no one would really care.

No one.

She didn't have any family—the kind that were supposed to love you unconditionally. She didn't have a partner in sickness and in health. She didn't even have any fucking friends.

All she had had was the Society, and they had spurned her.

It still burned her how quickly the Sphinx had flipped on his loyalty to his cause once Graulus had assumed power. Sure, there was nuance or whatever, but she hated it. He had asked for undying loyalty and she had given it to the best of her ability but he was allowed to change his mind?

It was a dumb thing to be angry about. He had betrayed her long before this, and she had never cared about Zzyzx, anyway. But it was a question of loyalty. And now this realignment forced Vanessa to work on the same side as the Sphinx again. That burned more than anything.

Seth twitched in the passenger seat beside her. Slowly, he blinked and sat up. His eyes scanned the unfamiliar land through the windows. He had a red line across his face from the seat belt. "Are we there yet?"

"Almost."