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A static, distorted voice suddenly blared over the radio, making Elijah flinch in startlement. He looked around the cockpit; everyone was still asleep.

"Unidentified aircraft, respond now or we will be forced to fire on you, over," the voice buzzed.

Elijah scowled and kicked August's leg.

The fae man woke with a confused grunt and sat up, taking his earplugs out. "What?"

"They're going to shoot us down if you don't say something," Elijah snarled.

"What?"

"Unidentified aircraft, you are flying in a restricted zone."

"Oh, shit," August muttered as he grabbed his headset and put it on. "Uh, this is Emberwing 7118, please repeat message, over."

"Emberwing 7118, you are flying in restricted airspace. Turn back now or we will be forced to send a military escort. Over."

"Military escort?" came Jake's confused voice. "What's going on?"

"We've reached Ascela," August said as he started hastily rummaging through a drawer of papers and files. "Uh...copy that, I, uh..." he grabbed a piece of brown card with messy writing on it. "I'm transporting a V.I.P. His security passcode is 0-4-5-5-3-1-0-0. Over."

Elijah raised an eyebrow. "I thought you couldn't lie."

"Only when I'm asked questions," August said matter-of-factly.

"That security code is void," the voice over the radio replied. "Its owner died three weeks ago. Please stand by for military escort. Over."

"He died?" August exclaimed to himself.

"Don't you have other codes?" Elijah questioned.

The fae man shook his head. "I've only ever transported that one guy before; I didn't know he died—that was our only way through Ascela."

Elijah scowled frustratedly and gritted his teeth—

"Zoe has a code," Jake blurted. "She...she should have one."

August's eyes widened a little. "Right, yeah. Rich parents means no-go zones are let's-go zones."

Jake leaned across the cockpit and shook the girl. "Zoe," he insisted. "Zoe, wake up."

The girl murmured in complaint. "What?" she grumbled.

"We're in a bit of an emergency right now."

Zoe sat up. "What? What's going on?"

"We need your dads' security code," Jake told her.

She frowned at him. "What?"

"We're in restricted airspace," August said. "You have a V.I.P. code or something, right?"

Zoe looked hesitant as she set her eyes on Elijah.

"Give it to him," the demon said.

"Emberwing 7118, military escort is en-route. Over."

The girl's frown thickened. "Military escort?" she exclaimed.

"Give him the code!" Jake insisted.

"Uh...it's...uh...0-2-7-1-1-9-6-0," she said.

August spoke into his microphone, "Uh, this is Emberwing 7118. We've had a little mix-up with our security code. V.I.P.'s code is 0-2-7-1-1-9-6-0. Over."

Elijah stared at the radio speaker, angst enthralling him as he waited for a response. What if the people on the other end were suspicious? What if they didn't call off the military escort? He was far too close to be turned back now, but he couldn't do anything, could he? He just had to sit there and hope that August and Zoe could work it out.

"Are you sure that's it?" the fae man asked as the silence dragged on.

Zoe nodded and then leaned closer to Elijah. "Um...I'm only supposed to use that code for emergencies," she whispered. "My dads are gonna know that I flew over Ascela really soon."

Elijah's frustration and desperation grew. "Are you fucking kidding me?" The last thing he wanted was for Zoe's family to get involved, especially after hearing more about them, namely Lucian.

"I mean these things take a little while to get through, so...I think we have maybe forty-eight hours before they come to get me," she said warily. "Or...before Lucian races to get to me first."

"That's gonna be a fucking disaster," Jake muttered.

"Emberwing 7118, you are cleared for passage. Military escort will remain close in case of emergency. Over," the radio buzzed.

"Copy that," August replied.

A sigh of relief escaped Elijah's breath, but he wasn't entirely relaxed. They might be free and passing through Ascela, but Zoe's code would soon send up a flare; he just had to make sure that he found Haru before her family came to pick her up.

"You're gonna be in so much shit," Jake said, sounding a little sympathetic.

Zoe huffed and leaned back in her seat. "I'd rather be grounded for a few months than have to turn back, especially now."

"How much longer?" Elijah asked August.

"Uh..." he drawled as he tidied his papers away and wiped his brow. "Well...that's the wall right there," he said, nodding out the window.

Elijah looked in the direction he gestured to. It was a little hard to make out through the lightly falling snow, but there, on the horizon, was a massive wall of white ice, and it stretched along the horizon as far as he could see.

"Woah," Jake exclaimed in awe, staring at it, too. "I've only ever seen like...super blurry pictures on the internet." He looked at Zoe. "Take some pictures, please?"

She looked at Elijah. "Is that okay?"

"As long as you're only taking pictures and not uploading shit," he muttered.

Zoe shook her head. "I'm not signed into anything at all on this phone," she said as she took it out of her pocket.

"You can get right up here," August invited, gesturing to the space between his and Elijah's seats.

She got up, stood between their seats, and started taking pictures.

"Make sure you take a few," Jake said, standing behind her and looking over her shoulder.

"Stop being a parrot, Jake," Zoe muttered, swatting him away.

"I just wanna see."

Elijah leaned forward so that he could see August. "How long?" he asked again.

"Uh...two and a half hours-ish...maybe three depending on what the weather's like once we pass the PNR."

Jake frowned. "PNR?"

"Point of no return," August answered. "It's the point during flight at which we don't have enough fuel to return to the place we took off from."

"But...we've got enough to get across, right?" the pardus asked nervously.

"Yeah. We can refuel when we land."

Elijah scowled at him. "Refuel with what?"

"Yeah," Jake agreed with a nod. "Is there a gas station out there?"

August chuckled. "There's nothing out there other than dragons, forests, snow, and this facility you're going to try and raid. But don't worry, I always come prepared. I've got a tank in the back full of fuel. We're all good."

"There," Zoe said and sat back down.

"You gotta take more once we're over it," Jake said, returning to his seat. "And while we're flying over. I've always wanted to know what's on the surface of the wall, you know? Like on top of it."

The fae laughed again. "If you're gonna look down while we fly over, I'll give you a fair warning: you're not going to like what you see."

"Why not?" Jake asked before Elijah could.

"You'll see."

Elijah wasn't going to accept that answer. He wanted to be aware of any and all danger. "What are we going to see?" he questioned firmly.

August glanced at him and lost his amused smirk. "Nothing. It's literally just an endless tundra...until we reach the end, of course."

"Spoiler alert," Jake mumbled.

They then fell silent.

Elijah glared out the window and watched as a small military jet appeared and flew alongside the plane.

"Who was the V.I.P. you transported before?" Jake asked. "Did you take him over the wall?"

"Yeah," August answered. "He had like six armed guards with him and everything. He probably works at the facility."

Elijah frowned at him. "Do you remember what he looked like?"

"Not really. Small old guy, glasses, bald."

"That sums up most of the doctors working for Lyca Corp.," the demon muttered.

They fell silent again.

The plane approached the wall; Elijah stared out the window at the massive ice blockade. It had to be at least several miles tall, and that was only what he could see above the water. As for how far it stretched onwards...Elijah couldn't even see the other side.

"Emberwing 7118, military escort will remain on your six until you clear the wall. Any attempts at contact will not be successful due to the high build-up of vendite and within the ice; in case of emergency, please use your flares to signal the escort. Over."

"Copy that," August replied. "Over and out." He then glanced back at Zoe, who was taking pictures through her window. "So, what is it exactly that your dads do? I mean...a security code to get into Ascela is one thing...but over the wall?"

"They're part of the council for the Nosferatu," she answered.

"You mean the Caeleste government?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah," she said with a nod.

"Huh...no wonder you have clearance."

"Woah," Jake drawled, peering out his window. "You're getting pictures, right Zoe?"

"Yeah," she mumbled.

Antonio then barked.

"Not now," Zoe told him. "I'll feed you when we land."

The rat-dog whined and curled up in her bag.

"So, why do you hide your ears if they're barely noticeable?" Jake asked August.

The fae frowned back at him. "I never said I hide them."

"You clearly are, though—"

"Don't be rude, Jake," Zoe snapped.

"What? I'm just curious."

"Leave him alone," the girl muttered.

Jake rolled his eyes and glared out the window.

Elijah didn't fail to notice the uncomfortable look on August's face, and he wasn't going to lie, he was curious, too. Was he hiding more than the fact that he'd managed to piss off a pack of werewolves?

"Can you really never lie?" Zoe asked.

August sighed deeply. "Nope. It's an honour thing among the fae. I mean if you asked me something I really didn't want to answer, it wouldn't be hard to find a way around it, but there's generally not a lot that I feel the need to keep to myself. I'm an open book," he said with a smirk as he glanced over at her.

"It's almost the same for me," Zoe replied. "Except it's because I'm bad at lying."

The fae laughed amusedly. "We can't all be good at everything. Like...you three look super chill considering we're heading into a part of the world that's home to dragons and a massive, military-guarded base. Me? My heart's racing despite the fact that I've been over here a few times already."

"You better not slow us down," Elijah warned him.

August lost his smirk. "What, uh...exactly do you need me to do? Am I just your getaway driver?"

Elijah wasn't sure just yet. He needed to see the facility so that he could decide whether or not he could use another pair of hands. However, he also didn't want to risk August getting hurt; he was the only one who could fly the plane out of there. "For now," he answered.

The fae shuffled around in his seat uncomfortably. "Well...this is the PNR," he said, shifting his sights between the three of them. "Buckle up. Things usually get a little rough real soon."

"We're not gonna come across any dragons while we're flying, are we?" Jake asked nervously.

"Maybe...maybe not," August answered with a shrug. "But we've got a fancy military escort, so we'll be fine if we do happen across one. I've also got an airborne ethos beast deterrent system installed; it's this sort of sonar—"

"Yeah, we read about it," Jake answered. "We were actually wondering if you did have one."

"Any pilot who doesn't is an idiot. The skies are one of the only safe places for ethos beasts nowadays, so it's common to run into them in places where you'd never think you would."

"I saw a driftbug before," Zoe said. "Growing up, I always thought they were tiny like moths or butterflies, but they're as big as eagles. So beautiful, though...how they just like...float around."

Jake cringed. "It was the freakiest thing I ever saw."

"You tried to kill it," the girl muttered.

"It was a fucking eagle-sized beetle-looking thing with swirly helicopter wings, Zoe!" he exclaimed and then shivered. "Just thinking about it makes me wanna puke."

"You're so rude," she grumbled as her dog curled up in her lap.

Elijah hadn't ever seen anything like what they'd just described, but he was pretty sure that his first instinct would be to kill an eagle-sized bug, too. "We're not...going to see huge bugs out here, are we?" he asked.

August glanced at him and scoffed amusedly. "Why? You scared of bugs?"

"No," he snarled.

"Don't worry," the fae said. "Everything over this wall is either scaled and lizard-looking or furry and also lizard-looking. No bugs. Too cold." He grabbed a pair of gloves from a compartment by his window. "Speaking of cold, it's about to get real wintery up in here."

"You got spare coats, right?" Jake asked.

August nodded. "Same place you got the blankets from. Grab us all one, would you?"

Jake got up with a sigh and left the cockpit. A few moments later, he returned with for winter coats with fur inside. "Here," he said as he handed one to each of them.

Elijah wouldn't need it, but he took it anyway.

"Is this...dragon fur?" Zoe asked skeptically.

"Dragon fur? You kidding? I can't afford that. No, it's oxaldia fur, the stuff that gets safely harvested," August replied.

"Oxaldia are those sheep-ox-looking ethos beasts, right?" Zoe asked as she pulled her coat on.

"Yeah."

"And they regenerate it back in just hours."

"That's the one," he said, smiling back at her. "That's another thing about us fae; we don't harm animals or take part in anything that involves the harm of animals, ethos beast or not."

"So...you're a vegan?" Jake asked.

August shook his head. "No. Fae have a profound spiritual connection with nature and all living things; we view life as sacred, and we have this deep respect for the balance of ecosystems. We hunt and consume animals only in a sustainable and respectful manner, and we offer gratitude for the lives we take. We don't mass-farm or hunt to extinction like humans."

"That sounds so...beautiful," Zoe said curiously.

Elijah wouldn't lie to himself; he was curious about the world he lived in, and learning more about it made him feel a little more connected. After all, it wasn't only himself and his family that he didn't know or understand. And for all he knew, everything that he was learning might be useful someday.

August pulled his fur-lined coat on over his long coat and made himself comfortable again. "Any of you play cards?" he asked as he pulled a deck of playing cards from the compartment that he'd taken his gloves from. "I've got Honey Crunches as a wager," he said and waved a trio of colourfully wrapped chocolate bars above his head.

"Oh, I'm in," Jake said.

"How about you, Zoe?"

The girl nodded. "All right."

"Elijah?"

The demon shook his head. "I'm just going to rest."

"Your loss," the fae said with a shrug and started handing cards out.

Elijah tried his best to make himself comfortable and stared out the window. He zoned out, focusing on the ice below. Just a few more hours...and they'd land at The Spear. He wasn't sure how long it was going to take him to liberate Haru, but he now had a timeline. In less than forty-eight hours, Zoe's parents would know that she'd flown over Ascela and The Ice Wall. He had to figure out how to get into the facility and find Haru before then...and he wanted to be far away before the girl's family showed up, too. He wouldn't risk them seeing him or Haru, nor did he want them getting involved. He just wanted to find Haru, get him out of there, and take him as far away from Lyca Corp. as possible.

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