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It was already 5 p.m. when they reached Qosa. They stopped at a bar in the middle of nowhere for some food and rest, and then they got back on the road and didn't stop until they got to the small town that bordered Yruulens Blockade. There weren't many people about, and the roads were just as empty as the streets; as far as Elijah could tell, though, there weren't any detainers nearby. The only auras he felt were human and a few Caeleste.

They pulled into an empty parking lot behind a derelict saloon, left to slowly succumb to the damage inflicted by age. The moon was full but slowly descending to the horizon, and soon, the sun would begin to rise.

"I've literally never driven for so long in my life," Jake mumbled as he got out of the car and stretched his body with a loud groan.

"Should we find somewhere to get some rest?" Zoe asked tiredly, ignoring Jake.

Elijah was tired, too, but they were so close; all they had to do was cross the blockade and they'd be in East Coast. Once there, all they had to do was get to Flinnwick and find Ronan. "No," he answered as he stretched his arms above his head. "We keep going. If you two are tired, you can sleep in the back, and I'll drive."

She frowned uncomfortably. "Maybe I'll sit in the front."

"I'll sit in the front; I need more room," Jake said.

"You can sit in the back," Elijah said irritably to him.

"Dude, I'm taller than her; where are my legs gonna go?"

"Figure it out," the demon snarled and pulled the back door open. "Get in. Break's over."

Jake grunted angrily in response and climbed in, slamming the door shut behind him.

Zoe looked a little guilty, but she got back into the passenger seat. When she saw Elijah walking away from the truck, though, she leaned out the window and called, "Where are you going?"

"To find out how we cross the blockade. Wait in the car."

She didn't respond and rolled up her window.

Elijah left the parking lot and crossed the road. He went back down the road they'd driven up and located the club they passed, the only establishment that seemed to be open so early. When he stepped inside, he ignored the skeptical glares of some of the old, grisly patrons, snarled when dancers tried to lure him into a lap dance, and grimaced in response to the loud music and flashing lights—he was too tired for this. He headed over to the bar and waved down the barmaid.

"What can I get you, hon?" she asked as she walked over to him.

"Can you tell me how to get across Yruulens Blockade?"

"The blockade? You want The Pathway," she replied.

"The what?"

"The Pathway—the train."

He frowned a little. Was he going to have to abandon the truck? "Is that the only way across?"

"The only safe way, hon," she said with a nod.

Elijah sighed deeply. "Where can I find it?"

She smiled and reached under the counter. "Here," she said as she slid a flyer across the bar. "Costs a small fortune, though."

He took the flyer and glanced at it. To his relief, there was an option to bring along a vehicle; it cost a little more, but he'd need the truck once they got to East Coast, and it wasn't like he didn't have the money. There were still a comfortable number of coronam stacks in his bag.

"Leaves every morning at nine," the woman told him. "You fancy sticking around until then?"

Elijah glanced at her and saw the suggestive look in her eyes. "I'm not interested," he muttered, and then he turned around and headed for the door.

Once outside, he hurried back to the car, fearing that Jake might have done something else to fuck everything up, but to his relief, both he and Zoe were still in the truck.

He pulled the door open and got into the driver's seat. "We have to take a train," he told them.

"A train? But what about the car?" Zoe asked.

"This train takes cars," he said as he handed her the flyer.

"So like...one of those big tow truck lorry things but a train?" Jake questioned.

"Oh," Zoe replied to Elijah as she looked down at the flyer. "I've never been on a train before."

Elijah raised an eyebrow at her but didn't even know how to word what he wanted to ask. He took a moment to think about it. "Haven't you been to the Citadel before?"

"Yeah, but we took one my dads' private jets," she answered.

"Then how did your dad think you were getting there when you called him the other day? Yruulens Blockade doesn't sound like the kind of place a rich, government official parent would let their eighteen-year-old daughter cross via the ground."

She shrugged. "They don't monitor my whereabouts like that; for all they know, we drove to the airport and took the jet."

"We should've," Jake muttered. "We'd be there and back by now."

Zoe rolled her eyes in response.

Elijah scoffed and started the engine. He wasn't surprised at all. Road trips for people like her probably didn't involve much road at all, so why would her parents be concerned?

"I miss my dads," Zoe said quietly as Elijah pulled out of the parking lot. She looked at him and asked, "Do you think it'll be okay for me to call them soon?"

Jake grunted behind them. "I don't know why you miss them so much; they're probably too busy taking Lucian to another luxury restaurant to congratulate him on all the things you haven't done."

Zoe scowled angrily and looked like she was about to cry. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" she exclaimed.

"What?" Jake questioned as if he didn't know what he'd done wrong. "I'm just stating facts, man."

"I don't know how you can sit there and comfortably badmouth me and the people who essentially took you in so you could live a nice life."

"Seriously, Zoe? How am I badmouthing you? You literally complain to me at least once a day about how they don't see you or think you can do the things that Lucian and Zac and Zerenity do," he said, waving his arms around.

"You just don't have to be so mean, Jake," she mumbled and faced the front again.

They both went silent.

Elijah drove through the town, following the route on the map inside the flyer. But the silence grew thicker with every second, and so did the look of frustration on Jake's face and Zoe's despondent glower. He didn't want to make things worse for either of them, but knowing that Lucian, her cousin, worked for Venaticus made him a little curious about who Zac and Zerenity were and what they did.

"Who are Zac and Zerenity?" the demon asked.

"My siblings," she answered. "They're way older than I am, though."

"Do they work for the Nosferatu, too?"

The girl shrugged. "I don't know what they're up to; we don't really talk that much. But my sister owns a school for witches out in Dor-Sanguis."

Elijah glanced at her. "So, you're part witch?"

She nodded. "I was thinking about going to my sister's school for a while, but I didn't think I'd be able to live up to the expectations there. It's very prestige and I'm not very talented."

"You're talented," Jake mumbled.

Zoe didn't respond.

Elijah turned a corner, and up ahead, he saw the carriages of a huge train stretching past the buildings on either side of the road. It was taller than a few of the houses, and most of the lights inside were on. The station didn't look too busy, either; there were two small groups of people smoking and drinking outside the café built into it, and several other people dotted here and there either on their phones, drinking coffee, or smoking.

"That's bigger than any train I ever saw," Jake said.

Following the instructions and map in the flyer, Elijah turned right when he reached the end of the road. He passed several of the massive carriages, soon driving past ones with large shutters open on each side, and he saw cars and vans within.

"Which carriage do we go in?" Zoe asked.

"I'd guess that one," Elijah answered, spotting a man dressed in a high-vis vest waving glowing batons around, instructing him to head into the carriage beside him.

Elijah slowed and turned, driving into the train carriage. It was bright white inside, and there were two decks—the one above seemed to be fully packed with vehicles. He drove forward until he reached the barrier blocking off the car in front of him, and once he switched the engine off, two workers came down the narrow metal stairs and began securing the truck's wheels to the metal latches on the floor.

"Does that say how long the train ride is?" Jake asked, pointing to the flyer.

They didn't answer him.

One of the men knocked on the window beside Elijah. "Five coronam," he said.

Elijah leaned towards the back seat and opened his bag. He took out five coronam notes, rolled down his window, and handed the money to him. "How long does it take to get to East Coast?" he asked as he watched the man pocket the money.

"Train leaves at nine, gets to East Coast at two," he replied.

"We've got five hours to kill," Jake complained as he checked his watch. "What the hell are we supposed to do for five hours?"

"Sleep," Elijah muttered. "You were complaining about it enough." He reclined his seat and ignored Jake's irritated grunt.

Zoe did the same. Instead of lying in silence, though, she asked Elijah, "Did you figure out the fragments you saw in The Darkness?"

He sighed quietly. "I think so."

"What happened?"

Elijah opened one eye to glance at her; she was staring curiously at him. "I don't know. I focused on them like you said, but there were too many to look into in just one dream."

"Did you get any answers or anything like that?"

"No," he muttered dismissively. "Not really. Only a hypothesis that Lyca Corp. is using my severed wing to obtain my DNA."

Zoe frowned. "Oh...and...that's what they're making the chimaeras with."

He grunted in response.

"You know...if you can find your wing, you can get it reattached to your body by...by a healer," she said. Why did she hesitate?

Elijah frowned but didn't ask why she sounded a little reluctant. He hadn't thought about recovering his lost wing; he'd been too focused on finding Haru. Thinking about it, though...it made him consider looking for it once he found Haru. Would having his wing back make him feel a little more complete? It was part of who he was, after all. But he didn't know where it was, only that it was being held in a lab somewhere. Maybe Ronan would know about that, too—or he could find out using the main server. If they had everything about him on file, surely they'd have the location of his wing, too.

"A healer?" Jake questioned.

"Yeah," Zoe snapped at him.

"I don't know where they're keeping it," Elijah muttered.

"You could find out, though," the girl said.

"Maybe."

They went silent.

After only a few moments, though, Zoe asked, "Did you figure anything else out?"

"Not yet," he responded, closing his eyes.

"Oh...well, it can take time. I'm sure you'll understand more of it eventually. It took my dad a few times to really get what his dreams were trying to tell him."

He grunted in response. "Get some sleep."

Zoe didn't say anything else. She shuffled around loudly, making herself comfortable as her dog curled up in her lap. And then she said, "Goodnight, Antonio."

The dog made some sort of croaky sound in response.

"Goodnight," she said again.

"Night," Jake responded.

Elijah let himself relax a little, but he didn't let his guard down. They were so close to getting to East Coast, and he wasn't going to let anything else hinder his journey. Haru needed him, and he was going to get to him as fast as he could. He just had to find Ronan; it wouldn't be hard to get what he needed out of him once they found him. But they'd already faced so many setbacks that he was afraid Ronan might have moved on since Elijah learned of his last location. If that happened, he didn't know what he'd do; he'd probably have to find a way to contact Quinn and see if he had any new information.

With a quiet sigh, he sunk into his fatigue, and he hoped that while he slept, he'd be able to make more sense of the things he'd seen when he let that black-haired man grasp his wrist.

And maybe...maybe they'd help him understand a little more about who and what he was.

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