"So I see you didn't come here empty-handed, now did you?" I call over my shoulder, sorting through Shi's pile of assorted items. It's early morning, the interior of the cave moist with dew. If I look out the cave's exit, I can see the hazy sun above millions upon millions of tree tops. This forest seems to stretch on forever, and despite my new help, I can't help feeling hopeless. What is the chance we'll reach the end of it, actually find where Gael's run off to?

I put such thoughts aside, continuing my sorting. My hands brush over a flashlight, Swiss army knife, and a small amount of climbing equipment, along with the canteen Shi had handed me last night. A backpack sits beside the pile, and I zip it open; all that's inside of it, however, is a large coil of rope.

I hear Shi exhale, reaching over my head to snatch the bag up. He begins loading the rest of his things inside, and I just sit and watch him. "It's not much," he says, "but it's enough, I think. Food and water's the hard part."

"Not for you, it can't be," I say, crossing my legs. Shi lifts an eyebrow, his fingers grappled around his canteen as he pauses. I can't help noticing that his arm is quite toned, a strong bicep disappearing into the sleeve of his black T-shirt. "I mean, you're half wolf, aren't you? Doesn't that make you, like, the master of survival in the wild?"

Shi's eyes narrow underneath his glasses as he drops his canteen into his pack. "Faeries are the nature gurus, Gemma," he counters. "My abilities in this form are limited, so, yes, getting food and water is hard. What—you thought the squirrel just came prancing over to me with some sort of death wish?"

For a moment, I let myself chuckle over the imaginary visual of a squirrel "prancing." Then, I move forward, handing Shi his Swiss army knife. "My apologies," I reply. "Common misconception."

"Common misconception or stereotype?" Shi philosophizes, zipping up his backpack and shrugging it on. I follow him to the edge of the cave, and look down at the brief rocky slope underneath us; a careful step or two down, and we'll be on level ground again. "That's like saying all witches turn people into frogs."

"Shi, I'm not stereotyping you," I say as he offers his hand to help me down. I take it, lowering myself to the ridge, using him to balance myself. "Hey—what was the rope in your backpack for?"

"Um," he says hesitantly, his face blanching. He nudges the bridge of his glasses with a finger, starting to head north. I walk at his side, peering at him; he's not much taller than me—in fact, we're roughly the same height. "Well, I brought that to tie myself up, since, you know, I no longer have any official chamber to change in—"

"Why not just go rogue?"

He clearly doesn't know I'm messing with him, because his eyes round out and he coughs with discomfort. Shi squeaks, then turns to me with narrow eyes. "Are you crazy? I got let off with a warning, Gemma, and that was a blessing. I'm not just going to throw that away and land myself in that cell again—"

"I was kidding," I say, brushing his shoulder. "Shi, trust me. I know that's the last thing you'd want to do."

"Good to know someone gets me," Shi replies, a tiny smile playing at his lips. He glances sideways at me, winking.

I return his smile and shove my hands into the pockets of my buffalo jacket, sighing as I kick at a stone in the ground. The grass beneath me is green and prospering, growing over exposed tree roots and discreetly hiding the burrows of rabbits or gophers. Shi and I walk in a sort of awkward silence for a while, my head down as I hop over rotting logs or step over a waddling beetle. I feel Shi's gaze on me, however, and try my best not to blush. My heart still aches, and I can't let myself fall into the same trap I just freed myself of. Just because Shi isn't human, I'm telling myself, doesn't mean he won't turn on me if I let him get close enough.

Noon approaches, informing me that we've been traveling for close to four hours now. My stomach is beginning to feel empty, and I know that this feeling will bother me until I consume something. I turn decisively towards Shi. "Hey, are you hungry?"

He chuckles. "When am I not? Hold on a second." He begins to squint, his eyes searching for something I don't know of. We've stopped walking, and I wander over to a tree stump to rest my legs, watching Shi continue his searching. I'm about to ask just what he's looking for when his eyes seem to lock on something.

His whole body goes still, his arms like sticks at his sides. My eyebrow rises. "Shi...?"

"Shh," he says. "There's one. In the tree."

My eyes roll as his head tips back, looking up in the tree in front of him. "Shi, if you're thinking of catching another squirrel, you can save it..." My voice trails off as I catch sight of something between the shrubbery beside this tree stump. For a few feet it's just pure grass, until I catch sight of stone, gray stone. My eyes widen as I hop from my perch; it's a cottage, and I know whose.

"...all I have to do is figure out how to get it down—"

"No, Shi!" I yelp, grabbing his arm. It seems to break him from his statue-like stillness, for he jolts in my grasp, trying to shake me off. He gives up when I don't budge, dragging him through the underbrush and into the clearing.

Before us is Meredith's cottage, sitting exactly where I once left it. It sits alone in the clearing like some sort of historical monument, untouched and undisturbed. I let go of Shi, glancing at him. "There's no one in it. The witch that used to live here's...well, dead now," I say with a frown, the crack of her neck as it broke echoing through my ears.

Shi says, as a smile grows across his face, "In that case, I think we just got really lucky."

"Yeah," I agree, approaching the front stoop, Shi not far behind me. I inhale, gripping the knob. "I think you're thinking correctly."

I twist the knob, pushing the door in. The entranceway isn't a foyer, really; just a narrow vestibule that leads right in to Meredith's cramped kitchen. The small dining table Gael and I sat at is in the center of the decorated floors, an old floral design painted across the tiles. Cabinets, some of them open and others with items jutting out, line the upper half of the wall, which is an ugly shade of green. Let's just say I would not hire her as an interior designer.

Shi brushes past me, pulling a drawer out, which happens to be where Meredith kept her eating utensils. I see him narrow his eyes at it before he reaches in to grab a spoon. I dart forward. "Wait, Shi—"

He drops the spoon after it burns him, the pads of his fingers sizzling. "Silver; just what I thought. I don't imagine she had a lot of werewolf friends."

"I don't imagine she had a lot of friends at all, actually," I reply, sticking my head in her pantry. It's full of assorted herbs, dried plants in jars, and even a cauldron of sorts, but nothing along the lines of what I was hoping for—clues as to what her business with the Commission was. Clues telling me why such business was the end of her. Shutting the pantry door, I turn to face Shi, who is now examining her canned food cabinet. "There's something I should tell you, Shi."

"Does she have any meat in this house at all—wait, what?" Shi says, turning around. "What should you tell me?"

"The witch that lived here isn't just dead," I say, grabbing a seat her dining table. Shi seats himself across from me, looking anxious but confused. "She was killed by Leopold, right in front of me."

"You mean...the vampire Commission dude?"
"I'm not sure 'vampire Commission dude' are the words I would use to describe him, but yes, that's him," I say, blinking. "Before...well, Gael became my ex, he was helping me and my friend Damien figure out what the Commission is up to. We know they're hiding something from the public, but we're not sure quite what yet."

"So...Leopold killed the witch because...why?" Shi asks me, interlacing his fingers and leaning towards me. His thumb twitches, his eyebrows pulling in with interest.

I sit back in my seat, crossing my legs at the knees and gazing squarely at him. "I don't know. He said that it was stupid of her to get caught; she was arrested for practicing illegally, but before that...look, Shi, I think it's time I tell you a story."

So I do; Shi sits still while I tell him everything that Gael, Damien and I found. I make sure he knows of the conversations we overheard, Leopold's threat, even of the journal in the evidence room. While I am unloading all of this, his face seems to be turning greener and greener, and it's good to know that someone else is as sickened by all of this as I am. I haven't connected the dots yet, but when I do, I'm sure I won't like it.

I can't stop now; I postponed that investigation to seek Gael, but now I am sitting in a structure basically built with evidence. "That's why this cottage is such a big deal," I tell Shi. "I don't know why I didn't think to come back here earlier."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Shi replies, jumping from his seat and exiting the kitchen. His voice echoes in the hallway: "We have some searching to do, Gemma!"

"Aren't you still hungry?" I call after him.

There's a pause, and though I can't see him, I can tell he has stopped moving. "Yes, but my stomach will have to be patient. Work first."

Laughing at his sudden exuberance, I follow him to the living room. While he sorts through Meredith's sofa cushions, I look in the drawers of her television stand. How she gets any signal out here, I don't know, but I guess one can't live in complete isolation without going crazy. When both places give us nothing, we check the hallway closet, but all that seems to be in there is a bunch of coats. I'm beginning to head to Meredith's bedroom when I hear Shi's voice behind me: "Gemma, wait. The wall's hollow."

"What—hollow?" I approach the hall closet again, where Shi is crouched, his head underneath one of Meredith's lavish fur coats. He crawls back, looking up at me with curious golden eyes. I get down on the ground beside him, and he points to a spot in the wall, behind a box of winter gloves.

I tap my knuckle on it, confirming that it is indeed hollow. "Well, well, well," I say, drawing my arm back and delivering a punch. A square-shaped piece of the wall comes loose, and I shove it to the side, reaching my hand in. It closes around something heavy and wide; I have to use two hands to pull it free. Into my lap falls a spellbook. "What do we have here?"

I get up from the floor, and Shi shuts the closet door for me. The book in my hands is wide and leather bound, its binding beginning to become unthreaded. Meredith's full name is etched onto the front cover. I wander back to the living room, seating myself on Meredith's sofa. Shi joins me. "Look," he says, reaching to open up the book. "This page is dog-eared."

He's right; the page I read now has been folded down at the top corner, and the title at the top reads: Memory Erasure. My eyes go wide. "Oh, God," I breathe. I remember Meredith speaking to Leopold in that interrogation room: Not one of them has remembered anything. "The hell..."

"She was erasing people's memories? Why?" Shi says, squinting down at the tiny print beneath the title. "Seems cruel."

"The Commission must have been making her...she wrote notes," I say, noticing cursive characters written in the margins. As I read them, my blood seems to turn to ice in my veins; I feel heavy with information I wish I didn't know. All they need to know: vampires in Maris and always have been. No past.

My heartbeat accelerating, I hand the book over to Shi, and once he reads the notes, I can tell he feels the same as me. "So, they're manufacturing vampires?"

"Well," I say, shutting the book and hiding my face in my hands, "this escalated quite quickly."