Simona impressed Joe and Chris by deftly ushering her children into the house of her mother-in-law, Mrs. Kai, and spinning out a story about urgently needing to visit her own mother at the hospital.

Once outside again, she conferred with the fairies on their next move. The small group decided it would be best for Cassie to wait with Ryan and Morgan in Mrs. Kai's garden while Simona took Chris and Joe with her in her purse.

Simona and the MacRae brothers then left for the Aloha State Care Center. After parking her car, Simona strolled along her usual route past doctors, employees, and visitors. She cradled her purse under her arm like a newborn baby and was vigilant in her effort to avoid bumping into anything.

While tapping her impatient foot, she waited for the slowest elevator ever built to arrive. When the doors opened, she walked inside with throngs of other people. Pushed against the wall, she stared at the changing floor numbers and had the uneasy feeling that all eyes were upon her.

On the fifth floor, she went to the security desk and signed the visitor logbook. The security guard buzzed her in. "Thanks, Paul."

"Have a good one," he replied.

Simona tucked her arm over her purse again and headed toward her mother's room. When she arrived, her mother, Mikala Jokura, was rapidly flipping through a magazine. She did not acknowledge Simona's entry.

"Hi, Mom!" Simona said with exaggerated cheer. "How are you feeling today?"

Mikala did not look up.

"What's wrong?" Simona knew to ask.

And that's when Mikala began to cry.

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Chris couldn't make out any words, so he propped up Simona's wallet and climbed on. Once he was closer to the zipper, he began to catch more of what they were saying, but it didn't matter. His former mother-in-law seemed to be obsessing about fictitious people and highly questionable events.

"How's it going out there?" Joe whispered.

The wallet started to wobble. Chris jumped down into a pile of loose items—a few coins, a gum wrapper, and a chapstick. "Not well. Her mom is crying."

"Yeah, I hear that. What's she saying?"

"Nothing solid yet. It sounds like Simona's about to mention her father."

"What's wrong with her mother anyway?"

Chris thought about it for a second. Alana would occasionally mention Mikala through a cloud of guilt and resentment. But he had dismissed or minimized much of it as a way to make her feel better—it was no longer her problem—and that was coming back to haunt him. "I really don't know. Why do you ask? Do you have any doctor tricks you could use?"

"No, I was just making conversation. It's sort of a hobby of mine to diagnose people. Like you, for example—"

"Shhhh!" Chris said suddenly, no desire to hear his own diagnosis—no one had time for that—and also because he legitimately needed to pay attention to something else for a second. "Joe, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Chris attempted to prop up the wallet again, urgently this time. "How come no one can ever hear it but me? The buzzing . . . from wings!"

Joe climbed onto the pack of gum next to him. "I hear it now, too."

"Help me get out of here." Chris beckoned Joe closer with both hands. "Hold this for me."

Joe propped up the wallet on its tall side and held it steady. Chris climbed back on top of it. The zipper of the purse was left open, but the sides of it were still in close contact in a few spots. Chris could just barely reach it. Once he grabbed on, it wasn't effective in regard to structural support.

Still, he grappled with it until he got his head over the edge of the leather. The purse was on the floor next to Simona's chair. She was still standing, making an attempt to console her mother.

Between sobs, Chris heard the buzzing again. It was louder than before. His position allowed him to see only the ceiling and the doorway behind him. The sound seemed to be coming from the window on the other side of Mikala's bed.

Chris considered climbing out to explore the room. It would be a dangerous move, but he was fairly convinced that Andromeda's forces couldn't have tracked them down yet, even if Gretchen had ratted them out.

He was about seventy-five percent committed to getting a better look around when a winged fairy zipped across the room by the ceiling so fast it almost seemed like a glitch in the fluorescent lighting.

Then it coasted to the floor by the doorway from seemingly out of nowhere.

Chris ducked down and froze. Most of the Pyxians he had seen were pale to the extreme, so when he caught a glimpse of the fairy's tan skin and Polynesian features, he scrambled to get out of the purse.

"Chris!" Joe hissed in response.

Chris ignored him and pursued the fairy into the hallway. "Wait! Please!"

The black blur, airborne again, came to an abrupt halt by the light fixture. Then, faster than his eyes could process, Chris was suddenly face to face with it. Him. And the winged fairy looked about to inflict some serious pain.

With reflexes quicker than magic, he had Chris's arm in a fierce grip and whisked him behind an abandoned janitor's cart. "Are you trying to get us all killed?"

"No, I'm sorry . . . I just. . ." Everything suddenly clicked together. Alana had kept an old picture of her father in her wallet. She would occasionally pull it out and with stars in her eyes, her wish was obvious—that one day she would see her father again. "You're my father-in-law, aren't you?"

"Kimo Jokura," he confirmed, his hand dropping. "And you must be Christopher MacRae. I'm sorry we meet under such dire circumstances. I just heard the news. . . ."

Chris nodded and joined Kimo in what he recognized to be a moment of silence. Joe then appeared beside the janitor's cart and came to Chris's side.

"And you must be Joseph."

"That's right," Joe replied cautiously.

Kimo wasn't a tall fairy, but he was excessively muscular, and every word he said sounded harsh and brought no cheer to his expressionless face. "Your father will be pleased to know you've made it to Hawaii."

Chris and Joe exchanged looks that must have been almost mirror images of each other for a change. Their relief was pure and mutual.

"Can you bring us to him?" Chris asked.

"Yes," Kimo said. "You will have to enter our world under the cover of darkness, keeping to your fairy form. Have Simona bring you to Komo Mai Drive in Pearl City. At the gate to the Ewa Forest, walk five thousand paces due east, no talking, no light. I will meet you in that spot at exactly three a.m.

"Don't be late," he went on, his voice almost reprimanding, despite the lack of any real reason for it yet. "And tell Simona to go to this hotel room with her in-laws." He told them the name and room number and insisted that they recite it from memory. "Times have changed. There is no going back. Jasmine and Bane are already there. Have everyone use false names for now. Leave only if absolutely necessary. There's enough food for a few days, and I left cash in an envelope under the mattress. And, Christopher, I would suggest your children stay behind with them. I will do everything I can to protect them."

At Chris's nod, Kimo Jokura buzzed away, a speck of shadow lost almost immediately in the sea of sterile white light.

"Did you catch everything he said?" Chris asked Joe in a panic. "I think I remember everything, but just in case—"

"Don't worry. I won't forget," Joe said, calm and confident.

When they returned to the room, Simona was giving her mother a hug. It was the right time to get back inside her purse.

Visiting hour was over.

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